ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 233

OTTO KERN

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

SUMMARY: This testimony consists of several quotations from various authors, all of which include reference to the opinions of Chrysippus and which touch upon Orphic ideas.

ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 233

Χρύσιππος ὁ Σολεύς quoted in Περί Ευσεβείας Φιλοδήμου τοῦ Γαδαρέως; Philodem Über Frömmigkeit Theodor Gomperz 80, 16 (Herman Diels Doxographi Graeci 547 b 16) = Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta Hans von Arnim II 316 n. 1078:

ἐν δὲ τῶι δευτέρ<ω>ι (sc. Περὶ Θεῶν) τά τε εἰς Ὀρφέα κ<αὶ> Μουσαῖον ἀναφερ<όμ>ενα καὶ τὰ παρ’ <Ὁ>μήρωι καὶ Ἡσιόδω<ι> καὶ Εὐριπίδηι καὶ ποιηταῖς ἄλλοις, <ὡ>ς καὶ Κλεάνθης (fr. 539 Arnim), <π>ειρᾶται σ<υ>νοικειοῦν ταῖς δόξαις αὐτῶν.

“And in the second book (sc. On the Gods), he attributed these things to both Orphéfs (Ὀρφεύς) and Mousaios, along with Ómiros (Ὅμηρος), Isíodos (Ἡσίοδος), Evripídîs (Εὐριπίδης), and other poets, as also Klæánthîs (Κλεάνθης; fr. 539 Arnim) attempts to associate them together by their views.”

(trans. by the author)

Wilhelm Croenert provided the passage to me from his new collection. v. fr. 30.

Marci Tullii Ciceronis De natura deorum I 15, 41 p. 223 Otto Plasberg (Velleius):

et haec quidem (Chrysippus, fr. 1077 Arnim) in primo libro de natura deorum; in secundo autem volt Orphei Musaei Hesiodi Homerique fabellas accommodare ad ea quae ipse primo libro de deis inmortalibus dixerit, ut etiam veterrimi poetae, qui haec ne suspicati quidem sint, Stoici fuisse videantur.

“All this is in his first book (Chrysippus, fr. 1077 Arnim) on the nature of the gods; in the second his aim is to harmonise the stories of Orpheus, Musæus, Hesiod, and Homer with what he has himself said on the subject of the immortal gods in the first book, so that even the oldest poets, who had not so much as a conception of such things, are made to seem to have been Stoics.”

(trans. Francis Brooks, 1896)

Ἠθικὰ Πλουτάρχου· 26.25 Περὶ Ἴσιδος καὶ Ὀσίριδος p. 360 d. e:

βέλτιον οὖν οἱ τὰ περὶ τὸν Τυφῶνα καὶ Ὄσιριν καὶ Ἶσιν ἱστορούμενα μήτε θεῶν παθήματα μήτ᾽ ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλὰ δαιμόνων μεγάλων εἶναι νομίζοντες, οὓς (Xyland. as also follows from Εὑαγγελικὴ προπαρασκευὴ Εὐσεβίου en. V 5] ὡς codd.) καὶ Πλάτων καὶ Πυθαγόρας; καὶ Ξενοκράτης (fr. 24 Heinze) καὶ Χρύσιππος (fr. 1103 Arnim), ἑπόμενοι τοῖς πάλαι θεολόγοις, ἐρρωμενεστέρους μὲν ἀνθρώπων γεγονέναι λέγουσι καὶ πολὺ (Euseb.] πολλῆι codd.) τῆι δυνάμει τὴν φύσιν ὑπερφέροντας ἡμῶν, τὸ δὲ θεῖον οὐκ ἀμιγὲς οὐδ᾽ ἄκρατον ἔχοντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ψυχῆς φύσει καὶ σώματος αἰσθήσει [ἐν before αἰσθ. del. Xyland.] συνειληχός, ἡδονὴν δεχόμενον (Euseb.] δεχομένην codd.) καὶ πόνον, καὶ ὅσα ταύταις ἐγγενόμενα ταῖς μεταβολαῖς πάθη τοὺς μὲν μᾶλλον, τοὺς δ᾽ ἧττον ἐπιταράτται. γίγνονται γὰρ ὡς ἐν ἀνθρώποις καὶ δαίμοσιν ἀρετῆς διαφοραὶ καὶ κακίας. τὰ γὰρ Γιγαντικὰ καὶ Τιτανικὰ παρ᾽ Ἕλλησιν ἀιδόμενα καὶ Κρόνου τινὲς (Euseb.] τινὸς codd.) ἄθεσμοι πράξεις καὶ Πύθωνος ἀντιτάξεις πρὸς Ἀπόλλωνα, φυγαί (Euseb.] φθόγγοι codd.) τε Διονύσου καὶ πλάναι Δήμητρος οὐδὲν ἀπολείπουσι τῶν Ὀσιριακῶν καὶ Τυφωνικῶν, ἄλλων θ᾽ ὧν πᾶσιν ἔξεστιν ἀνέδην μυθολογουμένων ἀκούειν. ὅσα τε μυστικοῖς ἱεροῖς περικαλυπτόμενα καὶ τελεταῖς ἄρρητα διασώιζεται καὶ ἀθέατα πρὸς τοὺς πολλούς, ὅμοιον ἔχει λόγον.

“Therefore they maintain the wiser opinion, who hold that the things here storied of Typhon, Osiris, and Isis were not the events of Gods, nor yet of men, but of certain grand Daemons, whom Plato, Pythagoras, Xenocrates (fr. 24 Heinze), and Chrysippus (following herein the opinion of the most ancient theologists) [fr. 1103 Arnim] affirm to be of greater strength than men, and to transcend our nature by much in power, but not to have a divine part pure and unmixed, but such as participates of both the soul’s nature and the body’s sensation, capable of receiving both pleasure and pain, and all the passions that attend these mutations, which disorder some of them more and others of them less. For there are divers degrees both of virtue and vice, as among men, so also among Daemons. For what they sing about among the Greeks, concerning the Giants and the Titans, and of certain horrible actions of Saturn (ed. Κρόνος), as also of Python’s combats with Apollo, of the flights of Bacchus, and the ramblings of Ceres, come nothing short of the relations about Osiris and Typhon and others such, which everybody may lawfully and freely hear as they are told in the mythology. The like may be also said of those things that, being veiled over in the mystic rites and sacred ceremonies of initiation, are therefore kept private from the sight and hearing of the common sort.”

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

Γαληνοῦ περὶ τῶν Ἱπποκράτους καὶ Πλάτωνος δογμάτων βιβλία ἐννεά (Galen, De placitis) III c. 3 (V 308 Karl Gottlob Kuehn Claudii Galeni opera omnia) 274, 14 Ivan von Müller:

ἐμπέπλησται γὰρ ὁ περὶ ἡγεμονικοῦ λόγος ὑπὸ Χρυσίππου (fr. 906 Arnim) γεγραμμένος ἐπῶν ποιητικῶν ἤτοι τὰ πάθη περὶ τὸν θώρακά τε καὶ τὴν καρδίαν συνίστασθαι μαρτυρούντων, ἢ δύο εἶναι τῆς ψυχῆς |^{275 Muell.} δυνάμεις ὅλωι τῶι γένει διαφερούσας ἀλλήλων, τὴν μὲν ἄλογον, τὴν δὲ λογικήν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐξ Ὁμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου βραχέα παρεθέμην ὀλίγωι πρόσθεν ὧν ὁ Χρύσιππος ἔγραψεν, οὕτως ἐξ Ὀρφέως καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλέους καὶ Τυρταίου καὶ Στησιχόρου καὶ Εὐριπίδου καὶ ἑτέρων ποιητῶν ἐπῶν μνημονεύει παμπόλλων ὁμοίαν ἐχόντων ἀτοπίαν, οἷον καὶ ὅταν ἐπαινῆι (? Muell.] εἴπηι codd.) Τυρταῖον λέγοντα κτλ.

“For indeed, the discourse written by Krýsippos (Χρύσιππος; see fr. 906 Arnim) on the directive (of the soul) is full of poetic verses, which testify that either the passions are organized around the breast and heart, or that there are two different abilities of the soul, different from one another by their whole classification: the irrational and the rational. For as I had furnished some short passages a little while previous from Ómîros (Ὅμηρος) and Isíodos (Ἡσίοδος) of those which Krýsippos wrote down, even so he calls to mind a great number of verses from Orphéfs (Ὀρφεύς), Æmbædoklís (Ἐμπεδοκλῆς), Tyrtaios (Τυρταῖος), Stîsíkhoros (Στησίχορος), Evripídîs (Εὐριπίδης), and other poets having the same eccentricities, such as whenever he applauds Tyrtaios saying” etc.

(trans. by the author)

(Bergk PLG II⁴ fr. 13 p. 404). Christian Lobeck Aglaophamus I 342.

Compare elsewhere in the same text Γαληνοῦ περὶ τῶν Ἱπποκράτους καὶ Πλάτωνος δογμάτων βιβλία ἐννεά p. 281, 1 ss. Ivan von Müller:

ἐμπλήσας ὁ Χρύσιππος (fr. 907 Arnim) ὅλον τὸ βιβλίον ἐπῶν Ὁμηρικῶν καὶ Ἡσιοδείων καὶ Στησιχορείων Ἐμπεδοκλείων τε καὶ Ὀρφικῶν.

“Krýsippos (Χρύσιππος; see fr. 907 Arnim), having filled the whole book with Homeric, Hesiodic, Stesichorean, Empedocleian, and Orphic poetry.”

(trans. by the author)

Minucius Felix Octavius XIX 11 p. 29, 8 Jean-Pierre Waltzing:

Eadem fere Chrysippus: vim divinam rationalem, naturam et mudum, interim et fatalem necessitatem deum credit Zenonemque (fr. 162 Arnim) interpretatione physiologica (physiologica Bursian.] phylologiae P corr. ex physologiae) in Hesiodi, Homeri Orpheique carminibus imitatur.

“Chrysippus says almost the same. He believes that a divine force, a rational nature, and sometimes the world, and a fatal necessity, is God; and he follows the example of Zeno (fr. 162 Arnim) in his physiological interpretation of the poems of Hesiod, of Homer, and of Orpheus.”

(trans. Robert Ernest Wallis, 1885)

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.

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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.

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