The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns

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

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The HymnsLIX. To the Moirai · Lines 1–10

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LIX. To the Moirai · Lines 1–10

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Ancient Greek

p. 196

LIX. ΜΟΙΡΩΝ

θυμίαμα ἀρώματα

Μοῖραι ἀπειρέσιοι, Νυκτὸς φίλα τέκνα μελαίνης,

κλῦτέ μευ εὐχομένου, πολυώνυμοι, αἵτ’ ἐπὶ λίμνης

ὀρφναίης, ἵνα λυγρὸν ὕδωρ νυχίης ὑπὸ θέρμης

ῥήγνυται ἐν σκιερῷ λιπαροῦ μυχῷ εὐλίθου ἄντρου,

ναίουσαι πεπότησθε βροτῶν ἐπ’ ἀπείρονα γαῖαν·

ἔνθεν ἐπὶ βρότεον δόκιμον γένος ἐλπίδι κούφῃ

στείχετε πορφυρέῃσι καλυψάμεναι ὀθόνῃσι

μορσίμῳ ἐν πεδίῳ, ὅθι πάγγεον ἅρμα διώκει

δόξα δίκης παρὰ τέρμα καὶ ἐλπίδος ἠδὲ μεριμνῶν

καὶ νόμου ὠγυγίου καὶ ἀπείρονος εὐνόμου ἀρχῆς·

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LIX. To the Moirai

p. 197

LIX. To the Moirai

fumigation from aromatics

Moirai unbounded, dear children of black Nyx,

hear me as I pray, of many names, you who upon the lake

of darkness, where the mournful water under the night-heat

breaks out in the shadowy recess of a sleek, fair-stoned cave,

dwelling there, you range abroad over the boundless earth of mortals;

from there upon the tried mortal race, with light hope,

you walk, veiled in your robes of purple linen,

on the plain of doom, where opinion drives the all-earth chariot

past the bound of justice and of hope and of cares,

and of primordial law and of boundless lawful rule;

1.Νυκτὸς φίλα τέκνα μελαίνης. The same half-line, unaltered, closes VII.3, where it is said of the Stars: Ἀστέρες οὐράνιοι, Νυκτὸς φίλα τέκνα μελαίνης. Both lines were read at the page and neither carries an apparatus entry, so the repetition is the collection's and not an editor's. It gives the formula to two sets of children, the stars and the Fates — which suits both, since the hymn to the Stars also calls them σημάντορες of all allotment (VII.6). On the parentage, Hesiod has it twice and differently: Night bears the Moirai at Theogony 217, and at 904 they are daughters of Zeus and Themis. This hymn follows the first of the two, which is also the passage whose next two lines, naming Klotho, Lachesis and Atropos, modern editors bracket as interpolated.

3–4.The Moirai are given a dwelling-place, which is unusual in itself: a dark lake, and a cave where water breaks out under a night-warmth. Little of the picture is transmitted. ὀρφναίης stands for the codices' οὐρανίας, “heavenly”, and λυγρόν for λευκόν, “white”, both Wiel's; νυχίης is Abel's for νυχίας; and the whole of line 4's case-endings are Hermann's, the codices having λιπαρῷ μυχῷ εὐλίθῳ ἄντρῳ. The manuscripts describe a heavenly lake with white water; the printed text describes an underground one with mournful water.

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.