ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 67

OTTO KERN

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


SUMMARY: This testimony, a quotation from the Liber Monstrorum, very briefly tells the story of Orpheus and affirms that Euridice was his wife.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 67.

Liber Monstrorum I 6 Codex Pithoeanus, about the 8th century (M. Haupt Opusc. II 224):

Orpheus citharista erat Aeneae (Aenius Berger v. nr. 30) et quintus citharista in Graecia postmodum Eurydice (erudita cod.), uxor ipsius, a serpente percussa mortua erat, et paene insanus factus est et in silvis lyram percutiebat et bestiae ad audiendum lyram (lira cod.) ipsius veniebant.

“Orpheus was a cithara-player of Ænea* and the fifth cithara-player in Greece; later (in his life) Euridice, his wife, having been struck by a serpent, died, and he nearly became mad; and in the woods he was playing the lyre and the beasts were coming, listening to his lyre.”

(trans. by the author)

* a city of Chalcidice, in Macedonia, opposite Pydna (Liddell & Scott).

Ernst Maaß Orpheus 142; Erwin Rohde N. Heidelb. Jahrb. VI 1895, 9 = Kl. Schr. II 302.

Hosius ascribed Lucanus p. 329 fr. 6 to Lucanus, because in Liber Monstrorum the words precede:

fauni silvicolae, . . . quos poeta Lucanus secundum opinionem Graecorum ad Orphei lyram cum innumerosis ferarum generibus cantu deductos cecinit.

“The Fauns of the woods . . . of whom the poet Lucanus sang, in accordance with the opinion of the Greeks, that they had been led away by the singing to the lyre of Orpheus along with countless species of wild animals.”

(trans. by the author)


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.