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 HymnsLXIX. To the Erinyes · Lines 1–7

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LXIX. To the Erinyes · Lines 1–7

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Ancient Greek

p. 228

LXIX. ΕΡΙΝΝΥΩΝ

θυμίαμα στύρακα καὶ μάνναν

Κλῦτε, θεαὶ πάντιμοι, ἐρίβρομοι, εὐάστειραι,

Τισιφόνη τε καὶ Ἀλληκτὼ καὶ δῖα Μέγαιρα·

νυκτέριαι, μύχιαι, ὑπὸ κεύθεσιν οἰκί’ ἔχουσαι

ἄντρῳ ἐν ἠερόεντι παρὰ Στυγὸς ἱερὸν ὕδωρ,

οὐχ ὁσίαις βουλῇσι βροτῶν πεποτημέναι αἰεὶ

λυσσήρεις, ἀγέρωχοι, ἐπευάζουσαι ἀνάγκαις,

θηρόπεπλοι, τιμωροί, ἐρισθενέες, βαρυαλγεῖς,

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LXIX. To the Erinyes

p. 229

LXIX. To the Erinyes

fumigation from storax and manna

Hear, all-honoured goddesses, loud-roaring, criers of euhoi,

Tisiphone and Allekto and divine Megaira;

of the night, of the inmost places, having homes beneath the depths

in a murky cave beside the sacred water of Styx,

for ever on the wing at the impure counsels of mortals,

raging, high-handed, crying euhoi over the necessities,

clothed in hides, avengers, exceeding mighty, heavy with pain,

3, 9, 12.The Erinyes are given the Fates' epithets and then the Fates' name. νυκτέριαι here at line 3 and ἠέριαι and ἀφανεῖς at line 9 are the words Abel prints at LIX.15 and LIX.17 of the Moirai, and line 12 addresses these goddesses outright as θεαὶ Μοῖραι. But only ἀφανεῖς is shared in the manuscripts. At LIX the other two are Ruhnken's: the codices have νυκτέριοι at 15 and ἀέριοι at 17, Ruhnken exchanged them, and Abel's text then prints the feminines ἠέριαι and νυκτέριαι that his own lemmas do not have — one of the standing instances of the divergence between his text and his lemmas. So two of the three shared words are shared only in the printed text. The identification at line 12 is a different matter and stands in both witnesses: it is not glossed and is not obviously an error, since the Erinyes enforce what is allotted and the hymn's last line asks for a change of allotment, μετάθεσθε. But the Moirai of LIX are three other sisters with three other names.

1, 2, 6.εὐάστειραι … ἐπευάζουσαι — criers of euhoe, the Bacchic cry, twice in six lines of the Furies; ἐρίβρομοι in line 1 is also a Dionysiac word. The collection gives the avengers the vocabulary of the thiasos, which is either a claim about what their pursuit is like or a trace of the collection's own Bacchic setting; the hymn does not say which. One of the three names is also editorial in form: the codices give the lower-case common noun μεγαῖρα, the grudging one, and Abel prints the proper name Μέγαιρα.

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.