Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis (Miscellanies) 1.21.131

{{#howtoquotetranslation:}}Show notes

ναὶ μὴν Ὀνομάκριτος ὁ Ἀθηναῖος, οὗ τὰ εἰς Ὀρφέα φερόμενα ποιήματα λέγεται εἶναι, κατὰ τὴν τῶν Πεισιστρατιδῶν ἀρχὴν περὶ τὴν πεντηκοστὴν ὀλυμπιάδα εὑρίσκεται, Ὀρφεὺς δέ, ὁ συμπλεύσας Ἡρακλεῖ, Μουσαίου διδάσκαλος Μουσαίου διδάσκαλος Lobeck, Aglaophamus p. 353: Μουσαίου μαθητής mss: οὗ Μουσαῖος μαθητής mss: Μουσαίου καθηγητής J. Jackson.· Ἀμφίων γὰρ δυσὶ προάγει γενεαῖς τῶν Ἰλιακῶν, Δημόδοκος δὲ καὶ Φήμιος μετὰ τὴν Ἰλίου ἅλωσιν (ὃ μὲν γὰρ παρὰ τοῖς Φαίαξιν, ὃ δὲ παρὰ τοῖς μνηστῆρσι) κατὰ τὸ κιθαρίζειν εὐδοκίμουν εὐδοκίμουν Sylberg: εὐδοκιμοῦν mss: εὐδοκιμοῦντε Dindorf.. καὶ τοὺς μὲν ἀναφερομένους εἰς Μουσαῖον χρησμοὺς Ὀνομακρίτου εἶναι λέγουσι, τὸν Κρατῆρα δὲ τὸν Ὀρφέως Ζωπύρου τοῦ Ἡρακλεώτου τήν τε Εἰς ιδου κατάβασιν Προδίκου τοῦ Σαμίου. Ἴων δὲ ὁ Χῖος ἐν τοῖς Τριαγμοῖς Τριαγμοῖς Reinesius, Var. lect. p. 93: τριγράμμοις mss. καὶ Πυθαγόραν εἰς Ὀρφέα ἀνενεγκεῖν τινα ἱστορεῖ. Ἐπιγένης δὲ ἐν τοῖς Περὶ τῆς εἰς Ὀρφέα ποιήσεως Κέρκωπος εἶναι λέγει τοῦ Πυθαγορείου τὴν Εἰς ιδου κατάβασιν καὶ τὸν Ἱερὸν λόγον, τὸν δὲ Πέπλον καὶ τὰ Φυσικὰ Βροντίνου.

To be sure, Onomacritus the Athenian, whose work the poems ascribed to Orpheus are said to be, lived during the reign of the Peisistratids around the time of the fiftieth Olympiad, but Orpheus, who sailed with Heracles, was the teacher of Musaeus. For Amphion preceded the Trojan War by two generations, and Demodocus and Phemius were famous kitharodes after the capture of Troy, the former among the Phaeacians, the latter among the suitors. They say that the oracles ascribed to Musaeus are really by Onomacritus, that the Krater of Orpheus is by Zopyrus of Heraclea, and the Katabasis to Hades is the work of Prodicus the Samian. But Ion of Chios in the Triagmoi says that Pythagoras, too, attributed some of his own works to Orpheus. But Epigenes, in his On the Poetry Ascribed to Orpheus, says that the Katabasis to Hades and the Sacred Discourse are the work of Cercops the Pythagorean and the Robe and Physika, of Brontinus.

Relevant guides	Orpheus