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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 HymnsPrayer to Musaeus · Lines 34–44

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Prayer to Musaeus · Lines 34–44

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Ancient Greek

p. 16

ΕΥΧΗ ΠΡΟΣ ΜΟΥΣΑΙΟΝ

καὶ Σεμέλην Βάκχου τε συνευαστῆρας ἅπαντας,

Ἰνὼ Λευκοθέην τε Παλαίμονά τ’ ὀλβιοδώτην

Νίκην θ’ ἡδυέπειαν ἰδ’ Ἀδρήστειαν ἄνασσαν

καὶ βασιλῆα μέγαν Ἀσκληπιὸν ἠπιοδώτην

Παλλάδα τ’ ἐγρεμάχην, κούρην, Ἀνέμους τε πρόπαντας

καὶ Βροντὰς Κόσμου τε μέρη τετρακίονος αὐδῶ·

Μητέρα τ’ ἀθανάτων, Ἄττιν καὶ Μῆνα κικλήσκω

Οὐρανίην τε θεάν, σύν τ’ ἄμβροτον ἁγνὸν Ἄδωνιν

Ἀρχήν τ’ ἠδὲ Πέρας — τὸ γὰρ ἔπλετο πᾶσι μέγιστον —

εὐμενέας ἐλθεῖν κεχαρημένον ἦτορ ἔχοντας

τήνδε θυηπολίην ἱερὴν σπονδήν τ’ ἐπὶ σεμνήν.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: Prayer to Musaeus

p. 17

Prayer to Musaeus

and Semele, and all who cry euhoi together with Bakchos,

and Ino Leukothea, and Palaimon giver of prosperity,

and Nike sweet-spoken, and queen Adresteia,

and the great king Asklepios, giver of gentleness,

and Pallas the maiden who rouses battle, and all the Winds,

and the Thunders, and the parts of the four-pillared Kosmos, I name aloud;

and the Mother of the immortals, Attis and Men I call,

and the goddess Ourania, and with her immortal holy Adonis,

and Beginning and End — for that was greatest of all —

to come with favour, holding a heart made glad,

to this sacred rite and to the august libation.

34.συνευαστῆρες: those who join in the cry εὐοῖ. Most naturally this denotes the mythical thiasos — satyrs, maenads, nymphs — invoked as powers alongside Semele. It is tempting, and no more than that, to hear the living association naming itself inside its own list.

39.The four-pillared Kosmos: the four elements as the world’s supports. αὐδῶ is Portus’s correction; the manuscripts give αὐλῶν.

40–41.Attis, Men, Ourania and Adonis: Phrygian, Anatolian and Levantine cult — though by this date all four were worshipped across the empire, and they localise nothing on their own. The evidence for where the collection was used lies rather in Hipta (48, 49), Mise (42) and Melinoe (71), who are attested in inscriptions only in western Asia Minor.

42.Beginning and End are invoked as powers, like everything else in the catalogue. The line asks them to come; it does not speculate about them.

43–44.The whole forty-two-line sentence lands on the infinitive ἐλθεῖν. The English holds the suspension rather than breaking the period up, because the delay is the point: nothing is asked for until every god has been named.

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.