ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 84

OTTO KERN

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

SUMMARY: This testimony has quotations from Strabo, Pliney, and Pausanias which show a connection between Orpheus and magic, Pliny saying that these magical superstitions were based on the practice of medicine.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 84.

Γεωγραφικὰ Στράβωνος VII 330 fr. 18 (nr. 40):

ὅτι ὑπὸ τῷ Ὀλύμπωι πόλις Δῖον. ἔχει δὲ κώμην πλησίον Πίμπλειαν: ἐνταῦθα τὸν Ὀρφέα διατρῖψαί φησι τὸν Κίκονα, ἅνδρα γόητα ἀπὸ μουσικῆς ἅμα καὶ μαντικῆς καὶ τῶν περὶ τὰς τελετὰς ὀργιασμῶν ἀγυρτεύοντα.

“Beneath Olympus is Dium; near it is a village, Pimplea, where it is said Orpheus lived. He was a Cicon (of the tribe of the Cicones) and was a diviner. At first he drew people about him by the practice of music and witchcraft, and by the introduction of mysterious ceremonies in religious worship.”

(trans. W. Falconer, 1893)

Caii Plinii Secundi Naturalis Historia XXX 7 (translator: I’ve seen this as XXX 2):

Orphea putarem e propinquo primum pertulisse ad vicina usque superstitionis a medicinae (Gronov.] ac or ae medicinae codd.) provectum, si non expers sedes eius tota Thrace magices fuisset.

“I should have been inclined to think that Orpheus had been the first to introduce into a country so near his own, certain magical superstitions based upon the practice of medicine, were it not the fact that Thrace, his native land, was at that time totally a stranger to the magic art.”

(trans. John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, 1855)

Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις Παυσανίου, Book 6.20.18 (Ἦλις) nr. 54:

ἠξίου δὲ οὗτος ὁ Αἰγύπτιος εἶναι μὲν Ἀμφίονα, εἶναι δὲ καὶ τὸν Θρᾶικα Ὀρφέα μαγεῦσαι δεινόν, καὶ αὐτοῖς ἐπάιδουσι θηρία τε ἀφικνεῖσθαι τῶι Ὀρφεῖ καὶ Ἀμφίονι ἐς τὰς τοῦ τείχους οἰκοδομίας τὰς πέτρας.

“This Egyptian thought that Amphion and the Thracian Orpheus were clever magicians, and that it was through their enchantments that the beasts came to Orpheus, and the stones came to Amphion for the building of the wall.”

(trans. W. H. S. Jones, 1918)

Nr. 54.

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.