ORPHIC FRAGMENT 270

OTTO KERN

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

SUMMARY: This is another fragment from the Dodecaeteris, quoted from Tzetzes, which some scholars believe imitates verses from Hesiod’s Works and Days.

270. (16) ἐξήγησις τοῦ Ἰωάννου Τζέτζου εἰς τὰ Ἔργα καὶ τὰς Ἡμέρας τοῦ Ἡσιόδου 502 (Thomas Gaisford Poetæ Minores Græci II 308, 23):

τὰ δὲ ἔπη ἐκ τῶν Ὀρφέως μετεβλήθη· φησὶ γὰρ Ὀρφεύς·

πολλαὶ δ’ οὐρανόθεν καὶ ἐπαρτέες* ἐκ νεφελάων

τῆμος ἐπόρνυνται φηγοῖς καὶ δένδρεσιν ἄλλοις

οὔρεσί τε σκοπέλοις τε καὶ ἀνθρώποις ἐριθύμοις

πηγυλίδες καὶ ἔσονται ἀμειδέες· αἵδε γὰρ ὄντως

τρύξουσιν καὶ θῆρας ἐν οὔρεσιν· οὐδέ τις ἀνδρῶν

προβλώσκειν μεγάρων δύναται κατὰ γυῖα δαμασθεὶς

ψύχεϊ λευγαλέωι· πάχνηι δ’ ὑπὸ γαῖα μέμυκε.

“The verses were altered from Orphéfs (Ὀρφεύς); for Orphéfs says:

‘And, also, down from heaven, many frosts* from the clouds

thereupon make assault to the oaks and other trees,

to the mountains and peaks, and high-spirited men.

And the frosts will be serious: for they, verily,

will waste even the beasts in the mountains; no man

is able to go out of the houses, overcome in his limbs

from the miserable cold; and the earth groans beneath the frost.’ ”

(trans. by the author)

*Translator’s note: I must be honest, I do not understand how the word ἐπαρτέες works in this sentence; I am copying other translators who are translating it as “frosts.” LSJ references our fragment but offers “depending;” Brill also references our fragment but offers “hanging.”

Herm. XXXI; Christian Lobeck Aglaophamus I 423; Josef Heeg 22. 30 fr. 16.

It would appear that Orpheus imitates* Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι Ἡσιόδου 504:

μῆνα δὲ Ληναιῶνα, κάκ᾽ ἤματα, βουδόρα πάντα,

τοῦτον ἀλεύασθαι, καὶ πηγάδας, αἵ τ' ἐπὶ γαῖαν

πνεύσαντος Βορέαο δυσηλεγέες τελέθουσιν,

ὅς τε διὰ Θρήικης ἱπποτρόφου εὐρέϊ πόντωι

ἐμπνεύσας ὤρινε· μέμυκε δὲ γαῖα καὶ ὕλη κτλ.

“While it is yet midsummer command your slaves: ‘It will not always be summer, build barns.’ Avoid the month Lenaeon, wretched days, all of them fit to skin an ox, and the frosts which are cruel when Boreas blows over the earth. He blows across horse-breeding Thrace upon the wide sea and stirs it up, while earth and the forest howl. etc.”

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

*Translator’s note: Orpheus is imitating nothing because this text was written centuries after the age of Orpheus, but Kern’s comment may be correct in that Tzetzes assumes that Hesiod is imitating the verses from the Dodecaeteris, while in reality, whoever wrote the Dodecaeteris may, in reality, have been imitating Hesiod. But comparing the two quotations, they are different enough where even this supposition is not quite so believable.

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.