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 HymnsXXX. To Dionysos · Lines 1–9

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XXX. To Dionysos · Lines 1–9

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Ancient Greek

p. 112

XXX. ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΥ

θυμίαμα στύρακα

Κικλήσκω Διόνυσον ἐρίβρομον, εὐαστῆρα,

πρωτόγονον, διφυῆ, τρίγονον, Βακχεῖον ἄνακτα,

ἄγριον, ἄρρητον, κρύφιον, δικέρωτα, δίμορφον,

κισσόβρυον, ταυρωπόν, ἀρήιον, εὔιον, ἁγνόν,

ὠμάδιον, τριετῆ, βοτρυηφόρον, ἐρνεσίπεπλον.

Εὐβουλεῦ, πολύβουλε, Διὸς καὶ Φερσεφονείης

ἀρρήτοις λέκτροισι τεκνωθείς, ἄμβροτε δαῖμον·

κλῦθι, μάκαρ, φωνῆς, ἡδὺς δ’ ἐπίπνευσον ἀμεμφής,

εὐμενὲς ἦτορ ἔχων, σὺν ἐυζώνοισι τιθήναις.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XXX. To Dionysos

p. 113

XXX. To Dionysos

fumigation from storax

I call on Dionysos loud-roaring, crier of euhoi,

first-born, twofold in nature, thrice-born, Bacchic lord,

wild, unspeakable, hidden, two-horned, two-formed,

ivy-teeming, bull-faced, warlike, Euian, holy,

eater of raw flesh, of the third year, grape-bearing, robed in shoots.

Eubouleus, of many counsels, of Zeus and Phersephoneia

begotten in unspeakable beds, immortal daimon;

hear my voice, blessed one, and breathe upon me, sweet and blameless,

holding a kindly heart, with the fair-girdled foster-mothers.

2.πρωτόγονον, διφυῆ, τρίγονον. The first two words are VI.1 with the verb taken out — Πρωτόγονον καλέω διφυῆ — so Protogonos’s name and his epithet are both handed to Dionysos here, without comment. The third, τρίγονος, states the doctrine of the three births that the collection nowhere explains.

5.ὠμάδιος, of the raw. Dionysos Ὦμάδιος is a genuine cult title (Porphyry, De abstinentia 2.55), and a rite whose name contains ὠμοφαγ- is named in a Milesian cult regulation of 276/5 BC; but no ancient source derives the one from the other, and what the historical rite involved is disputed. τριετῆ names the τριετηρίς, which by the ancient inclusive reckoning falls every third year and so in fact every other year.

6–7.Dionysos as Eubouleus, son of Zeus and Phersephone. This is the Dionysos of the Orphic theogonies, begotten on Persephone and torn apart by the Titans (Diodorus 5.75.4); the name Zagreus for him is a modern coinage and is not used of him in the Orphic sources themselves. The hymn gives the parentage in a relative clause and passes on. For the name elsewhere see XXIX.8, XLI.8, XLII.2, LII.4 and LVI.3 — and XVIII.12, where Plouton is Εὔβουλος, which is a different word.

9.τιθήναις, the nurses — the nymphs who reared him. The hymn ends by asking him to come with his own attendants, as the Kouretes will be asked to come at XXXI.6.

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.