ORPHIC FRAGMENT 282
OTTO KERN
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For links to many more fragments: The Orphic Fragments of Otto Kern.
SUMMARY: This fragment provides many quotations describing the human condition before the advent of civilization.
292. (247) Πρὸς μαθηματικούς τοῦ Σέξτου Ἐμπειρικοῦ II 31 in Sextus Empiricus p. 681 ed. Immanuel Bekker. Compare to IX 15 (Sexti Empirici Opera Vol. II p. 216, 5 Hermann Mutschmann):
καὶ μὴν οὐδὲ ταῖς πόλεσίν ἐστιν ὠφέλιμος (ἡ ῥητορική)· οἱ γὰρ νόμοι πόλεών εἰσι σύνδεσμοι, καὶ ὡς ψυχὴ σώματος ἐκφθαρέντος φθείρεται, οὕτω νόμων ἀναιρεθέντων καὶ αἱ πόλεις διόλλυνται. παρὸ καὶ ὁ θεολόγος Ὀρφεὺς τὸ ἀναγκαῖον αὐτῶν ὑποφαίνων φησίν·
ἦν χρόνος , ἡνίκα φῶτες ἀπ ̓ ἀλλήλων βίον εἶχον
σαρκοδακή, κρείσσων δὲ τὸν ἥττονα φῶτα δάϊζεν
μηδενός γὰρ ἐπιστατοῦντος νόμου ἕκαστος ἐν χερσὶ τὸ δίκαιον εἶχε, καὶ ὡς «ἰχθύσι ‹μὲν› καὶ θηρσὶ καὶ οἰωνοῖς πετεηνοῖς» ἐπιτέτραπται «ἔσθειν (ἐσθέμεν Clem.) ἀλλήλους, ἐπεὶ οὐ δίκη ἐστὶ μετ’ αὐτοῖς»
(See Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι Ἡσιόδου 277)
“And (rhetoric) is not, of truth, useful to cities: for the laws of cities are the bonds which keep the state together, and as the soul is destroyed when the body is destroyed, thus when the laws are destroyed the cities are also ruined. For this reason also, the theologian Orphéfs (Ὀρφεὺς), showing their necessity, says:
‘There was a time, when men lived far away from one another, they had life
eating flesh, and the stronger man killed the weaker.’
“For as there was no attending law, every person had law in his hands, and as ‘fish, wild beasts, and flying birds’ it was permitted ‘to eat one another, since there is no justice among them.”
(trans. by the author)
Hermes XII: Christian Lobeck Aglaophamus I 246; Graf Leipziger Studien zur klassischen Philologie VIII 1885, 14; Erwin Rohde Psyche I6 125 n. 3; Ernst Maaß Orpheus p. 77 n. 104.
See Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι Ἡσιόδου 277·
τόνδε γὰρ ἀνθρώποισι νόμον διέταξε Κρονίων
ἰχθύσι μὲν καὶ θηρσὶ καὶ οἰωνοῖς πετεηνοῖς
ἐσθέμεν ἀλλήλους, ἐπεὶ οὐ δίκη ἐστὶ μετ᾽ αὐτοῖς:
ἀνθρώποισι δ᾽ ἔδωκε δίκην, ἣ πολλὸν ἀρίστη
γίγνεται.
“For the son of Cronos has ordained this law for men, that fishes and beasts and winged fowls should devour one another, for right is not in them; but to mankind he gave right which proves far the best.”
(trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914)
They seem to consider this Orphic doctrine in the Satyr-play Σίσυφος by Critias fr. 1, 1—4 p. 771 Johann August Nauck (Hermann Diels Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker II3 320, 14):
ἦν χρόνος, ὅτ᾽ ἦν ἄτακτος ἀνθρώπων βίος
καὶ θηριώδης ἰσχύος θ᾽ ὑπηρέτης,
ὅτ᾽ οὐδὲν ἆθλον οὔτε τοῖς ἐσθλοῖσιν ἦν
οὔτ᾽ αὖ κόλασμα τοῖς κακοῖς ἐγίγνετο.
“A time there was when anarchy did rule
The lives of men, which then were like the beasts,
Enslaved by force; nor was there then reward
For good men, nor for wicked punishment.”
(trans. Robert Gregg Bury, Sextus Empiricus Vol. 3, Harvard Univ. Press, William Heinemann, 1936)
and Moschion (Μοσχίων) (which Ernst Maaß l. l. conjectured, without good reason, to be in the play The Men of Pherae) fr. 6, 3—17 p. 813 Johann August Nauck:
ἦν γάρ ποτ' αἰὼν κεῖνος, ἦν ποθ', ἡνίκα
θηρσὶν διαίτας εἶχον ἐμφερεῖς βροτοί,
ὀρειγενῆ σπήλαια καὶ δυσηλίους 5
φάραγγας ἐνναίοντες· οὐδέπω γὰρ ἦν
οὔτε στεγήρης οἶκος, οὔτε λαΐνοις
εὐρεῖα πύργοις ὠχυρωμένη πόλις·
οὐ μὴν ἀρότροις ἀγκύλοις ἐτέμνετο
μέλαινα καρποῦ βῶλος ὀμπνίου τροφός, 10
οὐδ᾽ ἐργάτης σίδηρος εὐιώτιδος
θάλλοντας οἴνης ὀρχάτους ἐτημέλει,
ἀλλ᾽ ἦν ἀκύμων †κωφεύουσα ῥέουσα γῆ.
βοραὶ δὲ σαρκοβρῶτες ἀλληλοκτόνους
παρεῖχον αὐτοῖς δαῖτας· ἦν δ᾽ ὁ μὲν Νόμος 15
ταπεινός, ἡ βία δὲ σύνθρονος Διί,
ὁ δ᾽ ἀσθενὴς ἦν τῶν ἀμεινόνων βορά.
“There once was a time when
mortals were living like beasts,
dwelling in mountainous caverns and sunless
ravines; for there was as yet
no roofed house, no
broad city fortified with towers of stone;
truly no (earth) hewn with curved plough,
the black nurse of nourishing corn;
nor did the farmer’s iron care for
rows of luxuriant Vakkhic vines;
but the earth was barren, silent, and in perpetual flux.
And carnivorous meals provided
feasts of murderous slaughter; indeed, the Law was
degraded, and Violence was enthroned with Zeus,
and the weak were food for the strong.”
(trans. by the author)
Ars Poetica Quinti Horatii Flacci 391 observes the same (Orphic Critical Testimony 111):
silvestris homines sacer interpresque deorum
caedibus et victu foedo deterruit Orpheus,
dictus ob hoc lenire tigris rabidosque leones.
“Orpheus, the holy messenger of the Gods,
discouraged savage men from murders and base living,
for this reason it has been said that he tamed tigers and fierce lions.”
(trans. by the author)
To the beginning of the poem, ἦν χρόνος “there was a time,” compare to Πρωταγόρας Πλάτωνος 320 c:
ἦν γάρ ποτε χρόνος ὅτε θεοὶ μὲν ἦσαν, θνητὰ δὲ γένη οὐκ ἦν.
“Once upon a time there were Gods only, and no mortal creatures.”
(trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1892)
With the annotation by Hermann Sauppe, the beginning (of the cosmological poem) “of Linus;” Βίοι καὶ γνῶμαι τῶν ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ εὐδοκιμησάντων Διογένους Λαερτίου· Προοίμιον 1.4:
ἦν ποτέ τοι χρόνος οὗτος, ἐν ὧι ἅμα πάντ' ἐπεφύκει
“There was once a time, in which everything had sprung up at the same time.”
(trans. by the author)
Find other passages collected by Christian Lobeck in Aglaophamus I 246 n. c.
See also Marci Tullii Ciceronis De inventione I 2 (from Posidonius):
nam fuit quoddam tempus, cum in agris homines passim bestiarum more vagabantur et sibi victu fero vitam propagabant nec ratione animi quidquam, sed pleraque viribus corporis administrabant.
“For there was a time when men wandered at random over the fields, after the fashion of beasts, and supported life on the food of beasts; nor did they do anything by means of the reasoning powers of the mind; but almost everything by bodily strength.”
(trans. C. D. Yonge, 1853)
R. Philippson Neue Jahrbücher für Philologie und Pädagogik CXXXIII 1886, 417 n. 1.
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.
