This is English translation of the article originally published in Russian:

Лебедев А.В., «Теогония» Эпименида Критского и происхождение орфико-

пифагорейского учения о реинкарнации // "Индоевропейское языкознание и
классическая филология. Чтения памяти И.М. Тронского", 22 – 24 июня 2015 г. Отв.
ред. Н.Н. Казанский. Институт лингвистических исследований РАН, СПб 2015, сс. 550-
585 = Lebedev A.V., The «Theogony» of Epimenides of Crete and the Origin of the Orphic-
Pythagorean Doctrine of Reincarnation, in: «Indo-European Linguistics and Classical
Philology». Proceedings of the Tronsky Memorial conference 22-24 June 2015, Edited by N.
Kazansky, Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg,
2015, pp. 550-585.
In this English translation I have only slightly updated the bibliography with the addition
of few recent publications and corresponding references in the footnotes. Please, cite this
article by the pages of the published Russian version added near left margin in square
brackets in bold typeface. The numbering of footnotes remains unchanged. English summary
is attached at the end.
Table of contents:
1. The personality of Epimenides, his epoch and his τέχναι. …………………………………1
2. The «Theogony» of Epimenides. Reconstructing the proem and the initial stage of
cosmogony……………………………………………………………………………………………7
3. Selene, the Lion of Nemea, Aiakos and the reincarnation of souls. …………………..12
4. Epimenides as a rhizotomos (root-cutter) and herbalist………………………….16
5. Epimenides, the Orphic Theogony, and Pythagoras: de fontibus………………………….22
6. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..33
7. Summary…………………………………………………………………………………36

A.V.Lebedev

THE “THEOGONY” OF EPIMENIDES OF CRETE AND THE ORIGIN OF THE

ORPHIC-PYTHAGOREAN DOCTRINE OF REINCARNATION.
[p.550]
(1) The personality of Epimenides, his epoch and his τέχναι.
Epimenides of Crete was probably the most famous Cretan after Minos and Ariadne, while
he was undoubtedly a historical person. In the 6th century BC, paradoxically, along with the
birth of the rational science and philosophy, appeared new mystical movements and mystery

1
cults, as well as a whole series of “miracle-workers”, healers and prophets. The second half
of the 6th century saw the spread of the new teaching of Pythagoras on the immortality of the
soul and the composition of the Orphic Theogony, in which new religious doctrines on the
origin of the world and nature of man were presented in mythical form. In Orphism, the
human soul was also recognized as immortal and subject to a new birth or reincarnation into
different types of living beings before birth and after death of a person. Doctrines of such kind
lay at the ground of contemporary miraculous stories about out-of-body mystical experience:
the separation of the soul (psyche) from the body, its flight over the earth and the subsequent
return. Such was the case of the legendary sage Hermotimus of Klazomenai (whose body was
burned by enemies during one of these flights), the semi-mythical Hyperborean Abaris who
flew to Greece from Northern Europe on a magic arrow, and the legendary teacher of
Pythagoras Pherecydes of Syros, who wrote the first prosaic theogony in which Zeus was
transformed from the Homeric progenitor of all beings («father of gods and men») into a
divine craftsman who created this world by «weaving».
[p.551]
In Magna Graecia, a new type of philosopher was formed: a charismatic teacher of life,
the keeper of esoteric secret knowledge, available only to the initiated. To this type belongs
Pythagoras, whom the disciples called Apollo Hyperborean, and Empedocles, a poet,
philosopher and doctor who imitated Pythagoras in the 5th century B.C. Epimenides is close
to this group of charismatics, prophets, miracle-workers and healers, and not to the Ionian
"physikoi" who created the new scientific picture of the world in which the gods of the poets
played no role at all. It is not surprising, therefore, that the legend makes Pythagoras a pupil
of Epimenides. To explain the emergence of the completely new doctrine of the soul in the
6th century, some researchers hypothesized its “northern” origin: allegedly in the process of
the colonization of the Northern Black Sea region, the Greeks became acquainted with the
“shamanistic” ideas of the peoples of Scythia and Siberia; from the northern colonies the new
doctrine of the soul allegedly penetrated into Greece and even reached Italy.1 As a result, the
charismatics listed above, including Epimenides, were called by many scholars "shamans."

1
Dodds 1951; Burkert 1972: 122 ff.; West 1983: 146 ff. Convincing criticism of the
shamanistic hypothesis of Moyle-Dodds in Zhmud' 2012: 207 ff. But the attempt to
distinguish between non-religious Pythagorean version of the doctrine of reincarnation and
the religious Orphic one (ibidem, 229), is far-fetched: in Empedocles the wandering soul is
called δαίμων (B 115), and this is a religious concept. Philolaus explicitly attributes
reincarnation to the “ancient theologians,” that is, to Orpheus (B 14). On the authenticity of B
14 see note 61 below.

2
This hypothesis is ill-founded and cannot stand against criticism; in our days it has few
supporters. Even Walter Burkert, who supported it, rejected the term “shamanistic” as applied
to the Greeks and replaced it with the term “charismatic”. We do not know anything about the
belief in the immortal divine soul and reincarnation among the Scythians, next to whom the
Greeks lived on the Black Sea. The history of the Scythian king Skyles, who married a Greek
woman, built himself a house in Olbia and was initiated into mysteries of Dionysos
Bakkheios (Herod.4,78-80), gives us an example of the influence of Greek ecstatic cults on
the Scythians, and not the other way around. The attempt to find the influence of “northern
shamanism” in the so-called Orphic graffiti from Olbia is equally untenable: these plates are
divinatory devices related to the Greek Apollonian cleromancy (astragalomanteia) and
reflecting the influence of the popular Orphic-Pythagorean eschatology (reincarnation, the
square as a symbol of immortal soul, the seven astragaloi of the divine child «Dionysos
Orphikos»).2
[p.552]
The most powerful impetus to the spread of the philosophical version of the new doctrine
of the soul was given by Pythagoras of Samos, and not by the hypothetical Scythian shamans.
The biographical tradition about Pythagoras speaks of his travels to eastern countries with a
high culture, such as Egypt and Babylon, as well as to Crete, which also kept religious
traditions dating back to the highly sophisticated Minoan civilization. We therefore believe
that the origins of this new doctrine should be sought not in the north, but in the south, and in
particular in Crete. The real meeting of Pythagoras with Epimenides is chronologically
impossible: the life time of Epimenides falls mostly on the 7th century, and maybe partly on
the beginning of the 6th century (see below on chronology). But the acquaintance of the
Pythagoreans with the "Theogony" of Epimenides is very likely. And it is in it, as well as in
the legend of Epimenides, that the earliest traces of the doctrine of the "new birth" can be
found.

2
We read Διο [νύσω<ι>] Ὀρφικῶ<ι> (Dative sing.) “To Dionysos Orphikos» that is,
chthonian Dionysus of Orpheus' theogony, the son of Persephone, as distinguished from the
classical Dionysus, the son of Semele. This reading is supported by the new better quality
photo of the plate provided by A. Rusyayeva, in which the final omega is clearly visible. This
is not a dedication, but a prescription to pray or to offer a sacrifice to such and such god to
achieve what one wishes (e.g. to recover from disease). The reading Ὀρφικ <οί> (supposedly
a dedication of an ugly plate to Dionysus from a thiasos of «Orphics» to Dionysus!) is
impossible since «Orphics» as name of a sect is essentially a modern term, not attested before
Iamblichus and Proclus. More on this see Lebedev A.V. Idealism in Early Greek Philosophy
(2019) 673-674. Incorrectly Zhmud' (2012) 225.

3
 According to the 4th century historian Theopompus, the father of Epimenides was called
Phaestius (Φαίστιος) 3, according to Diogenes Laertius - Dosiadas (Δωσιάδας) or Agesarchos
(Ἀγήσαρχος).4 Plutarch reports that the Cretans believed in the divine origin of Epimenides,
calling him “New Kouretes” and calling his mother the nymph Balte (Βάλτη).5 Epimenides'
Cretan origin is never disputed (always ὁ Κρής), but regarding his hometown the sources
disagree: according to Pausanias, Diogenes Laertius, Pliny and Valerius Maximus he was a
native of Knossos, according to Plutarch, Strabo and Byzantine authors – a native of Phaestus.
As in the case of Homer's homeland, we see a rivalry between different cities claiming as
their own compatriot the most famous Cretan wise.
[p.553]
It is not easy to determine which version is more reliable, since both Pausanias and Strabo
with Plutarch are very learned and meticulous experts in antiquarian lore. But if Theopompus
(the earliest source) also regarded Phaestus Epimenides' homeland, the consensus of
Theopompus, Plutarch and Strabo may outweigh the single authority of Pausanias. A similar
discrepancy is observed in the localization of the sacred cave of Zeus. Most of the sources
associate the prophetic dream of Epimenides with the Diktaean cave. But according to the
Pythagorean tradition, Epimenides performed a katabasis with Pythagoras and initiated him
to the mysteries in the Idaean cave.
As for the life time of Epimenides, most sources, including such serious historians as
Aristotle and Plutarch, associate his main miracle - the purification of Athens from the
“Kylonian agos”, that is, around 600 BC. Only the isolated testimony of Plato, which dates
Epimenides’s visit to Athens 100 years later, about 500 B.C., diverges from this almost
generally accepted dating: allegedly, Epimenides miraculously delayed the Persian invasion
for 10 years and predicted their defeat. In matters of chronology, Aristotle is undoubtedly a
more reliable source than Plato.
According to Theopompus, the Cretans believed that Epimenides lived for 157 years, of
which 57 he slept in a cave. This legend undoubtedly reflects the ritual practices of the sacred
“caves of Zeus” in Crete, such as Diktaean and Idaen antron. Burkert (1972: 151) suggested

3
Possibly, this is not a proper name, but an ethnikon “native of Phaestus,” in which case the
contradiction with Diogenes is removed.
4
Fr.1–2 Bern., Dorian names.
5
Plut. Sol. 12.5 = Epimen. fr. 3T Bern. The Suda gives the form Βλάστα. Bernabe is trying to
link the divine origin with the verse fr. 33, 1, whose author declares himself a descendant of
Selene-Moon.

4
that we are talking about ceremonies of initiations of the secret society performed by a
«purifer» (kathartes). The Pythagoreans believed that Pythagoras was initiated by Epimenides
in the Idaean cave, and Euripides in the lost drama “Cretans” mentioned “mystai of Idaean
Zeus” (Διὸς Ἰδαίου μύστης), who are initiated in the mysteries of Dionysos Zagreus, similar
to the Orphic mysteries.6 It seems to us, however, that the sleep in a cave is not directly
related to initiations and to Epimenides as a “purifier” (καθαρτής). Rather, it points to a ritual
incubation conceived as a mantic session. Since Epimenides was the “priest of Zeus and
Rhea”, it can be assumed that the Diktaean and Idaean caves in the archaic period functioned
as oracles, and that Epimenides himself served as an appointed prophet (mantis) in the cave of
Zeus and predicted the future on the basis of his prophetic dreams.
[p.554]
The existence of cave-oracles in Greece has been firmly established by archeology, it is a
widespread phenomenon which is also well illustrated by literary and documentary sources
[on this topic see especially Ustinova 2009 and 2009bis; Friese 2013]. Some historians and
archeologists have also suggested that the Cretan sacred caves could function as oracles
(Chaniotis 2006). In ancient times, the Cretans were famous for being the most skillful
interpreters of dreams. In Hellenistic Alexandria in the 2nd century BC an anonymous
interpreter of dreams advertised his art as follows:
ἐνύπνια κρίνω, τοῦ θεοῦ πρόσταγμα ἔχων ·
τύχ᾽ἀγαθᾶι · Κρής ἐστιν ὁ κρίνων τάδε.
«I Interpret dreams on the orders of god
Good Luck! The interpreter of dreams is a Cretan».
The reference to the Cretan origin of the interpreter (also confirmed by the Dorian form
ἀγαθᾶι) serves as a guarantee of the highest reliability of his readings. The reference to the
“order” of God, that is, the god-healer Sarapis, indicates that the oneirokrites had official
status at the temple, that he was appointed to this position, and was not just engaged in private
business (contra Renberg 2010: 650–651). In the complex hierarchy of the priests of Sarapis
there were official ὀνειροκριταί (Dignas 2008: 80). And this, in turn, increases the likelihood
that the dreams he interprets are not “brought in from outside”, but are dreams of patients that
they saw during incubations in Sarapeion. The interpretation of dreams was for the ancients
primarily a form of divination (μαντική). Epimenides combined the functions of the

6
Eurip. fr. 472 TrGF, for details see below note 83.

5
soothsayer (mantis) and the healer ("purifier"). Just as the Alexandrian Cretan served as an
interpreter of dreams at the temple of Sarapis, Epimenides may have served as a priest-
soothsayer attached to the Cretan "cave of Zeus."

It is significant that the Cretans called Epimenides "a new Kouretes" (D.L.1.115). This
sobriquet means the divine-inspired soothsayer. The Idaean Dactyls and Kouretes possessed a
prophetic gift, the Greek proverb “the mouth of Kοuretes” (Κουρήτων στόμα) indicates the
ability to foretell future.7 At the same time, Kouretes in the myth are almost exclusively
linked with the Idaean cave in Crete.

Direct literary evidence that the sacred Cretan caves (or some of them) were also used for
therapeutic incubations, like the sanctuaries of Asclepius, is not available, but this may be due
to chance.
[p.555]
Archaeological finds in caves such as figurines and nude human figures could be interpreted
as votive offerings (ἀναθήματα) in gratitude for recovery, like modern Greek τάματα (silver
plates depicting a healed organ), which are hung under the healing icon in the church. The
fact that the caves of Zeus were oracles, and that Epimenides could play the role of the local
Pythia, receiving revelations during sleep, also indicates his invective against the Delphic
oracle, in which the existence of the “navel of the earth” (omphalos) is polemically denied.8
The Delphic legend about the “navel of the earth” places the Delphic oracle above all others.
The denial of this is most probably due to the religious rivalry and competition of the two
oracles (on the topic of competition of oracles see Eidinow 2014). The verses of Epimenides'
Theogony that expose the Delphic legend as a lie have a stinging character: Epimenides
makes it clear that his mantic art is not inferior to that of Pythia. According to some
researchers Epimenides not only questioned the Delphic legend, but also contraposed to it a
local Cretan version preserved by Diodorus of Sicily: φερομένου μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν Κουρήτων
αὐτοῦ νηπίου φασὶν ἀποπεσεῖν τὸν ὀμφαλὸν περὶ τὸν ποταμὸν τὸν καλούμενον Τρίτωνα, καὶ
τὸ χωρίον τε τοῦτο καθιερωθὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ τότε συμβάντος Ὀμφαλὸν προσαγορευθῆναι καὶ τὸ
περικείμενον πεδίον ὁμοίως Ὀμφάλειον.

7
Zenob. Paroemiogr. 4.61 Κουρήτων στόμα: ἐδόκουν γὰρ εἶναι οὗτοι μάντεις· οἷον,
Θεσπιῳδὸν στόμα. Blakely (2006) 14, 19.
8
Epimen fr. 43 B. οὐκ ἄρ ἔην γαίης μέσος ὀμφαλὸς οὐδὲ θαλάσσης· / εἰ δέ τις ἔστιν, θεοῖς
δῆλος, θνητοῖσι δ ἄφαντος.


6
“When the Couretes carried the infant Zeus, the umbilical cord fell off near the river with the
name Triton, and since then this place became sacred and in memory of what happened then
was called Omphalos, and the plain around it Omphalian.” 9 But the verses of “Theogony”
explicitly state that even if the omphalos of earth exists, it is impossible to localize it.

(2) The «Theogony» of Epimenides.

In ancient times many texts of religious, mythological and historical content circulated under
the name Epimenides. The most important and oldest of them was Theogony. The following
titles are also known: Cretan history (Κρητικά), History of Telkhins, Oracles, The Birth of
Kouretes and Korybantes, Purifications (Καθαρμοί), Genealogies, The Building of the Ship
Argo, Jason's Departure to Colchis, prose works On sacrifices, On Minos and Radamanthys,
and Letters.
[p.556]
All these works are commonly recognized by philological critique as pseudepigrapha (West
1983: 47; Mele 2001: 227–278). The inauthenticity of the letters to Solon was noticed
already in antiquity (Diog.Laert.1,112 = p. 109 Bernabe). Epimenides was the most famous
Cretan sage and soothsayer, so there is little wonder that he was credited with the collections
of ancient myths relating to history and mythology of Crete, and collections of oracles. But
the problem of the dating and authenticity of Theogony is not so simple and requires a special
investigation.

The origin of the world according to the Theogony of Epimenides is known only in the
summary exposition of the Neo-Platonist Damascius, which is based on the History of
Theology of the Peripatetic Eudemus.10 According to Damascius-Eudemus Epimenides
recognized as two “first principles” (ἀρχαί) Aer (Fog) and Night; Tartarus is born from them,
from them (all?) - a pair of Titans, from their mating a cosmogonic egg is born, and from the
egg - a new generation of gods. Night as a primordial being and the cosmogonic egg are two
peculiar elements shared by Epimenides' Theogony with the Orphic Theogony known to
Eudemus in the fourth and to the Derveni author (Prodicus of Ceos, see Lebedev 2019) in the

9
Cook 1925: 2/1, 191 supposed that the common source of Diodorus and Callimachus
(Hymn. 1.42) was Epimenides.
10
Damasc. De princ. 124 = Eudem., fr. 150 Wehrli = Epimen. fr. 46F Bernabe.

7
fifth. The versions of Eudemus and the Derveni author seem to be identical, their common
source should be dated to the late 6th century BC. But do not rush to declare Epimenides a
debtor and this Orphic Theogony his source. 11 There is no significant similarity with Hesiod:
Hesiod has a completely different trio of “beginnings” (Chaos, Gaia, Eros), and only the later
Tartarus is the only common element with Epimenides' theogony. In Hesiod the Titans are the
descendants of Uranos and Gaia; in Epimenides, they are the ancestors (?) Of Uranos and
Gaia, who may have been born as two halves of the split cosmogonic egg. Apparently,
Epimenides follows the local Cretan tradition, according to which the Titans are positive, and
not negative characters, as in Hesiod. The identity of the two Titans remains the subject of
controversy. Some researchers identify them with Kronos and Rhea, others with Ocean and
Tethys, recent scholars recognize that the two Titans in the poem of Epimenides were
anonymous, as in Damascius' exposition. 12 It remains unclear whether Epimenides had a
demiurgos coming out of the egg and similar to the Orphic Phanes-Protogonos. In the
primordial Ἀήρ some scholars saw the influence of Anaximenes' cosmogony and concluded
that the terminus post quem is the late sixth /early fifth century BC, which was cited as a
proof of the later origin and inauthenticity of Epimenides' Theogony.
[p.557]
But this is a wrong conclusion. When paired with the "Night" Ἀήρ can only have the archaic,
ascending to Homer meaning "mist, haze". The standard designation of the transparent
element of the air by the word ἀήρ became common only in the second half of the 5th
century. The association of Aer with Tartarus can be explained by the influence of Hesiod and
the archaic epic (i.e. pre-philosophical) usage of this word: in Hesiod the phrase Τάρταρα
ἠεροέντα means “misty Tartarus”, and not “aerial Tartarus”, and has nothing to do with
Anaximenes.
Skeptics also tried to justify the late dating of the Theogony of Epimenides (5-4 centuries
BC) by referring to a fragment about the Nemean lion (33 F), which Selena “shook off
herself”. If the author of the Theogony believed that the Nemean lion originally lived on the
Moon, he should have shared the concept of the moon as the “other earth” borrowing its light
from the sun, and this idea, according to West, could not have arisen long before 500 BC.

11
Contra Fowler 2013: 7 ff.
12
Kronos and Rhea: Kirk, Raven, Schofield 1983: 29; Okeanos and Tethys: Jaeger 1947: 219;
anonymous: Fowler 2013: 8; Bernabe 2001: 206.

8
Indeed, the idea of the Moon as “another Earth” is not attested before Anaxagoras, i.e. before
c. 450, in which case the "Theogony" of Epimenides would have to be dated to the second
half of the 5th century or later. But note that in Anaxagoras the Moon is a lifeless earthen
body with mountains and ravines, and the author of Theogony conceives her as a
mythological creature, a beautifully-haired Selena, who "shrugged awfully."
Neither in the language nor in the doctrinal content of the surviving fragments of
Theogony do we find any signs of late origin. Aristotle, who did not believe in the
authenticity of the poetry of Orpheus and Musaios 13, quotes Epimenides seriously, without
reservation, as the actual author of the words he quotes. Diels considered the title Oracles
(Χρησμοί) as a title-variant of Theogony, Bernabe distinguishes them as two different works.
Diels’s point of view agrees with Aristotle’s testimony that Epimenides prophesized “about
the past, not about the future.” 14 "Unclear" (ἄδηλα) events of the past, about which
Epimenides prophesized, most probaby refer to the origin of the world and of the gods, i.e. to
theogony. In all probability, the legend of the dream of Epimenides in the cave and the
famous verse Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται «Cretans are always liars» derives from the proem of the
Theogony. This assumption is based on the unique testimony of the 2nd century Platonist
Maximus Tyrius:
[p.558]
Ἀφίκετό ποτε Ἀθήναζε Κρὴς ἀνήρ, ὄνομα Ἐπιμενίδης, κομίζων λόγον οὑτωσὶ ῥηθέντα
πιστεύεσθαι χαλεπόν · ἐν τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ Δικταίου τῷ ἄντρῳ κείμενος ὕπνῳ βαθεῖ ἔτη συχνά,
ὄναρ ἔφη ἐντυχεῖν αὐτοῖς θεοῖς καὶ θεῶν λόγοις καὶ Ἀληθείᾳ καὶ Δίκῃ. τοιαῦτα ἄττα
διαμυθολογῶν ᾐνίττετο, οἶμαι, ὁ Ἐπιμενίδης ὡς ἄρα ὁ ἐν γῇ βίος ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ψυχαῖς
ὀνείρατι ἔοικεν μακρῷ καὶ πολυετεῖ.
"Once a Cretan citizen named Epimenides came to Athens, carrying a story hard to believe:
lying in a cave of Dictaean Zeus for many years in a deep sleep, he, in his words, met with the
gods in a dream, listened to the teachings of the gods and communicated with Truth
(Aletheia) and Justice (Dike). I think that while telling it in the form of a myth, Epimenides
hinted that the earthly life of human souls is like a long and long-term dream, etc.” (Maxim.

13
Arist. Hist.anim. 563a 18 = Musaios B 3 DK = 98 F Bernabé ἐν τοῖς Μουσαίου λεγομένοις
ἔπεσι. Arist. De gen. anim. 734a 18 ἐν τοῖς καλουμένοις Ὀρφέως ἔπεσι.
14
Arist. Rhet. 1418 a 21 = Epimen. fr. 42F Bern. Diels was followed by Mele 2001: 232 and
West 1983: 47.

9
Tyr. Diss. 10,1 = Epimen. fr. 6T Bern.).

This version of the legend of Epimenides’s dream is different from all the others in that it is
presented not as a “biography” of Epimenides (as e.g. in Diogenes Laertius), not as an
objective story about an episode in the life of Epimenides, but as Epimenides’ own story
(logos) about himself, which he “brought» with him to Athens. Logos in such a context can
mean not only an oral narrative, but also a written text. Actually, Maximus first brings
forward the logos (i.e. paraphrases or quotes the text) of Epimenides, and then, as a
commentator, presents his own Platonizing allegorical interpretation of this logos: the earthly
life of the soul is a long sleep. The logos of Epimenides here is a prose paraphrase of the
proem of his Theogony, and, therefore, should be considered not as biographical evidence,
but as a fragment of Theogony15: Epimenides' sleep in the cave, his prophetic dream, the
encounter with Aletheia and Dike in the abode of gods, with verbatim quoted divine names:
the personification of abstract concepts is a characteristic feature of the theology attributed to
Epimenides.16 The exact parallel to this we find in the proem to the poem of Parmenides:
Kouros enters the celestial abode of gods through the "Gates of Day and Night", which is
guarded by Dike, and then the goddess Truth (Aletheia) reveals to him the secrets of the
universe (on the identity of revealing goddess with Aletheia in Parmenides see Lebedev
2017bis: 503 et passim).
[p.559]
The supporters of the late dating of Epimenides' Theogony will tell us that if this is the case,
the author of Theogony depends on Parmenides, and therefore wrote after 480 BC. We believe
that exactly the opposite is true: Parmenides was familiar with the Theogony of Epimenides,
and this once again confirms its antiquity. Parmenides was a Pythagorean (Lebedev 2017bis),
and the Pythagoreans held Epimenides in high respect. According to the Pythagorean legend,
Pythagoras visited Crete and, together with Epimenides, descended into the Cave of Ida.17
The Kouros of Parmenides' Proem (an apollonian image resembling Pythagoras himself) flies

15
Contra Bernabe fr. 6T, correctly Diels-Kranz 3 DK B 1, Fowler 2013: 4. West 1983:
loc.cit.
16
Correctly DK, contra Bernabe who prints ἀληθείαι καὶ δίκηι as appelativa, and not as
personal names.
17
Epimenides and Pythagoras as teacher and pupil or vice versa: Epimen. fr. 22–26T Bern.

10
to the celestial temple of gods conceived as oracle (Aletheia being the philosophical Pythia),
therefore the “logos” of the revealing goddess (and the doctrine of being and Doxa) is
presented as an oracle (χρησμός). The "logos" of Epimenides, i.e. his theogony, is also
"heard" by him from the gods in a prophetic dream in the "cave of Zeus". At the same time,
the Cretans called Epimenides a “Neos Kouretes”. With all the similarities, one difference is
obvious: if Apollo and the Delphic oracle (or its celestial analogue) were the source of
wisdom for Pythagoras and the Eleatic Pythagoreans, Epimenides follows the local Cretan
tradition and positions himself as a prophet of the Cretan Zeus, not of Apollo. Here we see the
controversy with Hesiod: Epimenides got his inspiration not from the Muses (again, an
Apollonian source), but from Zeus. That is why he was called "Kouretes", i.e. the servant of
Zeus, associated with the Cretan sacred cave, and not "Kouros", like Pythagoras (Apollonian
term). It is in this context that the invective of Epimenides against the exclusive authority of
the Delphic oracle becomes clear: Delphi are not at all the "navel of the earth." The hyponoia
of this assertion is that Crete is not inferior to Delphi as oracular center, and therefore the
revelation received in the Cretan cave of Zeus (and this is the "Theogony" of Epimenides,
which he heard in the prophetic dream) is not inferior to the prophecies of the Delphic Pythia.
The most famous in antiquity and most often referred to verse of Epimenides preserved in the
verbatim quotation of the Apostle Paul in the "Epistle to Titus":
εἶπέν τις ἐξ αὐτῶν (scil. Κρητῶν), ἴδιος αὐτῶν προφήτης ·
Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.
one of them [= Cretans] said, their own prophet:
"Cretans are always liars, lousy beasts, idle bellies!" 18
[p.560]
Callimachus, in his Hymn to Zeus, quotes the beginning of the verse and understands it as a
controversy with the Cretan myth about the death of Zeus, reflected in the "tomb of Zeus" in
Crete with the inscription «Zeus is buried here».19 Such allusion is conceivable, but it is
unlikely that in the original poem it was a slender addressed by Epimenides himself to the
Cretans. The verse about Cretans-liars is cited as an "oracle" (χρησμός, λόγιον);20 therefore

18
Paul. Ep. ad Titum, 1,12 = Epimen. fr. 41F Bern. = fr. 3 B 1 DK.
19
Callim. Hymn. 1, 8 Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται· καὶ γὰρ τάφον, ὦ ἄνα, σεῖο / Κρῆτες ἐτεκτήναντο·
σὺ δ ̓οὐ θάνες, ἐσσὶ γὰρ αἰεί.

20
See the testimonia to Epimen. fr. 41 Bernabe, the same is alluded by the word προφήτης in
St.Paul.

11
in the original text of Epimenides these words were pronounced by a certain deity, and not by
Epimenides himself in the first person.21 The verse undoubtedly contains a hidden quote from
Hesiod’s Theogony and at the same time a controversy with Hesiod, as we shall see:
ποιμένες ἄγραυλοι, κάκ᾽ ἐλέγχεα, γαστέρες οἶον (Hes. Theog. 26)
“Shepherds of countryside, lousy scoundrels, just belly and nothing else!”
Hesiod's verse comes from the proem to his Theogony and is taken from the scene of the ritual
“initiation into poets,” it is pronounced by the Muses and is addressed to Hesiod the shepherd.
What we have here is a ritual vituperation as the first, initial stage of a transitional rite (rite de
passage): separation of the initiate from the old group before he enters the new one. The
shepherd, who is being admitted to the group of poets, must first renounce his "bestial" past,
and the subsequent delivery of the laurel branch to him completes the ceremony by accepting
him to the guild of aoidoi. Let us note two more parallels: Hesiod is subjected to ritual abuse
when grazing sheep on Helikon, and Epimenides after going after a sheep and falling asleep
in a mountain cave. After the purification of Athens Epimenides refuses money and takes
only a branch of sacred olive-tree with him. The “Muses” of Epimenides, however, were not
the Helikonian virgins, associated with Apollo, but the “companions” of the Cretan Zeus, the
goddesses Aletheia and Dike to whom he “listened” in his prophetic dream. The words
“Cretans are always liars” in the proem of the Theogony of Epimenides most likely were
uttered by Aletheia herself. The imitation of Hesiod at the same time contains a controversy
with him: whereas the Muses of Hesiod “can deceive” and “can speak the truth,” the muse of
Epimenides always speaks only the truth.
[p.561]
Thus the Theogony of Epimenides is disguised as an oracular logos, like the revelation of
Aletheia herself: Epimenides does not speak of himself, but reproduces what he “heard” from
the gods.
The so-called later “liar's paradox” has nothing to do with the authentic context of the verse
about Cretans. The paradox is based on the assumption that the Cretan Epimenides says
"Cretans are always liars" on his own behalf, but this is not so. The paradox was invented by a
specialist in logical paradoxes and philosopher of the Megarian school Eubulides of Miletus,

21
Correctly Diels-Kranz I,32, adn. 20–21. Mistaken is the view of Huxley ap. Bernabe: 43
who holds that this is a reply of the Delphic oracle included in the collection of sayings of
Epimenides.

12
a contemporary of Aristotle. The use of the verse of Epimenides for this purpose may have
been a conscious joke.

(3) Selene, the Lion of Nemea, Aiakos and the reincarnation of souls.

Aelian preserved the most mysterious of the fragments of Epimenides (fr. 33F):
καὶ μέντοι καὶ τὸν Νεμεαῖον λέοντα τῆς σελήνης ἐκπεσεῖν φασι. λέγει γοῦν καὶ τὰ
Ἐπιμενίδου ἔπη ·
καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ γένος εἰμὶ Σελήνης ἠυκόμοιο,
ἣ δεινὸν φρίξας᾽ἀπεσείσατο θῆρα λέοντα,
ἐν Νεμέαι δ᾽ ἄγχουσ᾽αὐτὸν διὰ πότνιαν Ἥραν ...
«They say that the Nemean lion fell from the moon. This is also what the verses of
Epimenides state: "For I am also a scion of the beautifully-haired Selene, who, after
shuddering awfully, shook off the lion-beast, and then in Nemea he was strangled <by the
force of Heracles> through the guidance of reverend Hera».
According to Karl Robert, Epimenides brought out in his poem Mousaios, the son of
Selene, who utters these verses. Diels suspected that Aelian by mistake quotes the Theogony
ascribed to Mousaios, and not the theogony of Epimenides.22 Nowadays, most researchers
rightly admit that in these verses Epimenides speaks of himself, and consequently, claims that
he is a descendant of Selene-Moon.23 Martin West even suggested that Epimenides not only
claimed that he was the son of the goddess Selene, but also claimed that he actually came to
earth from the moon and referred to the arrival of the Nemean lion from the moon as a
precedent of such a space trip (West 1983: 48).
[p.562]
However, the word γένος does not necessarily mean “an offspring” in the sense of “son”, it
can mean “descendant”, and in this case the author of these verses only traces back his
genealogy to Selene, and does not claim that he came from the moon.

22
Diels-Kranz I, 33, n.1. fragments of the Theogony of Mousaios in Bernabe fr. 79–91. The
fragment 81F (from Philodemus) describes the beginning of the cosmogony of Mousaios in
terms very similar to the report of Damascius on the first “beginnings” of Epimenides:
Tartaros, Night, Mist (Aer).
23
West loc. cit., Bernabe, pp.134–135, Mele (2001) 241, Breglia Pulci Doria 2001: 295 ff.

13
It is also worth pondering whether the word “shook out (from herself)” (ἀπεσείσατο) means
here simply “gave birth” (laid an egg) rather than “dropped down (scil. from the moon to the
earth)”, and whether the phrase “shuddered awfully” δεινὸν φρίξασα – refers to the shooking
of wings rather than to a kind of «moon-quake» that allegedly caused lion to fall from the
moon down. L. Breglia Pulci Doria pointed out that in Aristotle (Hist. Anim. 560b) the very
same words in the very same order describe the way of birth (laying eggs) in birds; from
this we can infer that Epimenides imagined Selene as a winged creature (as in the Homeric
hymn to Selene) with female “beautifully-haired” head, that is, as a woman-bird (Breglia Pulci
Doria 2001: 295–300). In this case, there can be no talk of any “space flight” of the Nemean

lion from the Moon to the Earth. The poets who called Kirke the daughter of Helios, and
Mousaios the son of Selene, hardly meant that Kirke flew from the Sun, and Mousaios fell
from the Moon. Consequently, the reference to the Nemean lion suggests a belief in the
reincarnation of souls: the subsequent verses most probably contained the story of the
reincarnations of the soul of the Nemean lion after it was released from lion's body by
Heracles in Nemea and before it entered the narrator’s body (сf. Mazzarino ap. Bernabe, 135,
note ad fr.35,1). It is not accidental that biographical tradition links Epimenides with
Pythagoras: the common doctrine of reincarnation provided the most important link. The
belief in the «memory of ancestors», attributed to Pythagoras, finds an exact parallel in the
Theogony of Epimenides: Pythagoras "remembered" how he was the son of Hermes
Aithalides, then Euphorbos, afterwards Hermotimos and Pyrrhus in previous incarnations.24
Empedocles remembered how he was a boy, a girl, a bush and a fish. Epimenides
remembered how he was the Nemean lion, then in human form “first born as Aiakos”,
subsequent incarnations are not preserved in our sources. The second important piece of
evidence that the author of the Epimenidean Theogony believed in the reincarnation of souls
was preserved by Diogenes Laertius: Epimenides πρῶτος αὑτὸν Αἰακὸν λέγοι (Diog.Laert.
1,114 = Epimen. fr.1 Bern.).

[p.563]
The MSS. text is obviously corrupted and does not make sense: what does it mean
“Epimenides was the first to call himself Aiakos”? The correction of πρῶτος to πρῶτον

24
Diog. Laert. 8.4 = Heraclid. Pont. fr. 89 Wehrli. In Dicaearchus (fr. 36 W.) and Clearchus
(fr. 10 W.) we find another version: Euphorbus, Pyrandros, Aethalides, a beautiful hetaira
Alko and Pythagoras (Burkert 1972: 138).

14
(Casaubon) gives a satisfactory and clear meaning: Epimenides “said that he was Aiakos
first,” that is, the first human incarnation of his soul was Aiakos, son of Zeus, brother of
Minos and Radamanthys.25 The word λέγοι indicates a quote, most probably also
fromTheogony. Since Epimenides could not narrate two different genealogies of his own, it is
reasonable to assume that in his previous lives Aiakos was the first incarnation in human
form, and that the soul of the lion killed by Hercules was reincarnated in the body of Aiakos.
To Aiakos as their first ancestor traced back their gtnealogies the διογενεῖς (born from Zeus)
kings (βασιλεῖς) like Achilles and the kings of Epirus and Macedonia. Whether Epimenides
was from royal family too, and how many intermediate incarnations he listed between Aiakos
and himself, we do not know. In any case, “first” (πρῶτον) implies at least one “second”
(δεύτερον).
Later reports that Epimenides died many times and many times “came back to life”
(ἀναβεβιωκέναι), as pointed out by Gigante, have as their source Theopompus (Gigante, op.
cit.19; Epimenid. fr. 8T). Note that ἀναβιόω is the earliest term for reincarnation, attested in
the classical period, as well as the phrase πάλιν γίνεσθαι (in Plato); the term παλιγγενεσία
occurs for the first time in Chrysippus, and finally, the terms μετενσωμάτωσις (hence
reincarnatio) and μετεμψύχωσις appear only in the imperial times and late antiquity (aliter
Kalogerakos 1996: 18 ff.).
About the nymph Balta, who was considered, according to one version, the mother of
Epimenides, nothing is known. Did she also appear in the text of the Theogony of
Epimenides, or derives from later folklore, which sought to connect Epimenides with some
local Cretan cult, we do not know. Whether the similarity of nymph Balta’s name with the
name of the Canaan-Ugaritic goddess, which was rendered in Greek as Βααλτίς, is significant
or accidental, remains unclear. 26
[p.564]
Herennius Philo "translates" the name of Baaltis into Greek as "Dione" (Διώνη), presumably
because the masculine Baal was equivalent to Zeus/Dia. In Homer (Il.5.370, cf. Hes.Th.17)
Dione is the mother of Aphrodite from Zeus, and later a metronymic for Aphrodite herself. If
the name is of Greek or indigenous Cretan origin, more promising would be the comparison

25
The correct interpretation is given by Gigante 2001: 18-19 who with good reason rejects the
emendation of Αἰακόν to σεληνιακόν proposed by Martin West.
26
Βααλτίς: Herennius Philo FgrHist 790 F2. Βλάττα: Lydus, De mensibus, 1,21. Near-Eastern
origin is supported by Poljakov 1987: 410 ff. Βλάττα is “the name of Aphrodite among
Phoenicians”, according to John Lydus.

15
of the name of Balta with the gloss of Hesychius βλάτταν· χόρτος ἢ λάχανον (Hesych. 680
Latte). The name of a nymph may be a personification of a Cretan plant with therapeutic or
gastronomic use. The variant Βλάστα in the Suda lexicon is also associated with vegetation. If
βλάτταν is a Doric form, this word can be a dialectal variant of βλῆτον (Hippocrates,
Theophrastus). In modern Greek βλήτα is the most popular in the Greek cuisine salad greens
(wild and cultivated) known as χόρτα, green herbs, which are slightly boiled and served with
olive oil and lemon.27

(4) Epimenides as a rhizotomos (root-cutter) and herbalist.

Crete is a real botanical paradise. Of the 2000 species of plants growing on it, 10% are
endemic (Αλιμπέρτης: 5). Both culinary and medical use of herbs, roots and flowers must
have started very early. There is no doubt that already in the Bronze Age, the Minoites knew
not only the culinary and cosmetic, but also the therapeutic use of plants. Cretan aromatic
herbs were exported to Egypt during the 18th dynasty (1543 - 1292 BC, see Koehl 2009:
270). The name of Cretan Epimenides is inseparable from the origins of ancient herbal
medicine and botanical pharmaceuticals. There is a number of biographical testimonia that
describe Epimenides a “root-cutter” (ριζοτόμος) and attribute to him the preparation of
therapeutic “cookies” (ἔδεσμα) or “medicines” (φάρμακα) from plants.28 The historian and
mythographer-allegorist Herodorus of Heraclea (c. 400 BC), Plato in The Laws, Hermippus
the Peripatetic in The Seven Wise Men and Plutarch in Moralia mention as his famous
invention the «hunger-suppressing medicine» (ἄλιμος βρῶσις, ἄλιμον φάρμακον or
Ἐπιμενίδειον φάρμακον).
[p.565]
This was a herbal preparation that contained as ingredients the roots of asphodel
(ἀσφόδελος, Asphodelus ramosus) and mallow (μαλάχη, Malva sylvestris). It made him
“hunger-free” and allowed him neither to eat, nor to drink (Herodor. FGrHist 1026 F 12a =

27
The variant βλῖτον, pace LSJ, should be regarded as secondary, derived from βλῆτον as a
result of itacism. LSJ identifies the plant mentioned in Hippocrates and Theophrastus as
Amaranthus blitum, but the modern Greek βλήτα, judging by photo-images, looks closer to
Amaranthus viridis.

28
Epimenid. fr. 27–29T Bern. On the magical and medicinal botany of Epimenides see
Strataridaki 1991; Capriglione 2001: 37–52.

16
Epimenid. fr. 27T Bern.) According to Demetrius from Magnesia, Epimenides received this
magic drug as a gift from the Nymphs, he always carried it with him in a box made from a
bull’s hoof and took small amounts of it in portions; no one has ever seen him eat anything or
going to the toilet.29 The connection of Epimenides with the Nymphs is also emphasised in
the Cretan legend that his mother was the nymph Balta or Blasta (i.e., the "Grown one"), and
that he advised the Spartans to build a sanctuary of Nymphs (Νυμφαῖον).30 The Nymphs in
Greek mythology were spirits of the wild nature, not least the spirits of plants (dryads and
hamadryads). Thus, the connection of Epimenides with the Nymphs further emphasises his
connection with the Cretan flora and the “collection of roots”. In antiquity there was even a
rationalistic explanation of the “Epimenidean sleep”: in fact, he did not sleep, but lived as a
hermit (ἐκπατῆσαι), collecting roots.31 In addition to the asphodel and mallow as components
of the drug, Philo Mechanicus also speaks of the skilla or sea-onion (σκίλλα)32 and muscari
comosum plant (Greek βολβοί)33: it is useful to plant them in secret places of the house and
around the city walls in case of siege and famine, because from them one can prepare the
"Epimenidean drug", and this will help the survival of citizens.34 Hesiod mentioned the "great
benefits" of asphodel and mallow in Works and Days (Hes.Op. 41). Plutarch believed that
Epimenides borrowed the recipe of his alimos drug from Hesiod. Speaking of the “great
benefits” of asphodel and mallow, Hesiod probably hinted that they did not require
cultivation, but could save people from hunger in difficult times.

[p.566]
All four plants from Epimenides' herbal were widely used in ancient culinary and / or medical
practice. Three of them were valued for their bulbous root (asphodel, skilla, muscari
comosum). Theophrastus recognized that the root of asphodel is edible; Galen confirms that
like skilla it had to be boiled so as not to taste bitter. 35 In Greek folklore

29
Demetr. Magnes fr. 11 Mejer ap. Diog. Laert. 1.114.
30
Theopomp. FGrHist 115F69 ap. Diog. laert.1.115.
31
Diog. Laert. 1.112 = Epimen.fr. 29T Bern.
32
Scientific name Urginea maritima or Drimia maritima, earlier Urginea scilla (Steinheil),
Scilla maritima (Linn.), familia Lileaceae, English: Maritime Squill, Modern Greek popular:
ασκελετούρα, κρομμύδα.
33
Scientific name Muscari comosum, Engl. Tassel Hyacinth, Modern Greek popular βολβοί,
in Crete σκορδουλάκοι – snack (μεζές) of the traditional cuisine.
34
Philo Mechan. Poliorc. exc. lib 7–8, 2, 31 = Epimen. fr. 27T (IV) Bern.
35
Galen. De alimentorum facultatibus, vol. 6, p. 652 Kuehn Τῇ τῆς σκίλλης ῥίζῃ παραπλησία
πώς ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ ἀσφοδέλου κατὰ μέγεθος καὶ σχῆμα καὶ πικρότητα.

17
and in poetry, asphodel is unequivocally associated with the realm of the dead and the
“meadows of Persephone” (Hom. Od. 11, 539. 573; 23,31). Asphodel and mallow were
planted on graves.36 The bulbs of muscari comosum plant (βολβοί) are still sold in Greek
vegetable shops, and Cretan taverns serve it as a traditional snack called σκορδουλάκοι. As in
the days of Galen, they are still served with vinegar. As for the skilla or the sea onion (the
name “sea” is due to the fact that it often grows in the coastal strip), there is a valuable
evidence of Theophrasus in his History of Plants (Hist. Plant. 7,12,1): ἐδώδιμοι μὲν γὰρ οὐ
μόνον βολβοὶ καὶ τὰ ὅμοια τούτοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ τοῦ ἀσφοδέλου ῥίζα καὶ ἡ τῆς σκίλλης, πλὴν
οὐ πάσης ἀλλὰ τῆς Ἐπιμενιδείου καλουμένης, ἣ ἀπὸ τῆς χρήσεως ἔχει τὴν προσηγορίαν ·
αὕτη δὲ στενοφυλλοτέρα τε καὶ λειοτέρα τῶν λοιπῶν ἐστιν. “Not only bolboi and similar
plants are edible, but also the root of asphodel and skilla, though not of every kind, but only
so-called «Epimenidean» skilla, which got its name from the use. It differs from other types
of skilla in that it has narrower and smoother leaves”. Note that in Theophrastus, as well as in
Philo, skilla goes together with bolboi ; the asphodel is also mentioned in this context, but
without mallow, while not a word is said about the “hunger-free drug”.
The word "so-called" indicates that already in the 4th century the name "Epimenidean
skilla" was traditional, therefore it predates Theophrastus. Theophrastus' words that the
“Epimenidean skilla” got its name “from use” imply that this kind of skilla was used in the
magical ritual of “cleansing”, which he describes in “Characters” 16, 13, and which,
therefore, was attributed to Epimenides.
[p.567]
Thus, it is precisely the skilla that turns out to be the link between the “cleansing” and the
“gathering of the roots”, between Epimenides the “purifier” (καθαρτής) and Epimenides the
herbalist (rhizotomos). The ritual-cathartic and mantic wisdom of Epimenides, on the one
hand, and his botanical knowledge of the healing properties of herbs and roots, on the other,
are inseparably connected. In the Cretan myth, a similar combination of a prophetic gift with
knowledge of the healing properties of herbs characterizes Kouretes: Kouretes taught people
to use an ointment based on “Dictaean grass” (δίκταμνος) to heal wounds.37

36
Arist. fr. 66 Rose ap. Eustath. in Od. λ, 538 p. 1698: διὸ καὶ ὁ ἀσφόδελος ᾠκείωται νεκροῖς
διὰ τὸ πρὸς τὴν σποδὸν ὁμοιόφωνον καὶ ἐφυτεύετο ἐν τοῖς τάφοις τὸ τοιοῦτον φυτόν, ὡς
δηλοῖ καί τι τῶν παρὰ τῷ Πορφυρίῳ ἐπιγραμμάτων λέγον ὡς ἀπό τινος τάφου ὅτι “νώτῳ μὲν
μαλάχην τε καὶ ἀσφόδελον πολύριζον, κόλπῳ δὲ τὸν δεῖνα ἔχω”.

37
Anonymi Carmen de viribus herbarum, 74–84.

18
 In the period of the Sophistic Enlightenment of the second half of the 5th century in
Athens, when the Hippocratic treatise On the Sacred Disease was written, containing harsh
criticism of magical medicine and those healers (obviously, specialists in ritual "cleansing"),
who claimed superhuman knowledge (πλέον τι εἰδέναι ), these two traditions in medicine
were already irreconcilable. But Epimenides lived in the archaic period and belonged to the
pre-Hippocratic tradition of "cathartic" traditional medicine, in which the religious and
rational aspects peacefully coexisted. This is the type of divinely inspired or divine healer,
whom Aeschylus calls by the word ἰατρόμαντις «a doctor-seer» in one person, applying it to
Asclepius and Apollo himself.38 In cathartic medicine, a disease or epidemic was understood
as “pollution” (μίασμα), sent by the gods as a punishment for hybris (ὕβρις), blood shedding,
etc. 39 The healer was therefore a "purifier" who by means of cleansing rites cleared the city
of pollution. But the performance of cathartic rites did not at all exclude the use of rational
medicines, primarily of herbal medicine. It is possible that during the purification of Athens
from the Kylonian agos, Epimenides did not confine himself to the use of purely ritual means,
but also put into practice his knowledge of herbal medicine and used antiseptic or
antimicrobial drugs.
[p.568]
It is curious that in one Dutch engraving of 1700 in a treatise titled «Epimenides or a treatise
on the purification rites of ancient peoples», Epimenides is depicted as cleansing Athens with
a huge bush of skilla in his right hand and a cutting tool (probably sickle) in his left.40 The
tradition of sacred medicine to which Epimenides belonged can be typologically compared
with the ancient Indian Atharvaveda (c. 1000 BC) and later Ayurveda. Atharvaveda, along
with ritual spells contains practical phytotherapeutic advice. So, for the treatment of leprosy,
the herbal remedy rajani ausadhi is recommended, which, judging by the description, is a
lichen with antibiotic properties (Atharvaveda I.23-24). According to the Indian legend,
Ayurveda, the traditional herbal medicine, was revealed by the god Indra (an analogue of
Zeus, the god of thunder) to one of the seven wise men (saptarsi) in times immemorial.

38
Aeschyl. Suppl. 263–265 ἰατρόμαντις παῖς Ἀπόλλωνος χθόνα τήνδ’ ἐκκαθαίρει
κνωδάλων βροτοφθόρων, τὰ δὴ παλαιῶν αἱμάτων μιάσμασιν... Eumen. 62–63 (Apollo)
ἰατρόμαντις δ’ ἐστὶ καὶ τερασκόπος καὶ τοῖσιν ἄλλοις δωμάτων καθάρσιος. cf. Agam. 1623.
39
On this fundamental notion of Greek religion see Parker 1983.
40
Iohannis Lomeieri Zutphaniensis Epimenides sive de veterum gentium lustrationibus
syntagma, Zutphaniae, 1700, p. 402.

19
Epimenides was also considered one of the seven wise men of the Greeks and received his
mantic knowledge in the cave of Zeus. As is well known, Ayurveda along with untested
remedies of herbal medicine also recommends such ones, the effectiveness of which is
confirmed by modern medicinal botany and pharmacology (for example, the anti-cancer
effect of turmeric). We are talking about a typological similarity: there are no grounds to
suppose and there is no evidence to prove the influence of Indian herbal medicine on
Epimenides.41
We are dealing either with a parallel development, or in some cases, perhaps, with a common
Indo-European heritage. And besides, there is no evidence on Epimenides’ travels to the
countries of the East (as in the case of Pythagoras); he left Crete only for visits to Athens and
Sparta to perform cleansing rites and the foundation of sanctuaries. At the time of Epimenides
(7th century BC), oral traditions of both ritual-mantic and medico-botanical knowledge,
dating back to the late Minoan culture, could still be alive. Epimenides was the “priest of
Zeus and Rhea”, and priestly titles, especially in Crete which was extremely conservative in
terms of νόμοι, were often hereditary: traditional knowledge in such families, as in Ancient
India, could be passed on in oral tradition from generation to generation.
[p.569]
In the biographical tradition Epimenides is associated with the caves of Cretan Zeus. The cult
of the caves on Crete in the classical era has ancient local roots: it dates back to the Bronze
Age (beginning from the Middle Minoan time, that is, from 2000 BC), and it has not been
transferred from the Middle East (Faure 1996: 207; Willets 1962: 141 ff.). As for the possible
elements of the common Indo-European heritage in Greek and Indian herbal medicine, it is
significant that the ancient Indian Ayur-veda literally means "knowledge about life", that is,
the science of longevity, from ajus "life, vitality" and veda "knowledge". The word veda is
etymologically cognate with Greek εἰδέναι, οἶδα “know”, and the word ajus corresponds to
Greek αἰών in the archaic poetic meaning of “life”, life force, and also “age”. Epimenides was
the most famous, almost proverbial paradigm of longevity among the Greeks; the legend that
he lived for 157 or even 299 years vividly illustrates the sacred knowledge of Epimenides,
“the art of longevity” or, in Sanskrit, Ayurveda. Empedocles ranks the “remedies against old

41
Pace Burkert 1992: 62 who compares an Akkadian text on the purification by onion. Two
objections can be made to this. 1) The skilla of Epimenides is not ordinary onion (Allium
cepa), but another species: Urginea maritima, the so-called sea onion. It is widespread on the
island of Crete, because, as its names indicates, it grows near the sea shore. 2) To read the
Akkadian text at issue Epimenides had first, to know Akkadian, and second, to travel to
Mesopotamia and get access to it. Both assumptions seem rather unlikely.

20
age”, the knowledge of weather magic and the ability to resurrect the dead together with the
esoteric knowledge available only to the elect.42
All four plants from the herbal pharmacy of Epimenides were known in antiquity as food or
edible, especially as a substitute for bread in hard times of war and hunger; therefore the
“hunger-free remedy” (ἄλιμον) of Epimenides also has some kind of empirical and practical
basis, and is not just a poetic fantasy 43. All four plants were also used as drugs in rational
medicine and were known to Hippocrates, Theophrastus, Galen, Dioscorides, and other
physicians and botanists. All four appear in modern collections of Cretan medicinal plants
(Αλιμπέρτης: 173, 299, 303, 305). Two of them (mallow and chives) are widely used in
international medical herbalism for various diseases. Of particular interest to us is the fact that
asphodel, according to some data, has antimicrobial properties (Αλιμπέρτης: 299), and squill
(Urginea maritima) is used as a poison against rodents (Barnes-Anderson 2007: 567).
[p.570]
The fact that rodents could have been carriers of infection during epidemics has been known
to the Greeks since the days of Homer: in the beginning of the Iliad the priest Chryses, in his
prayer invokes Apollo, who will send the plague on the Achaeans, addresses the god with the
epiklesis Σμινθεύς, derived from the dialect word σμίνθος “mouse”.44 The connection of
Apollo, the healing and harming god, with epidemies, is ambivalent: he knows how to send a
plague and he knows how to «purify» from it with his kathartic art.
Therefore, whether the epithet Σμινθεύς means “Σμινθοφθόρος” “mouse-killer” (by analogy
with Σαυροκτόνος) or “Mouse-god” (the one who infests with mice), is not very important.45

42
Emped. B 111 DK φάρμακα δ ̓ὅσσα γεγᾶσι κακῶν και γήραος ἄλκαρ πεύσηι κτλ. Kingsley
1996: 222 ff.
43
Galen. loc. cit. ἐγὼ δ' οἶδα διὰ λιμὸν ἀγροίκους τινὰς ἑψήσεσί τε πλείοσι καὶ ἀποβρέξεσιν
ἐν ὕδατι γλυκεῖ μόλις αὐτὴν (scil. σκίλλαν) ἐδώδιμον ἐργασαμένους. Aristoph. Plut. 543
σιτεῖσθαι δ' ἀντὶ μὲν ἄρτων μαλάχης πτόρθους.

44
A male name si-mi-te-u /Smintheus/ is attested already in Mycenean epoch: KN Am 827 (I
am grateful for this indication to Nikolay Kazansky). Aristarchus’ derivation of this epiklesis
from the supposed name of a city Σμίνθη in Troad (ad Hom.Il.1.39) is just a pious attempt to
get rid of an inappropriate association of Apollo with mice. There is no evidence confirming
the existence of such city.
45
The first possibility is supported by Latacz 2009: 41–42; Kirk ad loc., Leaf ad loc. et al.

21
It is quite possible that Epimenides “purified” Athens from the “Kylonian agos”, that is, from
the epidemic, complementing religious rituals and the foundations of sanctuaries with
effective sanitary measures, in particular, using antimicrobial medicinal herbs and poisoning
rodents-peddlers by mixing the bait for rats with a powerful poison made from «Epimenidean
skilla» (aka Urginea maritima) brought from Crete. Although the Achaeans in the Iliad
believe that the plague is sent by Apollo, their response to the «wrath of Apollo» and their
protective actions are quite rational: they burn the infectious corpses and throw the
contaminated clothes into the sea, in other words they carry out disinfection.

(5) Epimenides, Orphics, and Pythagoras: de fontibus.

It is widely held that the Theogony of Epimenides pertains to the pseudepigrapha and was
composed by an unknown author after 500 B.C. since it allegedly displays influences of the
Orphic Theogony (primordial Night, cosmogonic egg), of the physics of Anaximenes (aer as
«beginnig»), of Anaxagoras' astronomy and of the Orphic-Pythagorean doctrine of
reincarnation. We tried to show above (primarily on the basis of the reconstruction of the
proem) that the Theogony was rather composed closer to the 7th century (circa 600 B.C.) and,
therefore, is authentic or at least contains an authentic core that goes back to historical
Epimenides. In particular, the controversy with Hesiod and the rivalry with the Delphic oracle
is easier to understand in a work of the late 7th or early 6th century, when Hesiod's Theogony
was a relatively recent novelty, rather than in classical times, when Hesiod was already a
classical textbook author, and the authority of the Delphic oracle was undisputed.
[p.571]
Theogonies attributed to mythical singers (Orpheus, Mousaios, Linos) were undoubtedly
pseudepigrapha, their authors were Pythagoreans and soothsayers, who wanted to give in this
way to their works an aura of divinely inspired ancient wisdom. But Epimenides was a
historical person. Aristotle had no doubt that the purification of Athens by Epimenides of
Crete was a historical event (c. 600 BC), and although he did not recognize the authenticity of
the poems of Orpheus and Mousaios (in quoting them he uses such expressions as ἐν τοῖς
Ὀρφικοῖς λεγομένοις ἔπεσι), he quotes Epimenides without reservation as a real author of the
verses.46

46
How meticulous was Aristotle in such questions, is demonstrated by his critique of
«inconsiderate» chronology in Polit. 1274a22 ss. = Orph.fr. 1108 Bernabe. Cf. 1274a 30
…ἀσκεπτότερον τῶν χρόνων λέγοντες.

22
 The supposed influence on Epimenides' Theogony of the physical theory of Anaximenes
(second half of the 6th century) should be rejected on three grounds. First, Epimenides'
Theogony, despite some glimpses of critical thought and personifications of abstract concepts,
generally remains in line with the mythopoetic tradition of genealogical theogony. It does not
reveal any traces of the 6th century scientific revolution and therefore belongs to the pre-
philosophical era. Epimenides ignores the Milesian concept of "nature" (physis); he does not
deal with the etiology of natural phenomena, like Anaximander and Anaximenes. Secondly,
Damascius' report that “Night and Aer” are the «first principles» (ἀρχαί) of all things
according to Epimendes, does not reproduce the authentic wording of Epimenides: this is
Damascius' own Neoplatonic phraseology, which follows the Peripatetic terminology of his
source Eudemus. In the original verses of Epimenides it was most likely said that the Night
and the Mist first came into being (πρῶτ᾽ἐγένοντο Νύξ και Ἀήρ), and after them the misty
Tartarus (Tάρταρα ἠερόεντα γείνατο ...). Night, Mist and the Abyss are not physical elements
and substances, but a poetic description of the primordial chaos. Thirdly, as we have already
indicated, in the epic language ἀήρ means "mist, haze"; only in the late 5th century BC this
word became a standard philosophical term for the invisible element of air. In the original
poetic context of Theogony the reference to night and mist was simply an expressive imagery
indicating that before the emergence of the sky, the earth and the luminaries nothing could be
seen and nothing could be distinguished; the shapelessness of chaos was amplified by the
absence of the "limit" (πεῖραρ) of the abyss (on this see Bernabe 2001: 205-206). We are
dealing here not with a physical theory of elements, but with mythopoetic phenomenology.
[p.572]
If the term ἀήρ, besides indistinguishability and darkness, contained some additional
cosmogonic connotation, then it was not Anaximenes’ mechanism of condensation and
rarefaction of air, but the folklore idea of the fertilizing force of the wind: in the
Aristophanian quasi-Orphic comic ornithogony (Aristoph. Aves, 695) the cosmogonic egg is
described as ὑπηνέμιον «impregnated by the wind».
If this is so, then Epimenides was not a debtor of Orphic poems and Pythagoreans, but on
the contrary: his Theogony was the most likely source of the theogony of “Orpheus” (i.e.
Onomacritus) and of the Orphic-Pythagorean doctrine of the immortality of the soul and
reincarnation. The Derveni papyrus has proved that Orphic theogony was not a late product of
Hellenistic syncretism, as skeptics like Wilamowitz and Linforth believed, but it has not
proved that Orphic theogony was written by Orpheus before the Trojan War, as Neoplatonists
and Renaissance scholars believed. We see no reason to reject the only serious historical

23
evidence on the chronology and authorship of the Orphic Theogony — the evidence of
Aristotle, who considered Orphic Theogony in his lost Περὶ φιλοσοφίας as a composition of
Onomacritus the chresmologue.47 Aristotle is followed by a number of ancient authors who
quote Orphic theogony as a work of Onomacritus and not of «Orpheus», among them are
some very discernible in such matters historians as Pausanias and the critically-minded Sextus
Empiricus.48 Onomacritus (c. 560 - 480 BC) was a younger contemporary of Pythagoras, the
influence of the doctrines of Pythagoras on him cannot be excluded. Moreover, if
Onomacritus of Locri Epizephyrii in Calabria, mentioned by Aristotle, is identical with
Onomacritus the official diviner (chresmologos) at the court of the Pisistratids, then he may
have come from Pythagorean circles himself, or, at least, he must have had strong ties with
the Pythagoreans of Magna Graecia.
[p.573]
The fact that the early Pythagoreans (possibly including Pythagoras himself) published
their poems under the name of Orpheus is firmly attested in reliable early sources.49 Attention
should be paid to the fact that one of the most ancient and unique in its completeness
Orphico-Dionysian gold plates was found in Hipponion, the colony of Locri Epizephyrii (OF

47
Arist. fr.26-27 Gigon (7A-B Rose) = Io. Philopon. ad Ar. de anima (1, 5. 1410b 28 ἐν τοῖς
Ὀρφικοῖς καλουμένοις ἔπεσι): λεγομένοις εἶπεν ἐπειδὴ μὴ δοκεῖ Ὀρφέως εἶναι τὰ ἔπη, ὡς καὶ
αὐτὸς ἐν τοῖς περὶ φιλοσοφίας λέγει· αὐτοῦ μὲν γάρ εἰσι τὰ δόγματα, ταῦτα δέ φησιν
Ὀνομάκριτον ἐν ἔπεσι κατατεῖναι. Cic. de nat. deor. 1, 38: Orpheum poetam docet Aristoteles
numquam fuisse et hoc Orphicum carmen Pythagorei ferunt cuiusdam fuisse Cercopis.
Contra West 1983: 8, 249 ff. Martin West’s scepticism in this case seems to go a bit too far, a
more balanced treatment of the role of Onomacritus in the Peisistratus’ recension of Homer
and Orpheus’ Theogony we find in Nagy 2010: 348 ff.
48
Paus. 8, 37, 5; Sextus Emp. adv. math. 9, 361. The Orphic Theogony is quoted as a work of
Onomacritus also by Christian apologists (Tatian, Clemens Alexandrinus) and scholiasts, see
the testimonia on Onomacritus collected in OF 1109-1119 Bernabe.
49
Ion Chius B 2 DK = D.L. 8.8; Herod. 2.81 (cf. note 90 above); Suda, s.v. Ὀρφεύς.
“Orpheus of Croton” and “Orpheus of Kamarina” are obviously not genuine personal names
of authors, but conventional titles of versions of Orphic poems invented by grammarians who,
like Aristotle, did not believe in the historicity of Orpheus. “Orpheus of Croton” stands for
“Orphic poem(s) the manuscript of which comes from Croton” etc. Suda quotes the
grammarian Asclepiades as saying that “Orpheus from Croton” lived at the court of the tyrant
Peisistratos (Πεισιστράτωι συνεῖναι τῶι τυράννωι). Once we admit that Κροτωνιάτης is not a
genuine ethnikon, but the source of the origin of manuscript, we should seriously consider the
possibility that the reference is to Onomacritus, the compiler of «Orpheus’ theogony» who
lived at the court of Peisistratos.

24
474). But even if Onomacritus, the compiler of the Orphic Theogony, was a Pythagorean, this
does not mean that he could not know the doctrine of reincarnation also from the more ancient
Theogony of Epimenides. According to Aristotle’s unique testimony, he was “trained”, that is,
he received professional training in the art of divination in Crete (γυμνασθῆναι δ᾽αὐτὸν ἐν
Κρήτηι ... κατὰ τέχνην μαντικήν).50 Our hypothesis is simple: during his “training” in the art
of divination in Crete in the 6th century (when the fame of Epimenides resounded all over
Hellas), Onomacritus was educated in the Epimenidean school and became acquainted not
only with the Cretan technique of divination, but also with its theoretical basis, that is, with
the ideas of Epimenides about the origin of the world and the nature of the human psyche set
out in Epimenides' Theogony. It was from this source that Onomacritus borrowed both
“Night” as primordial deity, the cosmogonic egg, and the doctrine of the immortality of the
soul and reincarnation, which Epimenides, supposedly, knew from the oral tradition of his
hieratic genos. We emphasize once again that this oral tradition must have had ancient local
roots (possibly ascending even to the Late-Minoan times), and was not borrowed from
Oriental or «Northern» quarters. We hear nothing from our sources about Epimenides' travels
outside the Hellenic world and it is hard to imagine him learning Akkadian or Egyptian
(though this is theoretically conceivable e.g. in the case of Pythagoras or Democritus).
[p.574]
Plato admired Crete for its cultural conservatism: Crete is a closed society that retains the best
laws and customs “passed over from fathers” just because it is not subject to any outside
influences. As the Cretan Kleinias says in the “Laws”, even Homer is a “foreign poet” for the
Cretans, that is why they don’t read him that much: οὐ γὰρ σφόδρα χρώμεθα οἱ Κρῆτες τοῖς
ξενικοῖς ποιήμασι (Plato, Leg.680c).

50
Arist. Politica 1274 a 26 ss. Aristotle quotes an unknown author who tried to prove that
Sparta's laws were borrowed from Crete, not the other way around: Onomacritus was
"trained" in Crete, his disciple was the lawmaker Thaletas, on whom Lycurgus depends.
Onomacritus of Locri in the text of Aristotle should be identical with Onomacritus who was
active in Athens, first, because Aristotle calls him a diviner, and secondly because, if it was
some other, more ancient Onomacritus of the 7th century BC, Aristotle would not have
pointed out the chronological incongruity. Aristotle does not dispute that Onomacritus "was
educated" in Crete in the art of divination, he only questions that Onomacritus the diviner
who lived in the second half of the 6th – early 5th century BC could be the teacher of the
lawgiver Thaletas in the 7th century BC.

25
 The most important evidence on the genetic connection of the mystery rites of the Orphic
type with Crete, namely with the cults connected with the Idaean cave, we find in the famous
fragment of the lost drama “Cretans” of Euripides, where the choir of the mystai of «Idaean
Zeus” sings addressing the king Minos (in the preceding context it is mentioned that the
procession of mystai is coming from the cypress temple):
ἁγνὸν δὲ βίον τείνων ἐξ οὗ
Διὸς Ἰδαίου μύστης γενόμην,
καὶ νυκτιπόλου Ζαγρέως βροντᾶς51
τὰς τ ὠμοφάγους δαίτας τελέσας
Μητρί τ’ Ὀρείαι δᾷδας ἀνασχὼν
καὶ Κουρήτων
βάκχος ἐκλήθην ὁσιωθείς.
πάλλευκα δ ’ἔχων εἵματα φεύγω
γένεσίν τε βροτῶν καὶ νεκροθήκας
οὐ χριμπτόμενος τήν τ’ἐμψύχων
βρῶσιν ἐδεστῶν πεφύλαγμαι.52

“I lead a holy life since I have become an initiate of the mysteries of Idaean Zeus, and having
accomplished the raw-eating feasts of the wandering-at-night thunder of Zagreus, and raising
the torches to the Mountain Mother with Kouretes, I was sanctified and Ι was proclaimed
“Bakkhos”. Wearing all-white dresses, I avoid the birth of mortals, Ι do not touch coffins and
I am wary of eating animal food."
Zagreus is another name of the chthonic Dionysus, Dionysos Orphikos of the Olbian graffiti,
the son of Persephone (not of Semele), torn apart by the Titans in an act that became the
mythical paradigm of the ritual of omophagia. «Mystai» and «Bakkhoi»53 called themselves

51
βροντᾶς (gen. sing.), scil. νυκτιπόλου, scripsi : βροντάς (?) Pap., acc. Kannicht : βούτης
Diels.
52
Eurip. Cretes, fr. 472, 9–19 TrGF, Kannicht = OF 567 Bernabe.
53
Plate from Hipponion (5th century BC) B10 Edmonds = OF 474 Bern. = No 1, 16 Graf,
Johnston.

26
the owners of the eschatological amulets (golden plates) found in graves who were initiated
into «the rites of Orpheus» (τὰ Ὀρφικά).54
[p.575]
In the afterlife wanderings of the soul according to the gold plates “white cypress” is a kind of
road-sign next to which the sources of Memory (Mnenosyne) and Oblivion (Lethe) flow.
Vegetarianism in the 5th century was unequivocally associated with the “Orpheus' rites” and
implies the belief in the reincarnation of souls.55 “Avoiding birth and coffins” probably has
not only the narrow meaning of the taboo that prohibited contact with women in labor and the
dead, but also the eschatological meaning: one who has ascended to the highest level of
initiation and has been proclaimed and has become «Bakkhos», thereby escapes from the
circle of birth and death, i.e. from the cycle of reincarnations, and goes to the paradise. "White
clothes" in all likelihood are not just white in color, but linen. Herodotus regarded the ban to
bury in woolen clothes a specific feature of the “Orpheus' and Bacchic rites”, which “are in
fact Egyptian and Pythagorean”.56 Already Erwin Rode and Jane Harrison not without reason
saw in this fragment evidence on the connection of Orphic initiations with the cults of Idaean
cave, whereas some researchers expressed doubts about this.57 For us at present occasion this
controversy is not crucial.

54
Graf and Johnston are right when they call the plates «bacchic» rather than «Orphic», since
the initiates in this mystery cult called themselves Βάκχοι, but not Ὀρφικοί. But this does not
exclude the possibility that the very same texts were regarded by the same initiates as
«prophecies» (χρησμοί) or “incantations (ἐπωιδαί) of Orpheus”. Similarly, the phrase
᾽Ορφέως τελεταί “The initiations of (= established by) Orpheus” refers to the mystery cult of
Dionysus.
55
Eurip., Hippol. 952 ff.
56
Herod. 2.81. The long version is undoubtedly the original. ""Orphics" as a term for
religious sect is generally speaking a modern term. The word Ὀρφικοί appears only in the
later grammarians and Neoplatonists as a reference to the poems of Orpheus, in the 5th
century BC it is simply unthinkable. The reading Ὀρφικ<οί> in the ed.princeps of Olbian
graffiti is mistaken, see above note 2. Unfortunately, the editors of editio princeps do not even
discuss the possibility of this reading and the problems it involves. One should pay attention
to the fact that in the motivation of this reading they cite what writes about «Orphics» Alexei
Losev [Russian esoteric religious philosopher]. Zhmud' 2012: 224-225; Betegh 2014: 150 and
many other scholars have been misled by this mistaken reading.
57
E.g. Allan 2004: 132, n. 84 with a reference to Parker. A conclusion made on the ground of
only one passage of Euripides (Hippol. 952) that Orphics were deviant intellectuals whereas
Pythagoreans lived in communities, is not a serious conclusion. There were different
Pythagoreans and different «Orphics». [On the historical and polemical context of this anti-
Orphic invective in «Hippolytus» see now Lebedev 2019: 548, 575].

27
[p.576]
Even if at the time of Euripides, in Knossos there was neither cypress temple nor a procession
of singing Orphics dressed in white, Euripides may have speculated on the origin of the “rites
of Orpheus” in the mythical time of Minos relying on the mythological tradition and historical
and literary sources (in particular, Epimenides' Theogony) and knowing the "Cretan
connections" of the compiler of the Theogony of Orpheus Onomacritus. In any case, the
connection between the Idaean cave, on the one hand, and the Orphic rites and belief in
reincarnation (vegetarianism), on the other, in Euripides' Cretans should have been somehow
motivated by tradition, otherwise the Athenian public in the theater would be perplexed. Let
us not forget that the first incarnation of Epimenides was Aiakos, the brother of Minos. And
Euripides is not the only author who believed in such connection. Quite independently from
Euripides, the historian Ephorus (quoted by Diodorus) connects the origin of Orphic initiation
rites with Idaean cults and Idaean Daktyloi and Kouretes.58
An important archaeological and epigraphic complex of evidence on the connection of
funeral rites and the corresponding eschatology of Orphico-Dionysian persuasion with central
Crete, namely with the region around Mount Ida and the Idaean cave, are texts on gold plates
from Eleutherna and epistomia from Sfakaki (a suburb of Rethymno).59 The studies of Yannis
Tzifopoulos convincingly demonstrate that, despite all the similarities with the common
Greek type, the Cretan plates reveal a specific connection with local beliefs, toponymy and
landscape.60
A certain influence of the theogony of Onomacritus (of the so-called “Orphism”) on the
Pythagoreans, at least in the 5th century BC, cannot be ruled out due to the reference of
Philolaus to “ancient theologians and diviners (manteis)” who prohibit suicide as a crime and
a violation of some logoi that are «stronger than we»: earthen life as a punishment and
reincarnation is meant by these logoi. It is conceivable that Philolaus refers not only to

58
Diod. Sic. 5.64.4 = Ephor. FGrHist 70 F 104. In Ephorus the Idaean Dactyls originally
come from Phrygia whence migrate to Samothrake and Crete. On the typology of cognate
daimones Dactyls, Kouretes, Corybants, Telchines. Cabiri see Blakely 2006: 13-31. Among
mythographical works ascribed to Epimenides there was a Τελχινιακὴ ἱστορία, fr.39 Bern.
59
B3 – B8, E1; E5, B12, G2-G4 Edmonds; L5 A-F, L6A, L15 Bernabé, Jiménes; 10–18 Graf,
Johnston.
60
Tzifopoulos 2011: 165–199. Tzifopoulos. «Paradise» Earned. The Orphic-Bacchic lamellae
of Crete // http://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/ display/5109

28
Orpheus (primarily), but also to those who, according to Aristotle, “put his teachings into
poems,” that is the chresmologue Onomacritus.61 But from this it does not follow that
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans were not familiar with Onomacritus' more ancient source,
that is, with Epimenides' Theogony.
[p.577]
Apparently, Epimenides (along with "Orpheus") was revered in the Pythagorean school with
the same piety as Pythagoras later in Plato's Academy, that is, as a keeper of the ancient
esoteric knowledge (as a matter of fact, unlike the mythical Orpheus, Epimenides indeed was
such keeper). 62 If our interpretations of the fragments of the Theogony of Epimenides, as well
as the reconsideration of its authenticity and dating are correct, it must be admitted that its
role and significance in the intellectual history of the Greeks has been seriously
underestimated. We mean first of all the origins of the philosophical idealism (mentalism) (on
this problem see Lebedev 2019) and the Pythagorean-Platonic doctrine of the soul. The
influence of Epimenides on the Pythagoreans was not limited to the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul and reincarnation. First, the Pythagoreans, as later Platonists,
considered Epimenides an authority in political philosophy, philosophy of law and
legislation.63 Whether they relied on oral tradition or on written sources, we do not know, but

61
Philolaus 44 B 14 DK. The authenticity of this fragment has been on insufficient grounds
denied by Burkert 1972: 248; Huffman 1993: 404 ff.; Zhmud 2012: 230. There is nothing
specifically “Platonic” in the semantics of ψυχή in B 14. Already in Heraclitus, some 100
years before Plato, ψυχή is a carrier of moral and intellectual qualities and virtues: fr. 19, 73-
74 Leb. = B 107, 117-118 DK. The variability of usage in Heraclitus also demonstrates
(contra Huffman) that one and the same philosopher could use the term ψυχή both in this
allegedly “Platonic” sense (ψυχὴ σοφωτάτη καὶ ἀρίστη) and in the old Homeric sense “life”
(ψυχῆς ὠνεῖται fr. 89 Leb. = B 85 DK). Philolaus’ fragment B 14 sets out grounds for the
prohibition of suicide in B16 and explains the meaning of the words λόγους κρείττους ἡμῶν
«doctrines that are stronger than we», i.e. divine commands that are superior than human
considerations (e.g. to commit suicide in order to avoid unbearable suffering).
Philolaus’ fragment B 14, like many other genuine Preplatonic texts, has fallen victim
of the Platonocentrism and pseudo-historical evolutionism [as well as of the myth
about «Presocratics» the physicalists] which everywhere looks for supposed development
«from the simple to the complex» (from concrete to abstract, from physical to mental etc.)
and ignores the constants and continuity in Hellenic thought.
62
Epimenides and Pythagoras: Epimen. fr. 22T-26T Bernabe.
63
It is significant that Plato mentions Epimenides in Laws 642d-e. The middle Platonist
Plutarch emphasises not only the religious, but also the political aspect of
Epimenides’activities in Athens and believes that these activities contributed to the success of
Solon’s reforms (Plut. Sol. 12 = Epimen. fr. 3T Bern.). The Corpus Epimenideum in antiquity

29
let us not forget that in the proem of his Theogony, in the «recollection» of his prophetic
dream, Epimenides said that he spoke not only with Aletheia, but also with Dike. Secondly,
the Pythagoreans and Platonists quoted and elaborated on the herbal medicine of
Epimenides.64
[p.578]
Thirdly, it is necessary to mention in this connection the unique find of a dodecahedron from
rock crystal with the numbers 1-10, 15, 20 inscribed on 12 facets in the Idaean cave
(Chaniotis 2006: 205-216), obviously a device for divination, probably a kind of sophisticated
astragalomanteia: it was probably rolled in a container, the number on the top facet indicated
the corresponding number of a prepared answer from the complete set of answers The
discovery of three of the five "Platonic bodies" (pyramid, cube and dodecahedron) in the
scholia to Euclid is attributed to the Pythagoreans; in Plato's Timaeus the dodecahedron is a
divine polyhedron, by the form of which the demiurgos has decorated the Universe (Schol.
Euclid. V, 654 Heiberg). Astragalomanteia, divination by dice (cubes or knucklebones), dates
back at least to the archaic period, since astragali were found in the archaic strata of the
Apollo temples in Ionia (Seipel 2008: 185). According to our hypothesis, this form of
divination was also adopted by wandering Orpheotelests, such as Pharnabazos «the diviner of
Hermes» in the late 5th century BC Olbia Pontica to whom we attribute the kleromantic bone
plates with the so called «Orphic» graffiti from Olbia (Lebedev 1996: 268 ff., cf. also note 2
above). In Heraclitus the cosmic god of time Aion plays pesseia (a game similar to the
modern Greek tavli), in which the pieces on the board are moved following the rolls of the
dice. Aion plays with the fates of gods and men who alternately and endlessly exchange roles
in the same way as black and white chips on the board.65 Just as white and black pieces
(πεσσοί) exchange their position on the board symbolizing a battlefield, so gods and men
exchange their roles in the perpetual alternation on the way back and forth (ὁδὸς ἄνω κάτω)
between heaven and earth: losers become mortals and slaves, winners become immortals and

included a “Cretan politeia” (D.L. I,112). Aristotle in Politics 1252b 13 quotes from an
unknown work of Epimenides a hapax ὁμοκάπνους “those who share the same fireplace”, a
designation of the members of one family. Note that this is a Cretan gloss, probably a
verbatim quotation from the end of hexameter.
64
See the texts collected in Bernabe Epimen. fr. 27T-30T. Important influence of Epimenides
on the Pythagorean botany is admitted by Strataridaki 1991: 212, contra Bernabe 2007: 126.
Alcmaeon of Croton who had strong connections with Pythagoreans proposed the first theory
of the origin of plants: Lebedev 1993: 456 ff.
65
For the interpretation of the metaphors of pesseia and astragali in Heraclitus see Lebedev
2014: 79-80, 308-312, 324, 332-333.

30
free (fr. 32-33, 153-154 Leb. with comm.). Unlike Orphics and Pythagoreans Heraclitus was
not a dualist and did not consider the soul as an incorporeal entity from another world.
Heraclitus was a naturalistic monist (like all Ionian thinkers) and considered the soul to be
“evaporation” (anathymiasis) from the blood (at the level of the microcosm), similar to
evaporation from the sea (at the level of the macrocosm), on which the sun “feeds” (fr.67-69A
Leb.). Heraclitus also did not believe in classical reincarnation, i.e. transmigration of the soul
after death in the bodies of animals and plants. Nevertheless, the eschatological doctrine of
Heraclitus about the fate of souls has a certain similarity with Orphica and Pythagoreanism.
[p.579]
Heraclitus taught about the cyclical alternation of life and death, similar to the alternation of
sleep and wakefulness. In addition, although Heraclitus did not recognize animal
reincarnation, he taught about the elemental transmigration of souls. Being an inseparable part
of the cosmic process of cyclical change, the vaporous soul is involved in the cycle of
interchange of the four elements (maxima membra mundi, not Empedoclean immutable
«chemical» elements!), the eternal cycle of birth and death on the way back and forth, similar
to the race in a stadium.66 It is possible that Heraclitus intentionally proposed an allegorical
naturalistic reinterpretation of the Orphic myth of the palingenesia, and this was noticed by
the Derveni allegorist (col.IV) who compares the teachings of Heraclitus with the "sacred
word" of Orpheus.67 Also noteworthy is the coincidence of the symbolic (eschatological) use
of the opposition ΠΟΛΕΜΟΣ ΕΙΡΗΝΗ in Heraclitus and in Olbian «Orphic» graffiti.68 In one
passage Heraclitus expresses a paradoxical idea (known to Plato and the Pythagoreans) that
the earthly life is a dream of the soul, and death is its awakening.69
Nikos Giannadakis put forward an original hypothesis according to which Heraclitus'
invectives against the “dreamers” and against the kathartic rites have a concrete addressee,
namely Epimenides of Crete, with his kathartic art and the long sleep (Giannadakis 1989: 63-

66
Fr.69 Leb., cf. fr. 47, 50, 51, 51А, 52, 55 Leb. It is worth noticing that in Empedocles’
Katharmoi both the classical animal reincarnation and the elemental transmigration
(migration of the soul from one element and cosmic region to another) peacefully coexist: see
Emped. fr. 31 B 115 DK.
67
Pap. Derveni, col.IV, 5–10; p.188–191 Bernabe = Heraclit. fr. 56 Leb. For details on our
reconstruction and interpretation of col.IV see Lebedev (2019bis) 532-544.
68
Heraclit. fr. 43 Leb. (67 DK), cf. Bernabé, Jiménes 2008: 38.
69
Heraclit. fr. 77 Leb. (21 DK) with comm.

31
68). This hypothesis in such a bold form did not find many supporters for obvious reasons:
the name of Epimenides is not mentioned in the surviving fragments of Heraclitus, and
Heraclitus, of course, means by axynetoi (those who fail to understand the divinne cosmic
logos) not a single person, but the whole non-philosophical part of humanity and, above all,
the poets and myth-makers (Homer and Hesiod). Still, there is «something» in Giannadakis'
proposal once we modify it. Although the name of Epimenides is not attested in the fragments
of Heraclitus, he must have known the legend of Epimenides' «dream» since it was mentioned
(and probably ridiculed) by Xenophanes with whose poetry Heraclitus was familiar. 70
[p.580]
According to the legend that goes back to the proem of Theogony, Epimenides communicated
with the gods in his prophetic dream and in a dream he heard a tale about the origin of the
world and the gods. Heraclitus could extrapolate the case of the Eimenidean dream as a
source of mythology to all poets, primarily Homer and Hesiod, who "dreamed out" the whole
anthropomorphic mythology of the Greeks. Of course, Heraclitus did not consider these
poetic dreams to be prophetic, but delusional: he contrasts with the «many» individual
doxastic worlds of the poets-dreamers the «one common» «this cosmos» of the philosophers,
and with the anthropomorphic polytheism of the «many» he contrasts the only one true god
(cosmic Mind, Γνώμη, τὸ Σοφόν), that alone governs the whole Universe as perceived by the
awaken mind of the philosopher.71
An early and impressive biographical tradition dating back to the 5th century BC.
presents as a teacher of Pythagoras Pherecydes of Syros who, as we are told, already before
Pythagoras was the "first" who put forward the doctrine of the immortality of souls and
reincarnation.72 It would be preposterous to dismiss this tradition a limine and to suspect that
the doctrines of the disciple were by mistake ascribed to the teacher. It seems likely that in
his Pentemychos Pherecydes spoke about the wandering of souls in the “hidden deeps”
(μυχοί) of the cosmos.73 In the text of Pherecydes Zeus «throws down» into Tartarus the gods

70
Xenophan, B 20 DK = Diog. Laert. 1. 111 Xenophanes heard that Epmenides died at the
age of 154.
71
Heraclit. fr. 1–10 Leb., 11–13 Leb., 14–20 Leb. , fr. 37 (κόσμον τόνδε), fr. 136–141 Leb.
72
Pherecyd., test. 2, 7, 11, 20, 21 22, 24–31, 37, 43–51a, 56–57 etc. Schibli.
73
Correctly Schibli, Pherecydes, 104 ff., 129. Dubitanter Kalogerakos 1996: 368–372.

32
who have sinned and those who have shed blood (Pherecyd. 83 Schibli = B 5 DK). This is a
close parallel to the Orphic-Pythagorean myth about the expulsion of souls from the heavenly
paradise into the earthly world of suffering as a punishment for exactly the same crime.
Pherecydes, unlike Epimenides, may have been familiar with Near-Eastern theogonies, so it is
difficult to say something definite about his sources. If he does not depend on Epimenides in
the case of reincarnation and did not borrow his teachings from some oriental source (but
which?), one might rather suppose (and this seems more likely to us) that he followed some
local island traditions about immortal souls and reincarnation cognate with the Cretan beliefs.

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[p.583-584]
Summary
A. V. Lebedev. The Theogony of Epimenides of Crete and the origin of the
Orphic-Pythagorean doctrine of reincarnation

It is commonly believed that the epic Theogony of Epimenides of Crete derives from
the corpus of pseudepigrapha under his name and that it was composed by anonymous
author (with Pythagorean background) after 500 B.C. We demonstrate (mainly on the
basis the reconstruction of the proem of the Theogony) that such influences do not
exist and we arrive at the conclusion that the Theogony was written by Epimenides
himself around 600 B.C. Aristotle who was skeptical about the authorship of the
poems attributed to Orpheus and Musaeus, cites Epimenides without reservations as
the real author of the verses he cites. Therefore, the common elements between
Epimenides on the one hand, and the Orphics and Pythagoreans on the other (Night as
the first principle, the cosmic egg, the immortality and reincarnation of the soul),
should be interpreted as borrowings by the latter from Epimenides, not vice versa. As
a “priest of Zeus and Rhea” Epimenides belongs to the ancient Cretan hieratic clan
that claimed descendance from Aiakos, son of Zeus; in view of the extreme
conservatism of Cretan cultural, political and religious traditions, the sources of
Epimenides’ divine wisdom should be sought not in the hypothetical “northern” or
eastern quarters, but in the local oral traditions that go back the Late Minoan times and

37
are closely tied with the cults and myths of the region around Mount Ida and similar
oracular caves. The discussion of Epimendes’ herbal medicine shows that it is
connected both with therapeutic use of herbs and with cathartic rituals; Indian
Ayurveda provides a close typological parallel to this, so common Indo-European
roots are possible. After this we address the problem of the origin and the sources of
the Orphic Theogony and propose a new solution. Taking at its face value Aristotle’s
information on Onomacritus as the author of the Orphic epic Theogony, we discuss the
“Cretan connections” of Onomacritus and adduce in favour of our hypothesis
numerous literary and epigraphical-archeological pieces of evidence that connect early
Orphism and the belief in the reincarnation with the Idaen cave and the region around
it (Orphic golden plates and epistomia from Eleutherna and Sfakaki near Rethymno
collected and studied by Tzifopoulos). Inter alia, we also propose a new interpretation
of the Orphic graffiti written on bone plates from Olbia as divinatory devices (mantic
cards, the oldest known ancestor of the cards Tarot) that probably belonged to the
“diviner of Hermes” Pharnabazos of Olbia and were connected with the dice
divination (astragalomanteia), the proper art of Hermes. The divinatory dodecahedron
found in the Idaean cave seems to be connected with astragalomanteia, as well.

Keywords: Epimenides of Crete, Theogony, early Greek philosophy, divination,

oniromancy, epic poetry, ritual slendering, rites de passage, Orphism, Orphic gold
plates, Pythagoreanism, Pythagoras, soul, immortality, longevity, reincarnation,
metempsychosis, Onomacritus, Aristotle, Euripides, Theopompus, Lion of Nemea,
liar’s paradox, phytotherapy, history of herbal medicine, Ayurveda, Crete, Idaean
cave, Eleutherna, Sfakaki, origin of the cards Tarot, astragalomancy (dice divination),
Hermes, Apollo, Zeus.

38
39