WEST, M. L. The Orphic Poems

THE ORPHIC POEMS
M. L. WEST
CLARENDON PllESS • OXFORD

1983
Oxford Uniwrsily Pms, Walton Slrtd, O,iford OXa 6DP
Lmdon Gúugow Ntw Tork Toronto
De/1,j Bombay Cokulla Madras Karadri
Kuala Lumpur Singapor, Hong K0111 T olcyo
Nairobi Dar ,s SaltJ1Jm C4pt T own
Melb<nmrt Ara:kland
and assOCUJted companus in
Btirut Berlin lbadan Mmco Cii,, NÍ&Ositl.
O,iford is a trade mark ef Oxford Unioersi!)I Prtss
Publislwi in the United S14tts

by Oxford Univenily Prtss, Ntw Tork
© M. L. West 1983
Ali rights reserued. No pari ef tlús puólicalúm may bt reproduud,
,tored in a retrieool system, or transmilltd, in any form or l!, any
means, eltctronie, mec/aanital, phototopying, rteording, or othtrwist,
without lhe prior p,rmission of O,iford Uniwrsity Prus
British Library Cal4loguing in Publu,ilit>n Data

Wut, M.L.
11u Orphú poems.
1. Cm/e liúratur,-History and tritidsm
/. Tül,
IJIJQ.9'001 PApoo
ISBN o-rg-$14854-:1
Libra,y oJ Cqngress Catalt>ging in Publiealion Data
West, M. L. (Martin üldifield), 193'1-
Th, Orp!,iç patms.
lncludes indextt.
1. Orpl,eus (Grttk ~luMgy) a. Gruk po,try-
History and tri$itism. /, Til/,.
PA4Jl6o. W57 1!}83 881' .t.,1'09351 83-4127
ISBN ~1g-$1/95rJ1
JOINT LIBAARY OF THE HELLENIC

ANO ROMAN SOCIETIES
31 /34 GORDON SOUAA E. lONOON WC1 M l'lPI>
Prinúd in Greál Brilain

at lhe Universit, Prtss, Oxford
PREFACE
A l'IRST draft of the present study was written as long ago as

1967. At that time I conceived it as forming part ofthe sarne
work as what became Ear!J Greek Philosophy and the Orient (1971).
Fortunately I realized befórc· it was too late that I had two
~c:parate books on my hands. That onc was soon ready for
pnblication; but it was clear that this one would have to wait
until I could obtain more complete information about the
mntents of the Derveni papyrus. The late S. G. Kapsomenos,
in whose control it was, promised in 1967 to let me have a
1ranscript, but never did so despite continued correspondence
anda personal visit by me. At the time ofmy visit (1970) the
fragments werc on public display in the Thessaloniki Museum,
and I was able to copy many ofthem offthe wall. ln 1972, in
rcply to an appeal on my behalffrom the late Sir Eric Turner,
Kapsomenos stated that he had no objection to my making
use ofwhat I had managed to leam in this way. This knowledge
was, however, still too incomplete for me to feel able to pro-
ceed. After Kapsomenos' death in 1978 Turner -sent me a
partial transcript which, it transpired, he had had in bis
posscssion ever sincc 1964. This gave me more than I had, but
scveral columns were still lacking. It was not until July 198o
that G. M. Parassoglou, who was now collaborating with K.
Tsantsanoglou on an edition of the papyrus, removed the last
obstacle from my path by sending me the complete text. As
soon as I was free of other commitments, I turned to the task
of revising my old manuscript. I found that it had to be
largely rewritten. This was not only or mainly on account
of the papyrus; there was much that benefited from renewed
attention after the long pause. Thc dclay had after all bcen
salutary.
I should likc to thank some others who have sent me copies
of ímportant publications relevant to thc subject: Walter
Burkert, Fritz Graf, Albert Henrichs, and Andrci Lcbcdev.
The reader will sce from the footnotes that I am also indcbted
vi PREFACE
to Burkert for many illuminating ideas and observations not
to be found in print. As for the helpfulness and efficiency of the
Press, ov• "'•r,W
\,J.t, • -
E'7!'a,vwv.
M.L.W.
Bedford College, úmdbn
Mqy 1!)83
CONTENTS
1. IST OF PLA TES ix
"XPLAN ATION OF ABBRE VIA TI-ONS xi
1. A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
Orpheus, 3. Ear{y P,1thagorean Orphica, 7. JJacchic m,1steries,
15. The point of convergence, 18. Orpheus at Athens, 20.
More Bacchic m,1steries, 24. Orpheus in other adts, 26.
Neopyt.hagorean Orphica, 29. Jewish Orphica, 33. More
hymns, 35. Some /ater poems, 36.
II. SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN

ORPHEUS n
Musaeus, 39. Epimenides, 45. Olen, Pamphos, Abaris, and
others, 53. Linus, 56.
Appendix: The Fragments of Linus, 62.
III. THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI

THEOGONIES 68
Reconstruction of the Rhapsodús narrative, 70. The Derveni
find, 75. The prose text, 77. The Orphic poem. lts proem, 82.
Zeus and his predeussors, 84- The worúl ahsorhed in Zeus, 88.
The new creation, go. The rape of Rhea-Demeter. rounger
gods, 93. Mankind, g8. Recapitulation: structure and contents
of lhe Derveni poem, 100. Sourc:es of lhe Protogonos Theogony,
101. Date and place of origin, 108. The early transmission of
the poem, 111.
Appendix: An exempli gratia Reconstruction of the Derveni
Theogony, 114.
IV. THE EUDEMIAN AND CYCLIC THEO-

GONIES 116
The genealogical framel,llOrk, 116. The primeval parents, I 19.
The Titans, 121. TheCyclíc Theogony, 121. Relationshipojthe
Cyclic to lhe Protogonos and Eudemian Theogonies, 126. The
overthrow of Uranos, 129. The hirth of Zeus, 131. The over-
throw of Kronos, 133. The sixth generation, 136. Recapitula•
tion, 138.
viii CONTENTS
V. THE EUDEMIAN THEOGONY (CON-
TINUED): THE DEATH ANO REBIRTH
OF DIONYSUS 140
Death and rebirtli as an initiatory motif, 143. Is shamanism
reúuant? 146. Dionysus at Delphi, 150. <_agreus, 152. Th,
Titans and tlae tokens, 154. Butchery and cookery, 16o.
Dionysus renouatul, 161. The origin of man, 164- Kourelic
and Boul,ic, 166. Cm/d initiation, 168. The tlaeogony and
relaúd ritual: ext4rnal evitÚnce, 169. Date and place of origin
of th, Eudtmian Th,ogony, 174.
VI. THE HIERONYMAN THEOGONY
The comwgony ac,;ording to Damascius, 178. Ath,nagoras'
1vine, 1 79. Rdatwnship of tlu Hieron:,man and Prowgonos
Theogonú.s, 182. The waúr and tlu mud, 183. ChrtmOJ'-
Heracles, 190. Ananke- Adrasúa, 194. Time's progmy. Th,
egg, 1g8. Protl!gonos, 202. Protogonos' crealion, 207. The
rain, 212. The cave, 213. The chari.ot, 214. Uranos and 1ii.r
children. The reign of Kronos, 215. The swalwwing ofPhanes,
218. Zeus' snake-matings, 220. Otii,r wives and associaús of
Zeus, 221. The soul, 222. Recapilldati,rm and conclusion, 223.
VII. THE RHAPSODIC THEOGONY
The first stages of tlae cosmogony, 230. The ,oyal sceptre, 231.
Niglit, Uranos, Kronos, z,u.r, 234. The goldm chain, 237.
The swallowing of Phanes. Zeus as tl,e world, 239. Zeus'
wives and children, 241. Kore, 243. Dionysus, mankind, 245.
Composition of tlae RJrap.wdies, 246. Infouna of tlu Rha/>-
sodies, 251.
RETROSPECT
STE.MMA OP OR.PHIO THEOOONIES
JNDEX OP 011. PHJ O PJlAGME.NTS
GENl!.JlAL lNDEX
LIST OF PLATES
(al end)
1. Hone plates from Olbia. Fifth ccntury B.O. (Bcenou< AfleBHCã

HCTOpHH 1978 (1), facing p. 88)
:i. Orphcus and an Orphic. Apulian amphora. (Antikenmuseum

Ba.sel und Sammlung Ludwig, S 40)
:1. Arriving in Hades. Apulian calyx crater. (London, British
Museum, F 270)
·k Terracotta group of Orpheus and Sirens. (J. Paul Getty
Museum, Malibu)
!ô. (a). The Dcrveni Papyrus, column xviii. (E. G. Turner, Greelc
Manuscripts of tlu A.ncient World (Oxford, 1971), plate 51)
(b). Thc enticement of thc cbild Dionysus. Ivory pyxis. Fifth
or sixth century A.D. (Bologna, Musco Cívico Archeologico)
li. Protogonos. Relief in Modena. Second century AD, (&rnu
archlologiqu, 40, 19011, plate 1. Photo: Ashmolcan Museum)
EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS
:1. Work.r cited by autlwr'.r namt onry, OT author and abbreviated titl,
ll11RK.ERT, W., Lore and Scin,çe in Ancient Pytlwgoreamsm, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, 1972.
1>11n.s, H., Doxographi Graeci, Berlin, 1879.
( !KAP, F ., Eleusi.r und di, Mphische Dichtung Athen.r in rxnhellenistischer
Zeit, Berlin and New York, 1974.
<!uTHRlE, W. K. C., Orpheus and Greek Religion, London, 1935.
1ÍOLWERDA, A. E. J., 'De theogonia Orphica', Mnemosyn,i 22
( 18g4), 286-329, 361- 85.
KERN, O., OrphicMUm Fragme,úa, Berlin, 1922.
I.INPORTH, I . M., The Àrf.s <if Orpheu.r, Berkeley and Los Angeles,
1941.
T.OBECK, e. A.' AglaopluznJu.r, Kõnigsberg, 1829.
MouUNIER, L., Orphie ti l'Mphisme à l'ipoque cla.rwiue, Paris, 1955.
Nn..ssoN, M. P., Geschichte rúr griechischen Religion, i, 3rd ed., Munich,
1967; ii, 2nd ed., Munich, 1961.
SceuSTER, P. R., D, utteri.r Orphicae theogoniae in<Me atque origine,
Diss. Leipzig, 1869. .
ScawABL, H ., 'Weltschõpfung', RE Supp. ix. 1434-1582 ( 1958).
STAUDACHEJt, W., Dú Trennung von Hiwnel ll1UÍ Erdt, Diss. Tübingen,
1942; Dannstadt, 1g68.
THESLEFF, H ., The Pytlwgortan Texts <ifthe He/lenisticPtriod, Ábo, 1g65.
Wit,AMOWITz-M0ELLENDORPF, U. von, Der Glaube der Hellenen,
Berlin, 1931-2. Cited after the second printing ( 1955; Darmstadt,
1959), which has slightly different pagination.
Zum:z, G., Persephone, Oxford, 1971.
B . Other abbreuiaJions
ANET Ancitnt Ntar Eastern Texts, ed. J. B. Pritchard, 3rd ed.,
Princeton, 1g6g.
J. D. Beazley, Attic &d-Figur, Va.re-Painters, 2nd ed.,
Oxford, J g63.
BSOAS Bulletin of the School <if Orúntal and Afrúan Studies.
CAG Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, ed. M . Hayduck and
others, Berlin, 1882-1909.
DK H. Dicls, Die Fragmente rúr Vorsokratiktr, 5th cd. by
W. Kranz, Berlin, 1934-5.
xii EXPLANATION 0F ABBREVIATI0NS
EGPO M. L. West, Ear[y Greek Philosophy and the Oritnt, Oxford,
1 971.
FGrHist F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, Berlin,
Leiden, 1923-58.
GDK E. Heitsch, Die griechischtn Dichterfragmente der riJmischen
Kaiserzeit, Gõttingen, 1963-4.
GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies.
K. Kem (as above).
LSJ H. G. Liddell and R. Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon,
9th ed., Oxford, 1925- 40.
Orfar,w Orfismo in Magna Grecia, Atti del quattordicesimo con-
vegno di studi sulla Magna Grecia (Taranto 6-10
ottobre 1974), Naples, 1975 (appearcd 1978).
Patr. Gr. Patrologiae cursus complttus, Series Graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne,
Paris, 1857--66.
P.Mag. Papyri Graecae Magicae, ed. K. Preisendanz, Leipzig
and Berlin, 1928-41; 2nd ed. rev. by A. Henrichs,
Stuttgart, 1973- .
PMG D. L. Page, Poetae Melici Graeci, Oxford, 196!l.
RE Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyciopãdie der classisthen Alter-
tumswissenschaft, Stuttgart, 1894-198<>.
Roschn W. H. Roscher (ed.), Ausfohrliches Lexikon der griechischtn
und romischen Mytho/ogie, Leipzig and Berlin, 1884-1937.
SH H. Lloyd-Jones and P. J. Parsons, Supplementum Hellen•
isticum, Berlin and New York, 1983.
SVF H. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, Leipzig,
1903-5
t {before a number) = testimonium in Kern.
TrGF Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. B. Snell and others,
Gõttingen, 1971- .
ZPE Zeitschriftfor Papyrologie und Epigraphik.
Otherwise tbe lists in LSJ should resolve any obscuritics.

I. A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
·I' n E magic of Orpheus• song drew animais and trees; the magic
oi' his name has attracted a more unruly following, a motley
r.rowd of romantics and mystics, of impostors and poetasters,
of dizzy philosophers and disoriented scholars. The disorienta-
Lion of the scholars is un<,lerstandable after so many centuries in
which Orpheus was all things to ali men. For generations they
wrestled, each after his own fashion, with the problem of
the origins of the Orphic poems and the pseudo-problem of
the supposed Orphic religion, or, more often, they confused the
issue by arbitrarily attaching the label 'Orphic' to texts and
doctrines not attested as Orphic. Certainly some secure results
were obtained. It has long been settled, for example, that the
extant Orphic Hymns were composed in the Imperial period,
and the Orphic Argonautica in late antiquity. But on many
more central questions opinions still diverge widely. The so-
called Rhapsodic Theogony, much the longest and most
influential of ali Orphic poems, but known to us only in frag-
ments, has been variously dated to the sixth century BC, to the
Hellenistic age, or even later. Truly one can only speak of
disorientation so long as such a massive uncertainty remains
unresolved.
The Rhapsodic Theogony was only one of three Orphic
theogonies distinguished and cited by a late Neoplatonic
writer; we shall see that in fact no less than six can be identi-
fied. The student who browses in Kem's Orphicorum Fragmenta
for the first time quickly comes to the conclusion that this kind
of complication is a normal feature of Orphic literature. He
finds three separate poems on the rape of Persephone, and a
poem called Testament (.d,aDijKa.t) in three different 'redactions•.
He finds fragments disposed under thirty-six different titles,
besides others 'incertae sedis' and others 'spuria vel dubia'.
What is worse, he remains for the most part without guidance
on the dates and connections of ali these works, and he is
aware that in some cases, at least, they are the subject of widc
disagreement. He feels he has strayed into a quicksand.
!l A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
ln the last forty years or so this field of study, the analysis
of this corpus of literature, has lain largely neglected. Rather
as with the Homeric Question, scholars secm to have resigned
themselves to an impasse. They have bccome adept at side•
stepping the subject whenever it threatens to impinge on their
studies. That is of course the only prudent thing to do until
greater clarity is bought into the matter. But it is nota situation
with which we should rest content indefinitely. Questions that
we lack evidence to decide are bettcr left undecided. ln the
Orphic case, however, the difficulty is not so much absence of
evidence as the fact that the evidence is both complex and
fragmentary. It needs a great deal of sorting out and putting
together, and there are m.any opportunities for muddle. I
believe it is possible to sort it out more thoroughly and put it
together more cogently than has been clone hitherto. Un-
expected new evidence has allowed the picture to be filled
out, while reminding us that it is far ·from being a complete
picture. It would be foolish to imagine that we now have the
means to solve every problem. On points of detail I shall often
offer speculative suggestions which the reader must judge as
he thinks fit; and I know that for some readers any speculation
is 'mere' speculation, and its denunciation an automatic victory
for scholarship. I hope nevertheless to construct an account of
the history of Orphic literature that will prove solid in its main
outlines and that students of antiquity will feel able to incor-
porate in their overall view of the history of Greek literature.
I speak of Orphic literature, not of Orphism or the Orphics.
Much of the fog which beset the subject in the past (and, of
which wisps still linger) arose from the confusion of these con-
cepts. It was Wilamowitz, whose clear old sceptical gaze falis
upon me from my study wall as I write these words, who first
: j· saw through it. 1 His insight was developed by I. M. Linforth
! 1 in his excellent book TM Arts of OrpMus. These two scholars
' emphasized the fact that while ancient authors frequently refer
to poems by Orpheus or attributed to Orpheus, they seldom
refer to Orphics, except in the sense of authors of Orphic books,
and never to 'Orphism'. They mention various cults and rituais
that Orpheus was supposed to have founded, and they apply
the adjective 'Orphic' to certain rites and religious practices
• Gltluiu, ii. 190 ff. My picture dates ti-om 1931, when he was working on Glau6e.
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS !I
anel to an ascetic way of life. But the name of Orpheus is the
1111ly consistent unifying factor.2 It·is a fallacy to suppose that
ali 'Orphic' poems and rituais are rclated to each other or
il1;lt tbey are to be interpretcd as different manifestations of
a single religious movement. Of course, in some cases there
an: connections between different poems, between separate
rituais, or between certain poems and certain rituais. But the
,·s.~cntial principie to remember is that a poem becomes Orphic
simply by being ascribed to Orpheus. By the sarne tokcn,
<)rphics are simply people who in their religious beliefs or prac-
lir.cs, whatever these may be, accord a place of honour to texts
asc:ribed to Orpheus. There was no doctrinal criterion for
ascription to Orpheus, and no ,copyright restriction. lt was a
drvice for conferring antiquity and authority upon a tcx:t that
slood in need of them.
Thesc are the axioms that must govern our use of terms like
' Orphic'. To say that an idea which we find stated in Pindar
or Euripides is Orphic means nothing unless it means that it
was derived frorn a poem or poems bearing Orpheus' name;
and even if we know that a given idea occurred in an Orphic
pocm, we cannot always assume that it originated in or was
peculiar to Orphic verse. We must never say that 'the Orphics'
hdieved this or did that, and anyonc who does say it must be
asked sharply 'Whúh Orphics?' A recent discovery at the site
,,r Olbia has made it probablc tbat tbere existed a sect there in
thc fifth century se who may properly be called Orphics.
l•:vidcnce from art points to the existcnce of an Orphic group
al Tarentum in the se-cond ha!f of the fourth century. lt is
l,:gitimate to talk about thesc Olbian or Tarentine Orphics, or
any other specific group of Orphics that we can identify, but
11ot to talk about 'thc Orphics' in general. As for 'Orphism',
1hc only definite meaning that can be given to the term is 'the
fashion for claiming Orpheus as an authority'. The history of
<>rphism is the history of that fashion.
Orpheus
( )rpheus was a figure of myth, and an unusual one in Greek
lcrms in that he had no place in the network of genealogics by l,
which almost everyone supposed to have lived in the heroic
• &e Linforth, 261-8g.
4 A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
age was linked together in the Hesiodic and logographic tradi-
tion. These genealogies co:nnected Greece with Egypt, Phoeni-
cia, and Anatolia, but not with Thrace, Orpheus' country. He
•.f stands outside the Mycenaean wodd. His father Oeagrus is
/, a mere name without substance. Four separate stories about
Orpheus are attested in classical times, all reflecting his unique
musical gifts.
(i) Birds and animals carne to hear him perform, rivers
stayed in their courses, even the rocks and trees carne sidling
down the mountain,3
(ii) He took part in the Argonautic expedition and saved
the Argonauts from the seductions of the Sirens by outsinging
them. 4
(iii) He prevailed upon the infernal powers to release his wife
, , from Hades.s
1
(iv) He was assassinated by a party of Thracian women

(apparently as the men sat entranced by his music). They cut
off bis head, but it continued to SÍf\g.6
He was hauled inside the cultural horizons of classical Hellas
by being made the son of Apollo and a Muse, and the ancestor
of Hesiod and Homer. Yet the stories portray hím not as a
distant forerunner ofHomer, but as a singer of a different type:
one who can exercise power over the natural world and who
, 1 can countennand death itself, a 'shamanistic' figure. He en-
tered Greek mythology, surely, not by way of Mycenaean saga
but at a !ater period from Thrace, or through Thrace from
further north, from regions. where shamanistic practices actually
existed or had existed.
• Baccb. 28(b), A. Ag. 1630, E. B4, 562, IA 1212, etc. (t 47-55 Kern); in art
from about 500 (sce Fraenkel on Ag., 1.c.). Thc miraclc is not associated with
any particular occasion, though Simonidcs adaptcd it to the contcxt of the Argonaut
story•
.. Simon, 567 (cf. 544--8, 576; 595?); Pind. P. 4,176 f., E. H.:,ps. PP· 27, 48
Bond, Herodocus 31 F 42-43, Acconling to an altcrnativc, perhaps older tradition
the Argonauta' musician was Philammon (Pherec. 3 F 26). The carlicst cvidcnce
is a mctope of thc Sicyonian trcasw-y at Dclphi (bcforc 550 Bc), whcrc apparently
both wcre portrayed in the Argo.
• E. Ale. 357-g, PI. Symp. 17gd, cf. Isoc. Btuiris 8; Linforth, 16--lt1.
' Auic vases from about 490 ac, cf. PI. S:,mp. 17gd, lup. 62oa; Linforth, 11-14,
125-36. A variant of the story, in which the womcn wcrc Bassarids, wu prescnted
in Aachylus' Btul4f4i. Sce bclow, p. 12.
A HUBBU-B OF BOOKS 5
The word 'shaman' comes from the Tungus language of
n~ntral Siberia, but serves as a convenient designation for a
1ype of magician recognizable throughout central and north
t\sia, the Arctic, the Americas, lndonesia, Australia, and
<)ceania. His characteristic fea ture is bis ability to work himself .
into a state in which bis spirit leaves bis body and undertakes /
journeys and adventures bcyond the reach of ordinary humans.
1t can 8y through the air for immense distances, visit tbe centre /
ofthe world, and pass from thcre to the several leveis ofhcaven; :
iL can plumb the depths ofthe sea, or goto the land ofthe dead. ·
The shaman is thus able to negotiate with gods and spi.rits (in ; 1
Lheir secret language) on the community's behalf, or converse ·
with the souls of the d eparted and bring messages back from
them. Hc can cure the sick by going after their fugitive souls
(if necessary as far as the realm of the dead) and bringing them
back to thcir owners, or by dcfeating morbid demons in combat.
He alone can see souls and spirits; often they assume animal ~-
forms, but the shaman can deal with animais and birds too,
and understand their language. He has access to the whole of
naturc. His spiritual adventures are dramatically represented to
the onlookers by bis mimetic dancing, symbolic acts, fits, trances, f ·
and vociferations; or he may report them in lengthy songs.7 •
That Orpheus is to be seen in the context of northem
shamanism is no new conclusion,8 and in due course I shall
try to show that he does not represent an .isolated intrusion of
shamanistic elements into Greek myth and legend. But he was,
or carne to be, more thanjust the subject ofmyths. Poems were
composed in bis name and acquired authority from it. The
sarne is true of various other legendary singers (Musaeus,
Eumolpus, Linus, etc.), about whom I shall say something in
the next chapter. But from the late sixth century BC to the end
of antiquity Orpheus' was thc favourite name for pseudepi- 1
graphic poems of a religious, metaphysical, or esoteric nature. \'\.
'
7 Thii is, of coursc, lhe briefest poaible surnmary of such a widesprcad and
varied phenomenon. See further M . Eliade, Sltamanism, Ardtaic Tt,;/uáqws of

&Jtasy ( 1964).
1 Cf. K. Mculi, Hermu 70 (1935), 11.11-76 - G,s41111'Ulú Sdirifa,, (19711), 817-79
(esp. 170ft: - 871 ff.); Kaúwala (1940) , 35 ... Gu. Sthr. 6g7; G.J. Stftr. 1031;
E. R . Dodds, Tlu Grtfk.s ant! llt, lrrationa/ (1951), 140- 7; Á. Hultltrantz, Tlu North
Ammean lndían Orf>lws Tradition (1957), 1g8f., i13~3; Eliadc,S.\amonilm, 3871f.;
Bur lr.m, LS 16,i-5.
6 A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
It was not used merely because he was a famous singer of the
past. Some of the earliest poetry attributed to him was par-
ticularly appropriate to his shamanistic nature. There was a
Descent to Hades, in which he must have been represented as
giving an account of his journey to the home of the dead to
recover his wife., and of all that he saw there. There were spclls
and incantations. Most remarkable of all, there was a sacred
myth about the dismemberment and renovation of Dionysus,
related in an Orphic poem, which reflects, as will be shown in
Chapter 5, a spccial kind of initiation that the shaman is
supposed to undergo. This suggests that Orpheus may have
beco linked from the start, however tenuously, with religious
practices in which elemcnts deriving from a shamanist culture
were present.
Ris Hellcnization involved a measurc of rationalization. Ris
miraculow accomplishments-dominating animais, retrieving
his wifc from Hades, etc.-came to be seen as deriving simply
from his excellence at singing, which he owed to his musical
parents. If he had access to special knowledge of things divinc,
:! it was becausc hc was a son of Apollo. ln thc proem of thc
Rhapsodic Thcogony hc was made· to say (fr. 62):
O Lord, son of Leto, far-shootcr, mighty Phocbus,
all-eecing lord of mortais and immortals,
Sun-god borne àloft oo golden wiQgS,
this is the twelfth 100thsaying I havc heard
0
from thy mouth thou, far-shooter, art my witness.

:
Timaeus in Plato's dialogue gives a summary genealogx of gods

which is evidently derivcd from an Orphic theogony, saying
that it is good enough because it comes on the authority of
'those who have spokcn before, the offspring of gods, as thcy
said, who ought to know theír own ancestors accurately' (Tim.
40c). Plato has his tonguc ín his chcek, of coursc; but the pro-
blem of authentication in theological questions was a real onc.
Hesíod could only claím to know about thc history of the gods·
becausc he had it from the Muses. Even thcy did not always
tel1 the truth, and they wcre soon found to bc insufficicnt as
guarantors. Parmenidcs also rcccived his revelatíon from a
l.\ goddcss. Pythagoras and Empedocles claimed to be gods them-
1 sclves. Pseudo-Epímenidcs acquired knowledge by íncubation
in the cave of Zeus, ln !ater antíquity, too, religious instruction
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS 7
w;1s put in the mouths of gods, for example in the Hermetic
•lialogues and in the Ckaldaean Oracles.
'l'he initial stage in the development of an Orphic literature
11•.1s, I presume, the attribution to Orphew, as the great
·:,11:tman' of the past, of poems of shamanistic character (de-
•,n-ihing journeys to Hades, etc.), or of poems composed in
.ttul for religious circles whose rituals contained elements of
::ltamanistic origin. This must have begun before the rationali-
1.ation ofOrpheus had proceeded so far as to efface his shaman-
i·:I i<: .wociations. The next stage was to use bis name more
1•.rncrally for pocms which revealed the truth about such
111atters as the nature and destiny of the soul, or the sacred
l,istory ofthe gods. As we shall sec, both stages are represented
a111ong the earliest attested Orphic poems, dating from the late
sixth or early fifth century BC.
The use ofOrpheus as an authority may not be much older.
1t was not traditional. Someone had to think of it for the first
time. Once thought of, it was an casy idea to copy, but it must
ltave originated in a single place ata single momcnt in history.
lf we cannot pinpoint this moment prccisely, we can, I think,
~ct near it by observing the convergence of three lines of evi-
dcnce, one of which has only recently become available and
une of which has bccome a littlc lcss tcnuous.
Early Pytkagorean Orphica
The first of thesc lines leads us to Pythagoras. Pythagoras is
in manY, ways hardly less a figure of legend than Orpheus
himself. So many elements of ]ater Pythagorcan speculation j/
wcre projected back on to him, so much sheer myth and fancy,
that it is difficult to find anything rcliable to believe about him.9
I,'ortunately we have a fcw very carly references to him which,
after due allowance has been made for bias, are genuinely
informative. One ofthese is a statement by that most interesting
and many-sided literary man Ion of Chios, who died in 422 BC,
that Pythagoras published writings of his own in the name of l!
Orpheus. ln otber words, Ion alleged that certain poetry cir-
culating under Orpheus' name (prose hardly comes into ques- \ I
tion) was in fact composed by Pythagoras. A parallel allegation
• Burkert's Lim dttd Scwna may be reco=nded as a guidc through IMl
quicband.
8 A HUBBUB OP BOOKS
regarding ritual practice appears in Herodotus. He says that
certain taboos which Egyptians observe in the wearing of wool
·/ 'agree with the observances which are called Orphic and
11 Bacchic, though they are really Egyptian and Pythagorean' .'º
i People claim that they were instituted by Orpheus, but Hero-
i dotus identifies Pythagoras as the man who established them in
i Greece, and Egypt as tbeir ultimate provenance. u ln tbe mid
fifth century, then, there were Orphic verse and Orphic reli-
gious taboos, known at lcast to informed writers of East Greek
origin, judged by them to be of no great antiquity, and showing
such an affinity with what they knew of Pythagoras' teachings
that tbey were in no doubt that he was responsible for them
and for the adoption of Orpheus' name.
A still earlier tcstimony about Pythagoras, dating from his
lifetime or not long after, is relevant here. Heraclitus, who
passed criticai judgement on a number of men generally
admired for their wide knowledge or wisdom, bracketed Pytha-
goras with HesiQCI, Xenopbanes, and Hecataeus as one to whom
leaming had not taught sense (fr. 16 M. = B 40), and in
another fragment he says:
Pythagoras thc son of Mncaarchos practiscd inquiry most of ali mcn, and
adccting thesc writings he claimed for himsclf expertisc, leaming, knavery. 12
This is valuable confirmation of Pythagoras' use of books. ln

saying 'these writings', Heraclitus may not be referring to
writings previously mentioned (for ' Pythagoras the son of
Mnesarchos' scem.s to introduce a new subject), but rather
using the demonstrative contemptuously, as in another frag-
ment (86 = B 5) he says 'they pray to these statues'. They
are evidently writings which Pythagoras in some way editcd
and propagated. 'Selecting' is also something that Onomacritus
•• Ion, TriJlllMÍ, DK 36 B !.1; HdL !.1,81. I acecpt thc l0<1gcr venion of lhe
Herodotus pauage; shonening wu more likdy to happen than intcrpolation. For
cliscussion of lhe problelll$ tec Linforth, 38-5o; bibliograpby in Burkcrt, LS 127
n. 39 (add Moulinicr, g ft).
11 Cf. 2. 1g3, whcre Herodotua claims Egyptian origin for thc theory of metem-
p&ychosis, 'which certain Greclu have maintained aa their own, some earlie.-, some
later; 1 know tbcir names but pass ovcr thcm'. 1 tbinlr. it likcly that be had
Pythagoru aod Empododcs primarily in mind. Soe Burkcrr, LS 126 n. 38.
11 Fr. 17 M. = B 129, Thc authc:nticity ofthe f~cnt wu formerly doubted
but ia now gaicrally acoepted. Sec Bu.rkcrt. LS I So f.
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS 9
ditl at the sarne period with the oracles of Musaeus.u Now
dcarly Heraclitus is not saying the sarne as Ion; he is not
~aying that Pythagoras composed works under a pseudonym.
l lc may nevertheless be referring to Orphica-to a Pythagorean
publication which Heraclitus took to be what it claimed to be,
11amely an edition of older poetry, whereas lon saw it as a
l:tbrication.
For more explicit information we are indebted to one Epi•
1-:cnes, an obscure figure who appears to have lived in the first
l,alf of the fourth century BC. 14 He is recorded as having stated,
in a discussion of Orphic poetry, that the Descent to Hades and
lhe Hwos Logos were really by Cercops the Pythagorean, and
the Robe and Pkysika by Brontinus. •s Nothing is known of this
Cercops (he does not appear in lamblichus' long list of Pytha-
i-:oreans), but Brontinus or Brotinus of Metapontum or Croton
is known as a contemporary of Alcmeon ofCroton: he was one
of three people to whom Alcmeon dedicated his book. 16 Epi•
genes' ascriptions are worked into the long list of Orpheus'
poems in the Suda ( = t 223d Kem), with some variants. The
Hieros Logos appears as Hieroi Logoi in twenty-four rhapsodús- in
other words it is confused with the Rhapsodic Theogony, which
we shall see to be a poem of later date-and ascribed either to
Cercops the Pythagorean or to Theognetus the Thessalian.
,, Hdt. 7.6. Hc collcctcd and arrangcd thcm, hc intcrpolatcd thcm, and when
takcn to Susa hc falsilicd thcm further by supprcssing some (.-a ,trrux,,,,,.u.-o.
iKÃ<yÔ,,,.-,,os, thc sarne word as in Hcraclitus). Onomacritus' association with the
Orphica is a late invcntion, scc p. 1149.
14 In Callimachus' time there wcre people who thought that he was the author
ofthe Triagmoi oflon ofChios {Call. fr. 449). Perhaps he wrotc an excgesis ofit;
we know that he discussed tbe intcrprctation of onc of Ion's tragedies (Ath. 468c,
v.l. 'Epimcnes'). This might havc Jcd to bis bcing quoted as 'Epigcncs in the
Triagmoi'. Linforth, 114 ff., makes out an attractive case for identifying him with
Epigcnes thc disciplc of Socrates who appcars in Plato and Xenophon.
u Clcm. Str. 1.131 = t 111111 Kcm. Clemcnt writes 'Epigcncs in his writing on
tbe poetry ascribcd to Orpheus', and in 5.49 ( = fr. 33 K.) 'in his book on lhe
pocll'y of Orpheus', as if it wcre a monograph, but I suspcct tbat it rcally camc
from Epigcnes' exegesis of thc Triagmoi, and was an amplification of Ion's statc•
mcnt thcrc about Pythagoras. This would help to explain why the Sud4 llst of
Orphcu.s' poems, which incorporates Epigenes' ascript.ions, bcgins 'He wrotc
Triagmoi; but they are said to bc by Ion thc tragedian'. The sourcc presumably
named Epigcnes in association with the T riagmoi.
16 DK 114 B 1. Hc is said to have been the father (or husband) of Pythagoras'
wifc; (or daughtcr or pupil) Theano (D.L. 8.411, etc.). Cf. Burkcrt, LS 114 and
!!8g n, 57•
10 A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
The Descent is given to H erodicus of Perinthus,17 while the
Robe, together with a .Net, is given either to Brontinus or to
Zopyrus of Heraclea. Zo_pyrus is "known from the catalogue
of early Pythagoreans in Iamblichus, where heis listed as from
Tarentum. 18 He is further credited, both in the Suda and in
Clement, with a Krater. 19
Kraúr, Net, Robe. Thesc titles fali into a pattern, and it is
pos.,ible to conjecture something of their meaning. The Net was
in all probability the Orphic poem known to Aristotle in which
the fonnation of a living creature was likened to the knitting of
a net (fr. 26 Kem). T he image, already alluded to in the
Timaeus, 20 suggests that the soul is air occupying the interstices
of a material body. It savours of Pythagoreanism, for there
is a certain analogy betwe~n the picture of the net being
built up loop by loop and the Pythagorean (Philolaic) number-
cosmogony in which thc world is built up from a monad that
' brcathes in' and becomcs a dyad and so on. 21 On general
groune:ls one might supposc the physical thcory of the poem
to bc oldcr than the more abstract scheme of Philolaus.
R elatcd ideas may have inspired tbe Robe. 1n onc or other
ot thc Órphic poems he kncw, Epigenes found a dcscription of
wcaving or of a loom. H e quoted from it the expressions
'shuttles with bcnt convcyancc' and 'warp-threads' ,z• and
cxplained them as symbolizing the ploughing and sowing of
the carth . Robes and weaving go together, and therc is some
likclihood that the poem in question was the Robe. Epigenes'
allcgorical interpretation may of course have becn as arbitrary
as tbat of the Derveni papyrus to be discussed in the next
chapter but one. But a robe symbolizing the surface of tbe
earth had appeared in a pre-Pythagorean theological narrative:
n Clcment {immediately bd'orc citing Epigencs) ascribes it 10 Prodicus of

Samos. 'Hpo3<tco• had no doubt becn corrupted into llpo8l,cov (as oftcn happens),
and this 'Prodicus' was then aaumed to be the famOUA soplilit from Samos. Tbe
D,sant waa alio attributed to Orpheus of Camarina Op+•vs
(Suda s. v. • Kapo.p,-
...,,or), who scems to be a fü:titious penon.
•• VP 267, perhaps from Aristoxcnus {Burkcrt, LS 105 n. 40).
n The S""4 givcs this tide in lhe plural, becaúSC tberc was also a Slwrltr Krakr
known at Byzantium (frr. ~97-8).
•• 78b ff. Also in !ater writcn, sce Lobeck 381.
" DK 511 B !26+ 30. 0n lhe ascription to Philolaus sec Burkcrt, LS 235-8. For
a poaible link between lhe: N,t and Alcmeon sec EGPO 230 n. 5.
u Fr. 33 K. The exact scnse ol the acljective with 'sbuttJes' is uncertain.
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS 1(
í11 Pberecydes of Syros, who related how Zas wovc a robe for
ltis bride Chthonie, émbroidcred earth and ocean upon it, and
hy giving it to Chthonic transformed her into Ge. 21 ln the later
( >rphic Rhapsodies Persephone was described as weaving a
llowery robe, work which was interrupted when Pluto carried
ltcr off to the underworld: that robe too had an evident cosmic
significance. The Robe known to Epigenes and ascribed by him
lo Brontinus may well have contained an earlier version of the
sarne episode, with Persephone's weaving standing for the ,,
smsonal re-covering of the earth by crops, flowers, and other
vcgetation. The basic idea that 'the earth is the robe of P.er- ,
s1·phone' is quite in the style of thc carly Pythagoreans, who i
wcre given to sayings likc 'the Bears are thc hands of Rhca', ,
'lhe plancts are Pcrsephone's hounds', 'the sca is thc tear of \
K ronos', 14 \
Thc Krater (Mixing-howl) cannot be directly connected with

anything we know of early Pythagorean thought; but Bron-
l inus' friend Alcmcon attaches importance to lhe commcnsurate
mixture of opposing qualitics (DK 24 B 4), while Empedocles,
who certainly accepted some Pythagorean doctrines, and
praised Pythagoras warmly,2 s cxplains ali cosmic change as
mixture and separation, and uses vocabulary propcr to the
1nixing of drinks. 26 Cosmic mixing-bowls appear in Plato, first
iu the Pluudo (1 ud), in a purcly physical description of the
subtcrranean machincry of thc earth, thcn in a playful meta-
phor in the Philehus (6Jbc), applied to livcs that contain in-
~rredients of pleasure and wisdom, and in the cosmology of the
TimatUS (35, 41d), where the Demiurge uses a bowl to mix the
soul of thc firmament and the souls of men. 21 The image
reappears in various forms in !ater writers, who are mainly
dependent on Plato. 28 There is one passage in which it is
associated with Orphcus. Plutaréh, speaking of the great krater
., See EGPO 9- 11, 15- 20, and for oriental parallcls, ibid., 53- 5.
•• See EGPO 21.5- 18. Among other Orpbic cxprC3Sions wbich Epigenes
cxpoundcd (s<ill fr. 33) was 'tc,,us of Zeus', which hc said mcant rain.
as B 129; cf. Burkcrt, LS 137 f.
•6 B 35.15 (a,pdr a.nd ""f>"ITºS, 35.8 "•P-~"", 71.3 1t1pv"'l'l•w•. Hcraclitus
had uscd lhe imagc oíthc 1<111wl,v that ha.s to bc kcpl stirrcd (31 M ... B 125).
., Ci. also L,. 773d, 'tbc city must be mixcd likc a mixing-bowl'. 1<#P4wvria.
is a froquent mctapbor in Plato.
•• Sec Lobeck, 736; Nilsson, Hon,, Tlr,,,l, RIINW 51 (19:,8), 59 ff. = Opwe. &I.
iü. 332 ft'.
12 A HU BBUB OF BOOKS
from which dreams draw their mixture of truth and falsehood,
says that this was as far as Orpheus carne in his quest for
Eurydice, after which he published an account of his journey,
mentioning an oracle at DeJphi shared by Apollo and Night.Z9
It looks as if the Delphic sanctuary was connected to the krater
and Orpheus returned from the underworld by this route, as
Aeneas returns through the gate of dreams in Virgil. 30 lt could
well be that the O rphic poem Plutarch is referring to was the
Kratu. But there was also the Desunt to Hades ascribed by
Epigenes to Cercops and by others to H erodicus or to Orpheus
of Camarina. This was probably a poem in autobiographical
form, 31 in which Orpheus described his search for Eurydice
and revealed to m en the fate of souls, much as in a Platonic
'/ myth. Pythagoras too, perhaps from an early date, was said
/ to have descended to H ades and retumed.u
There is reason to suspect that Aeschylus knew a poem about
Orpheus' dcscent to Hades. The plot of hís Bassarai went as
follows: Orpheus, as a resu!t of what he had seen in the under-
world when he went there o n account of bis wife, neglected the
worship of Dionysus, who lhad made him famous, and instead
honoured the Sun, whom he idcncified with Apollo, as the
greatest god. He took to going up on M ount Pangaion before
dawn to grcct the sunrise. There the Bassarids, driven by the
angry Dionysus, carne upon him towards the cnd of their
nocturnal reveis and tore· him limb from limb.33 As was noted
earlicr, this is a new version of a current story according to
which O rpheus was hackcd to dcath and beheaded (but not
tom apart) by T hracian women (not Bassarids). Aeschylus
acknowledges a connection between Orphcus and the rites of
•• 1)4 s,ra nwninis uüuiitlo !)66b. Cf. Wilamowitz, Glllub,, ii. 194 n. 3. Pythagorcan
intcrcst io tbc Dclpbic oracle is &bown by thc aA:owma ' What is lhe óracle at Delphi?
-Tctrutys' etc. (lambi. YP lb).
• 0 O. Gruppc in RJ.s,lur, iii. 1130. Cf. A. Dietcrich, Jl1k,1ia (1893), 147; E.
Nordcn, V,r1iliru A1111is VI (3rd od., 1926), 47.

" J...ikc the la ter Argo,,attlit;a, which probably refcn to it (sce below, p. 38,
lincs 41~). ,. Sce Burkert, LS 1!)5-61; PhroNsit 14 ( 1969), 1~9.
u Fr. 83 Mctte = ps.-Erat. Caltut. 114, whence sch. Germao. Aral., pp. 84
and 151 Br. ; sch. Clcm. Protr. 4.3. Codex R ofpseudo-Eratosthencs, first uscd in
Olivicri'• odition, and codex T , publishod shortly afterwards by R chm, give a
fullcr tcxt than was lr.nown to Nauck. Toe details they add are important, and
confirmed by thc Germanicus scholía, but Mette omiu them. Lioforth, TAPA 611
(1931), 11 ff., is over-cautious about bow mucb of thc story is Aeschylcan. Sce
íurther BICS 30 (1g83), 64, ft
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS 13
1>ionysus. But at the sarne time he portrays an apostate, more
pl,ilosophical Orpheus who reveres Apollo-Helios because of
l.11owledge acquired in the underworld. Apollo, much more
1han Dionysus, was Pythagoras' god, and we have just seen
tliat Apollo may have played a part in Orpheus' underworld
ju11rney in the Krallr ascribed to the Pythagorean Zopyrus. lt
looks as if Aeschylus may have been acquainted with this or
;1 similar 'Orphic' poem. He might have met it in Sicily rather
11,an Athens; yet Sophocles too has heard something of an
i111cllectual cult of the Sun.J•
The other titles mentioned by Epigenes, Physika and Hieros
/ A>,t:os, are too general to be informative. The latter should be
a narrative about the gods, or at least a theological exposition
oi' some kind, giving a basis for religious observances. It ~ust
,-crtainly be kept distinct from the Hieroi Logoi in twenty-four
,hapsodies with which it is confused in the Suda; and the Physika
;ire not necessarily to be identified with the Physikon or Physika
,·iLcd in fr. 318 K., or with the Peri Physeos known to Herodian. 35
But íf we must admit ignorance here, we have seen enough to
support the generalization that the poems ascribed by Epigenes
to Pythagoreans were indeed related to Pythagorean thought.
Whether he was in a position to hear true rumoun about their
authorship, or named Brontinus and others in the sarne spirit
as those who later forged books in the names of various early
l'ythagoreans (including Brontinus),36 his ascriptions do seem to
hc in the right arca.
Mention should be made of a couple of rather uncertain
pieces of evidence for Pythagorean Orphica of classical date.
According to the doxographer known as Aetius,
Heradides and the fythagoreans say that each of the stars (planeis? &.,,,,./pEs)
is a world, an earth with surrounding atmosphere, in the infinite aithcr:
"ºd (variant: and that) this view is to be found in the Orphlc poelll$. For
Lhey make a world out of each of the stars.n
l4 Fr. 752 •H~, ••• (8,,) ol ao+,,! ).J.yova, yfW1)n}• 8cw• 1ffO.T4pG {1'<) .,.,,,,...,., OT
e,;;,,, 8,õ.
fi6o TO• ............. "'"°"°' '1~ov; cf. Ar. Nub. 571-4. Elsewherc (fr. s82)
Sophoclcs made the Sun the chicfgod ofthe Thracians (after Aeschylus' Bassarai?).
Thc Helianax who appears as a btothcr of Stesichorus may be one of thc Pythago-
teanizing elements in his biography; cf. CQ 21 ( 1971), 302 f.
" Cod. Vindob. hist. gr. 10 f. 25• (H. Hunger, Jh. d. Ôslm'. By.i:. C.seJlscJuzft 16
(1967), 13 and 29). 36 Thcslcff, Tuts, 55.
~
" Plac. 2.13.15 Galcn hist. phit., p. 624-15 Diels (Doxogrophi); Hcld, PonL
fr. 113/113a Wchrli; Orph. fr. 22,
This notice is rightly held to derive- except pcrhaps for thc
referencc to Orphica-from a statement by Heraclides Ponticus
about certain Pythagoreans. I think it likely that the Orphic
rcference a1so carne from Heraclides and was not an addition
by Al!tius (who does not cite Orpheus anywherc else). Appar-
ently, then, we have fourth-century evidence for a very striking
doctrine idcntificd as 'Pythagorean' (and credible for the late
if not the early fifth century) 38 and for a parallel Orphic
account. Howevcr, it may be that the doctrine is Heraclidcs'
own, and that he claimed Orphic and Pythagorean prccedent
for it on the strength of utterances much more limited in pur-
port. He could havc citcd Orpheus for an earthlike, inhabited
moon (fr. 91; below, p. 92), and Philolaus for this and perhaps
for other inhabited planets, as well as the Pythagorean saying
that the sun and moon were the lsles of the Blest.
ln another place Heraclides quoted the unsettling verse
Eating bcans is equivalent to cating parcnts' hcads.
We do not know to whom hc ascribcd it. It is a1so quoted anony-

mously by several other authors, induding a scholiast on Homer
who adds two mol'e verses cxplaining that beans are a path of
ascent by which souls retum from Hades to the uppcr air. 39
This all looks thoroughly Pythagorean. Both the taboo on beans
and metempsychosis are notoriously Pythagorean; both were
taken up by Empedocles, and thc verses would not be unworthy
of him. But one late source, one Didymus, thought to have
lived in thc fourth or fifth century AD, attributcs the first linc
to Orpheus. Ifwe accept this, presumably Heraclides was quot-
ing from an Orphic poem of Pythagorean provenance. But
Didymus at the sarne time attributes to Orpheus the verse
Wretchca, utter wretches, keep your banda from beans!
which we know to have occurred in Empedocles (B 141). It

might havc been used both by Empedoclcs and in an Orphic
pocm. On the other hand there is a tendency in late antiquity
for Orpheus' name to be rather irresponsibly interchanged with
>8 Scc Burkcrt, LS 345-8. Thc conccpt of infinitc other worlds bcsides our own
was already pn:sent in ~naxirnandtt (EGPO 8o f.).
>• Hcld. fr. 41 = Orph. fr. 291; sch, T li. 13,58g (not in Kem),
otlu-rs.4° Didymus' testimony must therefore be considered
1111rl'liable, though there is nothing in itself improbable in an
,·arly Orphic poem prohibiting the consumption ofbeans. 41
1>iscounting these two potential contributions from Hera-
didcs Ponticus, we are still left with a quite adequate amount
ofcvidence for the production ofOrphic poetry in Pythagorean l)
w,,rkshops. This poetry was not, of course, fully representative ' 1
or cverything that we can call Pythagorean. Pythagoras must
ltavc been a man ofunusual intellect and imagination; he was
a lso a gifted showman who made a striking impression on his
rnntemporaries and whose influence led in more than one
1lircction. Hippasus of Metapontum, a student of mathematics
and music; Empedocles; Philolaus; the shabby vegetarians
earicatured in Middle Comedy; all these were in a sense
l_>ythagoreans, developing some aspect of Pythagoras' complex
l<"gacy and honouring his memory. The 'Pythagorean' poets \
who augmented the Orphic corpus were just one group, and ,
11ot necessarily a closely unified group. So far as we can judge, '
thcir interests lay neither in mathematics nor in superstitious
rules of deportment, but in picturesque metaphysics and
,·schatology.
lfacchic mysteries
The second of the three lines of evidence leading towards the
heginnings of Orphic literature is traced across four rather
slight but telling pieces of evidence, three literary and one
cpigraphic.
ln Aeschylus' Bassarai, as we saw, the playwright made
a tragedy hinge on the opposition between two images of
Orpheus: an Apolline, Pythagorean (?) Orpheus, and a Diony-
siac Orpheus who acquired honour from Dionysus and owes
him honour in return. This seems to presuppose the existence
of Dionysiac cult in which Orpheus had some part, that is to
say, in which verses ascribed to Orpheus had some part.
•• See bclow, pp. 35, n. 105, 36f. Tertullian, D, anima 15,5, and sch. Aphthon.
in G. Hermano, Orph~ (18o5), 511, provide parallels for venes of Empcdocles
(8 105.3, 127) being quoted as 'Orpheus'•
., Therc is a little evidence from the Roman pcriod for an Orphic interest in
beans: Paus. 1.37-4, Orph. Hymn 26 rubric, Greg. Naz. Or. 27.10 (Patr. Gr. xxxvi.
2,i.B). But the taboo cxisted in various culls (Frazer on Paus. 8.15.4; Burkert, LS
183-5), and these texts do not necesaarily lead us back to early Pythagoreanism.
I havc also mentioned already Herodotus• phrase about 'the
observances which are callcd Orphic and Bacchic'. The passage
reads in fu)l (2.81):
(The Egyptians) wear linen tunics with a tauelled hem, which they caU
kalaJfrits, and over these they tbrow woollen wraps. But woollen fabrics
are not taken into shrines, or buried with them, for it ia not comldcrcd
holy, They agree in this with the obeervances which are called Orphic
and Bacchic, but are in fact Egyptian and Pythagorean; for neither is it
comldcred holy for a participantin thae rites (&py,u) tobe buriedin woollen
garments, and therc ia a sacred atory told on the subject.
Pythagoras is a many-sided figure, but Bacchic rites are one
thing that we do not associate with him. The gods with whom
he has connections in tbe tradition are Apollo and marginally
Demeter. And clearly the rites which Herodotus has i.n view
are not called Pythagorean: it is hc who detects something
Pythagorean in them, or in the teaching that goes with them,
just as he detects an Egyptian background in the wool taboo.
By our criteria, then, they are not Pythagorean, though what
they had in common wíth Pythagoras' teaching may have been
something signifi.cant. They were called Orphic or Bacchic.
That is, the celebrants called themselves bacchoi, and looked
to Orpheus as their prophet-probably as the founder of their
cult and the author of their 'sacred story' and whatever other
texts they used.
There is one furthcr scrap of literary evidence for Orpheus•
association with bacthoi in the fifth century. ln Euripides'
Hippolytus the enraged Theseus, misled into believing that the
reason for Phaedra's suicide was rape by he.r stepson, the osten-
tatiously pure and holy Hippolytus, excoriates him thus (952-
5): 'Go on, posture, advertise your meatless diet, play the
hacchos with Orpheus as your master, honouring your vaporous
screeds: you are found out'. None of this particularly fits the
form that Hippolytus• religiosity takes in the rest of the play,
but it must represent a re<;ognizable type of religiosity that a
young man of bis temperament might follow: bauluia (implying,
probably, initiation and group ecstasy), associated with vege-
tarianism and Orphic scriptures. Perhaps it was vegetarianism,
or this among other things, that Herodotus diagnosed as
Pythagorean in the Orphic-Bacchic cult he mentions.•2
o Prohibition of meat-eating by Orpheus is probably rd'erred to by Ar. Rait.
, 032, •o~~ ,-dp -rw-r&s 11· ..,,.,.. 1<crr'34ct• ~ .,.• &.-.x-..Bci., cr. Elllp.
ln another place (4. 79) Herodotus tells us of a cult of
Dionysus Bacchews, Dionysus of the bauhoi, at Borysthcncs
(Qlbia), one of the most northerly of all Greek colonies, estab-
lishcd at about the bcginning of the sixth century beside the
cstuary of the river Bug. Tbe Scythian king Scyles, who was
attracted to the Greck way of life and maintained a large and
ornate house in Olbia, had himself initiated in the cult and
romped through the town with the Bacchic society, possessed
hy thc god. The Scythians did not think this at all suitable, and
he was deposed.
Soviet excavations at Olbia have produced a fair amount of
cvidence for the worship of Dionysus, going back into the sixth
ccntury and extending into Hellenistic times. Curiosity is par-
t.icularly aroused by quantities of roughly rectangular bone
plates, polished on one or both sides, about five to seven cm.
in length, some found in the sanctuary arca north of the Agora,
others in residential arcas. The majority are blank, but a few
carry inscriptions or drawings. A group of three discovered in
1951 (but not published till 1978), and dated to the fifth
century, are of special importance. They bcar the following
legends:
(1) Life: dcath: life.-Truth.-A-~-Dio{nysus), Orphic().
(~) Peace: war. Truth: falsehood.-Dio(nysus) N-A.
(3) Dio(nysus} ~-Truth.-(illegible word) ... soul.-A.
The second platc has on the reverse a curious oblong design
divided into scvcn compartments, cach of which contains a
small oval; it may possibly represent a musical instrument, or
a tray or table of offerings. Tbere are also several zigzag marks,
one group of which could be interpreted as the lettcrs IAX,
i.e. lacchus. The third tablet also has a design on the reverse,
perhaps representing a stool covered by a fleece, as uscd in
some initiation ceremonies.•J
The Bacchic rites were not celebrated by all the citizenry
but by those wbo chose to become initiates. I conjecture that
B 128.8, 136; Pl . .C.,. 78~c. So G. Zunt~, Gnomon 50 (1978), 5~; differently (of
prohíbition of bomicide) Graf, 34 f., ã. Linfmth, 6g f.
41 A. S. Rusyaeva, Bccnuut Aj)CBHCA HCTOpHH 1978(1), 87-104 (Ga•11:um
précis by F. Tinnefcld ut Z,PE 38 (1g8o), 67-71); West, q'E 45 (19&), •7-29;
SEG 28.65g--61. 0n Olbia ~ally sce E. Bclin de Baliu, OlbÍII (1972);
A. WflOWÍÇ2, OJl;ia P ~ d - úmlwl (1975); J. V111ogt-.dov, 011;;., (1g81),
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
the little bone tablets scattered about the town were member-
ship tokens, bone slices symbolizing participation in common
sacrifices.44 Their embellishment with words and symbols seems
to have been left to the individual's discretion. One can specu-
late at length about the precise meaning and implications of the
graffiti. But it is clear enough that these people have some
doctrine about the soul and about life after death; that they
rejoice in 'truth', presumably a truth revealed to them as
initiates; and that Orpheus is somehow involved. It is not clear
whether the word 'Orphic' is being applied to Dionysus, to the
votaries, or to the rites, but it comes to the sarne thing.
Tht point of convergente

It is not safe to assume that Orpheus' role in the Olbian cult
is as old as the ·cult itself. We shall see later how he intruded
into existing cults in many places. What we can infer is that
by the middle of the fifth century he was established in 'Bacchic'
cults over a wide area. Certain of these cults had features in
common with Pythagoreanism, such as abstention from meat.
These features and the use of Orpheus need not have been
taken over from Pythagoras himself. We have no reason to
suppose that he had a monopoly of them. More probably the
Bacchic and the Pythagorean Orphica represent parallel
developments from a common field of origin in fonia about the
time of Polycrates.
The third line of evidence that takes us back before the mid
fifth century is the Derveni Theogony. This requires a chapter
to itself, but I may anticipate the conclusions of that chapter
by saying that the poem, or at any rate its prototype, seems to
have been composed about 500 BC, and that there is reason
to suspect that it was on the one hand Dionysiac- Bacchic in
orientation, and on the other hand incorporated a doctrine
of metempsychosis through animal bodies very like the Pytha-
gorean doctrine. If these suspicions are correct, lhe convergence
of our three trails is perfect.
That Pythagoras believed in metempsychosis is one of the
most firmly attested facts about him, being presupposed by an
" The rite of omophagy is attested for the cult of Dionysus Bdtdieios at Olbia'•
mother-city Milctus in the early third century ec: F. Sokolowski, Lois sacrlu d,
l'Asu Mwuu (1955), 48.
recto verso
~
l -3~w P--,.~1t" I'; N
A)"- 't4 !:l E\
~ ~
\ r blank
6. l~ '? (,t)\ rc::- Íll1

l recto verso
EI P 1-1 NI-I íl\)/\~Mv

~~ \i0 EIA +ry~o(
(oMijo\oil)
1
A\ Qrv--
A
:1 recto verso
Fio, 1. Bone plates from Olbia. Fifth century ec. See also PI. 1.
auccdote whicb Xenophancs relates (fr. 7a). Seeing someonc

1wating a puppy, Pythagoras says 'Stop! That's tbe soul of a
li'icnd of mine; I recognize thc voice'. But he was not the first
lo promulgate the theory in Grcck lands. That title belongs to
i ►hcrccydes of Syros.•s Wc havc secn that a conceptual link
" EGPO g5 f., and on the oriental backg=md ibid., 61-8.
can also be found between Pherecydes and the Pythagorean-
·\Orphic Robe. The area within whlch the origins of Orphic
verse are to be sought, then, might be defined as a shadowy
triangle with thc Derveni Theogony and Pythagoras forming
the base and Pherccydes at the apex.
Thcre is actually a tradition that Pherecydes was the man
who 'brought together' the poems of Orpheus. 46 But 'brought
together' betrays thls as a late Hellemstic invention, as will
be explaincd la ter (p. 249,) . At best it implies a recognition
that Orphic poetry carne into circulation just in time for
Pythagoras to use it. Phcrecydes was allcgcd to have been
Pythagoras' teachcr. Somc,onc aware of Pythagoras' involvc-
ment with Orphic poetry and wishing to locate its first 'pub-
lication' in the Pythagorean line of tradition, but before
Pythagoras, could hardly have avoided picking on Pherecydes.
But it secms unlikely that Pherecydes was rcally responsiblc
for putting out Orphic poems-that means, as we see the
matter, composing tbem-since he was content to expound
his theology and cschatology in prose under bis own name.
Orpheus at Athtns
Wc have made inferences from Aeschylus about the existence
of certain Orphic tcxts. ~owever, the earliest direct allusion in
surviving Attic litcr~ture to writings originating from Oq~heus
is to spells or incantations.4 1 A Thracian '. shaman' was a suitablc
author for such things; they are also attributed to such persons
as Abaris and Zalmoxis.48 Under the stresses of the Pelopon-
nesian War and thc Plague people tum incrcasingly to super-
stition, and there is a new market for diviners and purveyors
of charms, exotic cults, and religious revelations. 49 Oracles of
•• Sud4, ~.,,.,,,;3-.is )1"7..,õos • p•o/J'"<pos TOi1 E•p/ou, &, ~ • .-cà • OP+'" 'f
ouvayay•••· Toe rclativc &v probably refen to the aubjcct of tbe cntry, Pherecydcs
of Athcru. But it was really Pherccydcs of Syros wbo was the oldcr of the two, and
be is the one more likcly to havc becn brought into conncction with Orphica
(F. G. Sturz, P/vru,dis Fr11~ itod ed. (t81t4), 6 1). Tbere are oth« aigm of
confimon betwcen tbe two Pherccydcs in the Suda entrics.
~_!_E..41&..~f.Jàd, .!!~, and Linf~~"1l, .1!9..!f.:. .
•• Pl. C/illnn. 156d, 158b. Spells and charms are more attractive if they come
from a rcmote, halC-legendary co-untry. Acsdiylus auociatcs drugs with the
Tyrrhenians (fr. dcg. 2) ; ai an earlier pcriod it was l!gypt (Od. 4-227-32) .
•• Cf. Dodds, Tltl Crnks ond t/v /,rotional, 1118-!)5.
Musaeus and Bakis, last heard of at the time of the Persian

Wars, circulate again.
We bave seen that Orpheus is also known to Euripides and
othcrs as the poet of religious vegetarianism, baccheia, sacra-
mcn ts; a poet notjust of briefrecipes but of 'vaporous s~reeds',
literally 'smokes of many writings'. Plato in the Republic speaks
of purveyors of purifications and sacraments that bring deliver-
ance from unrighteousness, whether one's own or one's an-
ccstors', by favour of 'gods of release', and rewards in this
world and the next; and he says that these people produce 'a
hubbub of books by Orpheus and Musaeus', in accordance
with which they perform their rites. Some of the sacraments are
conducted privately for individuais, but they have also been
adopted by some of the greatest cities.50 The private operators
carne to be known as 'Orpheotelestai': the superstitious man,
according to Theophrastus, visited them monthly with his wife
and children to take the sacrament.s 1
ln otlier dialogues Plato mentions a doctrine that the soul
is imprisoned in the body as a punishment for some grave sin.
Hc calls this in one place an Orphic theory and in another 'a
tale told at secret rites'; Aristotle similarly ascribes it to 'the
ancients' and to 'those who speak the sacraments'.51 The
nature of the sin and of the circumstances in which the soul
hccame responsible for it is left entirely vague. Plato's pupil
Xcnocrates, however, is cited for the information that the
imprisonment was 'Titanic', in other words, analogous to the
imprisonment ofthe Titans.s 3 Xenocrates believed in a category
of daimones intermediate between gods and men, and he
identified the mythical Títans as being of this class. He appar-
cntly considered human souls to come from and return to their
so R,p. 36~µ, cf. 364bc and 366ab. See the careful analysis in Linforth, 75 ff.
<lrpheus as poet ofsacramcnts aho Prol. 316d.
sr C/iar. 16.1~. The anecdotc about an Orphootelestes called Philip approaching
1hc Spartan king Leotychidas early in the 5th century (Plut. Apoplúh. Laç. 224c)
nmnot bc taken as historical. The same story was told about Antisthenes (D.L.
h.4). ln the best 51h-ecntury evidence for this type of quack ('Hp.' Morb. StJ&r.
~ ·4} thcre is no mention of Orpheus.
" PJ. Crot 400c, Phoed. 62b, cf. Lg. 854b, Ax. 365e; Arist. fr. 6o. Aristotle d.id
not spcak of 'Orpheus' bccausc he did not bclieve him to have existcd (fr. 7} •
.,. Fr. 20 Heinze. 1 sce no rcason to regard the phrase that follows T,.,.a..inj
.',rrt in 'Olympiodorus•, .-ai ~lf il,óvvoov d.1to1<op~oíiTG(., as part of the citation from
Xenocrates.
number. 54 The myth of the imprisonment of the T ita.ns in
Tartarus would thus be for him an allegory ofthe imprisonment
of bad daimones in mortal bodies which actually takes place.
So far as the Titans are concerned this may have been Xcn<r
crates' own development of the Orphic doctrine to which Plato
had alluded. But the idea that the soul confined in us originated
as a daimon, and committed its offence in that form, had been
about for more than a century. It is dearly stated by Empe-
dodes (B 115), though hc describes incarnation in terms of
exile .rather than imprisonment, and it is not dear whether
he means that all human beings have this origin or only certain
superior ones such as himself. The punishment, in bis theory,
consists not j ust of a single incarnation but of an immense
series lasting for te.os of thousands of years.
Empedodes brings us d ose to the Pythagorean orbit, and we
recall two of the early Pythagorean maxims:
Having come for p unishment one must be punished.
One must not pull apart the god within onese(f.u
We must not jump to the conclusion that Plato's 'Orphic'

imprisonment-theory is Pythagorean; all we can say is that
some Pythagorcans seem to have had a version of it. Plato and
Aristotle are evidently speaking of Orpheotelestai, and they
nowhere suggest any connection between such people and
the followers of Pythagoras. But it does appear likely that the
doctrine they mention is to be understood as a form of the
'fallen daimon' theory. lndeed it is hard to see an alternative.
lf the mortal state is the punishment, the soul must have com-
mitted the crime as an immortal being.
The theory may also be discerned in two of 'lhe gold leaves
from Thurii, which date from Plato's time.s 6 ln them thc soul
of the deceased supplicates Pcrsephone and the other infernal
divinities for entry to the company of the holy. I t claims that
'I too am of your blessed ràcc'-of divine origin, or something
dose to it-and that ' I have paid the pcnalty for deeds not
rightcous.' Again the penalty seems to be thc mortal lifc (or
series of tives) recently concluded, and thc unrightcous dceds
•• Fr. 19; R. H einze, Xenouotu (1892), 83, 9+--6, 155 f.
u h.mbl. YP 85, ll4'J, J♦ A2, 3; Zun12:, s02 ff'.
must lie-.ful'th@F-back. ln the third gold leaf found in the sarne
lumulus (A1) the soul says:
For I too claim to be of your biesse<! race;
but Fate overcame me, and the hurler of the lightning bolt.
But I have flown out from the circle of heavy gricf
and stepped swift.footed upon the circle of joy,
after which it receives the assurance
Blessed and fortunate one! Thou shalt be god instead of mortal.
ln this text it seems to be Zeus' thunderbolt which dispatched
the erring one into the mortal world of woe (just as it dis--
patched the Titans to their prison).57
ln the passage in the Republic where he spoke of the 'hubbub
of books by Orpheus and Musaeus' Plato mentioned that the
sacraments associated with them had been adopted by some
of the greatest cities. We cannot identify these cities; but we
may wonder whether the Eleusinian Mysteries were among the
things he had in mind. We know that Eleusis had its official
poetry. The duties of the Eumolpidae, the hierophants who
presided at the showing of the Mysteries, included singing or
reciting in solemn and melodious tones, as indeed their family
name implies; Plato later alludes to the recitation of curious
myths about the gods. 58 However, it seems to be the books of
Musaeus rather than those of Orpheus that he associates with
Eleusis, for shortly before the passage under consideration he
refers to a doctrine that the pure enjoy perpetuai feasting after
death, while the rest lie buried in mud or carry water in a
sieve, and he ascribes this doctrine to Musaeus and his son.s9
The only known son of Musaeus is Eumolpus, the eponym of
the Eumolpidae,6° and he is of significance only at Eleusis.
" Compare the thunder whích accompanies the souls' dispatch to new tives
in PI. &p. 621 b. 'Fate overcame me' probably alludes to the mooemeanour and
plays it down, as in Agamemnon's apology ín 11. 19.86 f., 'l am not to biame, but
Zeus and Fatc and the invisibly roaming Erinys' (note the coupling of Fate with
Zeus there too}. Accoi:ding to anothcr interpretation (Zuntz, 316) the lightning
is what endcd the mortal life of the owner of the gold leaf, indeed of ali three
owners, for it is also mentioned in the other two leaves. There are ali kinds of
problems about these leaves, and thc 13 others now known from various sites,
whích I must ignore. See esp. Zuntz, Perstj>/rmu, 277- 393 and Wíe,i. St. n.f. 10
(1976), 129-51; Burkert in Orfor,w, 81-104-
ss J. Toepffer, .4.ttis,he Ce111!alogie (188g), 48; PI. Rtj>. 378a.
10 Rtp. 363cd, cf. Pha,d. 6gc.
60 Graf, 18 f.; perhaJJ$ alrcady in Buripides' Er«hthells, fr. 65,100 f. Austin.

A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
This is therefore Eleusinian eschatology; Eleusinian escbato-
logical poetry, then, is attributed at this period (the 370s ?) to
Musaeus and Eumolpus, not Orpheus.
But it was not long before Orpheus stepped into this role.
H e appears as thc foundcr of Attic mysteries in a fourth-century
tragedy, the Rhesus, and the author of the first speech against
Aristogciton (324 BC, if not post eventum) refers to 'Orpheus who
revealed to us our most holy sacraments', which can hardly be
any but those of Eleusis.6 1 On the Parian Marble, which dates
from 264/3 Bc; there is mention of a poem on the rape of Kore
and Dcmeter's search for her- the sacred story of Eleusis-
supposedly published in the reign of Erechtheus, in 1398/7 Bc:
the poet's name is not prcserved, but 'Orpheus' is a probable
restoration.61 It is possible that the poem was none other than
the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, for in a papyrus of the first
century BC (P. Berol. 13044; fr. 49 Kem) the story is told in
prose with verse quotations from 'Orpheus', and the verses,
which are evidcntly quoted from memory, all occur in the
Homeric Hymn. The writer secms to have known this poem
under Orpheus' name.63 However, it was not the only 'Orphic'
poem on the subject, as !ater quotations show.6•
More Baechic mysteries

Orpheus' association with Dionysiac rites continucd. Olympias,
the lady who in 356 gave birth to Alexandcr the Great, is said
to have been an cnthusiastic participant in Maccdonian Bac-
chanalia which Plutarch at any rate calls Orphic (Ala. 2). ln
the second half of the fourth century South ltalian and Sicilian
funerary art shows predominantly Dionysiac thcmes, with a
wealth of symbolism suggesting the currency of Bacchic
mysteries which promised the continuation ofjoyful ease in the
next world. At one particular centre, Tarentum, Orpheus is
•• R!v,. 943,966, &ee Linfonh, 61-4, Craf, 28-30; [Dcm.] 25.11, see Moulinier,
19, 1o6, Craf, 3«>--3.
62 F. Jacoby, D,u M011111Jr Porium ( 1904), 68-72; FGrHist 239 A 14.
' ' The prooe narrative diverges from thal of lhe Homeric Hymn, but this does
not prove lhat the vencs carne from a pocm which div~ aimilatly. 0f. A.
Krilger, Htrmes 73 ( 1938), 352-5.
•• Frr. 43 1 44, 4,6, 48, 5«>--3, 292 (Craf, 161); cí. Argon. :16, n91 ff. (Kern, p. 115).
For Orpheus' conncct.ion with Eleusi:s l0C aào t 102-3, 166, 16g Kem ; Craf,
JHunm.
a recurrent figure, oftcnjust as a cclcbrity in Hades, but some-
limes in contcxts implying that his songs are of assistance to
the deceased. Especially important (Pls. 2-4) are:
(i) an amphora by the Ganymede Painter (Basel S 40,
about 325 BC), where an elderly man is shown sitting ·on a
lolding stool in a temple-like structure representing his tomb,
holding a book-roll, while Orpheus in a dancer's pose plays the
cithara in front of him;
(ü) a calyx crater in the British Museum (F 270) on which
Orpheus, standing by a tall tree, restrains Cerberus and offers
his lyre to a young man who is being conducted towards a
herm (apparently marking the boundary of Hades);
(iii) a nearly life-size terracotta group of Orpheus and two
baffled-looking Sirens, presumed to have been found in an
underground chamber tomb and acquired in 1976 by the
J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu.~s
A definite connection between Di~nysus and Orpheus here is
hard to establish, but vases with Dionysiac decoration were
found in the sarne grave group as the Basel amphora. Three
forther vases have Bacchic scenes on one side and Orpheus
among Thracians on the other.66
The scene on the Basel amphora suggests that the initiate
may take an Orphic text to the grave wíth him, or at least study
one as a preparation for death. An actual example of a papyrus
book buried with a corpse at this period has been found at
Callatis on the Black Sea, though the text has apparently
proved beyond recovery.61 But we think inevitably ofthose gold
leaves which appear in tombs in Italy, Thessaly, and Crete
from about 400 BC on, and which contain instructions in verse
on the procedure to be followed in the underworld in order to
achieve heroic or divine status. We have seen that two ofthem
6s For the vases see Margot Schmidt in Orfismo, 105-38, Pls. 7, 8, 14-; M.
Schmidt, A. D. Trendall, A. Cambitoglou, Eitu Grr,pp, apuliswr Grabvasen in
BaJtl (1976), 7 f., 32 ff., PI. u.
66 Bari 873, Milan H. A. 270, Naples H 1978. On the Bari and Milan vases
the Orpheus scenes include elements of' purification ritual (Schmidt in OrfafTII),
109-u, Pls. 2-3).
67 C. Preda, Dacia 5 (1961), 295 fl'.; E. Condurachi in Orfismo, 184 f., 230. The
Derveni papyrus was not found in a tomb but by the pyre outside; it is Orphic,
but not cspecially auitable foc 0onsultation in Hadcs.
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
have something resembling thc imprísoned-soul doctrine which
Plato knows as Orphic. We havc no warrant for calling thc
gold Ieaves thcmselves Orphic, as has so oftcn been done. But
certainly their owners werc thc sort of peoplc who would havc
been attracted to Orphic rcvelations and mystcry cults.
Later cvidcnce for Orphic-Dionysiac ritcs is abundant.
Hecataeus of Abdera, about 300 BC, maintaincd that Orpheus
had introduced the mysteries of Dionysus and of Demeter to
Greece on the model of those of Osiris and lsis, having become
acquainted with them in Egypt.68 The epigrammatist Dama-
getus (late third century s e), writing an cpitaph for Orpheus,
mcntions no religious institutions by him cxcept niystic cites
of Bacchus.69 Also in the sccond half of the third century
Ptolemy III or IV issued an edict that all those who conducted
Dionysiac sacraments in Egypt must registcr in Alexandria,
state 'to the third generation' who they had received their
sacrecl properties from, and hand in a signed and sealecl copy
of their scripture (1,põs ,\óyos-). 70 It may bc guessed that thesc
scriptures were mainly ascribed to Orphcus. One of the
Dionysiac frescoes in the Villa dei Misteri at Pompeii shows a
scene in which a young boy stands and reads from a small
book-roll, supervised by a seated woman who holds another
roll in her hand; it has been b:alfwound througb.1 1 Again, therc
is a fair chance that an Orpbic text is what thc artist had in
mind.
From thc first century B'c literary references to Orphic-
Dionysiac rites become too numerous to sct out here. It is
sufficient to refer to Linforth',s convenient survey. 72
Orpheus in other cult.r

As time went on, more and more organizcrs of mystery cults
saw the attraction of scriptures. Demosthenes holds it to
•• Diod. 1.g6.4, cf. 23 (FCrHist ~64, F 2.5, with Jacoby's commentary, p. 8o);
Graf, 22-~ •• ~.5 Gow-Pagc.
•• BCU 1211 - Sanune/hudt 7~66; Nilsson, Gr. /ui. ii. 161 f. with litcraLure,
addingJ. L. Tondriau, bgplllS !16 ( 1946), l4-g5; Zuntt, HmMS 91 ( 1963), ~~8--s9
(esp. 239 n. 1 on the dating); P. M. Fraser, P ~ Al,xandria (1972), i. ~4,
ii. 345 f.
" This detail is wcll reproduced i.n O. L. Ragghianti, Pillori di Pompa (1g63),
PJ. 15. For other evidence from Roman art scc Nilsson, TIi# Diony,üu: My,lerÚs
oftN H,Umislie and RmrumAg, (1957), 116. 71 Linforth, 207-3~, ~6+
A HUBBUB OF BOOKS
Aeschines' discredit that he used to 'read out the books' for
his mother when she performed purifications upon initiates of
Sabazius. Epicurus was accused in similar terms of going round
to houses with his mother and 'reading out purifications' .n
The great inscription of 92 BC containing the regulations for
the M ysteries of the Megaloi 'fheoi at Andania in Messenia
refers to a box of sacred books that had been in the possession
of the hierophant-probably the sarne books that Pausanias
mentions as having been copied by members of the priestly
family from a tin scroll dug up in the time of Epaminondas.7•
Pausanias also tells us (8.15.2) that at the Greater Eleusinia
celebrated at Pheneos in Arcadia every other year a construc-
tion of two Iarge fitted stones was opened up, and texts bearing
on the rite were taken out, read in the hearing of the initiated,
and hidden away again the sarne night. When Apuleius' Lucius
is initiated in the mysteries oflsis (Met. 11.22) the priest reads
from hieroglyphic books which he produces from the inner
sanctum of the temple.
Such books will not all have been ascribed to Orpheus. But
we may assume that as a general rule they were ascribed to
somebody, for it was important to the participants in the rites
to know where they carne from and what their authority was.
ln many cases the answer will indeed have been 'Orpheus'.
From early in the Hellenistic period he is named as the
founder of the Phrygian cult of the Mountain Mother.75 Here
it is a matter of inventing dances and other ceremonial rather
than composing sacred texts. Nevertheless, the list of Orphic
poems in the Suda includes a Korybantíkon and Enthronements
for the· Mother, which must belong to those Corybantic rites
in which the novice was set on a throne and the initiates
danced round him. 76 lt also includes a Katazostikon and Hiero-
stolika (Girdling poem and Ritual Robíng), which probably be-
longed to the sarne or similar ri tuals of initiation.77 There is no
73 Dcm. 18.259, 19.199; D.L. 10+ ' 4 SIG 736.12; Paus. 4.26.8, 27,5,
,s A.R. 1.u34-g, Conon 26 F 1, and )ater sourcts in t 160 Kan.
16 PI. E11th:,d. 277d, Dio Prus. 12.33; Lobcck, 1t6, 368; W. Burkert, H<m10
Neca,u (1972), 294; C. Kerényi, Díonysos (1976), 263ft'. Thc Suda records that the
Entlironementr and another poem, thc Ba,;chiea, wett said to bc by onc Nicias of
Elea, The same redoubtable encyclopaedia also credits Pindar with Entltronnnents
and Ba«hica. .
n Lobcd:, 371 ff.; cf. F. Cumont, AJA 37 (1933), 25~; A. Henrichs, Du
telling how old these poems were; they may wcll be oflmperial
date. The sarne applies to others in the list whose titles suggest
ritual use: the Neoteuktika (verses for founding a shrine); the
Onomastikon;1s the Soteria.79 As for the Thyepolikon, I have argued
elsewherc that it is the poem to Musaeus preserved at the
beginning of the Hymns, .which clearly does date from the
Imperial period.80
Pausanias mentioos several local cults which claimed Orpheus
as their founder. Hc was said to have established the annual
rites ofHccate in Aegina (2.30.2), and the worship ofDemeter
Chthonia at Sparta (3.14.5). Also at Sparta hc or Abaris built
the shrine of Kore the Saviour (3.13.2). l n the mysteries at
Phlya in Attica the officiating priests, the Lycomidae, sang
short hymns by Orpheus (9.27.2, 30.12), as well as one (to
Demeter) by Musacus (1.22.7, 4.1.5) and othcrs by Pamphos
(9.27.2, cf. 7.21.9, ai.). These were cvidently the only Orphic
hymns known tt> Pausanias. He says the total number of verses
was not large, and in spite of bis respoct for their bolincss he
is obliged to compare them unfavourably with the hymns of
Homer. There is no reason to think that they are the sarne as
an early collection of Orphic hymns cited in the Derveni
papyrus (p. 81).
They ccrtainly cannot bc identified with the eighty-seven
hymns that havc come down to us in company with the hymns
of Homer, Callimachus, and Proclus, for these were composed
somewhere in wcstern Asia Minor. They forro a single collec-
tion, bound together by homogeneity of style and technique,
and probably composed by a single author. They were used
by members of a private cult society who mct at night in a
Plwinikika du LoUianos (1972), 114 f.; R.. Seaford, CQ. 31 (1g81), 259. ln&. 238
we 6nd díuctions for ceremonial robing in C01tumc which has ao analogy with
thc sun, stan, and oa:an and which Macrobius says belongs in lhe ritcs of
Dionysus, (Rcad l•pf. a1t<vB in vcnc t ; comma beforc 8ni, in 2.)
,. Thc titlc could bc intcrpreted a, 'rcpcrtory of (dívinc) namcs'. B. Gísckc,
RA. Mr,s. 8 ( 1853), 92 and 119, suggestcd idcntifying it with thc cxtant H:,mns.
They a.rc indeed Jargcly lisis of lhe goda' titles (a typical 11-ylistic f.:arurc of late
hymm), but thcy werc clcarly meant 10 bc used u i.nvoca1ions, not as works of
rcfercnce.
79 Cf. a<i)C• or acllao• 'grant salvation' in prayt:ra whcre no 1pecific danger is
prescnt: Ar. &a. 388, P . Gurõb 1 ( • fr. 31 K.) i S, Hy,u !2.3, 2.14-, 9.r2, 34.27,
etc. Thc author of the SwrN is given as T'unodes of Syncuse or Pcninus of
Milctus. 1o CQ. 18 (1g68), 288 f.
A H U BB UB OF BOOKS ,:,9
house and prayed to all the gods they could think of, to the
light of torches and the fragrances of eight varieties of incense.
Occasionally their ceremonial activity went as far as a libation
of milk. We get a picture of cheerful and inexpensive dabbling
in religion by a literary-minded burgher and bis friends, per-
haps in the second or third century of our era. Dionysus is thc
most prominent dcity, bcing the recipient, under diffcrent
titles, of eight hymns. The fiction that Orpheus is the author
is supported by a couplc of allusions to ApoUo and Calliope as
his parents. References to names and incidcnts in thc Rhapsodic
Theogony indicate awareness of more widcly current Orphic
literature and recognition ofits authority.ª1
Neof,ythagorean Orphica
ln one of the many P ythagorean pseudepigrapha of the Hel-
lenistic period, the prose Hieros Logos, ' Pythagoras' claims to '
have derived from Orpheus his knowledge that number is the
essence of the universe. He leamt of Orpheus' teaching when 1
he was initiated in the Thracian mysteries.82 We see that the
Pythagorean tradition of using Orpheus' name is still alive,
and that the Pythagorean Orpheus has been assimilated to
Orpheus the hierophant. The writer does not necessarily prc-
suppose the existencc of an Orphic pocm on the subject of
number. But the Ncoplatonists quote from one, a Hymn to
Number (frr. 309, 311- 12, 314-17), and it was as plain to them
as it is to us that it was of Pythagorcan origin. It was q uite
possibly of Hellenistic date.
Orpheus is also mentioned in another of the Pythagorean
writings of the period,8J where it is claimcd that he used thc
Doric dialect. The assertion is perhaps madc on the theoretical
ground that Doric is the oldest dialect ; but it is possíble that
thcrc existed a Ncopythagorean poem in Doric (likc the oath,
p. 170 Thesleff), attributed to Orpheus.
Another poem, the Lyre, sounds at oncc from its titlc as
though it came from the sarne mould as the Robe, the N et, and
11 On tbc Hymns see furtber Wilamowitz, GlmdJt, ii. 505-9; Guthric, 257-61;
Linforth, 179-89; R . Kcydell, RE xviii. 1321-33.
•• Fr. 1 Thesleff, T,xtr, p. 16.J. ln bis fntrod,ieti,m to 1/u Pyt}ul.torttm Wrinng, ef
tltt Htllatistie Period ( 1961), to+f., Thesleff suggcsi. <bting the work to thc
u t ccntury ao. " 'Mclrodorus', p. 122.13 Tbcsldf = t 247 Kern.
theKrain'. Itis known only from a scholiumon Virgil discovered
in a Paris manuscript in 1925.lk The tcxt runs:
Dlcunt tamen quldam liram OrpheJ cum vii cordís fuisse, et célum habet
vii z:ónás, unde teologia assignátur. Varro autcm dlcit librum Orfei de
uocandá aninú Liram nóminári. ct ncganlur animac sine cithará posse
a.scendcre.
But some say tbat Orpheus' lyre had seven strings corresponding to the
scvcn circlcs of heavcn, Varro 1ays thcrc was an Orphic boolc about
summoning the souJ, called thc Lyre. l t is said that souls necd the cithara
in order to asccnd.
Virgil had referred to Orpheus' attempt to recover Eurydice.
Earlier the scholiast has intcrpreted the myth as an attempt to
bring upa dead person's soul by means of a lyre. So the context
implies that the libtr <k uocandá animá has to do with conjuring
souls by this method.85 But the title, and the analogy drawn
in the scholium and elsewhcre86 between Orpheus' lyrc and
the seven circles ofheaven, although this is not actually ascribed
to the Orpbic poem, suggest tbat the poem may have contained
an account of the musical scale formed by the planetary
spheres, equated with the strings ofOrpheus' lyre, and perhaps
an account of the soul's ascent to heaven through them.81
Such a scheme would be the product of Hellenistic spccula•
tion, of a variety particularly associated with ' Pythagoras'.
T qe idea of a cosmic lyre goes back to the iambic poet Scy•
thinus, who may be as early as the late fifth century.ss But
there the sun is the p lectrum, so that the strings of the Jyre
that Apollo tunes cannot correspond to the orbits of the
hcavenly bodies at different distances f:rom the carth. They
correspond rather to the diffcrent scasoos of the year, a con-
ception attested by several !ater authors.119 It was Eratosthenes
•• J.J. Savage, TAPA#, (1925), l!29ff, Not in Kern.
u A. D. Noclt, CR 41 (1927), 170. Noclt readi '6 (,)a>c,w/4.
16 Lobeck, 942 ff. See esp. [Luc.] astr. 10 (t 107 Kcm).
'' Cf. Noel<, l.c.
" Fr. 1 in my lambi ti Elegi. On bis dating cf. my StwJi,s in Gmk El,gy and
Iomb,u (1974), 177. ·
•• (4) Threeaeasom: Diod. 1.16 (Hennes' lyre), Orph. HJ"M 34.16-23 (Apollo's,
as in Scythinus). Winter - the lowes1 note, spring the middle, summcr the
highest. (b) Four seasons: Varro &t. 458, 'Otaldaeans' llf,. Plut, IR anim. proer.
1028f, Pythag. op. Arist. Quint, 3.19. Herc (as lhe last two sources agree) winter
= 12 , spring - 8,aurumn - 6,summer = 4;10winter:springmakes the interval
of a fifth, sprlng: summer an octave, apring : autumn a fourth. Thc simpler,
non•mathematical, th.ree-season system must be the older. The othcr involves
A HUBBUB OF BOO KS
in his poem Hermes who brought Plato's planetary scale into
connection with a divinc lyre. He described how Hermes
ascended to heaven and marvelled to find the planets hum-
ming along their orbits on the very notes of the lyre he had
invented on earth.9°
This elegant combination provoked imitation. , Sometime
between Eratosthenes and Varro a book in the name of
Pythagoras presented an account of thc cosmos witb measure-
ments based on the harmony theory. I t may havc used the
unit of 126,000 stades which was presupposed in another
' Pythagorean' work of the early second century (as well as
in the roughly contemporaneous astrological work of'Nechepso
and Petosiris'), and which is just half of Eratosthencs' measure-
ment for the circumference of the earth.9 1 A similar system was
cxpounded, again in connection with Hermes' lyre, by Alex-
ander ofEphesus, a minor poet of about 60 Bc. 91 Varro, whose
involvement with the Pythagoreanism in vogue at Rome in his
time is wcll known, 9J dcscribed the 'Pythagorean' scheme. It
was the sarne Varro who mentioned the OrphicLyre; and surely
it was a Pythagorean who transferred the cosmic instrument
from Hermes to Orpheus, at the sarne time introducing the
notion of using music to influence the natural order.9 "-
The use oflyre music to help the ascending soul is apparently
alluded to by Cicero in the Somnium Súpionis, where Africanus,
after explaining the music of the spheres, says: 'By imitating
this on their strings and in song, learned men have opened thc
way for themselves to rcturn to this place (heavcn), like others
of outstanding gifts who have devotcd earthly life to studying
the divine.'95 Simulation of the cosmic music on the cithara
tbc four clcmenu, which wcre not brou,ght into a harmonic rclationship bcfore
thc Tamans. Cf, abo PL Pml. li&, S.1ffll. 188a; Pythag. ap. (Diod. Eretr. and
Aristox. ap.) R ipp. R,f. 1.2.13; Cleanthcs:, SVF i . , r,u9; Varro Sal. 351; Cornu1.,
p. 67.17 L .; Orph. H:,m,, 8.9; Burkcrt, LS 355 í.
•• Frr. 1- 16 Powell, with SH 397-8.
•• Burkert, P/iilol. 105 ( 1g61), Qg-42.
•• SH 21 . Cí. Burkert, op. cit., 32 n. 1.
•• Cf. Nock, CR 43 ( 1929), 6o f.
•• The Pythagorcan writer Panace.u (p. 141 Thcsl~ said that it was thc func-
tion of music not only to rcconcilc 1he paro of lhe voice but to hring togcther and
attunc cverything in nature. Cf. lambi. VP 45. For thc R oman ·P ythagoreans'
calling up of the dcad cf. Cic. in l'alin. 14.
os De Rtp. 6.18. ct Arist, Qilint. 2.19, p. 92 W.-1.
A HUBBUB O F B OOK S
and by vocalization (we tbink of the intoníng of the seven
vowels in magic rituais attested by the papyrí ; cf. Orph. fr. 3o8)
enabled the soul to escape the bonds of common death and
retum to the divine sphere from which it carne.
ln older tradition, attested from the fifth century, Orpheus
beguiled the guardians of the underworld with his music and
won release for his wife. ln the Tarentine mysteries it secms that
his cithara is able to save every initiate from the horrors of
death (symbolized by Cerberus on thc British Museum crater)
and help him find paradisc. Now the Pythagorean poct of the
~re is able to combine this. with the Platonic- Eratosth enic
visioo of tbe cosmic lyre. Possibly he also linked it with Orpheus'
triumph over the Sirens in the Argonaut legend, for in Plato's
account of the music of the spheres the notes are given out by
Sirens who sit on the cdge of each revolving whorl.96 The
Malibu statuary group (p. 25) indicates that Orpheus' defcat
of the Sircns had been given an eschatological significance at
Tarentum. This necd not have anything to do with Platonic
astronomy, for $irens had loog been symbolic of death, espc-
cially in pairs in funerary art. On the other hand Plato's friend
Archytas, a promineot Pythagorean in Tarentum, would make
a good connecting link.97 Whether the Sircns appeared in the
Lyre must rcmain uncertain; but it seems likely that the Eury-
dice story was somehow incorporated, as the Virgil scholium
connects the poem with 'summoning' a soul (as ifback to earth),
and takes Orpheus to have used bis lyre for this purpose in thc
case of Eurydicc.
Besides astronomy, the interests of these later Pythagoreans
embraced such subjects as divination, botany, and medicine,
treated in a supentitious rather than a scientific spirit. The
poetic output of Orpheus keeps pace with them. Pythagorean
works on the propcrties of plants, current from before 16o
Bc,9 ª havc their paraUel in Orphica attested from the third
century BC on (frr. 319-31). Nigidius Figulus, the leading figure
among the Roman Pythagoreans, wrote on astronomy (Sphaera
gratetmÜa and Sphana barbari.ea), on divination from entrails, on
96 &p. 616lr7c. O n thc antecedents ofthis lovely idca scc CQ.17 (1967), 11- 14•
., I owc thu thougbt to Walter Burltc:rt, wbo uutted i1 in a lec1utt ai Cambridge
in March 19 79.
oa M . Wcllmann, ,tl,/a. Berl. Ak. 19,21(4), 17, 34ff.; Burkert, Phi.i,,J. 105 (1961),
239 f,; Th,sldf, Trxls, 109 f:, 174-,..
dreams, on the significance of thunder on particular days, on
wind, and on natural history. Among the Orpbic fragments wc
can find attcstation of a Spluura99 and other astrological
works, 100 and ofpoems on divination from birds, dreams, eggs,
entrails, and carthquakes. 101 Some of them may only date from
the late Empire, but it is natural to flnd the origin of the con-
vention of ascribing this sort of material to Orpheus in thc
practice of tbe late Hcllcnistic Pythagorcans.
Jewish Orphica
From the second century BC Hellenized Jews made efforts to
increase the importancc and respcctability of thcir Jewish cul-
tural tradition in Greck eyes. Aristobulus of Alexandria wrote
a commentary on the Pcntateuch in the coursc of which he
quoted various Greek authors to show that some of their ideas
about God were in agreement with those of Moses. Artapanus
(FGrHist 726 F 3.3 f.) identified Moscs with Musaeus and madc
him the teacher of Orpheus, inverting the usual relationship
of Orpheus and Musaeus in order to subordinate Orpheus to
Moses. Later, certainly by the latter part of the first century
BC, more unsc~pulous means were used to support the claim
that Greek theology, even at its best, was derived from the
Pentateuch, of which a translation much older than the Sep-
tuagint was alleged to havc been available. An anthology was
•• p. 314 Kern. According to lhe Homer seholia lhe poem was addrosed to
Linus. Lobed, 1uggested tbat ir was a technopacgnium , wriuen tO tbc shapc of a
sphere; the cxistence oí such a poem by somconc is attcsted by a scholiast on
H cpbaestion, p. 140. 18 C. But a SJ>iw:ra by Orpbcus must surely have been oí
the same nature as tbe Spliana oí Musaeus, mentioned by Diogenes Lacrti111
(1.3) in a contcxt which shOWt that it had some scientific preten1ions, and rhe
Sphura attributed to Democritus. On the contents of such worb see F. Boll,
Splu,e,a ( 1903), 349 ff.
Plato likcns the carth to a coloured bali in Ph.tud. 11obc; Eratoatheocs followa
him (fr. 16 Powcll), and thc play-ball ofEros in A.R. 3.1311 ff. might bc understood
as a symbol of lhe eanh. (&:e/\. B. Cook, z..,.,, ü. 1047, for tbe artistic motif of
tbc eanh as E=' ball) Hcnce one could conccive of a Pythagorean pocm entilled
thc Ball in thc sarne spirit as thc Rob, and the resl.
• 00 'E+r,,..,pl3, r, ~"'3.,,a•"IP(3rr (cf. Boll, RE v. 11154 f,; B. L. van der Waerden,
&Í4JIU Awak,nint, ii. (1974), 177), trtpl l111µ.{J&at<»•, ,rtpl l(C1Tapxw•, Xwp<Y)'pa~lG
(astrological gcography) ; t 11115, frr. 249, 251-ô, 2~79, 1186--8, partly prescrved
in prose panpbrasc.
'º' '!J.olin,,rà. i} 'Q,-,.o..,"ó., SI/da; Arp. 3S-'1, sec below; 1N'JX a,.aµõw, fr.
285, alternativcly ascribed to Hermes. Sec: also Kern, p. 297 for variow conjectures
about tbe Suda-titlc J.,,,,"o,r(e1.
compiled ofmonotheistic and otherwise theologically significant
utterances by Greek poets and dramatists, in which the genuine
passages were augmented by a number of forged ones. 10~ It
was probably this period that saw the composition of a short
poem in the name ofOrpheus called Testament (a characteristic
title for Jewish pseudepigrapba ofthe time), in which Orpheus
was represented as having finally seen the error of polytheism,
andas instructing Musaeus on the true nature ofGod. Abraham .
and Moses are alluded to (though not named), and there are
parallels with Isaiah and the Sibylline Oracles. Several different
recensions of it are quoted by Christian writers.' 03
The author naturally portrayed Orphcus in a fitting role:
as a hierophant revealing high-grade religious information to
Musaeus for the benefit of qualified initiates. He begins
J will speak for lhose cntil.led: close your doors, ye profane!
-echoing a mystery formula long established in Orphic
poetry.1°4 But this exclusiveness is hardly appropriate any more,
now that the message is not about the deity of a local cult but
about a God who has the whole earth as his footstool.
The first thing the initiate in a mystery cult had to do was,
of course, to swear that he would not divulge the secrets to
which he was about to be admitted. Both the adjuration and
the candidate's response m.ight for greater solemnity bc versified
and attributed to Orpheus. Theon of Smyma quotes from 'tbe
Orpbic Oaths' lines in which lhe initiand swears by elemental
powers: Fire and Water, Earth and Sky, Sun and Moon,
Phanes and Night (fr. 300). Phanes is a distinctively Orphic
figure, and his associations make it likely that this oath belongs
to Dionysiac mysteries. Though high-fiown, it is perfectly
Hellenic in principie, for frorn the earliest times oaths wcre
••• The clcarest cxamples are A. fr. 464 N., S. frr. 1126 and 1128 P. ( = Trag.
adesp. 617, 618, 6,w Kannícht-Sncll). 0n the whole aubjcct see N. Walter,
Da TltorOIIIUÚge,- kistoóuú,s (Tcxte u. Untersuchungcn 86, 1964); W. Speyer, Die
lilmui.«lw F4údulrtt im /widni.sdtffl 11. c/tristJid,,,n À1lntwi ( 1971), 155 lf.
m Frr. 245-7. See Ziegler , RE xviii. 1412 f.; Walicr, op. cit., 103- 15, 184-7,
::ioll-61 ; Speyer, op. cit., 161 f., 249; J. B. Friedman, O,pl,4us in 1./u Mid,Jle Agts
(1971), 13-37. Onc veraion appeara in an extract from Aristobulus in Eusebius,
but Walter bas madc it probable that Aristobulus had quo(C(j from some other,
'genuine' Orphic poem and that the Tuldmalt was aubttitutcd ata latcr period.
••• See pp. 82 f. On thc metapborical use of mystery tc:nninology in general see
A, D. Nock, Mnem.• 5 (19.52), 184 li'. ~ Essays "" R.digicn 4nd tJw ANimt World
(1972), ii. 7if, ff'.
swom by cosmic witn~es such as the sun, the earth, rivers.
Pseudo-Justin, however, quotes from Oatlzs of Orpheus an
adjuration where we have a divine Father who created heaven
and the whole world by his word (fr. 299). Here again we seem
to have a Jewish forgery on our hands. Pseudo-Justin is one
ofthe authors who quotes the Testament. 10 s
More~ns
The syncretistic and pantheistic tendencies of the Hellenistic
age inspired the composition of a number of hymns which
belonged in no cultic context but simply gave expression to new
religious illuminations. Some of them were ascribed to Orpheus
to give them a proper clignity. There was apparcntly a hymn
to Zeus, current before 100 ec, in which the god's various
bodily parts were identified wiith the parts of the visible world:
it was incorporated in the Rhapsodic Theogony, and will be
discussed in that context. Diodorus and others quote from a
hymn to the Sun-god in which he was identified with Zeus,
Phanes, Dionysus, and Hades, and (if this was the sarne poem)
said to have created gods from bis smiles and men from his
tears, a motif of Egyptian provenance. 106 Clement quotes a
line from a hymn to a god who is both son and father ofZeus, 107
and a longer passage from a hymn addressed to a supreme god
who is both mother and father, whom the Moirai and other
gods obey, and whose fiery throne is attended by messengers
(or angels) who supervise the deeds of men. K ern was wrong
to assign thc fragment to thc Testament, which is addressed to
Musaeus, not to God. Nor do l think it can properly be called
Jewish, though the influence of Judaism can be seen in it.
••• lf fr. 299 wcrc not Jewisb it would have to be Hermetic. Malaias in fact
attributes it to H ermes Trismegistus, but by bis time Orpbeus and Hermes werc
pretty well interchangcable. Fr. 285 {on earthquakes) is ascribed to both in
dilfttfflt MSS. Earlier, Otph.ic and Hennctic lilttarure were q uite independent.
Orph. fr. 345 is interpolatcd in !ítJTr /(o,:,,_ 36 (iv. 11.19 N .-F.}.
The oath by the creator god has a p.arallcl in lhe (prose} oath of lhe initiates
of Isis known from P.S.I. 1162 and IR90 (R. Merkelbach, Z:,PE 1 (1967), 72 f.).
On oatbs in mystcry cults generally 1,ee Henrichs, Du PboinÜ!.iJ:a d,s Lolli1111o.s,
37-44.
1 •• See pp. 206, 2 12 f.
'º' Fr. 338. Thc god is probably Kronos (Chronos), called Zeus' son because of
lhe story in thc Rhapsodic Thcogony ~hat Zeus swallowcd tbc oldcr gods IUld
bcought them íorth again. CC. H,- 8 .13 Xp/wow nttp, dl<Úoon Zt/1.
A HU-BBUIB OF BOOKS
I regard it as a syncretistic work, probably composed in Alex-

andria about the first century Ao.108
Direct invocation of parts of thc cosmos is on the whole a
phenomenon of the Imperial age. A number of the Hymns are
addressed to such divinities as Uranos, Aither, the Stars, the
Clouds, the Sea. ln the accompanying poem which I identify
with the Tf!ltpolikon Orpheus recklessly summons to the cere-
mony not only Earth, Sun, Moon, and Stars, but Winds,
Thunders, and the 'parts of thc four-pillared cosmos'. This
feeling of being on speaking terms with the universe, doubtless
a development of mature Stoicism, can be illustrated from
various texts from the time of Hadrian on.109 The list of
Orpheus' works in the Suda indudes the item Cosmic l111JO&ations,
and we may assume these to have been composed under the
Empire.
Some lattr poems

The list also includes a Book oJ Eig/zty Gems, with the note that
it was about the engraving of stones. lt must have been a work
of the genus Liúma. 110 But it í,s not the extant 'Orphic' Liúma,
which only deals with 29 stones and does not mention engrav-
ing. This is a livcly and fluent poem, probably composed in the
latter part of the fourth century, and of greater literary merit
than most Greek verse that survives from that period. However,
it does not really deserve a place in a discussion of Orphic
literature, sincc it says nothing about Orpheus and makes no
pretence of bcing by him. His name had become attached to it
by the time of Tzctzes, and must have seemed appropriate to
the subject-matter. 111 The sarne thing happened to another
••• Fr. 2.,S. Thc Unes about the scasons (11-13) may bc comparcd with the
Clarian oraclc ln Macr. Sal. 1. 18.20 (from Cornelius Labco), where lhe highcst
god Iao ( = Yahwcb) is said to be Hadcs in winter, Zeus in spring, Helios in
sununcr, and in autumn Jao (read [acchua, mcaning Dionysus7 Cf. Orph. fr,
239b). For 'angcls' in pagan tats cI. Orac. Chald. 137-8; Conorom de würu /tn•
...,..,,, (GDK ~ ) 1 70; Magmis in Cyrr,,,idu, pp. g6 C. Ka.imaldt (CQ 32 ( 1g8,I),
48o). ln lhe Om,u,, d, rlirihas hnbanan there are 1aid to bc 36o of thcm (cf. Heitsch
ad loc.). Orphcus is said to have rccognizcd 365 deitics (Thcopbilus and Lac-
tantius, pp. 255 r. Kem).
••• For examplc Mcaomcdcs (GDIC 2) 2, 4; Corp. Herm. 13.17; P. Mag.
3,1g8fl'. (GDK 59.5); also in Christian hymnody, as GDK 45.2, Synes. H. 1.7zff.
"º Scc T. Hopfncr, RE xiii. 7+7-6g. Such tcxll do somctimcs oontaln instrue,.
tions for ençaving magic words or dcsigos on lhe stoncs.
m 8cc on this pocm Keyddl, RE xviii. 1338-41.
extant poem, the astrological Katarchai of Maximus. Tzetzes
knew it under the name of Orpheus, and quotes it as 'Orpheus,
On Farming' or 'On Runaways', following section headings
which we find in the surviving manuscript of Maximus.
Lobeck, Kern and others mistakenly assumed the existence
of Orphic poems with these titles, which Maximus had
plagiarized.•iz
One of the magicai papyri in Leiden alludes to an acrostic
poem by Orpheus, perhaps a hymn.113 We cannot gather any-
thing about its contents, but we may guess that it was not much
older than the papyrus itself, which dates from the fourth
century. Still later, probably of the fifth or sixth century, was
the alchemical 'oracle' of Orpheus in iambic trimeters of
which a very corrupt fragment survives as fr. 333 K.
Something ofthe quantity and diversity ofOrphic poetry in
late antiquity can be gauged from a passage in the Argonautica.
This poem of about 1,400 lines occupies an exceptional position
in Orphic literature, being an autobiographical narrative in
which Orpheus-heavily influenced by a reading of Apollonius
Rhodius-tells the story of his participation in Jason's expedi-
tion. It can hardly be earlier and may well be later than the
fourth century AD. It was consciously designed as an addition
to an already bulky corpus, for in lines 8--46 ( = t 224 Kern)
Orpheus reminds Apollo of ali his previous poems. He speaks
of himself in general terms as a revealer of mysteries ( 1 o- 1 1).
His opus-list gives pride of place to the Rhapsodies ( 12-20,
with 28 which should be transposed to follow 16). This is
followed by:
The nursing of Zeus, the service of the mountain•running
Mother, the works on Mt. Cybcla of lhe maiden
Persephone concerning her father the son of Kronos,
the famous rending of Kasmilos and Herades,
25 Idaean rites, the mighty Corybants,
Demeter's wandering, the gr-eat grief for Pcrsephonc,
27 Thesmophoros, the gifts of thc Cabiri,
29 holy Lemnos, seagirt Samothrace,
"' Frr. 28o-4, cf. 342, 358. It is impossible to explain why Tzetzes should havc
happcncd to quotc only passaga whicb. Muimus had transcribed. Tbc truth
was alrcady sccn by Hcrmann (Orphwa, p-. viii), and latcr by Kroll, RExiv. 2575,
and Wilamowitz, Htrtlli!s 65 (1930), 250 = Kl. Schr. iv. 518.
113 Fr. 3o8 K.
30 atccp Cyprus and Adonian Aphroditc,
rites of Praxidica and t • • night of Athenat,
Egyptian laments, libatiOJI$ of Osi ris.
And you havc lcarned thc ways of divination
by bcasts and birds, and what the ordcr of cntrails,
35 and what is prcsagcd in their dream-roaming path.s
by aouls of mortais ovcrcomc in alcep;
answcn to signa and portents, the stan' courscs,
the purification ritc, grca.t blessing to men,
placarions of goda, and gifts pourcd out for thc dcad.
And I havc told you ali I saw and leamcd
whcn I to Tacnarwn walkcd the darlt road of Hadca
trusting rny cithara, for !ove of my wifc,
and the sacrcd tale I brou_ght forth in Egypt
whcn 1 wcnt to Memphis and the holy towns
45 of Apis, that the gTcat Nile garlands round.
Ali this you havc lcarncd truly from my brcaat.
What he means in detail is not always clear, but the general
picture resembles the one we have constructed for ourselves by
studying the fragments . If we could identify all the poems and
date the Argonautica, we should have an exact record of the
state of Orphic literature as seen by one person at a known
epoch; but the first can never be dane, and the second bas
not been done yet.
li. SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER
THAN ORPHEUS
W E have now made a general rcconnaissance of thc growth of

Orphic litcrature and the categories into which it falls, omitting
the theogonics, which are reservcd for fuller trcatment in the
following chapters. By way of a supplçment anda transition it
will be convenient at this stage to review the cvidence for
poetry composed under the names of certain other mythical
and semi-mythical figures such as Musaeus, Epimenides, and
Linus. These poets too were credited with thcogonies among
othcr things, and from one point of view the verse attributed
to them is inseparable from Orphic verse, the differences of
ascription being a trivialíty. 1t would be going too far, however,
to say that it was a rnatter of indifference whether a poem
was put under the name of Orphcus or one of thc others. Not
ali of these pocts had associations with cult. Some of them
had particular associations of their own. ln cases where no
such factor applied, one may suppose that a name other than
Orpheus' was used because his was not available; for example,
a theogony might have been ascribed to Musaeus because the
author kncw of one ascribed to Orpheus already in circulation,
or to Linus becausc thc namcs Orpheus and Musaeus had been
prc-cmpted. The choicc of a name other than Orphcus' may
indicate that thc work was felt to be incompatible with existing
Orphic literaturc.
Musaeus
Musaeus, to bc sure, was brought into dose conncction with
Orphcus, and thc two are often mcntioned in thc sarne breath.
But whereas wc can see in Orpheus a folk-talc figure with
origins in Thracian shamanism, Musaeus scems to have no
such roots. We class him as a mythical person, but there are
no myths about him. His life is a blank. He is notbing but a
source ofverses, Even his namc, ' belonging to thc Muse', is a
patcnt artificiality. His pareotage and land of birth vary
according to thc use being madc of him. He is regularly treated
40 S OME MYTHICAL P O&T S OTHER THAN ORPHEUS
as on e of the oldest poets, usually a little younger than Orpheus
but generations earlier than Hesiod and Homer; Democritus
actually made him the inventor of the hexameter.• Severa!
writers name the early poets in the sequence O rpheus, Musaeus,
Hesiod, Homer.i Gorgias a ud Damastes made Musaeus an
ancestor of Homer's, just as Pherecydes of Athens and Hel-
lanicus clid with Orpheus. H crodotus probably has Orpheus
and Musaeus in mind whcn he says hc thinks that the poets
said to havc written about t hc gods earlicr than Hesiod and
Homer werc really latcr.l
At first Musaeus seems to be exclusively a poet of oracles,
oracles known to Athenian chresmologists or 'oradc-gatherers'.
A chresmologist was a man who wcnt about looking for people
who would reward him for reciting to them oracles which he
knew and which had a beai.ing on their affairs. Aristophanes
makes fun of the type in his Peace (1043 ff.) and Birds (959 ff.).
Their oracles do not come from official centres like Dclphi
but from ancicnt prophets such as Musaeus, Bakis, or the
Sibyl, whose utterances thcy havc collected in books- where
from is not cxpla'ined. We first hear of the phenomenon in the
time of Pisistratus. Soro.e years !ater a chresmologist called
Onomacritus acquired a certain infiuence with Hipparchus.
He collected and arranged oracles ofMusaeus, but was banished
aftcr Lasus of Hcnnione caught hlm in the act of interpolating
a prophecy of his own into thern.• A generation later, when
Xerxes invaded, oracles circulated undcr the n ames of Musaeus
and Bakis.s lt was atjust such criticai times that oracles were
likely to circulate, and it is not surprising that Musaeus and
Bakis both reappear during the Peloponnesian War. 6 Sophocles,
Aristophanes, and Plato ali associate Musaeus with oracles,
and a collection of rus oracles, as well as of Bakis', was still
available in the time of Pausanias.7
• Democritus, DK68B 15, apparentlyíollowed by 'Alcidamas', Od. 25 (secp. 232).
2 Hippias, DK 86 B 6, As. R4tt. 1032 ff., PI. Apol. 41a, Chrysippus SVF ii,
316.12 (cf. 16), ·
• Corgias, DK 82 B 25, Damastes,, FGrHist 5 F 11a, Phcrecydes 3 F 167,
Hcllanicus 4 F 5, Hdt, 2.53. • Hdt. 7,6.3.
• Hdt. 8.g6, 9-43; Balds also in 8~o and 77.
' Bakis: Ar, Eq. 116 ff., Pax io70, Av. 962, Thc Sibyl and Musaeus: Paus.
io.9.11 - DK 2 B 22. Thuc. 2.8.2 an.d 5~6.3 rcfen to lhe currency of oracles,
but austerely refrains from naming their allcgcd au1hor1.
'Soph. ft. 1116, Ar, Ra. 1033, PJ. Prol. 316d; Paus. 10.12.11.
SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPHEUS 41
Besides oracles AristQphanes mentions cures as Musaeus' gift
to mankind. Such things must have found a good market par-
ticularly at the time of the plague, and they could fittingly
be attributed to a seer. It was perhaps in verses of this sort
that Theophrastus found the plant tripolium recommendeêt for
many purposes. 8 Another botanical fragment is cited in the
scholia to Apollonius Rhodius, from 'the third book of the
poetry attributed to Musaeus' (DK 2 B 2).
Eleusis adopted Musaeus before the end of the fifth century
BC, putting him at the head of the genealogy of the Eumolpidae,
as Eumolpus' father. 9 He thus became the author, or co-author
with Eumolpus, of such theological and eschatological poetry
as the Eumolpidae chose to sing. 10 ln the mid-fourth century,
as we have seen, Orpheus joined him in this role. This led to
the two being put in a personal relationship. On the Parian
Marble they still seem to be unrelated,11 but by the first century
BC, ifnot earlier, we find Orpheus represented as addressing his
poetry to Musaeus, and Musaeus counted as his son. 12
Musaeus in turn is said to have addressed his son Eumolpus
in a poem called Precepts (4,000 lines: Suda). Ifit existed, it was
perhaps a purely literary forgery with no particular Eleusinian
connection. The most important of the pseudepigrapha in
Musaeus' name, however, entitled Eumolpia, was presumably
recited by the Eumolpidae. The fragments quoted under this
title (B 11-12) are both narrative, and one of them concerns
the birth of Athena. It is reasonable to suppose a theogonic
a Hisl, pi. 9.19.11 = B 19.
• Cf. p, 23, n. 6o. The earliest definite evidence is a Pclilr.e by the Meidiaa
Painter, ARV• 1313, No. 7, Yihere Musaeus is shown in Thracian costume with
a wiíe Deiope and Eumolpus.
•• Eumolpus himsclf is crcdited in the S""4 with 3,000 lines of poctry relating
10 the mysteries; Diodorus 1.11.3 quotes a line from Bacclúta by him (not pre-
Hdlcnistic by the Jook of it).
11 FGrHist 239 A 14. Cf. p. 114.
12 P . Berol. 13044 (cf. p. 114), where Orpheus recites hymns in an inspirc<l state,
Musaeus writes them down and makcs minor improvcments; thc T<.1tamml (cf.
p. 34, where the influcncc of the mysteries js notcd); the Rlrapsodies (fr. 6t); Philod.
n, j,i,t., p. 13 G. (Henrichs, Cronad1, Ercolanesi 5 (1975), 12); Diod. 4.25.1 in
conncction with Heraclcs' ini1iation at Eleusis (perhaps from Mattis of Thcbes,
f"CrHist 39, cf. Graf, 12); and in severa! later pocms (fr. ::i71, 285; Kraúr (lhe
later one', I aasume) ap. Serv. on Virg. ,f_ 6.667; ~,pol. 1, Arg. 310, ai.). Thc
young man who writes down the words uttercd by Orpheus' scv<:red hcad on a
5th-century cup in Cambridge (ARV• 1401, No. 1) has sometimes becn assumed
to be Musaeus (see Graf, 11), but thcre is nothing to show it.
42 SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTKER THAN ORPHEOS
context, and to refer to the Eumolpia the various title-less frag-
ments concerning divioe and human gencalogy. Their substance
may be summarized as follows.
The 6rst divine principies were Tartarus, Night, and Aer. u
ln the time of the Titans there were already Muses to record
events. 1 • The function of the later Helios was discharged by
Hyperion. 15 When Zeus was born Rhea entrusted him to
Thcmis, who gave him to Amalthea. She nourished him in
a Crctan cave on the milk of a goat, who was a daughter of
Helios anda prodigy. Zeus grew up and vanquished the Titans,
using the goat's skio as an invinciblc shield which doubled bis
strength; hc was advised to do this by an oracle. This skin was
the aegis, and because of it he is lmown as thc aegis-.bearer. 16
The younger Muses were born from Zeus and Mncmosyne
(B 15). Zeus also had iotercourse with Aste.r ia bcfore she
marricd Perses, so that Hecate was really his child; 17 and he
gavc birth to Athena when his head was split by Palamaon.18
Apollo had a son Dios, who became thc father of Melite,
the cponym of thc Attic dcme (B 9). Oceanus and Ge gave
birth to Triptolcmus (B 10). Oceanus and Aithra gave birtb to
thc Pleiades and Hyades (stars in general ?). 19 Argos and the
Atlantid Kelaino ('Darkic') gave birth to four Aethiop kings.10
The emphasis on Attic and in particular Eleusinian mytho-
logy (Daedalus?, Melite; Hecate, Triptolemus) is unmistak-
u B 14, with lhe more complete tcxt of Philodcmus givcn by A. Hcnrichs in
GRBS 13 ( 1972), 77,
•• B 15. Probably childrcn of Uranos and Gi:, as in Mimncnnus 1 g and Alcman
5.2 i 28 and 67.
u Philodcmus in GRJJS 13 (1972), 72. Th.ia Jhows thc sarne kind of lhi11üng
•• the invention oí the elder Muscs.
16 B 8+sch. Arat. 156; cf. Triphlod. 567, The oracle may well be thc onc
mcntioocd in B , 1, uttercd by Chthonic and Pyrlcon at Dclphi.
" B 16, adapting the Hesiodic vcnion in which Hecate is the child oí Penn
anel Asteria (TA. 409).
11 B 12. Usually this service ia p,,rfor ~ by Hcphacstus, and Palamaon may
bc simply a name for Hcphacstus. Thc namc occun elkwherc only in Paus. 9 ,3.2,
a, the father ofDacdalus in Athens; perhaps thia too carne from Musacus.
n B 18. lt ia not ccrtain how much oí the contcxt is 10 bc anributcd to Musacus.
B 17, whcrc Musaeusiuaid to havehdd that metcon ("°"'l~s) comefrom Oceanus
and are cxtinguisbed in the aither, loolcs as if it is based on an allegorical inter•
prctation of the sarne picce oí Musaeus.
20 B 13. A further íragmcnt tclb or Cadmus bcing ahown the way úom tbe
Dclphic oracle to Thcbes by a cow, and ia furnished witb thc unconvincing

rcferc:nce •• ti y' MovCl'Cloor T,TG""'tf'~{f, or i• ,..;, a' Tijr Moox,alov T,Ta""'tpa,+lar.
SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN OltPHEUS 43
able, and if these fragments belong to one poem, it was an
Eleusis-oriented narrative, unoriginal in cosmological matters,
designed to provide a theogonic framework for the locally
important figures, but ranging as far as Africa in its genealogical
coverage. As for its date, it is evidently earlier than Eratosthenes,
who is the ulterior source of B 8. It may well have been the
source of the statements about gods which Chrysippus found
in Musaeus and subjected to allegorical interpretation in the
second book ofhis work On Gods.21 On the other hand Eudemus
does not seem to have mentioned a theogony by Musaeus in
his discussion of various Greek and barbarian cosmogonies (fr.
150 Wehrli). The poem may therefore have been composed
about the second half of the fourth century.22
There are two quotations from Musaeus in Aristotle, but
there is no reason to think that they come from the Eumolpia.
They look rather like the answers to riddles, one of them lifted
from the Hesiodic Melampodia. 2 ' Was there some sophistic fable
of a contest between Musaeus and Orpheus, like the contest
between Homer and Hesiod in Alcidamas' Museum?
Clement cites part of the second riddle-answer, the one
which also stood in 'Hesiod', as having been stolen from
Musaeus by Hesiod. He also quotes three other examples of
alleged plagiarism from Musaeus (B 4-6), but they are not
enlightening. Particularly puzzling is the assertion that the
cyclic poet Eugammon took from Musaeus 'bis whole book
about the Thesprotians', that is, the first part of the Tekgo~.
Apparently someone had found a copy of this text under
21 SVF ii. 316.111, 16.
22 It may be added that the use of the namc Palamaon for the god who aplit
Zeus' skuU, cVcn if it is only meant as a namc for Hcphacstus, may suit a 4th•
ccntury consciousness of allegorical significancc in thc myth. Athcna waa inter-
pretcd as 'mind, intelligence' (PI. Crat. 407b}; Theophrastus explained Zeus as
mind, Athcna as thought (Philodemus in GRBS 13 (19711), 94-6). Palamaon
would reprcscnt Artífice (w..,\clp,:u) that enables Mind to givc birth to Thought.
u (i) [Riddlc: Threc were the childrcn, but two wcrc stripped, and one was
savcd.J Answer: the eagle that 'lays three, shells two, and tcndsonc' (B 3). (ii) (What
is the plcasantcst thing for men?-It is pleasant ata fcast to cnjoy converse (Hes.
fr. ~73) ; it is pleasant also to discovcr a clear critcrion of ali thc good and bad
things that thc immortals have allotted to men (Hcs. fr. 1174 = Mus. B ?};) but
'thc pleasantest thing of all is singing' (B 3a, DK i. 484). For the form of the
question hcrc assumed see the literature cited by I. Lõlllcr, Dü Melampodú ( 1963),
40 n. 53, and E. Fracnlrel, Aesdlyl11S: Agam,mnon (1950), ii. 407; for that of thc
answcr compare esp. Asclepiades ,p;,,.. i G.-P,, ,)3ü ••. ,j3~ ~ • .. ,j3,o, li' &,,.&Tav
. . ., and Lucr. li. 1 ff.
44 SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPHEUS
Musaeus' name; but it is hard to see why it should cver have
been ascribed to him unless through some clerical error or the
disbonesty of a bookseller.24
Diogenes Lacrtius says that Musaeus composcd a theogony
and a Sphaera. There is some likelihood that he has got this
information from the work of Lobon of Argos On Poets. Lobon
is a shadowy figure of uncertain date, suspected of fabricating
many dctails of poets' bibliographies for his own sport.is He
is probably also the source of the notice about Musaeus' Pre-
cepts. But at least some of the works he listed are attested else-
where, and some others may have existed without leaving
other traces. ln the case of Musaeus wc can reasonably identify
the theogony with the Eumolpia, and there is nothing improbable
in a Sphaera, since therc was a Sphaera of O rpheus. One migbt
think of a late Hellcnistic date for it. This implies a later date
for Lobon tban bas sometimes been assumed; but the grounds
for putting him as carly as the tbird century BO are insub-
stantial, and when wc come to consider the poetry ascribed to
Linus wc sball find some reason to think that he cannot be
earlier than the second. He could well be later than that.
lt remains to mention again what Pausanias hcld to be
Musaeus' only genuine work, the hymn to Demeter which the
Lycomidae uscd, besidcs hymns of Orpheus and Pamphos, in
the rites at Phlya. 26 The presence of Orphcus and Musaeus
here is parai.lei to thcir prescnce at Eleusis, and could in
principie be as old, though on the whole it is more likely to bc
a neighbourly borrowing. Still, there is no reason to suppose
that thesc hymns were of very recent origin when Pausanias
cncountered thcm. Thc use of Musaeus as a pseudonym does
not scem to have continued, like the use of Orpheus, through
the Roman period.
14 R . Merkclbach, U!fJnn,ch,mgm t rtr Odyss11 (~nd cd., 1g6g), 153 n. 2, suggesls
that tbc pocm bcpn with thc uoderworld acene which wc find in Odyss,y 24-I
lind tba1 likdy-and that this suitcd Musaeur' ahamarustic.characttt, rcvealcd
by a fragmc:nt whc:re hc prol'cssc:d to havc from Boreas the ability to fly (Paus.
1.22.7 = A 5). But it ís not casy to sc:c why Musaeus should havc been imagined
u visiting H adcs whcn lhe suiton' IOuls iurived. T herc is no otlitt trace of a
dcsccnt by him.
•s Cf. E. Hiller, RJ,. Mus. 33 (1878), 518-29; W. Crõncrt, Xápmr F. úo :..,,.
6o. Gd11,u1a1 d4rg,bradú (1911), 123-45; O. Crusius, Philol. 80 (1925), 176-91;
J. D. P. Bolton, Arist,wu ofPr«-111t (rg62), 25 f.; Zuntz, 2:17 f.
u Abovc, p. 28.
Epimenides
By contrast with Orpheus and Musaeus, Epimenides ofCnossos
has the air of a historical figure. Aristotle and others place him
firmly in a historical context. The unsuccessful attempt of
Cylon to make himself ruler of Athens (632, 628 or 624 by
ancient reckoning) ended with some of bis supporters seeking
sanctuary on the Acropolis and being treacberously killed at
the instance of the Alcmeonid Megacles. But strife continued
between the two factions for many years, until in Solon's time
the Alcmeonids wcre pronounced accursed, their dead turned
out oftheir graves, and the living ones exiled. Epimenides then
carne from Crete and purified the city. 27 Other stories about
him are less immediately plausible, for instance that he was
the son of a Nymph; that he obtained special food from the
Nymphs, and kept it in an ox-hoof; that be once slept in a cave
for 57 years; that he lived to the age of 154, 157, or 299; that
after bis death bis skin was found to have writing on it, and
was preserved at Sparta. ·
Scholars sometimes choose to believe strange things, but they
generally agree to reject these fabulous details while accepting
the purification story as historical fact.28 There is, however,
some reason for suspecting that even this may be a myth. 29
One of the oldest priestly families in Athens was that of the
Bouzygai, the Ox-yokers, priests of Zeus whose ancestor
Bouzyges, also called Epimenides, was the first to yoke a pair
of oxen and plough Attic soil. He lived on the Acropolis, and
his plough was to be seen there as a dedication. Each year in
memory of him the Bouzygai performed the ritual ploughing
of a strip of land below the Acropolis. Anyone who killed a
ploughing-ox was subject to a curse attributed to Bouzyges,3°
However, there was a ritual killing of a ploughing-ox which
took place on the Acropolis itself in honour of Zeus Polieus:
the Bouphonia. One would have thought that the curse of
Bouzyges-Epimenides had some connection with this, though
none is made in our sources. The sacrifice was certainly con-
., ATist. Alh. Pol. 1 and other sources sct out in FGrHist 457 T 1-,i, 4-
21 SeeJacoby, FGrHisl HIB, commentary, pp. 310 f., 318 f.; Dodds, Tlu Grttks
and IM lmllional, 141 f.
•• Cf. Toepffer, Attiselu G,,walogie, 140-5; Wilamowitz, Eurititks Hippolytos
(18g1), 224 n. r, 243 f.
,. Sec Toepffer, 136-40; L. Deubner, Atlisdie F,su (1932), 47, 172.
ductcd as if it involvcd all thc guilt attaching to a murder. The
man who wieldcd the axe fled from the scene. According to
one account of the origin of the rite, the original ox-slayer
exiled himself to Crete, and was brought back on the under-
standing that a sacrifice would be instituted and the responsi-
bility sharcd with others.31 The ritual cndcd with a mock
ploughing by the victim, now stuffcd-harnessed, one would
guess, to thc old plough of Bouzygcs kept on tbe Acropolis.
Thus the constituent elements of Epimenides' one appearance
on the stage of history-murder at an altar on the Acropolis;
a curse; banishment; purification; a pricst; Crete; the name
Epimenides itself-all play a part in this ancient Athenian
ritual. It may be added that Cylon ·had been adviscd by an
oracle to make bis bid for power and seize the Acropolis 'at
the greatest festival of Zeus', and failcd because he understood
this to mean the Olympic festival (Thuc. 1.126.5).
It is difficult to disentanglc history and myth here. We need
not doubt the rcality of Cylon's attemptcd coup and thc banish-
ment of the Alcmeonidae. They were banished because they
had cnemics who werc powerful cnough to accomplish their
banishment; Mcgacles may well have givcn their enemies a
lever against them by his treatment of Cylon's supporters, and
their sinfulness may have been emphasized by a public puri-
fication ceremony. Subsequently the story rnay have become
confuscd, because of a few common features, with a version
of the cult legend relating to the Bouphonia. Or possibly the
'eminent Cretan boly man' wbo was produced to çarry out the
purification really was introduced to the public as Epimenides,
the name having come to mind through association with the
Acropolis ritual.
However tbis may be-and it is certainly not possible to
derive the whole of the Epimenides legend from BouzygesJL-
1, Porph. Dt a/111. 2.29; Tocplfcr, 154-8; Dcubner, 163 Ir.; Burkert, Homo
H1t111ts, 156 C.
n His cxceptional longcvity is said to ha-:e bccn apoken of as early as Xcno-
phancs {B 20). It may presuppose the long alccp, which is a folk•talc motif (cf.
Robdc, R1t. M••· 33 {1878), 209 n. 2 ; 35 (188o), 157-63; H. Demoulin, Épit,tlnitk
d,e,,,. (1901), 95 f., 99 n. 3; Stith ThomP'On, Motif-lndix of Follc Liúralur1 (2nd
cd., 1955-8), F564.3). But Thcopompus (115 F 69) sccms to preserve lhe truc
íolk-ialc vcnion that after slccping for many ycars he then aged in as many days,
which implica that hla life wu in lhe end no longer than normal. Other elcmcnts in
thc lqend show conncctions with Cretan Kourctic and Zeus cult; scc Burkcrt, LS 151.
the poetry known as Epimenides' in antiquity was without
doubt pseudepigraphic. Like Musaeus he has an association
with oracles. Plato knows of a prophecy by him concerning
the Persian invasion, and this leads him to put Epimenides'
visit to Athens only ten years before that event,3J It may be
significant that there had been another expulsion of Alc-
meonids, with a revival of the old accusation against them and
a re-purification, in 507.H Epimenides must have been remem-
bered at that time, and in the vogue for oracles in the following
years his name may have been used as a change from those of
Musaeus and Bakis. A couple ofother predictions are attributed
to him by later sources.Js
Oracks was apparently the title given to the most important
of the poems ascribed to Epimenides. But it did not contain
prophecies of future events; it was a theogony presented as an
oracular revelation. Hence Aristotle says that Epimenides 'did
not prophesy about the future, but about the hidden past'.J6
ln the proem Epimenides recalled bis long sleep in the cave
of Zeus, during which Truth and Justice appeared to him and
addressed him with the words
Crctans, ever liats, wrctched creatw'es, idle bellies.37
This is irnitated from the proem ofHesiod's Theogony, where the
Muses say to Hesiod
Shepherds abiding in the fields, disgraces, mere bellies,
and then speak of their power to reveal the truth, and give
Hesiod himself the ability to s1ng (just like a seer) of 'the future
and the past' (26-32).
A fragment in which Epimenides said
For I too am of the fair-tressed Moon by birth,
of hcr who with a mighty shiver shook out a wild lion
in Nemea
(F 3) will also have stood in the proem, assuming that it comes
from the Oracles. The assumption is reasonable, because 'I too'
31 Lg. 642d = T ~; H. Diels, Sit;:.•Btr, pr,uss. Ak. 1891, 395 = Kl. S,hr. .ocr
Gesdi. d. antikm Pmhsopl,u (1969), 44. >♦ Hdt. 5.70, Arist. Atlt. Pol. 20.
" Plut. Sol. 12.10, D.L. 1.114, 115; cf. Paus. 2.21.3.
>' RJ,,,t. 1418a24 = F 1. The idea was not unconventional. The seer Calchas
lmew 'the present the future, and the past' (li. 1.70). Cf. my note on Hes. TA. 32.
" F 2 (from Oracula, T 8a); T 4 f; the contcxt idenrified by E. Maass, Aralta
( 18g:1), 344 f.
means that Epimenides is linking himself with Musaeus, who
was said to be the Moon's son, and what Epimenides and
Musaeus have in common is oracles. The reference to the
Nemean Lion, however, suggests that Epimenides is not content
to be tbe son of the goddess Selene in the way in which, for
example, Aietes is the son of Helios. He is claiming to have
actually come from the moon, and he mentions the lion as a
precedent for such a journey across space.
Hesiod's proem in which he recalls bis encounter with the
Muses takes the form of a hymn to them, a hymn such as
normally introduced an epic recitation down to the fifth
centu.ry. Epimenides' proem may also have been a hymn, for
Diogenes Laertius (1.112, from Lobon) says 'He composed the
Birth of the Kouretes and Korybantes and a theogony, 5,000
lines; the Building of the Argo and Jason's voyage to Colchis,
6,500 lines'. The birth of a god often formed thc main subject
of a prefatory hymn, as we see from the Homeric collection.18
Epimenides' visit to the birth-cave ofZeus on Mount Ida would
fit well in a bymn to the Kouretes. 39
The theogonic narrative began from Aer and Night giving
birth to Tartarus. From him came two Titans,•0 who produced
an egg, and more gods came from it. Presumably Earth,
Heaven, and Oceanus appeared before long. The distasteful
Hesiodic story of the castration of Uranos was apparently
eliminated, since Aphrodite and the Erinyes, whom Hesiod
represents as by-products ofKronos' unfilial act, remain associ-
ated with him but become regular children ofhis. The Harpies,
identified with the Hesperides who tend the golden apples,
appeared as children of G[e and ]nos (Uranos? Okeanos?
Kronos?). Styx appeared as daughter of Oceanus, wife of one
Peiras, and mother of Echidna.4' The birth of Zeus was of
course described, with the Kouretes no doubt dancing attend-
,. H. 1, 3, +, 6, 16-19, 26, 28, 31, 33; â. He1. 7l. 53 lf.
•• 'Kouretes and Korybantes' may bc an inaccuracy of latçr paraphraJC, or
it may imply lhe synthesis ofthe Cretan with tbe Phrypan Ida. There ia confüslon
bccwcen Kourete, and Korybante, (or KyYbante1) from thcir finr appcarance,
in literature, but the lattcr are more commonly aaociated with Cybelc and
Pbrygia, and with rite, and mysteriea.
•• This word ia an cmendation. 0n its justification .ee G. S. Kirk and J. E.
Raven, Tlw Pm0t:1atic Pllilou,Jwrs (19~7), ++; also below, p. 201.
•• F 4-7. Peiras ia probably thc penoni6cation of the cnds of thc earth, ,,,tp«Ta.
,-.l11r,
SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPl:IEUS 49
ance. After he became king of the gods Typhon attempted to
depose him but failed and was destroyed.42
The work was known to Aristotle and Eudemus, so it cannot
have been composed any later than the mid-fourth century.
On the other hand a date much before 500 is excluded by the
doctrine of the Nemean Lion's lunar origin. For this implies
that the moon is another earth, which is a typically fifth-
century idea presupposing the discovery that it shines by
reflected light. Parmenides is the earliest dated authority for
this knowledge; Xenophanes and Heraclitus still assume an
incandescent nioon. It is true that both in archaic Greece and
elsewhere we find the idea that gods and the souls of the dead
inhabit or visit the moon, and the sun too, with no implication
that these bodies do not shine by their own ligbt:0 If it were
just Epimenides that carne from the moon, we could not make
any inference about the date of the poem. 44 But with the lion
we have clearly moved beyond theological and eschatological
fancy to a stage where the moon is conceived as a planetary
body with its own physical geography, flora, and fauna. This
is just how it is conceived in the mid and !ater fifth century.
Anaxagoras and Democritus wrote of the moon's mountains
and valleys, the former also of inhabited places on it. Philolaus
taught that lunar creatures grow to fifteen times the size of
earthly ones, presumably because the lunar day is fifteen times
as long as ours. The historian Herodorus of Heraclea sbared
this opinion, and at the sarne time maintained the extra-
terrestrial (though apparently not lunar) origin ofthe Nemean
Lion.45
o Philodemus in F 8. Diels's supplcments are over-imaginative, but enough is
presetVed to identify the story. It has bcen conjected that 'Epimenides' mentioned
the tornb of Zeus in Cretc, which was celcbrated at least from Euhemerus on (scc
A. B, Cook, {,ur, ii, ~ . ili. 1173): Wilamowitz, Eur. Hipp. 2:24 n, J; Ma,us,
Aratta, 346, ln this c.ue Callimachus turm thc poct's 'Cretans, ever liars' against
hhmelf (H. 1.8), 0 Sec EGPO, 6:2-4, 66-7,
•• Pythagoras was thought by some to bc 'one of the daimooes who inhabit
the moon', lambi. VP 30, perhaps from Heraclides Ponticus, sincc he spolte of
a rnan falling from thc moon (fr. 115 W.) . Pythagoras is associatcd with Epimenides
in various ways (Burkcrt, LS 151 f.); Boltoo, Arist,iu, 156, 164,ff',, traces this to
• the dialogues of Heraclides. lon of Chios may have callcd Musaeus 'moon,fallen'
(c,,.\'l••C.,.)r;;: Philod. De pút., p. 13 G. (Hcnrichs, C,otllldu Ercola,usi 5 (1975),
12)). For shamans visiting the moon see Eliadc, Sltamanism, 292, 327.
•• Parm. 28 B 14- 15; Anaxag. 59 A 1 § 8, 77, Oemocr, 68 A go; Philol.
44 A 20; Hcrodorus 31 F 4, 21. The latter also held that vultures come from
There are other pointers to the fifth century. One is the egg
which played a part in tbe early stages of the theogony. Such
an egg appeared in an Orphic theogony whlch I shall argue
to have been composed about 500 BC. Otherwise the only pre-
Hellenistic parallel is the egg in the mock cosmogony of
Aristophanes' Birds.46 Then there is the identification of the
Harpies with the Hesperides who tend the golden apples.
Asserting the identity of deities or mythological figures that
went under separate names was a novel fashion in the fifth
century. This particular equation is attestcd for Acusilaus; at
least, it is implied by bis statement (2 F 10) that the apples
were guarded by the Harpies. Again, if it is right to assume
that the Epimenidean theogony was prefaced by a hymn to
the Kouretes, and on the basis of that to suppose that it
dcscribed their dancing after the birth ofZeus, this is something
unknown to Hesiod and to archaic lite.rature generally, but
familiar from about 430 BC. It is in and after Eurípides' Crttans
that we first find an awareness of and interest in the ancient
cult of the Cretan Zeus on Mount Ida, and the Cretan myth
ofhis birth in which the Kouretes play a role:•7 Ifthe theogony
was really composed by a C.retan, of course, he might have
brought in the Kouretes at any period. But since we cannot
regard it as being by the Epimenides whose name it bears,
tbere is no more reason to suppose that it carne from Crete
than to suppose that a poem ascribcd to Qrpheus carne from
Thrace.
ln the year 432/ 1 the Cylon affair, and thus Epimenides,
was recaUed once more to the Athenian public's attention,
when the Spartans tried to undermine Pericies by suggesting
that his Alcmeonid blood was polluting Atbens.48 That new
details wcre added to the Epimenides legend at about this
time is indicated by the story that it was one Nicias the son
anotber carth invisiblc to us (F 22). Thia ,was probably his vicw of thc Lion, as
tbc ,oura, says that his volumes 'proclaim an carth abovc and lhe descent from
it of thc lion that Hcraçles slcw' (F 4). The idea of the inhabited moon recurs in
Plato, Aristotle, and some !ater writcrs, but not in S\!Ch vivid forms. Cf. Guthrie,
His1qr,1 of Gruk Phi1-#.1 ( 1g62--81), ii. 3o8 n. 4; A. E. Taylor on PI. Tim. 41c5.
•• Epimcn. F 4; ..411. 695. See p. 111.
o E. fr. 79 Austin = 47,i Nauck (not preciscly datcd, but early on mctrical
grounds); then H,1psíp.,l, 1. iii, 2011'. (p. 28 Bond}, Bacch. 12011'. On Corinna
654.12 (yd ccntury, as I maintain) see CQ. li<> (1970), R83.
• 1 Thuc. 1. 12~7. Cf.Jacoby, FGrF/ist UIB, commcntary, PP• 315,321 .
SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPREUS 51
of Niceratus who went to fetch Epimenides from Crete in the

days of Solon. 49 An aricestor of the well-known Nicias son of
Niceratus, the superstitious politician and general of the Pelo-
ponnesian War, must be meant. Now Plutarch makes Epi-
menides carry out a 'great purification' of Delos, again in
Solon's time. 50 ln the winter of 426/5 the Athenians carried
out a purifü:ation of the island- the first since Pisistratus,
according to Thucydides-as a preliminary to the restoration
of the Delian festival, and it was none other than Nicias who
led the Athenian contingent to this festival. 51 Did Nicias him-
self invent an earlier purification of Delos by Epimenides as
a precedent, as well as claimiog that an ancestor of his own
had brought the Cretan seer to purify Athens ? Thucydides, it
is true, seems to regard thc partial purification of Delos by
Pisistratus as the only prccedcnt for the one performed in
426/5. But he also ignores Epimcnides' purification of Athens
when he tells the story of Cylon and the expulsion of the
Alcmeonidae.
Epimenides, then, was talked of at Athens in 432/1 and
perhaps for a few years after. That would be a favourable time
for the appearance ofa poem under his name. Atjust the sarne
period there was a new interest in the cult of the Cretan Zeus
with whom Epimenides was associatect.si The poet would
naturally refer to it and to the Kouretes in composing a theo-
gony in the person of Epimenides. But there may be more to
it than that. The initiates of ldacan Zeus described by Euri-
pides rejoice in ritual purity, anda pocm claiming the author-
ship of Epimenides in thc spiritual climate sketched on pp. 20 f.
might be expected to be something more than a mythological
text. For Strabo, Epimenides is ' the poct of the purifications',
while Plutarch calls him 'learncd in religion in the sphere of
possession and sacraments' .53 It may be that the theogony had
a religious purpose, and that its emphasis on the Kouretes
•• D.L. 1. 110. •• s,p1. sdp. ,onv. 158a.
11 Thuc. 3. 104; Plut. Nic. 3.5. Plutarch does not actually say that this was thc
samc ycar, but it is usually assumcd.
,. llesidcs rccciving his revclation ln thc cave of Zeus, hc bore lhe title Koures
(Myronianus ap. D.L. 1.115; Plut. Sol. 12.7, whcre vlo• looks likc a gloss); and
Thcopempus ( 115 F 69) told how hc hcardl a voice from tk sky commanding bim
to wonhlp Zeus.
n Str. 10-4-14, p. 479 (T 7 ; cf. Sd,i, T 2); Plut. Sol. 12.7 ~ ,....pt T<l S.,a.
,-,\• l•Bouau1<TT•'"1" '"" TtMCTT•,n)• .,..,_••
(whom Euripides' initiates mention together with Zeus and
the Mountain Mother) is of particular significance in that
respect.
Eratosthenes in his Catasterisms drew on an Epimenidean
work which he knew as the Cretica. It contained stories of Zeus
on Ida prcparing to figbt the Titans, and Dionysus seducing
Ariadne (F 18-19), so it might be the sarne as the tr-:ogony.
It might equally be the work of. 'Epimenides the theologian'
which Diodorus says he has used among other sources for the
Cretan section of his history.H But here we are in a rcalm of
great uncertainty. Diogenes Laertius, besides the theogony and
the Argonautic epic,H mentions prose works amounting to
4,000 lines 'on sacrifices and the Crctan social order; on Minos
and Rhadamanthys'. This list comes from Lobon, who secms
to have made a habit of crediting poets with prose works as
well as pocms. Diogcnes then adds from a diffcrent source,
Dcmetrius of Magncsia (first century BC), a lettcr to Solon
'containing thc social ordcr which Minos appointed for the
Cretans'. Dcmetrius had condemncd it bccause of its Attic
dialect. It sounds as if it was the same as the prose work(s)
alrcady named. Prescntly he ascribes to namesakes of Epi-
mcnides a genealogical work and a monograph in Doric on
Rhodes. This information fairly certainly comes from thc sarne
Dcmetrius.s6
The pseudepigrapha are not all obviously appropriatc to the
person of Epimenides. One can see why the theogony was
foisted on hirn, or thc works relating to Cretan matters. 1t is
harder to sce why hcroic genealogics should be, though one
might say (a) that they went naturally with a theogony, or
(b) that Musaeus provided a sufficient precedent, or (e) that
thcy were by somebody else of the sarne name, as Dcmetrius
would havc it. Whcn it comes to the Argonautica, however,
Epimenides seems to havc become merely a saleable name.
H 5.8o.4 = T 9b; FGrK,st 468 F 1.

u Abo11e, p. 411. Th.e latter pocm DlAY be the souroe ofF 11 (on Aictes) and 1<1
(thc sons o( Phri1tus).
16 F 9-10, 13- 15 seem «> come from a gencalogical work, wh.cther in verse or
pniee (so also the ncw fraga,.ent about Apbrodite and Adonis in CRBS 13 ( 1972),
92 f., unlcss it had a plM:C in the theogony); F ,ir~ (cf. T 10 and 442 F 4) from
tl\e work on Rhodes ; F 20, a sociological tcrm d tod from Epimenides by Ariscotle,
migh.t be from lhe book on Crecan ,ocicty.
SOME MYTHICAL P0ETS OTHER THAN 0RPHEUS 53
There is no sign that the usurpation of his name continued
after the Hellenistic period, indeed it may have ceased in the
third century. In this respect his literary career is more like
Musaeus' than Orpheus'.
Olen, Pamplws, Abaris, and others

We saw that one need that Orpheus' name could meet was the
need for a prestigious author of great antiquity to whom hymns ·
used in local cults could be attributed. One or two other names
occur in this function. The traditional hymns sung at Delos in
the fifth century and later were ascribed to one Olen from
Lycia; a Hellenistic poetess makes him also Apollo's first
prophet at Delphi,57 A number of the hymns used in the
mysteries at Phlya were attributed to Pamphõs, a poet not
mentioned by any pre-Roman author but whom Pausanias
considers much older than Homer though notas old as Olen.ss
Plutarch mentioned him as the inventor of the lamp (fr. 62
Sandbach): this will be part of the sacred legend, since a 'great
light' is spoken of as a feature of the Eleusinian mysteries, to
which those of Phlya we.re related. Pamphos' name is derived
from it. Philostratus quotes from him the verses
Zeus, most gloJ'ious and greatest of the gods,
covered in dung of horses, sheep and mules.
There may be some theological profundity here, but if so it
eludes the uninitiated.s9
Theogonies and cosmologies under various names are men-
tioned. According to Hecataeus of Abdera, the priests of Egypt
claimed that the seer Melampous was one of many early
Greeks who derived wisdom from the Egyptians: he took from
them the rites of Dionysus and the myths about Kronos, the
battle between the gods and the Titans, and 'the whole story
57 Hdt. 4. 35; Boio fr. 2 Powcll. Pausanias cites Olcn's Delian hymns to
Eilcithyia, Htta, and Achaia (1 .18.5, 2.13.3, 5.7.8, 8.21.3, 9.27.2). ln 5.7.8 he
also mentions a hymn by Melanopus of Cyme. A Mclanopus is named as the
great-grandfather ofHcsiod and Homer (Phttcc. 3 F 167, Hellan. 4 F 5).
•• 8.37,9, 9,27.2. He cites him ín cight othcr placcs. Cf. p. 28.
•• Philostr. Htr. 25.8. P. Maas, RE xvHi(,i), 352, took ít as parody of Stoíc
pantheism, which reprcsentcd god as extending cven through thc lowest forms
oí znatter (SVF i. 42. 15, ii. 307.21 ff.). Perhaps ít satirius specifically thc famous
procm of Aratus, 'Ali the streets are full of Zeus, ali the markct-placcs'.
54 SOME MYTHICAL POETS C:JTHER THAN ORPHEUS
of happenings to the gods'. 60 This seems to imply a theogony
under the name of Melampous, and perhaps one connected
with rites of Dionysus in the sarne way that some Orphic
theogonies were. If so, Melampous was soon displaced from
this sphere by Orpheus.61
The Suda records the following:
Abaris. Scythian Oracles; Marriage of lhe RiVIT Hebrus; Purifaati<>ns;
Thecgony (prose); AJ,ollo's Comíng lo the Hyperboreans.
Aristeas. Arima.speia (three books); Thecgony (prose, 1,000 tines).
Thamyris. Thecloo (3,000 lines).
Palaephatus. Crtation of the World (5,000 lines); Birth of Apollo and Arúmis
(3,000 tines); Language of Aphrodilt and Eros (5,000 tines);
Dispute of Athene and PoseilÍIJn (1,000 tines); Lock of Leto's Hair.
Abaris was a legendary Hyperborean, first mentioned by Pindar
(who put him in the time of Croesus) and Herodotus. By the
fourth century he was an author of spells and oracles.61. The
theogony was perhaps known to Philodemus and Celsus.63
Aristeas of Proconnesus, also known to Pindar and Herodotus,
belongs in the sarne category as Abaris or Epimenides in regard
to the wondrous stories told about him, but the Arimaspe.ia
appears to have been a genuine seventh-century poem embody-
ing an account of the strange peoples to be found beyond the
60 Diod. 1 .g6, 97 = FGrHist 26.4 F as,
6< ln Byzantine times astrological worb wcrc ascribcd to him (Cal. Cod, Astr,
iv. 110-13; Tzetzes on Hcs. Op. 8oo and 8ao). Artemidorus 3.28 quotcs (from
Apollonius of Attaleia) a work by Mclampous On Prodigús IJ1IIÍ Omnas, of which
two extant prose treatiscs, dcaling with thc significancc of bodily twitches and
warts, rnay have been parts (Dicls, Ahh. Berl. 1907(4); J. G. F. Franz, &,iptores
Physwgnmniae Vet,r,s (178o), 451 ff.). But the one on twitches is addreised to a
Ptolcmy, so it can hardly bc claiming to be by thl Melampous,
Another mantic figure who dcserves mention is Phemonoe, supposedly thc first
Pythian priestess and according to some the inventor of thc hexameter. Thc
carlicst wrilcn who mcntion hcr are Antisthencs ofRhodcs (508 F 3, about 200 se)
and Melampous the authority on twitches. Uncle Pliny had a work by her on
bird omens in his grot~uc Jibrary (HN 10.7, 21). Cf, Fabricius-Harlcs, Biblio-
~ Cr111Ca (1790-1809), i. 211. Sch. Greg, Naz. 72 (Patr. Cr. mvi. 1024) namcs
Telegonus as thc first writcr on bird omens, and lmows a work by the Trojan
seer Hclenus on palmistry.
6• Pind. fr. 270, Hdt. 4.36, PI. Charm. 158b (abovc, p. 20), Lycurg. fr. 85;
oracles also in Apollonius Mirah. 4, scb. Ar. Eq. 729a, d.
6J Scc Henrichs, GRBS 13 (1972), 78 nn, 31, 32, and for Cclsus bclow, p. 6.4, t 7
('Y,rtp{JoplotJS), Abaris is citcd in P. Oxy. 161 t fr. 8 ii ,u for thc location of the
Jssedones (FGrHisl 34 F 2, vol. ii, 1230); this might fit well into thc last of thc
pocms in the Swla's list.
SOME MYTHlOAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPHEUS sS
Scythians on the way to the Hyperboreans. The prose theogony
must have been written much }ater; it may have been the
prose work which Dionysius ofHalicarnassus knew to be do11bt-
fully ascribed to Aristeas.6-4 Thamyris was that immodest
Thracian who reckoned he could sing better than the Muses
themselves.6s Palaephatus is fust attested by Apollodorus of
Athens, as a son of the Muse Thaleia. A statue in Constantine's
great bath complex at Constantinople portrayed him as a seer,
and heis said to have lived in Athens in prehistoric times.66
Of the thirteen works attributed to these persons in the Suda
at least eight are mentioned in no other extant so11rce, and it is
not certain that they all actllally existed. Heraclides Ponticw
not only treated Homer's Phemius and Demodocus and the
songs they sing in the Odyssey as historical realities, he claimed
to know the subject matter of the songs sung by Thamyris (a
Titanomachy), Linus, Philammon, and others (fr. 157 Wehrli).
He was, one presumes, rather fancifully reconstructing the
literary history of the prehistoric age, not referring to pseud-
epigraphic texts which he had seen or composed.6 7 Demetrius
of Phalerum had similar tales to tell (frr. 191- 2 W.). Earlier
sophists may have started this sort of romancing. A passage
in Plato implies discussion ofpeople like Thamyris and Phemius
together with Orpheus. 68 From at least the second century BC
there were writers such as Hegesianax, Dionysius Scyto-
brachion, and !ater Ptolemaeus Chennus, prcpared to deck
out their works wíth references to fictitious ancient sources.69
When the Suda specifies the length of various poems by Palae-
phatus and others, this certainly gives the impression that these
texts once existed to be measured. But such stichometrical
64 D, Tlw&. 23. On Ari.ttcas sce esp. J . D. P. Bolton, A.ristl4S qf l'roroflNS#S
(Oxford, 1g&t).
65 li. 2,594- 6oo. Tzctzes, Hisl. 7.92, gives him a coemogony in 5,000 lines,
which looks lilcc a confusion with Palacphatus; but in his introduclion to Hes.
Op., p. 28 Gai&forcl, hc makes him an ero'lic writcr, be<:au.,c his mother is Erato.
•• Apollod. 244 F 146; Christodoru.sA.P. 2.36 f.; Suda. Cf. Jacoby, commentary
on FC,Hisl 44 T . Tzctzcs, l.c., makes him a horticultura! writcr, but again this
is jU$t to suit the mothcr, Thalcia.
67 Hc wa,, howcver, accuscd of forging tragcdles in thc name of Thespis
(Aristox. fr. 114 W. - TrCF I T 24). He also uscd pcoplc sucll as Abaris and
Pythagoras as ch.aractcn in dialogues in a way that misled laiu writcn.
61 lota 533b. H ymns oi Orpheus and 1"hamyris are takcn aa tbe paradigm of
musical swectnesa in L,. 82gd.
60 Cf. Jacoby, commentary on FCrHist 32, p. 509.
s6 SOME MYTHTCAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPHEUS
indications, expressed in very round numbers (and with the
noun i.,,..,,, not a,,.Lxot), seem to be a hallmark ofLobon of Argos,
as also are the wordiness of some of the titles and the addition
of prose works. He is generally assumed to be the source (rom
which informatioo about these poets' products carne to Hcsy-
cbius of Miletus, the sixth-century encyclopaedist from wbom,
via an epitome, tbe compiler ofthe Suda derived bis biographical
material. For those who regard Lobon as an unprincipled
rogue, the titles-at least, those for wbich there is no inde-
pendent evidence-are devoid of credit. On the other side it
should be borne in mind that in the Hellenistic age (as in the
Renaissance) the demand for books by scholars and collectors
did stimulate the production of forgeries on a large scale. One
had little chance of literary success writing under one's own
name-there were far too many minor authors on tbe market
- but if one peddled ooe's work as something specially rare and
ancient, the prospects were much better. Most of such pseud-
epigrapha must have beco ephemeral, and it is quite credible
that if an enthusiast set out to collect and record them hc
would catch a numbcr that left no other trace in the traditioo.
Loboo's lists might be a valuable indicatioo of the sort of thing
to bc fouod in some bookshops in his time. If a question mark
rcmains over him it is 'not so much bccause some of his titles
are unique as because o( a certain sameness in the line-tallies
and in the epitaphs which he alleged to have been set up to
commemorate many ofthe poets with whom he dealt. Sameness
suggests a single inventor.
Linus
Linus first appears as someone lamented in a ritual song, or as
the name ofthe song. 7° From quite an early date he was reprc-
sented as a singer himself. ln one Hesiodic fragment heis the
son of the Muse Urania (we remember tbat Orpheus was also
the soo of a Muse), and in another that may well conneet with
it he is 'leamed in every sort of (poetic) skill' .71 Heraclides
Ponticus had him composing laments, because he was the
10 II. 18.570; Wilamowit:t,Ear. Htrllklu (imd ed., 1895), ii. 84 f.; Gow on Thcoc.
10.-41; R. Hãwaler, Rh. Mw. 117 (1974), 1-14.

" 'Hes.' frr. 305-6; cf. Pind. fr. 128c.6. The Piatoxenos Painter portrays him
a, a cltharode (ARJ/'2 8612- 3·, about 470 ac).
subject oflaments. Eventually the step was taken of composing
poems in his name. This may have begun before the end ofthe
third century Bc, since he was listed as a sage, together with
Orpheus, in Hippobotus' Register of Philosoplurs, which is dated
to that period (D.L. 1.42).
Diogenes Laertius, apparently following Lobon, attributes to
him 'a cosmogony, the courses ofsun and moon, and the genesis
of crea~res and crops' ( 1.4). These phrases look as if they are
derived from a summary in verse; compare the summary of
Orpheus' song to the Argonauts in Apollonius Rhodius,
1.496 ff.:
He sang how earth and heaven .••
• . • the paths of sun and moon,
and how the mountains rose, how the noisy riven,
their nymphs besides, all creatures carne to be.
Perhaps Lobon based his description of the poem on the proem,

for there a summary of contents would be very much in place.n
Diogenes goes on to quote the first line ('the beginning ofhis
poems'):
There was a time when ali things were togcther.
The idea recurs in a fragment of thirteen lines which Stobaeus

quotes from 'Linus On tlu Nature of the World':
So through discord all things are steered through ali.
From the whole are ali things, ali things form a whole,
all things are one, each part of ali, ali in onc;
for from a single whole ali these things carne,
5 . and from them in due time will one retum,
that's ever one and many ...
Often the sarne will be again, no end
will limit them, cvcr limited ••.
For so undying death invests ali things,
10 all dies that's mortal, but the substrate was
13 and is immortal ever, fàshioned thus,
11 yet with strange images and varied form
12 will change and vanish from the sight of aU.n
" Cf. Hes. TA. 105-15, Parm. B n, Emp. B 38.

,. Stob. 1.10.5 with a uanspooition and some othcr cmcndations proposed
by me in Philol. 110 ( 1966), 155 f. Thc doctrinc in linc 3 is mcntioncd as tbat of
Linus and Pythagoras by Damascíus, D, prin&ipiís 25 bis, 27 (i. 4-5.12, -t,11.13
Ruelle).
There are pervasive echoes of Heraclitus here, but also some-
thing Platonic or Stoic in the concept of images (,f,o,vraulw)
upon the surface of reality.1• The idea that identlcal states of
the world will recur (tine 7) is also Stoic, and Pythagorean
too.?s It is bound up in Cnrysippus' cosmology with the notlon
of the Great Year, the period in which the sun, moon, and
planets ali return to the sarne positions. The sarne was appar-
ently the case in 'Linus', for in anothcr fragment he refers to
the seven luminaries 'appeari:ng in their cycles as the years go
round', and he is also reported to have believed in a Great
Year lasting 10,Soo ordinary years. 76 This figure comes straight
from Heraclitus, in whom, however, it represented a Great
Year of a different sort, not defined by the positions of the
heavenly bodies.77 lt is significant that Chrysippus' pupil
Diogenes of Babylon also rnade use of the Heraclitean period
in calculating the length of the astronornical Great Year,
though it did not match his own conception of the immensity
oftirne: he multiplied it by 365 (SVFiii. 215.22). 'Linus' appar-
ently did not know this or was not impressed by it. There is a
fair possibility that Censorinus' inforrnation about the length
of the Great Year in Heraclitus and Linus was derived indirectly
from Diogenes himself.78 Ifso, we should have a definite terminus
ante quem for the poem, as Diogenes died shortly before 150 se.
ln any case there seerns tó be a relationship between Linus'
and Diogenes' use of Heraclitus in developing Chrysippus'
theory.
Another cosmological fragment is quoted as being from the
second book of a theological discourse addressed to Hymenaeus.
Hyrnenaeus is mentioned together with Linus by Pindar (fr.
128c) as another whose death was lamented in a traditional
song. Now Linus is rnade to address bis teaching to him in
imitation of the convention by which Orpheus revealed his
1♦ Line 1 ~ Hclt. 28 and 85 Marcovich (B ,p, 80), cf. O. Gigon, UnúrsudifDllm
-eu Htraklit (1935), 49; 4-S ~ír. 25 (B 10); !rio ~frr. 47 and 49 (B 21, 62);
PI. T,m. ♦9~c; SVF iv. 151 f. .
,. Eudemus fr. 88 W. = DK 58 B 34; Dicacatthusap. Porph. VP 19; Chrysippus
SYF ii. 189.31-191.32.
•• Aristobulus fr. 5 ap. Eus. PE 13. 12.16, Clem. Sir. 5.107.4; Ccns. DN 18.11
(from Varro, it is thought).
" Ccns., l.c., Act. 2.32+ Sce EGPO 15.5-tl.
•• K. Reinhardt, Parnwnidls (1916), 188 f. and HmMs 77 (1942), :134 = Ver-
m4ehtm.s der Antilu (1g6o), 82.
mysterics to Musaeus. There is no rc:ason why the 'theological
address' should not be the same as the poem on the nature of
the world; physics and theology were inseparable in Stoic
thought, and the fragment is in fact about physics. It spt>aks
of the four elements being held togethcr by three links or
bonds. 7 9 Macrobius describes the sarne theory, and idcntifies
the three links: that between carth and water is .Necessitas, that
between water and air is Harmonia, and that between air and
fire is Oboedientia ( = Greelc Peitho ?). Linus is not named, but
there is some likelihood that he is the source. so
The author who quotes the fraigment says that Linus spoke of
four elements and three bonds because they made up a heb-
domad, seven being the number that governs the universe. We
cannot tel1 whether the poet made that point. But Aristobulus
was able to quote severa] fragments of Linus to show that the
Greeks recognized the holiness of the number seven and hence
of the sabbath.81 The most interesting is the verse
And on the seventh day everything is complete.
N. Walter thinks that this can only be the work of a Jew, a

refercnce to God's creation of the world. If it were, we should
have to emend 'is complete' (-rJroic-rc:u} to 'was complete'
(-rí-rvK-ro); and it has to be pointed out that in Genesis every-
tbing is complete on the sixth day. The change of tense would
be easy enough. But why should we go out of our way to make
the verse J ewish? lt would be more convenient ifit harmonized
with the other fragments, with their Stoicizing philosophy and
interest in astronomical cycles. In fact it does harmonize with
them very well, without emendation, if we interpret it as
referring to the astrological week, the cycle of days deterrnined
by thc principie that Saturn, jlllpiter, Mars, the Sun, Vcnus,
Mercury, and the Moon, io that arder (the order oftheir periods
ofrevolution), rule over each ofthe 168 hours in strict rotation.
This brings a different ruler to the head of the list at the start
79 TlitologllfflWl Arillimtlica,, p. 67.Q de Falco. The concept of bonding can be
traced back to PI. Ttm. 31 b--32c.
10 Macr. in Somn. Stip. 1.6.36- 40.
■e Above, n. 76; N. Walter, op. cit. {above, p. 34 n. 102), 150-66. On Ari1to-
bulus cf. p. 33. Although there is some controvcny about his date, thcrc are good
argumcnu for the traditional clating to thc Gnd ceotury ac, and this l<!nds w.,igbt
to thc ca,c: ÍOI' putting Linus bcfore 150.
6o SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPHEUS
of each day, the Sun on Sunday, the Moon on Monday, Mars
on Tucsday, and so on until on the seventh day the one remain-
ing permutation is played through and 'everything is made
complete' .82 The names of the days of the week still reflect this
system, of course (with Germanic gods substituted for the cor-
responding Roman ones from Tu.esday to Friday). We do not
know when it was first invented. I t was familiar enough at
Rome in Tibullus' time for him to refer to the sabbath as
Saturn's day (1.3.18). If the verse of Linus means what I
suggest, that takes it back a good deal earlier. Thc two other
verses which Aristobulus quotes from him both appcar to be
praising the qualities of the seventh day in hymn-like terms.
Stobaeus givcs us a second fragment from 'Linus On the
.Nalure of tM Wt>rld' which is rather diffcrent in character from
the first, though it shares with it the idca that the t.ruth is con-
cealed beneath dclusive 'forms'. Linus addresses his pupil (still
Hymenacus ?) in the tone of a hierophant, telling him to resist
the pernicious influences which ensnare thc profane hcrd with
these forros. He dcscribes his instruction as a purification which,
if thc learner's resolve is sincere, will make him holy. Then
he starts warning him against gluttony.8J This homily is diffl-
cult to relate to thc cosmology, and may belong to a separatc
poem, even though Stobaeus quotes it under thc sarne titlc.
His source may have used the title of the first poem in a collec-
tion to cover the whole of it. Iamblichus knows a poem
beginning
Everything i$ to be expected; nothing is surprising:
everything is easy for god to do, nothing is impossible,1•
Wc have seen tbat the cosmological poem is to be dated
between Chrysippus and Ari:stobulus-pcrhaps nearer to thc
latter, if the invention of the week is not to be put any earlier
than thc second ccntury Bc.8s It is influenced by Stoicism, and
•• F. Boll, RE vii. 2547 ff.; M. P. Nilaon, Dú Elllslchwrg imd rtli,iõs, &túitt11111
du iri«Jt. Koimders (2nd ed., 1g6o), 48 í.; E. Bidemwi, ~ of IM ÃltMll
World ( 1g68), 61.
u Stob. 3.1.70.
84 VP 139; also in Stob. t.,t.6.1 (under Linus' name but without a title). IL
echocs the opcning of a famous pocm of An:bilochus, fr. 122.
•• TI,;, becomes a lmlWllu p,,st gWM for Lobon oi Argos. Cf: p. 4+ If Hippobotus
lmew the sarne poem, this may tend to raise the date a little, but his own date
is not known with precision.
SOME MYTHCCA L POETS OTHER T HAN ORPHEUS 61
it also Iooks back to Hcraclitus, as thc Stoics did. ln addition
it shows astrological and hcbdomadic intcrcsts that makc a
link with Pythagorcanism.86 Jt is significant that Varro kncw
the poem and playcd a part in preserving knowledge of it.
Damascius cites 'Linus and Pythagoras' for the doctrine that
evcrything is one. The fragment from the moralizing poern
shows dose parallels with the Pythagorean Carmen Aureum.81 lt
is linked with the cosmology by the use of Linus' name (and
pcrhaps Hymenaeus' as addressee), by the idea of delusive
forms, and b y the fact that both poems were transmittcd
together. As for the fragment quoted by Iamblichus, he says
it is the Pythagoreans who claim that the poem is by Linus,
and that it is perhaps really by them. There is, then, every
rcason to suppose that these poems carne out of the sarne Hcl-
lenistic Pythagorean tradition as the Orphic Ly re and the other
poems discussed on pp. 2g-33. One of those poems, the Sphaera,
was actually addressed to Linus.
I t remains to men tion that Pausanias knew poetry attributed
to Linus, and judged it to be spurious, as he also judged most of
the works of Orpheus and Musaeus. Either Linus composed
nothing, he says, or if he did it did not survivc.88 The one thing
he mentions about the content of the poetry ascribed to Linus is
that it gave a similar account of Styx to that in Hesiod, who
made her the daughtcr of Oceanus and wifc of Palias. It is not
casy to imagine that divine genealogics of the conventional
Hcsiodic kind were incorporated in the cosmological poem
that other authors cite. If thcy were, onc would suppose that
the gods were seen in the light of Stoic allegory. But perhaps
Pausanias is referring to something quite separate.
16 ln a work 011 IM H,hdo""1d under the name of Proros the number scven was
exalted as specially holy, and it was argued that therc are natural cycles of7 ycan,
of 7 months, and of 7 days (Theslell', Tms, 154 í.) . Hehdomadism is of coune
oldcr than this; see esp. Solon ír. 27 , P hilolam B 20, ' Uippocr.' De luhd. (CQ. 111
(1971), gõ5-88), An$t. M,IIJ/l}t. 1og3a13-16; W. H. Roschcr, Dit H,btlo"'4dtnuhr,
d,,. gritdi. Plúlosoph,11 und ,fo::J• (Abh. s4clu. Gesellstlt. 24(6), 1go6).
" Cf. lines 3-4 with C.A. 57; 7-8 with C.A. 46, 63- 6, 70-1; !r'º with C.A.
9- 11 , 6g.
" 9.29.9, cf. 11,19.8, 8.18.1.
APPENDIX: THE FRAGMENTS OF LINUS

I have thought it worth while to append the fragments of the
poems ascribed to Linus and the testimonia which refer to
poems by him or imply them, because they are not available
in any modem collection. Some of them were included by
F. W. Mullach in bis Fragmenta Philosophorum Graecorum, i ( 186o),
155-7, but they are not to be found in Kinkel's Epicorum
Graecorum Fragmenta, Diels's Poetarum Philosophorum Fragmenta,
Powell's Collectanea Alexandrina, Thesleff's Pythagorean Texts, or
Lloyd-Jones and Parsons's Supplementum Hellenisticum. They
have, in fact, been well-nigh forgotten.89
TESTIMONIA DE LINI CARMIN1BUS SIVE SAPIENTIA
t [1] (Heradides Ponticus fr. 157 Wehrli) Ps.-Plut. De musica

1132a
'
KO.Ta .. '
O( '"1"
' , ' • \ I ,,a , eP"/II0VS'
ª""1" 'l}I\IKl(2J/ K0.1 wov "T0V Eç Ev,-,o,as
' AI ' '" I
1rt:1TOl1JKÉva, ÀÉye,, K(!.t :4v81}v -rôv lç 'Av81}8&vos rijs Bo,-

Tlas vµ.vous, Ka, Illepov -rôv lK Il,Eplas -rà. 1TEpL Tà.s Moooas
7TOl"Í/J4TO..
t 2 (Hippobotus) D.L. 1.42

'fo1ró{Jo-ros Sl Év -rfj -rwv ef,,>.ouóq,wv clvaypa.,f,fj 'Op,f,ta, Alvov,
.EóÀwva, IlEplavSpov, :4v.ixapacv, KÀEÓ{3avÀov, Mvawva,
9aÀijv, Blall"Ta, II,rraKÓv, 'E1rlxapµ.ov, llv8ayópav.
t 3 (Lobon Argivus fr. 6 Crõnert) D.L. 1 .3-4
, 80.110001
AO.V , N , , ,
o av-rovs Ta. -rwv
'E'" ,
1\1\'l}VWV
A n ,
KO.-ropuwµ.a-ra, ,:.1..
u.oy
<Lv µ.~ õ-r, yE ,piÀou<Xf,la, àÀÀà. Ka, yÉvos àv8pt.{nrwv ,1pçt:,
,-,ap,-,apo,s
Q Q I
1rp<X1an-r0ll"TES.
I
wov
t<,
yow napa µ.ev n'"811va,01s
~ ' A I
' '
yeyovE mouaa,os, napa ut: ,::,11,-,a.o,s

, .... A ' o Q ,
.. ' A,wos. KO.t' Tov
' µ.ev '
Evµ.óÀnov 1raí8.i ,f,aa,, :JTOlijaa, SE 8eoyovlav Kal .E,f,a;pav
-
npWT0Vº ..L....!
,.,...-va, .,l! • \ \ , , 8 \ , , '
TE E5 EVOS- Ta 'TrQJ/1"(1. 'YIVE(1 ª' K0.1 Eif -rav-rov
àvaÀvEa9a, • • • (4) -ràv BE Alvov naí'Sa t:lva, 'Epµ,oíJ Kat
MoOO'l}s Ovpa11la.s· not-ijaat 8E Kouµoyovlav, ,}.\lov Ka,
•• The main di.scussions of them are: .Fabriciw-Harles, Bibliotluca Graeca, i.

110-4; G. F. Schocmann, Opuseula Acadnnúa, ii. (1857), 4-6; O. Cruppc, Die
g~h. Culu und Myllim, i ( 1887), 628 f.; F. SU$emihl, wsdi. d. grüch. Lit.ratur in
d. Akxarulrinm:eit (1891~), i. 378.
t 3 KOttµoyo.,/a,, F'P: 1toaµo>..,,ta~ +r•• (d=t B)
SOME MYTHJCAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPHEUS 63
aEÀ7JVl)S' 110,xlav ,ca, tcfx»v ,cal 1<o.p11wv ya,l,ms. -roÚTtp àpX"}
TWII 110,T/µó.-rwv ijllE· (fr. 1).
Hinc Suda iii. 273.17 A. (cf. 415.3) Alvos /l( 11o.p4 6-,i{Jalo,s-
4'1>.óao,fx,S'.
t [4] (Oionysius Scytobrachion 32 F 8) Diod. 3.67.1-4
q,Tjal -roívw 11ap• •EÀÀTJO'• 11p{irrov EÍ>pE'f'TJV ya-ia8a, A{vov
pv8µii,v ico.l µl>.ovs. Én Ili, K&.llµ.ov icoµ.foo.vToS' J,c '1>0111(/CT}S'
-rà ,caÀoÚµ.EVa ypá,µ.µ.a-ra,, 11pw-rov ElS' 17/V 'E).).TJV'Kri" JJ,E'rO.•
8Eí:vo.1 lliá.ÃEIC'TOV • • • ico,vfi µ.~ oJv -rà ypá,µ.µ.a,,.a, fPowuoíia
l..Jl.:: ., • • • \ """' • A, J -•-,AA
,e,..,., 'I"°' 010. -ro 11apll 'T'OIJS' LN\')VO.S' EK ....oivucwv p.E'f'~"".1t""l"a&,
~{q. a,, 'l"WV llEÀo.aywv 11,xf,-rwv XJTflUªP.'VWV 'rOÍ:S' p.ETO.'l"E•
e..,,,. xapoxrijpo,, llEÀo.ay11<?i. 11pouayopE~a& ••• (4) -rôv
a· oõv Alvov ,f,o,a, 'f'OLS' llEÀaay,icoÍ:S' ypó.µ.µ.o.u, O'W'l"O.{Ó.µ.&ov
-ràs -rov '1TpW-rou .1 wvúcov '1Tp&.fnS' 1eal -ràs- ô'.ÀÀas µ.u8o>.oylas-
~'1TOÀ111Efv lv -rofs- Í>'1Toµ.vfiµ.a,u,v. ('Primus' Dionysus est ille
qui lndiam subegit, cf. 3.63.)
t5 Quintil. 1.10.9
Nam quis ignórat músicén ... tantum iam illis antiquis
temporibus non studü modo uérum etiam uenerátiónis
habuisse ut üdem músici et uátés et sapientés iúdicáa
rentur: mittam a.liós, Orpheus ct Linus?
t 6 (a) Paus. 2.19.8
, .L ., I
'T0.'1'01 OE EIUW O j.4EV
• • • AIIVOIJ 'TOIJ ./"J.'1TONIWVOS'
A 1\\
,,. • UI '8 ~
/C<:tl T aµ.a '7S' 'TTJS'
KpO'f'W'TTOIJ, I •
1"011 OE
., • \, ~
I\E-yOOOIV ova,
A'IVOIJ 'TOIJ 1101'1)0'0.V'TOS' 'TO.
A ' •
É'"'7,
(b) Paus. 8.18.1 (cf. fr. 11)
t f ('l
EOIICO'Ta OE '1TE1TOl'l)ICEVO.I 'rOIJ'rOIS' IC(tl
I AI11101' ..,,.,..,w•
.L.- I
, >\
•JJ,O&\ <, \
OE
Jm>.Eyoµ.ivqJ 11av-rá1TCww l,f,o,wE-ro -ravró. yE Elva, 1el{1&r,Ão..
(e) Paus. 9.29.9
ÀlyETo., ll~ Kru ô'.ÀÀa -roió.& Í>'1TÔ 6-,i{3o1wv, WS' 'TOV Alvou
TOVTOIJ yivo,-ro VUTEpov É-rEpoS' Alvos- ,caÀovp,EVOS' •luµ17vlo11,
Kai WS' 'Hpa,cÀfis ln 110.,s wv Ô'1T01C-rE(IIEt(V a.vrov /l&/láa,co.Àov
A ., • •A .. .L .,,I
µ.<JIIO'&ICTJS' ov-ra. E'"'7 OE Ol/'l'E o ./"J.,..,,.,,,µ.apov
.. A'IVOS' OV1'E
• ., o• 'l"OIJ'l"OIJ
,
yEvóp,EVOS' vcn'Epoll E'1To(17ucv· ~ Ka.i '1rOITJ8ma ES 'TOIJS' ;'1Tfl'TO..
oil,c ~À8Ev.
t 7 (Celsus) Origenes e. Celsum 1.16-18
811-uµ.ó.Cw llE '1TWS' • 0/lpvuo.s µ(V ica.t .Ea.µ/,8prpcas- ,ca., 'E>.EVC11•
v(ous- ,cal 'Y'1TEp{JoplolJS' lv -rots- àpx<Uo-rÓ.-ro1s- ica, acxf,wró.To&s-
6+ SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THA N ORPHEUS
ET...._€V
• .-t ·e •
E J/EOW O ftEAOOS,
U I\ 1'0VS'
' OE
"' •z --"-' • •e.•
OU<>a&OVS' OVK 1j~<WOE'I'
KTÀ . • •• .,,.áÀw TE aJ Ka-:r&>.oyov wowvµ.evos- àv8pwv àpxalwv
Kat.' ªº'I"'-'" '.L.-' ,
.L.-. W,yu-71aavTWV ' KaT• tlV'TOIIS'
1'0VS' • .\ Ka,' º'ª<' ' auyypaµ.-
µ.á-rwv 'TOVS' µ.n' av-row, MwvoÉa JflPaM 1'0V Ka'Ta.ÀÓyov

'TWV ~ i-:. Kat.' A ,vov
... a.,.,,..,v· ' p.ev, , OY rrpoer~ev wv wvoµ.aa& o
ft ' -~ .. • , "
ft(I\OOS', ovn: voµ.01 Oll'TE "O')'O' ~f>Ol/1'/J.4, ur,a-rr.,,al"TE!i' K(U

V A • , • \ ' .L) • ·-~/, \
9Epa.trEÚaav-res WVT/, Mwvoiws- 8l l<"TÀ. • • • Ópa ow El µ.~

Ó.111',KpVS' KaKovpywv Jflf3a.>.e -roíi Ka-ra.>.óyov 'TWJI oo,/,wv Kal
Mwvala, Alvov 8J Kat Movaatov Ka, 'Op,/,la Kal TÔv <l>EfX•
KIJ8riv Kal -ràv Illpmiv ZwporurrPT/v Kat llv9ayópav ,f,-1,oas
1TEpL -rwi& &e.À111>~ Kal Js- {3t{3Ãovs Kara-re9,tu9,u -rà.
l av-rwv 8&yµ.ara Km ,,,,,,j,v:.\áx8ru av-rà. µ'-XP' 8Eíipo • •• ( 18)
ei1ro1µ.w 8' âv 'l'TpoKaÀovµ,vo, {3l{3ÀoV!i' {3l{3Ào,!i' 1rapa{3áÃÀeo9a,
.,
O'TI .L l
'f'.:pE w.. ovTOS'
..
Ta' L..JIIIOV
,
Ka,' 1r,ovuawv
... 1
K<H' • O• -L,
,,.,,Ews
1ro1"Íµ.a-ra "ª' (/)epeKÚBou ~v ypa,f,l,v, Kal CTWEflTatE rots
Mwvolws- vóµ.o,s.
t 8 Sext. Emp. Adu. maJlwn. 1.204

' " ' 'l'TpwTOV
al\l\<l - '
µ.& •
ovx ·' - ' '1TaV'rWV
V'TTO , • l-,-
oµ.o,..,ye,-rcu ....l.
1l'Ol1]n1S'
àpxruóTaTos- elva, • 0µ.71pos, lv,01 yàp 'Hulo8ov 1rpo"ÍKe,v -rois
xpóvois- Àcyovow Alvov ..,., Kal •Op,J,la Kal Movaawv Kat
ó.MoV!õ 1ro.µ.'l'TÀ718.:õs-. ou µ.-fJv llià. Kal 1r19avóv ia-r, yeyovl"°',
µ.lv TWOS 1rpo av-roíi Kat IK<l'T' av-ràv 1TCX1j'TÓS' • • • 'TO~OVS' 8t
wô rijs ,,.,,pl av-ràv Ào.µ.1rp&,r.,,-ros t'l'TEOKorija9a,.
t9 Hippol. Rif. 5.20.4

lan 8~ av-rois- 'Tf 1râaa 616acKa.>.la -roíi ÀÓyov d1rà -rwv 1ra.Àa1wv
8EoÀÓywv, Movoalov KO.L Aívov Kal Toíi Tàs reÀeràs µ.áÃwra
, , , - '"-!i:
,cai Ta l'-IXFr'f/1"ª Ka'Tew<os;aVTos
·o•....u
,,.,,._ws.
t 10 Calcidius in PI. Tim. p., 170.18 Waszink
Ergo, inquit (PI. Tim . 4od7), neque probátiónés sempcr
adhibendae nec persuádéns assertio his quae dicuntur á
priscfs dluiná quádam sapientiá praediús. Simul expónit
ea quac Orpheus et Linus ct Músacus dé diuínís potc-
státibus uáticináti s1mt.
t tI Augustinus De cívit. De{ 18. 14
Per idem temporis intcruallum extitérunt poétae q ul
etiam theologí dicerentur, quoniam dé diis carmina
faciébant ... Orpheus, Músaeus, Linus.
SOME MYTH I CAL POETS OTHER THAN ORPHEUS 65
t [rii] Tzetz. in Hes. Op., p. 28 Gaisford
,
A wos- o· ' ( · ) · '
.,, vpavuJs 1r<us , WS' Ta ff'fP• ovpo.vov Ka• Kóuµ.ou
o€ · · - '
' ~<>sQ.f.UVOS.
'ITO.V1'0S -l:,
FRAGMENTA
1 D.L. 1.4 (e Lobone; cf. t 3)

'l"OV'l'o/ à.pxr, 'l'WV 'ITOl"]fJ,Ó.'l'WII 7j8,·
~" 1roTÉ To& xpóvos oÓTOS' Jv 4i ãµa 1rCÍll'T' E'IT€ftÍKE1.
2 Stob. 1.10.5 Alvov t.K 'l'WV (roO P) 1T€pt tptÍU€WS' K&aµov
"' ,,, , R. ... ~\ ,
ws Ka'I' .:pw (7l)JI01Tavra ><V~t:pvara, 1ravros-. "'ª
Jx 1ra.VTOS' ~ 7(Í 1r&.vra, ,ca.l lK w<ÍVTwv ÕÀov Êcrrl,
'ITéÍvra 8' ã, J.crr,v, lK001'0V ÕÀou µ.ipos-, (W bi. 1réÍvro ·
à yàp b ós: ff'M' EÓVTOS' ô,\ov '1'éÍ8€ 1rcívr' dy&aVTo,
, , to , , ..1'.tl ...... ~
~,, ª'<771,
lfl, - , -
5
, \1TCtV1'WV
(K
. • ' 1TOI\I\O,
O.E& (V 011 Ka,
O( 'ITOT'
' , \M"'"°v
\\ ,avvtS'' , Ka'l'a
EUU(Tat
tavpo,ua.,.
.
J(QL 011
EV €V
1'0V1'0V
1roÀÀáK1 8' [erra., Ta.wcí, «a2 oihroTt: '1rE<po.S' ;1TE1u,v
, ' 1T€tpOT
OE& , , t"€XWV 'IT"}tOV
, '.)'•l'JIOS'
/ EN\Q.Xf , t,
""'' TOV'l'WV
~8f y«1p à.8dva.ros- 8cívaros- <1rfpi. 1rdvra KO.ÀlÍ'IT'l'Et
TO 8-V"}'TOS'
• EWV,
• ; KOI\ 'll'QI/
- 11V"}UK€1
A I .LD I
'f"'aprov, \ ~• • I
1'0 O IJ'TTOPXOV
13 t
lf4,8opov EUU(IOV'I', à.,l, ,co8o rfj8f TÉ'l'VK'Tat,
11 t
,f,aVTo.uÍa•s 8' à.ÀÀoTpó'll'o,s- Ka, oX'Íp,an µ.op,f,i,s
à.Mcíf€& fTpó1rwv Ô.1ToKpimTÓµ,t:V' Ótpw a1rCÍV1'WV.
3 Damasc. Prúu:. 25 bis (i. 4 5.12 R.) ov ycíp J.aTw ã, T1, à.M&
1rw, ã,, ws- Aívos Tf ~fYE K<U llv8ayópo.s-. lbid. 27 (i. 48. t 3)
l-r, -rolvvv •l -rO lJ, EJ<EÍvo 1r<Íll'Ta. JtrrL xal 1râv, W> Atvo~ ,,.~ "ª'
llu8ayópo.s t.ÀeyÉ1'7)v, KrÀ. Cf. D.L. 1 .3 de Musaeo ( = supra
t 3)
..J.. ,
't'º"ª' T(
·~ • \ \ ,
€~ €VOS' Ta 1T(Ul'T(l )'11'€UOQI KQI
, -ª ' ns-
, , \ ª"ª-
'7'0V'7'0V
,
ÀtÍ€o8a,.
2 c:odd. FP :z ó.\o• scripsi (PAilol. 110 (1g66), 155 sq.), cf. 3: .,.,; r i , FP
3 ÓMv Meineltc: ow FP ,z,. M Meincke: <lva, FP 4 fort. &,..,;; (tf. fr. 1)
1róvra -rda' FP: COCT, Cantcr 6 ,,u.,
Grotius ,.,...,;,,_.,, , .,..,,,. om. P
d8pij11°' Heercn 7 1r0.U,Lnr a• F: co.r r. Hccrcn 8 e.g. l,covr,
13 post 10 po5ui (Phi/ol. l.c.) ,,,,,• .,,,,.,.• F, lr a,t,,.,,.• P: ,,,,,..,.• ld• -r' Meincke
(l11To., Grotius): 1,,,,,,,., qv ,,.. tempt.avi (Philol. \.e.) 1 t ...U..,o-rpô,,o,r
Meineke; possi., +a•Taal,u,,w 8' "X'ÍI'"'"' Grolius 12 satisfacerct ,.a ,rpo .,.:;.
S,o Kal Alvos- ó 9EoÀ6yos- lv T<p 1'tp<>S" •yµlva,011 ÔE111'(~ 9EoÀo-
')'IK(p q,al,11ETQI ÀÉywv
TlaaapEs àpxal Ó.Ttaa, •• •
Tptaaofs ÔEaµofa(,} KpaTOW'l'CM.
Macrob. in Somn. Sdp. 1.6.36-39
Item cum quattuor sint elementa ex quibus cónstant
corpora, terra aqua áér et ignis, tribus sine dubió inter-
stitils séparantur . . . (37) et á terrá quidem usque ad
aquam spatium Necessitás ( = J411&y1n7) á physicls dicitur
... (38) illud uéro quod est inter aquam et áerem Har-
monia clicitur ( = •Apµovla.) ... (39) inter ácrem uéro ct
ignem Oboedientia dicitur ( = Jfo8w ?) .
4 Aristobulus fr. 5 ap. Eus. PE 13.12.16 et Clem. Str. 5.107.4
(ex Clemente rursus Eus. PE 13.13.34)
Alvos Sl ,/,,,a,11 ovrws-·
'Q<> - , ". • - \ , , ,
Et-ooµaT71 O "f/01 TETEI\EUJ-LE}/(l 1'/QIITQ TE'l'VKTQI,
,cal 1'1.ÍÀw
5 ,{3&,p:11 (4)1 áya9ota(, } ,cm ,f3s&µ.,,, (O'Tl ')'EIIÉfJÀ,,,.
KQI '
6
,ca.l
7 brrà.
• I
s, 'ITáVTa
\ .L. I
TÉTVKTQl
' t _\L
b ovpavíj> do-7-,pón•Ti,
' • •
(li KVKl\01O1 ,pu,VEVT E'IT,TEI\I\OjUIIOIS- &,avTOIS,
8 Ccnsorinus Dé dié nátdlí 18.1 I (e Varrone ut vid.)

Est praetereá annus quem Aristotclés maximum potius
quam magnum appellat, quem sólis ct lúnae uagárumque
quinque stéllárum orbés cónficiunt, cum ad idem signum
ubi quondam simul fuérunt úná referuntur; cuius annl
hiems summa est cataclysmos, quam nostri diluuiónem
uocant, aestás autem ecpyrósis, quod cst mundl incendium
. . . hunc Aristarchus putáuit esse annórum uertentium
IICCCCLXXXIIII ... Héraclítus et Linus XDCCC.
4 ,1/..,r: Ka>.Mp.a.J(O< Clcm. (consulio omwt Píeilfu) .,..,,A,,,,,Jvo ..,;.,.º

Thvn4' Eus.1 : 1<rd ol TtTVKOVTO <i1ra.,-c, Clcm. (irhvno Eus.1 ) ex Homeri versu
quem ante laudavit, ,ca{ ol .,.,.,íÃ<aTo c1.,,a.,.,.o
5 et 6 forl. coniungcnda (dcleto 1<0.I)
7 1 Tttv1CT0 Clcm.
SOME MYTH ICA L POETS OTHE R THAN ORPHEUS 67
9 lambl. VP 139
•
wa-rE , 1TQVTC1
'1tpo!i , '
'TCl ...
'T0&av-ra ºIIX'
' ' O.IIT0VS
~ ' ..UR voµ [1',.ovuu,
Ev,,.,El!i
(Pythagorei) illà T OVS àm<nOWT'Cl/;. ov yà.p Elvcu,.a µàiJ
81/VClTCl\ A
1'C/J
o A
E</) TCl
\ 8'E ~ .. ,
aol/VCITCl,
•
W<nrEp •
04€0'
oª' \ ao.,,,,.o-
.J.. )'
1'0V!i
, _!\ \. J_
µEVOV/; 1 11111\a 1TClVTCl
I 81/VClTCl, I
KO.,, 1)
\ f ) \ .J. t ,
0.p')('/ 'I ClV'T') EU1'1 1'WV E1TWV
t ,.. 1 ,..
a (KE'ivol <f>au, µtv Elvaa Alvov, µ.&1'01 raws €Kdvwv· ;,(]'TI

"\ . - " ,.). , ' • ' ., " • .H, L • \
EMTEava, XI''/ 1TaVT , E'1fEI 0vK ECT Ovoo, ClEMM'0V'
.!,!J;I. o , A .I<',
l"t"ta ffClVTC1 EC/) TEJ\EUCU KCl& 4111)111/TOV 0VOO',
. \ , \ 1 f
= Stob. 4.46.1 (A lvov 110,,,-roii).

IO Stob. 3.1.70 Alvov Jt< rov 1TEpl +vot:wi; KÓqµov
.J. ,,.
y,pa.,.E0 81)\ C11TOvv•1V
,.il...), 8J t 1
EVTVVClJl,EVOS' 1 0.1(0V1)!i
, A
'O • ( • • \ \ H 11.,:
f,W wv 1)1'-ET•pwv arpa1rov 'Tl'EP• ffClVTO!i 0./\"f/v,1,
i/4pai; â1rwqCÍµEVOS' 1ro.\vm,µ,ovas , a[ TE {JE{J~.\wv
t
õ,c.\ov ali<nwua, CÍTCllS' 1TEpl '11'11VTa 1TE8úl<7,
5 1TavTDla,i;, µ,op,/,wv à1rá'"]µ' ( ) lxovua, •
Tài; µà, â1rà ,J,vxijs Et~,v +v>.iuca«n vóo,o·
DV'TO!i yáp O'E t<aOapp),s MWS, 8,Kalws-t &<7,«xm, t
.r 1(0, à.\710El71 ,-uufii; à,\oàv ylvos à-rwv.
·-~ \ \ , , , .. 8 , • ,
"'l"IIV µEV 1rpwr10-T , aw,cpwv w-rE,pav a1ravrwv,
10 ./jv J-m0vµ.la ~!'WXEí' µápyo,111 ,ca.\avoí's-
11 Paus. 8. 18. 1
•tmr0t1]µtva oõv (/11'1V ma.ii8a. (Hes. Th. 36r, 383) 'DKEQJIOÍ)
Ovya-rlpa TTJV .Dníyci, ywaiKa 8t aôn)v t:lvcu Ilállavros-.
, , .,, I , \
E0IK0'T'Cl OE '71'E1T0ITJKEVC11 'TOVTOl!i KCll
A'<VOV y,u.O'&V'
I • 1 ., ,
E/JO• OE
~
bri.\cyoµ.lvcp 1TO.VTÓ1Ta<,1v J<f>a,lvno -ravró. y• t:lvcu KÍ{J871'Aa.

[uz] Ps.-Apuleius (Caelius Rhocliginus, professor Ferrarae
1508-12) De orthogr. 44
quamquam Orpheus (fr. 359), Linus ct Hesiodus deos ex
Chao ab initio crupisse dixerint.
10 cod. Tr, vv. 8-10 ctiam M r~ i,0:6""' &' cl,ro.,;;r cod.: corr, Gemer
4 óx)...,, cod. : corr. Gancr &moiio"" Mullach : poals d.vióiaa.& (N € 1 = li C T )
vel J~crróia..,. 5 (8o).tpóiv) µo,+,,• Hcrue, dHn!µ(,iT}' Gcsner 6 TOils
cod,: oorr. ~sncr 7 cl3o«lo-rws vc! á1t1/lll~Àwr Hcnsc &ua<.Sa,, cod.: corr .
Valckcnaer
,'/6-q codd.
8 ciTói• Mclnekc: aw,úi, Tr: 1t111tlur M 9 Valclcenaer: ,.,,a~.
III. THE PROTOGONOS AND DER VENI
THEOGONIES
WE are now ready to begin the investigation of the Orphic

theogonies. It ought to be remarked at this point that although
we are accustomed to call them theogonies, and there is no
apter term, the word is seldom found in ancient writers in
connection with Orpheus. The list ofhis works in the Suda does
indeed include the item 'Theogony, 1,200 lines', but otherwise
only Fulgentius and Tzetzes use the title. 1 What we call the
Rhapsodic Theogony is referred to as the Hieros Logos, or Hieroi
Logoi in twenty1our rhapsodies, oras the Rhapsodies. Clement calls
one portion of it 'the theogony' to distinguish it from another
part (fr. 149), while Proclus after citj.ng· the Orphic poem (fr.
n7) goes on to refer to 'the Theogo'!)''-meaning Hesiod.
Having said that, I shall continue to call these poems theo-
gonies, without l hope committing myself to too rigid a view
of their form or function. By a theogony I mean a poem of which
the major part consists in an account of the gods from the
beginning of the world to the present.
Evidence for the existence of three distinct Orphic theogonies
is given by Damascius, the last head of the Neoplatonic school
in Athens before its closure by Justinian in the year 529.i
Discussing the Orpbic account of the beginnings of the world,
he first summarizes what wãs said in 'these current Orphic
Rhapsodies', that is, in a poem which was still read in his own
time. Then he says, 'Such is the familiar Orphic theology; but
the one current according to Hieronymus-and Hellanicus, if
he is not the sarne person- goes as follows'. This is clearly a
poem no longer extant, the contents of which were in part
described by one Hieronymus. When he has dealt with it
Damascius proceeds to 'the theology recorded in the Peri-
• út'ph. frr. 147 and 173. Clcmcnt in fr. 149, Proclus in fr. 128, and Malaias
in fr. 6z use thc word dcscriptívely to mcan Orpheus' 'gencalogy of gods'. The
Neoplatonísts more often speak ofhis tluologia(i), and once ofhís tlrtomythia. Again
thcsc are nol formal titles.
• Prin&. 123-4 (i. 316-9 Ruellc) = Orph. frr. 6o, 54, 28.
THE PROTOGONO S ANO DERVENI THEOGONIES 6g
patetic Eudemus as being that of Orpheus': again somcthing of

which he had only indirect knowlcdge. I shall cal! these threc
theogonies of Damascius the Eudemian Theogopy, the Hiero-
nyman Tbeogony, and the Rhapsodic Theogony. ln addition
to them wc can distinguisb three other Orphic theogonies. One
stood at the beginning of the Epic Cycle, and may be called
the Cyclic Theogony. Another has only quite recently come to
our notice : it is the poem which is thc subject of discussion by
an unknown writer in the papyrus roll discovered ncar Derveni
in northern Grcece. We may call this thc De.r vcni Theogony.
And it can be seen that the Derveni Theogony is an abridge-
ment of an ampler poem which I shall call the Protogonos
Theogony after the part played in it by a god Protogonos.
A picture of the relationships of thcse poems will emerge in
the course of the next five chapters; but there is onc cssential
relationship that must be explained now. The Rhapsodic
Theogony was a composite work, created in the late Hellenistic
period by conflating earlier Orphic poems, in particular the,
Hieronyman (a descendant ofthe Protogon6s), Eudemian, and
Cyclic Theogonies. The writer of an important survey of cos-
mogonic myth has claimed that it is probably a mistake to try
to construct a stemma of Orphic theogonies.J He is wrong.
That isjust what we must do. (See p. 264.) And in reconstruct-
ing the Protogonos Theogony in particular, it is necessary to
draw on what is known of the contents of the Rhapsodies for
episodes where the two poems ran parallel. Of ali tbe theo-
gonies the Rhapsodic is the one about whose contents we are
most fully informed, because under the Empire it was the
·orphic theogony, and it was frequently quoted and alluded to,
especially by the Neoplatonists. lt has long been a matter of
dispute how old the storics it contained were. The discovery
of the Derveni text now allows us to see for certain that more of
them go back to the classical period than we had the rigbt to
assume. It is a discovery that has thrown an unexpected and
indeed sensational light on early Orphic theology.
So that the reader may see what I am referring to when I
refer to episodes in the Rhapsodies, I will give an account of
its contents here instead of waiting till the chapter devoted to
the poem. In brackets I give references to fragment-numbers
• Schwabl, 1481 .60.
70 THE PROTOGONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGONJES
and occasiooally to other sources which apparently ccho the
Rhapsodies, such as the Hymns and Argonautica and Nonnus'
Dionjsiaca. A couplc of dctails are added from Apollodorus'
Bibliotheca, though this source does not reflect the Rhapsodies
directly but the Cyclic Theogony which the Rhapsodies incor-
porated. For convenience of later reference I have divided the
narrative into lettered sections.
Reconstruction of t/u Rhapsodies na"ative

A
First was U naging Time (6o, cf. 54, 68), represented as a winged
serpcnt and coupled with Ananke (Arg. 12 f., cf. fr. 126, Hymn
12.10). He generated Aither and a huge Chasm, without
bottom or boundary (66, 54, 6o), overlaid with gloomy darkness
and Night (65-7). From (or in) the Aither Time made a shining
egg (70), the progeny of Aither and Chaos (= Cbasm) (79).
ln it, enclosed in a bright cloak (of cloud ?), Phanes dcveloped
(6o). He is called the son of Aither (73, 74-), and when he
emerges from the egg, which is broken by being squeezed by
the serpent Time (57), the Aither and the m isty Chasm are
split (72, cf. 65).• Hc has many names: Mctis, Erikepaios (60,
65, 83, 85, 167a.1), Protogonos (73, 86, cf. Hymn 6),s Eros
(74, 83, cf. Arg. 14f.), Bromios, Zeus (1 70). He has four eyes
and four horns, goldcn wings, ram, bull, lion and serpent bcads,
and the organs ofboth sexes (76-8 1, cf. Arg. 14, Hymn 6); heis
'the key ofthe mind' (82). Thc world is filled with radiance at
his appearance, but hc himselfis invisible except to Night (86).
Phanes carries within hlm tbc seed of the gods (85). Conceiv-
ing a love not derived from eye-contact (82), hc copulates with
himself (or should one say he.rself), and gives birth to a series
of gods (?), among ~em Ecbidna (58). He also mates with
Night, now said to be his daughter (98): a Night existed before
he did, but there are said to be three Nights, the second being
bis concubine (98, 99). From this union spring Uranos and
Ge (1og). Phanes creates thc sun and moon (88, 91-3, 96), and
• ln 72.1 rcad ;,,,,,lp,o•, cr. A.R. 4.1577.
• ln 73 read lTp.,,.r,yow,s ..,.e..,.,
nol "P""""°""s ~...,.,.•. ln 64 and 85 "P""'"º
)"OIIOS is an epi1bct of 4>.l"'tf, wbile 75 must be reatcwcd ,-dv 3,) ,caUo-.,,,. ~IÍ"'f1'« 1
(np•m>yo•Ó• 6',) '"' ,,,,.;,.,os b a18Jp, ~Cll'T'OS ly&n>.
THE PROTOGONOS AND DER.VENI THEOGONIES 71
arranges a pla.ce for gods and men to live (89, 108). At some
point he sheds an abundant rain from the top ofhis head (84).
He produces his creations from a cave or adyton of Night
where he has his seat (97, 104, 105).
B
Phanes counts as the first king of the world ( 108, 107). He made
himself a sceptre (Procl. in 107, p. 171 K.), which, as it was
the sarne one that Zeus later bore (101), was of twenty-four
'measures' (157). He handed it on, voluntarily, to Night his
daughter (101-2, 107), and it must have been he too who gave
her the power of prophecy ( 103, cf. 99, 105). It was perhaps
following his abdication that he set out on the vast circle (71b)
where he rides for ever with car (?) and horses (78, 83). Night
handed the sceptre on to Uranos her son (107, 111)-again
voluntarily ( 1o 1).
e
Uranos marries Ge, and this is called the first marriage,
Phanes' union with Night being discounted ( 112). Ge gives
birth to the Moirai (Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos), the
Hundred-Handers (Kottos, Briareos, and Gyges), and the
Cyclopes (Brontes, Steropes, and Arges). Uranos has heard
(from Night ?) that he will be deposed by his own children, and
when he sees this stern, lawless brood, he throws them into
Tartarus (57, 121, 126). Ge then, without his knowledge, bears
the Titans, seven females and seven males: Themis, Tethys,
Mnemosyne, Theia, Dione, Phoibe, Rhea; Koios, Kreios,
Phorkys, Kronos, Oceanus, Hyperion, lapetos (57, 114). Of
these it is Kronos who is specially nurtured by Night, the nurse
of the gods (129, 131, I06). Ge incites the Titans to castrate
Uranos; Oceanus alone is unwilling, and stays aloof (135).
When Uranos comes to lie with Ge, the deed is done (154),
and he is cast down from his chariot (?) (58). The Giants are
born from the blood as it falis on the earth (63). The genitais
are thrown in the sea, foam forms round them, and Aphrodite
is Qorn; she is received by Zelos and Apate (127).
Kronos is now king (107, 101), enthroned upon Olympus
( 117). The Titan brothers and sisters marry one another
7Q THE PROTOGONOS ANO DERVENI THEOOONIES
(Rufinus in 56).6 Iapetos' soo Prometheus stole fire for men
( 143). O ccanus is set apart and dweUs in his wondrous streams
(117). Kronos' rulc is tyrannical (1.01). (Hc releases the
Hundred-Handers and Cycl.opes from Tartarus, but then scnds
them back again (Apollod. 1.1.4-5).} He has children by Rhea
(including Hera and Hestia, 161, 163), but swallows at least
thc males (58, 132, 138, I 46). Zeus, however, is concealed in
the cave of Night and nurtured by the nymphs Adrastea and
Ida, daughters of Mclissos and Amalthca (105, 162, Apollod.).
Adrastea clashes bronze cymbals in front of the cave ( 105b,
152), and mother and child are further guarded by the three
Kouretes, who are themselves sons ofRhea (150--1). As mother
of Zeus, Rhea takes the na.me Demetcr (145). The stone she
gives to Kronos to swallow instead of Zeus ( 147) forces him
to vomit up the gods he has swallowed. Hades occupies the
lowcr world, Poseidon the sea, and Zeus, riding on a goat, is
carried to hcaven (56 cnd).
D
·1n the cave ofNight Zeus leam s from the ancient goddess that
he is destined to be the fifth king of the gods ( 105, 107), and is
instructed how to overcome Kronos (154). Zeus is modestly
overwhelmcd, and asks how hc can order the world, preserving
its unity as well as its individual features: Night tells him to
catch everything in aither, with heaven, earth, sea, and stars
suspended inside from a golden chain ( 164-6).
Rhea- Demeter arranges a banquet, procuring plenty of
honey (189). Kronos is made drunk with this and falls into a
deep slumber. Zeus ties him up ( I 48-9, 154) and castrates him
(137). H c takes over the sceptre (101, rn7, 157), and the
· Cyclopes, who must have been released again (cf. Apollod.),
give him the thundcrbolt ( 179). But hc still has need of tbe
dcfeated Kronos. He appeals to him for guidance, and
Kronos gives him dctailed instruction about the new creation
to come (155).
Again at Night's instigation, Z~us pounces on Phanes- she
points him out-and swallows hím, thus absorbing ali his powers
6 Thc birth oí Thaumas, Nereus, and Eurybia is not 10 be ...umcd Cor this
pocm from r 17- 18; see Holwcrda, 316- 18,
THE PR.OTOGONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGONIBS 73
(58, 82, 85, 87, 129). Everything is reunitcd inside Zeus: aithcr,
hcaven, sea, earth, Oceanus, rivers, gods and goddesses, past
and future, all becomc one in hls belly ( 167). By bringing it all
forth again in due order he becomes the creator of the prcscnt
world (168, p. 205 K., cf. 171, 2ra). Presumably he follows the
directions given hlm by K.ronos.
E
ln his dealings with the gods, however, Night remains hís
adviser. On her instructions he takes Nomes to sit at his side
( 160), and in his dispcnsations he is accompanied by Diltc,
thc daughter of Nomos and Eusebia (158-6o). He fathcrs
children by a number of goddesses (in what ordcr, we cannot
tel1):
1. With Themis; Night had prophesied that she would remain
a virgin until Rhea bore a son to Kronos ( 144). The childrcn
born are the Horai (Eunomia, Dike, Eirene, 181) and Moirai
(126, 162).
2. With Themis' daughter Eunomia, producing the Charites ·
(Aglaia, Thalia, Euphrosyne). Aglaia marries Hepbaestus
and gives birth to Eukleia, Euthenia, Eupheme, and Philo-
phrosyne (t 192, Hymn 60; 182).
3. With Hera, who is cqual in status witb him ( 132, 153, 163);
lhe children presumably include Hephacstus (179-82). ,
4. With Leto, producing tbe virgin Artcmis (187) and no
doubt Apollo.
5. He pursues Dione, but does not catch hcr in time, and
ejaculates in the sea. Aphrodite (the second) is boro,
attended by Eros ( 183-4). {Eros and Peitho seem to be
parents of Hygieia, 202; in Hymn 67.7. Hygieia is wifc of
Asclepius, and this may have come in the theogony.)
6. With bis mothcr, Rhea-Demeter. Being pursued by him,
she turns into a snake. Hc does the sarne and mates with
hcr, coiling in the Hcracleot knot. She gives birth to Pcr-
sephone-Kore, who has two faces, four eyes, and horns.
Rhea is so alarmed that she flees without feeding her, and
the child is thereforc called Athêlã ('unsuckled') (58, 153).
74 THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONIES
7. With Kore, in Crete, again in snake form, producing
Dionysus (58, 153, 303).
From bis own head Zeus produces Athcna, also called Virtue,
to work his will (174-8). She becomes the leadcr ofthc Kouretes,
and they wear crowns of olive· ( 185-6). She is also associated
with Hephacstus as an artificer and pupil of the Cyclopes
( 17g-80).
Wben Rhea-Demctcr hands on tbc q ueensbip to Korc, shc
prophesies that Kore will mount thc bed of Apollo and bear
glorious children with fiery faces (194). Kore stays in hcr
mother's house, guarded by the Kouretes (151, 191), although
she has lost hcr virginity to Zeus. Shc weaves a Bowery robe,
and shc is just doing a scorpion on it when she is carried off
by Pluto ; the weaving is left unfinishcd (192-3, 195- 6). To him
she bears the nine Eumcnides (197, 360).
F
The infant Dionysus is receíved from Zeus' thigh by Hipta,
who puts him in a winnowing-basket on her head with a snakc
wound round it and hurries to Mount Ida and the mother of
the gods ( 199). There hc is guarded by the dancing Kouretcs
(34, 151), probably for fivc y,ears.7 Young as. he is, Zeus sets
him on his throne, puts the sceptre in his hands, and announces
to the gods that this is their new king (207-8, cf. 107, 218,
Nono. D. 6.165 ff.). The Titans,moved byjealousy,orprompted
by the jcalous Hera (210, 214, 216c, 220), whitcn their faces
with gypsum (Nono . 6. 16g) and deceive him with a mirror
made by H ephaestus, which he follows, apples from the H es-
perides, a pine-cone(?), a bull-roarer, a ball, knuckleboncs,
wool, and puppets; thcy also give him a narthex (34, 209,
Procl. on Hes. Op. 52). Then they slash him into seven pieces,
which they boil, roast, and taste (34, 35, 210b, 214, 220). But
Athena preserves tbe heart, which is still palpitating, and takcs
it to Zeus in a casket; there is lamentation (35, 210, 214). The
Titans are blasted with the thundcrbolt (35, 214, cf. 120);
Atlas is made to support the sky (215). Zeus entrusts Dionysus'
limbs to Apollo, who takes them to Parnassus and inters thcm
(35, 209, 211, 213, 240). But from the heart a new Dionysus
is given life (2 14, Proclus Hymn 7.14 f., Nonn. 24.48 f.).
1 Fr. a57 iJ 10 int~rprctcd by Lobcck, 554-
THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONIES 7.S
G
The smoke from the blasted Titans deposits a soot from which
Zeus creates a new racc of mortais ( 140, 220, 224). There had
been a golden race of men created by Phanes, and a silver race
under Kronos that cnjoyed as long a life as the date-palm
( 140-2, 225). Zeus now creates animals, birds, and a foolish
human race that does not know good and evil (233). But though
their bodies are mortal, their souls are immortal, drawn from
the air, and passing through a series of human and animal
bodies (228, 224). Whcn a soul leavcs an animal's body, it
floats around until another one catches it off the wind; but
when it !caves a human body, Hermes leads it bclow the earth
(223), There it is judged: the good have the better fate, going
to the meadow by Acheron and the misty lake, whilc thc
wicked are led to Tartarus and the plain of Cocytus (2-22, cf.
123, 125). The Styx is also to be found thcre, a branch of
Oceanus and one of its ten parts ( 116). A god that swears
falscly upon it is punished in Tartarus for nine thousand (v.l.
nine) years (295). Souls spend three hundred years in the other
world and then are reborn (231). But their aim is to achieve
release from the round of misery. Zeus has ordered purification
ceremonies 10 go forth from Crete ( 156), and Dionysus has
been appointed with Kore to assist mankind to find thcir
rclease through regular sacrifices and rites (229, 230, 232).
The Derveni find

Derveni is a pass some twelve kilometres north-west of Thes-
saloniki. ln this region, between two and thrce kilometres
nearer the city, was discovered in January 1962 part of a
papyrus roll probably dating from the late fourth century BC
--one of the oldest known Greek papyri, and the first to be
recovered from Greece itself. It was found at one of a group of
six tombs containing many fine objects of thc second half of
thc fourth century. 8 It is not known with what town the tombs
were connected; the nearest known ancicnt site, about three
kilometres away, is Lete, but the excavator considers the finds
suspiciously rich for such an insignificant placc. The richest of
• l!.llcavation rcport by Ch. Makaronas, .>lpx<UO.\oyu,6• .d.,\Tlov 18(B) (1g69),
193~; cf. G. Daux in Bu/útin oftht Ameriean Soeüty of Po/lr'ologW.s 2 ( 1g64), ~ 1.
76 THE PROTOG_QNOS ANO DERVENI THEOG ON IES
the tombs, B, contained among other thlngs a gold coin of
Philip II and a magnificent crater inscribed in Thessalian
dialect 'Of Asteiounis son of Anaxagoras from Larisa'. The
papyrus was found at tomb A, which (like B and C) contained
remains of weapons, suggesting that thc occupant was a soldier.
T he book was not inside thc itomb with the ashes of the dead
man and the other artefacts, but outside among the remains
of the funeral pyre. It was evidently intended to be burnt, but
it lay away from the centre of the fire, and one end of the roll
survived, though it was thoroughly charrcd, which is what
saved it from later decomposition. The blackened lump looked
much like one of the logs that !bad becn burnt on thc pyre, and
it was only the sharp eyes of the supervisor, Petros Themelis,
that saved it from being neglected and lost for ever.
It was of course in a desperately fragile state. lt was impos-
sible to unroll it; the only way of getting at its interior was to
remove small picces one at a time, and this was only possible
thanks to the patience and unrivalled technical skill of thc con-
servator of papyri at the O sterreichische Nationalbibliothek
in Vienna, Anton Fackelmann. He succeedcd in making the
roll less friable by applying juice of the papyrus plant, and
lifted the pieccs by static electricity. This produced a collection
of over 150 scraps, mostly tiny, of black but still quite legible
papyrus. From them it has been possible to reconstruct a
sequence of 23 columns of writing, _with disconnected fragments
from about four more preceding thcm. Thc total lcngth of the
roll must havc been about three metres or a little more. The
last written column is followcd by a blank sheet. It is the upper
part of cach column that escaped destruction, eleve.n to sixteen
lines with the top margin; wc cannot tell how much is lost
lower down. The width of the column varies between about 30
and 45 lctters, about tbe length of a hexameter. When a com-
plete hexameter is quoted in the text, it occupies a line of
writing, and the quotation is marked by paragraplwi above and
below.0
• Description and partia! lranscript: S, G. K.apsomenos, GIIOfflo11 35 (1963),
22d.: BiJI. AMIT. Soe. Pq. 2 ( 1964), 3-12 ; Jlpx• .d,A,,, 19 (A) ( 1964), 1~5 and
Pb. i,;1-15 ; furthcr photographs in G. Daux, BCH 86 (1g&.;z), 794; R , Scídcr,
Po/4ograp/lu tl,r grúdi, Pqyri, ii {1 970), PI. I; E. G. Turner, Gruk ManuscriJ,ls o/
IM AMióu Wo,/,l ( 1971), faàng p. 92; my PI. 5. I aawthc l'ragmentsat 1bcMusewn
in Thcualoniki in 1970. A pcovisional tralllCl'ipt of all cxccpt thc smallcr unplaccd
THE 'PROTOGONOS ANO DERVENl THEOGONIBS 77
No precise date has been given for tomb A, but the archaeo-
logical evidence from the site as a whole sug~ests that it is not
likely to be !ater than 300 BC. The date of the tomb is the date
when _the book was bumt. When was it made? Its script must
certainly be compared with the very oldest surviving book-
hands, like that of the Timotheus papyrus. Some have con-
sidered it older, perhaps of the mid-fourth century. Such
connoisseurs as Colin Roberts and Sir Eric Turner, however,
have favoured a less early date. 10 No one pretends that literary
hands can be dated except within rather broad limits, and
we must not expect the experts to tell us the answer to the
nearest decade. But perhaps we are entitled to conclude that
it was not a very old volume when it was put in the fire.
The prose Uxt

The date of the composition contained in it is a separa te ques-
tion. There are enough miscopyings to satisfy us that wc are
not dealing with an autograph. It is a prose work containing
some verse quotations, nearly all of them from 'Orpheus'. The
writer's dialect is basically lonic, though there are some
Atticisms, which might be due to the transmission. 11 His lan-
guage sometimes recalls Heraclitus, whom he quotes (perhaps
with approval) in the first preserved column. But some elements
in his vocabulary and style (not to mention bis thought) show
that he is considerably later than Heraclitus, probably not
before 400. The Heraclitean mannerisms can be compared
with those in the Hippocratic De Victu, which dates from the
mid-fourth century. 12 A little more will be said presently.
The work has often been described as a commentary. Cer- ·
tainly the greater part of it, from the fourth reconstituted
fragmcnts has appeared in ;::,PE 47 ( 1982), following p. 300. The official publica-
tion by K. Tsantsanoglou and G. M. Para.ssoglou is awaited.
'º See rhe discussion in Buli. A1111r. Soe. Pap. 2 (1g64), 7-g ·and 15 ff. Turner,
Gruk Mamucripls, J.c., dares it '325-275 a.e.', and adduces some early 3rd•century
parallels for the letter fonns. ln Scrilt11ra, Cwiltà 4 (198<>), 26 (cf. 22), he accepts
a 4th-century date because of the age of the burial.
" Consistently -ou- as the contraction of -•o-, •oir not •.,..,., Õ,ro,r (etc.) not
&cwr; nearly always <1>11Toii and ,.,i...,o (once <WIJ'foG), and ci where Attic would
retain it; somctimcs õ~c, sometimcs /ó.,,-4; ..-,v not l','V; µÓ11ov, MIMI not "'°Ovo",
dw,cn,.
11 See CQ.21 (1971), 384.
78 THE PROTOGONOS AND DE R VENI THEOGONIBS
column to the end, is taken up by an exegesis ofOrphic verses,
which appear to be quoted in more or less the proper order;
it is in the poet's thought, not the commentator's, that one sees
a coherent development from column to column. There are
however some sigos that the commentary is only just beginning
in the fourth column, and it is not clear that what preceded
(seven columns or so, including those represented only by
detached scraps) can be construed as merely introductory.
More than half of it seems to have been devoted to an extended
discussion of the Erinyes or Eumenides; their role in punishing
perjurers after death (?), their supervision of the cosmic order
generally according to Heraclitus, and their identity as souls.1J
ln column iv there is mention of somi:one, probably Orpheus,
who has chosen to speak allegorically of 'goddesses': that is,
perhaps, to speak of Eumenides for what the author holds to
be really souls. (The assumption would be that all other poets
took the name from Orpheus.) The author says that the whole
pocm is allcgorical.i• He then refers to 'the first verse', and in
what follows he secms to be citing verses from the proem of the
Orphic poem. The systematic commentary thus appears to
arise out of a particular discussion. The writer conceives his
work to be a continuous discourse (ÀcSyo,) : in col. xxii he says
that God made the suo 'of the form and size explained at the
beginning of my discourse' , apparently a reference to col. i.
Bis quotations from Orpheus are always introduced by some
prefatory words (even if they are only 'Next verse;-'); his is
not the type of commentary which consists of a series of inde-
pendent blocks each beginning with a lemma. H e is no humble
servant of the poet, but a man with decided views of his own
which it his primary purpose to cxpound. Thc Orphic text
merely serves him as a prop. ln interpreting it allegorically he
licenses hirnself to find all kinds of meanings in it that it does
not naturally bear.
His interest in it is wholly philosophical, not philological.
He does quote Homer on a linguistic point, but only because
" Fragmcnh F g+a, G sa (cf. li. 3.~78 e., 19.~59 C.) ; cot.. i- ili. My oolumn-
oumbet'ing iJ híghcr by onc thao that uscd in existing publications.
u ''"' ~ a[J,oG ""ª" ,j] tró,,,.r 1 [o.lvt)l1-']t1TC<\3'ir. Cf. lC. 5 .,,.â[a]u T'III' "&.,"'"
"'IK TWI' 1tP4)1"'4TWV aMC<Ta,. Or hc may mcan poetry gcncrally. Cf. PI. Ale. B
147b, <CJT... Tl -yo.p ~.;,,.. "'"'"~,} """""" .,1..,,,...,T.:.81)f.
THE PROTOGONOS ANO DERV EN I THEOGONIES 79
it aJfects Orpheus' theology. He gives an etymology of the
name Kronos not for the sake of doing so but as part of his
philosophical interpretation. Ris: comments on Greek vocabu-
lary and idiom (xv-xvi, xviii, xx) are in the same spirit. He
has a preconceived system to which he is determined to fit
Orpheus and everything cise. The consequence is that his inter-
pretations are uniformly false. Not once does he come near to
giving a correct explanation of anything in his text. Such con-
sistent wrongness is of course inevitable when the allegorical
method of cxposition, which assumes as its fundamental postu-
late that the obvious meaning is not the true one, is applied to
a worlc written without allegorical intent.
Allegorical interpretation of poets, at any rate of Homer,
started with Theagenes of Rhegium in the late sixth century
BC, probably in response to a feeling that Homer's gods, with
their quarrcls, adulteries, and so on, were ridiculous and un-
worthy if taken at face value. Theagenes explained them as
representing physical elements, and their strife as the conflict
of elements in nature. When Empedocles carne to expound in
verse his theory of the mixture and separation of earth, fire,
air, and water, he called them by the names of gods- Zeus,
Hera, Nestis, Aidoneus-and identified Love and Strife as the
two great forces that govemed them. Later in the fifth century
Diogenes of Apollonia approved Homer for speaking of Zeus'
omniscience, on the assumption that by 'Zeus' he meant the
air; and Metrodorus of Lampsacus, a disciple of Anaxagoras,
extended the allcgorical principie to herocs such as Agamem-
non, A.chilles, and Hector. Plato is familiar with interpreters
who find hidden meanings in the poets' stories of Hera being
ensnared by Hcphaestus, Hephaestus being thrown out of
heaven for interfering when Zeus was beating Hera, or the
gods meeting in battle.•s
According to Isocrates (Busiris 39) it was Orpheus above ali
who dealt in improprieties of that sort. He might therefore
seem an obvious subject for the allegorists to exercise thcm-
selves upon; only he had nothing like Homer's classic status.
While not secrct, Orphic poems seem to have had a very
" Theagcnes DK 8 A a, Diogcnes 64 A 8, Metrodorus 61 A 2-+, PI. Rtp. 378d,
cf. Crat,lur, p,usim, Tlua1:1. 19-fC, Ale. B 1♦7b, Xcn. S.1mp. 3.6; R. Pfeilfer, HislQt.1
efC/assie4J $<Ml,mlijp, i (t g68}, 9-11, 35 f.
80 THE PROTOGONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGONIES
limited circulation. They were not a matter of general public
interest. They were not taught in school or recited for public
or social entertainment. We hear a good deal about pcople
who lectured or wrote on the poetry of Homer or Hesiod in thc
fifth and fourth centuries, but practically nothing of the sort
where Orpheus is concerned.m6 The Derveni allegorist is thus
something out of the ordinary. Although he does deal with
severa! 'improper' episodes and explains that their true meaning
is inoffensive, this does not seem to be his main purpose. He is
aiming rather to show that his own understanding of the world
is already to be found in the most ancient poetry. It is not
Orpheus that he wants to justify but his own theory. Chrysippus
was later to interpret Orpheus (among other poets) in lhe sarne
spirit. 17 We see something of the sarne approach in Plato' s
Cra~lus, except that there the ancicnt writers are cited sporadi-
cally and unsystematically (Orpheus js quoted in passing at
402b). We can find systematic interpretation of a whole poem
in a scction of the Protagoras (339a- 347a). But the Derveni text
is the only known example of a pre-Alexandrian book which
had such intcrpretation as its main subject-matter, or which
was formally laid out in the style of a commentary, with thc
verses to be discussed written on separate lines from thc sur-
rounding prose and marked o:ff from it.
The writer's philosophical outlook is Ionian, like his Lan-
guage. It shows particular affinities with Anaxagoras, Leucip-
pus, and Diogenes ofApollonia. He holds that matter has always
existcd, new entities being produced only through mixture and
scparation. Each thing is namcd according to whatcver pre-
dominates in it after it has been separated out. This presupposes
the Anaxagorean idca of countless different substances.•8 ln
the universe as a whole, air predominates, hence everything is
called Zeus. Air is the god now called Zeus; it has a mind
which consists of a pneuma and which governs past, present,
'' Apart from the statements of Jon of Chios and Epigencs on 1he authorship
of certain poems (above, pp. 7-9), tlherc is only a biographical romance by
Herodorus (31 T 12, F 4•2-.13) and a :monograph on Orphew by Nicomcdcs of
Ac:anthw (772 F 3), whooc: interdt lay in Macedonian and Thracian antiquities.
"SVFü. 316.12 , 16. CC Ckanthcs, i. 123.14.
11 P. Derv. xiü. 7, xiv. 3, xvi. 1, xviil. 9, 13; Anaxag. 59 B 12 end, 17. Thc
Dervc:ni writer's phrasc l • [lK]4.,,.o• "'J<[A~T)<n .;,..; ...,,; l,r,,cpaToõ.,..or (xvi. 1)
recalll Theophru~• formulation in Anaxag. A 41 (,c,mi -ro ,,,,Kp,,.-row).
THE PROTOGONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGONIES 81
and future events. 10 ln the universal air all the other substances,
divided in minute portions, were jostled together by Mind
until they met what went with them. 20 This is how the present
world was formed. The stars are suspended in the air, and are
held in their places by Ananke, because otherwise those of like
force would drift together. 2 •
With this physical system the author oddly combines a less
rationalistic kind of concern with religious enlightenment. He
writes about men being too devoted to pleasure to pay proper
attention to dreams and other signs which might warn them
about the perils ofthe other world; ofinitiates rightly sacrificing
to the Eumenides, who are really souls, and of daimones who
attend; ofpeople who participate in public or private rites but
fail to understand the meaning of what they see and hear in
them. 21 ln these passages he seerns closer again to Heraclitus.
It is not unreasonable to conjecture that it was these religious
interests that led to his acquaintance with the Orphic poem,
and that he was himself one of the initiates whose ritual acts
he knows and interprets. The Orphic poem may have been
a sacred text of theirs, and likewise 'the Hymns' from which
he quotes atone point (xix. Ir) the not very metrical verse
.dnµ:,Íff/p ['P]la I'ij M,í[,. ]'IP 'Eu-ria .d11!Wt,

Demeter, Rhea, Mothcr Earth, Hestia, Deo.
Perhaps he was writing for them, to introduce them to a

Diogenean cosmology in which he had been instructed else-
where.
We must return briefly to the question of his date. He was
evidently writing after all the main lines of Presocratic thought
had been developed, and combining elements from several of
them in an idiosyncratic and not (so far as we can see) a very
coherent fashion. The hymn which he quotes, apparently as
to P. Dcrv. xv, xví. 1-7; cf. i\naxag. B ,, 12; Diog. Ap. A 8, B 5; Dcmocr.
68 A 39.
•• P. Dcrv. xi. 4, 7, xii. 1, 8, xviii. 2; cf. Anaxag. A 42 § 2, B 1; Lcucippus 67
A 1 § 31, 10. Thc writer's expression ,cpoú,c,9,.. 11por &ll'l,\11 (Tà .;,,.,.11) is paralleled
in aecounts derived from Theophrastus of the behaviour of Leucippus' atoms:
67 A 1 § 31, 6, 10, 1'4; cf. 68 A 49, 50, 62.
21 P. Derv. xxií. 3-g; cf. Anaxag. A 12, 42 § 6, 71, Leucipp. 11.cc., Democr.
A t § 45, 83. " Cols. ii, iii, xvii
82 THE PROTOCONOS AND DER VENI THEOGONIES
Orphic, is itself unlikely to be earlier than the fifth century,
for that is when the identification of Demeter with Rhea or
the Mother of the Gods first appears. 23 His own language and
style suit the earlier fourth century rather than the fifth. On
the other hand, as Burkert has argued, 24 a man so untouchcd
by the influence of Plato, so 'Presocratic' in his outlook, cannot
easily be imagined writing as late as the middle of the fourth
century. He seems to stand in the sarne tradition as that other
Anaxagorean allegorist, Metrodorus of Lampsacus: not neces-
sarily as early, but scarcely generations later. We should
probably assume an inte.rval of some decades between the
composition of his work andl the making of the copy burnt
at Derveni.
The Orphi,e poem. Its proem

We can now address ourselves to the fragments of the Orphic
poem upon which our preposlcrous commentator is exercising
his ingenuity. We must, of course, pay attention to his inter-
pretation in so far as it provides evidence about the text that
he had before him, but no further.
ln column iv, as has bee.n mentioned, he appears to be
embarking upon bis exegesis and referring to the beginning of
the poem. According to a brilliant suppleme.nt by Burkert, thc
first line contained the commamd 'Close your doors, ye profane',
BrJpas 8' brl8Ea8E fU{3.,,>.o,, which also appeared in the first line
oftheJewish TestamenJ of Orpkeus (abovc, p. 34). It is a solemn
formula alluded to by many writers from Plato on. They do
not in general ascribe it to any author but associate it with
mysteries and sacraments; Pla to uses ba.ccheia in the sarne con-
text.25 Originally it must have had a literal meaning: holy
things were to be carried through the streets, and the unqualified
•3 Mclanippidcs PMG 764, E. Htl. 1301 ff. (cf. PhM<. 685 f., Biu,h. 275 f.),
Tdesta PMG 8og. Thc oquation oí Hestia aod Ea.r th is attcsted for Sophodes'
Trif,IBÚltuls (+68 ac: fr. 615); cf. E. fr. 9,44 (Ana,cag. A 20b).
u A,,nú ud Ai,,,,,//4nd 14 ( 1g68), 99-100; Lu Étudts pl,üos~ 1970(4),
443-55.
•• S,1mp. 218b 1rá.,,,.,r yàp "'"º""'"'Í"mTf Tij$ i;,>.oaó;ov JA4Vla.f n KCU {Jt11<)(flar'
3,ô 1r&vrc( <ÍKoúo,a8, ... ol 6l olK,.,4', ,cal .r 'T~í áMor icrrl /Ufh,Ã&s 'H ,cal dypoo,or,
,rJÀM 1rcívv µ<yÓÃas TOis walv l11/9ca8• (printcd .by Kern as Orph. fr. 13}. Aristi<lc•
Or, 3. 50 also has ,rJÃ11r for thc usual 9.1pa.s.
THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONJES 83
were forbidden to look. 26 By Plato's time, however, the doors
have become metaphorical doors which the profane are to dose
over their ears. One a_u thor who does ascribe the phrase to
Orpheus is Tatian. As a Christian apologist heis likely to have
known it from the Testament, but it is interesting that he cites
'Orpheus who tells the profane to dose their doors' for the
story of Zeus' intercourse with his daughter, which came in the
Rhapsodies. 2 '
There are two diffcrcnt versions of a first half for lhe line.
ln the Testament it appears as 'I will speak for those entitled',
,f,fJéyfoµ.a, ots IUJl,'s JcnL This form of the line is also known to
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who is not likely to have the Jewish
fabrication in mind, and to Aristides. 28 The alternative version
is 'I sing (v.J. will sing) for those of understanding', riE~w (or
aorist subjunctive riEíuw) fwn·oia,. 29 This gives a less natural
antithesis to 'the profane' and therefore looks secondary, but
it might still be of early enough origin to have stood in the
Derveni poem. What remains of the exegesis perhaps suits it
better than the other version. There is one piece of evidence to
suggest that it did stand in an Orphic theogony. Plutarch makes
one of the interlocutors in a jovial debate on the question which
carne first, the chicken or lhe egg, say with a chuckle, 'And
furthermore "I will sing for those of understanding" that
Orphic and sacred story which not only makes the egg older
than the bird but attributes to it comprehensive seniority over
everything.'J0 A cosmic egg appeared in at least two Orphic
theogonies, the Hieronyman and the Rhapsodic, and the words
'sacred story', lEpos À6yos, may allude to Hieros Logos as a title
of the Rhapsodies. The passage does not prove that 'I will sing
for those of understanding' carne in one of these poems, and
16 See Cal!. H. 6.3-6. The scboliasr on the passagc informs WI tbar the pro-
cession in question was introducod at Alexandria by Ptolemy PbiladelphWI ín

imitation of tbat at Atbens.
17 Ad Grucos 8 (Orph. fr. 59).
•• D. H. Comp. 194-5, Aristid., l.c. Lobock, 450 n., notes that ots 9l,,..s is
standard sacra! language.
•• Plut, fr, •202 (Stob. 3.1.199), Gaudent. Harm. p. 327.3 Jan, Olympiod. in
Categ. CAGxii (1).12.11, scb. S. OC 10; prínted by Kcrn as Orph. fr. 334. ln Stob.
3.41.9 the verse appears on its own under the name of Pythagoras, but tbis looks
líke a misundentandíng arising from lhe Plutarch fragmcnt which Stobaeus has
used earlier.
'º Q.um,,t. co,w, 636d, cf. 636e (holiness of the egg in Diony,iac orgies) , 635e.
8• T HE PROTOGONOS AND DER VEN I THEOGONIES
if it carne in the Rhapsodies it is surprising that the Neo-
platonists do not cite it from Orpheus; the only one of them
who does quote it, Olympiodorus, attributes it to some un-
specified priest of the past. But the association in Plutarch is
suggestive, and now that we find what looks like 'dose your
doors, ye profane' in the Derveni poem we must take it more
seriously.
At the top of column v the commentator quotes the verse
those who were born fr-om Zeus the [might)y king.
This is still the proem, for the birth of Zeus' children cannot
have been recorded till well after the events referred to in the
lemmata that follow. In forra the verse is exactly like Hesiod,
Theogony 1o6, '(Celebrate the family of the immortals,) those
who were bom from Earth and starry Heaven', and 111, 'and
tbose who were born from them, gods givers of blessings'. The
Derveni text in fact breaks off before the most important chil-
dren of Zeus are reached, but they must have been significant
for the poet. Presumably it was Zeus' divine children that
were meant, not heroes.
Zeus and his predecessors

The commentator proceeds to quote and interpret the verses
z.,uç µ.lv, t1r•t &r} TTCr~ loii ,rópc 8l~cro11 àpx,í11
CWC'J7" r ' b, ,c••p•aa(,) ~ 1<ct 8c1µ,o..,.,. ,cwpóv.
Zeus, when from his fathe:r the propbesied rule
and strength in bis hands he took and the glorious daimon
(v. 4-5). Our immediate impression is that he has leapt from

the proem to a much later part of the poem, for Hesiod's
Theogony and all other theogonies that we know of lead us to
ex:pect an account of the beginning of the world and of the
rulers who preceded Zeus before we come to his reign. But the
first verse, which has no connecting particle but a forwar~-
looking µli,, is perfectly formulated to begin a narrative. A
more telling consideration is that we presently meet a series of
fragments in which the poet goes out of his way to refer back,
in brief relative clauses, to the most important chapters in the
history of events before Zeus, as if to sum up what he had left
out in beginning with Zeus' achievement of supremacy:
x. 4 (lhe god) .•• who first sprang forth into the aither.
xi. 5---6 (Kronos) who did a mighty deed
to Uranos, son of Níght, who became king first of ali;
xií. 6 following him again Kronos, and then Zeus the contriver.
We must accept that the poem began with Zeus' rise to power
and not press it into conformity with a stereotype. The poet
knows and presupposes a complete account, differing from
Hesiod's, of the earlier part of the divine history, but his
interest is concentrated ·o n Zeus and the younger gods.
Why did Zeus take a glorious daimon into his hands, and
who was it? I am convinced that the text used by the commen-
tator was faulty. ln column x he quotes the verses
, J,tEV,
Z EIIS I t \ ~\
E1rEL o'l}
, t
1TO.T~ EOIJ
,. 1
1ro.pa 'JJ
[9E ..,.,,aT t OJCOIJUO.S''
t /
Zeus, when, from his father the prophecy having heard,

and
alôofov Ka[T]É1rww, Ôs, alBÉpa l1<9o,x trf>WTOS',
the reverend one he swallowed, who first sprang forth into the
aither.
The commentator interprets al8oiov as if it were a noun mean-

ing 'sexual organ', but it is clear both from the masculine
pronoun that follows and from a later fragment that it was
originally intended as an epithet of the 'Firstborn king' whom
Zeus swallowed. 31 The epithet cannot stand in isolation, but
the difficulty is solved by transferring the second line of the
fragment in column v to precede this one. Zeus did not take
'power, strength, and the glorious daimon' into his hands, but
strength ín hís hands he took, and the glorious daímon,
the reverend one, he swallowed, who first sprang forth into the aither. 30
The verse was displaced because of the similarity of the one

before it ('Zeus, when ... the prophecy having heard') to the
one quoted in v. 4, which I estimate to have stood only about
" xiü. 3 llp«>~oy&w,v fla<1cMws al3o,ov,
" For 8..t,.,,,a Kv3p&v [ al3o.o~ cf, Hcs. Op. 257 (of Dike) Kv6p~ T' ai&{~ TE
8,oir.
six lines earlier in the poem. The similarity of those two lines
causcd further confusion between them: whereas Zeus took 'the
prophesied rule' from his father Kronos, the prophecy did not
come from his father but, as we are informed in columns vii
and viii, from the goddess Night. It follows that in the line
Zeus when from his father the prophecy having heard,
the middle part has been accidentally assimilated to the earlier

tine. The first passage, I conjecture, originally went
Zeus, when from his father the prophesied rule
and sceptre in his hands UN1S about to take,
and the second passage (after some línes about the prophecies
ofNight) went
Zeus then, from the godlÍBss the prophecy having heard,
strength in his hands did take, etc.
ln the intervening lines Night was described as a 'nurse' (vii.

11), and as prophesying from a sanctum (áS1JTov, viii. 1). She
revealed to Zeus everything that he needed to do (?) in order
to rule (?) on the faír seat of snowy Olympus (viii. 10, ix. 2).
At this point wc may pause and review what we have learnt
so far of the history of the world according to the poet. The
first who sprang into the aither was a glorious god with the
title Firstborn (Protogonos). But the first to exercise kingly
power was Uranos, who was the son ofNight. He was succeeded
by Kronos, who 'did a great deed' to him-no doubt an allusion
to the traditional myth of his castration. Kronos in tum was
succeeded by Zeus, to whom Night, who was a 'nurse', gave
oracular advice from her sanctum. ln obedience to this advice
Zeus swallowed Protogonos.
If the reader turns back to pp. 70-3 he will see that ali this
agrees with the account given in the Rhapsodic Theogony.
There too we have the succession Uranos-Kronos-Zeus,
Uranos being the son of Night. There too Zeus' accession to
power is master-minded by Night, who prophesies from her
cave or sanctum and is called 'nurse of the gods'. She tells
him how to overthrow Kronos, and that he must swallow the
god Phanes, one of whose names is Protogonos. This god carne
into existence at an early stage in the cosmogony: he carne from
THE PROTOG ONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGON[ES S.,
a shining egg made from aither, and the aither split when he
emergcd. The Rhapsodic narrative, of course, contained far
more detail than the cursory allusions in the Derveni poem.
Some of this detail may represent secondary elaboration. For
instance, in the Derveni poem Uranos is cxplicitly called the
first king, whereas in the Rhapsodies he was the third, Phanes
and Night being considered to have reigncd before him. But
I have no doubt that if we had the full Protogonos Theogony
that the Derveni poet has abridged, we shoutd find a good deal
more in it that corrcsponded to the Rhapsodies. ln particular
I think it virtually ccrtain that the Firstborn god sprang from
an cgg made by Unaging Time out of aithcr, that he was a
radiant figure with golden wings, and that he generated further
gods by mating with himself. For we shall see !ater that this
myth is all of a piece, and the presencc of Protogonos pre-
supposes the rest. The reference to Night as a nurse (very likely
'nurse of thc gods, ambrosial Night', as this phrase, attested
for the Rhapsodies ( ro6), fits in neatly with the neighbouring
lemmata, cf. p. 114 line 9) probably implies the story that shc
nurtured the Titans for Ge (129, 131). Uranos had thrown his
first sons, the Hundred-Handers and the Cyclopes, into Tar-
tarus, it having becn prophesired to him that he would be
dcposed by his own children. Ge thereforc concealed the birth
of the Titans and cntrusted them to Night to rear in the secrecy
of her cave. It was Night, no doubt, who had made the pro-
phecy to Uranos. The inference that this story carne in the
Protogonos Theogony is supported by thc fact that it is attested
for the Hieronyman Theogony (fr. 57), which was, as we shall
see in · Chapter 6, essentially the Protogonos Theogony in
modem dress.
ln a fragmentary verse the Derveni poet apparently associ-
ated Zeus' royal powcr with Metis.33 Tbis is easily understood
in the light of Hesiod's Thtogony, where Zeus, on becoming
king of the gods, marries and then swaUows Metis. He does
this on the advice of Gaia and Uranos, who warn him that
she will bear dangerously bold and dever children who will
be a threat to him. The parallel between Hesiod and Orpheus
is obvious. ln Hesiod Zeus swallows Metis because of pro-
phetic advice from Gaia and Uranos; in Orpheus he swallows
88 T H E PR OTOGONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGONIES
Protogonos bccause of p ropheric advice from Night; in both
cases it is one of the first acts of bis reign. Thc O rphic myth
has bcen influenced by the older Hesiodic myth. ln the Rhap-
sodies, at least, the bisexual Phanes was cxplicitly identified
with Metis, and the same may well havc bcen true in the
Derveni Theogony.
A more substancial disagreement between the Derveni poem
and the Rhapsodies than we have detected hithcrto is implied
by the commcntator's statement in column xi that Orpheus
said Kronos was born from the Earth and the Sun. 'The sun'
was the commentator's interpretation of the 'rcvercnd one'-
the sexual organ, in bis view-that Zeus swallowcd in the
preccding column. So it looks as if the poem, as thc commen-
tator read it, rcpresented the swallowed god, that is Protogonos,
as the father of Kronos by Ge. T his is strangc. ln thc Rhap-
sodies, as in Hcsiod and elsewhere, it was Uranos who was the
father of KronO;'l and husband of Ge. ln the Derveni poem itself
Uranos was succeeded by Kronos in thc kingship. T he anomaly
may arise from a misinterpretation by the commentator, who
is in general the least trustworthy of guides. After mentioning
Protogonos as the god. who first sprang forth, thé poct may have
said 'He generatcd Ge and Uranos; and to him [meaning
Uranos] Ge bore Kronos, who did a great deed to Uranos'.
There are scvcral examples in Hesíod's divine genealogies of
ambiguous pronouns, and one such may be thc cause of the
oddity here.1~
Tire world absorbed in Zeus

ln column xiii comes the longest quotation from Orpheus in
the papyrus, four lincs, to which I will prefix a fifth by way of
supplcment:
[So Zeus swallowcd thc body of the god,]
of the Firstborn king, the reverend one. And with him ali
the immortals became one, the blessed goda and goddwcs
and rivers and lovely springs and everything else
that tben cxi&tcd: he became the only one.
Thc verb Trpoo,ef>1111, which I have rendered 'became one with
him', means litcrally 'grew on to him' soas to become part of
him. Homer uses it of attaching oneself inseparably to a tree
>♦ Hcs. TIi. a95, 319, 326.
THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONIES 89
like a bat, or to a man's flesh like a leech. ln the Problems
ascribed to Aristotle it is used of food beiug assimilated by the
body. It seems that all the other gods and the cosmic elements
that they represented became absorbed in Zeus. Again the
Rhapsodíes are in agreement (fr. 167):
So then, by engulfing Erikcpaios lhe Fintbom,
hc had the body of ali thing, in hís belly,
and he mixed into his own limbs the god's power and strcngth.
Becau.se ofthis, together with him, evcrything carne to be again insidc
Zeus,
thc broad air and the lofty splendour of hcaven,
the undraining sca. and earth's gloriou, seat,
great Oceanus and thc lowest Ta:rtara of the earth,
rivCt'S a:nd boundless sea and everything cise,
a:nd ali the immortal blcased gods a:nd goddesscs,
ali that had existed and all that was to cxist aftcrwards
became one and grew together in the belly of Zeus.
By swallowing Protogonos, then, Zeus has swallowed the
universe. The logic of this is not at ali clear, because, whatever
cxactly Protogonos repn:sents, there is no suggestion that hc
was identified wíth the world and with the totality of gods. He
did, however, (according to the Rhapsodies) do much to give
lifc and light to the world, and evidently it depended upon
him in such a way that when he went down Zeus' throat every-
thing else was drawn in with him. From this point on, Proto-
gonos disappearcd from the story. His role was finished.
ln the next three colurans of ilhe papyrus, xiv- xvi, the com-
mentator has in vícw a hymn-like passage about Zeus which
is idcntical or similar to a passage already known from other
sources. It was known in two versions: one quotcd in the late
Stoic (pseudo-Aristotelian) work De Mundo, probably after an
earlier Stoic source, and a greatly expanded version quoted
by the Neoplatonists. The longer version (fr. 168) stood in the
Rhapsodies; the shorter, Stoic version (fr. 21a) must have stood
in the earlier Protogonos tradition. Common to the two versions
(with minor variants) are the lines
Zeus wa:s born first, Zew last, god of the brigbt bolt:
Zeus is the head, Zeus the middle, from Zew are ali things made.1 1
" PI. Lg. 715e, 'God, as thc ancicnt story has it, cncompassing thc beginning
and end and middlc of ali that cxiau', has usually (aincc his tcholiast} bccn undcr-
stood u an alhwon to this vcne (fr. 21 K.). Plato adds that this God is always
go THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONIES
Zeus was male, Zeus was an immortal nymph.
Zeus is the foundation of earth and starry heaven.
Zeus the king, Zeus the ruler of ali, god of the bright bolt.
At least three of these five verses (the first two and the fifth,
in the sarne order) carne in the Derveni poem. We are told that
Moira was also mentioned, presumably as another predicate
of Zeus. Perhaps 'Zeus was an immortal nymph' in the later
versions was a substitute for 'Zeus was/is Moira'. The bisexuality
that the equation with Moira suggested might seem a suitable
expression of Zeus' comprehensiveness, especially when he had
swallowed a bisexual god.J6
The new creation

Somethlng no less noteworthy follows in the Stoic version and
(in a slightly different form and after a lengthy insertion) in the
Rhapsodies:
After he had hidden them ali away, again into the glad light
from his holy heart hc brought them up, perfonning mighty acts.
ln the Stoic version 'them all' is 1r&.V'Tas, masculine, that is, ali
the gods; in the Rhapsodies it is 1r&.V'Ta, ali things. When Zeus
engulfed the universe it did not remain as it was. We were told
that everything grew together and became one. He had to
re-create the gods and the world out of himself. He brought
them up again just as Kronos in Hesiod brought up again the
children he had swallowed. But greater dignity is lent to the
process by avoiding Hesiod's word 'vomit' and by saying
'brought up from his holy heart', which suggests the god form-
ing designs and then giving them reality. It was no mere
physical reaction, like Kronos' regurgitations, but intelligent
creation.
The poet of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (22-3) refers
to Hestia as being the eldest of Kronos' children and again the
accompanied by Dike who punishes those who fali short of the divine law: this
is perhaps a paraphrasc of Orph. fr. 158, ""'' ll~ dl1t11 ,roAú,ro,vor ;#"""º ..&aiv
cll>"'1'6r (Burkert, PhrtmlSis 14 ( 1969), 11 n. 25).
16 The commentator cxplains Moira as a curn:nt (,,,.,11111a) in the universal Air.
But then: is no reason to 1hink that hc had ín bis text the verse 'Zeus is lhe breath
of ali, Zeus the impulse of tireleas fin:• which appears in thc Stoic venion of 1he
passagc. lt is absent from thc Rhapoodics venion, and looks like a speeifically
Stoic interpolation. See p. 219,
THE PROTOGONOS AND :OERVENI THEOGONIES 91
youngest by the will of Zeus. ln other words she was born first
and swallowed first, but carne up again last from Kronos' belly,
which counted as a second birth. It is in the sarne sense that
Orpheus referred to Zeus as 'bom first and last'. He was the
youngest of the children of Kronos, the last god to be born
before he swallowed Protogonos, but then all the other gods
had to be born again from him and became bis juniors.
When we next pick up a signal from the Derveni com-
mentator, in column xviii, he is discussing a word or name
90PNHI, new to us but evidently derived from the root
thor-, whose semantic fi.eld covers 'springing' (as Protogonos
sprang into the aither, lKfJopE) and the ejaculation of semen.
According to the exegete the reference is to particles of matter
(what Anaxagoras called seeds, in fact) jumping about and
mingling with each other in the air in the process by which the
present world developed. He identifies this process with the
deities Aphrodite Urania, Zeus, Peitho, and Harmonia, pre-
sumably because they appeared in association at this stage of
the Orphic narrative.. He speaks of Aphrodite, Peitho, and
Harmonia 'being named' in the mixing process; this is bis
rendering of'being bom' (cf. xiv. 4-5). What heis interpreting,
then, is an account of the birth of Aphrodite, attended by
Peitho and Harmonia, as in Hesiod she is attended at her birth
by Eros and Himeros (Th. 201) and in the Rhapsodies by Eros
(fr. 184) or by Zelos and Apate (fr. 127.5). Both in Hesiod and
in the Rhapsodies the birth of Aphrodite is the result of an
escape of clivine semen. ln Hesiod she grows from the foam
(à,f>pós, accounting for her name) which appeared round the
severed genitais of Uranos as they floated in the sea. ln the
Rhapsodies, because of the combination of different source.q,
she had two births, the first (section C) as in Hesiod, the second
(E 5) from an ejaculation of Zeus which again fell into the sea.
ln the light of these stories it seems probable that the dative
8oplJ'T/1 in the Derveni poet's account of Zeus' creation of
Aphrodite means 'from bis seed' or 'by an ejaculation' .J1
We need not suppose that Zeus was pursuing Dione as in
the Rhapsodies. Rather it was a considered, solitary act of
., ln the account of her second birth in the Rhapsodies we read (fr. 183.1-2)
&1ró 3' l K 8 o p < ,r,u·pl p.«ylof'ãJ,. 1 olaolwv õ.f>poio yovrj. The formation of the
word 1/op-»j may havc bcen ínftucnccd by thc sound of l"'""'Í·
divine creation. He brought forth other gods from his mouth,
Aphrodite from his loins.
It looks as if she was one of his first creations, before the
physical world. The inference is that the poet throught of her
a.s fulfilling a cosmic role. Hesiod and others placed Eros among
the most ancient powers; as for Aphrodite, she appeared as a
demiurge in Parmenides (if not under her own name), she is
certainly one of the two powers that govern the working of
Empedocles' cosmos, and her responsibility for the fructifying
union of sky and earth is celebrated in famous fragments of
Aeschylus and Euripides,311
ln columns xx- xxii of the papyrus the commentator is con-
cerned with Zeus' creation of Oceanus and the rivers (the
'sinews of Achelous'), and of the sun, moon, and stars. The
verb used in the verse about the creation of Oceanus was
µ~oaTo, 'contrived'. Again the deliberate intelligence of the
creation is conveyed. Achelous apparently stands for the world's
fresh-water streams; they form a network like the sinews of the
body,39 We have not got the verses in which the poet described
the contriving of the moon, but we have got a fragment of the
Rhapsodies (91) which would fit here very well:
And he contrived (1'11ªª"'º) another vast earth: &Iene
the ímmortals call it, bu't men on earth Ment,
Many mountains it has, many cities, many halls.
It first so well because of the verb µ~oa-ro, and because the terms
in 'which the moon is imagined in the third line suit a pre-
Hellenistic text (see p. 49).•0 Another interesting detail about
the moon can be gleaned from column xxi. Orpheus called it
'equal from the centre in its bodily parts'; by which he probably
)1 Eros: Hes. Th. 120 (scc my note), Sappho 1g8, Parm. B 13, Acusil. 2 F 6,
Ar, Au. 700 1 Simmias Wings; Protogonos = Ero.• in lhe Rhapsodics, Parmenides:
below, p. 109. Emp. B 17.24 (= Philotes), 22.5, etc.; A. fr. 125 M., E. fr. 8g8.
it The t.ragcdian Chocrilus used a similar metaphor when he called rivers
'Earth's veins' (2 F 3). (Pindar usttl a di:ffcrcnt organic metaphor when be referred
to springs as 'thc leaves of Ouanus' (fr. 326), picturing thc underground channels
which conncct théffl to the main slrcam as 1hc hiddcn branchcs of a grcat trec.)
Achelous was lhe grcatcst ofrivcrs (cf. II. i11.194-5, Acusil. 2 F 1). For the use of
the namc to stand for water gcncrally see LSJ, and Dodds on E. Bacela. 625-6;
Servius ascribes it to Orphcus ( = fr. 344 K.).
•• Thc distinclion made betwecn the gods' and mcn's names for the moon has
no religious signilicance but is a poetic mannerism. Sec my note on Hcs. Th. 83 r.
THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVEN I THEOGONIES 93
meant spherical.•• The realization that the moon shone by
reftectcd sunlight (and was thcrcforc earthlike, inhabitable)
must have led to the realization:. that it was spherical, for only
a sphere would display the phases that we see in the moon.
But I do not know of any other refcrcnce to its sphericity in the
classical period. Orpheus also said that it shines for many
mortais on thc boundless earth. His use of 'many' rather than
'ali' struck the commentator, who took him to be thinking
especially of farmers and sailors who need to calculate the
seasons. But although civic calendars were based on the moon,
it was of no use to those who really needed to know the time
of year. They wcnt by the stars.41 If Orpheus' ' many' has a
point, I wonder whether he imagined that thc moon's phascs
werc different as seen from differcnt parts of the earth, so that
there were always some peoples to whom it was invisible. Such
a notion could not, of course, cocxist with any clear sense of
spatial geometry.
Tlte rape of Rhea-Demlter. Tounger gods

By column xxiii, the last in the papyrus, the story has moved
into a new pbase. Zeus is no longer tbe solitary demiurge
producing things from his insides: he has begun to lust aftcr
others.
He wantcd to uni1e in l ove with his mothcr.
His mother is normally Rhea; when he is callcd the son of

Earth,4 3 we may suppose that Rhea is identified with Earth.
Whcn he imprcgnates his motbcr, it is Rhca identified with
Demeter, the basis for identification being that both are Earth.
ln column xix the commentator has argued the identity of
Earth, the Mother, Rhea, Hera, and Demeter, perhaps just
as an illustration of how men give different names to the sarne
entity. He added that the goddess is also callcd Oco 'because
•1 1 ....umc that 'from thc centre','" -roíi úú.)0011, is notju.st an addition in thc
commcntator's paraphrasc but represcnll IH"~"' loo,..,.>.~r in lhe ociginal. Cf.
Parm. B 8.43 f. ,,l,,,/,r.\ou ~(P'lr lvo..\Ly,r10• &y,rc,x, 1 l"""ó8•• laotra>.i~ ,,.,í,,,.,,,.
o Sec my Htsiod, Works and Days ( 1978), 3-,6 ff'.
•• A. SIJ/IP. 8g2, S. PhU. 392. Even in lHcsiod Ge plays a part in the sto.-y of
üus' birth in wbich ahc 11CeU1S a doublc of Rhca; cf. Nilsson, 77u MÍIIOlm-
M.,,_ R.tlifiml (2nd cd., 1950), 572.
she was ravaged (S11tow-.d'l)wl) in her copulation, as he (Or-
pheus) will make all too (?) plain according to what comes
!ater (?)'. The copulation foreshadowed by the verse in column
xxiii, then, was in some way violent. 'He wanted' indeed
implies that there was a difficulty in Zeus' way. But we may
be sure that he overcame it. There can be little doubt of a
connection with the story told in the Rhapsodies (E 6). Zeus
pursued the goddess, and they mated in the form of a pair of
snakes. The result was that she gave birth to Persephone, who
had two faces, four eyes, and horns. The birth of Persephone,
whether with these distinctive features or not, must surely have
followed in the Derveni Theogony.
The poem cannot have come to an abrupt end at that point.
The commentator might have broken off his analysis here for
some inscrutable reason; but even if he did, it is impossible to
believe that he was able to bring his own discourse to a con-
clusion in a few more tines. Column xxiii is followed by a
blank sheet. But that is usual at the end of a papyrus roll.
We must conclude that the reason why there is no more writing
is not that the end of the work had been reached but that the
roll was full, or as full as it was customary to fill a roll. ln ali
probability the text continued in another roll, or several,
which perhaps perished on the funeral pyre shortly after
volume I rolled off it.
How, then, did the poem continue? The answer is no doubt
there in the Rhapsodies narrative, if only we can pick it out.
There Zeus is involved in a whole series ofunions with different
goddesses, and many children are born. Only two of them,
however, Kore and Dionysus, have a special role as saviours
of mankind. Salvation is what we should expect the Derveni
Orpheus to be ultimately proclaiming, especially as he has
dealt so summarily with ali that happened before Zeus' reign
and with Zeus' own re-creation of the world. I estimate that ali
of that occupied only ahout forty tines {see the reconstruction on
pp. 114-15). It is significant that as soon as the poet had got the
world back into shape he went straight to the act which resulted
in the birth of Kore. She must have been an important figure
in his gospel. So we must concentrate on what the Rhapsodies
had to say about her, and try to decide how much of that is
to be attr.ibuted to the Derveni poem, or at least to the Proto-
TJ-lE PROTOGONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGONIES 95
gonos Theogony of which the Derveni poem represents one
recension.'"
There are two distinct themes in Kore's story as the Rhap-
sodies had it. One is a development of the traditional myth of
her abduction by Pluto, with the special features (i) that she
bore him children, the Eumenides, (ii) that it was prophesied
sbe would bear these children to Apollo, (iii) that she was
guardcd by the Kouretes, and (iv) that she was weaving a
robe until she was carried off. The other continues the motif
of Zeus mating as a snak~. He mates in this guise with Kore,
in Crcte, and she gives birth to Dionysus, who after being killed
by the Titans and restored to liíe becomes her partner in
helping men to escape from the cycle oí reincarnation. 0
There are several indications that separate accounts have
been conflated in tbis complicated saga. For one thing the
snake-Zeus who mates with Persephone must be the chthonic
Zeus; but chthonic Zeus is often identified with Hades- Pluto
and ncver distinguishcd from him, so the myth of the snake-
mating cannot well coexist with that of thc chariot-snatch.
Secondly there is the discrepancy between the prophesied and
the actual father of the Eumenides. We can ií we like gloss it
over by saying that when Rhea-Demeter said it would be
Apollo, this was a casuistry of the kind proper to oraclcs, the
name standing for Hades as 'the destroyer'. •6 But the point
of misleading oracles is normally that they cawe the recipient
to take the wrong evasive action, or prevent him from realizing
when he is approaching danger: we can detect nothing of the
sort in Persephone's case. So perhaps an account in which
she did bear the Eumenides to Apollo has been elided into the
more familiar story of her marriage to Pluto, which is usually
represented as childless, being a complete myth in itself.
Thirdly there is a núxture of ingredients from different local
mythologies. Zeus' union with Kore is placed in Grete, and it
is from there that purification ceremonies are made to spread
through the world. The Kouretes who guard first Kore and
then Dionysus are a distinctly Cretan element, and they are
" Thc compilct of the Rhapsodics clcarly did DOt use the Dervcni poem itsclf
but tbc original Protogonos pocm or 10mc subsequent (full-le.n gth) reccnsion ofit.
o For fuller dctails scc p. 74.
• 6 Thi, seme was ofien beard ln Apollo'• namc. See Fracnlr.el on A. At, 1081.
- THBPROTOGONOS ANDDERVENlTHEOGONlES
playing the sarne role as in the Cretan story of the infancy of
Zeus. The goddcss Hipta who takes Dionysus from Zeus' thigh
and carries him to Ida belongs to Asia Minor, especially to
Mount Tmolus in Lydia. Shc was a chthonic Mother-goddess,
perbaps identical with the Hurrian-Hittite ij:epat, and she was
associated in cult with Sabazios.•7 Her presence in tbe Orpbic
account is the result of identifying Sabazios with Dionysus and
incorporating a myth about the birth ofthis Dionysus-Sabazios
with the rest. The boiling of Dionysus was known to Calli-
machus and Eupborion as a Delphic myth,•8 and this is
reflected in the Rbapsodies by the burial of his limbs on
Parnassus by Apollo.
We can identify two sources used by the compiler of the
Rhapsodies for his account of Zeus and the younger gods:
the (ora) Protogonos Theogony, and the Eudemian Theogony.
The latter, as we shall see in the next chapter, probably included
the Crctan version of the birth of Zeus, with the Kouretes'
dance. lt is surely likely that the repetition of tbis motif in
connection with Kore and Dionysus and the references to
Cretc carne into the Rhapsodies from the sarne source. The
Kouretes' protection of Dionysus implies that he is threatened
by the Titans, as Zeus was tbreatened. l f bis dismemberment
and resurrection take us from Crete to Delphi, that need not
mean a change of poem. There were early links between the
tbe two places in religious myth. They both play a part in
Hesiod's account of the birth of Zeus, and the Pythian Hymn
to Apollo tells us that the first priests at Delphi were Cretans.•9
The Kouretes and the T itans, then, and the whole story of the
rending of Dionysus, can be left out of our rcconstruction of
the Protogonos Theogony. ln any case it seems unlikely that
when the poet spoke of Zeus bringing forth again the gods he
had swallowed, he had any other gods in mind than those of thc
present world. The Titans, I assume, like Protogonos, had
faded from the scene.
Just as the Kouretes' dances round Kore and Dionysus
continue a motif from the Eudemian Theogony, so Z e•JS'
•' Dmludir. Wítn. Ak. 54 (1911), 85, No. 16g M,[.\]Tl"" M.,,,,pa M,rrpl •JWTo.
•vx,I•; g6, No. 188 MriTpl ·r.,,,,.a. Ko.l .4ul L'o.[f:lc,(fu,); BSA lll
(1914/16), 16g ..4«1
Eo./Jo.{lq, Ko.l M.,,,,pl Er,n-, (ali from Maconia below Trnolua); cf. Orph. Hymn "8
and -49. •• Ca!I. fr. 643, Euph. fr. 13 Powcll. Cf. p. 151,
•• H ct. 771. +77 ff. , 499, tf. my oommcntary, PP· ,:i91-g; H:,,,m. Ap. 383-~
assumption of snake form to impregnate Kore continues a
motif which we have seen reason to ascribe to the Dcrveni
poem. It may not have been an exact replay of his snakc-
coupling with Rhea-Demetcr, because in that scene both
partners were snakes, whereas wc do not hear that Korc becamc
a snakc. As Nonnus describes it, shc rcmained in human form,
the snake gliding over and licking her body.s0 The myth may
be rclated to the practice in the cult of Sabazios of letting a
goldcn snake-earlier, presumably, a live one-slip through
thc initiand's clothing next to thc skin and then pulling it back
again. The act was described in the mystic formula 8Eôi; 8,à.
,cÓÀ?rou, and whatever its original meaning, in later times it was
taken to be a symbol of Zeus' union with bis daughtcr.si We
have already identi.fied a Sabazian element in thc Orphic
story in the nurse Hipta. She must come from the sarne linc of
tradition as the divine snakcs; and it looks as if this was the
Protogonos tradition. Incidentally, the motif of copulating
snakes (as in thc cpisode ofZeus and Rhea) probably appcared
also at the beginningofthe Protogonos Theogony, for the union
ofChronos and Ananke seems to have been pictured so (p. 194).
I observed that the myth of the chthonic Zeus-snake eould
not well coexist with a chariot-snatch of Persephone by Hades-
Pluto, and we can exclude this from the Protogonos pocm
without misgivings. The weaving ofthe robe which is associated
with the Pluto episode in thc Rhapsodies can also be left aside:
not that tbc association is a ncccssary one, for the weaving might
stand on its own, as it perhaps did in the Pythagorcan-Orphic
Robe.,i It is possible that the compiler of the Rhapsodies used
the Robe among bis other sources. But at any rate therc is
nothing to link the weaving with the Sabazian motifs which
• 0 D. 6.1:,5 ff, Apparently so also Ovid, M, 6.114. Athenagoras' pbrase in fr. 58,
'violating her too in serpent shapc' (fl,.aod.µ~= Kal -r<1Ó"'1• ;. 8páKol'TOr <>x,lµa-r,)
is ambiguous. Certain Selinuntine coins or tbe late :,th or carly 4th century BC
show what appcars to bc an erotic confrontation bctween a Jarge snakc and a
woman or goddess; see Zuntz, 397 r.
11 Clem. Prol,, 2.15, Tatian od Grueos 8, p. 9. to Schw., Arnob. :,.20 f., Firmic,
Matem, ro; A. Dicterich, EiM Millrraslitutti• (3rd crl., 1923), 123 f.; A. B. Cook,
z-, i ( 19,4), 39'2 e:; Nilsson, Gr. hl., ii. 66o f. For Moroccan and Kentucky
parai.leis to the act sce R. Bruncl, Essai sur la c"'lfrlrie , ~ du 'Aíssâoua •• MMO<
( 1926), 150; Dodds, TAi GrNks and tltt lrratÍllrllll, 276; Weston La Barre, T/,q
Sltall Tale, Up Ser,-is ( 1g62).
•• Cf. p. 11 . On thcotber hand lhe interruption of the weaving by thc abductioo
may already have Jtood in the Rob,,
g8 THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONIES
on our hypothesis characterized the Protogonos poem. The
birth of the Eumenides from Persephone, on the other hand,
may well have appeared there. The Derveni commentator, we
know, had a strong religious interest in the Eumenides, and
there are signs that they appeared in his Orpheus (p. 78). It
is fairly clear that they were not mentioned among the older
gods, in the brief allusions to the generations before Zeus, so
they can only have been sprung from the younger ones if their
parentage was recorded. Persephone is then, so far as one can
sec, the only suitahle mother for them. As for their father, the
elimination of Hades-Pluto from the narrative leaves the field
clear for the father named in the prophecy in the Rhapsodies,
Apollo. If there was a corresponding prophecy in the Proto-
gonos poem, it is possible that it served in lieu of an account of
the event. The poet can hardly have gone on to record Apollo's
intercourse with Persephone unless he first gave an account of
Zeus' union wit\) Leto and the birth of Apollo and Artemis.
Mank.ind
We have excluded the Titans from the story of Dionysus, and
thus also the creation of mankind from the smoke they gave
off. But the story of the three races created in tum by Phanes
(golden), Kronos (silver), and Zeus must-unless it was an
innovation by the compiler of the Rhapsodics-come from the
tine of tradition in which there was a demiurge Phanes-
Protogonos before Kronos and Zeus. As in Hesiod (Op. 109-
201), the races differed in physical vigour. The silver race at
any rate lived longer than we do, as long as the date-palm. 53
With this must be assor.iated the information that Kronos' hair
never grows grey (fr. 130, 142). Possibly Proclus, who tells us
this, misconstrued a pronoun which really referred not to Kronos
himself but to his silver race: 'to it Zeus granted .. .' ( 142).
It remains to ask whether the eschatology of the Rhap-
sodies, the theory of reincamation and the rewards and punish-
ments in the oth.e r world between incarnations, corresponds to
anything in the Protogonos Theogony. It may be said at once
that it presents a distinctly old-fashioned appearance. There is
none of the picturesque embellishment that Plato puts upon
u According to the arithmetic of 'Hesiod', fr. 304, that would be equivalcnt
to 972 human gencrations.
THE PR OTOGONOS AND DER VENI THEOGONIES 99
such matters. No one would take it for Hellenistic; in any case
part ofit is pretty clearly cited by Aristotle.H There is nothing
about the sou! rejoining its kindred aither: good and bad souls
alike are led below the earth. It is all closer to Empedocles
than to anything else. 'fhere is the same preoccupation as in
Empedocles with the idea of relatives being reincarnated in
unrecognized forms (224a, cf. Emp. B 137). ln one detail it is
more archaic than Empedocles. Hesiod had said that a god
who swears falsely on the water of Styx is banished from divine
society for nine years. The Orphic poet kept to this quite
closely, except that it is not certain whether he made the period
nine years or nine thousand. Empedocles increases it to thirty
thousand, and although he still speaks of perjury, he no longer
mentions the Styx. 55 It looks as if this part of lhe Rhapsodies
comes from the fifth century, and from the first half rather
than the second.
We cannot, then, exclude it from the Protogonos Theogony
on grounds of anachronism. lt is not our method to include
whatever we are unable to exclude. I propose nevertheless to
include it, beca use if it is as early as it looks, it is too earl y for
any other Orphic theogony detcctable in the Rhapsodies, and
because its relationship to Hcsiod and to Empedocles is very
similar to what we shall find when we consider the affinities of
thc rest of the Protogonos poem.
ln fr. 232 somcone is telling Dionysus that
mcn will scnd hccatombs always in annuaJ scason
and pcrform thc ritcs, scclúng rclcase from thcir forcfathcn'
unrightcouaness; and you in powcr ovcr them
will frce thosc you wish from toiJs and endlcss frcnzy.
The speaker may be Zeus; but the author of lhe Orphic
Argonautica refers to 'holy oracles of Night about the lord
Bacchus', which must have stood in the Rhapsodies, 56 and
H Orpb. fr. 228ab, u3.4--5; Aris1. D., lfflmt4 410029 = Orph. fr. 27. Cf. also
Hecataeus oi Abdeno 264 F 25 § g6.5-6.
" Hcs. 771. 793-&4, Orph. fr. 295, Emp. B 115. ln Empedoclcs lhe god spcnd.s
the time passing through mortal incamation,. ln Orphcus lhe god spent howcver
many years it was in Tartarus; but it is possiblc that hc may bave undCt'gonc,
mortal incarnations as well, since Numenius was able to intcrprct the Orphic
Styx as an allcgory of spcrm (Orph. fr. 124, cf. EGPO 25 f,) . However, he seems
lO 'have donc likcwisc with Hesiod's Styx.
,, Arg. 28. The tine must bc transposed to a placc in thc passage conccrncd witb
the Rhapsodics (12-20); as it stands it brcab tbe link betwcen lhe Cabiri (<17)
aod úmnos and Samotbracc (29} (above, p. 37).
100 THE PROTOGONOS AN O DERVENI THEOGONIES
presumably carne there from the sarne source-poem as the
carlier oracles of Night, those in which she instructed Zeus on
how to take command ofthings. Oraclcs abouJ Bacchus were not
neccssarily addrcssed to him, but there is no rcason why an
account given to him of his future functions should not have
been so dcscribed.
RecapituJation: structure and contmts of the Derveni poem

ln a brief proem Orpheus announced that he would sing, for
thosc with insight, of the wondrous works of Zeus and the gods
born from him. His narrative began at the moment whcre Zeus
was due to assume power and took advice from Night. Zeus
swallowed Protogonos; at this point thc poet worked in a
mention of the outstanding events of earlier ages, Protogonos'
fint appearance, the genealogy ProtogonosfNight-Uranos-
Kronos, the castration of U ranos, the kingship succession
Uranos-Kronos-Zeus. With the swallowing of Protogonos
everything became one in Zeus, whose universality was ccle-
brated in _a hymn-like section.
Then Zeus began to bring the gods forth again from his
moutb; ejaculated seed wbich became Aphroditc; and created
ancw earth, heaven, riven, and luminaries, among which the
moon claimed the poet's particular interest. Oncc the world
was restored Zeus conceived a dcsire for his mother, Rhea
who was also Demeter. They mated as snakes, and Rhea gave
birth to Kore. Still (or again) in lhe form of a snakc Zeus
imprcgnated Kore, and shc gave birth to Dionysus, whom the
nurse Hipta carried away in a winnowing-basket with a snake
wound round it.
Kore and Dionysus both perhaps received instruction about
their future destinies, Kore from her mother, Dionysus from
Night. Korc was to bear the Eumenides in union with Apollo
(and, no doubt, to rcign in the lower world, supervising thc
trcatmcnt administered there to souls). Dionysus was to rulc
in the upper world, receivin,g sacrifices from initiates and
rewarding them with salvation.
This is the third race of men, this one that lives under Zeus'
dispcnsation. There was a golden race under Protogonos, and
a silver one un der Kronos. Tlil.e soul is immortal, and passes
through different human and animal bodies. After a human
THE PROTOGONOS J\ND DER VENI THEOGONIES 101
incarnation it stands triai, and the good and wicked go separate

ways. Tartarus, where the wicked go, also accommodates gods
who have sworn falsely on the water of Styx. After 300 years
the souls are reincarnated. Such are the hardships from which
Dionysus is able to deliver men. (And perhaps ali this was set
out in the revelation he received from Night.)
Behind the Derveni poem there must lie a fuller one, the
'Protogonos Theogony', which began at the beginning of
things and set out the whole story of the creation of the cosmic
egg, the hatching of Protogonos, and the gods who reigned
before Zeus. The compiler of the Rhapsodies used it, or a
subsequent recension of it, not the Derveni poem. The above
reconstruction assumes that th-e Derveni poem in its latter
parts contained everything that I have inferred (on the basis
of the Rhapsodies) that the Protogonos Theogony contained.
But not much depends on this, for from now on we shall be
more concerned with the origins of the Protogonos Theogony
than with the secondary version attested by the Derveni
papyrus.
Sources of tlu Protogonos Theogo'!)I

The basic succession, Uranos-Kronos-Zeus, with the castra-
tion ofUranos, is in accord with Hesiodic tradition. Night is not
the mother ofUranos in Hesiod, but she precedes him in order
of appearance, and she always comes very early in divine
genealogies.s7 The oracular and nursing functions attributed
to her are paralleled by those which Hesiod attributes to Ge
and Uranos: they foretell the overthrow ofKronos, they advise
Rhea .how to save Zeus from Kronos-Ge undertakes to rear
him in a cave-and later they instruct Zeus to secure his power
by swallowing Metis.s 8 The emergence of Night in these roles,
however, is bound up with a version of the story of Uranos
which is deliberately anti-Hesiodic.
\
" Acusil. ,:i F 6(b), ps.-Epimcn. 457 F 4, Ar. Av. 6g3, Orph. fr. ,:i8 (Eudemian
Theogony), Musaeus B 14, Cic. .ND 3.44, (= Acusilaus? Holwerda, MMm.• '1'1
(1894), 300), Hyg. Fab. praef. 1.
• 8 Th. 463, 475 ff., 891 ff. Night had an oracle at Megara. {Pau,. 1.40.6), and
she is na.med ín sch. Pind.P., p. ,i.6 Drachmann as thc fint occupant ofthe Dclphic
oracle; she sharcd it with Apollo in an Orphic poem mentioned by Plutarch
{see p. 12).
The bizarre story of the castration of Uranos and his suc-
ces.,íon by Kronos and Zeus is based on a myth that carne to
Greece from the Near East sometime beforc Hesiod. 59 One of
the two main rclevant oriental texts is the Babylonian poem
Enúma EliJ, dating from about the eleventh century BC. There
the two primeval parents are Apsu and Tiâmat, the mate fresh
water from which rivers have their source and the female salt
watcr of the sea. Their waters are mingled ín one body, and
their children and children's children are born wit.hin them.
These gods are obstreperous. Apsu says to Tiâmat,
Tbcir ways are verily loatlaomc unto me,
By day I find no rclicf, nor repose by night.
I will destroy, I will wrcclt thcír ways.60
But he is put to sleep, stripped of his regalia, and slain by the

wise Ea. This parallels Hcsiod's tale of thc primeval parents
Uranos and Ge, whose children rcmain confined within Ge
because Uranos is revoltcd by their monstrous nature; but
whcn Uranos comes to sleep with Ge hc is ambushed and
castratcd by thc cunning Kwnos.
Originally, then, it is the main body of Uranos' children,
the Titans, whom he opprcsses and shuts away insidc the earth.
ln a pre-Hesiodic version it :must have been his unremitting
intercourse with Ge that kept them therc; that is why his
castration releases them. 61 But afl:cr recording the birth of the
Titans Hesiod adds two further groups of children, the Cyclopes
and Hundred-Handers, to account for their presencc later in
the poem. Thc addition bas ali the appearance of an after-
thought, and it introduces some unclarity into the narrative.
As hc has put it, they must be undcrstood to be shut away with
the Titans, but they are somehow not releascd with them. They
rcmain in storage until needed. Zeus releases the Cyclopes
beforc the Titanomachy (they give him the thunderbolt) and
thc Hundred-Handers afl:cr ten years of it (they bombard thc
Titans with rocks from their 300 hands). 61
,. Sce my Huiod, Tluog()lly, 18-30; P . Wa.lcoc, H,siod ond tlu .N,ar East (1966),
1-54-
M i. 37-g, uam. E. A. Speiser in ANET 61.
•• See my note on Hes. Tlt. 1 5B.
•• n. 13g-53, 501-6, 617-75, 113-17.
The Orphic version represents an effort to make the story

clearer and more logical. The poet did not see how the Titans
could castrate Uranos if they were confined within the earth.
So in his account the Hundred-Handers and Cyclopcs are born
first and suffer imprisonmcnt. Their placc of confinement is
identified as Tartarus. The Titam escape this fate bccause Ge,
having seen what sort of a father Uranos is, keeps thcir birth
sccret and entrusts them to their grandmothcr to rear in a cave.
This motif is borrowed from Hesiod's account of Zeus' birth,
as also is the detail that the grandmother had warned the father
that his son or sons would overthrow him.63 The consequence
of these innovations is that when the Titans castrate Uranos,
it no longer releases anyone from confinement but appears
mercly as a rough method of disabling the tyrant.
Hcsiod accounts for only part of thc framework of the Pro-
togonos Theogony. Some very striking extraneous elements
have been incorporated. First there is Protogonos himself, the
brigbt god who first sprang into the aither from the egg made
by Unaging Time. This is a motif of distinctly non-Greek
origin, to be compared with three oriental cosmogonies:
t. ln the Phoenician cosmogony recorded by Laitos and
ascribed to Mõch of Sidon, 'Ülõm, that is Time or Eternity,
unitcd with himself and produced an egg and the divine crafts-
man Chusõr. Chusõr opened the egg, and the heaven and
earth were formed from it,6-4
2. ln the Zoroastrian cosmogony Zurvãn akarana, Infinite
Time, unitcd with himsclf and produced the twin brothers
Ohrmazd and Ahriman. ln another versiQn they exist from the
beginning with Zurvãn; Ohrmazd crcates the material world,
thc first recognizable stage being the appearance of heaven in
the form of a shining metal egg_6 s
61 Tli. 463-84- Fr. 121,
When he obtcrvcd tbat tbey were 11cm of hent
and lawla,s in their nature (, • ..),
he hurled them into earth's deep Tarwus,
still reAects the Hcsiodic vcnion of the story, in which Un.nos is motlvated ümply
by displeasure ai the character of his ollspring. lt may go back to tbe Protogonos
Thcogony. The rare phrasc 'Tartarus of thc carth' is parallelcd in fr. 167 (p. 89).
(For other instanccs sa: Hcs. TI,, 841 with my note.)
•• PG,Hist 784 F + For more on this and other Phocnician cosmogonics sce
EGPO 28 f. 65 For a fuller account with source-refCJ'Cllces see EGPO 90-3.
10+ THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONJES
3. ln the lndian Al/umJaveda Kãla (Time) appears as the
unaging god who generated heaven and earth. His first progeny
was the divine creator Prajãpati, who is known from older
poctry as an aspect of the sun, or as the 'golden embryo'
which generates and upholds earth, sea, and sky. ln some
accounts he too is bom from an egg.66
ln my Ear?, Gree/c Phi/JJsopf9, and the Orinu I have argued that

these accounts have a common Near Eastern source, to be
d ated to the sixth century se or not long before. I do not mean
a literary source but a newly-evolved cosmogonic myth to the
effect that Time was the first god, and that he generated out
of his seed the materiais for the world's creation, He did not
himself fashion the world; that was done by anothe.r god, a
bright demiurgic figure who was also born from Time, or else
existed from the beginning b eside him. The inftuence of this
myth, I argued, is to be seen in ·o ne of the earliest of Greek prose
works, the Theowgy of Pherecydes of Syroo, in whicb the god
Time was represented as creating out ofhis own seed. We can
now recognize the my~h in the Orphic cosmogony too. There
can be no qucstion of deriving the Orphic version from Phere-
cydes, for it bas several fea.tures in common with oriental
versions that are lacking in Pherecydes. Firstly, Chronos' title
'unaging' is also applied to Time in the Iranian and Indian
versions of this theology. Tben there is the egg. Out of the
celestial light Obrmazd fashioned a white, round, shining fire,
which, however, remained for a long time in a moist state, 'like
semen' as tbe source says. Eventually its surface became hard,
like a shining metal egg: that is our heaven, and our world
was created inside it. The Orphic account is similar. Out of the
aither Chronos fashioned a shining egg. When broken it
became lhe heaven and the earth, and the demiurge Proto-
gonos was revealed inside. Mõch the Phoenician has a like tale
to tel1. Time, uniting with himself, produced a cosmic egg and
a demiurgc who split it to make heaven and earth. ln the
Indian texts, while we do not rcad of Time producing an egg,
wc read of Time begetting the shining creator Prajãpati, and
also of Prajãpati's being born from an egg.
"ECPO 33!.
THE PROTOGONOS ANO DBRVENI THEOGONIES 10~
Thcn there is Protogonos, thc rcsplendent creature who

comes out of the egg to fashion the material world in dctail.
ln thc Phoenician version the dcmiurge bom from Time, and
the opener of the egg, is 0husõr. He is simply the craltsman
in the 0anaanite pantheon, the Ktr(-wa-5ss) of Ugaritic
texts. The Phoenician adapter of the myth has, as it werc,
choscn his local Hephaestus for this part in the play. Something
similar happened when thc Pcrsian version took shape. The
traditional belief, proclaimed by Zoroaster, Dariw, Xerxes,
and others, bad been that the world was created by the Wise
Lord, Abura Mazdãh (Ohrmazd). So in tbe Time-cosmogony
it is he who plays this part, as the son of Time. The crcator of
cvil, Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) , whom Zoroaster had con-
ceived as one of the twin sons of Ahura Mazdãh, now becomes
his twin brother, so that he too j s the son of Time.
When we tum to the Indian Prajãpati, we find something
closer to Protogonos. He has solar associations: Protogonos
filled the world with light on his appearance. As well as
generating earth, sea, and sky, Prajãpati is conceived as up-
holding them: we recall that wben Protogonos is swallowed by
Zeus, tbc universe is absorbcd with him. Prajâpati's name,
which might be translated Pro-geni-potens., implies the sarne
procrcative powcr as Phanes' hermaphrodite naturc; and whcn
he is made the 'firstbom son' of Kãla, he really does appcar
as thc Indian Protogonos.
I argued further in my earlier book that the divine progenitor
Time, who emerged betwecn the sixth and the fourth centurics
BC in India, lran, Sídon, and Grccce, developed out of the
figure of the Eternal Suo, wilosc worship was particularly
ancient and important in Egypt. T he potent myth of Re<,
rulcr of eternity, eldest of the gods, creating tbe otbcrs from lús
own seed, was refined into the more abstract mytb of the self-
fertilizing Time. Re< is at thc sarne time an important parallel
to Protogonos. Re< too carne from an egg, and was celebratcd
as 'firstborn of the gods'. According to the Rhapsodies Pro-
togonos had four eyes and a serpcnt on bis head; he filled the
world with light but was himself unseen; he copulated with
himself; and he finally took his seat on the highest ridge of
hcaven (fr. 56). Re< has countless eycs and ears, and wears
thc uraeus-snake on his hcad; the source of ali light, hc is
himself unseen; he creates other gods by a sexual act with
himsclf; he 'maketh his seat in the uttermost limits of the
heavens' .61
We are also told that Re< produced gods out of his mouth,
by speaking, spitting, or sneezing, aftcr planning them in bis
heart.68 This corrcsponds very much to what the Orphic Zeus
does after swallowing (and so replacing) Protogonos. Re< is
parallcl to Zeus also in that he remains the king and master of
the gods and is celebrated in hymns which list bis qualities in
a spirit of real rcligious enthusiasm.69 We can now bcgin to
appreciate the significancc of Zeus' swallowing of Protogonos
and the rest of the gods. ln Hesiod it is Kronos who swallows
gods and brings them up again; Zeus only swallows Metis,
and she rcmains inside him as a permanent adviser. The Orphlc
poet makes use of the motif in order to reconcile the oriental
Protogonos myth with the usual Greek idea that the supreme
god, Zeus, was onc of the younger gods. When Zeus' ancestry
has hccn established, be swallows it, and that puts him in the
sarne position as the foreign god, ready to producc everything
else from bis own resources.
Of quite separatc origin from the cosmogony is the myth of
the snake-Zeus' mating with his mothcr and with the goddess
bom from that union, and tht birth ofDionysus. We have seen
that this has connections with the Lydian and Phrygian cult
of Sabazios and Hipta. But as in the case of the cosmogony,
" E. A. W. Budgc, TA. &okoft/uD.ra,/ (1913; Univc:.n ity Boob ed., NewYork,
1g6o), 366 'lhe firstbom ofthegods'; Hymn to Amon-lleC (Budge, 108;A.NET365;
A. Erman, Tli,Liuratu,1oftluAN:imtEc,ptians(1927, - TlitA.nmntE.g,ptüms, 1g66),
283), 'eldcst ofheavcn, fin1bom of carth ... ín whose beauty thc gods rcjoicc ...
who madc lhe gods, rabed lhe hcaven and lm down thc ground'; Budge, 112 f.
ol etttnity •. • wbo possessc:tb myriad., ol pain of eyes and innumef'able
' travc:rse,-
pain of ean ... who ÜI 1hc most hiddcn of lhe gods, whose deputy ís lhe solar
disc; lhe one inoomprehcnsible, who hídeth hiJ111Clf from lhat wbich comcth
forth from him; thc flamc which sendeth forth raya oflight with mighty splcndour';
498 'thou piuaest over the llky, and every face watchelh thee and thy coursc, for
thou thyself art hidden from tbeir gaze'; 550 'l am lhe 6rs1bom of lhe primeval
god •.. my created fonn is tbe god Elernity, lhe Lord of Ycan, and lhe Prince
oí Evcrlutingne1S. l am lhe Creator of the Darkncs.,, who maketb his seat in
the uuermost limíta of lhe heavens'.. Uraeus•anake: Roschcr, iv. 1Ro4. Self-
fructification: Budge, 267, 379, and 77w Gods of 11w E.g,ptia11S (1904), i. 310;
ANET 6; Schwabl, 1!)00, 15()2.
61 Budge, ,r67, 379; A.NET 3 bis, 6, 366(iv}, (vi}, :no; Erman, 286, 2g8 f. Cr.
lhe creation by Prah in the theology or Mcmphu, A.NET 5.
•• ANET 365-71; Erman, 138-40, 28:t-91, 30Q-4.
THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONIES 107
barbarian myth has been adapted to fit Hellenic tradition.
Sabazios has become Dionysus, and there is nothing to indicate
that the Anatolian name was mentioned in the poem. 70 Hipta
was named, but not as the Great Mother, only as a minor
figure, a go-between. The part ofthe mother is divided between
Rhea-Demeter (who is a synthesis of two mother-figures) and
Kore (as chthonic queen). The combination with the Greek
mother and daughter pair, Demeter and Kore, makes an extra
generatlon and probably accounts for the duplication of the
snake-mating.
The Orphic poet's account of the successive races of men is
adapted from Hesiod's. His story involved a double creation in
any case, first by Protogonos and later by Zeus. lt occurred to
him to make sense of this, so far as mankind was concerned, by
equatlng the original human race created by Protogonos with
the golden race ofHesiod. ln Hesiod it had lived under Kronos
(Op. 111). Now Kronos had to be content with the silver race.
As 'the life under Kronos' was proverbially paradisiac,11 the
Orphic poet emphasized the immensely long life eajoyed by
this race and the absence of grey hair.12 His system left room for
only one further race, the one created by Zeus. lf he gave any
thought to its correlation with traditional mythology, he must
have seen that it covered the last three of Hesiod's eras, the
bronze and heroic races as well as the iron, and he probably
gave it no metallic label,7J
He no doubt attached more importance to his theory of
transinigration of souls and to the eschatology associated with
it. Transinigration through animal bodies is another doctrine
of oriental origin. As was noted on p. 19, it appears in Greece
' after the mid sixth century. Pythagoras was notorious for
his belief in it, though it was not peculiar to him and bis
followcrs.
•• Diodorus +♦ identifico the Dionysus bom from Zeus and Penephone as
'thc one callcd by some peoplc Sabazios'. Locally, being the most important mate
god, Sabazios was idcntificd with Zeus: see above., n. 47 and Orph, Hymn 48.1.
11 Scc H. e. Baldry, CQ. !l (19$2), 83-9!l.
,. Exemption from old age was a ftaturc of Hesiod's golden race, Op. 114;
cf. 'Hcs.' fr. 1.S-13.
" A divergent Orphic system is attc.tcd in fr. !l9a (Nigidius Figulus fr. 67
Swoboda) and 139 (from Varro?}: Kronos is lhe firat ruler of men, Zeus the
sccond, Poseidon thc third, and Hadcs thc fourth. Thc idcntity of the $0Urces
suggcsts a Ncopythagortan origin for this.
1o8 THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI THEOGONIES
Date and place of origin
The Derveni Theogony, which is an abridged version of the
original Protogonos Theogony, was known, under the name of
Orpheus, toanloniancommentatoroftheearlyfourthcentury»c.
Soitcan scarcely have beencomposed Ia ter thanthefifthcentury.
The oriental myth of the god Time as the first progenitor
and the theory of transmigration of souls both make their first
dated appearance in Greek in Pherecydes of Syros, about
540 BC. lt would be surprising if the Protogonos poem were
much earlier than this; and if it is true that the earthy moon
appeared in it, it cannot bc much earlicr than 500.
We notcd that the poet's account oftransmigration resembled
that of Empedocles, and that his teaching about perjured gods
looked older than Empedocles'. This imprcssion is corroborated
by anothcr comparison with the sarne author. The only classical
parallel for Orpheus' startling conception of a god who absorbs
the universe and then regeneratcs it from out of himsclf is
Empedocles' divine Sphere, who, when the four elements are
thoroughly blendcd by Love into one blancmange-like mass,
'rcjoiccs in bis circular solitude', until the return of Dissension
sends trcmors through bis body and thc separating elemcnts
begin to take the shapes of ali thc beings that are now in the
world.1• Empedocles' thcory, bowever, is a fully-ftedged physi-
cal system. It is ex:pressed in theologkal language but never-
theless scientific in its assumption of univcrsally opcrative laws
and rccurrent processes. We cannot derive thc Orphic Zeus
from Empedodes; as we nave seen, he is the necessary product
of the combination of thc oriental Protogonos with Hesiodic
tradition. No, thc Orphic myth surely belongs on the far side
of Empcdocles. This is not necessarily to say that Empcdocles
kncw the Protogonos Theogony; but if he did know it, or
something rclated to it, it ceru.inly becomes easier to account
for bis Sphcre that pcriodically absorbs everything and becomes
solitary and then has the universe reconstituted from its body.
The Orphic narrative provides a mythical prototype for his
phil0$0phical vision.1s
•• DK 31 B 27-31, 35. I havc co~ntcd on Empedoc;lcs' Lovc as a paraliei
10 Orpbeus' comüc Aphroditr, p. 92.
n Thc coMcction - 6rs1 ~ by Wahtt Burkert 1n a lcrtcr to me clatce<l
31 July 1971.
THB PROTOG ONOS ANO DERVENI THEOGONIES 109
Empedocles has an obviow poetic precursor in Parmenides.

He too has some points of contact with the Orphic theogony.
In his 'true' cosmology, from which all motion, change, and
differentiation of qualities are excluded, there is of course no
place for gods or events that might be compared with those in
the O rphic narrative: there is only Being itself. But Pannenides'
sense that Being is all one and continuous has something in
common with the tbeological myth in which the entire universe
is united in the body of Zeus, and when he calls Being 'wbole,
unique' (B 1.4 oõ.\ov µ.owoyfllls Tf:), this recalls the Orphic
poet's phrase, that Zeus 'became the only one' (µ<>Ovos ly1VT0).
Zeus' creation of a cosrnic Aphrodite and his intelligent 'con-
triving' of O ceanus and other entitics (Ê,_i~uaTo ) find echoes in
Parmenides' 'apparent' cosmology, where a 'goddess who steers
all things, for she rules over ali birth and union, sending female
to unite with male and male with female,' was said to 'con-
trive' other gods, beginning with Eros.76 The Orphic descrip-
tion of the moon as another earth implies that it does not givc
out light of its own: Parmcnidcs is thc earliest datcd author
who is awarc of that fact. 77 A phrase used by thc Orphic poet
in describing the moon's shape is strikingly similar to onc used
by Parmenides about Being.78 Another phraseological parallel
is .dlKTJ ,roMiro,vos, 'Dike rich in pcnalties', if indecd this
°
appcarcd in the Protogonos pocm. 7 Finally, if Bu.rkert is right
in arguing that the chariot-journcy which Parmenides describcs
in his proem took him into the house of Night, and that it
was she who revealed to him the truth about the world, we
cannot avoid thinking of the oracular sanctum of Night in the
Orphic poem.80
Parmcnides' poem perhaps dates from the 4gos.81 Its points
of contact with the Orphic pocm are not such as clearly to
suggest the priority of the latter- the fact that 'Orpheus' is
quite untouched by Parmenidcs' philosophy is hardly dccisive
,, B 12.3-6; 13 ,,p,:.,,,a-ro• µI• •Epw-ra 8,w, µ 11., {".,.-, o "ª...,."''· Plutarch,

Amai. 756f, namcs the goddess as Aphroditc; Parmenidcs apparcntly callcd hcr
Dike and Anankc (A 37), but she ccrtainly has Aphrodite's functions.
n Cf. p. 49 with n. 45.
'' Abovc, 1,1. 41.
"Orph. ft. (~1 ~) 158 (abovc, n. 35); Parm. B 1.14.
•• Burkcrt, Plrmwsis 14 (1969), 1-30; tbe Orphic parallel is noted by him on
p. 17. •• EGPO 220 n. 3.
-but they do suggest proximity, a single stream from which
both drew. Pannenides and Empedocles, considered by them-
selves, appear to constitute a westem tradition, the one writing
in Italy, the other in Sicily. But philosophy carne to the west
acr~ a bridge, the other end of which was in fonia. Many of
Parmenides' eldcrs in Elea must have becn among thc original
colonists from Phocaea. Thc Orphic poem is more likely to
havc becn composed on the eastem side of the bridge than the
western, in view of its connection with the Anatolian Sabazios
cult. Knowledge of it crosscd the bridge, however, if its in-
0uence is rightly dctected in Empedoclcs. And if it bcgan with
the words 'I sing for those of undcrstanding', we can compare
this on the one hand with Heraclitus in thc east denouncing his
hearers for their lack of understanding, and on the other with
Pindar telling Theron of Acragas, in a poem famous for its
(so-callcd Orphic) eschatology, that hc has mucb unused
ammunition which is 'meaningful to thosc ofunderstanding'.82
To sum up: the Protogonos Thcogony was composcd for what
may fairly be called a Bacchic society, probably in Ionia. If
we date it to 500 BC we may feel a certain amount of confidence
that we are not in the wrong generation. A gospel of salvation
by Dionysus was combined with metempsychosis thcory, and
a story of Dionysus' birth, a Hellenized version of a Sabazian
cult myth, was set in the framework of a complete cosmogony,
which was a compromisc bctween Hesiodic tradition and an
arresting cosmogonic myth ofvery different charactcr recently
importcd from thc Near East.
The poem shares with carly Pythagoreanism the theory of
metcmpsychosis and the use of the name Orpheus. But it is
•• o.•/3"' fwnoiu, (pp. 83-4) ; Hclt. fr. 1 = B I àfwt-ro, ,-:,.,,,.,..,., cf. 2 = B 34
,lfú..-,o, <Íoco~ual"T<S oc<11+otcnv loú«1<11; Pind, O. 2.85 +u,tftJina. auvn-o,.,.v. The
eschatology ofthis ode is indeed dose to that oíthc Orphic pocm. There isjudgc•
ment of thc dead (5~), a plcasant existence for the good with lhose gods who
havc not pcrjured thcmsclvcs (61-7), a hcll for lhe wicked, prcsumably with thc
perjurer gods (67), rcpcatcd reincamations with the pouibility of final escape lo
the Jsle of the Ble,scd where thc hcroes live (68 ff.). CC. Pind. fr. 129-30, 133;
131a ~.a.,,&,w• T<MT1S:.~ Orph. fr. 232.5. ln 133 thosc: who have ncarly qualifü:d
for hcro ,tatus retum to carth for thcir last mortal tire 'in the ninth year': thc
Orphic period of excarnation is givcn as 300 years, but cf. thc ninc(?)-year ordcal
of pcrjurer gods. Ir Pindar though1 of thcsc souls u having begun thcir career
as fallcn goda, lhe 'ancicnt gricf' ÍOt' wbich thcy a1onc 1hould be their Ot'igjnal
offmcc (perjury or bloodlhc:d, a.a Emp. B 115?). 0f. p. !il!il. Is it colncidencc that
in thc 1ame poem (17) Pindar rcfen lo 'Chronos, the fathcr .of ali'?
not in any sense Pythagorean; it belongs in the sphere of

Ionian Bacchica identified on pp. 15-18. In the section there
headed 'The point of convergence' I have indicated how I see
these Bacchica and Pythagoreanism as developing from a
common background.
The earfy transmission oJ the poem

The poem did not circulate as literature in the way that, say,
Hesiod did. It was transmitted among religious circles, perhaps
in many variant versions. The Derveni commentator had one
secondary redaction, and we have no reason to suppose it
was the only one.
This commentator, it was suggested, was himself an initiate,
still from the Ionian area, writing in the first half of the fourth
century. Sometime !ater in the century we find a copy of his
work (if not of the Orphic poem) in Macedon, a country in
which Dionysiac cults flourished. The poem seems also to have
reached Sic~ the early fifth century; there is no telling how
long it ~ve~ there. Evidence for knowledge of it at Athens
is sca9ty. The begínning of the parody-cosmogony in Aristo-
phanés' Birds shows some similarity to the Protogonos myth:
There was Chaos and Night and 1;,lack Erebos first, and Tartarus'
broadness,
but no earth was, nor air nor sky. Thcn in Erebos' Jimitless bosom
as her first brood thc black-wingcd deity Night gave birth to a wind-cgg,
from which as the turning seasons revolved grew Eros the lovely,
with gold-gleaming wings on his back, the image of wind-spin swiftness.
Hc, secretly mixed with the winged Chaos in Tartarus' broadness,
hatched forth our avian race and first brought it into the daylight.
No race of immortals existcd till Eros mixed ali things together,
but out of thc various mixings the heaven was born, and the Ocean,
and earth and the whole deathless race of the blessed ones. (693-702)
There is no mention of Time here, but there is Chaos, gloom,

and Night at the beginning, and a shining, winge4, firstborn
god, identified as Eros, who comes from an egg and is responsible
for the creation of heaven and earth. Of course Aristophanes'
-purpose is comic, and he brings in an egg and several winged
deities because they are specially appropriate to a birds' cos-
mogony. But he chose these motifs, he did not invent them.
Much of the delicate humour lies in bis use of elements from
serious theogonies. 83 We cannot say that he knew the Proto-
gonos Theogony as such, but h e has certainly heard of some of
the motifs it contained. The e,gg also played a part in pseudo-
Epimcnides' theogony, whicb I bavc suggested was composcd
in Athens some years before the Birds. There may be an explicit
allusion to Protogonos in some tantalizingly fragmentary lines
from a chorus in Euripides' Hjpsipyle. 8" The word 1rpwTóyovo[ is
there, and in tbe immediate vicinity probably 'sightlcss Chaos'
or'unfathomed light' ( .)ao~ ámco1rov) and Aer or Aither; perhaps
Eros ; possibly Night. The subject of the preceding strophe is
apparently a Dionysiac mirade.
Isocrates names Orphcus as the poet who, more than any
other, related unseemly stories about the gods, stories of thc
sort exemplified by Kronos' castration of bis fatber and con-
sumption of his children.8s Hc presumably has a theogony in
mind, but altbough tbe Protogonos Thcogony has its share of
violence, there is nothing to show that this is the one Isocrates
is thinking of. Plato knows ao 'ancient' account, related by
certain priests and priestesses, about reincarnation, and he or
thc autbor of tbe Seventh Letter attributed to him also knows
of an 'ancient holy account• to the cffect that the soul is
immortal and suffers judgement and punishment in the othcr
world. 86 We have noted onc probable allusion in Plato to a
verse attested by thc Derveni papyrus (p. 89 n. 35), and anothcr
in Aristotle to an Orphic doctrine about the soul which appears
in the eschatology tbat we have attributed to the Protogonos
Theogony (p. 99). Yet we cannot be sure that thc verses in
question were peculiar to this poem. If Plato and other Athen-
ians of the classical age did know the poem, it is strange that
they make no refcrence to its extraordinary account of Zeus
a, See thc analysis by Schwabl, 1473. Thc birds' derogatory opening addrcss
ofmen as
. frail of life, liltc the leaves' generations,
focble 6gments of clay, like shadow•, bordes without subst.ance,
unf!cdgcd thinp of a day, lilte drcam-creature, suffcring mortais
(685- 7), stands in a tradition of divinc rc:velations (/a, Dttn. 256 f., etc., cf. Richard-
son, ad loc., p. 243) which is dtawn on by Orpheus (fr. 233), Parmcnidcs, and
Bmpcdoclcs.
•• 1103-8 (p. 45 Bond, with commclltary, pp. 121 f.) = Orph. fr. 2.
■s Bltsiris 38 f., cf'. PJ, EaJJr»I,,. 5c--6b (Orph. fr. 17).
H PlatuJ. 7oc, Mmo 81ab, Ep. vii. 335ll·
THE PROTOGONOS ANO DERVENl THEOGONIES 113
ingesting the gods and thc world.3 7 Wherc Plato and Eudemus
do refer to an Orphic gencalogy of gods, it disagrees with the
schemc of thc Protogonos Theogo.ny, as we sball sec in the ncxt
chapter.
ln the ncxt century thc Stoics Clcanthcs and Chrysippus
clearly did know the story of Zeus swallowing the gods. They
adapted it to their own physical theory. The cosmic elements,
they said, wcre gods, but not deathless: only Zeus, the divine
aspcct of tbe cosmos as a whoie, wa.s eternal, periodically
consuming the rest and regenerating them out of himsclf. st
ln Chapter 6 we shall make the acquaintance of a Stoicizing
adaptation of the Protogonos Theogony, and in Chaptcr 7 we
shall see how the late Hcllenistic compiler of the Rhapsodies
combined the poem with the other Orphic material at his
disposal.
'' Acschylu,' famow lines 'Zeus is thc a.ir, Zeus earth, and Zeus the sky; Zeus
it thc univcnc, and ali bcyond' (fr. 105 M.), likc Parmenídes' doctrinc of homo-
gcnêous Being, Cltprcss a sensc of the world's íru:livisiblc oncness which is a nalogous
to that implicd in the Orphíc myth, but thcy certainly nced not bc taken as an
allusion to it.
'* SYF i. 1<21.24, ii. 168.7, 185.43, 309.~; Plu t. D, """"'- "º'· 1o65b. ln D,
dtftdll orac. 41 sf Plutarch talb o( Orphic VttSa being forccdly intcrprctcd to
rcfer to the Stoicttnrons.
114 THE PROTOGONOS AND DER VEN I THEOGONIES
APPENDIX: AN EXEMPLI GRATIA

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE DERVENI
THEOGONY
{the portion covered by the surviving parts
of thc commcntary)
[>1Eluw f11J1f'TOLU,-]Oúpos 8. lrrl9Eu9, fU{J,,,.\o,-
[ Z"JVÔS' ,,,.aµ,u8ÉovroS' t!vaK'TOS' 8Éu1eEÀa lpya,]
[õuua ,u.\allfT/S' Nv.eros- im. liw,ut,,,w, TIÀf~fll,]
•<> \ ,cm\ O'Tl'/\OTf{'WJI
[ 1/0f • \ I • I
p.a,capw11 l_ " 1'
')'ellOS' dlfl/ 4'0VTWII,
]
5 o]Z Lliós- l{f')'ÉlloVTo (ó,,rtp/.4E11]'os- {Ja.u..\fjos-.

' ,-11
Z EIJS' .. .l mn
, \ ~ \ • ,.. I (J'J..-.
v•1 'Tl'dTJIOS' EOV 1rapo. fvy,u,TOJI ap)(l111
, I
[utjrrTpó11] -r' & XElPfuo, .\a/3[Ei11 lp1.1cv8Js lp.EÀÀo,]
(ltf,pcfoa-r' EV µ,á),a 1rÓ,11-ra, -ró. o[ 9Eà] lf à6vro,o
(El1rE) ,,ravop.tf,EIÍowa LBEWVJ -rpo4,os Là.µ{1poulT/J Nú{·
10 [ ?j ol] lXf'T/OEII â'.1Ta.11Ta Tá ,o[ 8l[Jus ~ àlllÍau)ru,
WS' ã[Kru ,ca]Tà ,ca.\011 l8os 11 ..fX>EVTo, 'OMµ.1ro11.
ZEv, µ.& l1ru[-r' á,/,pacrra 8Eâs] ,,rÓ.pa Blotf,o.T• à1eotÍuo.s
"--, 'T• fll• XEIPfUU
(a,uc7111 ' • E/\"1-'EI',
•,_Q ,ca.' oa.µ.oa,o. ., , -., ' >
K1JOpoll
o.l&tov Ka'TWIVfll ôs o.l8Épa [,c(JoPf 1rpiirros.
15 [ ICEÍ:VOS µ.iv I'a,ó.v TE ,cat] Ovpo.vóv d,pvv [b,.erEv·]
[rwf 8E 1TEÀwp11 I'ata 'TÉICE Kpóvov,] ôs µéy' lPffEv
Ovpavov E?xf,poa,tsr,11, ôs- ,,,.,,,:ma-ros- {Ja.ut>.EWo·
CK -roíi 81} KpóvoS' [o.]Jns-, É1TEITO. 8i P,'r/TlfTa ZEtÍs-,
M-ij'Tw ,ca[t µ.a,có.pwv KO.TÉX]l!'v {1au,.\11l80. nµ.[-rív.]
20 [KO.t TÓTE &ri Ka'TÉ'IT&I/€ 0Eov µ&os, WS' 91,µ.,s- ,}Ev,]
llpwroy/,11011 f1au,Mws- ru'&lov· -rwf 8' dpa 1rÓ.VTfS'
o.'9'avaro, 1rpouE.,,vv ',L µ,.aKo.p'i,
' 8Eo&• .J.J::'(J'
,,..,E Eawa,
,cal 1r0Taµ.ol ,cai, ,cpfjvo., &njpo.-ro, ill<Í 'TE ,,rÓ.VTa
[ô]uua TÓT. ,}v yrya.wr', CWTOS' a· ó.pa. µ.owos lyEVTo.
25 [vw 8' luri]v flam.\~[s-] -rró.VT[wv, ,cal -r' laaET' /,,r]u-ra.
Zw, 1Tf'WTOS' ytl!ETO, ZEVS VUTaTOS' à.py,1eÉpavvos-·
' Kf.,,.....,T/,
Z EIIS' ,L,.l' Z' ,
L EVS" µ.~auJa, ""'º•
.. , o., ••EK L1TJaVTa , '
1'ETLviera. 'J
[Zws 1TÓ.V'TWV -r&r O.IWOS, [xE,, ZEVS'] Mo,pa [Kpa-ra,-rí·]
Z WS"'R ''Z
,-aUtf\EVS", EIIS o' o.pxos
• · 0.1TO.IITWV
· · · 'o.p')'IKEp«WOS'.
.,
1 col. ív+fr. 13/334 5- 7 col. v}x 7: hoc loco traditur 13 8--11 col.
vii-ix + frr. 104-6 12-14 col. x/v 12 <rr<~ru,ornotn1op<t pap. sicut 6;
13 po,1t 6 tradilur 15 col. ix 16-19 col. xi-xü 17 oup<IJIOOru+Po"&.,.
pap. 21-24 col. xiii 21 Twi: ,oy pap. 25 col. xüi. 14
,i6-29 col. xiv-xvi+ fr. :na. 1-7
30-31 fr, !lrn,6-9 3!!-34 col. xviii 36-37 COI. XX 38--40 fr. 9 1
41-42 col. xxi 43-44 cf. col. xxii 45 col. xxii 47 col. xxiii
IV. THE EUDEMIAN AND CYCLIC
THEOGONIES
THE third of the three theogonies cited by Damascius (above,

p. 68) was 'the theology recorded in the Peripatetic Eudemus
. as being that of Orpheus'. ln one of his works, we do not
know which, Eudemus surveyed the theogonic doctrines of
earlier thinkers, both Greek and barbarian. Besides Orpheus
he discussed Homer, Hesiod, Acusilaus, Epimenides, Phere-
cydes, the Babylonians, Persians, and Phoenicians. We know
ali this from the sarne long passage of Damascius, in which
Eudemus is repeatedly mentioned and is evidently the primary
source.1 Eudemus is much quoted by the Neoplatonists, and
there is no doubt that they had direct access to his works.
There are several indications that Damascius' account of his
theogonic discussion is substantially accurate. 2
Tlu genealogical framework

It appears from Damascius' words that Eudemus described a
theogony and said that this was the theogony of Orpheus, or
the one said to be by Orpheus. ln other words Eudemus knew
one Orphic theogonyi and was not troubled as we are by the
complícation of knowing more than one. Damascius unfor-
fortunately reproduces only one fact about it. It began from
Night, and nothing was mentioned before Night.
Aristotle, too, speaks of 'theologians' who derive everything
from Night.3 He is clearly not thinking of theogonies like those
ascribed to Musaeus and Epimenides, which began from a pair,
Tartarus and Night, or Aer and Night. He has in view a
theogony where Night alone occupied the first place, and it
was surely the Orphic one described by his pupil and colleague
Eudemus. Two additional details can be gathered from what
he says. The theogony did not represent Night itself as having
1 Sce F. Wehrli, Eudtm0$ V<>11 Rhodos ( 1955), fr. 150, with commcntary, PP• 121-3.
• Wchrli, l.c.
• Mt14ph. 10711>27 = fr. 24 Kcrn; cf. 1072a8, and the 'ancicnl poets' in 1091b4
(Night and Hcaven).
THE EUDEMIAN ANO CYCLIC THEOGONIES 117
a beginning: it did not say that Night 'carne into being' (as
Hesiod says 'First Chaos carne into being') but that 'Night was
in the beginning' (as Aristophanes' birds say 'There was Chaos
and Night and black Erebos first'). The ruler of the world
was not Night but Zeus.
Plato in the Timaeus (4oe} summarizes a theogony which
comes from 'the offspring of gods, as they said'. He must mean
either Orpheus or Musaeus; he speaks of their claim to divine
parentage in very similar terms elsewhere.• Musaeus, however,
is unlikely, because none of Plato's or Aristotle's (or any earlier
writer's) mentions of Musaeus clearly refers to a theogony
under his name, and Eudemus does not seem to have included
one in bis survey. Hellenistic authors knew one, but we cannot
detect any points of contact between it and the divine genealogy
of the Timaeus.s On the other hand Plato does quote twice
elsewhere from an Orphic theogony (see below). The likelihood
is that the Timaeus genealogy is derived from the sarne poem.
It is also likely to be the sarne as the Orphic theogony to which
Aristotle and Eudemus alluded. What Plato knew, Aristotle
knew; and particularly where Aristotle turns aside to consider
philosophical implications in early poetry, he follows his
master's lead.6
The Timaeus genealogy runs:
From Ge and Uranos the children born were Oceanus and Tethys; from
these, Phorkys and Kronos and Rhea a,:id ali of that brood; from Kronos
and Rhea, Zeus and Hera and ali their brothers and si.sters we hear tel1 of;
and again from these more children.
The fact that Night does not appear at the beginning is no
obstacle to the identification of this poem with the Eudemian
Theogony. ln the Timaeus all gods are sprung from the great
Demiurge; and night cannot be a god, being merely something
produced by the earth's shadow (4oc) and a unit of time.
Plato is not concerned to do justice to Orpheus' scheme, he is
just taking what he wants from it. It is inconceivable that the
poem had nothing before Ge and U ranos, and there is nothing
against supplying Night there. There.is in fact a passage ofJohn
• Rtp. 364C/366b. Cf. Staudacher, 79 n. 14. Linforth, 109 is hypercritical.
• Cf. p. 42.
• Mttap/1. 9'13b28, M,~. 347a6 ~Cral. 402b, Thu.tt. tã2e; Mttt,p/1. 9'14~3 ~
S:,mp. 178b; g86b21 ~Soph. 242d.
118 THE EUDEMIAN AND CYCL IC THEOCONIES
Lydus where the first principies according to Orpheus are said
to be Night, Earth, and Heaven. This does not agree with the
only Orphic theogony current in Lydus' time, the Rhapsodics,
and the most likcly hypothesis is that he got it directly or
indirectly from Eudemus.1
We can accordingly put together a genealogy as follows:
Night
1
1 1
Urano• - Ge
)
I 1
Oceamus - Te1hys
Phorkys Krono s T Rhea others

1 1 1
Zeus <~> Hera others
"others
"/
Here are six generations; and in Pkikbus 66c ( = fr. 14 Kern)
Plato quotes a verse of Orphcus
Jn the si.xth gencration end the array of song.
This instruction must have been addressed to the Muses in a
proem in which they were told what to sing. 8
ln Crarylus 402b ( = fr. 15 K.) Plato quotes the verses
Occanus first, the fair-Ao,wing, initiated marriage;
he wu hu,band to T ethys, his own &Íster from one mother.
He quotes them in support ofa playful argumcnt that more than
one of the older poets anticipated the Heraclitean doctrine of
flux. The fragment is in accord with our genealogy to the
extent that the marriage of Oceanus and Tethys is put at an
early stagc, beforc those of Phorkys and K.ronos. But 'fint
initiated marriage' is problematic if Oceanus and Tethys werc
• Lyd. D, mmr. 2.8 = fr. 310 Kciro. Toe Eudcrnus hc cites in D, mau. 4.98
sccms 10 be anothcr. H.is othcr quotations from Orphcus come from thc Nco-
pythagorean Hymn to NumiH:r (frr. 309, 31,i, 316, probably abo !276), which cannot
be in question here.
1 Schustcr, 13; O. Gruppe, JoJ,rl,. f d. Phil., Suppl. 17 {18go), 694 n. 1; cf.
Hes. Tlt. 105 ff. 'ln the sixth gcncrstion' sbould not be t.akcn 10 mcan that therc
wcre only fivc gcncratiotls (Liníorth, 1-49) ; see Holwenla, g7 1 n. 1. ln my identifica-
tion of the six gencrations I follow Oruppe, 703, and E. Zcllcr, Die P/àlo.u,pllú tia
Gritdten (6th cd. rev. W. Ncstlc, t91g-20), i. 123 n. 2. I can sce no ground for the
idca of A. Dictcrich, Ahraxas (1891), 1!18 n. 2, and Moulinicr, !Ili, that human
generations ín a mytb of Ages are mcanl. Tbese are .,,,.,.,, in Hesiod, not y,waL,
and in tbe only known Orphic vcrsion (pp. 75, 97, 107) there wcrc only three of
thcm, nol six.
THE EUDBMIAN AND CYCL IC THEOGONIES 119
preceded by Uranos and Ge. It is quite artificial to say that the
union of Uranos and Ge was something cruder than a gamos;9
the Greck word can be used of any mating. If the meaning is
that Oceanus was thc first of his gencration to marry, 10 then
the qucstion arises what brothcrs or sistcrs he had bcsides
Tethys. Plato does not mention any-though he núght have
omitted figures such as Pontos, Sea (bom from Ge in Hcsiod)
in ordcr to concentrate on the maio line of descent. I shall
suggest another answcr presently.
It is clcar that this poem cannot be identified with thc Pro-
togonos Theogony. There too Night was the mother of Uranos
and Ge, but she was not the 6.rst deity of ali. There was no
intermediatc generation between Uranos and Kronos.
The primeval parmts

So much for the fourth-century Athenian evidence. lt will be
possiblc !ater to cnlarge our lmowledge of the poem from
anothcr sourcc. But first let us reflect on what we have put
together so far and compare it with the Hcsiodic gencalogy
of gods.
ln Hesiod lhe children of Uranos and Ge comprise twelve
Titans, three Cyclopes, and three Hundrcd-Handers. The
Titans include Oceanus and Tethys and Kronos and Rhea.
Oceanu.s and Tethys, however, seem somewhat out of place in
this company, for thc Titans are cssentially gods who have becn
condemned to Tartarus, and Oceanus was ncver in Tartarus;
hc is part of the upper world. H esiod even represents him as
assisting Zeus against the Titans by scnding his daughter Styx
with hcr children Zelos, Nike, Kratos, and Bie {Th. 389-98).
In Homer, too, Oceanus and Tethys stay well out of the
Titanomachy: Hera is evacuatcd to them (ll. 14.200-4). ln
the sarne passage they are referrcd to as
Oceanus lhe genesis of thc goda, and mother Tcthys, 11
• Schuatcr, 9-11. 'From thc samc mothcr' carries no implication that they had
no father. Cf. Ar. }{ui,. 1371-ll, 'And ai once he started .orne Euripidean specch
about a brother who (Lord save us) scrcwcd his aister from the same mothcr',
with the acholium, •~ thc Athenians pcnnit maniagc with half-sis1cn from lhe
father, hc addcd "from 1hc samc mother" 10 cmphasize the outragc'.
10 Lobcck, 508; O . Kern, D, O,pllli Epimmidú Pllir")dis //reogoniis qr«uslío~s
erilícae (1888), 43; Holwerda, 314; Staudachc,, 93.

" ,io 1. Cf. 246, 'Occanus, who is the gcnesis of ali'.
120 THE EUDEMIAN AND CYC LIC TKEOGONIF.S
which puts them in an earlier generation than the Titans.
Hesiod's accommodatjon of them in the list of Titans, then,
appears to be something secondary and artificial, a matter of
administrative convenience, whereas their position in an an-
terior gencration in the Orphic theogony is a better reflection
of their status in mythological tradition.
But in Homer Oceanus and Tethys are not children of
Uranos and Ge, they are themselves the primeval parents, long
estranged from .each other. u The Orphic genealogy is a com-
promise between the primacy of Oceanus and Tethys and the
primacy of Uranos and Ge. This suggests a new explanation
of lhe verse 'Oceanus first, the fair-flowing, initiated marriagc'.
Perhaps it was originally composed for a theogony in which
it was literally true, and the Orphic theogony known to Plato
was an adaptation of such a pocm, in whicb the verse was
allowed to stand but made to bear a different, forced sense.
The lliad passage has anothcr point of contact with thc
Orphic theogony. It mentioru the goddess Night, and it mcn-
tions her as bcing a goddess of such high status that evcn Zeus
in a rage is afraid to offend her (261). Otto Gruppe, following
Damascius, conjectured that Homer knew a genealogy io
which she stood even before Oceanus and Tethys. 13 ln that
case we would have a direct precedent for the Orphic genca-
logy; Uranos and Ge would simply have been inserted between
Night and Oceanus.
Hera says in the lliad passage that Oceanus and Tethys havc
long been estranged from each other by quarrelling (205).
Behind this Olympian gowp there may lie a cosmogonic myth,
for the separation of primeval parents who wcre originally
united is a familiar cosmogonic motif. Usually they are Earth
and Heaven. 14 But in the Babylonian EnfJma Eli! they are, as
n ~5-7. Thc Olympians howevcr are (Npo.,;,,,~s, 1.570, al. An ancient scholar
whose víew is reproduced in thc Et:,mologieum Gm•inMffl and Mag,rum s.v. d,,,....
explained Acmon, the father of Urano, according to ccrtaín poets, as equivalcnt
to Occanus: a false theory, but based on the ídea that Oocanu1 bad been ttgarded
as .fa.lhcr of Uran01. Pcrhaps only a comtructíon from Homcr. Theodoretus,
Otral. 4ffm. G,. 11.28, oddly attributes to H<Siod a gcnealogy in which Oceamu
and Tetbys do pre<:edc Uraoos and Gc, bcing themselves preceded hy Cha01.
<> Du ,,;«li. Cltlu .,n,J Mytlun, i ( 1887), 618. We may not argue agaínst t.his
conjecture with Schwabl, 1438 that 'gcnesis of the gods' means that there was
nothing before Occanus.
1 • Sce Staudacher's monograph.
THE EUDEMIAN AND CYCLIC THEOGONIES 121
was mentioned earlier, the aquatic figures Apsu and Tiâmat-a
suggestive parallel to Oceanus and Tethys.
TM Titans
The children of Oceanus and Tethys in the Orphic poem are
named as 'Phorkys, Kronos, Rhea, and ali the rel,t'. This is the
brood that corresponds to Hesiod's twelve Titans. But Phorkys
belongs in Hesiod to a different family, as a son of Pontos. The
other place where he appears as a Titan is in the Orphic
Rhapsodies (fr. u4), where the Titans number fourteen:
Hesiod's twelve plus Phorkys and Dione. It is tempting
to guess that in the poem known to Plato Phorkys and
Dione were counted among the Titans to make the number
up to twelve because Oceanus and Tethys were otherwise
accounted for.
lf Dione was a Titan, Aphrodite was probably made her
daughter by Zeus instead of being bom from Uranos' genitais.
Perhaps the whole story of the castration of U ranos was absent
from this poem, as the Titans were not bis children but his
grandchildren. As we have noted similarities between the
Orphic poet's system and that of the lliad, it may be worth
observing that Zeus and Dione are Aphrodite's parents in that
poem. 1 s ln the Rhapsodies we seem to have a compromise
between birth from a solitary ejaculation by Zeus (Protogonos
Theogony, p. 91) and birth from Dione: Zeus has the ejacu-
lation while pursuing Dione. 16
The Cyclic Theogony

We have not finished with the Eudemian Theogony, but to get
fürther with it we must at this point start off on a new line of
investigation.
At the beginning of Apollodorus' Bihliotheca (1.1) we find an
account of the early history of thé gods, from the reign of
IS Cf. aoo the list of g<><h in Hes. Tio. t 1-,u, which associatcs Dionc wilh Aphro•
dite (unlike the main part of the poem, whcre shc is mercly a nymph) and ends
with Ge, Oceamu, and Night. ·
•• Frr. 183-4, cf. p. 73. Tbe combination is obviously modcllcd on the myth
of the birth of Erichthonios, in which Hephaest1.1S, punuing Athena, ejaculated
on her leg, and she wiped thc scmcn off w·i th a piocc of wool (erion) and threw it
on lhe ground (chtlum). {This vcnion Apollod. 3.r4.6.3, sch. PI. Tim. 23e; others
in E. fr. 9115 (Hyg. Fab. 166) and Amclesagoras 330 F 1.)
122 THE EUDEMI AN AN D CYCLIC THEOGONI ES
Uranos to the nurture of Zeus in Crete, which agrecs in most
details with section C of the Orphic Rhapsodies (p. 71).
Rhapsodies Apollodorus
Uranos was the first kíng aftcr hü Uranos wu thc fint rulcr or thc world.
mothcr Night; hc and Ge contract the He marrics Gc.
fint rnarriage. Shc gives birth to the
Moirai; She gives birtb to
Kottos, .Briareos, Gyges (100-Handcn); Kottos, Bria.reos, Gyges (100-Handcn);
Brontes, Stcropo, Arges (Cyclop,s). Brontes, Stcropes, Argcs (Cyclopes).
,.,.,~
Uranoa has heard that he will b,c Uranos blnda them and throws thcm
deposed by hls own children, and whcn into Tariarus, which ;, as far below
he secs this stem, lawlcss brood, he the earth as earth is bclow heaven.
throws thcm into Tartarus. Ge is angry,
and secretly gives birtb to the T itans He fathers more childrcn on Ge:
and Ti tanides: the Titans and Titanides:
Themis Tethys Mncmosyne Thcia Tcthys Rhca Thcrnis Mnemosync
Dion, Phoibc Rhca+ Koios Krcios Phoibe Dione Thcia+Oceanus Koios
Phorlr.ys Kronos Occanus Hyperion Hypcrion Krcios lapetos Kronos.
lapctos. Krooos is spccially nurstd by 1.1.2-3
Night.
Ge, a ngry, incites the Titans 10 castrate
Ge incites thc Titans to castra te Uranos. Uranos, and g;vcs Kronos an adaman-
O ceanus alone is unwilling and tinc sickle. Tbey a nack Uranos,
stays aloof. The dccd is dome when Oceanus remaining aloof. Uranos is
Uranos comes to lie witb Ge. Urano,s dcposcd a nd the imprisonrd brothers
i$ cast down from his car (?). The relcascd. The genitais are thrown in
genitais are thrown in the sea, foam lhe sea.
forms, and Aphrodite is born; she Is From thc blood the Erinycs are boro,
received hy Zelos and Apate. From the Alccto, Tcisiphone, and Megaira.
blood thc Giants are born. t.1.4
KrollOl is given the kinglhip. He re-

Kronos is now k;ng, cnthroncd upon imprison1 lhe brothers just freed from
Olympus. Tartarus. He marries Rhea. (For the
The Titan brothers and sistcn rnarry other Titan marriages Ap. follows
onc anotber. Oceanus is sct aparl a nd Hesiod, 1.g.2- 5, and adds Pontos'
d wclls in his ttm0te nreams. Kronos' family from thc sarne source.) Ge and
rulc is tyrannical. H e has children by Uranos foretdl that Kronos will bc
Rhea (incl. Hera and Hestia), but depoeed by one of his childrcn, so hc
swallows a t least thc males. swallows thcm: Hestia, Dcmctcr, Hera,
Pluto, Poscidon. 1. 1 .5
Za.s, howeve,-, is concealcd in the cave Rhea, angry, gocs to Crctc whcn
of Night, and nurscd by the nymplu prcgnant with Zcm, and he is bom in
Adrastca and Ida, daughten of Mclwoe a cave on Dictc and nuncd by the
and Amahhea. Adrastea clashes bronze Kourctes a nd thc nymphs Adrastea
cymbals at the cave entrance, and and Ida, daughtcrs of Mcllueus, who
mothcr and child are also guardcd by rear him on tbe millr. of Amalthea.
THE EUDEMfAN ANO CYCLIC THEOGO NIES 1,z3
thc three Kourctcs, who are themselvcs Thc Kourctcs guare! him, clashiog
sons of Rhca. /u mother of Zeus Rhca tpcars oo shields. Kronos is givco a
becomcs 'Dcmcter'. Shc givcs Krooos swaddlcd stooc to swaUow. 1. 1.&-7
a swaddlcd slOIIC to swallow, which Oo maturity Zeus takcs Mct.is as his
makcs him vomit up bis childrco. hclpcr; shc gives Kronos a drug which
:makes him vomit up the stone and bis
childrco. r.•.
1. 1
Apollodorus' narrative continues with an otherwise unknown

version of the Titanomachy, in which, after the war has gone
on for ten years, Ge prophesies that Zeus will be victorious if
he enlists the aid of the gods imprisoned in Tartarus. He goes
and rc.leases them, killing their warder, the monster Kampe.
The Cyclopes then ann Zeus with the thunderbolt, Pluto with
the helmet of invisibility, and Pose.idon with the trident. With
the advantage ofthis special equipment they defeat the Titans,
consign them to Tartarus, and set the Hundred-Handers to
guard them. The conclusion again parallels the Rhapsodies:
Hadcs oocup!cs thc lower world, Tbcy draw lots, and Zeus obtains
Poseidon thc sca, while Zeus rides a powcr in heaven, Poscidon in thc sca,
goat up to heavcn. Pluto in Hadcs. 1, 2. 1.4
At first glancc the significancc ofthese comparisons may scem

questionable. A sceptic could point to the presence in Hesiod
of nearly ali the constituents of Apollodorus' account. Therc
are, however, several features in which it differs from Hesiod
and agrces with the Orphic narrative:
t. Uranos is expressly designated as the first ruler of the
world (with a qualification in the Rhapsodies). 1'
2. Thc Hundred-Handers and Cyclopes are born beforc the
Titans, not after. Uranos throws thcm into Tartarus, and it is
this that lcads the Titans to castratc him.
3. Dionc appears as a Titan in addition to the Hcsiodic
twelve.
4. Oceanus is expressly excluded from the assault on Uranos.
5. Zeus is nurtured by thc nymphs Adrastea and Ida,
daughters of Melissos or Mclisseus, and guarded by the
Kourctes. Amalthea is also mentioned.
" Fr. 11 1 'who fim bccame king oíthc gods, al\cr bis mothcr Night'. l n Hcsiod
only Kronos and Zeus are callcd kings.
Ili~ THE EUOEMIAN AND CYCLIO THEOGONIES
6. The division of the universe among the three sons of
Kronos is describcd.
There are a few discrepancies between Apollodorus and the

Rhapsodies. Some of them can be explained from Apollodorus'
own disposition of material. He omits the Moirai from among
the children of Ge because he is going to present them as
daugbters of Zeus and Themis in 1.3.1.1. He omits Phorkys
from the list of Titans because in I .2.6-7 he is going to repro-
duce Hesiod's stemma of the children of Pontos, and Phorkys
has his place there. He omits the birth of the Giants from the
drops of blood bccause he is reserving their birth for 1.6.1,
wbere he will tel1 of their battle against the gods. The Erinyes,
whom he does record as bom from the blood, were probably
mentioned with the Giants in the Rhapsodies (as in Hesiod,
Th. 185) ; it is a mere accident that thlS is not attested in thc
fragments. Other discrepancies may reflect real differences of
detail between Apollodorus' immediate source and the Rhap-
sodies. When Apollodorus omits the birth of Aphrodite from
the severed genitais of Uranos and later (1.3.1.1) makes her
the daughter ofZcus and Dione, this may be all that his sóurce
gave, as against the two births which she bad in the Rhap-
sodies. Zeus is brought up in the cave of Night according lo the
Rhapsodies, wbereas in Apollodorus it is the Dictaean cave.
T he other details of the episode are ali appropriate to the Cretan
setting (Adrastea, Ida, Amalthea, Kourctes), and it is clearly
Apollodorus who preserves the primary version. Finally there
is the disagreement over the emetic administered to Kronos.
When we recall that in the Rhapsodies Metis had been identi-
fied with Protogonos (p. 88), it is apparent that the compiler
had to alter such a story as the one in Apollodorus if he found
it in his source-poem. He seems lo have eliminated both Metis
and the drug, and simplified things by making the stone swal-
lowed by Kronos itself have emetic effcct upon him.
Now, where did Apollodorus get his account from ? The
sources of the Bibliotluca are various. lt draws largely on thc
great logographers (Acusilaus, Pherccydes, Hellanicus) and-
partly at second hand-on epic poems under authoritative
names: Hesiod's Tluogony and Cataloglll of Women; thc Cyclic
epics about Troy; Apollonius Rhodius' Argtnunáica. Variant
THE EUDEMIAN AND CYCLIC THEOGONIES tll.5
versions are sometimes noted from other sources in passing.

The scope of the work as a whole matches that of the Epic
Cycle described in the Chreswmat~ of Proclus, of which Photius
tells us:
He (Proclus) also handles the so-called Epic Cyde, which begins from the
fabled uníon of U ranos and Ge, from which they say he begot three hundred-
handed sons and three Cyclopes; and it covers the other paga.n myths
about the gods, a.nd everything historical too. The Epic Cycle is made up
from various poets, and it comes to :an end with Odysseus' landing at
Ithaca, when he wa.s killed unrecognised by his son Telegonus.• 8
We are not fully informed abou.t which poems were included
in the Cycle. We gather from Photius that a theogony stood
in first place, and that it began (like Apollodorus' account) with
the marriage ofUranos and Ge and the birth (before the Titans,
not, as in Hesiod, after) ofthe Hundred-Handers and Cyclopes.
The Cycle also included the Titawmachy ascribed to Eumelus
or Arctinus,•9 and the Thebaid ascribed to Homer ;10 and it ended
with the Trojan epics, Proclus' summaries of whlch are pre-
served. These summaries, as Bethe discovered, show a similarity
extending to verbal parallels with the epitome of the missing
conclusion of Apollodorus. It appears, therefore, that from first
to last one of Apollodorus' sources was a prose summary of the
Epic Cycle, a summary reproduced by Proclus, who shows that
it was divided up by headings which named the source-poems.
Apollodorus did away with the headings and made a continuous
narrative, removing some inconsistencies and introducing
occasional material from other sources.
His account ofthe early history ofthe gods in 1.1, then, was
based on a prose summary of the theogony which occupied the
initial place in the Epic Cycle. This poem, as we have seen,
closely resembled a section ofthe Orphic Rhapsodies, though in
two or three points it was free from secondary modifications
that were present in the Rhapsodies. The inference is plain:
thls Cyclic theogony itselfwent under the name ofOrpheus, and
it was one of the poems, or part of one of the poems, used by the
compiler of the Rhapsodies. If it had not been ascribed to
u Photius, Bwl. 318b; T. W. Allen, Homeri Opera v (19111), 96 f.; E. Bcthe,
Homn, Díelúung wul Sage, ii (2nd éd., 1929). 149 ( = Der troitclte Epn,J.nis ( 1966), t).
•• Alh. 277c-e.
•• Asclepiades (of Myrlca?) ap. sch. Pind. O. 6.116, sch. S. OC 1375, Ath. 465e;
cf. Apollod. 3.6.
1!16 THE EUDEMIAN ANO CYCLIC THEOGONIES
Orpheus, the compiler would not have been interested in it.
Besides, it is hard to see why the inventor of the Cycle should
have chosen to begin with this theogony rather than Hesiod's
but for the greater authority of Orpheus' name.
Apollodorus' peculiar account of the war of the gods and
Titans corresponds to nothing in the Rhapsodies, where the
Titans could not be expelled from the world till after the birth
of Dionysus. He may have taken it not from the Cyclic Theo-
gony but from the Titanomachy ascribed to Eumelus or Arctinus,
which also had a place in the Epic Cycle (suggesting that the
Theogony lacked a Titanomachy). We know that it recorded
the birth of Chiron from Kronos and Philyra, which Apollo-
dorus has a little later (1.2.4).
Relatfonship oJ the Cyclic to the Protogonos and Eudemian Theogonies

The Cyclic poem of which we have been able to reconstruct a
good part has some important thiogs in common with the
Protogonos Theogooy. It specified that Uranos was the first
king; and, much more sigoificantly, it had the distinctive anti-
Hesiodic version of his story, with the Hundred-Handers and
Cyclopes bom first and bound in Tartarus, and then the birth
of the Titans. There can be no question of two Orphic poets
having arrived at this arrangement independently.
On the other hand there are points of contact between the
Cyclic Theogony and the Eudemian. The most notable con-
cerns the list of the Titans. ln the Eudemian Theogony we have
Oceanus and Tethys as the third generation, and then the
Titans, who, I have suggested, were twelve in number, namely
Koios, Kreios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Phorkys, Kronos, Theia,
Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe, and Dione. ln the Cyclic
Theogony we have instead of this a single generation of four•
teen Titans, namely Oceanus and Tethys plus the other twelve.
Tbis unnatural complement of fourteen is most convincingly
explained as the result of compressing the two generations into
one.u A less important point of contact between the two poems
at Sch\Utcr, 9. Dornsciff, L'AnJiqrd1' class~u, 6 (1937), 236 f. = Antik, u,ul alter
Orimt (2nd ed., 1959), 4~, trics to argue tbat the 14 Orphic Titans are earlier than
the 1,i of Hcsiod; but hc overlooks many deriva tive elcments in the Orphic
venion. Otben derive the number from the division of Dionys\U into 7 parts (fr.
1110b), pointing out that Osiris was dividcd into 14 parts, one for each day of thc
concerns Aphrodite. ln the Eudemian Theogony, I suggested,
Uranos was not cnstrated, and Aphrodite was the daughter of
Zeus and Dione, not a product of U ranos' genitais. ln the
Cyclic T heogony there was certainly a castration, but it appears
that Aphrodite was again the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
Other links between the Cyclic and Eudemian Theogonies
are somewhat more speculative. Apollonius Rhodius ( 1.496 ff.)
makes Orpheus sing a theogony for the Argonauts in which
earth, heaven, and sea, originally united, are separated by
strife. Ophion and Eurynome rule over the gods until they are
overthrown by Kronos and Rhea and fall into O ceanus. Zeus
is reared in the Dictaean cave, and comes to power after the
Cyclopes arm him with lhe thunderbolt. We have no reason to
expect a précis of an actuaJ Orphic theogony known to Apol-
lonius, and this does not look like one. The reign of Ophion
and Eurynome and their defeat by Kronos and collapse into
the waters of Oceanus are evidently adapted from Pherecydes
of Syros.n At the sarne time, though, thcy makc an extra
generation between U ranos and Kronos- something paralleled
only in the .Eudemian Theogony-and Ophion is in a sense
a suitable substitute for O ceanus, who occupies that place in
the Orphic poem, because he took up his abade in Oceanus
and was identified with Oceanus by allcgorizing intcrpreters.n
Apollonius maythcreforebe combining a motiffrom Pherecydes
( the defeat of Ophion by Chronos [sic]) with the general scheme
ofthe Eudemian Theogony (succession ofOceanus by Kronos).
As for the nurture of Zeus in the Dictaean cave, he certainly
did not find that in Pherecydes, nor in Hesiod. Perhaps he
found it in the Orphic theogony. ln aUusions to Zeus' infancy
dsewhere in the Argonautica he refers to the Kouretes and to
the nurse Adrastea (2. 1234; 3.133). His elder contemporaries
waning moon (l'lut. Is. Os. 3sl3a, 368a), and one for cach of the 'T itans', i.c.
Seth's followers (Lobeck, 557; Gruppe, Die gruch. Culte und M.,lhm, i. 639; Ziegler,
RE xviii. 1356). But therc are various traditiom about the numbcr of ()siris'
parts (14, 16, !16, 42: J . Gwyn Griffiths, Plulorch's I>, lside tt Osiritú (1970), 338).
Thcre was no tradition that the numbcr correspondcd to that of Scth's followers
(of whom thcre wcre 7'J according to PluL 356b): only Diodorus (1.u, 4.6.3)
assumes iL l n any case Dionysus in thc Orphic story was not attackcd by 14 or
7 Titam, sincc Occanus can hardly have taken part, any more than hc did in thc
castration of Uranos (p. 130).
u G. Zoi!ga, Ablumdlwrgt11 (1817), 244; EGPO 22 f.
» Sce EGPO 23.
128 THE EUDEMJAN AND CYC LI C THEOGONIES
Callimachus and Aratus have a very similar tale to tell: if
the Eudemian Theogony is Apollonius' primary source, it will
aiso be theirs.14 Callimachus has Adrastea; he and Aratus both
have the Kouretes, anda goat who suckles Zeus; Callimachus
calls her Amalthea. Ali three poets confuse Ida and Dicte
(which are in different parts ofCrete), and speak of a Dictaean
cave, which so far as we can tel1 never existed.1s All these details
recur in the Cyclic Theogony.
We have noted severa! allusions in the fliad to rnythical
motifs cognate with motifs in tbe Eudemian Theogony: Night
as a venerable goddess; Oceanus and Tethys as the primeval
parents; Dione as mother of Aphrodite. The drawing of lots
by the sons of Kronos to determine the distribution of the
universe among them (ll. 15.187-92) would be an important
addition to the list if it occurred in the Eudemian Theogony.
Callimacbus refers to ít as a story of 'ancient poets' directly
after his description of Zeus' Cretan nursery, which I havc
suggested above is based on thc Orphic poem. 26 It does appear
to have stood in the Cyclic Theogony.
The result of thesc various comparisons is that the Cyclic
poem agreed in part with the Protogonos Theogony, in a way
that cannot be fortuitous, whilc it also contained some material
that agreed with the Eudemian Theogony, and some that seems
to presuppose it. The Protogonos and Eudemian Theogonies,
so far as we can tel1, had little in common with each other
bcyond the namc of Orpheus and the affiliation of Uranos to
Night. The situation appears to be that these two poems had
independent origins, and the author of the Cyclic version drew
on both of them to produce a contaminated account.
His purpose was different from those of the older poets.
What they were constructing was the sacred story of a religious
sect, culminating in events and assurances of special interest
and validity for the initiates ofthat sect. The Cyclic Theogony,
,. Call. H. 1.4-6--5-t; Arat. 30-5, 162- + Thcy will abo havc bccn awarc of
Epimcnides' account (sce p. 4,8). AratUJ' 'prophcts of Zeus' (164) may mean
Epimcnides.
u Cf. my note on Hes. V.. 477 ; C. L. Huxley, GRBS 8 (1967), 85-7.
•• H. 1.6o f. Hc may, of coune, mean only Homcr. Thc mythical motif is
Babyloni~~: 'Thc gods had clasped hancb togethcr, Rad cast lots and had dividcd.
A.nu had gonc up to heavcn, [•.] •.• lhe carth to bis subjccts. [Thc bolt], the
bar of the sca, [They had givcn] to Enki, the prince' (W. G. Lambert and A. R.
Millard, Atro-ffasú (1969), 43).
THE EUDEMlAN AND CYCLIC THEOGONlES 1!19
on the other hand, stood in the Epic Cycle, as the first link in
a chain. The arranger of the Cycle aimed to construct an
omnibus mythology out ofthe mass of ancient poems available.
He needed an account of the gods' genealogies, an account of
the Titanomachy, and so on. Some cditing was necessary for
the sake of continuity and consistency, and it appears that some
of the Troy epics, at least, were tailored to fit each other. 27
Now it is hardly likely that the editor would have wished to
include a special Orphic gospel in his scheme. His poem stood
under the name of Orpheus only because it was drawn from
Orphic sources. Nor did he care, perhaps, for the monstrous
Protogonos and all thecomplexities associated with lúm. He was
content to begin with the marriage of Uranos and Ge, and to
take the story only as far as the deliverance of Zeus' brothers
and sisters from Kronos' stomach and the establishment of the
Olympian regime under Zeus.
It is not known when the Cycle was constructed. A cycle of
Trojan epics seems to be presupposed by an alternative opening
of the lliad known to Aristoxenus in the fourth century sc,2 8
and indeed by the structure of some of the epics involved, 29
but it may only bave been a Trojan Oycle to begin with. For
the greatcr Cycle there is no certain evidence before lhe second
century AD. However, that would be a date more appropriate
to the prose epitome than to the original arrangcment. The
early Hellenistic period would not be unsuitable for such an
enterprise of unification. The compiler of the Rhapsoclies,
whom I -shall argue to have worked about 100 se, apparently
knew the Cyclic Theogony, as he had the sarne list of four-
teen Titans, reflecting the Cyclist's compromise between t.he
Eudemian and Protogonos traditions.
The overthrow of Urarws

ln the Eudemian Theogony, I have suggested, the castration
of Uranos was absent. As the poet told of Uranos and Ge
giving birth to Oceanus and Tethys, and Oceanus and Tethys
giving birth to the Titans, it is not casy to see how he could
n Sec D. B. Monro, Honur's Od,1ssey, Books Xl/1- XXlV (1901), 342- 5.

•• Vita Romana Homeri, p. 32 Wilamowit7..
•• Cf. Bethc, Homn, ii. 287 ff. - D,r troiselu Ep,,,lrds, 139 ff.
130 THE BUDEMIAN ANO CYCLJC TKEOGONlES
have set upa situation in which the Titans had to castrate their
grandfather.3°
ln the Cyclic as in the Protogonos Theogony the castration
had its place. The story was told in a way that drew heavily on
Hesiod. The Hundred-Hande:rs and Cyclopes were named and
described just as in Hesiod, and the Tartarus to which they
were sent was located, as in Hesiod, 'as far below earth as
earth is below heaven'. Again as in Hesiod, Ge incited her
childrcn to attack Uranos, and gave Kronos an adamantine
sickle to do it with. He threw the genitais in the sea- though
without the birth of Aphrodite from them the gesture loses its
poiot. The Erinyes and probably the Giants were bom from
the drops of blood that fell on the earth. 3 1 One feature that
was not in Hesiod was tbe exp1icit dissociation ofüceanus from
tbe castration. This reflects his ancient non-Titanic nature ( cf.
p. I 19), and accords with the fact that wheo Kronos is estab-
lished on Olympus, Oceanus is set apart and stays at thc outer
limits of the cosmos. We cannot tel1 whether the Cyclist took
it over from the Protogonos Theogony or introduced it himself
because the separate place ofOceanus in the Eudemian Theo-
gony impressed on him the inappropriateness of including him
in the assault party. ln either case he is likely to have used the
verses which later appeared in the Rhapsodies, charmingly
portraying Oceanus' moody r,eluctance (fr. 135):
Oceanua then tarried in his abode,
pondcring which way to turn, whcther to !ame
bis fathcr's strcngtb and do him gricvou.s harm
wilh Kronos and his. brcthrcn, who obeycd
their mothcr, or stay quiet alone at home.
. Much troubled he stayed sitting in his abode,
rcscntful toward her, and still more ai them.
After dealing with Uranos, the Titans at once bring their

brothers up from Tartarus. That is logical, since it was in-
dignation at their imprisonment that led Ge to incite thc Titans
to overthrow Uranos. But then, Apollodorus tells us, Kronos
1° Cf. , howcvcr, Enúma Elil (p. 102), where Apsíl opprcsscs severa! gcnerations
of his desccndants togethcr and is ovcrc:ome by his great-grcat-grandson Ea.
11 Cf. Apollod. 1.1.2- 4 with Hes. Th. 139-53, 720, 161-6, 176-Sg. We may
surcly add from Rhapsodics fr. 154 the dctail that Uranos was cas1ra1ed whcn hc
ca.me down ín bis dcsire for scx with his wife (- Hcs. 71t. 176--8).
THE EUDEMIAN ANO úYCLIC THEOGONI ES 131
condemned them to Tartarus ali over again. No motive for
this volte-face is giveri, but thc reason is obvious: they have to
be in Tartarus so that Zeus can rclease them to help him against
thc Titans. ln the Eudemian Theogony the war betwecn the
Titans and the younger go:ls was probably absent, as I shall
argue later. lt may have been prcsent in the Protogonos Theo-
gony, as thcre is evidence for it in the Hieronyman. Thc re-
imprisonment may thereforc come from there. Alternatively it
may have been an innovation in the Cyclic Theogony to accord
with the following TitanDmachy.
Apollodorus' account of the Titans' marriages and thc
desccndants of Ge and Pontos in 1.2.2-1.3.l cannot be based
wholly on Orpheus, since Phorkys here appears among Pontos'
sons, as in H esiod, instead ofas a Titan. Pontos himselfhas not
bcen accounted for in the prcceding ' Orphic' section. There is
such extensive agreement with Hcsiod here that it looks as if
Apollodorus has switched to him as his main source. Thcre
are some divergent details which may or may not come from
Orpheus. Iapetos' wife is Asia31 instead of Clymene; the birth
of Chiron from Kronos and Philyra is recorded (cf. p. I 26);
and the catalogue of Nereids differs from Hesiod's.
The birlh of ,?,eus

I havc suggested that the Eudcmian Theogony, like the Cyclic,
contained the account of Zeus' birth and nurture according
to which he was nursed by Ida and Adrastea and guarded by
the Kourctes. We have seen thal it is the standard account
followed by the Alexandrian poets, and that it is unknowo to
Hcsiod. ln fact it is altogether unknown to early poetry, unlcss
one infcrs it from allusions to Amalthea's Horn in Phocylides
and Anacreon; but that sccms to be an isolated theme. Other-
wise it is first found in pseudo-Epimenides and Euripides
(above, p. 50).
The Kouretes are a genuine Cretan dement in the story. It
makes sense in terms of the Cretan cult that they are repre-
sented as children of Rhea in the Orphic poem (as also in the
scholium on Aristophanes' Lysistrata, 558), because the cave-
born Kouros worshipped in Crcte and identified with the Greek
,. As in Lyc. 1283, Kh. A.R. 1.444, ai.
13~ THE EUDEMIAN ANO CYCLIC THEOGONIES
Zeus was really only the greatest ofthe Kouretes. ln lhe famous
hymn from Palaikastro in the east of the islandJ 3 he is called thc
son of Kronos, and there is mention of the Kouretes' having
once received him from Rhea, so he is evidently identified with
Zeus; he is addressed, however, not as Zeus but as 'greatest
Kouros'. He is called all-powerful, and said to havc 'gone to
earth' leading the gods. The singers call on him to come to
Dicte for the annual festival, and to 'spring' into their wine-
jars (?), fiocks, crops, towns, shipping, and young citizens. The
festival presumably involved ritual springing and leaping for
fertility and prosperity by an association of kouroi who saw the
Kouretes as their mythical doubles. The 'greatest Kouros' was
prince of these Kouretes.H
As for Zeus' nurses, Ida and Adrastea, the first is the epony-
mous nymph of the Cretan mountain. Adrastea, however, is
a goddess associated in her earliest attestations with the other
Mount Ida, the Phrygian one, 35 and the bronze cymbals that
she clashcs in the Orphic poem are probably a reflection of
Asiatic cult practice. This syncretism of the two Idas and thcir
cults, general as it became, is an indication that the poem did
not actuaUy come from Crete. So is the confusion of Ida and
Dicte. Dictc in eastern Crete was one important centre of the
worship of the Zeus-kouros; it is from here that the Palai-
kastro hymn comes. Ida in the middle ofthe island was another.
The poet had heard of an Idaean cavé where Zeus was bom,
and of Dicte. lgnorant of Cretan geography, he ran them
together and invented a Dictaean cave which never cxisted.
Many scholars have yct to free themselves from this confusion.
About Amalthea there are two main traditions, one of which
makes her a nymph and the other a goat. The first appeared
in Musaeus' theogony (p. 42), where she nourished Zeus on a
goat's milk, and in earlier tales about her marvellous horn.J6
Sbe is a goat in Callimachus, and apparently in lhe Cyclic
" JHS 85 (1g65), 149 ff. Thc inscription is datcd to thc 3rd ccntury .-o, bu1
ihe poem sccms to have been composed in thc 4th or 3rd ccntury 11c.
34 For 1hc Kourctes' conccrn with flocks, fcrtilily, etc., ,cc CDI iv, p. 1036
and Orph. Hyfllll 38,13 f., ~5 (JHS 85.155). For lcaping rituais 1cc J. G. Fraur,
TI,, Matit Ârl, i (1911: n, ~ Bou,la•, i), 137-9; 77,, Sc4/ie1,0tJt {1913: C.B.•,
vi), 238--44 ; Mculi, G,sa,n,,,./u &Arijun, 90, 1o6, 129, 183 í.; for anmd dancing,
Fraur, Tia, SUlf#goaJ, 234- 6; Mculi, •43, 184.
l> P/roronis fr. 2 Kinkd; A. fr. 2780 Mclle.
l6 Phcrccydes 3 F 42, Pind. fr. 70/249a.
Theogony, as Apollodorus says that Ida and Adrastea fed Zeus
on her milk.37 The myth that Zeus was suckled hy a goat or
fed on goat's milk is connected in Musaeus with his invincible
goatskin, the aegis, while in Orpheus he rode to heaven on a
goat. Both stories are based on interpretations of his traditional
epithet aigioclws, 'aegis-bearer' or 'riding on a goat'. 38 There
seems also to be a connection with the folk-tale motif of a child
rejected by its parents but growing up in the wild, suckled by
an animal. A historian of the third century BC, Agathocles of
Cyzicus, recorded a story that Zeus was born on Dicte and
suckled by a sow,39
Melisseus, according to Didymus, was a Cretan king who
instituted a cult of the Great Mother and made bis daughter
Melissa the first of the priestesses known as Bees. She fed Zeus
on goat's milk and honey. 40 Bees and honey play a part in
other stories of Cretan caves and the nurture of Zeus. 41 Calli-
machus says that Zeus was nourished on Amalthea's milk but
also on honeycombs from Panacra in the ldaean mountains.
This may be another Orphic element in bis account. Nicander
knew a myth that bees were first created in Crete in the time
of Kronos. 42
The overthrow oJ Kronos

Kronos had been given a swaddled stone to swallow in place
ofZeus. ln Hesiod's version (Th , 492-7), when Zeus was grown
up, Kronos was tricked on the instructions of Ge and induced
to regurgitate the stone and bis children, 'vanquished by his
son's craft and force'. The Cyclic account, as Apollodorus
l7 Catl, H. 1.49 (from the Eudemian Theogony ?), cf. Nic. fr. 114; Apollod.
1.1.7. Hcrmias in Rhapsodies fr. 105, howcvcr, makes Amalthca thc nymphs'
mother, the wife of Melisseus. Aratus 163 refers to the goat that suckled Zeus
but does not idcntify hcr as Amahhea; hc says that ' prophcts ofZeus' (cf. abovc,
n. 26) cal) her the Olenian goat.
JS The latter intcrpretation is the most plausiblc linguistically. See my Hesiod,
Workt and Days, 366-8. When I wrote 'wc know of no occasion on which he rode
hcr' (thc goat whose milk he had drunk), I had ovcrlooked lhe Orphic testimonium
(Rufinus, Recogn. 10.19, end offr. 56 Ker.n ).
" 472 F ra.
.. Didymus (p. 220 Schmidt) ap. Lact. lnst. 1.22. He makes Amalthea another
daughter of Melisseus, and in Hyg. Fab. 182.1 Melisseus' daughters appear as
fdt,tlua Althrua Adrasta, who seem to correspond to Ida, Amalthca, and Adrastea.
•• Cf. W. Drexler in Rosclur, ü. 2638.
42 Call. H. r ,49 f.; Nic. fr •.94•
134 THE EUDEMIAN ANO CYCL IC T HEOG ON IE S
renders it {t.2.1.1 ), is on the same lines but clearer: 'When
Zeus was fully grown he took Metis the daughter of Oceanus
as his helper. She gave Kronos a drug to swallow, which made
him vomit up first the stone and then the children he had
swallowed.' Metis played some role in connection with Zeus'
kingship in the Protogonos Theogony (p. 87). But it may only
have been as an identity of the god whom Zeus swallowed.
lf so, her pharmaceutical activity in the Cyclic poem may be
derived from the Eudemian Theogony.
Apollodorus then goes on to his account ofthe Titanomachy.
I have suggested that this came from another poem of the Cycle,
and that the theogony did not contain the war with the
Titans. I believe that it must also have been absent from the
Eudemian Theogony, because such a war could only end with
t!tc dispatch of the Titans to Tartarus, whereas this theogony,
in my opinion (see below), represcnted them as remaining in
the world long enough to abduct and kill the young Dionysus,
and were only then blasted by thunderbolts. Still, one would
expect that in establishing him.self as king Zeus did something
more to Kronos than just make him sick. ln the Rhapsodies
(D) he was intoxicated with honeycombs and fell into a stupor,
whereupon Zeus ticd him up and castrated him. This is a useful
episode for a theogony which lackcd a T itanomachy. Can we
attributc it to the Eudcmian Theogony?
Thcre is something to be said both for and against the hypo-
thesis. Against it is the fact that the earliest attestations of a
myth of the castration of Kronos are in Timaeus and Lyco-
phron, who connect it with Drcpanc-Corcyra, identified with
Scheria the home ofHomer's Phaeacians.4 3 The sickle (drepane)
which Zeus used was supposed to be buricd under the island,
which was called Drepane for that reason. But we can trace
an earlier version of this aetiological myth in which the castra-
tion was that of Uranos.44 A similar aition was used for the
name of Zancle in Sicily, also meaning 'sickle' .H As one sickle
o Timac1a 566 F 79, Lyc. 7611. Timaeus is Lycophroo's main source of know-
lcdgc about Wet Greek mattcn.
.. A.R. 4.9811 ff. Early, bccausc AlCM:us (fr. 441} and Acusilaus (12 F 4) alrcady
know the story that thc Phaeacians came from the spanercd blood of Uranos.
Cf. their assoçiation with lhe Giants in Otl. 7.56 ff. {Wilamowitz, Die lli4s 1111d
H-, (1920}, ,50'2) .
° Call. fr. 43.6g ff., Lyc. 86g, etc.
could not be buried in two places, the rival claims were recon-
ciled by making one of the castrations a castration of Kronos
instead of Uranos. It is not surprising that this first appears in
a Sicilian historian. But if this is the origin of Kronos' castration,
how could it get into an Orphic theogony known to Plato?
lt might be replied that it was not open to Timaeus or
anyone else to associate Drepane with a castration of Kronos
until there was theological authority for such an event. ln
favour of its occurrence in the Eudemian Theogony are the
following three considerations.
(i} Overpowering a stronger opponent after putting him
to sleep, especially with strong drink, is a traditional folk-tale
motif. •6 But its use in the context of the gods' power struggles
is charar:teristic of the ancient Near East. ln a Sumerian version
of the myth of Zil, a sinister bird-god who usurped the kingship
from Enlil, Lugalbanda sets out to conquer him by plying him
with intoxicants. ln Enúma Eli! Ea overcomes Apsu by pouring
a magic sleep upon him, removing his insígnia, tying him up,
and then killing him. The best parallel is probably the Hittite
myth of the conflict between the W eather-god (the chief god,
corresponding to Zeus) and the dragon Illuyanka. Illuyanka
was clearly the stronger.
Tbe Storm-god besougbt ali the gods: 'Come ye to my aid! Let Inaras
prepare a celebration!' He madc everything rcady on a grand scale:
amphorae of wine, amphorae of marnuwan, and amphorae of wal!Ji. The
amphorae he had filled to the brim. ... The Dragon Illuyankas carne up
with bis children and they ate and drank. They drank every amphora
dry and quenched their thirst. Thcreupon they are no longer able to
dcscend to their Jair. Hupasiyas came and trussed the Dragon Illuyankas
with a rope. The Storm-god carne and killed thc Dragon Illuyankas and
the gods were with him. 47
Now of the various Orphic poems it is the Eudemian that shows
possible signs of a special connection with Babylonian theogonic
tradition, through some pre-Homeric lonian fore-runner,
by its special placing of Oceanus and Tethys (pp. 120-1),
and perhaps its inclusion of the myth of the division of the
universe by lot (p. 128 n. 26). It is interesting that the Homeric
episode in which a god is incapacitated by being lulled to sleep,
•6 Polyphemus, Samson, Silenus, etc.; Meuli, Gdsamnulú Scl,rifl,n, 641 f.
41 Zu: ANET t 13. Apsu: En. El. i. 6o-9, ANET 61 . Illuyanka: ANET 1~5 f.
136 THE EUDEMJAN ANO CYCLIC THEOGONIES
the Dios Apate, is thc very one in which Oceanus and Tethys
are mentioned as the primeval parents.
{ii) Tbe use of boney rccalls thc importance of bees and
honey in the Cretan setting of Zeus' birth, and tbercfore fits
well into the Eudemian Theogony. The banquet was organized
by Rhea, whose priestesses were the Mclissai, descended from
the Melissos or Melisseus mentioned in the poem as father of
Zeus' nurses.
(iii) If the castration ofKronos did not come in the Eudemian
Theogony, it is difficult to explain where the compiler of the
Rhapsodics found it. There is no hint in Apollodorus that the
Cyclic Theogony containedl anything of the sort. ln the
Hieronyman Theogony, Athenagoras tclls us (fr. 58), Zeus
bound his father in Tartarus, as Uranos had done to the
Hundred-Handers and Cyclopes. Athenagoras is listing the
gods' unseemly deeds, he has just mentioned the castration of
Uranos, and he would not have omitted that of Kronos if he
had known anything of it. No other theogony can be discemed
or nceds to be assumed among the sources of the Rhapsodies,
and it is wboUy implausible lhat the compiler should have
invented the episode himself.
I conclude that it probably did stand in the Eudemian
Theogony. As the castration of Uranos was probably absent
from the poem, the castration of Kronos may be seen as
compensating for it.
Tlu sixth generation

ln the sixth gencration end the array of song,
Orpheus instructed the Muses; that is, with the generation afier
that of Zeus. It is in this last generation that we should expect
the poet's religious message to have lain. Unfortunately Plato
gives no details of this generation in the Timaeus. Apollodorus'
account ofit, like his account of the Titans' and Pontos' families
just before, is unusable, becausc we cannot tel1 how much of
it, if any, is based on the Cyclic Thcogony. Some of it agrccs
with Hesiod, and certain details are added from Homer. The
Cyclic poem (indirectly the Eudemian Theogony) may well be
the source for Aphrodite's birth from Zeus and Dione (1.3.1),
and it is a pos.sible source for the surprising statement (ibid.)
that Zeus and Styx were the parents of Persephone. We cannot
hope to find anything of the Eudemian Orpheus' religious
message preserved in Apollodorus, for it was excluded from the
scope of the Cyclic intermediary.
We can, however, fali back on the conclusions reached in the
last chapter (pp. 94-6) by analysing the Rhapsodies. We were
able to distinguish two strands in the narrative, one continuing
a motiffrom the Protogonos Theogony and the other continuing
a motif from the Eudemian Theogony. The second strand
involves a Cretan location for the birth of Dionysus, his
protection from the Titans by the dancing Kouretes, and by
implication the whole story of their hostile designs on him, his
dismemberment, and his restoration to life. It is natural to infer
that all this carne from the Eudemian Theogony, and I shall
proceed on this assumption.
Resides Dionysus, who must have been central to the poet's
religious interests, and to whom we shall return in the next
chapter, we can speculate about other gods of the sixth genera•
tion. Zeus' children by Hera in Hesiod (Th. 922) are Hebe,
Ares, and Eileíthyia. It is unlikely that the Orphic poet ven•
tured to add to their number, unless he counted Hephacstus
as the son of Zeus as well as of Hera. Besides Hera, Zeus will
have married or raped other goddesses. We have assumed that
one of these was the Titan Dione, and that Aphrodite was bom
as a result. Apollo and Artemis cannot have been absent from
the poem, nor can they have had any other parents than Zeus
and Leto. We can also assume that it contained the birth of
Athena ·from Zeus' head. She is too important a goddess to
have been ignored. ln the Rhapsodies she became the leader
of the Kouretes. As the Kouretes were prominent in the
Eudemian Theogony, it is likely that this detail carne from
that source. It reflects one of Athena's less familiar aspects,
but one that is not unknown from other evidence. At Praisos
in eastern Crete she was made the mother of the Korybantes
(who cannot here be distinguished from the Kouretes), in
surprising wedlock with Helios.48 What lies behind these asso•
ciations of Athena is her connection with armed dancing.
Epicharmus in his Muses repres-ented her as a piper playing
•• Strabo 10.3. 19, p. 472.
-------- - - - -- ··
1s8 THE EUDÊMIAN ANO CYCLIC THEOGONIES

the enoplios no11Ws, the music for the armed dance, for the
Dioscuri.4 9 Plato connects her with armed dancing like that
of the Kouretcs and Dioscuri; and Dionysius of Halicarnassus
writes that such dancing is an ancient Greek custom, whether
it was establishcd by Athena after the annihilation ofthe Titans
or by the Kouretes wanting to entcrtain the baby Zeus. 50
&capitulation
We began from Eudemus' and other fourth-century Athenian
writers' refercnces to an Orphic theogony. Thcn we identificd
a theogony used by the Hellenistic editor of the Epic Cycle
(and hence rcflected in Apollodorus' Bibliot/rua), and found
that its author drew partly on the Eudemian, partly on thc
Protogonos Theogony. This helped us to fill out our rather
skeletal picture of the Eudemian Theogony. For the last and
most important section of the poem, which was omitted from
the Cyclic version, we had to rely on the Rhapsodies and on our
ability to distinguish the constituent strands in that composite
narrative and assign them to the right source-poems. But the
necessary decisions seemed easy enough.
The Eudemian Theogony, as reconstructed by these methods,
may be summarized in outline as follows. ln the beginning was
Night. From her carne Uranos and Ge; from them Oceanus
and T ethys; from them the twelve Titans. Rhea borc children
to Kronos, but he swallowed them as they were born. Zeus,
however, was born secretly in a cave in Crete (ldafDicte),
nursed by nymphs, and guarded by the Kourctes. Kronos was
given a stonc to swallow. When Zeus was grown up, Rhea
make Kronos drunk with honeycombs, whereupon Zeus tied
him up, castratcd him, and with the help of Metis induced
him to regurgitatc his children. His three sons drew lots, and
Hades took the lower world, Poseidon the sea, and Zeus
heavcn, whither he proceeded on a goat.
Zeus fathered children by several goddesses, and others of
•• Fr. 75. For the Di01Curi as armed dAnccn d. PI. 4. 7g6b, Luclan 45. 10, ,eh.
Pind. P. 2. 127, etc. For their similarity to Kouretcs or Korybantcs cf. Paus,
3.114-5, 10.38.7, Orph, H,11M 38.20 fl'. Both K()IIT-4/4S and Di,,s-ko11TOi are essentíally
k<nirai; and Athena was D.os k,,,at (,j 1'ap' ,jl''" dri ,cal 31,nrou,.,, PI ., l.c.). For
Athena in association witb Dioecuri cf. E. Gerhard, Elru.ki.sdu Spug,I, v ( 1884~7),
Plt. 79-&, and Paus. 3,17.2, 24.5, 24.7.
•• PI., 1.c.; Dion. Hal. Ant. Rmn. 7.72.7.
THE EUDEMIAN ANO CYC LlC THEO CONlES 139
thc younger gods also had families. Persephonc borc Dionysus
to Zeus in Grete. There followed the story of thc murder of
Dionysus by thc Titans and his rcstoration to lifc. The Titans
were blasted to Tartarus, and mankind carne into being from
thc sooty fall-out. So theirs is a bad inheritance; Dionysus,
however, can bclp tbem by his purification rites, which were
first established in Grete but soon spread everywhere.
The earlier part of the theogony was partly based on a line
of tradition which has lcft echoes in the Riad. The account of
the birth of Zeus incorporatcs some Cretan mythology in a
confused form, with certain Asiatic elements. The story of
Dionysus and the account of the origin of man remain to be
díscussed in the chapter that follows. At the end of that chapter
I shall venturc an opinion on thc date of the theogony and its
place of origin.
------- - -- - -
V. THE EUDEMIAN THEOGONY

(CONTINUED):
THE DEATH AND REBIR TH OF
DIONYSUS
L E T us recall the details of the story of Dionysus as it was told

in the Rhapsodies, or rather, of that part of the story which we
attribute to the Eudernian Theogony because ofits connecúons
with a prcceding episode in tbat pocm. D ionysus is bom in
Crete to Zeus and Kore. He is guarded by the dancing
Kouretes, as Zeus was. This probably lasts for five years. Zeus
installs him on his own throne and tells the gods that this is
their new king. But the Titans, whitening their faces with
gypsum, Jure him away with a mirror, apples, a bull-roarer,
and other articles. They kill him and cut him into seven picces,
which they first boil, thcn roast and proceed to cat. But Athcna
preserves the still living heart and takes it to Zeus in a casket.
The gods grieve. Zeus discharges his thunderbolt at the Titans
and removes them from the face of the earth. The residual
smoke contains a soot from which mankind is created. The
remnants of the Titans' feast are given to Apollo, who takes
them to Pama.ssus (that is, to Delphi) 1 and inters them. But
from the heart a new Dionysus is made.z
ln what follows 1 shall attempt to elucidate Dionysus'
mythical sufferings in terms of two models: iniúation ritual
and animal sacrifice. But first, to clear the way, I should like
to mention certain other possible models which might be
thought relevant, and to explain briefly why I do not attach
importance to them.
A.J. Festugiere assumes that the story was simply taken over
in Hellcnistic times from the story of Osiris, wbom his brother
Seth dismembered and dispersed. Osiris was identified with
Dionysus from the time of H ccataeus of Miletus. 3 ln tbe Hel-
lcnistic period thcre was, ccrtainly, a version of the Dionysus
• Cf. Jv,,,11, A.ft. 520 f. • For source-refercnces sec p. 74.
• 1 F 900 = Hdt. 2.144 f. J,'estugiere, Rev111 B;1,/iqv,, 44 (1935), 378 f. = Éludts
ú r,lip,& ~ d lvllbristü;w ( 1972), 44 f.
I
THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF DIONY SUS 1+1
myth which reflected the identification. ln this version his

limbs are collected up by Rhea or Demeter, who corresponds
to Isis in the Egyptian myth,4 But this is not the Orphic version,
and the Orphic version is the ·earlier attcsted if we are right in
attributing it to the Eudemian Theogony. The myth that
Dionysus was dismembered may bave been one reason for his
being equated with Osiris in the first place; if so, it cannot be
dcrived from the Osiris myth. 5 There is little similarity of
dctail between the sufferings of lthe two gods. Osiris is in origin
the divine form of the d ead and mummificd king, and he was
a]ready enclosed in a sarcophagus when he was found and
cut up by Seth. The pieces were distributed among the various
nomes of Egypt where Osiris had shrines and tombs. The most
important part ofhim was his phallus, which retained sufficient
vigour to engender Harpocrates. But Osiris was not restored to
life. From that time his place has been in the reaJm of the dead,
thougb be is capable of returning on occasion.6
Another explanation of the dismemberment of Dionysus,
offered by certain ancient writers, makes him a personification
of the vine. The earthborn Titans are supposed to stand for
farmers who till thc soil, the dismembermcnt of Dionysus is
the grape-harvest, his boiling is the boiling of the grapes, and
his restoration to lifc is the reunion of the parts in the new wine,
or the -flourishing of thc ravaged vine in thc following summer.
This interpretation, which is given by Comutus and by alle-
gorizers known to Diodorus, 7 appears to have beco adopted in
the Rhapsodic Theogony itself, for in the account of Dionysus'
• Philod. Dt pitt., p. 16 G. (Euphorion ? fr. 36 Powell) (Rhea); Comutus,

p. 62. 10 L. (Rhea); Diod, 3.62.6 (Demeter); cf. A. Henrichs, Die Phwrikiko dn
Lollíor,os ( 1972), 58 n. 7, 62. For the identífication ofRllea with Demeter cf. p. 93·
Diodorus himself, íollowing Hccataeus of Abdera, equatcs the mysterics of Osiris
and úis with those of Dionysus and Demctrr (1.g6.4 f.), and idcntifics those who
dísmembt,ttd Osiris as lhe Titans (4-6,3; cf. 1.<15.6, Plu1. Is.Os. 36♦1', Serv. C-t.
1. 166).
s Thtte are other poinla oC cootact bettwecn the two gods. O.iris was 'lord of
wine at the inundation' (Pyramid Tcxt 152-1"), and thc pballu, played a prominent
part in his cult.
6 Diod. 1.21-2 (Hecat. Abd. 26♦ F 25), 88, 4.6.3, Plut. Is.Os. 3548, 357f-8d,
and Egyptian sources; H. Bonnet, Reallexik<,n d,r lgyplís,1- Rtligümsgtsdiithlt
(1952), 568 ff.; H. Kccs, Dtr Cou.rilaubt im olun Agypún (2nd ed. 1956), 111 f.,
258; J. Gwyn Griffiths, Plutordi's Dt lsilk et Osiritú, 33 ff., 52 ff., 338 ff.
, Diod, 3.1», Cm-nut. , p. 62.10 L. Cf. Himer. Or. +.5(9),4, Arnob. 5.+3; Nilsson,
Gr: R.tl. ii. 31».
'
THE EUDEMIAN THEOGONY
death and resurrection (and nowhere cise so far as we know)
the god was referred to by the name Oinos (Wine; or Vine
[oine] masculinized).8 I shall argue in Chapter 7, however, that
this explicit allegorization of Dionysus was introduced by the
compiler of the Rhapsodies and does not belong to the Eudem-
ian Theogony.
The interpretation was revived in the present century by
Robert Eisler, who adduced much evidence for the popular
personification of the corn or thc flax, and for working songs
that represent the processes to which these things are subjected
as the expcriences of à sentient being. He quoted Burns's
ballad of J ohn Barleycorn as a literary example. As the basis
for the Orphic story he postulated a song of the wine-press in
in which the sufferings of the vine or the grape were rclated in
this manner.9 The existence of what sounds just like such a
song is in fact attested, though only by a Byzantine source. 10
ln principie the typc of personification in question is perfectly
Hellenic, at least in sophisticated literature. Timotheus, for
example, described bow Odysseus mixed for Polyphemus 'the
blood of Bacchios with the Nymphs' fresh tears'. 11 But the
Orphic story contains nothing that points to this interpretation
(if we leave aside the fragments wbich name Oinos) and many
details that it fails to account for. Why is Dionysus a child?
Why do the Titans cover their faces with gypsum? What is the
significance ofthe rnirror, the bull-roarer, and the other objects
with which Dionysus is deceived? Why do they cut him up?
Why do they roast him as well as boiling him? What does his
heart represent?
1 Frr. 216a-c.
• Orphisc!,.tlion.:,sisclu M:,st,ri,ng,tianlc•n in dtr d,rislli(/oen Anrik, ( 1~5), 230 ff.;
Man inkJ Wolf (1952), 40.
•• A scholium of Arcihas on Clem. P,,otr., i. 297-4 Stãhlin (overlooked by Eisler),
' únai{Ütg poets: a rustic song sung at the wine-prcs., which comprised thc rcnding
of Dionysus'.
" PMG 78o (cj.), Cf. lon dtg. 26.4 e::; Eucnuuug. 2 (A.P. 11 .49); Phanodemus,
325 F 12. Ampeloo ('Vinc') appean as a penon~le from Dionysus, who
lovcd hím-in and after thc Hellenistic age: Ov. F. 3.407-14, Nonn. D. 10.175-
12.291 ; !JCe G. D'lppolito, Stadi Nonniani (1g64), 132 H'. (Later still a ,imilar myth
about Kalamos and Karpos was invcnted : Serv. Dan.&/. 5.48, Nonn. D. 11.351-
485; D'lppolito, 146 H'.) For an Arabstory about lamenting thc dcath ofthcgrape-
clu,ter with protcnation, of innocencc, ,ce Frazcr, TIi, D,1int God (1911: TJi,
Goldm Bough•, i.ü) , 8; A. Taylor, Waskinz""' Univmity Shldús (Humanistíc Series)
10 ( 1922/3), 7.
T HE DEATK ANO REBlRTH OF DlONYSUS 143
The sarne difficultics face us if we attempt to derive the myth
from the widespread European spring-time rite of destroying
an effigy of straw or other material, identified in historical
times as 'Death', 'Carnival', or 'Shrove Tuesday' and cere-
monially buried, burned, thrown into water, or scattered ovcr
the fields. 12 ln these customs, or in some of them, we can
indeed find dismemberment and burial ofa supra-human being,
but beyond that nothing which relates to the particular features
of the Orphic story about Dionysus. The carrying away and
destruction of the effigy are commonly followed by a return of
vitality in the form of 'Spring' or 'Summer' (or simply 'Life'),
which is carried in in tbe shape of a young tree, suitably decor-
ated, or branches. But this can hardly be construed as a resur-
rection of the figure that was killed. The new arrival bears
a different name from the destroyed effigy and indeed repre-
sents its antithesis.
Death and rebirth as an initiatory motif

Ritual initiation into the adult community or into a secret
societyll is a world-wide institution. There are, naturally,
countless individual vãriatioru, but also tnan.y typical elements
attested in widely separated arcas. The ceremonies often involve
special dances of a warlike character, and animal sacrifice.
The initiand is subjected to physical and nervous ordeals. He
often suffers some actual mutilation, such as circumcision or
the knocking out of a tooth, and he may be represented as
suffering much greater calamities: as being captured, taken
away, and killed by a divine ancestral spirit or spirits, whose
partis played by men disguised in unearthly fashion. The voice
u W. Mannhardt, Wald- und Ftú/k,,11, (2nd ~-, 1905), i. 155-9, 410-111;
Frazcr, Tlu D:,ing God, 220-65 (tcaring 10 pieccs: 236-a, 240 twicc, ll46-7, 250);
Babúr tlu B,411tiful (1913: C.B.•, vü), í. 119 f.; adduccd in conncction with thc
myth of Pcnthcus by A. O. Bathcr, JHS 14 (1894), 249 ff., cf, R. Scaford, CQ. 31
( 1g81), 263 í.; in connectiOG with tbc Delplúc Stcptcrion,ECPO 71 f.
" 'Sccret society' is an csiablish~ tcrm slgnifying not a socicty whoee cxistencc
or mcmbcnhip is a secret but onc whooe activitics and rituais are at lea&t partly
sccret. Thc Bacchic societlcs of Grcccc and othcr rcligious associations which
cclebratcd mysteries would propcrly bc put in this catcgory. According to a
widely-hcld thcory ,cen:1 tocicties dcvelop by limitation of thc mcmbcnhip of
thc earlic:r tribal organization undcr particular political cooditions, the group
ofthc initiatcd becoming more exclusive. They somctima appcar as thc custodians
of the community's traditions of religious and magicai ritual. Scc H . Wcbstcr,
Primiti•• S-11 S«wtüs (1go8), 74-105, 160-90.
THE EUDEMIAN T HEOGONY
of this terrible supernatural being is commonly supplied by the
bull-roarer, a sbaped piece of wood or bone whirled round on
the end of a string. Sometimes he takes the form of a monster
who devours the initiand whole, later to disgorge or excrete
him. The mothers bewail the •~ of their sons. But after the
requisite interval the initiate is restored to life and takes his
place among those who have put him through these alarming
experiences. 1•
From these tribal and fraternity initiations which rcsult in
the young person becoming an ordinary membcr of the society
we must distinguish the so-called shamanistic initiation, the
purpose of which is to make thc initiate an extraordinary
person with magicai powers, a man capablc of travdling aod
mediating between this and other worlds. I have said something
in Chapter I (p. 5) of the nature and distribution ofshamanism.
ln what follows I am spcaking specifically of the shamanism
of central Asia and Siberia, the regions where it 6.nds its fullest
exprcssion and which are least remote from Greece. The future
shaman here experiences death and rebirth in a particularly
drastic form, involving the replacement of his vital parts by
new ones. Frequently hc is cut to pieces by evil spirits, bis flesh
being removcd from the bones and eaten. Sometimes his limbs
are boiled in a cauldron. Afterwards bis banes are put togetber
and clothed with new ftesh. Toe demons who dismember him
are sometimes identified as the souls of his shaman ancestors,
somctimes as the spirits of the various diseascs which he will
be capable of curing when he is a qualificd shaman. Tbese
dismcmbermcnts are not actually mimed in ritual: thcy are
what is traditionally supposcd to happen to a shaman, and
what shamans themselves say they have undergone. They are
in fact hallucinations expcrienced in a kind of e.crvous dclirium
which marks the man out as a future shaman. L ater hc rcceivcs
14 1 may contcnt mysclf w;1h tbis very bricf and sclectivc account. For fuller
information sce Wcbstcr, op. cit., 20-,48, 191- 2111, al. ; A. van Gcnnep, ús Rius
• /JdSSl!I' (1909), 93- 163 = 11il Riw of P--,. (1g6o), 6,s- 115; Frucr, &Jder IM
Btatiftd, ii. 225- 78; H. Jeanmairc, Ontroi ti Owr&s (1939), 147-223; M. Elia&,
Birtl111nd luhirtli (195'3) = Rit&t olld S:,mbols of /,rilWiolt ( 1965); C. J. Blcckcr (cd.),
lniliotion (Nrmwt Suppl. 10, 1965); A. Brclich, Paid,s • PMllltt111i ( 1969), 14-rn1;
V. Popp (cd.), lniliolio,r ( 1969). Thc rdcvancc of initiatioo ritcs to tbc Orphic
myth has bccnsccn byJ. E. Harruon, BSA 15 ( 1go8/9), 322-8, and Tllmtis (2nd cd.,
1927), 13-27;Jcan mairc, op. cit., 196 n. 1, s8o; G . Thomson, Audtyl,u tl1lli Atbnu
(2nd cd., 1946), 97- 113.
THE OEATH ANO REBIRTH OF DIONYSUS 145
systcmatic instruction from older shamans, and among some
tribes he is consccrated in a public ceremony or a series of
ccrcmonics at which hc demonstrates bis powers, for example
by climbing to heaven up a tree-ladder and conversing with
the gods therc.•s
How the shaman's mental dismemberment might itself be
given a ritual setting in a more sophisticated rcligious frame-
work is indicated by the Tibetan tantric rite called clwd, in
which
To the sound of the drum made oí human skulls and of the thighbone
trumpet, the dance is begun and the spirits are ínvited to come and feast.
Tbc power of meditation evokes a god.den brandishing a naked sword; she
springs at the hcad of the sacrificcr, dccapitates him, and hacks him to
pieccs; then the demons and wild bcasts rush on lhe stiU-qulvcring frag-
ments, eat lhe ftesh, and drink lhe blood. Tbe words spokcn n:fcr to ccrtain
JãJakas, which tel1 how tbe Buddba, in the counc of bis earlicr lives, gavc
bis own ftesh to starving animais and man--cating demons. 16
Here, as in some other tantric meditations which clearly go
back to shamanistic origins, the complete dismantling of the
physiçal body has become a spiritual exercise, which is assisted
by drumming and dancing.
The story of Dionysus seems to show elements of both the
types of initiatory death that I bave mentioned. The fact that
he is cut in pieces by evil gods who proceed to boil him and
eat his flesh corresponds to the typical shaman's ordeal, which
is a subjective religious experience, not a concrete ritual. But
the refercnces to the coating of the Titans' faces with gypsum
and to a collection of objects with which thcy dcceived Dionysus
-objects that actually, as we shall see, played a significant
role in some mystery rites-strongly suggcst that the myth
rcfl.ects a ritual in which the death-dcaling ancestral spirits
were impersonatcd by men, that is to say an initiation of the
tribal or secret-society type. 17 There is not ncccssarily a con-
tradiction here, for in tribes that have both magico-religious
" Again I have picked out the b=t essentiab. Scc T. Lehtisalo, Joumol de
la Soeiltl Finno-OutrimM 4,8(3) (1937}, 3-34; A. Friedrich and G. Buddru!IS,
Scltaf1U111111111tltidllm IJIIJ' SilJirim (1955); Eliade, S""""'1rimt, 3-45, 110-211.
•• R. Blcichsleiner, L't1lis1 ja111U (1!}37), 194 f., as translatcd in Elíade,
SNllltllllÚJII, 436 (q.v.). The drum is the typical instrument of the ahaman.
11 "The motif of disrnembenncnt .is hardly known in tribal initiati.on, though cL
Praur, &úllr 11v 8-Jif,J, ii. 227; G. Thoma,, Ouat1i4 2 (1931/11), 230 (Pororan,
Solomon Wandt) .
146 THE EUDEM IAN THEOGONY
fratemitics and prominent witch-doctors, the former are natur-
ally dominated hy the latter, and becomc thc pool from which
ncw witch-doctors emerge.••
Is shamanism rtlevant?
Havc thc hallucinations of medicine men in Siberia or the
Altai really anything to do with Greek myth? I think so. There
is reason to believe that in classical times shamanistic practice
and ideology extcnded across the steppes into the northern
tcrritories of the lndo-European tribes, from north-west India
and Bactria to Scythia and Thrace.1 • ln Grcece, while we
cannot speak of shamanism as a living institution in the bis-
torical period, there are clear traces of it in myth, and even
in stories attaching to certain historical persons. 20
They scem to lie along certain geograpbical lines reaching
down from the north. Orpheus, whose many sbamanistic
features (including dismemb'!rment) were noted on p. 4, is
fir mly located in Thrace. From Thrace it is not far to Pieria,
the region north and east of Mount Olympus. This is tbe home
of the Mu$e3, the divine beings with whom the ÍPspired singer
converses, who give him an almost mantic knowledge of 'past,
present, and futurc', and who convey him in a psychic 'chariot'
on 'paths' of song, as far as he desires to go in this world or the
othe.r .21 The fact that they are nine daughters of Zeus is sig-
nificant in view of the fact that the most important of the
Asiatic peoples who practise shamanism
lmow and revere a celestial Grcat God ... Somctimes lhe G rcat God's
name evcn means 'Sky' or ' Hcaven'; ... Thu celestial god, who dwells
in thc highest sky, has severa) 'sons' or 'messeng1:rs' who are subordinate
to him and who occupy lowcr hcavens .. . sevcn or nine 'sons' or 'daugbters'
are commonly mcnrioned, and the sha.m an maintains special relationa with
some of them."
One of the very few places where we can trace an early cult
of the Muscs is Delphi, which had special religious links with
" See Wcbster, Primitiu# S,mt Socitlks, 173 ff'.
19 Meuli, Hmnu 70 ( 1935), 121 ff'. = C.S,,mnu/ú Schrifun 817 ff.; Eliade,
~ . 390-1, 394- 4,.u .
•• Cf. Dodds, TM Gr1tks olld IM IrralÍDNÚ, 140-7; Eliadc, 387-94 ; Burkcrt,
Rh. Mw. 10s (19!n), 36-55 and LS 141-65.
21 et: Hes. 71. 32 with my note; EGPO 225 n. 4-
u Eirade, ~ . 9. Zeus - Sanslcrit D;-4,q - 'Sky'.

THB DBATH ANO REBIRTH OF DIONYSUS 147
the north in the octennial sacred procession of boys to the vale
of Tempe (just south of Olympus) in connection with the
Stepterion festival, and ín the myth that Apollo left Delphi
each winter to visit the Hyperboreans. Delphi was at the centre
of the world, as Zeus established by setting two eagles to fly
in from the ends of the earth until they met. Earth's Nave! was
there, presumably marking the place where there was once a
physical link with heaven; and there was also direct access
from the sanctuary to the great krater in the underworld, accord-
ing to an Orphic poem (p. 12). This concept of a cosmic centre-
point where sky, earth, and underworld are all connected is
important to the Asiatic shamans, who regularly journey there
so that they can pass from one world to anothe.r and obtain
knowledge, conduct souls, etc. The centre is marked by a
mountain and a tree or pillar. At the top of thc trce, in the
highest hcaven, sits the supreme deity, who may take the form
of an eagle.2 l It is not surprising that Delphi, being the centre
of the cosmos, is a capital place for divination. The Pythia
resembles a shamaness at least to the extent that she com-
municates with her god while in a state oftrance, and conveys
as much to those present by uttering unintelligible words.í4
It is particularly striking that she sits on a cauldron supported
by a tripod. This eccentric perch can hardly be explained
except as a symbolic boiling, and as such it loolcs very much
like a reminiscence of the initiatory boiling of the shaman,
translated from hallucinatory experience into concrete visual
terms. It was in this same cauldron, probably, that the Titans
boiled Dionysus in the version of the story known to Calli-
machus and Euphorion, and his remains were interred dose
by; we shall return to this below.
Cróssing the gulf from Delphi, we find at Patrai another
local lcgcnd about the Titans' assault on Dionysus, though we
do not know the details;•s and procecding down through Elis
we reach Olympia, connected by its name to the northern
Olympus, and Mount Lycaeus. ln thcse regions we encounter
u Eliade, 69-71, 259 ff., ,1 stuJ,t. ln Yakut bclicf lhe trce stands at thc 'golden
nave! ofthc Earth' (Eliade, 2712; cf. 268 for tbe idea of the Earth'• navel among lhe
wcstern Semitcs). Shamans havc many connections with eaglcs: they are dcsoendm
from them, wear costume with caglc form or attributcs, and Ay like eaglo with its
help; Eliade, 36-7, 69-70, 156-8.
u Spirit 1:ui~e: Eliadc, g6-g. 11 Paus. 7.18-4-
THE EUDEMJAN TREOGONY
Fia. 2, Patterns of shamanistic influen« in Bronze Age and Archaic Greece.
two more stories of children who were cut up, stewed to make
a meal for gods, and then resurrected: Pelops, and the child
(variously identified) slaughtered by Lycaon.26 This western
,. Thesc myths are studicd in dctail by Burlcert, Ht1m0 NtUIIIS, g8-119. The
motif or cooting children is rcpeated in thc story oC Pelops' sona Atrcus and
Thye11e1, but Thycatca' childrcn dld not turvive the expericnce. Medea ma<k a
numbcr or people young again by cutli.ng lhem up and boiling them: Aison,
Juon, thc nursea oí Dionysus and thci.r husbands. (There is abo Peliu, whoae
daughtcn she maliciously persuaded 10 subjcct him to the sarne trcatment.)
Severa! other dismembercd penon1 are connectcd with Dionysus; they are bis
enemies or rivais (Pentbeus, Lycurgus, Actaeon), or cise they are infanta toro
uundcr by frenzied maenads. The three daughten oi Minyas at Orehomenoo
toc'C up a child belonging to ooc of them; the women oC Arp bcgan to kill and
eat tbcir own children in coruequence ot a madneas which bcgan witb the three
da..ghten of Proitoa. Botb oi thesc myths were linked with thc Doirian festival
Agrionia or Agriania, and show analotries with lhe myth of Penthcut and the
THE DEATH ANO REBIRTH OF DIONYSUS 149
side of Greece, from Ambracia and Acarnania through Elis
to Messcne, is the main homeland of seers in legendary and
historical times. 27 Historical seer.s do not go into ecstasy like
shamans, but mantis means by etymology one who practises
madness, and some of the seers of mythology are credited with
shaman-like accomplishments such as changing sex (Teiresias),
understanding the language of animais (Melampous), and
bringing the dead back to life (Polyidus). 2ª
Returning to Thrace and taking a more easterly path we
arrive in lonia and the Pontic region. It is in these parts that
we find the principal archaic Greek 'shamans' (except for Abaris
the Hyperborean): Aristeas of Proconnesus, whose links with
the north are palpable in his Arimaspeia (pp. 54 f.); Hermotimus
of Clazomenae, whose soul went on journeys while his body lay
in a trance; Pythagoras of Samos, who claimed to be the
Hyperborean Apollo, and shows many shamanistic traits. It is
also in fonia that we located the development in the sixth
century of an ecstatic Bacchic cult which adopted Orpheus
as its prophet (as also did Pythagoras). And we saw that this
cult flourished right on the northern shore of the Black Sea,
at Olbia, where a Scythian king participated in it (pp. 17-18).
One is led to wonder how much of the shamanistic influence
which we detect in the culture of the archaic Ionians carne to
them in fact from their own Pontic colonies. and the direct
contact with the Scyths which they had there.
The last trail leads from fonia over to Sicily and Italy.
There Pythagoras found greater acclaim; Parmenides used
shamanistic imagery in his philosophical poem, speaking of a
cosmic chariot-journey of the will, through the gates of Day
and Night, to consult a goddess; and Empedocles strutted
about in holy garb offering prophecies, cures for diseases,
control of wind and rain, and the ability to raisc the dead. 29
daugh1ers of Cadmus. There is also tbe story that Procne and Philomela, celebrat-
ing the tric1cric ritcs on Mount Rhodope, killed II}'$ and made him into a meal
for Tereus. ln the case of Pentheus an initiatory background might be suggested
by the way in which he is shown moving towards his death in Euripides' Bacchll4,
fitted out in Dion)>$iac costume and expecting to leam the secrels of lhe cult.
(This is worked out at lcngth by R. Seaford, CQ.31 (1981), 252 ff.)
27 I. Lõffler, Die Melampodie ( 1963), 25-9.
" Cf. Burkcrt, LS 163 f.
•• Parmenides, DK 28 B 1; Empedodes 31 B 111, 112.
THE EUDEMIAN THEOGONY
A full exploration of shamimistic elements in Greek culture
would rcquirc a chapter to itself, if not a book. But these
sketchy hints may suffice to indicate a pattern: relics of a prc-
historic sbamanism brought down from Tbrace to northern,
central, and western Greece, and a !ater current of influence
from eastern Thrace and Scythia affecting fonia and the
n orthern colonies. Within this pattern we may seek to accom-
modatc the Orphic myth about Dionysus.
What the myth itself suggests is a ritual of initiation into a
society- presumably a Bacchic society-which has taken on, at
lcast at the mythícal levei, the special form of the shaman's
initiation. Bacchic societies, and in particular those which
embody their !ore in O rphic poems, belong uncquivocally to
the right-hand side of our pattern, the Ionian. This need not
mean that the Eudemian Thcogony is an Ionian poem, but
it means that the ritual presupposed may be conjectured to
have Jonian antecedents.
Dionysus at Dtlphi
There is, however, one detail of the story that points in the
other direction: thc detail that Dionysus' mortal remains were
buried by Apollo at Delphi. This is, I believe, the r esult of a
secondary combination. It is not to be taken as a ground for
locatlng at Delphi the society whosc ritual is reflected in the
myth as a whole.
Dionysus was second only to Apollo in importance at Delphi.
Both of them were seasonal gods there, that is to say, there was
a blank period for each of them in the festal calendar followed
by a ceremony in which they were brought back. Apollo carne
in early spring, on the scventh of the month Bysios, as if return-
ing from a stay abroad (with tbe Hyperboreans, or wherever).
Dionysus did not go abroad but was 'rouscd up' as Dionysus
Liknites by the Thyiades, the official Delphic maenads, perhaps
in the month Daidaphorios (November/December). What he
was roused up from was probably said in the classical period
to be slecp. 30 l o earlier times, however, he may have been said
to die, like certain others among the many seasonal gods of the
Acgean and Near East. Certainly there was a tomb at Delphi
which was gcnerally held to be the tomb of Dionysus. It was
10 Cf. Orph. H:,mn ~3·3 ff.
THE DEATJ{ AND REBIRTH OF DIONYSUS 15 1
situatcd right insidc Apollo's sanctuary, by the tripod and thc

goldcn statue, and it looked Jike a stcp.J•
Wc may take it as. certain that it was on account of this
monumcnt that the Orphic poet made Apollo take Dionysus'
remains from Crete to Delphi and bury them there. He is
explaining in passing why there was a tomb of Dionysus there.
But this is only onc of severa! explanations that have ·come
down to us.
(a) Dinarchus ofDclos, a poet ofthe fourth century BC, said
that Dionysus came to Delphi after fleeing from Lycurgus,
hung up his weapons in the temple, and died there. Philo-
chorus seems to have reported and endorsed this account,
adding tbat the grave bore an inscription 'Here lies, dead,
Dionysus son of Semeie'.J 2
(b) Callimachus and Euphorion are citcd as witnesses to an
account closely related to the Orphic: the Titans tore Dionysus
apart, boiled the pieces in a pan, and presented them to Apollo,
who hid them away beside the tripod.33 Philodemus, also citing
Euphorion, says that the pieces werc put together by Rhea
and that Dionysus carne back to life.l4
(e) Porphyry (VP 16) preserves a startling variant tradition
according to which the tomb was that of Apollo himself, killed
by the Python and lamentcd by the daughters ofTriopas.
It appears from the varicty of these accounts that there was
no established ancient tradition attached to the tomb. It was
simply there. l t is reasonable to guess that ít was there for the
same reason as the notorious tomb of Zeus in Grete: it was the
resting-place of a seasonal god who died regularly. 35 Plutarch
li Philochorus 328 F 7 (scc Jacoby's commcntary); Call. fr. 517/643; Plut.
Is.O,. 365a ; Cephalion 93 F 4. Tatian, Adu. Grauos 8 (p. 9. 15 ff. Schwart:,) says
the tomb was the omphaloJ, but see E. Rohdc, Ps:,cJo,, Ch. 3, n. 32. Clcment,
Rao1n. 10, speab of a tomb of Dionysus ai Thebcs, ubi discuf,tut trtidit111: possible
in principie, but probably thc rctult of a confusion.
u Oinarchus FGrHiJI 399 F t = SH 37gB ; P hilochorw, l.c.
» Call. fr. 51 7/643, Buph. fr. 13 P.
,. D, /JÜI., p. 16 G. (cf. p. 47 C .; fünrichs, Oronathe Ert:Ol4ntsi 5 (1975) , 35);
Euph. fr. 36.
u For thc tomb of Zeus sec A. B. Cook, .çeu,, ii (1925), 94,0-3 with iii (1940),
1173; Nilsson, Tloe Minodn-My;tn4'an R,ligwn, 553; Gr. Rtl. i. 321- 2. An annual
cclcbratlon of thc Crctan Zeu., ' rebirlh, signalled by a firc lit in the mouth of the
holy c,ave, is implicd by Ant. Lib. 19 (from the Ornilho1on.1 ofBoios); cf. Lobcclr.,
123 not. ii. Dionysus shows a scasonal charac1er in many Greek cults, bcing
THE EUOEMIAN THEOGONY
tells of a secrct sacrificial rite which took place in the Delphic
shrine at thc time when lhe Thyiades roused Dionysus Liknites,
and he associates this sacrifice with the tomb. It may bc sur•
mised that the tomb was opened and the sacrificial remains
deposited in it.J6
The differences betwccn the Orphic myth and the version
for which Callimachus and Euphorion are cited are not
fundamental, but they are not trivial. According to Orpheus,
Apollo did not receive the remains from thc Titans but from
Zeus, who had interrupted the Titans in their cookery (Athena
having brought the news, with Dionysus' hcart) and blasted
them to Tartarus. It was Apollo, not Rhea, who put Dionysus
together again.J 7 Now we have seen that Callimachus and
othcr Alexandrian poets seem to be acquainted with the
Eudemian Theogony, and one might jump to the conclusion
that this was their only source for the dismemberment of
Dionysus, the special features of their accounts being due to
their own initiative. But as the Orphic poet makes a point of
linking the story with Dclphi, although he has put Dionysus'
birth and early life in Crete, we must assume that there actually
was such a story told at Delphi about the tomb of Dionysus.
Callimachus, at least, had a particular knowledgc of and
interest in Delphic lore, 38 and his version of the Dionysus myth
need not be dependent on Orpheus.
,?,agreus
Thcre is anothcr sign of his independence in bis use of the name
Zagreus for the 'chthonic' Dionysus who was soo of Ze1,1s and
usually treated u having gone ovcrseas, dc:scended in10 the carth, or concealed
hinuclf in ti-.., locality.
'' Is.Os. 365a. Thcrc are pasaUels for thc intcrment of animal victims; it is
conncctcd with 1hc idea of regcncration. At Pouúae in Boeotia young pig, werc
lhrown inlo undcrground chambers at a festival of Demelcr and Kore, and it was
said that in the following year they rcappeared ative ,u Dodona (Paus. 9. 8.1).
At thc Attic Thcsmophoria thc same thing was done, but wbat happcncd tbc oext
year was 1hat the dccaycd remoants werc drcdgcd up again, mixcd with tbc sced
corn, and spread over lhe llclds. Toe original idea was probably 10 auist the
multiplication of animais by sowing thcm, as one does with plants. Cf. Meuli,
Guamwu/te Sdvifl.,,, 956 tr., on thc careful trcatmcnt of animal rcmains in early
hunting societics with a view to their regcncraúon.
" Frr. 2()!rl 1; a slightly abridged vcnion is given by Clcment and Amobius
in frr. 35, 34, without thc mediation of Athcna.
,a Cf. Pfcifl'er on fr. 517.
THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF DIONYSUS 1~3
Persephone (fr. 43.117). The name was probably not used in

the Orphic narrative, for there is no trace ofit in the fragments,
the Orphic Hymns, or the many references to the myth in the
Neoplatonists.
The most plausible etymology for Zagreus makes him
literally-and not inappropriately, one may think as one
reviews the history of Orphic studies-the god of pitfalls. It
derives him from ;:.ãgri, properly a pit for catching animais, but
perhaps also one used for depositing animal remains or offerings
to a chthonic deity. If this etymology is correct, the vocalism,
Zã- for Zõ-, points to a Doric or North-west Greek home for
the god.39 ln the epic Altmaeoni.r someone invoked him as 'very
highest of ali the gods' together with Ge. It has been con-
jectured that this was Alcmaeon addressing the gods of Delphi
when he visited the oracle. 40 ln Aeschylus too Zagreus has
chthonic connections, for he is associated with Hades, perhaps
as his son. ln Eurípides' Cretans the chorus-leader tells of the
pure life he has led
ever since I became an initiate of Idaean Zeus, and after celebrating the
thunder of night-roaming Zagreus and the raw feast, and holding up
torches for the Mountain Mother, and being consecrated (in lhe armed
dances} of the Kouretes, 1 received the title of bacchos.••
Here Zagreus is a god of nocturnal mystery-rites, associated

with a sacramental feast of raw fiesh (and thus with the dis-
memberment of an animal victim) and at the sarne time with
the Cretan Kouros and Kouretes and the Mountain Mother.
I t wotild be unsafe to infer from this passage that Zagreus
played a part in Cretan cult; the inference should be rather
•• Cf. H. Frisk, Gri.t,h. Etymologisches Wõrurh~h s.v. Z<>yp<IÍ;. (&yp'] survivcs only
in Hesychius, with an Ionic cnding; some poet writing in Ionic must have taken
over the dialect word, probably as a 1echnical religious term. Anothcr thcory is
that Zagreus is a prc•Greck name, to be compared with that of the Zagros moun-
tains between Mesopotamia and Media; but one wants some lcss remotc parallcl.
M. C. Astour, Helk~osemitica (1967), 202 f., derives Zagreus -from Ugaritic $ir
(1agr11?), 'the Young Onc', a title applicd to the son of Baal and Anath, On
alleged sightings of Zagreus in Linear B see W. Fauth, RE ixA.2230.
•• Alcmaeonis fr. 3, p. 77 Kinkcl, cf. Thuc. 2.102.5; Moulinicr, 65 n. 3; G. L.
Huxley, Gr1tk Epiç P~tr:, ( 1969), 52.
•• A. fr. 377 M. = 228 N., cf. 121 M. = 5 N.; E. fr. 79.9-15 Austin = 472.9-15
N. ln 14 I supplemcnt "41 Kovp,rrw• (t.Ó,rM>,o, xoPo•s>,
154 THE EUDEMIAN TKEOGONY
that he played a part in mysteries which claimed a Crctan
origin. If his real home was Delphi, we have a complex
(Crete) Idaean Zeus/Mother/Kouretes
{(Delphi) Zagreus/dismem bcrmen t
which is to some extent analogous to the Orphic mythical
complc:x. ln any case Euripides' Zagreus invites cquation with
Dionysus, and in Callimachus it is 'Dionysus Zagrc:us' that
Persephone bears to Zeus. (Thcrc is some rcason to suspect
that Callimachus locatcd the birth in Crete, but this is less
than certain.) Plutarch refers to Dionysus' being called 'Zagreus
and Nyktelios and Isodaites' in connection with his dismembcr-
ment. This is an important refercnce, because it is clearly cult
that Plutarch has in view, not literature, and the context
rather suggests Delphic cult, though it does not impose this
location.41
Nonnus applies thc name Zagreus freely to the Dionysus of
the Orphic myth, the Dionysus who is dismembcred by Titans.o
For the details of the story itself he clcarly used thc Orphic
Rhapsodies. But he probably took Zagreus' name from Calli-
machus, whose phrase Zay~a ')1(1vo.µlvr/ he reproduces at D.
6. 165. This raises the suspicion that Callimachus had used the
name in the context of Dionysus' dismemberment as well as
in the context of his birth-and did so knowing both the name
and thc story from Delphi. 44
The Titans and the tokens

The Titans' faces were whitened with gypsum in the Orphic
account and probably also that of Euphorion.45 Their motive
., P1ul. D, E 38ga. Thcrc was a Dionpos Nyktclios at Megara, Paus. 1 .40.6;
this titlc also Ov. M. 4.15, A.P. 9.524-14, Nonn. D. 7.349, ai., EI. Mag11. 6og.20;
Nyktelia, Plut. Atl. Rom. 291a, Is.Os. 36,.C(bclow, p. 174).
0 D. 6.165 lf., 314!, 38.209 f., al. So also Nonnu.s Abbas in Creg. N•~. oral.
ali. e. Julian. 35 (PaLr. Cr. xxxvi. 1053; Kcm, p. 230) and sch. Lyc. 355 (p. 137. 18 lf.
Schecr).
•• No unduc importanc::t should bc attached to tbc fact that 1he Dionysus buried
in Apollo's "'nctuary was identi6cd in lhe inscription mtntioned by Pbilochorus
as the son of Semeie. Philochorus' myth is quite different from thc Orphic/Calli-
machean one.
•s Jf, ,u accms likely, the Titam werc thc subjeçt of Euph. fr. 88, 'and ali thclr
faces appcared ahostly whltc' (,rdm, 8' oi , • .,.,,,a&v JÃw,ctÚw,l'T<J ,rp6awn; for
J>.wuJw,~ cf. Nonn. D. <17 .~28),
THE DEATH ANO RBBIRTH OF DIONYSUS 155
is said to have been to avoíd being recognized, 46

but the dis-
guise is surely a reflection of ritual, where its effect was to make
those wearing it into spectral, other-worldly figures. We may
recall the famous stratagem used by the Phocians in their night
assault on the Th~ans, when they whitened themselves and
their weapons with gypsum. The enemy lookouts were terrified,
thinking it was a supernatural visitation.•7 The white Titans
correspond to the awful ancestral spirits who come to take the
initiand away and kill him in the primitive rituais. lt is attested
that in ccrtain Bacchic mysteries ofthe Roman period ' appari-
tions and tcrrifying sights' were p resented to the novices, 4 and
also that inítiates on occasion whitened their faces with gypsum.
Nonnus-onc ofthe authors who tell us that the Titans adopted
this disguise when they abducted Dionysus-scveral times
refers to thc mystic gypsum as ifit were a standard and familiar
facial adornment of the god's votaries. •v
Clement tells us that having got past the Kouretcs by some
trick, the Titans cnticed Dionysus with playthings; he quotes
two Orphic verses,
cone, bull-roarcr, puppets with jointed limbs,
and fair gold applcs from ihc swccl-voi.ccd Hcspcrids,
and then gives a list of objects which hc calls 'the tokens of

this sacrament' (Tfjs -r€Àfrijs -ro. aúµ./JoÀa.): knucklebone, ball,
pine-cone (or spinning-top), apples, bull-roarer, mirror, and
•• Harp:,cr., p . .j8.s Dindori'; c:I: Nono. D. 6.16g f. ('cunningly, deceitfully').

•• .l'.UO T< .,,por, Hdt. 8.27.3-4 ; cf. Paus. 10.1.11, Polyacn. 6.18.1. Some
gangsters adopt a. similar disguiac: irt Lollianus, p. g6.26 ff. Henrichs. For ghos1s'
lack of col011r 1cc, J. Winklc:r, JHS 100 (1g80), 160-5. 'War partics of Au11ralian
blaclts bodaub themsclvcs with whitc clay to a.la.rm their cnemies in night aLtacks'
(A. Lang, Cu.úom cwi Mytlt ( 1885), 41).
•• Celsus •· Orig. e. Cels. +10. (Similariy at Elcusis, cf. Burltcrt, Homo .NtUJ11S,
317 IL 64; Graf, 134 n. 34,) ln lhe mysterics oí Sabuios thc initiands may bavc
had to face lhe momtrous Empusa, if [domcncus, FGrHúl 338 F ,i, is rightly so
intcrpreted .
•• D. 27.204, g28; 29.274; 30.122; 34.144; 47,733. Cf. Lobeclt, 6~5. For gypsum
worn by thc: earlicst Attic comic playc:rs scc Plut. Prov. Ale,r, 30 (C,,,p. Paroem.
Suppl. iüa. 16). Coating with clay (csp. white cla.y) is common in initiation rituais,
cf. Lang, e..,,- 111111 Mfil,, 40; Wc:bstcr, Primilio, S,er,t Societw, 44 n. 2; van
Gennep, TA# RilU ofPossap, 74, 81, 85 f.; "Fra.ur , Btddlr li,, B,ardiful, i. 31, ü. 255
o. 1, 259; Eliadc, Rms aM S,mbo(s of lttiliatiali, 37. Altbough one Orcck word for
white earth or gypsum is títan,os, ít is not lhe word uscd in the sourccs for thc
Orphic myth, and thcre is no rcason to think. that the &imilarity betwecn tltdtws
and Titdn playod any part in thc formation of the story.
156 THE EU DEM lAN THEOGONY
unworked wool (or fleece).s 0 The mirror seems to have played
a particularly important part in the Orphic narrative. It was
specially made by Hephaestus, and when Dionysus saw his
reflection in it hc followcd it until hc carne to the placc of
slaugbter.51 Therc is a1so one tcxt, generally overlooked, which
says tbat the narthex (giant fennel) was brought to Dionysus
by the Titans.u
A number of observations and speculations may be made on
individual objects in the list.
Mi"º'· Mirrors are useful in divination and magic; when
you have a person's image in a mirror, heis, from the magicai
point ofview, in yourpower,sJ and this seems to be the situation
in the Orphic myth. But it may correspond to a detail of the
Titanic initiation ceremony; perhaps the initiand had to follow
the mirror away from bis throne. The use ofphalli, the mirror,
and the ball in Dionysiac ritual is mentioned by John Lydus,
who supposes the mirror to symbolize the transparent heaven
and the ball the earth.H A much earlier Dionysiac mirror is
the one found at Olbia, dated to the late sixth ccntury se, and
inscribed
Demonassa, daughter of Lenaios, 4!14il and Lenaios son of Demoklos,
eiau [sic] !
Unless D emonassa and her father were so fanatical in their
Bacchism that they could not refrain from embellishing their
household utensils with religious exclamations, it seems likely
•• Clem. Protr. 2.18 = Orph. fr. 34; aimilarly Arnobiu1 .!1-'9, 'knucklebones,
mirror, tops, roUing wheel• and smooth balis and golden apples taken from the
Hesperid maidcns'.
" Fr. 209 ; Nonn. D . 6.173, cf. 207. A smalJ papyrus fragment oí the 2nd or
3rd century "º• P .S.I . 850, contains mention of a minor in association with Orpheus
and Dionysus. On an ivory pyxis in thc Musco Cívico ~rcheologico in Bologna,
dating from no earlicr than the 5th c:entury AD and dCCO<"atcd with a sequencc
of four Dionyaiac acenes, the child god is shown on his t.brone with the armed
Kouretcs dancing round him; a robed figure has crept between thcm and is
holding upa mirror 1owards the child {H. Graevcn, Antik, &hnilurtiffl (1903), 5;
C. Kcrényi, Dilmy~os, 265 f. and PI. 66B; my PI. 5).
u Proclus on Hes. o;. 52; 'frg. orphicum videtur' rigblly A. Penusi, Sd,oli,i
Vnna in Huiodi Opero d Dw {1955), ii. 31; cí. Lobe<:k, 703.
u J. von Negelein, Arthwf. &li1iottsww. 5 (1902), 21 ff.; Prazer, Toboo and 1N
Pnilt of 1N Soul {1911: G.B.1, ii), 92 ff.; W. R. Halliday, Gr11/c Diuination (1913),
15off.; G. Róheim, Spúgt/i:tJuher (1919); V. Macchioro, «;a1r1us (1920), 98ff,
For the role of the mirror in Asiatíc shamanism scc Eliade, Shamanum, 153 f.
" D, mmsibus 4.51.
that their mirror had a ritual use.ss According to a Hellenistic
text the cry euoi goes back to an exclamation made by the Titans
in praise of the invention of the mirror. 56 This evidently pre-
supposes a Bacchic rite involving a mirror, the cry euoi, and
persons masquerading as Titans or performing acts explained
by a myth about Titans. Two Augustan reliefs show ecstatic
Bacchic dancing with mirrors. 57
Cone. The word used in the Orphic verse, Kwvos, may mean
eitlier a spinning-top or a pine-cone, and there is the sarne
ambiguity in Clement's word urpó{J,Àos. Arnobius understood
tops to be in question (turbines). Tops are toys, andas such might
appear suitable enticements for the child Dionysus. Nothing is
known of their ritual significance. Pine-cones, however, were
often used to make the head of the thyrsus, the special wand
carried by Bacchants; they are a common symbolic motif in
funerary art, as well as a regular attribute of Sabazios, and
have other ritual associations. 58 There is much to be said for
taking Kw11os in this sense.
Bull-roarer. The special role of this primitive instrument in
initiation ceremonies has already been mentioned. It is em-
ployed in Africa, Australia, New Guinea, and America to
frighten the novices with its demonic voice. 59 Its use in Diony-
siac rites is well attested. 60 It is also known as a toy: in an
epigram ofLeonidas (45) a boy is represented as dedicating his
playthings to Hermes, and they are a bali, a clapper, knuckle-
bones, and a bull-roarer.
u N. P. Rozanova, AHTH'IHa.a HCTopm1 H 1<)'/\hT)'pa CpeAH3CMH0:1<1opu H
IlpH'lCpHOMopi.s (1g68), ,i48-51. On lhe Orphic cull at Olbia see above, p. 17.
• 6 Ps.-Arignote ap. Harpocr. s.v. ,voi (Thcslclf, Texts, p. 51.7) as convincingly
emended by W. Burkert, Gnombll 39 (1967), 551. Thc work was probably the
Teletai ofDi,,,._,su,, which Harpccration also cites in anotber plau.
" E. Simon in Hommager d A. Grmit, (1g&.z), iii. 1421- 3.
•• A.P. 6,165.4 ""l 86paov x>.o,pô• Nwvo,f,ópov 1táµ1ua,; D,ogenianus ap. sch.
Clem. Protr., i. 3M.27 St. ; Suda s.v. 1tww,#p<n (iü. 175.19 Adler); F. Cumont,
R#ehercher sur /e symbolinnefunJraire IÚs Rtnnains (1942), 219, 505f.; Nilsson, Gr.
lül. i. 119, 1,i6, ii. 659 f.
s• Lang, Custom and. M.1tlt, 29-44; Frazer, Balde, tlu Bea11tiful, ii. 2,i8-33, 240--3,
264; O. Zerries, Dar Sehwi"h<>lz ( 1942); Eliade, Rites and Symbols of JnitWitm, 8-14,
,i1-3, 142; Brelich, Paúús, Pa,tltllllli, 6o, 68 f., 89.
60 A. fr. 71.8 f. M . = 57.8 f. N., E. Htl. 1362, A.P. 6.165.5; abo in ritcs of
Cybcle, Diogencs, TrGF 45 F 1.3, A.R. 1.1139; ofDemeter, Epiphanius ap. Kern,
p. 110; ín unspecified ttú/lJi, Archytas, DK 47 B 1, Diogenianus, l.c. ( = Hesych.
s.v. póµfjos); in magic, Eupolis fr. 72, Theoc. 2.30, Prop. 2.28.35, etc. See A. S. F.
Gow, JHS 54 (1934), 1 ff. and on Theoc., l.c., adding scb. A.R. 1.1134-39b.
158 THE EUDEMIAN THEOGONY
Knuc/clehones. This is the commonest and most likely scnse of
àurpd.yaÀo, in this context, knucklebones for playing with.6 1
Note, bowever, that Clcmen.t gives tbe word in the singular,
and it is conceivable that a vertebra, or one of thc othcr kinds
of knobby bone that âurpd.yaÀos may signify, might have a
ritual significance. Compare the Olbian bone tokens mentioned
on p. 17 .
Bali. An obvious toy, often associated as such with knuckle-
bones.61 Lydus in tbe passage citcd above (under mirror) attests
its status as a Dionysiac ritual object. ApoUonius Rhodius
refers to a wonderful ball which Adrastea gave to Zeus in the
ldaean cave (3.132-141); this may be bis own invention, but
as the Orphic theogony seems to be his main source for the
infancy of Zeus, and the infancies of Zeus and Dionysus are
in a sense doublets, both connected with Kouretic initiation, it
is just possible that a ritual bali had a double refiection in the
mythical narrative, as a bali given to Zeus by Adrastea and as
a bali offered to Dionysus by the Titans.
Puppets. Most 'surviving Greek dolls are of terracotta, and
many of them have 'jointed! limbs', like those of the Orphic
verse, and could be operãted by strings marÍOr'lêtte-fashion. 6J
They are uormally just toys, but magicai use is readily imagin-
able. One could also envisage the use of frightening, animated
puppets in an initiation rituaJ.6 4
Applts. The golden apples ofthe Hesperides were the supreme
mythical fruit, guaranteed to lead anyone into temptation.
The apples with which Hippomenes prevented Atalanta from
concentrating on the race were said by some to have come from
the Hesperides. The eating of apples was forbidden at the
Eleusinian festival of the Haloa, and in the cult of Attis,65 and
just as the similar Eleusinian taboo on the pomegranatc was
61 L';J ,.v., IV; British Muscum Guúu to ti,, Exhibitum illiutrating Grulr. a1ld
Roman Lif, (1920) , 203 f.; cí. the Leonidu cpignm just mcntioned. Votive tops
and knudr.lcbooes have been found in the Kabcircion a t Thcbcs, knucklcboncs
abo in the Artemision at Ephcsus. See D. G. Hoprth, E:«404IÚIIU ai E~. 77N
Artftaic Arúmisia (19o8), 190-1; British Museum Cuide, 1g6; Guthric, 12:1,
62 Leonida.s, 1.c., Glaucus ,pigr. 1.2, A.R. 3.117- 141, Cic. ~ or. 3.$9, Dio
Prus. 8,16 (i. g8.27 Arnim) •
., Sec the British Mweum Guide, 194 f .
.. For a Melanesian parallel (figures largcr than life-suc) sec G. Thomas,
º""""' 2 ( 1931/2), 227 f,
6• Sch. Lucian, p . 28o.22 f. R., Porph. ~ tlbst. 4.16;Jul. Or, 8(s).174b, 176a.
THE DE'."'TH ANO REBfRTH OF DIONYSUS 159
justified by the myth that Persephone had eaten pomegranatc

seeds to her misfortune, so it is possible that apples were taboo
in certain Bacchic mysteries on the ground that Dionysus had
been led to destruction by them.66
Wool. The word '7TôKor may mean anything from a handful
of raw wool to a complete fleece. Again it may be a matter of
taboo. We recall H erodotus' testimony that those who p ar-
ticipated in the rites called Orphic and Bacchic were not
allowed woollen burial-garments, and that there was a sacrcd
story told on the subject (above, p. 16). The initiand in the
Eleusinian mysteries had to sit on a special seat covered by a
ram's fleece, the 'Fleecc of Zcus'. 61
.Narthex. A well-known Dionysiac attribute, forming the rod
of thc usual thyrsus. Presumably the novice was given his own
in thc course of thc initiation ceremony as the symbol of his
membership, and this corresponds to the statement that 'it is
brought by the Titans to Dionysus'. ln the passage where hc
gives us that piecc ofinformation Proclus notes that 'those being
initiated to Dionysus carry the narthex'. Plato refers to the
famous verse
Many are narthcx-bearcn, but the baalwi are few.61
The 'tokens of the sacrament', then, are a miscellany with

no one common role in the ritual. We should not imagine, for
cxample, that tbey were ali carried round in a holy casket.
Once the myth had taken the form that Dionysus was enticed
with intcresting objects, an assortment of things that played
a part in the mystery or werc taboo in it were gathered together
undcr this heading.
66 Julian (176a) says that applcs are not to be consumcd because thcy are 'holy
and goldcn and symbols oí secret mysttc ordcals' (dpp,jTw• &:9Àa>• ,.,.i T<Ã«m1<w•
,z..&"4S) , (Bidc:z undcrstands thcsc golden applcs to bc quinocs.) On lhe chest of
Cypsclus as de:scribcd by Paus. 5. 19.6 Dionysu., wu shown reclining in a cave
,urrounded by vincs and pomegranate- and applc-trces. For bis conncction with
applcs sce also Philct.as fr. 18 Powcll, Theoc. 2.120; Rose/ter, i. 1059.
67 Burkert, Hom,, N«a,u, 294--7; N. J. Richardson on Hymn. D,m. 192 ff.; cf.
abovc, p. 17. Epiphanius (Kern, p. 110) mention• spun wool among thc sacrcd
=
articlcs of1he Elcusiniancuh . Cf. Clem. Strom. 7.26.2, Phol,s.v. ,q,ot<oGv ( Bekkcr,
Anecd. 273.25), Et. Magn. s.v. ~,upot<o.Mlr (Lobcck, 702).
•• Pht,,ed. 6gc = Orph, fr. 5 - 235. Baahoi bcrc presumably means thOIIC who
anain tnte ccstasy, or a highcr initiatory grade.
16o THE EUDEMIAN THEOGONY
Butd1ery and cookery

Dionysus is cut up, cooked, and eaten. We have identified one
mythical model for this in the shaman's initiation, where, as in
the Orphic myth, the victim is afterwards restorcd to lifc in
a new body. But there is anotther model of greater immediacy
to the historical Greek cult-society: that of animal sacrifice.
The story of the gypsum-painted Titans with their mirror,
bull-roarer, and so forth is, lifcely enough, the mythical reflcc-
tion of a frightcning charade enacted round a candidate for
initiation and signifying his mock death. But this may have
coincided with the actual slawghter of an animal victim which
then provided a sacramental meal for the company and con-
firmed their unity. The animal may havc: been substituted for
thc human being at the moment when it appeared that hc was
about to be killed. This sort of arrangement perhaps lies behind
ccrtain Grcek myths which account for animal victims, par-
ticularly in cults o( Dionysus, as surrogatcs for original human
victims.69 More than one author says that the Bacchic practice
of tearing a live animal limb from limb commemorates what
was done to Dionysus himself.10
This typically Dionysiac rite of omophagy, however, in which
the elated participants are supposed to pull the victim to pieces
with thcir bare hands and bite at once into the uncooked flesh,
does not correspond to what the Titans do. It is true that many
sources speak of Dionysus' being 'rent apart' by them. 71 But
those who use more precise language say that hc was cut up
with a knife.71 And there is no doubt that they cooked him.
They cooked him in an irregular way. First thcy boilcd the
picces in a cauldron, and then they roasted them on spits.n
69 See L. R. Farnell, C.Usofth• Grnk Stat,s (18g6-1909}, v. 164 f.; E. R. Dodds,
.E.tripules' &teAo, (2nd ed. 1900), xvüi f.; Burkcrt, GRBS7 (1g66}, 112 f.; R. Seaford,
CQ. 3 1 ( 1g81), 268; A. Henrichs, F ~ H.,dt&tr,timr 27 (1g81 ), 195 ff. Therc
is no reliable c\ndence for actual huma.n sacrificc in any Dionysiac cult; wc kcep
hcaring that it 'was formcrly' the cwtom (Paus. 7.19.1-g, 9.8.<1, Porph. D, abst.
2.8, 5~)-
.,.. Firmicw Maternus, ln mor, Jroj. rtlig. 6.25, $Ch. Clero. i. 3 18 Se., Phot. ,.v.
••flpl(•"·
" 3&...,..,.a, OI' tmll()Ó.rnw: frr. 34~, 22 0-11, 214-15, 220; Diod. g.62.6, Cornut.,
p. 62.10 L ., Lydus D, m,n.ribw 4.51, etc .
.,. Alcxan dtt of Lycopolis, , . M ~, p. 8. 7 Brinllmann ; No.n n. D. 6.172,
174, 205, 31 .47; Arnob. 5.19; Firm. Mar. D, mor• 6.3. Cf. Proc:I. H:,mn 7.11 .
" Fr. 35; cf. Euphorfon fr. 13 P. (text uncertain).
THE DEATH ANO REBlRTH OF OlONYSUS 161
At a normal Greek sacri.fice the meat was roasted, though we
know of a few cases where it was boiled. The decree of lhe
Milesian Molpoi prescribes roasting of the splanchna, the soft
inner parts that could be cooked more quickly and were regu-
larly eaten first, and boiling of the flesh. ln legend tbose who
kill and cook human beings for consumption are said to roast
some parts and boi! others.74 ln one of the Problems falsely
attributed to Aristotle (and probably dating from the Roman
period) we read that there is nothing abnormal in boilíng meat
that has previously been roastcd, but tbat it is not done to
roast meat that has previously been boiled. Tbere was a
Pythagorean taboo to the sarne cffect.1s The Titans' culinary
methods are thus an affront to convention, and we may take
it that they do not correspond to those employed in some
Dionysiac sacri.fice. Pseudo-Aristotle suggests tbat the taboo
may exist 'because of what is told in the telete'. I t seems higbly
probable that he means the Orphic story about the T itans and
Dionysus. Evidently what was clone in the tele/e did not match
what was told.
The explanation may be that the oarrative represents a com-
bination of the two models that I have suggsteed. The boiling
belongs to the mythical scheme deriving from the shaman's
initiation, and points forward to regeneration. 76 The roasting
corresponds to sacrificial practice. Dionysus is boiled in his
role as prototype of the initiand who has to bc rebom (it is
not inconceivable that the initiand was himself subjected to
a simulated boiling), and the roasting is added because the
meat of the animal victim was roasted. If so, the association
between the initiand and the victim is strongly underlined.
Dionysus renovated
T here appears to have been a significant difference between the
Orphic narrative and the non-Orphic account followed by
Diodorus, Philodemus, and Cornutus (p. 151) over the manner
,. Henrichs, Di, PlioimlciJu, du Loliimw, 67 f. ; Burltert, HOfll!J /(IWIS, 104 with
n. 29; cf. M. Oeúen~ , Dum,= SI,,;,, ( 1979), 74ft'.
" Ps.-Arist. Probl. • :3-43 Bussemakcr (Didot Aristotlc, iv. 331); lambi. YP 154;
cf. Alh. 656b.
16 On lhe general mythical motií of regcncration by boiling sce A. B. Coolc,
Z111t, ii. 210 ff. with literaturc;J. G. Frazcr, Af,olwdorus ( 1921), 1. 121-3 (on, 1.9.27),
ii. 359--0:1; Stith Thompson, Motif-/11.Jex of Follc Literan,r,, D 188.5. ,, E 15.1.
THE EUDEMIAN THEO GON Y
in which Dionysus was restored to life. ln the latter his limbs
were fitted together by Rhea- Demeter and he was reborn (as
it seems) in the same body or at least oo the sarne skeleton.
But in the Orphic version it is clear that he was remade from
the Living heart which Athena saved: the rest of his limbs, in
so far as they were not eaten by the Titans, were interred by
Apollo ín the tomb at Delphi.
H is heart was still beating when Athena carried it away.
It was from its palpitating (11&:M,118a..) that she got her name of
Pallas.n It will be recalled that she was represented a little
earlier in the poem as leader of the K ouretes, perhaps as the
piper for their dance. She was, therefore, a figure who was
present throughout the initiation sequence. Firmicus Maternus
(p. 234 Kern) even makes her a participant in the Titans' crime.
Special treatment of the heart was a feature of some Greek
sacrificial rituaJ.18 l t was pulled out at the earliest possi ble
moment, often before the animal was dead, and laid on the
altar. ln some cases it was burned there after being wrapped
in fat. Burning the heart, however, is expressly forbidden in
a set of Bacchic cult ordinances contained in a second-
century inscription from Smyrna, a nd there was a Pythagorean
prohibition against eating it.79 It was evidently not eatcn in the
ritual upon which thc Orphic narrative was based. What was
eaten was those parts of the animal corresponding to the parts
ofDionysus which the Titans a te. The hcart was removed from
the sceoe in a casket. This must correspond to a holy casket
used in the ritual.
There are two different accounts of what was done with the
heart to restore Dionysus to life. According to H yginus it was
minced and made into soup, which Zeus gave to Semeie. She
drank it and becarnc pregnant, and in duc course Dionysus was
born again from her as she died by the lightning stroke. 80 This
version is clearly not Orphic. lt is d esigned to reconcile the
77 Fr. 35, cf. sch. Lyc. 355 (p. 137.18:--.l2 Sch.), sch. O li. 1.200 (Eust. 13+43).
11 See Hcnrichs, Ou Plioiltikika dos LoJJiano,, 71 f.
'º Sokolowski, Loi., sat:rle, tk l'Asú mineurt, No. '4.13; Arist. fr. 194, D,L, 8.19,
lamb i. VP 109; scc also Octicnne, Dum,so, Slain, 85.
•• Hyg. Fab. 167 ; cf. Lucian 45.39, Procl. H.:,m,t 7. 11-15. For 1he motif cf.
A. Erman, n, Liúrolurt o/ IM AJldml E,:,p1111Ar, 1 s9. f can find no aulbority for
H. J. R ose'• note at H yginus, l.c. (cf. h,is Hrwlbook o/ Gruk M:,tholao ( 1928}, 51),
'cor Bacchi plerumque non ah Semeie uerum ah ipso Ioue uoratum dlcitur'.
THE DEATH ANO REIHRTH O F DíONYSUS 163
story that Dionysus was the son of Persephone, killed by the
Titans, with the story (ignored in the Orphic theogonies, so
far as we can see) that he was the son of Semeie, born amid
lightning. The other acoount is that of Firmicus Maternus, and
there is some probability thafit is the Orphic version. Firmicus
says that Zeus made an image of Dionysus out of gypsum and
placed the heart in it. The choice of gypsum as a material is
intriguing in view of its use by the Titans to disguise them-
selves and the cvidence for the use of such disguise in Dionysiac
mysteries. Hcre, surely, is another genuine reflection of ritual.
But what would be the point, i.n the context of initiation ritual,
of putting an animal's heart in a human effigy? I t can only
have to do with the reanimation of thc candidate who was
supposcdly dead.
Imagine, for instance, a noctumal ceremony, torchlit. A boy
is to be initiated. He sits bravely on the throne. The Kouretes
or Korybantes dance round him, round and round, noisily
clashing their swords on their shields. A priestess plays end-
lessly on the raw-toned pipes. After a time the circle is pene-
trated by lhe ghastly white-faced figures of the Titans, man's
ancestor11. They prowl about the boy, flashing a mirror before
his face. He follows it as if hypnotized. The music goes on,
becomes wilder, with drumming, and the uncanny braying of
bull-roarers. Knives glint over there in the gloom, there are
inhuman screams, haclcing and wrenching of limbs. The holy
casket is carried round, and everyone sees the hot, bloody heart
it contains. There are smells of roasting flesh. Presently there
will be meat to eat; meanwhile we all bewail the savage murder
of that innocent child. By way of consolation an effigy is pro-
duced, made of or coated with gypsum. The heart is inserted
into its chest. Stark, white and lifeless the thing stands there
in the flickcring light. Then the mi:racle. ln a moment ofblack-
out-or dazzling light- the place of the effigy is taken by the
new initiate, himself now covered with gypsum like his former
murderers, and he springs up alive and well, rcady to enter
on his new life.8•
•• Among thc Nisl<a lndians of British Columbia, when somcone was initiatcd
into a certain secrct society, 'hls friends drew thcir knives and pretende<I to klll
bim. ln reality tbey let him slip away, whilc they cut off the head of a dummy
which had becn adroitly substitute<I for him. Tben t.hcy laid the decapitated
164 THE EUIJEMIAN THEOGONY
The origin of man
The Titans are by definition the banished gods, the gods who
have gone out of thls world. According to Hesiodic tradition
they fought a long war against the younger gods and were
defeated and sent to Tartarus before Zeus was made king. Jn
the Orphic poem there is no room for such a war: the Titans
must remain in the world long enough to kill Dionysus, and
that is made the occasion of their climination by thunderbolt.
Proclus in fr. 215 says thcy were assigned various stations, pre-
sumably in Tartarus, and that at the sarne time Atlas was made
to support the earth. Atlas was not one of the fourteen Titans
listed in fr. 114, but the poet seems to have takcn the oppor-
tunity to supply grounds for the hcavy task imposed on him,
which H esiod failed to cKplain.82
He also took the opportunity to account for the origin of
mankind. The smoke from the scorched Titans deposits a soot
from which man is created (fr. 220, cf. 140,224). Olympiodorus,
wbo records this as Orpheus' story, goes on to find a deep
thcological significance in it. It m eans, according to him, that
we are part of Dionysus, because the Titans had eaten of his
flesh; and his division into many parts symbolizes tbe plurality
of the ethical and physical virtues which his reign stands for,
and tbe plurality of thc pbenomenal world. 8J This is merely
Neoplatonist interpretation and is not to be attributed to thc
Orphic poet.84 Far too many scholars, however, have been
misled by it, and not content with reproducing what Olympio-
dorus says, they have dcveloped intcrpretations supported by
no ancient source. A typical modem statement of Orphic
doctrine rcads: 'Man, in so far as he consists of the substance
of the Titans, is evil and ephemeral; but since the Titans had
partaken of a god's body, man contains a divine and immortal
dummy down and covered it over, and the womcn began to mourn and wail.
His rclations gavc a funeral banquet and solcmnly burnt rhe cffigy. ln short ,
thcy hcld a regular funeral. For a wholc year the novice remaincd abscnt and was
sccn by none but membcrs of the a<:cttt society. But at the end of that time hc
carne back ative, carricd by ao artificial animal which represented hi.s totem'.
(Frazcr, &ldrr tJv &twlifal, ii. 272.)
u Hi.s association with the T i1am a1so apperus in Diod. 3.6o, Hyg. FaA. 150,
Myth. Vat. 2.53.
IJ l,n Pluudotwm 1.3, 5, pp. ,p-5 We.tcrink; pp. 238 and 172 f. Kem.
" Scc Linforth, 317-31.
THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF DIONYSUS 165
spark.'85 But the Dionysus who now exists grew from what the
T itans did not eat. What they did eat cannot easily be imagined
to have affected the quality of the puff of smoke that stayed
hanging in the air when they were smashed into Tart~rus.
Nor is there anything to show that the poet had any such notion
in his head.
Myths about the creation of man often show the desire to
reduce him to some commonplace material, clay for example,
but then, to account for the miracle of life, they postulate a
contribution from the gods. Yahweh has to put some of his
breath into the clay to make Adam live. ln several Babylonian
myths gods are slain in order to create mankind from them,
their blood being especially important for this purpose. 86 There
was a Greek myth according to which mankind sprang from
drops of blood shed by the Giants or the Titans in their battle
against the gods. 87 It is not definitely attested before the Roman
period, but it may be much older ; we know very little of early
Greek myths about the origin of man.ss ln the Eudemian
Theogony there was no place for either a Gigantomachy or a
Titanomachy, but the creation of man is explained on similar
lines: he comes from something extracted from the Titans at
the moment of their incapacitation. I tis soot, not blood, because
the thunderbolt is the only weapon involved. The blood version
must be the older, because the point of the original myth
a, H. and H. A. Frankfort, Bifor, PJoilasoj,h:, ( 1946), 248 f. This kind of mis-
representation had already bcen exposed by Linforth, 359 f.
16 W. G. Lambert and A. R . Millard, Atra-(fans, 9, 21-2, 59; A. Heidel, Tht
llah:,lonian Ce111si.r (2nd ed. 1951), -f6 f. ( = Enjima EüJ, vi}, 68 f.
87 Giants: Ov. M . 1.156-62, and probably Orph. Arg. 19. Titans: Dio Prus.
30.10 (ii. 297.14 Arnim), Opp. H. 5.9 wit h schol. Thcre werc also similar myths
conceming thc origin of particular nations (Ale. fr. 441 ., Acusilaus 2 F 4, Lyc.
1356 f.) and of venomous creaturcs (AcwiJ. 2 F 14, A. S~pl. 265 f., A.R. 2.
1209-13, 4. 1513-17, fr. 4, Nic. Th. S-c2 ( = Hes. fr. 367), Ov. M. 4.617-20,
Lucan 9.61~, cf. Ael. fr. 8g) from thc blood ofUranos, the Titans, the Giants,
Typhoeus, or Medusa.
81 In thc Homcric Hymn to ApoUo (336) botl\ mcn and gods are said to be
descendcd fr.om thc Titans, but thc expression is no more informative than 'Zeus,
fathcr of mcn and gods'. 1t does not in itself suggest such strikingly dilferent forms
of desccnt for gods and men as the bJood.drops myth entails. Thc obscure allusion
in Plato, Lg. 701c, to an 'ancient Titanic character', which is exhibited and
imitated by men in thc Iast stage of social permissiveness when thcy disregard
oaths and trusts and cvcn the gods, by no mcans suggests that mankind was crcatcd
from the TitaN. Scc Linforth, 339-45; Moulinier, 50 f. Plato may bc assimilating
thc Titans to thc Giants, with whom they tcnded to be confused from at least thc
5th ccntury se. On Xcnocrates frr. 1g-iio see p. 21,
166 THE EUl>F.MlAN THEOGONY
depcnded on the fertilization of the carth by a divine · lifc-
substance. With the substitution ofsmoke and soot this ratiooale
is lost.
Although Olympiodorus' interpretation of the Orphic myth
is to be rejected, there is no denying that thc poet may have
drawn some conclusion from it about man's nature, just as
Ovid says that the human race is impious and bloodthirsty
because of its origin from the blood of thc Giants, and as Dio of
Prosa says (or rathcr reports a theory) that the gods are hostile
to us and make our life a penance because we are sprung from
the blood of the Titans. But as tbese parallels suggest, any such
conclusion is likely to have concerned thc burdcns of our
inheritance. The fact that the Títans had eaten Dionysus was
merely evidence of their ·wickedness, it did not introduce a
saving element into our constitution. It is to the living Dionysus
that we must tum for salvation.
Kouretic and Bacchic

We may confidently attribute to the Eudemian Theogony the
statement in the Rhapsodies that Zeus comrnanded purification
rites togo forth from Grete (fr. 156). They originated in Grete
because that was where·the drama ofDionysus and the Titans
was played out; or rather, the drama was located in Grete
because the poet regarded Crcte as the source of thc most
ancient and holy religious rites.
At this point we must consider more closely the part which
the Kouretes play in his narrative. First they danced round
the child Zeus to protect him from Kronos, who would have
swallowed him as he had swa11owed his othcr children. Later,
and still in Grete, they danced round the child Dionysus to
protect him from Kronos and the other Titans, who desired
to kill and eat him. To this extent Dionysus seems very much
a doublet of Zeus. He even becomes king of the gods, chlld
though he is, seated on a throne and -holding a sccptre. But
whereas Zeus was successfully protected from the enemy that
threatcned him, Dionysus was abducted and slain.
It is generally accepted that the dancing of the Kouretes has
a basis in Cretan ritual. This is apparent especially from the
Palaikastro hymn (p. 132). Besidcs the connection with public
fertility which the hymn demonstrates, there was probably an
initiatory element in it; the Kouretes' name suggests 'Youths'
as an age-class, and Crete is the one part of Greece apart from
Sparta where forros of 'tribal' initiation continued in use into
the classical period.89 When the Kouretes dance round a
younger kouros who is sitting on a throne, as Dionysus is and
Zeus probably was before him, wc recognize the sarne ritual
scene as in the Corybantic initiation ceremony described on
p. 27 in connection with the Orphic Enthronements. Porphyry
mentions a throne which was annually re-covered for Zeus in
the Idaean cave, near his tomb.90
The ogre Kronos who swallows bis children and later dis-
gorges them alive rnust-even though Zeus hirnself escapes this
fate--be considered to have been at one time an initiatory
motif, since the temporary ingestion of the initiand into a
monster is a familiar detail in the ethnographical material.91
Even the stone that Kronos swallowed has a parallel in an
African initiation rite.9 2 We rnay also find an echo ofinitiation
ritual in the statement of Istros the Callimachean in his work
On Cretan Sacrifices (FGrHist 334 F 48) that the Kouretes formerly
sacrified children to Kronos. This looks like an independent
relic of the sarne ritual pattern, and suggests that it really did
have roots in Crete. Kronos is the ogre who takes boys out ofthe
Kouretes' custody to 'die'. Istros may have known of some rare
Cretan rite ofwhich the story he records served as the mythical
explanation.
h See Jeanmaire, Couroi et Courlús, 42 1-6o; BUJ'kert, Gríech. /Wigion ( 1977), 202,
391-3.
•• VP 17, perhaJ)$ from Antonius Diogenes. The context is Pythagoras' iniliation
among the votaries of Morgos, one of the ldaean Dactyls, who are sometimes
equated with the Kouretes. The initiates purified him with a hra,Jnia litlios (bJood.
stone, heliotrope), a semi-precious stone associated with lhe thunderbolt. Stones
with celestial affinities are used in medicine men's initiatiom in the Far East,
Australia, and America; see Eliade, Shamanism, 4S, 47-50, 91, 132, 13s-9, and
cf. 124- 5, 339, 350.
•• Cf. p. 144; Frazcr, Balde, /Ãe Beautiful, ü. 2 ~ , 246, 250; Eliade, Ritu ond
Symbols of lnitiation, 35-6, 1s; Brelich, Paitl,s e Parl/wuii, 8g n. 113.
., Among the Mandja and Banda tribes of central Africa a sacred stone, said
to come out of the body of the monst<'!r that swallows the novices, plays a part in
tbe ccremonies (Eliade, op. cit., 75). More often we hear of a celestial stone being
inserted i.nto the initiand's own body (Fraur, 271; Eliadé, Sltam4nism, 45, 47- 50,
132). According to ·Hcsychius lhe stonc swallowed by Kronos was a baitylos, which
means a ston<e of heavenly origin and supernatural properties (Damasc. Vila
J,iáori 203). The relalionship belwccn thc story of Kronos and the Hurrian mylh
of Kumarbi (see my He.,ioá, T!i,,,gony, pp. 20-1) nccds reassessmenl.
168 THE F.U01'M IAN THEOGONY
There are other elements in the stories of Zeus' childhood
which may once have had to do with initiation: bis sustenaace
on milk and honey (seclusion of novices in the wild with dietary
restrictions?),º' and the prcsence of a goat, whose hidc becomes
his shield (goat sacrifice ?) . But like Kronos' swallowing of
childrea, these appear in our authors as purely mythical
features, without the pointed detail that betrays thc intention
of accounting for a ritual. ln the Corybantic initiation rite
known to Plato, dancing and enthron.e ment seem to have been
the maio elements, not a mere preludc to a mock swallowing
or killing. The Kouretes dance round Zeus who was not
swallowed.
ln the Orphic poem they also dance round Dionysus; he was
not swallowed either, in the way that the childre11 of K ronos
were, but he suffered a different kind of death, not related to
the Cretan tribal-initiation • tradition but to the northern
shaman-initiation traditioa. T he narrative thus refiects a syn-
cretism oftwo things: (a) a Kouretic cult in which the initiand
was treated something like the Corybantic initiand in Plato,
and which, while not necessarily confined to Crete, considered
itself Cretan and took the story of Zeus on Mount Ida as its
holy myth; (b) a Bacchic cult of Ionian origin, in which more
primitive elemcnts were preserved-ghoulish masks, the simu-
lated death and rebirtb of the novice, and a sacrificial meal.
The syncretism must, I think, have taken place in cult practice,
not just at thc literary levei. ln other words the Bacchic society
adopted the cnthronement an.d tbc ring-dance of the Kou rctes
as part of its own initiation procedure; that is why, in the poem,
these motifs had to be duplicated, applied to Dionysus as well
as to Zeus. The combination had important and novel implica-
tions. It meant that Dionysus was born and killed in Crete,
and that the Bacchic purifications which the society had to
offer were of Cretan origin. Such was the prestige of Crete in
matters of religion that these conclusions were em braced.
Child initiation
If both the Kouretic and the Bacchic myths reflect initiatory
ritual, the implication would seem to be that the societies in
•• Cí. Frazer, ~62; H. Webster, Ta/,oa ( 1942), 93-4 , 322-3; Eliade, Ritu 1J11d
S,1mbols of Jnitiatton, 12, 14- 15, 33, ai.; Brelích, op. cit., 69 n. 58.
THE DEATH ANO REBERTH OF DJONVSUS 16g
question made a practice of initiating young children. The
legend in Istros, if I have interpreted it correctly, points the
sarne way. Child initiation is something that Nilsson regarded
as a Hellenistic development peculiar to the Bacchic mysteries.9 •
Certainly there is abundant evidence for the initiation ofyoung
children and babies in the Imperial period, but we cannot
exclude it for earlier times. Theocritus {26.29) has an obscure
reference to a fate worse than Pentbeus' suffered by an enemy
ofDionysus aged nine or ten, which has reasonably bcen thought
to have some ritual significance. We recall that Theophrastus'
superstitious man took his children to the Orpheotclestes each
month. Thc girls who became 'bears' in the service of Artemis
at Brauron in Attica-another ritual with typical initiatory
features-did so between tbe ages of tive and ten. 9 s Other
facts from cult could be cited. Among primitive peoples
various examples are recorded of initiatory rites undergone by
children in the age-range 3 to I o, and even of unweaned
infants.96 lnfant and child initiation in Bronze Age Greece is
suggested by many myths, especially those in whicb a child
is cut up, cooked, and subscquently restored to life {p. 148
with n. 26).
I do not exclude other explanations. The relationship
between myth and ritual is not always straightforward. Some
factors which may have been relevant are: thc age of the
animal sacrificed as a counte.r!feit of the initand's death;
the idea (acted out in some modem tribal initiations) that the
initiate is rehom in a state ofinfancy;97 the potency as a purely
mythical motif of the idea of child slaughter.
The theogony and related ritual: externai evidence

We have made various inferences from the theogony itself
about its ritual basis. Now it is time to seek externai evidence
for the historical existence of such syncretistic Bacchic rites as
we have postulated, and in general for ritual activity showing
•• Tlu Dumy.sia& M,Jstm,s of tire H,lúniJtic ,m,J Roman Ag,, 100- 15.
" Ar. Lys. 64s wilh schol.; Dcubner, Alliscfil Fesú, 1107 f. ; Brclich, op. dl.,
1140-go; C. Sourvino11,CQ111 (1971), 339"-411; Burkert, Gmch. Rtligi,q,r, 1137, 39S·
•• Frazer, Baltkr IM Beautiful, ii. 116o (Síerra Leonc); Brelich, op. cit., 57 n. lZO
(Ncw Caledonia, New Hebrides, Ncw Guínca).
•• Van Gcnnep, 7711 Ri.tu ef Passagt, 81; Frucr, 1151, !254, 256, !262-3, 266-7;
E liadc, Riles and Sym6ols of lnitüzlitwt, 15; Brelich, op. cit., 39, 95 n. 131.
170 THE EUl>EMlAN THEOGONY
signifitant tonnettions with the matter of the Orphit poem.

There is evidence, though it does not by any means point to
a single, fixcd or lasting form of Orphic tult.
First thcrc is the famous chorai cntry from Euripides' Cretans,
already quoted on p. 153. lt describes nocturnal mysteries in
Crete in which initiands of Idaean Zeus attain the status of
bacchos by a process which includes dancing by the Kourctes,
a thundcrous noise (of drums or bull-roarers), and a fcast of
raw meat. Zagreus is involved, the god who !ater, at least, is
idcntified with Dionysus as the Titans' victim. Euripides can-
not, of course, be taken as a reliable reporter of what went on
in Cretan or any other cult. All we can say is that the picture
he has tonstructed must have scemed plausiblc to his Athenian
audiente. It is far from being an exact matth for our Orphic
theogony, where Dionysus was apparently not tallcd Zagreus,
and where the feast of flesh was cooked, not raw. At the sarne
time there is an affinity not to be denie<l.
At the beginning of the Hellenistic age Hecataeus of Abdera
knew of Orphit-Dionysiac mysteries which he claimed to be
identical with those of Osiris (p. 26). One might assume, with
Linforth (206), that thc principal common feature between the
two cults was the dismemberment of the god. ln that case it
would be as good as attested that an Orphic account of the
dismemberment ofDionysus was actually retited in association
with a ritual re-enactment of it in about 300 BC. However,
Diodorus understood the mysteries in question to be telebrated
in honour of the Theban Dionysus who was born from Seme-le,
not the Creta.o one born from Persephone.98
From about the end of the third tentury BC we have a frag-
mentary papyrus giving instructions, partly ín note form, for
a religious rite. It was distovered at Gurôb, a village in the
FayyCam,99 lts evidence is of such interest and importante,
despite many obscurities, that it deserves to be set out.
• 1 1.23 (Linforth, 210- 13); cf. Cic. ND 3.58 and Lydus De mmsibv.r 4.51 (Lin-
forth, 220- 5). Thc 1tory tbat Jsis cn~d each of Osiris' severcd limbs Í'l a sta111c
of pcrfumed wax and enrrustcd them to difrcrcnt priesta for burial (Diod. r.21,
4-6) is curiously rcminisccntofthc story that Dionysus' heart was placcd in a statue,
Did thc Orpbic mystcry suggest thc molif to Hecataeus as a way of aecouming for
the many shrinc-tombs of Osiris?
•~ P. Gurób 1 - Otph. ft. 91; R . A. Pack, Tlit C,,.k lllUi Lotin Lik"''Y Texts
from Crlé~R.Mtutn Egpt (11nd cd. 1965), No. 2464 ; Fes1ugià'e, ~bida dr rtligion
g,e,;qw ti litlllnisti4u,, 40-2; Fauth, RE ixA,2257 f.
THE DE ATH AND REB,IRTH OF DIONYSUS 171
.•. having what hc finds 1 •.• (Lct him) collcct thc raw piece. 1 ••• on
account oí lhe sacramcnt:
'Accep]t ye my (offcring] as the paymcnt (for my lawlcss) íath(cn].
Savc me, gr[eat] Brimo [
And Dcmeter (and ?) Rhca [
And lhe armcd Kourctes; let us [
] and we wiU makc fine sacrificc.
1a raro and a he.goaL
) boundless gifts.'
... and pasture by the river 1 ••• [La]king oí lhe goat 1 • •• Let him eat
thc rest oí thc mcat 1 ••• Let x noL watch 1 ••• consccrating it upon thc
burnt-up 1 • • • Prayer oí tbc [ ]:
'Let [WI] invoke [ ] and EuboulcW1,
And lct [w) call upon [Lhe Quccn] oíthe broad [Earth],
And the dcar Í Js. Tholl, baving withercd lhe (
(Grant Lhe blessings] of Dcmcter and Palias unto us.
O Eubou]lcus, Eri.kepaioa,
Save me [ Hurler oí Light]ning!'
THERE IS ONE DIONYSUS.
Tokens i ••••• GOD THROUGH BOSOM I ....• I have drunk. Donkey.
Oxherd 1 ••• password: UP ANO DOWN to thc 1 •••• and what has been
gjven 10 you, consume it l . , .. put intG thc baskct l ... [c]onc, bull-roarer,
knucklebones i •••• mirror.
That was a somewhat speculative attempt to interpret the

line-ends making up column i. Only a few isolated words are
identifiable in the line-beginnings of column ii; they include
'pray', and perhaps ' to the lustral basin', 'from the basket',
'journey'. The scope of thc planned ceremony is difficult to
grasp. There is to be a sacrificc and a dívision of meat; Rhea,
the Kouretes, and Dionysus are involved, and, most .signifi-
cantly, there is mention of at least some of the 'tokens' with
which Dionysus was enticcd. There are praycrs for salvation,
and reference to paying the price for the sins of fathers. 100
Therc is also a good deal which takes us beyond the Dionysus
of the Eudemian Theogony and suggcsts syncretism of severa!
mystery cults. The 'God through bosom' formula comes from
the worship of Sabazios (p. 97); the name Erikepaios too seems
to derive from an Asiatic form ofDionysus-cult (p. 205). There
are also Eleusinian elements, and perhaps points of contact
with thc gold leaves (p. 22).
• 00 Cf. Orph. fr. 232, quotcd on p. 99; PL &p. 364C, 366a.
THE EUOEMIAN THEOCONY
The existence in Hellenistic times of a Bacchic ritual involv-
ing thc Titans and a newly-madc mirror has been inferred
abovc (p. 157) from a fragment of the Teletai of Dio,rysus
ascribcd to Arignote, a lcgendary daughter of Pythagoras. It
would be hypercritical to doubt that the slaughter of Díonysus
was rcpresented. We canoot locate 'Arigoote' geographically;
the fragment is in lonic dialect, but .this may be on account of
Pythagoras' Samian origin.
The next text we have to considcr brings our attention back
to Crcte. It is the account of Dionysus' death given by Firnúcus
Matcrnus in his work on the falsehood of pagan cults, published
betwccn 340 and 350 AD, following some Euhemeristic source
of thc later Hellenistic pcriod.101 The Euhcmeristic approach
entails Zeus' becoming an ancient Cretan king, and Dionysus'
death being irreparable, but otherwise Firmicus' narrativc
seems to correspond closely with that of Orpheus (whom he
does not mention), and I have occasionally referred to it abovc.
He goes on to describe a ritual in which the tragic story is
commemorated.
The CretaM, to aJlcviate thc wild ragc of thcir tyrant (at bis sou's
murdcr), appoinl ccremonial funeral days, and compound an annual
saCTum with a bíennial cónsemilio ( = nA~ní), doing in scquencc everything
that thc dying boy did or suffered. T hey tear a live bull with their tceth,
malcing savage feut1 in annual commemoraúon; and hjdden in tbe forcst.s ,
wüh díaonant yells, they ícign raving frenzy, to give tbe impreujon tha1
the crime was commítted not in malice but in madncss. The casket is
carried round in which his sister secrelly concealed hís heart, while with
the mclody of pipes and tbe clasbing of cymbals tbcy simulate the tokens
wíth which lhe boy was tricked. So it was for lhe sake oí a tyrant and by
bis subservient peoplc tha1 a god was made out of onc for whom burial
was impossible.
There can be little doubt that Firmicus' source was writing
from knowlcdgc of a real Bacchic ritual. Such details as thc
carrying of thc heart in the casket and thc represcntation of
••• D, ,rrore 6 (Kem, pp. 234 f.). The sourcc is not Euhcmcrus hímself, as uscd
10 bc thought. See F. Zucker, PltiJ,J. 64 (1905), 47<>-2; F.Jacoby, RE vi. 955.5-19.
W. Burlmt has pointed out to me tha1 lhe samc source seems to lic behind Wisdom
efSolomtJn 14.15, whcre thc institulion ofpagan 'mys1eríes and ule14i' is accountcd
for u thc ordinancc oí a king who, gricf•slrickcn ai lhe unlimdy death of his son,
made an ímage of him and honourcd thc dead mortal as a god. Wisdom is an
Alcxandrian-Jcwish work of lhe tst century ao. It uses mystery•terminology in
2.22, 8.4, and in 14.23 spcaks of 'child-tlaying tdtJai or secr~ mystcrics ot mad
reveis of curious cuatoms'.
THE DEATH ANO REBIRTH 01' DIONYSUS 173
certain parts of the myth by imitative pipe music have a
wholly authentic ring. What is more doubtful is whether it was
really a peculiarly Cretan ritual or just a ritual which was
claimed to have started in Crete.
Severa! authors of the Roman period allude to ritual enact-
ment ofthe dismemberment ofDionysus, or refer to the Orphic
narrative as being associated with mysteries, without linking
them with Crete. Diodorus, after relating and interpreting
allegorically the story of the dismemberment (in the non-
Orphic version in which his limbs are gathered together by
Demeter), adds that 'the Orphic poems and what is represented
in the sacraments, the details of which the uninitiated may not
enquire, are in accord with this'. Elsewhere he refers to Diony-
sus, the Cretan-born son of Zeus and Persephone, 'whom
Orpheus at the sacraments has handed down as being pulled
apart by the Titans'. Clement writes that the mysteries of
Dionysus are quite inhuman: when he was still a child the
Kouretes danced round him, the Titans got in, deceived him
with childish playthings, and tore him apart, 'as the poet of the
sacrament says, Orpheus the Thracian'; here he gives the two
verses quoted on p. 155, and enumerates 'the tokens of this
sacrament'. Macrobius says it is 'handed down in the rites of
the Orphics' that Dionysus was tom limb from limb by the
frenzied Titans and that after the remains were buried he
re-emerged whole. We have referred to the pseudo-Aristotelian
Problem which apparently alludes to the Orphic story of the
cooking of Dionysus as 'what is told in the sacrament'. Occa-
sional references in Proclus show that he understood the Rhap-
sodies as a whole to be a sacred text of mystery rites.102
We should not imagine that there was a single, uniform
Bacchic mystery rite widely celebrated in the Imperial age
and corresponding to the Orphic narrative. Dionysiac cere-
monial took many forms and gave expression to many different
elements of Dionysiac mythology. Much of it was cheerful
play-acting, offering temporary escape from ordinary life into
102
Diod. 3.62.8 (Orph. fr. 301), 5.754 (fr. 303); Clem. Protr. 2.18 (fr. 34);
Macr. in Somn. Sdp. 1.12.JJ (fr. 240; Myth. Vat. 3.12.5 (fr. 213) scems to derive
from Macrobius); Ar~t. Probl., se,: p. 161; Procl. Plat. Tluol. 5.35, p. 322 Portus
(Kern, p. 191), ín Tim. 3sa (ii. 14,6.,u D., p. 229 Kern), 42cd (iii. 297.8 D., fr.
229 Kern). For the Titans' frenzy(fi,ror) in Macrobius ,;f. Firmicus' account quotcd
above.
174 THE 1\UDEMIAN THEOGONY
a piquant, romantic, voluptuous fantasy-world. 103 Thcre was
no clear clivision between mystery and masquerade. Lucian
mentions Bacchic pantomimes, popular in lonia and Pontus,
in which the dancers portrayed, among other subjects, Titans
a.n d Korybantes; only the Titans' assault on Dionysus can be
meant. 101 The story must have been enacted in a tenser, holier
atmosphere in the Titanika and Nyktelia which Plutarch finds
to be parallel to the myths of Osiris' dismemberment and
rebirth.•os
Dalt and place of origin of the Euthmian Theogony

The Eudemian Theogony was currfot at Athens in the fourth
century se; the earliest reference to it, in Plato's Crarylus, takes
us back to the 380s. Athens :is the only place whcre we find
knowledge of it before the Hellcnistic period, and that may be
wherc it first appeared. It was just in the last third of the fifth
century that Orphic poems bccame fashionable at Athens under
the circumstances described on pp. 20-1. lt is at the same ~riod
that we first find awareness a\\ Athens of the religion of Idaean
Zeus and the Kouretes. The theogony of pseudo-Epimenides
(pp. 47- 52) may have been one sourcc of that awareness. We
have scen that Eurípides when he composed the Creians (very
probably before 425) had a concept of syncretistic mystery rites
not altogether unlike those presupposcd in the Orphic theo-
gony, combining Kouretic and Bacchic clements and supposed
to be incligenous to Crete. Athens at this epoch thus seems to
provide a suitable milieu for ·t he composition of the thcogony.
There were private cult societies of various kinds with their
own initiation rituals. Aristophanes parodies one in the Clouds
(250 ff.). ln orde.r to gain admission to Socrates' school to
'learn the true nature of divine things' and to meet and con-
verse with the school's deities, Strepsiadcs has to be initiated.
He is made to sit on the holy bed and wear a crown-which
makes him apprehensive lest he is to be sacrificed--and he is
1• 1 Scc Nilsson, op. cit. (n. 94) , with wh= gcnenl asscssmcnt (143-7) t am
in agrccment,
••• 45· 79, cf. 39·
••• Is. Os. 364f, cf. D, E 38ga. Nilsson, op. cít. 138, i.s wrong 10 finda rcference
in the Smymaean inscription cittd above, n. 79, to e1tpounding tbe Otphic myth
:ibout lhe Titans to initiatcs. Tbc pauagc is corttetly cxplaincd by A. D. Noclt,
ffan,. Slltd. 63 (1958), 415 f. = Essa,:µ o.n Rtliticn iuul 1N Anàffll World, 8,.S.
THE DEATH AND REBlRTH OF DIONYSUS 175
sprinkled with some dry substance (which also has sacrificial
overtones). The Corybantic initiations with their enthrooements
and dancing are mentioned by Plato in his Euthytkmus.
The society for which the Eudernian Theogony was composed
was, I suggest, Athenian. I ts rites had very ancient origins, and
were probably not native to Attica: thcy came from Ionia, or
who knows where, like much else in the Athens of that time,
and at Athens they were amalgamated with others that had
Cretan associations. With thesc rites went a myth about
Bacchus and the Titans, which at some point was brought into
connection with the entombcd Dionysus ofDelphi. Thc achiev~
rnent of the society's Orpheus was to give the myth poetic form
and to construct a whole theogony in which it could take its
place.
VI. THE HIERONYMAN THEOGONY
THE second of the Orphic theogonies mentioned by Damascius

was 'the one current according to Hieronymus-and Hellanicus,
if he is not tbe sarne pcrson'. We do not know the identity
ofthe Hieronymus in qucstion, or ofthe Hellanicus. It does not
seem likely that Damascius is drawing on two scparate works,
for even if they gave identical accounts of the Orphic poem,
it is hard to imagine why it should have occurred to him that
the two authors might be the sarne, rather than that one had
transcribed the other. lt is more probable that he had a singlc
source in which the two names were linked, for example as
joint or alternative authors.
The only known writers called Hcllanicus a.re the famous
fifth-century historian from Lesbos and an Alexandrian scholar
of about 200 BC who held separatist views on Homer. Neither
ofthese has any claim to be considercd as the Hellanicus namcd
by Damascius. There is, however, another man of this namc
who has a connection with Orphic poems, and indeed with
summarics of their contents. J'he Suda records that one Sandon,
a philosopher, son of Hellanicus, wrotc a book of Hypotluses
to Orpluus. As he is called a 'philosopher', I presume that bis
Hypotheses were more than simple synopses of Orphic poems:
they contained philosophical, that is, allegorical interpretation. 1
They must surely have included one of the theogonies. Hcrc
then is a work that will have contained an account of an Orphic
theogony and that might well be quoted in such a way that
Hellanicus, the compiler's father, was named. It is tempting
to supposc that Damascius' information is somehow related to
this. 2 But if so, how is it that he mcntions two names, neither
of which is Sandon's? One pcwibility is that bis .knowledge of
Sandon's book was indirect, and that in bis immediate sourcc
Sandon's name had fallen out, so that the reference appeared as
'thc Orphic Hypotlwes of Helllanicus' instead of 'the Orphi&
• FOI' 'philOlo'phcr' mcaning allqoriist cf. Rufinus, Rw,p. 10.30 (fr. 55 K.);
Oamasc. Princ. 123 (fr. 6o K .); Myth. Vat. 1.204, 3,1.5.
• Scbustcr, 86 lf.; Eislcr, W1/ull/nMIÚl' wwl Himmllsult. 393 n. 1.
THE HIERONYMAN THEOGONY 177
Hypotheses of Sandon the son of Hellanicus'. However, tbis
Jeaves Hieronymus unaccounted for. Another possibility is that
Hieronymus was the sarne person as Sandon. Sandon is a
Cilician name, derived from the local god Sandan or Sandes.'
A man with a foreign name sometimes adopted a Greek one
too, calling hi.mself, for example, 'Phatres, also known as
Didymus', ~o:rpfi, ó (or ôs) Kal A ~vµ,os. As Sandes was equated
with Zeus or Heracles, the best Greek rcndering of Sandon's
namc might have bcen Dion or Heraclides, but Hieronymus is
passable. If our author ,did christen himself so, he bccomes
'Sandon (son) of Hellanicus, also known as Hieronymus', or
'Sandon alias Hieronymus, (son) of Hellanicus'. Put it all in
the genitive, and it is not difficult to see how a certain confusion
might have arisen.
But we must also consider whether any known Hieronymus
comes into question as the one referrcd to by Damascius.
Lobeck (340) thought of Hicronymus of Rhodcs, thc Peri-
patetic writcr of the third century BC, who wrote among othcr
things a work OnPotls. What we know ofit, however, indicates
tbat it was concerncd witb literary history and anecdotal
biography, and it would bc extremely surprising ifit contained
such details of the contcnts of an Orphic poem as Damascius
has. A more promising candidate is Hieronymus the Egyptian
(so Josephus calls him, though Tertullian styles him king of
Tyrc), a writer on Phoenician antiquities of late Hellenistic or
early Imperial date.• We know next to nothing ofhis work. But
othcr writers in this field discussed Phoenician cosmology and
tbeology, and claimed that the Greeks got their doctrines from
the Phoenicians. Thcre was Laitos, who claimed to bc trans-
lating the work of Mõch of Sidon, supposed to have lived before
thc Trojan War, and Herennius Philo of Byblos, who claimcd
to have a similarly ancient native source, Sanchuniathon of
Beirut. There is actually one text which states that Orpheus
derived bis theology from Sanchuniathon.5 So Hieronymus the
• L . Zgusta, Kúúwialisdu P n - (1964), 454 f. ; on lhe god, E. Laroche,
D iàÕOMair, IÚ 14 fantu lolllliú (1959), 1<17; Cook, ,<'ns, i. 593ff'.; W. Fauth in DIT
JrúiN Pau/y (1964-75), iv. 1541.
• Scbuster, 100; Eisler, Wllú11tn411Úl ,md Him.mels,e,/1, 393 n . t; Staudachcr, 94;
FGrHiJt 787.
• Laitoa 784 F 2, 4-6; Philo 790 F 1-2, 4; 794 F 6c (ood. Matrit. Gr. 4616
f. 18o).
178 'rHE HJERONYMAN THEOGONY
Egyptian rnight have discussed an Orphic theogony in a similar
contcxt. For information about Phoenician cosmogonic theory
Damascius tums first to Eudemus, then to 'Mõch' .6 Eudemus
and Hierooymus, his two sources for Orphic cosmogony (apart
from the Rhapsodies which he knew directly), make a similar
pairing if Hieronymus was the Egyptian.
This time it is Hellanicus who is left unaccounted for. Yet
we shall find shortly that this hypothesis about Hieronymus'
identity has an advantage over the hypothesis that he was an
alias of Sandon.
The coS1Mgo'l)I according to Damascius

Damascius' account runs: 7
Origioally there was watcr, hc (Orphcu.,) says, and mud, from whicb thc
carth solidined: hc posits these two as fint principies, water and carth ...
The one before the two, however, he leaves uncxpressed, bis vcry silcncc
being an intimation of its ineffable naturc. Thc third principie aftcr the
two was engendered by tbcse-cartb and water, that is-and was a serpcnt
(6páxwv) with extra heads growiog upon it of a buli anda Hon, anda god's
countcnancc in the middle; ic had wings upon its shoulden, and its name
was Unaging Time (Chronos} and also Heracles. United with il was
Ananke, bcing of thc sarne naturc, or Adrastea, incorporcal, ber a.nns
cxtended througbout thc universe and touching its extremitics. I tbink.
this stands for the third principie, occupying lhe place of essence, only he
madc it bisexual to symbolize tbc universal gencrative cause. And I assume
that the theology in tbe Rhapsodics diacarded t hc two first principies
(togcther with Lhe one bcfore the two, that was lcft unspokcn) , and began
from this third principie after lhe two, b«ause this was the fint that waa
cxpressiblc and acccptable to hwnan ean. For tbis is thc grcat Unaging
T ime that wc found in it [s,. in the Rhapsodic Theogony], thc fathcr of
Aither and Cbaos. Indced, in Lhis theology too [se. thc Hicronyman], this
Time, lhe scrpcnt, bas offspring, thrce in number: moist Aithcr (I quote),
unboundcd Chaos, and as a third, misty Darlcness (Ercbos) . . . Among
thesc, he says, Time gcneratcd an egg-this tradition too making it gcncr-
ated by T ime, and bom 'among' tbcse bccause it is from thesc tbat thc third
l ntclligtblc triad is produced. What is this triad, then? The egg; the dyad
of thc two naturcs inside it (male and femalc), and thc plurality of tbe
various secds bctween; and thirdly an incorporcal god with goldcn wings
on bis shoulders, bulis' hcads growing upon bis Ranks, and on bis head a
monstrous scrpcnt, prescn.ting lhe appearance oí all kinds of animal fomu
. . . And the third god of this third triad tbis theology coo celcbrates as
Firstbom, and lt calls him Zeus thc orderer of ali and ( ) of the whole
• Pri,w;. l!l!)C (i. 923 R.); 784 F 4.
7 Prw. l!l3 bis (i. 317-19 R.) = Orph. fr. 54.
world, whercforc he is also called Pan. So much this second genealogy

supplics conccming thc Intclligible principies.
ln evaluating this account we must be careful to disentangle
what was actually recorded by Hieronymus from the Neo-
platonic interpretation put upon it by Damascius, who is con-
cerned to arrange everything in triads. Each triad is made up
of a Father, a Potentiality (these two at the sarne time cor-
respond to the Finite Monad and the Infinite Dyad of earlier
Pythagorean metaphysics), and a Mind. ln the initial pair,
water and earth, Damascius recognizes a dyad: this must come
in second place in his system, so to occupy the first place he
j>ostulates a prior principie so ineffable that the author left it
unspoken. This is a sufficient example of the arbitrariness of
his exegesis, and we may with Holwerda (299 f.) take comfort
from the thought that an interpreter equipped with so elastic
a method had no need to falsify the facts he reported. 8
Athtnagoras' evidence
Kern places several other texts under the beading 'Hieronyrni
et Hellanici Theogonia' (frr. 55-9). As the Damascius passage
is the only one where this theogony is specified, we can only
assign other fragments to it if they show or presuppose some
feature which Damascius' evidence indicates to be distinctive
of the Hieronyman Theogony. What he attributes to it, how-
ever, agrees very largely with what was to be found in the
Rhapsodies. He himself comments on some of the agreements.
There are some details which are not attested in authors
certainly dependent on the Rhapsodies but which may very
well have stood in that poem: details of the physique of the
Time-serpent and of Protogonos, details about Ananke, and
the detail that one of Protogonos' names was Pan. The only
thing which definitely distinguishcs the Hieronyman Theogony
from the Rhapsodies is that it began with water and mud,
from which the Time-serpent appeared. ln the Rhapsodic
Theogony (Damascius tells us) the water and the mud were
absent. Now thcrc are only two other texts which reflect the
Hieronyman version: a passage ín the Christian apologist
• On Damascius' interprctation of thc Orphic cosmogonics scc R. Strõmberg,
Erarws 44 ( 1946), 180-4.
THE HIERONYMAN THEOCONY
Athenagoras, and a scholium on Gregory of Nazianzus which
is evidently dependent on Athenagoras. 9 There are quite d ose
verbal similarities between Athenagoras and Damascius, as
Schuster observed . 10 But we cannot follow Schuster in his
suggestion that Damascius was dependent on Athenagoras, for
Damascius' acco11nt is the more detailed of the two, and names
a source which Athcnagoras does not nam e. Both writers must
be drawing on thc sarne source. 11
The Athenagoras passage reads:
The gods, as thcy (lhe Grecla) say, d id not cxist from the beginning, but
each of them was born just as wc are born. And this is agreed by them all,
Homer saying
O ceanus the genesis of t he gods, and mothcr Tethys
(R. 14. 201), and Orpheus-wbo wa.s tbe original invenlor of the gods'
namcs and recountcd their births :ancLsaid what they have ali done, and
wbo cnjoys some crcdit among them as a true thcologiao, and is gcoerally
followed by Homer, above ali about the gods-also making their first
gencsis from water:
O ceanus, who is the gcnesis of them ali.
For water was according to him the origin of cvcrytbing, and from thc
water mud formcd, aod from the pair of them a living creature was genera-
tcd, a serpent with an cx.tra head girowing upon it of a Jion, (and anothcr of
a buli,} and in t.h e middle of tbem a god's countcnance; its name was
Heracles and Time. This H eraclcs gcneratcd a huge egg, wbich, being
fillcd full, by lhe force of its cngeoderer was broken in two from friction.
Ita crown became the hcavcn, and what had sunlt downwards, earth. Thcre
also carne forth an incorporeal god. u
Athenagoras does not stop there. H e goes on to relate that

from Uranos and Gc the Moirai, Hundred-Handers, and
Cyclopes were born. U ranos sent his sons to Tartarus, having
learnt that his children would depose him; whereupon Ge in
anger bore the T itans. Here threc li.nes of verse are quoted .
After this point Athenagoras does not continue to tel1 the
9 Both in fr. 3 7 Kcrn. •• Schustcr, Sr.

11 Cf. Lobeck, ,t.87.
u Athcnagoras latcr idcntifics this god as P hancs, calls him 'firstbom', and
says that hc had serpcnt form and was swallowcd by Zeus (in fr. s8, p. 139 K.).
The addition of thc bull's hcad (from Damascius) is necessary to givc seruc to
'in lhe middlc of thcm'. It must have fallen out at an carly stagc, bccausc it iJ
also abscnt from thc Gregory scholium.
story in order, though he refers to many more of the events in

it, with particular emphasis on its monstrous and unseemly
elements (fr. 58 K.). We learn that Kronos castrated and over-
tbrew Uranos. When his own children werc born, he swallowed
the males. But Zeus sent him to Tartarus, and made war on
the Titans in order to achieve supremacy. He pursued his
mother Rhea-Deriieter and mated with her in serpent form,
and she gave birth to the two-faced, horned Persephone-
Athelã. Zeus mated with Persephone too in snake forro, and
she bore Dionysus. There is also reference to Phanes' giving
birth to Echidna, who was a fearsome serpent from the neck
down-here again verses are quoted-and to his being swal-
lowed by Zeus.
Can we assume that all this comes from the Hieronyman
Theogony? The only real alternative is that Athenagoras has
combined Hicronymus' digest, which Damascius !ater drew
upon, with material from the Rhapsodies. Certainly his account
fits the Rhapsodies pretty well apart from the initial water and
mud. But we know from Damascius that the Hieronyman
Theogony did have much in common with the Rhapsodies.
The whole idea of the Rhapsodies, after all, was to incorpora te
and reconcile other Orphic theogonies. And as at the beginning
of the cosmogony there was one dcfinite divergence between
the Hieronyman and Rhapsodic Theogonics, so in the latter
part of what Athenagoras offers there is another. It is that
Zeus fights a war against the Titans (and presumably consigos
them to Tartarus) before becoming king; consistently with tbis,
there is no mention of their killing and eating the child
Dionysus, which one would certainly have expected Athena-
goras to comment on ifhe had had the Rhapsodies in view. ·
lf we accept that he is following the Hieronyman Theogony
throughout, it becomes difficult to sustain the idea that Hiero-
nymus was Sandon, the writer of Hypotheses. Athenagoras'
source was the sarne as Damascius', as the verbal parallels
show, and Damascius identifies this source as Hieronymus
(-Hellanicus). Hieronymus therefore went into as much detail
as Athenagoras does about the monstrous physiques of Chronos
and Ananke, Phanes, Echidna, and Persephone, and about the
snake-coupling of Zeus and Rhea, and he provided verse
quotations as well as prose paraphrase. These are not the ways
182 THE HIERONYMAN TfiEOGONY
of ordinary Hypothesis-writers. A philosophical interpreter,
such as I have suggcsted Sandon may have been, could well
quote verse passages. But the particular quotations which we
find in Athenagoras, one ofthem on the birth ofthe Titans and
the connection of their namc with m€a8o., ' takc vengeance',
the other on the birth and shape of Echidna, do not scem
especially likely passages for an allegorist to have fastened on;
and it is curious that there is so much emphasis on snakishness.
This is less difficult to understand if Hieronymus is the Phoeni-
cian antiquary of that name. Philo of Byblos (790 F 4) discusses
the clivinity wbich the Phoenicians and Egyptians ascribc to
serpents, and writes that 'it was from thc Phoenicians that
Pherecydes took his point of departurc when hc theologized
about the god that hc calts Ophioneus, and the Ophionidai,
of whom we shall speak in anothcr place'. Hieronymus might
bave made a similar point about Orphcus and the striking
array of scrpentinc gods to bc found in his theogony.
Relationship of the Hüronyman and Protogonos Theogonies

The Hieronyman Theogony is obviously related to the old
Protogonos Theogony, which, as we were able to deduce from
the Derveni papyrus, told of the egg-hatched Protogonos,
Uranos' oppression of the Hundred-Handcrs and Cyclopes, his
castration by lhe Titans, his succession by K.ronos and Zeus,
Zeus' swallowing of Protogonos, his pursuit of Rhea-Demeter
and their mating, and the birth of Dionysus from Kore, while
it did not contain bis rending by the Titans. All of this is in
agreement with Athenagoras. Thc two poems cannot, howevcr,
simply be identifico, because the Protogonos Theogony was
composed no !ater than the fifth century se, whereas the
Hieronyman, as we shall see presently, cannot be earlier than
the third. The Hieronyman Theogony, it will appear, is to be
seen as a Hellenistic, Stoicizing adaptation of the Protogonos
Theogony. Some of the details attested for it by Athenagoras
and Damascius no doubt go back to the earlier poem; we shall
have to consider which as we go along. We shall therefore be
supplementing the results of Chapter 3, and at the sarne time
dealing with post-classical developments which it would have
been out of place to notice there.
THE HIERONYMAN THEOGONY
The water and the mud
For water was according to him the origin of evcrything, and from the
water mud fonned, and from the pair of thcm a liviag creature was
generated . . . its name was Heraclcs and Time. (Athcnagoras)
Therc was watcr, hc says, and mud, 0 from which thc carth solidified ...
the third principie after the two was engendered by thesc ... its namc was
Unaging Time and also Heracles. (Damascius)
It is odd that physical elements should exist before Unaging

Time, and odder still that they should appear at all in a poetic
theogony which goes on to talk about winged serpents and a
cosmic egg. ln the Rhapsodies Time is the beginning of every-
thing; water and earth appeared only when Oceanus, Pontos,
and Ge appeared in their due place. ln the one non-Orphic
Greek cosmogony in which Time played a role, that of Phere-
cydes, he existed from the beginning beside Zas and Chthonie
(DK 7 B 1). ln the Hieronyman Theogony itselfthe water and
mud, or water and earth, seem strangely unrelated to any-
thing that happens later. Time operates amid Aither, Chaos,
and Darkness, created by himself. It is from the egg which he
forms there that heaven and earth are made.
The initial stage, especially as Damascius describes it, cor-
responds closely with that which thc Stoic Zeno interprctcd
into Hesiod: 'Zeno also says that Hesiod's "Chaos" is water,
from the settlement of which mud comes into being, and when
that solidifies the earth is established.' 14 Hesiod had said 'First
Chaos was born, and then broad-breasted Earth, secure seat
of ali for ever' (Th. 116 f.). So it looks rather as though Hier<r
nymus' statement of how the Orphic theogony began was a
Stoic formulation, an interpretation of divine names. This may
seem to bring us back to the possibility that Hieronymus was
a philosophical allegorist. But there is no trace of philosophical
interpretation, apart from Damascius' own, in the rest of what
Damascius reports from Hieronymus, or the rest of Athena-
goras' account. The whole matter is very puzzling. Even if
Hieronymus díd interpret divine names as standing for material
elements, why did he not record the namcs, when he was so
explicit about the different names borne by Chronos, Ananke,
" 'Mud' (l.\iír) is Zoega's cmendation of 'matter' (~,\9). It is confirmcd by thc
Athenagoras passagc and by the fragment of Zeno about ro be quoted.
•• Sch. A.R. 1.496-8b = SVF i. !l9, t 7.
184 THE HH:RONYMAN THEOGONY
and Protogonos in thc poem? Or if he did record them, why
did Damascius, who had Iess interest in Hieronymus' inter-
pretations, omit them?
W.Jaeger suggested that the names were Oceanus and Ge,rs
and there is apparent support for Oceanus in the text of Athena-
goras, where the Homeric verse
Oceanus, who is the genesis of them all
(/l. 14.246) is attributed to Orpheus· and closely linked with the

primeval water. I say apparent support, because it would be
easy enough to account for the verse as a gloss on Athenagoras'
remarks about Homer. It could be removed from the text
without leaving any discontinuity. If the Orphic cosmogony
did begin with Oceanus, I should prefer to suppose that he was
coupled with his traditional partner Tethys rather than with
Ge. Tethys was variously interprcted by exponents of physical
exegesis, but she was at least sometimes cxplained as represent-
ing earth. 16 This would avoid the problcm ofGe existing before
the egg, and of the fact that she appears subsequently as the
consort of Uranos.
There are two further texts which might be adduced in
support of the Oceanus hypothesis. The first is in what passes
for Alexander of Aphrodisias' commentary on a passage near
the end of Aristotle's Metap1!Jsícs.17 It must be explained that
whereas we have Alexander's genuine commentary on Meta•
p1!Jsics A-Ll, dating from the late second or early third century
AD, it is generally agreed that the continuation covering books
E-N is not by him, though it may contain some authentic
material. Certain passages are copied out of the fifth-century
commentary ofSyrianus.•8 The section that concerns us relates
to a remark by Aristotle that the ancient poets attribute sove-
reignty not to the oldest powers 'such as Night and Uranos or
Chaos or Oceanus', but to Zeus, though they arrive at this by
" The Theolog, of llu &ri., Crul. Philosophns (1947), 220 n. 57.
16 Scb. AD li. 14.201 (Hesycb., Suda, Et. Magn. s.v. T11iliír); lo. Diaconus in
Hes. Th., p. 3o8.17 Flach; cf. Procl. in Tim., iii. 186.~5 D. (p. 179 Kem).
t1 ln Me14ph. 10911>4-8, CAC i. 8~1.5 ff. = fr. 107 K.
•• Uni=, as some think, Syrianus copied thcm from 'Alexander'. For brief
slatcmcnts of díffcrent viewpoints on the question sce M. Hayduck, CAG i. (18g1),
v-vi, and G. ( = W.) Kroll, ibid., vi. 1 ( 1902)1 vi.
THE HIER O NYMAN TH:EOGONY 18~
positing changes of ruler. The poets Aristotle has in mind are
no doubt Orpheus (Night and Uranos, cf. pp. 116 f.) , Hesiod
(Chaos), and Homer (Oceanus). 'Alexander', howcvcr, states
unhesitatingly tbat Aristotlc is alluding lO Orphcus alt;me, in
whom first Chaos carne into being, then Oceanus, thirdly
Night, fourthly Uranos, and then the king of the immortals,
Zeus. When he comes to the clause about changes of ruler, he
illustrates jt with a group of quotations from the Rhapsodics
(frr. 108, 102, 111), in which thc successive tenure of royal
power by Erikcpaios, Night, and Uranos is made explicit.
The sarne group of quotations, one of them in a foller form,
appears in Syrianus' commentary, and this appears to be one
of the places where 'Alexander' has drawn on Syrianus.
Syrianus was a keen studcnt of the Rhapsodies (see p. 228),
and he cites them elsewhere in his commentary on the Meta-
physic.r. 'Alexander's' first statement about the Orphic theogony,
however, does not correspond to anything in Syrianus, and does
not agree with the Rhapsodies (or, as it stands, with any other
poem ofwhich we have knowledge). Some scholars dismiss it as
a fabrication based on Aristotle's words. 19 It is true that the
commentator speaks of Chaos, Oceanus, Night, and Uranos,
and no oth ers before Zeus, because those are the powers men-
tioned by Aristotlc; but that does not mean tha t his reference
to Orpbeus is mere bluff. He has Chaos, Night, and Uranos
in the right order for either the Hieronyman Theogony or the
Rhapsodies. The only problem is the position of Oceanus
between Cbaos and Night. I t is hard to conceive of a theogony
with such an cxtraordinary sequence. One is thus led to suspect
that 'Alexandcr' has misplaced Oceanus. If the Orphic poem
in question was the Rhapsodies, Oceanus ought to come after
Uranos. But we must also reckon with the possibility that it
was a. different, earlier theogony.10 If, as has been suggested,
the H ieronyman Theogony began with Oceanus, and if this
was the poem on which the commentator's statement was based,
we nccd only assume an inversion in thc first two itcms of his
11 ,2tlkr-Ncstlc, Di, Pltiloso,liil tkr Griedr,11, i. 136 n. 1 ; Staudacher, 92 n. 8 ;

Schwabl, 1i69.
•• Cf. Guthrie, 103 f. lt would follow, [ think, that thls portion of 'Alcx.ander'
is ofearly origin, from the trucAlcxander, possibly rcffcclíng a still earlicr exegetical
tradition íf thcrc was one.
T86 THt: lillHlONYMAN THEOGONY
scries-an understandable inversion, because of the instinctive

tendency to put Chaos at the beginning. 21
The other text is an oration of Gregory of Nazianzus in
which, like Athenagoras and others before him, he attacks
pagan religion by pointing to the undignified and troubled
nature of the gods revered by the Greelcs as their own theo-
logians portray thcm:
antagonistic not only 1owards one another but even towards the first causes,
thc Oceanuscs and Tcthyses and Phancscs and whatcvcr cise they call
thcm ali; and an ultima te god who hatcs his children from !ove ofpowcr, and
who swaUows ali thc othcrs in his insatiable greed so that he may becomc
'the fathcr of ali men and gods' as 1hcy are miserably devoured and vomüed
forth.22
Gregory is evidently taking Orpheus as the chief or sole repre-

sentativc of Hellenic theology. One would expect a writer of
the fourth century who cites an Orphic theogony to bc refer-
ring to the Rhapsodies. It is quite likely that Oceanus and
Tethys suffered from antagonism in that narrative: thc an-
tagonism of Kronos becausc Oceanus refused to support the
Titans' assault on Uranos. lt was this antagonism, probably,
tbat led to Oceanus and his consort bcing banishcd to thc ends
of the carth. 2 J O n tbc other hand they were not 'first causes'
fit to be named in the sarne breath as Pbanes and indeed before
him, they were brother and sister to Kronos (fr. 114). lt may
be that Gregory calls them first causes simply because they
belong to ao older generation than Zeus, or because he remcm-
bers the famous lines about them in the Iliad. But I would not
like to exclude the possibility that he is echoing an older
Christian source in which the reference was to an earlier
Orphic theogony (to wit, thc Hieronyman) whcre Oceanus and
Tethys did actually appear before Phanes. ln what circum-
stances thcy la ter suffered at the hands of thc gods is unccrtain.
But since Gregory is speaking about 'the gods and daimones
revered by the Greeks', Zeus would be more relevant than
21 This can be illustrated from thc passages of Apion and Rufinus printed by
Kcrn undcr frr. 55 and 56, and from the brief ráumê of the Rhapsodics in the
Orphíc Argoruwtica, 12 lf. (quoted bclow, p. 231); cf. Orpheus' ,ong in lhe sarne
poem, ~1 lf. (p. 100 Kcrn).
u Or. 31.16, Palr. Or. nxvi. 149 - fr. 171 K .
., Sce frr. 135, 117; p. 130.
Kronos, and Oceanus might have been mentioned in the

context of Zeus' swallowing of Phanes, the world, and the
gods (cf. p. 89).
Let us very tentatively explore the hypothesis that the poem
did begin with Oceanus and Tethys, existing from the outset
with no forbears, and that Hieronymus translated them into
Water and Mud, regarded as successive phases in the sequence
water-mud-earth. To put Oceanus and Tethys right at the
beginning of things, before Time itself, and severa! generations
before the Titans, would certainly be a bold stroke on the poet's
part-much bolder than their placing in the Eudemian Theo-
gony in a generation between that of U ranos and Ge and that
of the Titans. There was something of a precedent in Homer,
of course, and if the Orphic poet borrowed a Homeric verse
for this context the implication is that he was fully conscious
of that precedent. But what might have been his motive for
this startling arrangement? He cannot have conceived it
merely for the sake of accommodation with Homer.
Oceanus is a great river encircling the earth. But if we are
to think of him existing before the earth carne into being, it
can only be as a rather formless cosmic water. To put it the
other way round, if a Greek poet is to deal with an imagined
primeval water, the name of Oceanus has some appropriate-
ness because of his status as something ancient, grand, watery,
and outside the known world. To this cxtent Hieronymus'
putative interpretation is in order. What is much more doubtful
is whether Tethys should be considered as anything more than
a female counterpart of Oceanus. Before the appearance of
Time, surely, there can be no hint of development from water
towards earth, only a static uniformity.
A primeval mass of waters makes us think of the Near East.
The Sumerian goddess Nammu, who represents fresh water,
preceded heaven and earth and is called their mother. 2• We
have already compared Homer's Oceanus and Tethys with the
Babylonian Apsu and Tiâmat, the two great aquatic deities
whose waters were originally mingled in one body (p. 120, cf.
102). The Hebrew cosmogony begins similarly with a mass of
.dark waters (t11Mm, related to Tiâmat).
The oriental provenance of the deified Time, the cosmic egg,
•• T. Jacobsen,Jourll3l of N,ar Easúrn Studils 5 (1946), 138 f.
t88 THE HIERO NYM AN THEO GON Y
and the Firstbom creator god who comes from it, is established
(pp. 103-6). Can we find an oriental model for the coexistencc
or primeval ocean and Time-god, or for their appearance in
sequence? Phoenician cosmogonies show something of the
required pattern, though they represent the initial state of the
material world as misty rather than watery. Eudemus recorded
that the Sidoniaos put T ime, Desire, and Fog at the beginning
of things, while according to 'Mõch' the first principies were
Aither ant,i Aer, and Time was bom from them.•s Philo of
Byblos gave a human genealogy that is evidently a cosmogony
in disguise, in which a woman called Baau (interpreted by
Philo as Night, but probably relatcd to the tõha wa-bõhtl (waste
and void) of Genesis 1 :2) is made pregnant by a wind and
gives birth to Aion and Protogonos. 26 ln Gcnesis itselfthe wind
of Godr, 'flapped ' over the waters like a bird over i ts young ; 28
then God separated light from darkness and named them day
and night. Time could be sai.d to have begun that Sunday. On
the Wednesday hc set the luminaries in heavcn to mark thc
days and thc years.1º
I traced the origin of the Time-god to the Egyptian cult of
Re< the Lord of Eternity. Re< first appeared from the primordial
mass of waters, N ün. Nün, rather like O ceanus in Homer, is
called 'Fathcr of the gods' or 'Producer of thc great company
of gods'. ln Nün dwelt Atum, the 'non-existent', called the
'self-created', and it was hc who created Re< out of Nün. The
origins of this idea can be followed back into very early times.
ln the Pyra mid Texts Atum appears as a form of the rising
or setting sun-god. When the sun is bom from the waters in thc
is Eudemus fr. 150; L•itos 784 F 4 .
•• 790 F 2 (Eus. PE 1.10.7).
.. " Cf. O. Eipfcldt, Forst/umgen wuJ Forl.diritu 16 (1940), 1 - Kl. Schr. (1962- 79},
li. 2$9.
" This is thc mcaning of thc vcrb in Deut. 32: 1 1, thc only other Hebrew
passage wherc it occun. Many commen~tors translatc 'broodcd' as on an rgg.
See J. Slúnncr, Critiad and Ext:ttúal ~ on Gmuiz (2nd ed. , 1930), 18,
Bu1 th is is lcss appropriatc to thc wind. Tbc New English Bible givcs 'hovettd'.
•• 111-18. A rather similar scquence occurs in a late hymn of lhe l,l:11tda,
10,tgo: 'From Fervour kindled to its height Eternal Law and Truth were bom:
Thencc was the Night produced, •nd thence the billowy llood of sea •rase. From
that same billowy Bood of sca the Yea.r was afterwards produced, Ocdainer of the
days and nigh11, Lord over ali who clOIC the eye. Dhatu, the great Creator, then
fotme<i in duc oNier Sun and Moon. He formed in order Heaven and Earth, 1he
regioos of 1hc •ir, llltd light.' (Trant. R. T. H. Griffith,)
morning, Atum, the spirit of the waters, becomcs Rc<, and in
the evening Re< again bccomes Atum. The idea was then
magnified to cover the whole of time. Atum created the sun
in the beginning from the waters, and manifested himself as
Re<. ln the sevcnteenth chapter of the Book of the Dead, a
passage used ali over Egypt for many centuries, he says 'I am
Atum when I was alone in Nün; l am Re< in bis (first) appear-
ances, when he began to rule that which he had madc' .30 And
from the 175th chapter it appears that the world is destined
to be dissolved again in Nün:
'O Atum, what is (my) duration oflife?'-thus he {the deceased as Osiris)
spoke. 'Thou art (destíned) for míllions of millions (of years), a lifetime of
millions. I have caused that he s,nd out the grcat ones. Further, I shall
dcstroy ali that I have made, and tlús land will return into Niln, into the
ftoodwatcrs, as (in) Ít$ first state. I (alone) am a survivor, together with
0Jiris, when I bave made my form ín another state, serpents wbícb men do
not lmow and gods do not sce.' 31
ln Nún, in other words, dwell serpents, which are the bodily

forro of Atum.3 ~ According to the Hermopolite tradition, there
were eight gods in the primeval water: four males, depicted
with frogs' heads and representing the water itself, its infinite
cxtent, its darkness, and its breath (?), and four female counter-
parts with serpents' heads. 33
The Orphic scheme of an aboriginal watery abyss (Oceanus
and Tethys ?}, from and within which is born an eternal creator
in the form ofa winged serpent (Chronos) paired with a female
counterpart (Ananke), can thus be related to ancient Egyptian
mythical antecedents. Hieronymus' 'water and mud' appear in
this light as an archaic feature of the Time-cosmogony and not,
as some scholars have supposed, a late cxcrescence. 34 It is
>• Trans. J. A. Wilson in ANET 3; cf. Budge, 7M &x,/r. ofllu Dtod, 376.
" TranJ. Wi.lsoo, ANET 9,
,. C.,,mpare tbc serpenll which crowd around the 1un's nightly path and try
10 obstrue! hiJ re-cmcrgcnce. Some of them are winged aod havc two or three
beads.
,, Budge, 163; K. Set.he, Ablo. &ri. AA:. 1929(4); S. Morem in Au.t A11tih ,wl
O,iml {Festschrift W. Schubart, 1950), 8o;j. A. Wilson in H. and H. A. Frankfot't,
Bifor, Phwlsoph:,, 61.
•• Staudachcr, 94 f., suggests 1hat Hicronymus added them, preciscly in order
to bring Orpheus into line witb Phoenician and Egyptian cosmogonies. &hustcr,
97, makes Hellanicus ruponsiblc: he (a) identifies Damascius' HeUanicus with
Hcllanicus the fathcr of Sandon the writcr on Orpheus, {b) identifies this Sandon
190 THE HIER ONYMAN THBOGONY
reasonable to assume that the cosmic deities which Hieronymus
so interpreted-Oceanus and Tethys, or whoever they may
have been-already occupied this place in the original Pro-
togonos Theogony. It is understandable that the original
schcme should )ater have bcen modified so that Time existed
from the beginning, either bcside the first material principies,
as in the Sidonian cosmogony cited by Eudemus and onc form
of the Zoroastrian cosmogony,35 or before them, as in other
Iranian accounts36 and in thc Rhapsodies.
Chronos-Heracles
The serpent form of Ghronos may have its origins in Egyptian
fantasy, but in Orphic poctry il took on a symbolic significance
which justified its retention and elaboration. Chronos was
represented, we are told, as a winged serpent with additional
heads of a bull and a lion, and betwcen them the face of a god.
How is this to be imagined? The detail that the wings were 'on
his shoulders' suggests that the whole upper part of his body
was of human shape apart from the wings and extra heads.
This is also indicated by the fact that bis consort, who was 'of
the sarne nature', had arms. Ifthe couple are mainly anthropo-
morphic abovc the waist and snakelike below, they are reminis-
ccnt of Echidna (Hes. Th. 298-9, Hdt. 4 .9.1), and even more
of hcr consort Typhoeus as he is represented on a wcll-known
Chalcidian hydria in Munich:37 he has a human hcad and
trunk, but bulis' or horsc::s' ears, and wings on his shouldcrs,
while below the waist hc divides into two long serpcnt tails
which twinc gracefully in a loose knot. ln other archaic rcpre-
sentations there is no division but a single long serpent tail.J 8
wilh Sandon thc fathcr of the Stoic Alhenodorus Cananit,. (Strabo 14-5. 14,
p. 674}, (e) suggests that Hcllanicus, tharing bis grancbon's phifosophical orienta•
tion, adaptcd the thcogony to Stoic theory; a hoU$C of carnsif cvcr therc was one.
" EGPO 30. Cf. Pherttydes B 1, 'Zas and Chronos always cxistcd, and
Chthonie'. •• EGPO 30, 32.
I? Muscum Antiker K lcinkunst, 5g6; E. Gcrhard, Aus11/em11 grilehiselu Ya11i,.
bild11 ( 1840-58), iii, PI. 237; P. E. Arias- M. Hirmer-B. B. Shefton, Histo,y efGrttlc
V1111 Painting (19fü), PI. xxv; e. 550-530 JIC.
JS From the 4th century thc Giant> are sometimes shown as becomíng single
or doublc scrpents below thc wailt. On the artistic type ~e Ro.,wr, v. 1449 f.;
E. Kun:te, Archaisdle Scliildbiindtr (Olympi.sche Fonchungen, ii, 1950), 82 ff.;
F. Vian, Rtperl4in tús Gig1J11l~s fi,urlts dans l'art grec et romain ( 195 1) (ca calogue,
platcs) ; IA GimTt des Gúmis (1952), 12- 16.
THE HIERONYM AN THEOGO NV
To this extent wc may say that Chronos is conceived in lhe
spirit of archaic Greck art. A p ainter of the time of the Pro-
togonos Theogony could have depicted him without much
departure from familiar designs. The motives for so depicting
him are not difficult to work out. The snake was an ancient
and natural sym bol of eternity b eca use of its habit of sloughing
its skin off and so renewing its youth.Jo It may also be relevant
that the serpent with human head and arms is the regular
shape of river-gods.40 The idea ofTime as a river is present in
at least one passage of tragedy;• 1 and it would be assisted by
the fact that Oceanus is usually the father of rivers, if in the
Orphic poem Chronos was rcpresented as born to Oceanus.
River-gods are not usually fitted with wings, of course, and
would have no use for them. But they are a natural adjunct for
a cosmic serpent with no carth to glidc upon. We may compare
the wings of Phcrecydes' world tree, and in art lhe wings of
the sun's horses. ln a wider contcxt, wings are freely bestowed
by archaic artists upon ali manner of divine beings, and fabu-
lous monsters such as sphinxcs and griffins are also winged ;
the type of the winged Typhoeus has its place with them. 4 2
That Time should be winged is something in which it is easy
to find symbolic meaning.
The additional buli and lion heads fit less wcll into an archaic
Grcek stylc. Thcrc are threc-headed figures such as Cerberus
and Geryoneus, but for a mooster with heads of different
spccies we can only refer to the C hímaera, an animal of oriental
provenance who falis out of favour with artists before thc end of
the sixth century. The fact is that such composite creatures are
at home in Babylonian and Assyrian art and found only a
limited, discriminating reception in Greecc. The best parallel
'º J. G. Frazer, Follilort in ti,, O/d Testa,mnl (1919), i. 50. ln late antiquity the
aerpcnt biting its own tail is a wcll-attcsted symbol of time in its cyclical aspect.
Cf. F. Cumont, Festultrifl Bmndo,f (t8g8), <291 ff.; W. Deonna, Àrtibus Asiu 15
(1952), 163-70; NilS10n, Cr. R,l. ü. 50<2.
•• Serpents and rivers are oftcn compucd with one another in poctic similc,
e.g. 'Hcs.' frr. 70.<23, 293, Virg. C. 1.245.
•• Critias 43 F g. 1-3 'Tirel..s Time with bis ertr-flowing stream runs full,
rcborn from himsclf'; cf. S. OC 930 'Time in its fullncss' (1r.\'18t!wv) and 6og 'Time
all-powerful confouncls (auyx•t) everythin.g cise', Hcraclitus' imagc of the river
into whlch one cannot step twice is a rclatcd idca,
o Cf. Wilamowit1., Cltwbe, ii. 7; Nilsson, Minoon-M)ICtntUan Rtligi"", 507 f.; in
mool dctail S. Bitrem, RE viA.886 f.
192 THE HllrnONYMAN THEOGONY
for Chronos' heads is perhaps to be found in the Cherubim
which Ezelciel saw at Babylon in 593 ac: 'Each had four faces
and each four wings ... ali four had the face of a man and the
face of a lion on the right, on the left the face of an ox and the
face of an eagle.' 43 Lion, ox, and eagle are the embodiments
of supremacy and might. Chronos' lion and bull hcads are most
naturally understood as pictorial cxpressions of the conccpts
of 'all-mastcring' and 'tircless' Time that we find in fifth-
century poetry.H
ln the Orphic poem his epithet was 'unaging'. The sarne
predicate is applied to his Iranian and Indian counterparts,
Zurvãn and Kãla. 45 It cnjoys a ccrtain vogue in sixth- and
fifth-century Greek cosmology: Anaximander describcd his
Boundless as 'eternal and unaging', while Euripides spoke of
the 'unaging array (kosmos) of undying nature'. 46 Ordinary
historical time could be said to 'age' as events moved on and
the world changed. 47 Time that is 'unaging' is accordingly a
higher, supra-cosmic Time, standing in the sarne sort ofrelation
to everyday time as 'Time Unlimited' does to 'Time for Long
Autonomous' in lranian theology ,48
Athcnagoras and Damascius both record that the wingcd
serpent Chronos was also called Heracles. Why? What was
there about Herades that enabled him to be identified with
a creature of such physical monstrosity and such cosmic
importance? Only one plausible answer has so far been sug-
gested.•~ ln the legendary cycle of twelve labours, in the course
of which Heracles ovcrcame a lion, a bull, and various other
dangerous fauna, some allegorical interprcters saw the vic-
º E:z.ck. 1 :6-10, cf. 10: 14.
., All-mas1cring: Simon. 531.5, Bacch. 13,!I0!h Pind. fr. 33, S. OC 6o9, cf. Aj.
714. Tirdc:ss: Critias 43 F 3.1, cf. S. Am. 6o7. Attempu to find an astronomical
(zodiacal} significance to thc buli and the lion (Eblcr, Weümmallld rmd Himm1l~ 1lt.
395 f.; applicd to the Olcrubim, F. Dornscilf, Anlw 1111,I a/Jn Oriotl, 372) canno1
bc sustaüw:d wbcn tbc:se an.imals appcar in isolation or coupled wi1h an eaglc.
o Minôk-i-Xral 8.6 (cf. R. C. Zac!mcr, Zul'IHl/J ( 1955), 368; The Dawn dlld
Twilight •f Zorqastrianism (1961), 209); A/JuJrva111da 19.53.1; cf. ECPO 31, 33. Rc(
is called 'thc a~d onc who rencwcth his youth' (Budgc, Tht Bookoftht Dead, 112).
•• Anaximandcr 12 A 11. 1 (ECPO 79 n. 1}; E. fr. 910.5, cf. e/,igr. 1.1 Pagc,
Zeus is a rulcr unaged by time in S. Ànl. 6o8.
., A. E11111. [286), cf. A.f. 984; fA .] PV 981; S. fr. &.t; Trag. adcsp. 5o8; 4 Eua
14:10; [Lucian] 49.12.
•• ECPO 3of.
•• Cf. Lobcck, 485; Schuster , 97; Scbwabl, 1482.
torious march of the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac. so
Time is measured by the sun and the solar year. It is thus that
Heracles-Helios can be addressed by the author of the Orpbic
Hymns as 'fathcr ofTime' (12.3), and by Nonnus as 'thou who
rcvolvest the son ofTime, the twelve-month ycar' (D. 40.372).
By thc sarne token, it may be argued, the Orphic Chronos,
Time hlmsclf, might be identified with Heracles, the indomit-
able animal-tamer ofthe zodiac.
This is not completely satisfactory. No one identifies time
with the sun. Certainly in the Orphic poem both the sun and the
hcavens were crcatcd later, by Protogonos. If there was no
attempt to equate Chronos with the sun, his title of Heracles
could scarcely have been understood in the sense suggested:
the esscntial link was missing.
However, therc is another pos.ribility. For Plato, time is
defined by the complex movements of the sun, moon, and
planets; and when they have played through ali their permuta•
tions and returncd to the sarne relative positions, the 'perfect
year' and the 'perfect number of time' are complete.s 1 The
early Stoics derived from this their doctrine of the Great Year,
at the end of which the cosmos is totally dissolved into firc. 51
They defined time as the dimension of cosmic movement.sJ
Time was therefore coextensive with the Great Year, and could
be considered to pause in the ecpyrosis. Now we find in Seneca,
after a thoroughly Stoic exposit:ion of the identity of God, thc
author of the world, with Nature and Fate, thc argument that
hc may be equatcd with (among other divinitics) Hercules,
'bccause his force is invincible, a nd when it is wcaried by tbc
promulgation of works, it will retire into fire' .54 The allusion is
on the one hand to the Stoic ecpyrosis, on the other to the pyre
on the summit of Mount Oeta in which Hcracles was cremated
and achleved apotheosis after oompleting his labours. ln this
Stoic allegorization of the Heracles myth, thcn, the cycle of
n_,,,,,,
so Porph. 11. ~y~µ&,-.,, fr. 8, p. 13• Bide:t (a/J. Bus. PE 3.1 1.25), Orph.
12.11 r., Nonn. D. 40.369 ff., LydU$ D, Mensil,us 4.67, lo. Diaconus in Hes. T/i.
950 p. 36o Flach; O. Cruppe, RE Supp. iü. 1104- For the arümals of the zodiac
as threatcniog beasts which lhe sun must gct past see Ov. M. 2.78-83.
sr Tim. 3&, 3gd, cf. 22cd.
' ' SVF L 32, 114.26 ff.; ii. 181-191; iii. Q 15.19-25.
u SVF i. 26.11 , ii. 164-6.
' 4 D, Bmtficiis 4.8. 1 ; SVF ii. 3o6.3,
194 THE HIERONYMAN THEOGONY
labours corresponds to thc totality of divine activity in the

course of the Great Year. Since divine activity is coextensive
with the cosmos, that mcans that Heracles' labours represent
everything that happens in oosmic time. The originator of the
allegory was prohably Cleanthes, since Cornutus cites him as
having given an intcrpretatíon of the twelve labours on the
basis that Heracles is the tension in the univcrse which makes
nature strong and invincible.55 It would be interesting to know
whcther Cleanthes divided the Great Year into twelve Great
Months corresponding to the labours. 5" ln any case this peculiar
Stoic exegesis of the Heracles myth, while not actually identify-
ing Heracles and Time, provides a sufficient basis for doing so.
It is hard to see how the Orphic poet could have arrived at the
identification except under the influence of that exegesis. We
sh:ill find that this is not the only intrusion of Stoic notions in
the Hieronyman Theogony.
Ananke-Adrastea
United with Cbronos-Heracles, says Damascius, was another
winged serpent: 'Ananke, being of the sarne nature, or Adrastea,
incorporeal, her arms extended throughout the universe and
touching its extremities'. Thc word 'united' (avvt"fva,) . is
imprecise, but.one thinks most readily of the ancient motif of
two entwined serpents, which can be traced back to the earliest
u Cornutus,p.31 L. = SVFi.115.16ff.
•• ln Virgil, E. 4.12, incipient ma,:nl J,róddert mlnsis may pcrhaps mcan thc months
of a new Magnus Annus. ln Zoroastrian thcology historical time had a duration
of 12,000 years, and this ~riod was divided into 12 millennia at lcast by the late
ut century ac. 4 Ezra 14: 10-12 'For the world has lost its youth, thc times begin
to wax old. For lhe world-agc is divided into twelve paris; nine (parts} of it are
passocl already, and thc halfofthe tcnth part; and therc remain ofit two (parts},
besides the half of the tcnth part' (although thc duratíon of thc parts is not specified,
we may wilh some confidencc identify the chronological schcmc with thc Zoro-
astrian, since Zoroaster'sjlbruil (age 30) was identified with the tst year ofthe 10th
millennium, and thc author of this part of 4 Ezra did in fact live in about thc
7th century of that millcnnium, while the prctended author, thc real Ezra, lived
in the 3rd; othcr features of this writer's theology also show Zoroastrian inftuence);
c f. 2 Baruch: 53 fl'.; also in Middle Persian sourccs (Zaehner, zun,an, 96-a).
7.ãtspram (late 9th century) likens the wholc period to a ycar with ias scasons
changing as thc sun moves along bis annual path (Stlt<tions 34.21-8, trans. Zaehner,
,çuruan, 350}. A divísion into four trimiUennia can bc traced as early as the 4th,
perhaps 5th ccntury ac: EGPO 32. An Orphic Great Year of 120,000 yean is
attesteJ by Ccmorinus (perhaps after Diogenes of Babylon, cf. p. 58} (Orph,
fr. 2~0) .
TKE H[ERONYMAN THEOGONY 1 95
Sumcrian timcs. 57 It was widespread in thc Ncar East, a.nd

when it is not merely decorative it probably represents a
sexual union: snakes do entwine their bodics when mating. 58
This is just bow Athenagoras describes the union of Zeus with
Rhea-Demetcr: 'She became a serpent, whereupon hc turned
into a serpent himself, and binding her in the so-called Hera-
cleot knot, copulated with her. The form of the coupling is
represented in the wand of Hermes.' Staffs and wands are
generally held upright, and entwined serpents in art are very
frequently depicted rising straight upwards. That snakes in
fact copulate in this position is, if not known to be true, at any
rate firmly believed in some parts of the world. 59 For serpents
who support themselves on wings, one supposes, it would be
the only stable arrangement. It is therefore likcly that the
Orphic poet, ifhe thought visually at all-and he seems to have
done- conccived his Chronos and Ananke in this way.
Ananke (Inevitability, Compulsion) appears as a cosmic
deity at the bcginning of the fifth century. ln Parmenides (8.30,
10.6) she holds Being in chains so that it remains the sarne for
all time. She appears also in Simonides (542.29), in Empedocles
(B 115, where her dccree is fixed for all time), and in tragedy,
where the decision whether the word should be written with
a large or small initial is often a matter for individual taste.
She is a suitable consort for Time conceived as an omnipotent
despot.60
The idcntification of Ananke with Adrastea, like that of
Chronos with Herades, is a Hellenistic embcllishment. ln the
fifth century Adrastea is equivalent to Nemesis, 61 the goddcss
of whom one must beware if one speaks too confidently or
proudly. Later the punisher of human pride, the confounder
ofhuman designs, merged into the larger figure of overpowering
Fate. ln Plato's Phaedrus Adrastea appears as the mistress of
" E. D. Van Burcn, Arehiu f. Orümf11rsclu,ng ,o (1935/6), 5.3 -65; P. Amiet, La
Clypti4w múopo14mitW11 archoíqut (llnd cd., 198o), 134.
" Van Burcn, 54- f., with backing from a zooloirst.
•• Lt..C)ol. R.. H. Elliot, quoted by Van Buren, l.c.
60 Cf. Pind. O. 10.52- 5, 'lhe Fatcs stood in attendanoc, and the sole tcster of
truth, Time'; Bacch. fr. llOA.18 f., 'but Time mastercd him, &n<! powcrful Anankc';
E. Hcld. 8!j8, 'for much is bom from Fate whosc gifts are fv.lliUcd and Age (Aion)
thc son of T"unc'. On Anankc in general see H. Schrecl<enbcrg, Anank, ( 1964),
csp. 7ll lT. (and on lhe Orphic Ananke, 1:31-4).
'' [A.] PV 936, Antim. 53; cf. [B.) Rks. 342, ♦68, PL ~ - 451a.
196 THE HIERON'IMAN T H EOGONY
the soul's destiny, much like Lachcsis thc daughter of Ananke

in thc Republic.6 • Her identification with Ananke is complete
for Chrysippus, who callcd fate 'Atropos and Adrastea and
Ananke and Peprõmene'.63
The qualification 'incorporeal' (àacáf'(lTos-) that Damascius
adds need not detain us long. It may seem odd that a goddess
described as being of a vcry definite and peculiar physique
should at the sarne time be labelled incorporeal. But the god
who is presently bom from the egg is labelled in the sarne way,6•
and similarly Eros in the great Paris magicai papyrus is
addressed as 'incorporeal' and in the sarne breath as 'archer,
torch-bearer'. 6s It is on the whole unlikely that the Orphic
poet attempted to express the idea, though Empedocles shows
how it could be tackled, B 1 7 .20 f,
And among thcm Lovc, equal in lcngth and breadth;
sce hcr with your m.ind, do not sit gaping with your eycs.
It was probably Hieronymus who introduccd it, and it means

that the physical description of Ananke is to be understood as
symbolic.
The extension of Ananke's arms from one end ofthe universe
to the other has a plain enough significance. Physical cxtension
symbolizes extent of power.. Even in Homer we have the
description ofthe personified Strife who grows until sbe reaches
from earth to heaven (ll. 4.443). Empcdocles (B 135) writes
the univcnal law cxtencls (.-frcircu) throughout
the air's broad realm and the enormous light.
To take one of many writers who express the Stoic idea of the
divine Logos running through all things, Philo tells us that
'extended from the centre to the ends and from the extremities
to the centre, it runs nature's long racc unchallenged, bringíng
u Pluudr. 248c, &p. 617d.

6J SVF ii. 292.15. Cf. 1he interpretation of Adra11ea's name as 'the inescapable'
(8,3pc!<JKw) (Arius Didymus, SVF ii. 16g.34; (Arist.] De Mundo 401b13 ; Plut.
fr. 21).
6♦ So at least the Damascius MS; in tbe Athenagoras MS there is a corrupríon,
8,d. Y'I 8,à <JW/'4TOS.
o P. M.lg. 4.1777 f., comparcd by Preiscndaru, RE xix. 1772. Cf. a1ao Corp.
Hcrm. 5.10, 'this is the íncorpon,al (god), the multicorpon,al, or rather the
omnicorporear (o-,:TC>í d CloWJ,laTor. ó fJ"OÃuafÚµ.4,-or. ~º" li 1rCP'TOO<.ÚJ,&4f'of).
THE HIER ONYMAN THE OGONY 197
and bindíng ali the parts together' .66 Pythagoras is said to have
<lescribed Ananke as surrounding the world. 67 The image of a
cosmic goddess with arms extended may be found in the
Pythagorean symholon which identifies the two constellatíons of
the Bears, between which the celestial Pole lay in antíquity,
with the arms of Rhea.68
Like this Rhea, the Orphic Anankc evidently occupíes a
central pos.ition. The central ax.is of the world, round which ali
heaven revolves, was a natural thing to identify wilh a cosmic
deity or some appurtenance of a cosmic deity. ln Parmenides'
'apparent' cosmology, at the centre of concentric rings of tire
and darkness, is the 'goddess who steers all things' .69 ln Plato
the axis is the spindle turning in the lap of Ananke, extending
from the ends of a pillar of light that holds the whole universe
together, extcnding through the whole of the sky and the earth
(&p. 6J6c). Philo of Byblos tells us that the Egyptians, to
depict thc cosmos,
trace out a circle of misty, fiery aspect, and atretched acro.ss its diameter
a scrpent with the form (i.e. head ?) of a hawk, the whole design bcing like
our theta (e ). By the circle they indicate thc cosmos, and by thc central
serpent they rcprcsent lhe Agathos Daimon which holds it together.70
The scholarly bishop Hippolytus interprets the winged figure

of Perseus as the winged axis which passes through the centre
of the earth and the two celestial Potes and which makes the
cosmos revolve.11
The idea that the world is driven round by wings has a long
history. Wc have already mentioned the world-tree of Phere-
cydes in connection with Chronos' wings. Cri tias ( TrGF 43 F 3)
has the two Bears circling round the axis of heaven on swift-
beating wings. The winged Cherubim carne to be interpreted
66 Dé PlanJatio111 9 (ii. 135.4 Cohn- Wendland).
67 Act. 1.25.a (,rfptKf,allQ, TWf "ºª'""'); tbe sarne source attribuccs to him the
identification of Time wich the 'sphere of tbc surrounding' ( 1.21.1 ). Cf. Thtolog.
Arillun. 61 (lhcologians who placc Ananke on thc outermost rim of heaven);
Poi111111Jdtu (Corp. Hcnn. r) g; Burkcrt, LS 75 f .; Schrecl<cnbe\"g, AMnke, 103-5.
61 ArisL fr. 1g6. Is Rhea hcre che consort of Kronoo intcrpreted as Chronos?
Cf. ibid., 'the sea is the tear of Kronoo'. Chronos is usociated wich the Bears in
Cricias 43 F 3 (cf. also S. Tr. 126 ff.). Besides meaning Ursa Major and Minor,
Arktoi could from the 41h cencury se mean the norlh and south celestial Potes
(Arisc. M eteor. 362a32 lf., Aet, 2.8.2), but it is improbable tbat they are meant
in the passages citcd. 69 Cf, p. 109, and Corp. Hcrm. fr. 7.1.
70
790 F 4 § 51. 11 luf. +i!»
as the two hemispheres of heaven, 'for the whole heaven is a

WÍJ1ged creature', or as 'the two Arktoi' (Bears or Poles ?) .n
ln view of this evidence it is possible that the twining figures
of Chronos and Ananke were conceived, in the Hieronyman
Theogony if not in the older Protogonos Theogony, as sym-
bolizing the vertical axis about which the world, when it carne
into being, revolved. So in Critias (F 4) the light of day, the
sparkling black night, and the countless host of stars conduct
their eternal ring-dance about a deity who is addressed as 'the
self-grown one', and this can hardly be anyone but the Chronos
ofF 3 who 'runs full, reborn from himself', as the two Bears go
winging round. It is logical enough that Time should be at the
centre of the heavens whose revolutions measure it out in days,
months, and years. It is equally logical that Ananke should be
there (as in Plato and perhaps Parmenides) to maintain the
strict regularity that those heavens display.
Time's progeny. The egg

Although Chronos and Ananke make a well-matched male
and female pair, the sources agree in speaking of Chronos alone
as a parent. Damascius says 'this Time, the serpent, has off-
spring, three in number: moist Aither (I quote), unbounded
Chaos, al!d as a third, misty Erebos ... Among these, he says,
Time generated an egg'. Athenagoras omits all mention of
Ananke, and just says 'this Heracles generated a huge egg,
which, being filled full, by the force of its engenderer' etc. The
emphasis on Chronos to the exclusion of Ananke is confirmed
by corresponding verse fragments from the Rhapsodies:
66 This Time unaging, of immortal rcsourcc, bcgot
Aither and a great Chasm, vast this way and that,
no limit below it, no base, no place to settle.
70 Then great Time fashioned from (or in) divinc Aithcr
a bright white egg.
ln Pherecydes Chronos made fire, wind, and water out of his
own seed; and ali the parallel oriental Time-gods-the Egyptian
Rec, the Phoenician <UJõm, the Iranian Zurvãn, and the
,. Philo, De oi/4 Moysis 2(3).g8 (iv. 223.17 C.-W.), cf. D, ChmJJim 25 (i. 176.7);
Clem. Strom. 5.35.6. Thc Bcar is sometimes held rcsponsible for the revolution
of the sky; scc Corp. Herm. fr. 6.13 with Festugiêre's note 27 (Hermes Trismlgistt
(Bud.!), iii. 4~).
Indian Kãla-generate progeny by themselves, without a con-
sort.73 Tbc Hieronyman Theogony has preserved this fcature
despite thc addition ofAnankc as a companion for Chronos. 7 •
Time's first offipring are moist Aither (Damascius lays some
stress on the qualification 'moist'), unbounded Cha03 ( = Chasm
in fr. 66.2, a wide opening), and misty Erebos (Darkness).
Fragments of the Rhapsodies (65- 7) yield for this contcxt the
phrases 'gloomy Night', 'continuous darkness', and 'in the dark
fog'. Thesc very probably stood in the Hieronyman Theogony.
Even if they did not, it is evident that the poet conceived bis
Aither, Chaos, and Erebos in very physical terms. His mcaning
is that thc first state of the world, the unbroken mass of waters,
gavc way to a second state in which a capacious space was
opencd up within the waters, containing foggy, indistinct
elements of light and darkness. ln this space the cosmic egg
was produced.
According to the verses quoted above, Chronos hegot Aithcr
and the Chasm (and presumably Erebos), butfashioned (tnueE)
the cgg from or in Aither. This suggests that the unformed
material elements carne from hls sced, just as in Pherccydes
he made fire, wind, and water from bis seed.7s Atum,,Re<, in
one version of the Heliopolite cosmogony, created Shil (wind)
and Tefnüt (moisture) by masturbating; from them carne
earth and sky.76 A relic of a similar story may be disccrned in
the Middle Persian Bundahi!n, which is based at lcast in part
on a lost book of the Avesta. Here Time, Ohrmazd, and
Ahriman cxist from the beginning. Ohrmazd inhabits the
Beginningless Light, Ahriman the endless darkncss, and thcre
is a vacant re.gion between them. Out of that part of the light
which is bis own body Ohrmazd fashions a white, fiery spherc,
and for three thousand years it remains 'in a moist state like
semen', but eventually Ohrmazd makes it into a hard, shlning
egg, which is the heaven, and crcates the rest of our world
" Phcrcc. DK 7 A 8; ECPO 29, 30, 33, 36.
1♦ Darnascius treats Chronos+Anankc a., a single bucxual principie (dpx4);
but it ia diflicult to tel1 how fa.r hc is influenccd by what Hieronymus described
and how far by lhe requirements of bis own philosophical systcm.
,. Tbcse wue thcn di3tributcd in livc 'nooltt' or 'boles', and a numba- of gods
arooc from them (ECPO 13-15). Thc noolcs are functionally arurlogou, 10 the
Orpbic cgg.
76 Pyramid Texr 1248, al.; ANET6; Sc.hwabl, 1500 f.; Wilson (n. 33), 63.
inside it.11 ln some ways this parallels the Orphic narrative

remarkably. The Beginningless Light, the endless darkness,
and the space between, correspond to Aither, Erebos, and the
Chasm. The egg is made out of light ( = Aither) which is moist
and semen-like and is drawn from the creator-god's own
bodily essence. Other sources refer to Time existing alone in
the beginning and generating Ohrmazd and Ahriman by
sexual union with himself. If we removed Ohrmazd and
Ahriman from the story, and made Time the agent throughout,
we should have something very dose to the Orphic cosmogony.
Ohrmazd and Ahriman were, of course, the good and evil
spirits who had to play the leading roles in any Zoroastrian
account of creation (cf. p. 105).
The statement that Chronos f ashiorud the egg is paralleled
by the Persian myth (apart from the change ofagent); on the
other hand Athenagoras and Damascius say that he generated
the egg (and Damascius implies that the Hieronyman Theogony
agreed with the Rhapsodies). Damascius uses similar Janguage
in reporting the Phoenician cosmology of 'Mõch', saying that
after <U\õm (Time) had intercourse with himself Chüsõros the
Opener was born, and then an egg (FGrHist 784 F 4). The
distinction between generating and fashioning is not very
important. Chronos generated the materiais, and made them
into an egg, which is tantamount to saying that 'in the course
of time' they assumed the form of an egg. The poet used the
word 'fashioned', but he did not picture Chronos either as
shaping the egg with his hands or as extruding it from bis
serpent body. He was thinking more abstractly. We must be
similarly prepared not to attach too literal a sense to Proclus'
description ofthe egg as 'born from Aither and Chaos' (fr. 79),
or to the verses in which Protogonos, who carne from the egg,
is styled 'son of Aither' (frr. 73, 74). It seems clear that Aither
was not represented as a person, only as a material element.
A commentator on Apollonius Rhodius, reviewing different
poets' accounts ofthe parentage ofEros, quotes from the poetry
ascribed to Orpheus the verse
Chronos gave birth to Eros and ali the winds.78
" For a slíghtly fuller account with references see EGPO 30.
,a Sch. A.R. 3.26 = fr. 37 K. There is no reason to a~ume that the source is
Apollodorus Ontlu C<>ds,asKcm does. 'Chronos' is Zoega's emendation of'Kronos'.
THE HIERONYMi\N THEOGO NY 201
It is hard to reconcite this with any of the theogonies. Proto-

gonos was identified with Eros, but his birth was describcd
quite clifferently from this. The fragment does, however, sccm
to contain a genuine echo of thc oriental Time-cosmogony.
Thc conjunction of Eros and winds has a strongly Semitic
appearance,79 since both idcas are united in the word ,12~,
which is the clivine wind that bcats over the waters in Gencsis
1 : 2. ln ali the available rcports of Phoenician cosmogonics,
Desirc or wind, or a wind that bccame Desire, appears in the
initial stages. None of them rpakes Time the father of Desire
or of winds; in the system recorded by Eudemus Time, Desire,
aod Fog stand together at thc beginning, while in two others
wind precedes Time.80 But the exact relationship was subject
to variation. We have seen that Atum-R e< is the father of the
wiod-goddess Shü. The combioation of Chronos, Eros, and
winds is sufficient in itself to establish a connection with these
traditions.
Before moving on, we may glance back at the eggs which
appeared in the cosmogonies ofpseudo-Epimenides (p. 48) and
the Birds (p. 111). ln both cases the initial state of the uni verse
is conceived in terms of darkness and emptiness: Aer, Night,
T artarus; Chaos, Night, Erebos, Tartarus. ln Aristophanes it
is the black-winged goddess Night who produces the egg in
Erebos' boundless bosom. It is a 'wind-egg': this is the term
applied to an unfertilized egg, and so is appropriate to an cgg
produced by parthenogenesis, though in fact it has Eros inside
it. There is probably also an allusion to a cosmogonic role of
winds, and Eros himself is described as 'resembling wind-swift
eddies'. This association of wind and Eros is suggestive in the
light of what has been noted above.8• ln pseudo-Epimenides
the egg is produced by 'two Titans' born from Tartarus. I do
not know what the tcrm 'Titans' signifies here unless it means
figures of the form in which Typhoeus and )ater the Giants were
,. Ocspitc Ale. fr. 327 (Eros thc son or Zcphyro, and lris). Cf. Scbwabl, 1478.
•• ECPO 28f.
11 Cf. Schwabl, 1473. S . Morcnz has shown Í1I great detail bow lhe Egyptians,
who werc grcady givcn to ctymological associa1ions of words, conncctcd /w[t

'wind' and Jw/.1•./ 'cgg': thc laucr could be rqarded as lhe femininc of thc formcr,
and lhus as bcÍllg ferúli.zcd by it. Wind wu thought of as a sourcc of lifc, and a
n:gion ofThebcs was callcd 'thc cgg produced by lhe wiod'. (Morco2 (as n. 33),
64- 103.)
------- - - - -
202 THE HIERONYMAN THEOCONY

depicted, half-human and half-snake. If so, they make a pair
very like the Orphic Chronos and Ananke. lt is a pity that their
names are not recorded.
Protogonos
The cgg was broken, according to Athenagoras, by the force
of its engenderer (Chronos), applied through friction . Here
perhaps we must imagine Chronos in his serpent form, coiling
round the cgg and rubbing or squeezing it until it cracked.
A similar picture appcars in a curious report concerning the
cosmology of Epicurus:
And he says that lhe world began in the likeness of an egg, and the wind
encircliog the egg serpent-fuhion like a WTeath or a bell then began lo
constrict nature. Ar. it tried to squeeze ali lhe matter with greater force,
il divíded lhe world in10 lhe two hemispbercs, and after that the a1oms
sorted themselvcs out, the lighter and finer oncs ín the universe ftoating
above and becoming lhe brighl air· and lhe most rarefied wind, while the
beav!esl and dirticsl havc veered down, becoming thc earth, both the
dry Jand and thc Ouid waters. And thc atoms move by tbcm,cJves and
through themselvcs within the rcvalution of thc sky and the stars, evcry-
thing still being drivcn round by lhe serpentifonn wind. 8a
This parallel from an atomist cosmogony gains in significance
when we add that Leucippus and Democritus postulated that
each nasccnt world was held togethcr by a sort of membrane,
which they callcd a chiton:ID when Protogonos hatchcd from
the egg heis said to have broken out of a 'bright chiton'.8-4 lt
looks as if the Protogonos Theogony may bavc provided the
atom.ists with some of their imagery.
Protogonos had 'golden wings on his shoulders, bulis' heads
growing upon his flanks, and on his hcad a monstrous scr-
pent'; he prescnted thc appearance of ali kinds of animal
forros. So Damascius, whose earlier mention of the male and
female natures in the cgg fmplies further that the creature was
bisexual, a dctail confirmed by the Rhapsodies.ss Furthcr
h Epiphaníuo, ÂIW, liàtr. 1.8 {DÍels, Doxotrof,l,.i, 589.11-21). Epicurus did not
consider that ali woc-lds werc lhe sarne shape: some wcrc sphcrical, some cgg-
shapcd, othen ofother shapa (D.L. 10.74). An cgg-sbapcd cosmoo is also attríbutcd
to Empcdocle, (A 50).
'' Aêt. ,2.7.2, DK 67 A 'l3; Lobcck, -484-
•• Fr. 6o, cf. Achíll<!S in 70; an ccho in H:,mn 19.16 f.
" Frr. 56 § l'l; 80, 81. 'Nonnus lhe Abbot' in 8o says that he had a penis back
ncar his anw; this is whtte il would nocd to bc ifhis vqina wu normally situatcd,
details given by the Rhapsodies are that he had ram and lion
as well as bull and serpent heads, four eyes, and four horns.
There is none of these features that cannot go back to the
original Protogonos Theogony, and we have seen (p. 105)
that several of them can be accounted for from attributes
of Re<.
Protogonos combined several identities. For the Hieronyman
Theogony the names Protogonos, Phanes, Zeus, and Pan are
attested, and for the Rhapsodies further Metis, Eros, Erike-
paios, and Bromios. One cannot believe that he had this
number of aliases in any pre-Hellenistic theogony. We have
seen that it was the poet or editor of the Hieronyman Theogony
who gave Chronos the additional identity of Heracles, and
Ananke that of Adrastea. He no doubt extended Protogonos'
identity too. However, I have argued that the equation of the
'glorious daimon' with Metis may be early (p. 88). The sarne
may be conjectured about his equation with Eros, seeing that
in Aristophanes' version of the egg-cosmogony the bright
demiurge with golden wings who comes out of the egg is
identified as Eros. 86
His most distinctive name is Phanes, 'the one who makes
(or is) Manifest'.8 7 When he carne forth the Aither and the
misty Chasm were split open, and the gods were amazed at
the unimagined light that irradiated the air from his dazzling,
unseen body. ln the Hymns he is addressed as the one 'who
cleared the dark fog from before ( our).eyes' as he flew abou t the
cosmos, and 'brought the bright holy light, wherefore I call
since he was to copulatc with himself. The sarne mcticulous authority informs us
that Priapus (who had no vagina} had his perus abovc his anus (Palr. Gr. xxxvi.
1053; H. Hertcr, De Pri4po (1932), 70). ln Hymn 6.9 Priapus is idcnlificd with
Phanes,
86 Cf. also the Hypsipyk fragment mentioned on p. 112. Phcrccydes is said to have
deJcribed Zas as taking on thc idcntity ofEros for the purpose of dcmiurgy (7 B 3;
another interpretation in EGPO 1 7). The role of Desirc in thc Phocnician cos-
mogonies will be recalled. It was as Eros, I suppose, that thc Orphic dcity was
called 'the key of the mind', i.c. he who unlocks thc sccrcts of mcn's dísposition.
Cf. S. fr. 393 with Pcarson's note.
a, On names of this formation see Volkmar Schmidt, Sprochlithe UnJersuchwigtn
:eu Htronáos ( 1968), 62 ff. Phanes dífferently declined (genitivc ~"' instcad oi
-!p'or) is attested as a pcrsonal namc in Ionia. ln fr. 7!'> and Orph, Arg. 16 Phanes'
name is explained from bis being thc first to appcar (,rpwror • . . ~""º' lywro,
Návfht). A more corrcct cxplanation is given by Apion in fr. 56 § 5: tlr, aóroíi
~av&ror ró ,.av /[ a~roü l>,"l"/,<v.
go4 THE HIERONYMAN THEOGONY
thec Phancs' .88
The cmphasis on the light and gladness brought
by Phanes, and thc admiration aroused in othcr gods (of whom
there were very few at the time), is very reminiscent of certain
hymns to Re<,
The lord of rays, who makcs brilliancc,
To whom lhe gocls givc thanksgiving ...
Whosc Jovclincss hu created thc light,
In whosc bcauty lhe gods rcjoicc ;
Thcir hearts livc whcn they see him.89
Therc is perhaps a slight hínt of thêse qualities in the epithets

'glorious, reverend' (1eu8pós, al8oí'os) which are applied to
Protogonos in the Dervcni Theogony, a.nd a similar aura
surrounds Eros in the Birds cosmogony:
Eros thc lovely,
with gold,gleaming wings on his back, thc imagc ofwind-spin swifrncss.
This aspect of Phanes, then. will have been present in the

Protogonos Theogony, and perhaps the name Phanes itsclf.
His equation with Zeus cannot, I think, bc early. Zeus had
a separate and quite dissimilar birth, generations !ater, and
his greatcst achicvcment was to swallow Protogonos and his
universe. To swallow a universe was a heroic feat, but to
swallow himself would surely havc taxed even Zeus' resource
bcyond thc limit. Protogonos was not Zeus, therefore, in the
mind of the poet who constructed that narrative. But then
how could he be called Zeus in the Hicronyman and Rhap-
sodic Thcogonies, seeing that these poems too told of bis
swallowing by Zeus? lt prcsupposes that Protogonos still exists
and is important in the world as wc know it; that heis, indeed,
of supreme significance to it. This must mean that his original
creation and organization of the cosmos did not mcrcly
resemble the later creation by Zeus, but was fundamentally
identical witb it. As the poet of the Hieronyman Thcogony
conceived the matter, Zeus did not abolish Protogonos' creatioo
and substitute a different one, nor did hc abolish Protogonos:
11 Ftr. 72, 86, cf. rog (~rh contexi.); H:,mn 6.&-8 (below, p. 25g) , Fr. 345,
'it is by brightness that we see: with our cyes (in themse!Vd) we sec nothing',
mi y belong in this context.
•• A.J{ET 365 f., cf. 368, :370, 372.

WEST, M. L. The Orphic Poems

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

WEST, M. L. The Orphic Poems

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THE ORPHIC POEMS

CLARENDON PllESS • OXFORD

O,iford is a trade mark ef Oxford Unioersi!)I Prtss

Publislwi in the United S14tts

British Library Cal4loguing in Publu,ilit>n Data

JOINT LIBAARY OF THE HELLENIC

Prinúd in Greál Brilain

A l'IRST draft of the present study was written as long ago as

1. IST OF PLA TES ix

"XPLAN ATION OF ABBRE VIA TI-ONS xi

II. SOME MYTHICAL POETS OTHER THAN

III. THE PROTOGONOS AND DERVENI

IV. THE EUDEMIAN AND CYCLIC THEO-

JNDEX OP 011. PHJ O PJlAGME.NTS

1. Hone plates from Olbia. Fifth ccntury B.O. (Bcenou< AfleBHCã

:i. Orphcus and an Orphic. Apulian amphora. (Antikenmuseum

Otherwise tbe lists in LSJ should resolve any obscuritics.

(iv) He was assassinated by a party of Thracian women

varied phenomenon. See further M . Eliade, Sltamanism, Ardtaic Tt,;/uáqws of

from thy mouth thou, far-shooter, art my witness.

Timaeus in Plato's dialogue gives a summary genealogx of gods

This is valuable confirmation of Pythagoras' use of books. ln

n Clcment {immediately bd'orc citing Epigencs) ascribes it 10 Prodicus of

Thc Krater (Mixing-howl) cannot be directly connected with

Nordcn, V,r1iliru A1111is VI (3rd od., 1926), 47.

We do not know to whom hc ascribcd it. It is a1so quoted anony-

which we know to have occurred in Empedocles (B 141). It

Tht point of convergente

6. l~ '? (,t)\ rc::- Íll1

EI P 1-1 NI-I íl\)/\~Mv

auccdote whicb Xenophancs relates (fr. 7a). Seeing someonc

Musaeus and Bakis, last heard of at the time of the Persian

We must not jump to the conclusion that Plato's 'Orphic'

60 Graf, 18 f.; perhaJJ$ alrcady in Buripides' Er«hthells, fr. 65,100 f. Austin.

More Baechic mysteries

Orpheus in other cult.r

I regard it as a syncretistic work, probably composed in Alex-

Some lattr poems

W E have now made a general rcconnaissance of thc growth of

Dclphic oracle to Thcbes by a cow, and ia furnished witb thc unconvincing

of Niceratus who went to fetch Epimenides from Crete in the

H 5.8o.4 = T 9b; FGrK,st 468 F 1.

Olen, Pamplws, Abaris, and others

10.-41; R. Hãwaler, Rh. Mw. 117 (1974), 1-14.

Perhaps Lobon based his description of the poem on the proem,

The idea recurs in a fragment of thirteen lines which Stobaeus

" Cf. Hes. TA. 105-15, Parm. B n, Emp. B 38.

N. Walter thinks that this can only be the work of a Jew, a

APPENDIX: THE FRAGMENTS OF LINUS

TESTIMONIA DE LINI CARMIN1BUS SIVE SAPIENTIA

t [1] (Heradides Ponticus fr. 157 Wehrli) Ps.-Plut. De musica

1rt:1TOl1JKÉva, ÀÉye,, K(!.t :4v81}v -rôv lç 'Av81}8&vos rijs Bo,-

t 2 (Hippobotus) D.L. 1.42

yeyovE mouaa,os, napa ut: ,::,11,-,a.o,s

•• The main di.scussions of them are: .Fabriciw-Harles, Bibliotluca Graeca, i.

µ.á-rwv 'TOVS' µ.n' av-row, MwvoÉa JflPaM 1'0V Ka'Ta.ÀÓyov

ft(I\OOS', ovn: voµ.01 Oll'TE "O')'O' ~f>Ol/1'/J.4, ur,a-rr.,,al"TE!i' K(U

9Epa.trEÚaav-res WVT/, Mwvoiws- 8l l<"TÀ. • • • Ópa ow El µ.~

t 8 Sext. Emp. Adu. maJlwn. 1.204

t9 Hippol. Rif. 5.20.4

1 D.L. 1.4 (e Lobone; cf. t 3)

8 Ccnsorinus Dé dié nátdlí 18.1 I (e Varrone ut vid.)

4 ,1/..,r: Ka>.Mp.a.J(O< Clcm. (consulio omwt Píeilfu) .,..,,A,,,,,Jvo ..,;.,.º