Orphica (Argonautica, Hymni, Lithica)

...will be seen, fair readers will not only consider the number and magnitude of the faults, but will also remember that it is not a little more difficult to correct a bad writer than a good one. In the Hymns, I have corrected many things without warning the reader, but I have everywhere indicated the vulgata The "common" or standard reading found in previous printed editions. reading. When the Lithica A poem concerning the mystical and medicinal properties of stones. had already been set in type, I read John Tzetzes’ A 12th-century Byzantine poet and grammarian known for his extensive commentaries on classical authors. commentary on Homer’s Iliad, which still remains unpublished in a manuscript of Homer held at the Pauline Library The library of the University of Leipzig.. There, I saw several verses of the Lithica—which were read in a corrupt state in the previous editions—written with the greatest accuracy. Consequently, what Tyrwhitt Thomas Tyrwhitt (1730–1786), an English classical scholar. and others had only reached through conjecture can now be confirmed by most certain authority. I have therefore recorded these verses, which Tzetzes included in that writing, in the additions attached to this preface.

I have applied somewhat less care to the fragments, as I did not think it worth the effort to involve myself in their obscurity. However, I have added something here and there, especially from that commentary of Tzetzes on the Iliad, while preserving the manuscript's own spelling. Indeed, most of these points can very easily be corrected by anyone; I have done so silently in the index of fragments. Regarding the fragments of the Works and Days Original: "Ἔργων καὶ ἡμερῶν". While usually the title of a work by Hesiod, Hermann refers here to an Orphic version. of Orpheus, Lenz Carl Gotthold Lenz (1763–1809), a German philologist.—who discussed them (see New Magazine for Schoolteachers by Ruperti and Schlichthorst, Vol. II, part 2, p. 359 ff.)—has not convinced me that this poem is distinct from the poem of Maximus Maximus the Astrologer, author of a poem on birthdays and fate.. I have expanded Gesner’s Johann Matthias Gesner (1691–1761), whose 1764 edition of the Orphica was the previous standard. index with many words. Other indices, so that those things which in...