ORPHIC FRAGMENT 242

OTTO KERN

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

SUMMARY: This fragment seems to say that Apollo has prudence and wise counsel.

242. (80) Macrobii Ambrosii Theodosii Saturnaliorum Libri Septem (Cornelius Labeo?) I 17, 42:

Apollinem Πατρῷον cognominaverunt non propria gentis unius aut civitatis religione sed ut auctorem progenerandarum omnium rerum, quod sol umoribus exsiccatis ad progenerandum omnibus praebuit causam, ut ait Orpheus:

πατρὸς ἔχοντα νόον καὶ ἐπίφρονα βουλήν·

(unde nos quoque Ianum patrem vocamus, solem sub hac appellatione venerantes.)

“They had called Apollo “paternal” (πατρῷος), not for the piety of a single ethnic group or polis, but as the father of the generation of all things, because the sun dried up the waters, having furnished the cause of generation to all things, just as Orpheus says:

‘of the father having prudence and wise counsel.’ ”

“For which we too call Janus “father”, worshipping the sun under that title.”

(trans. by the author)

Herm. VII vs. 29; Lobeck I 497; B. Boehm De Cornelii Labeonis aetate diss. Regimont. 1913, 22.

Θεογονία Ἡσιόδου 122 about Love (Ἔρος):

120 (ἠδ᾽ Ἔρος, ὃς κάλλιστος ἐν ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσι,

λυσιμελής, πάντων δὲ θεῶν πάντων τ᾽ ἀνθρώπων)

122 δάμναται ἐν στήθεσσι νόον καὶ ἐπίφρονα βουλήν.

“and Eros [Love], fairest among the deathless Gods,

who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind

and wise counsels of all Gods and all men within them.”

(trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914)

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.