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 HymnsXL. To Demeter of Eleusis · Lines 1–10

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XL. To Demeter of Eleusis · Lines 1–10

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Ancient Greek

p. 144

XL. ΔΗΜΗΤΡΟΣ ΕΛΕΥΣΙΝΙΑΣ

θυμίαμα στύρακα

Δηοῖ, παμμήτειρα θεά, πολυώνυμε δαῖμον,

σεμνὴ Δήμητερ, κουροτρόφος, ὀλβιοδῶτι,

πλουτοδότειρα θεά, σταχυοτρόφε, πανδώτειρα,

εἰρήνῃ χαίρουσα καὶ ἐργασίαις πολυμόχθοις,

σπερμείη, σωρῖτις, ἀλωαίη, χλοόκαρπε,

ἣ ναίεις ἁγνοῖσιν Ἐλευσῖνος γυάλοισιν,

ἱμερόεσσ’, ἐρατή, θνητῶν θρέπτειρα προπάντων,

πρώτη ὑποζεύξασα βοῶν ἀροτῆρα τένοντα

καὶ βίον ἱμερόεντα βροτοῖς πολύολβον ἀνεῖσα,

αὐξιθαλές, Βρομίοιο συνέστιος, ἀγλαότιμος,

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XL. To Demeter of Eleusis

p. 145

XL. To Demeter of Eleusis

fumigation from storax

Deo, all-mother goddess, daimon of many names,

august Demeter, nurse of the young, giver of prosperity,

wealth-giving goddess, feeder of the corn-ear, all-bestowing,

rejoicing in peace and in labours of much toil,

of the seed, of the heap, of the threshing-floor, of the green fruit,

you who dwell in the holy glens of Eleusis,

lovely, desired, nurse of all mortals alike,

first to yoke the ploughing neck of oxen

and to send up for mortals a life desired and rich in blessing,

making growth and bloom, hearth-fellow of Bromios, of splendid honour,

8.πρώτη ὑποζεύξασα βοῶν ἀροτῆρα τένοντα — she first yoked the ploughing ox. The third claim in the collection that a named power was first to do something: the Nereids first revealed the rite at XXIV.10, the Kouretes first established it at XXXVIII.6, and Demeter here invents the plough. The first two are about the mysteries; this one is about agriculture, and it is the only one of the three that would be at home in any hymn to Demeter. The whole line is Hermann’s reconstruction of the codices’ ἣ πρώτη ζεύξασα.

10.Βρομίοιο συνέστιος — sharing a hearth with Bromios, one of Dionysos’s names. The hymn to Demeter of Eleusis puts Dionysos at her hearth in a single word and moves on; the four hymns that close this block are all his.

5.σπερμείη is the feminine of the σπερμεῖος given to Apollo at XXXIV.3, six hymns earlier. Both are cited by the lexica from this collection and nowhere else. The whole line is Hermann’s Ionicization of the codices’ σπερμία σωρῖτι ἀλωαῖα.

Rubric.Abel’s page prints θυμίαμα στίρακα here — an iota where στύρακα needs an upsilon. The same word is set correctly at XLII, XLIV and XLIX, and the υ of θυμίαμα two sorts away is a plain u-shape where this letter is a single narrow stroke. The fifth misprint found in this edition; recorded, not adopted.

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.