Orphic Fragments

AGE AND ANCESTRY

[fragment regarding] Cercops original Latin: cerconis AGN] Cercops. Petrus Victorius corrected this from Suidas a 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia under the entry 'O.' (see number 223) as have all editors except Plasberg, who suspects an error by Cicero may be underlying the text.

Lobeck I 348; Zeller I⁶ 64; Schuster 51. 55; Weber 3. 42; Susemihl Index VIII.

14. He is included in the number of the Seven Sages a group of 7th–6th century BCE Greek thinkers famous for their wisdom in Diogenes Laertius I.42, from the compendium of Arius Didymus (Diels II³ 213, 27): Hippobotus, in his "Register of Philosophers," lists: Orpheus, Linus, Solon, Periander, Anacharsis, Cleobulus, Myson, Thales, Bias, Pittacus, Epicharmus, Pythagoras. He is called the "most ancient philosopher" in Diogenes Laertius, Proem 5 and Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies original Latin title: Stromata I.14, 59, 1: The Greeks say that after Linus, Orpheus, and the most ancient poets among them, the first to be admired for wisdom were those seven called the "Sages," etc. All of these accounts seem to depend on Hippobotus (Christ, Treatises of the Bavarian Academy XXI 1901, 491 n. 2; Howald, Hermes LV 1920, 76). Julian the Emperor Julian "the Apostate", Oration VII 215 B: Perhaps this attempt also takes the lead, belonging to the kind of philosophy that involves myth-making. For many of the philosophers and theologians appear to have practiced it, just as Orpheus, the most ancient, who philosophized under divine inspiration, and not a few of those who came after him.

15. Tatian, Address to the Greeks 41 ~ Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies I.21, 128, 4 ~ Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel X.11, 27–30: Regarding the present matter, one must strive to clarify with all accuracy that Moses is not only older than Homer, but also older than the writers before him: Linus, Philammon, Thamyris, Amphion, Orpheus, Musaeus, Demodocus, Phemius, the Sibyl, and Epimenides the Cretan . . . For Linus | ^{page 42 of Schw. edition} was the teacher of Hercules, and Hercules is shown to have lived one generation before the Trojan War; this is evident from his son Tlepolemus, who campaigned against Troy. Orpheus lived at the same time as Hercules . . . [see numbers 21, 43] . . . and Musaeus was a student of Orpheus (number 166). Theodoret, Cure of Greek Maladies II.47: Orpheus, the first of the poets, was older than the Trojan War by one generation. (See also II.49). Clement of Alexandria mistakenly records: Orpheus, having sailed with Hercules, was a student of Musaeus, where, following Lobeck (I.353), one should read either "teacher of Musaeus" or, with Potter, "Musaeus was his student"; see also