ORPHIC FRAGMENT 250 - OTTO KERN

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

SUMMARY: This fragment, from De die natali liber of Censorinus, says that according to Orpheus there is a year which comes every 10,020 years, in which the world is either deluged or on fire.

250. (249. 240) Censorini de die natali liber 18, 11 p. 55, 6 Otto Jahn

est praeterea annus, quem Aristoteles maximum potius, quam magnum appellat, quem solis et lunae vagarumque quinque stellarum orbes conficiunt, cum ad idem signum, ubi quondam simul fuerunt, una referuntur: cuius anni hiemps summa est cataclysmos, quam nostri diluvionem vocant, aestas autem ecpyrosis, quod est mundi incendium. nam his alternis temporibus mundus tum exignescere tum exaquescere videtur. Hunc Aristarchus putavit esse annorum vertentium IICCCCLXXXIIII, Aretes Dyrrachinus VDLII, Heraclitus (Herman Diels Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker I³ 74 n. 13) et Linus XDCCC, Dion XDCCCLXXXIIII, |^{56 Jahn} Orpheus CXX, Cassandrus tricies sexies centum milium: alii vero infinitum esse nec umquam in se reverti existimarunt.

“There is also a year which Aristotle calls Perfect, rather than Great, which is formed by the revolution of the sun, of the moon and of the five planets, when they all come at the same time to the celestial point from which they started together. This year has a great winter called by the Greeks the Inundation and by the Latins The Deluge; it has also a summer which the Greeks call the Conflagration of the world. The world is supposed to have been by turns deluged or on fire at each of these epochs. According to the opinion of Aristarchus this year was composed of 2484 solar years; according to Arestes of Dyrrachium, it was 5552 years; according to Heraclitus and Linus it was 10,800; according to Dion it was 10,884; according to Orpheus it was 10,020 years; and according to Cassandrus it was 3,600,000 years. Others have thought it infinite; and that it would never recur.”

(trans. William Maude, 1900)

Ἠθικὰ Πλουτάρχου· 29 Περὶ τῶν ἐκλελοιπότων χρηστηρίων (De defectu oraculorum) 12 p. 415 f. (Orphic Critical Testimony 251):

καὶ ὁ Κλεόμβροτος (Gerth RE² XI 679 n. 4) ‘ἀκούω ταῦτ᾽’ ἔφη ‘πολλῶν καὶ ὁρῶ τὴν Στωικὴν ἐκπύρωσιν ὥσπερ τὰ Ἡρακλείτου καὶ Ὀρφέως ἐπινεμομένην ἔπη οὕτω καὶ τὰ Ἡσιόδου καὶ συνεξάπτουσαν.

“I have heard, says Cleombrotus, this alleged by several, and find that the Stoical conflagration hath intruded itself not only upon the works of Heraclitus and Orpheus, but also upon Hesiod's, imposing such meanings on their words as they never thought of.”

(trans. by several scholars. Corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin, 1874)

Christian Lobeck Aglaophamus II 792; Franz Boll quoted in Josef Heeg 70; Johannes Geffcken Herm. XLIX 1914, 336 s.; J. Kroll ibidem L 1915, 143.

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.