Between the Derveni Papyrus and the Cratylus

the divine names of the Hesiodic triad

Abstract

Following on from a previous article on col. 14 of the Papyrus of Derveni, the question of divine names is now analyzed in comparison with the Platonic Cratylus, whose etymology section contains a clear parodic intention to the Orphic allegorical procedures, supported by etymological speculations. The nomothetes of Cratylus certainly has to do with the function attributed in the Papyrus to ‘Orpheus’. For the poem's commentator, moreover, Uranus, Cronos and Zeus are a single entity (Nous), which is shown in the explanation of the divine names: the term nous, by etymological or semantic association (in the case of Zeus) is dominant in it, integrating itself into a cosmogonic context, which Cratylus replaces with an ethical and theological criterion. It is also shown how the ambiguity of the commentator's language allows him to monopolize the poem's doctrine, creating another message about it. This is what happens with the “great feat”, which the Orphic poem would link to Cronos, but which in the Papyrus is understood to be Uranus.