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 8–13

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LXIX. To the Erinyes · Lines 8–13

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Ancient Greek

p. 230

LXIX. ΕΡΙΝΝΥΩΝ

θυμίαμα στύρακα καὶ μάνναν

Ἀίδεω χθόνιαι, φοβεραὶ κόραι, αἰολόμορφοι,

ἠέριαι, ἀφανεῖς, ὠκύδρομοι ὥστε νόημα,

αἵτ’ αἰεὶ θνητῶν πάντων ἐπ’ ἀπείρονα φῦλα

ὄμμα Δίκης ἐφορᾶτε, δικασπόλοι αἰὲν ἐοῦσαι.

ἀλλά, θεαὶ Μοῖραι, ὀφιοπλόκαμοι, πολύμορφοι,

πρηΰνοον μετάθεσθε βίου μαλακόφρονα δόξαν.

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

p. 231

LXIX. To the Erinyes

fumigation from storax and manna

chthonic daughters of Hades, dreadful, of shifting form,

airy, unseen, swift-running as thought,

you who always, over the boundless tribes of all mortals,

cast the eye of Dike, judges for evermore.

But, Moirai goddesses, snake-tressed, of many forms,

make the change to a gentle-minded, soft-hearted view of life.

9.This is the other end of the transposition recorded at LX.6–9. The apparatus there says Ruhnken moved verses 6–9 into the hymn to the Charites out of hymn LXIX; the apparatus here says where they stood — before Ruhnken there were read, after v. 9, the verses which he transferred to hymn LX. So the four argumentative lines beginning οὔτε γὰρ ἠελίου ταχιναὶ φλόγες belong, in the manuscripts, to the Erinyes, between the list of their epithets and the two lines about the eye of Dike. Abel records the move in both places, but not the same facts in each: the LX entry gives the number of verses and which lines they now are, and prints them as lines about the Charites; the LXIX entry gives the place they came from and no number at all. Neither page shows them where the manuscripts put them.

11.ὄμμα Δίκης ἐφορᾶτε — you cast the eye of Dike. The phrase Ὄμμα Δίκης opened LXII, seven hymns back, where it was the hymn's own addressee; here the same two words are an office held on someone else's behalf. Neither line carries an apparatus entry. The collection has made the eye of Justice first a goddess and then a duty.

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.