ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 61

OTTO KERN

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For links to many more fragments: The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern.

AGRIOPE

SUMMARY: This testimony says that Orpheus went to the Underworld, not to retrieve Euridice, but, rather, to bring back Agriope from the dead.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 61.

Ἑρμησιάναξ Λεοντίωι as quoted in Δειπνοσοφισταί Ἀθηναίον Ναυκρατίου XIII 597 b (alternate numbering 13.71):

οἵην μὲν φίλος υἱὸς ἀνήγαγεν Οἰάγροιο

Ἀγριόπην Θρῆισσαν στειλάμενος κιθάρην Ἁιδόθεν·

ἔπλευσεν δὲ κακὸν καὶ ἀπειθέα χῶρον,

ἔνθα Χάρων κοινὴν ἕλκεται εἰς ἄκατον

ψυχὰς οἰχομένων, λίμνης δ᾽ ἐπὶ μακρὸν ἀυτεῖ 5

ῥεῦμα διὲκ μεγάλων ῥυομένης δονάκων.

πόλλ᾽ ἔτλη παρὰ κῦμα μονόζωστος κιθαρίζων

Ὀρφεύς, παντοίους δ᾽ ἐξανέπεισε θεούς·

Κωκυτὸν τ᾽ ἀθέμιστον ἐπ᾽ ὀφρύσι μηνίσαντα

ἠδὲ καὶ αἰνοτάτου βλέμμ᾽ ὑπέμεινε κυνός, 10

ἐν πυρὶ μὲν φωνὴν τεθοωμένου. ἐν πυρὶ δ᾽ ὄμμα,

σκληρὸν τριστοίχοις δεῖμα φέρον κεφαλαῖς.

ἔνθεν ἀοιδιάων μεγάλους ἀνέπεισεν ἄνακτας

Ἀγριόπην μαλακοῦ πνεῦμα λαβεῖν βιότου.

“You know, too, how Œager’s much-loved son,

Skilfully playing on the Thracian harp,

Brought back from hell his dear Agriope,

And sail'd across th’ inhospitable land

Where Charon drags down in his common boat

The souls of all the dead; and far resounds

The marshy stream slow creeping through the reeds

That line the death-like banks. But Orpheus dared

With fearless soul to pass that lonely wave,

Striking his harp with well-accustom'd hand.

And with his lay he moved the pitiless Gods,

And various monsters of unfeeling hell.

He raised a placid smile beneath the brows

Of grim Cocytus; he subdued the glance

So pitiless of the fierce, implacable dog,

Who sharpen’d in the flames his fearful bark,

Whose eye did glare with fire, and whose heads

With triple brows struck fear on all who saw.

He sang, and moved these mighty sovereigns;

So that Agriope once again did breathe

The breath of life.”

(trans. C. D. Yonge, 1854)

The story of the birth of the Gods: Orphic Theogony.

We know the various qualities and characteristics of the Gods based on metaphorical stories: Mythology.

Dictionary of terms related to ancient Greek mythology: Glossary of Hellenic Mythology.

Introduction to the Thæí (the Gods): The Nature of the Gods.

How do we know there are Gods? Experiencing Gods.