The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns

Name: The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Author: Attributed to Orpheus

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The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The HymnsLXXXVII. To Thanatos · Lines 1–6

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LXXXVII. To Thanatos · Lines 1–6

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Ancient Greek

p. 276

LXXXVII. ΘΑΝΑΤΟΥ

θυμίαμα μάνναν

Κλῦθί μευ, ὃς πάντων θνητῶν οἴηκα κρατύνεις

πᾶσι διδοὺς χρόνον ἁγνόν, ὅσων πόρρωθεν ὑπάρχεις·

σὸς γὰρ ὕπνος ψυχὴν θραύει καὶ σώματος ὁλκόν,

ἡνίκ’ ἂν ἐκλύῃς φύσεως κεκρατημένα δεσμὰ

τὸν μακρὸν ζῴοισι φέρων αἰώνιον ὕπνον,

κοινὸς μὲν πάντων, ἄδικος δ’ ἐνίοισιν ὑπάρχων,

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LXXXVII. To Thanatos

p. 277

LXXXVII. To Thanatos

fumigation from manna

Hear me, you who hold the tiller of all mortals,

giving to all a holy span of time — to as many as you stand far from;

for your sleep shatters the soul and the body's frame,

whenever you loose the firm-held bonds of nature,

bringing to living things the long everlasting sleep,

common to all, yet standing unjust toward some,

1.οἴηκα κρατύνεις, “you hold the tiller”, for the third and last time. At LVIII.8 Eros alone holds the tiller of all these things; at LXIV.8 Nomos alone holds the tiller of living things; here Thanatos holds the tiller of all mortals — and this is the one of the three without μοῦνος. The collection gives the same image to three gods and withholds the exclusive word from Death, who has the best title to it — though the hymn supplies it twice seven lines later, at 8 (μούνῳ) and 9 (μόνος).

2.χρόνον ἁγνόν, a “holy span of time”: the allotted life, holy because it is measured out. The second half of the line is compressed even for this collection — ὅσων πόρρωθεν ὑπάρχεις, “from however many you stand far off” — and says that Death is at a distance from the living for exactly as long as their time lasts.

6–7.The one place in the book where a god is called unjust. Death is common to all and therefore fair, and takes the young and is therefore not; the hymn states the contradiction in a single line and does not resolve it. Line 7's νεοήλικας ἀκμάς, “the prime of the young”, is what makes it unjust.

About This Reading Edition

The eighty-eight Orphic Hymns and the Prayer to Musaeus, in Ancient Greek and English, with the supplied critical apparatus, explanatory notes, introduction, glossary and editorial matter.

Historical Text and Translation

Orphic Hymns, attributed to Orpheus. Greek text after Eugenius Abel, Orphica (Leipzig and Prague, 1885), pages 57–102.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The ancient Greek source and the 1885 Abel edition are public-domain material. The supplied new English translation and editorial matter are published with the site owner’s authorization. Both supplied original files remain unchanged.