#224 Kern). The Orphic Do ̄dekaete ̄ris treats Jupiter’s 12-Year Cycle wherein, allotting
120 years to the Great Year, the author describes years governed by zodiac signs and their
effects, often agricultural: the year of the Archer presages war from the beginning and the
falling of wagons on harvest-days (#249–270 Kern). On Earthquakes, also attributed to
H T, explains the connection between earthquakes and the zodiac
(#285 Kern); cf. V. On the Rise of Heavenly Bodies details signs presaged by zodiac
constellations in relation to the Sun, Moon, and planets (#286–287 Kern). Other titles
include On Lucky and Unlucky Days (#271–279 Kern); a Georgics with signs for planting and
harvesting; and verses common with M’ Georgics (#280–284 Kern).
Ed.: O. Kern, Orphica Fragmenta (1922) Astrol.: #249–288, 318; CCAG 8.3 (1912).
RE 18.2 (1942) 1338–1341, 1341–1417 (esp., §23: 1400–1406), R. Keydell; 18.3 (1949) 1137–1166 (§4,
1142), K. Ziegler; KP 4.358, K. Ziegler; West (1983) 32–33, 37; OCD3 1078 – 9, F. Graf (s.v. “Orphic
literature”), DPA 4.843–858, L. Brisson.
GLIM
Orpheus, pseudo (Lithika) (100 – 150 CE)
Mythical Thrakian bard and founder of the religious Orphic sect, to whom have been
attributed about 50 titles of extant little poems, together with some works written in hex-
ameters, whose language and style suggest a date not before the 6th c. BCE. Among them is the
Lithika, a poem on the magical properties of precious stones in 774 hexameters, dated on the
basis of language, style and meter. Internal evidence is lacking, and interpretations of verses
71 – 74 as a reference to a historical prosecution against philosophers are bound to fail.
The lapidary can be divided into four parts: an introduction (verses 1–90), wherein the
poet remembers his encounter with H, who gave him the mission of showing men
the wonders concealed in the god’s cave; a short bucolic tale (91–164), wherein the narrator
recalls to the wise Theiodamas (whom he met along the way to the sanctuary of He ̄lios) and
some episodes of his childhood, and explains why he was making a pilgrimage to that divine
place; the strictly mineralogical section (172–761); the envoy (762–774).
Ed.: O. Kern, Orphica Fragmenta (1922) 249–287, 318.
RE 18.2 (1942) 1338–1341, R. Keydell; 18.3 (1949) 1137–1166, §4 (1142), K. Ziegler (s.v. Paradox-
ographoi); HLB 2.277; Pingree (1978) 437; J. Schamp, “Apollon prophète de la pierre,” RBPh 69
(1981) 29–49; G.N. Giannakis, Orpheo ̄s Lithika (1982); West (1983); Halleux and Schamp (1985)
125 – 177; F. Vian, “La nouvelle édition des Lithica orphiques,” REG 99 (1986) 161–170; DPA 4
(2005) 843–858, L. Brisson.
Eugenio Amato
Orpheus, pseudo (Med.) (ca 200 BCE – 50 CE?)
The corpus of the legendary poet includes astrological and lapidary verses (see -
O, A and L), but all medical fragments are in prose, suggesting
distinct origin. P lists Orpheus’ Idiophue among his sources on drugs obtained from
animals (1.ind.28). Orpheus wrote on plants (25.12), advised blood-letting as a treatment for
angina (sunankhe ̄: 28.43), believed carrots aphrodisiacal (20.32: cf. 28.232, C
10.168), and suggested how to use arrows as a love-charm (28.34; cf. A Apol. 30).
Likewise quasi-magical was Orpheus’ treatment for epilepsy: a drink of strukhnos (night-
shade?) root plucked under a waning moon, one portion on the first day, then two up to
15 consecutively (A T 1.15 [1.565 Puschm.]). G Antid. 2.7
ORPHEUS, PSEUDO (LITHIKA)