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Attributed to Orpheus

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 HymnsXLIV. To Semele · Lines 1–11

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XLIV. To Semele · Lines 1–11

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Ancient Greek

p. 154

XLIV. ΣΕΜΕΛΗΣ

θυμίαμα στύρακα

Κικλήσκω κούρην Καδμηίδα παμβασίλειαν,

εὐειδῆ Σεμέλην, ἐρασιπλόκαμον, βαθύκολπον,

μητέρα θυρσοφόροιο Διωνύσου πολυγηθοῦς,

ἣ μεγάλας ὠδῖνας ἐλάσσατο πυρφόρῳ αὐγῇ

ἀστραπίοιο τεκοῦσα Διὸς βολίσι Κρονίοιο·

τιμὰς τευξαμένη παρ’ ἀγαυῆς Φερσεφονείης

ἐν θνητοῖσι βροτοῖσιν ἀνὰ τριετηρίδας ὥρας,

ἡνίκα σοῦ Βάκχου γονίμην ὠδῖνα τελῶσιν

εὐίερόν τε τράπεζαν ἰδὲ μυστήριά θ’ ἁγνά.

νῦν σέ, θεά, λίτομαι, κούρη Καδμηίς, ἄνασσα,

πρηΰνοον καλέων αἰεὶ μύστῃσιν ὑπάρχειν.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XLIV. To Semele

p. 155

XLIV. To Semele

fumigation from storax

I call the maiden daughter of Kadmos, queen of all,

fair-formed Semele, of lovely hair, deep-bosomed,

mother of the thyrsos-bearing Dionysos of much gladness,

who drove out her great birth-pangs by the fire-bearing flash

when she bore him, by the bolts of Zeus of the lightning, son of Kronos;

who won her honours from noble Phersephoneia

among mortal men, through the trieteric seasons,

whenever they accomplish the fruitful birth-pang of your Bakchos

and the well-hallowed table and the holy mysteries.

Now, goddess, I beseech you, maiden daughter of Kadmos, queen,

calling on you to be gentle-minded to the initiates always.

4–5.The lightning that killed her is the light by which she gives birth: one flash does both, and the hymn puts the birth-pangs and the bolt in the same clause without a word about her death. Both halves of line 5 are Wiel’s — ἀστραπίοιο for the codices’ ἀθανάτου, and βολίσι for βουλαῖς. With the manuscripts the line has neither lightning nor bolts in it, and reads “bearing him by the designs of immortal Zeus”. The whole point of the note above therefore rests on two conjectures, and is set out here so that a reader can weigh them.

5.ἀστράπιος is a form the lexica find only in these Hymns, and this is its third appearance: Zeus Ἀστραπίου in the heading of XX, ἀστράπιον at XX.5, and here of the father at Semele’s childbed. At XX it too was Abel’s substitution for what the manuscripts head Ἀστραπέως.

6–7.τιμὰς τευξαμένη παρ’ ἀγαυῆς Φερσεφονείης. Semele’s honours come from Persephone, not from Zeus, and are paid in the trieteric festival — biennial by inclusive reckoning, as at XXX.5. Her apotheosis is very well attested (Hesiod Theog. 940–942, Apollodorus 3.5.3, Diodorus 4.25.4, Pausanias 2.31.2 and 2.37.5, Hyginus 251), but Persephone is named in none of them. And παρ’ ἀγαυῆς is Pierson’s for the codices’ παρ’ αὐτῆς, with which Persephone is not in the line at all. The detail is worth having and is worth marking twice over.

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.