ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 99

OTTO KERN

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

SUMMARY: This testimony, from the Christian church-father Lactantius, says that Orpheus was the first to introduce the rites of Dionysus (Father Liber) to Greece. There is a second quotation which says that Orpheus derived his religion from that of the Egyptians.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 99.

Lactantii Institutiones Divinae I 22, 15-17 (I 90, 16 Br.):

sacra Liberi patris primus Orpheus induxit in Graecia (graeciam SHP; Graecia Brandt nisus Epit. 17, 1, I 687, 23 Br.) primusque celebravit in monte Boeotiae Thebis ubi Liber natus est proximo; qui cum frequenter citharae cantu personaret, Cithaeron appellatus est. ea sacra etiamnunc Orphica nominantur, in quibus ipse postea dilaceratus et (91) carptas est; et fuit per eadem fere tempora quibus Faunus. sed quis aetate praecesserit dubitari potest, siquidem per eosdem annos Latinus Priamusque regnarunt, item patres eorum Faunus (picus SH) et Laomedon, quo regnante Orpheus cum Argonautis ad Iliensium litus accessit.

“Orpheus was the first who introduced the rites of father Liber into Greece; and he first celebrated them on a mountain of Bœotia, very near to Thebes, where Liber was born; and because this mountain continually resounded with the strains of the lyre, it was called Cithæron. Those sacred rites are even now called Orphic, in which he himself was lacerated and torn in pieces; and he lived about the same time with Faunus. But which of them was prior in age admits of doubt, since Latinus and Priam reigned during the same years, as did also their fathers Faunus and Laomedon, in whose reign Orpheus came with the Argonauts to the coast of the Trojans.”

(trans. William Fletcher, 1886)

99a. Εὑαγγελικὴ προπαρασκευὴ Εὐσεβίου X 4, 4 (I 540 Dind.):

4. οἷς (sc. τοῖς παλαιοῖς Ἕλλησιν) τὰ μὲν ἐκ Φοινίκης Κάδμος ὁ Ἀγήνορος, τὰ δ´ ἐξ Αἰγύπτου περὶ θεῶν, ἢ καί ποθεν ἄλλοθεν, μυστήρια καὶ τελετὰς, ξοάνων τε ἱδρύσεις καὶ ὕμνους, ὠιδάς τε καὶ ἐπωιδάς, ἤτοι ὁ Θράικιος Ὀρφεὺς, ἢ καί τις ἕτερος Ἕλλην ἢ βάρβαρος, τῆς πλάνης ἀρχηγοὶ γενόμενοι, συνεστήσαντο· τούτων γὰρ οὐδένας καὶ αὐτοὶ ἂν ὁμολογήσαιεν Ἕλληνες παλαιοτέρους εἰδέναι.

5. πρῶτον γοῦν ἁπάντων Ὀρφέα, εἶτα δὲ Λίνον, κἄπειτα Μουσαῖον, ἀμφὶ τὰ Τρωϊκὰ γενομένους ἢ μικρῶι πρόσθεν ἠκμακέναι φασίν. ἀλλὰ κατά γε τούτους πλέον οὐδὲν τῆς Φοινίκων καὶ Αἰγυπτίων πολυπλανοῦς θεολογίας παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐπολιτεύετο.

“For these ancients some doctrines derived from Phoenicia were arranged by Cadmus son of Agenor; and others concerning the Gods from Egypt or elsewhere, mysteries and rites, the setting up of statues, and hymns, odes, and epodes, either by the Thracian Orpheus, or some other Greek or Barbarian, who became their leaders in error: for the Greeks themselves would acknowledge that they know no men more ancient than these.

“They say at least that Orpheus nourished first of all, then Linus, and afterwards Musaeus about the time of the Trojan war, or a little before. But certainly in their time nothing more than the theology of the Phoenicians and Egyptians, with its manifold errors, had a home among the Greeks.”

(trans. E. H. Gifford, 1903)

V. nr. 98.

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.