ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 64
OTTO KERN
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SUMMARY: This testimony says that Eurydice is the Dryad Nymph who was pursued by Aristaeus and, who, in fleeing from him, fell upon a snake, and died.
ORPHIC CRITICAL TESTIMONY 64.
Publii Vergilii Maronis Georgica IV 460:
(Non te nullius exercent numinis irae; 453
magna luis commissa: tibi has miserabilis Orpheus
455haudquaquam ob meritum poenas, ni fata resistant,
suscitat et rapta graviter pro coniuge saevit.
Illa quidem, dum te fugeret per flumina praeceps,
immanem ante pedes hydrum moritura puella
servantem ripas alta non vidit in herba.)
At chorus aequalis Dryadum clamore supremos 460
implerunt montes. (flerunt)
“(Doubt not ‘tis wrath divine that plagues thee thus, 453
Nor light the debt thou payest; ‘tis Orpheus’ self,
Orpheus unhappy by no fault of his,
So fates prevent not, fans thy penal fires,
Yet madly raging for his ravished bride.
She in her haste to shun thy hot pursuit
Along the stream, saw not the coming death,
Where at her feet kept ward upon the bank
In the tall grass a monstrous water-snake.)
But with their cries the Dryad-band her peers 460
Filled up the mountains to their proudest peaks.
(Wailed for her fate...)”
(trans. J. B. Greenough, 1900)
with Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii Georgicon Libros 4.459.1:
ergo et Eurydice dryas. et bono conpendio eius praetermisit interitum.
“And, then, Eurydice the Dryad. And by a favorable abridgement she was permitted to pass by her death.”
(trans. by the author)
and in the same text Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii Georgicon Libros 317 (myth. Vat. II 44):
PASTOR ARISTAEUS Aristaeus filius fuit Apollinis et Cyrenes, filiae Penei, fluminis Thessaliae. qui cum Eurydicen nympham, uxorem Orphei, vitiare voluisset, et illa fugiens a serpente fuisset occisa.
“THE SHEPHERD ARISTAEUS: Aristaeus was the son of Apollo and Cyrene, the daughter of Peneus, the River-God of Thessalia. He wished to violate the nymph Euridice, the wife of Orpheus, and while fleeing, she was bit by a serpent.”
(trans. by the author)
Fabii Planciadis Fulgentii Mitologiarum libri III 10 (hence myth. Vat. III 8, 20):
Orpheus Euridicem nimfam amavit; quam sono citharae mulcens uxorem duxit. Hanc Aristeus pastor dum amans sequitur, illa fugiens in serpentem incidit et mortua est.
“Orpheus loved the nymph Euridice; charming her with the sound of his cithara, he made her his wife. Now, Aristaeus the shepherd, in love, chased after her; so, fleeing from there, she falls upon a snake and is dead.”
(trans. by the author)
Maaß Orpheus 149 n. 40 (Keseling De myth. Vat. sec. font. diss. Hal. 1908, 88).
The story of the birth of the Gods: Orphic Theogony.
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Dictionary of terms related to ancient Greek mythology: Glossary of Hellenic Mythology.
Introduction to the Thæí (the Gods): The Nature of the Gods.
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