ORPHIC FRAGMENT 116
OTTO KERN
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SUMMARY: According to this fragment, Oceanus is the cause of all motion.
116. σχόλιον Πρόκλου επὶ Τιμαίου Πλάτωνος 40 e (III 180, 8 Diehl):
(συλλήβδην οὖν ὃ μὲν ἐστι πάσης κινήσεως, <θείας> νοερᾶς ψυχικῆς φυσικῆς, πᾶσιν αἴτιος τοῖς δευτέροις, ἣ δὲ πάσης διακρίσεως τῶν ἐκ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ προϊόντων ὀχετῶν, ἑκάστῳ διδοῦσα τὴν οἰκείαν καθαρότητα τῆς ἐπιβαλλούσης αὐτῷ κατὰ φύσιν κινήσεως, δι’ ἣν ἕκαστον, κἂν ἐαυτὸ κινῇ κἂν ἄλλα, διαφερόντως κινεῖ.)
δηλοῦσι δὲ οἱ θεολόγοι τὸν Ὠκεανὸν ἁπάσης εἶναι κινήσεως χορηγόν, δέκα λέγοντες αὐτὸν ἐκπέμπειν ὀχετούς, ὧν ἐπὶ θάλατταν τοὺς ἐννέα χωρεῖν,
(διότι δὴ καὶ τῶν κινήσεων αἱ μὲν ἐννέα σωματικαί εἰσι, μία δὲ μόνη τῆς χωριστῆς τῶν σωμάτων οὐσίας, ὡς ἐν Νόμοις [X 894 CD] ἠκούσαμεν.)
(“In short, Ocean is the cause of all motion, intellectual, psychical and physical to all secondary natures; but Tethys is the cause of all the separation of the streams proceeding from Ocean, imparting to each a proper purity in the motion adapted to it by nature; through which each though it may move itself, or though it may move other things, yet moves in a transcendent manner.)
“But theologists manifest that Ocean is the supplier of all motion, when they say that he sends forth ten streams, nine of which proceed into the sea;
(“because it is necessary, that of motions nine should be corporeal, but that there should be one alone of the essence which is separate from bodies, as we are informed by Plato in the Laws [1].”)
[1] Plato in the 10th book of the Laws [894 c-d] distinguishes the genus of motions into ten species, viz. circulation about an immovable centre, local transition, condensation, rarefaction, increase, decrease, generation, corruption, mutation or alteration produced in another by another, and a mutation produced from a thing itself, both in itself, and in another. This last is the motion of an essence separate from bodies, and is the motion of soul.
(translation and note by Thomas Taylor, 1820)
Holwerda 318.
This logo is the principal symbol of this website. It is called the CESS logo, i.e. the Children of the Earth and the Starry Sky. The Pætilía (Petelia, Πετηλία) and other golden tablets having this phrase are the inspiration for the symbol. The image represents this idea: Earth (divisible substance) and the Sky (continuous substance) are the two kozmogonic substances. The twelve stars represent the Natural Laws, the dominions of the Olympian Gods. In front of these symbols is the seven-stringed kithára (cithara, κιθάρα), the the lyre of Apóllôn (Apollo, Ἀπόλλων). It (here) represents the bond between Gods and mortals and is representative that we are the children of Orphéfs (Orpheus, Ὀρφεύς).
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Dictionary of terms related to ancient Greek mythology: Glossary of Hellenic Mythology.
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