ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 76
OTTO KERN
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For links to many more fragments: The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern.
VENERIS CONTEMPTOR (Contemner of Venus)
SUMMARY: This testimony presents several quotations which say that Orpheus avoided marriage and grew weary of women after he lost Eurydice.
ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 76.
Publii Vergilii Maronis Georgica IV 516:
nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexere hymenaei.
“no Love, no nuptial hymn for anyone bent his soul.”
(trans. by the author)
Mythographus Vaticanus I 76 (nr. 65):
reversus deinde ad superos, qui parum prosperas expertus erat nuptias, perosus omne genus femineum, solitudinibus se dedit.
“Thereafter, having been returned to the living, he, having experienced too little fortune in marriage, weary of the entire race of women, surrendered himself to lonely places.”
(trans. by the author)
Publii Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoses X 78:
Tertius aequoreis inclusum Piscibus annum
finierat Titan, omnemque refugerat Orpheus
femineam Venerem, seu quod male cesserat illi,
sive fidem dederat; multas tamen ardor habebat
iungere se vati, multae doluere repulsae.
Ille etiam Thracum populis fuit auctor amorem
in teneros transferre mares citraque iuventam
aetatis breve ver et primos carpere flores.
“Three times the Sun completed his full course
to watery Pisces, and in all that time,
shunning all women, Orpheus still believed
his love-pledge was forever. So he kept
away from women, though so many grieved,
because he took no notice of their love.”
(trans. Brookes More, 1922)
v. the following: nr. 77. Pseudo-Hyginus De Astronomica VII 2 nr. 77;
v. also Πολιτεία Πλάτωνος X 620 a nr. 139:
ἰδεῖν μὲν γὰρ ψυχὴν ἔφη τήν ποτε Ὀρφέως γενομένην κύκνου βίον αἱρουμένην, μίσει τοῦ γυναικείου γένους διὰ τὸν ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνων θάνατον οὐκ ἐθέλουσαν ἐν γυναικὶ γεννηθεῖσαν γενέσθαι.
“There he saw the soul which had once been Orpheus choosing the life of a swan out of enmity to the race of women, hating to be born of a woman because they had been his murderers.”
(trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1892)
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.
