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 HymnsLXXIV. To Leukothea · Lines 1–10

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LXXIV. To Leukothea · Lines 1–10

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Ancient Greek

p. 242

LXXIV. ΛΕΥΚΟΘΕΑΣ

θυμίαμα ἀρώματα

Λευκοθέην καλέω Καδμηίδα, δαίμονα σεμνήν,

εὐδύνατον, θρέπτειραν ἐυστεφάνου Διονύσου.

κλῦθι, θεά, πόντοιο βαθυστέρνου μεδέουσα,

κύμασι τερπομένη, θνητῶν σώτειρα μεγίστη·

ἐν σοὶ γὰρ νηῶν πελαγοδρόμος ἄστατος ὁρμή,

μούνη δὲ θνητῶν οἰκτρὸν μόρον εἰν ἁλὶ λύεις,

οἷς ἂν ἐφορμαίνουσα φίλη σωτήριος ἔλθῃς.

ἀλλά, θεὰ δέσποινα, μόλοις ἐπαρωγὸς ἐοῦσα

νηυσὶν ἐπ’ εὐσέλμοις σωτήριος εὔφρονι βουλῇ,

μύσταις ἐν πόντῳ ναυσίδρομον οὖρον ἄγουσα.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LXXIV. To Leukothea

p. 243

LXXIV. To Leukothea

fumigation from aromatics

I call Leukothea, daughter of Kadmos, august daimon,

greatly able, nurse of Dionysos of the fair garland.

Hear, goddess, ruler of the deep-breasted sea,

delighting in the waves, greatest saviour of mortals;

for in you lies the unsteady sea-running rush of ships,

and you alone loose the piteous doom of mortals at sea,

to whomever you come, hastening on, dear and saving.

But, lady goddess, may you come as a helper,

to the well-benched ships, saving, with kindly counsel,

bringing to the initiates on the sea a ship-speeding fair wind.

LXXIV–LXXV.A pair. Leukothea is Ino, daughter of Kadmos, who nursed the infant Dionysos, was driven mad, leapt into the sea with her son Melikertes and became a sea-goddess; Palaimon of the next hymn is that son under his divine name. The collection hymns them in order, gives Leukothea aromatics and Palaimon manna, and makes both of them rescuers of ships. The proem names all three of them in one line: Ἰνὼ Λευκοθέην τε Παλαίμονά τ’ ὀλβιοδώτην, and Ino Leukothea, and Palaimon giver of blessing. So the identification these two hymns leave implicit — that Leukothea is Ino, and that Palaimon is her son — is already made at the head of the book, and the edition takes it from there rather than from outside. Apart from the proem neither is named anywhere in the text set so far, through LXXVIII; the genealogy the two hymns assume is Kadmos' — Καδμηίδα here, Σύντροφε … Διωνύσου at LXXV.1 — and it is stated in both places without being explained. They are not, however, the collection's only rescuers at sea: XXXVIII.5 asks the Kouretes of Samothrace to ward off the dangers of mortals who wander the sea, κινδύνους θνητῶν ἀπερύκετε ποντοπλανήτων, and XXXVIII.24 calls them σωτήριοι. That line carries no apparatus entry either.

2.εὐδύνατον, greatly able. The word is one of this collection's habits and stands in seven places besides this one: it is the first word of the hymn to Nike at XXXIII.1, it is given to Plouton at XXIX.20, to the Kouretes and Korybantes at XXXVIII.20 and to Kronos at LXXXIV.1, it is genitive at LXXVI.6 and accusative at LXXVII.5, and it is the codices' reading at LXXVI.10, where Abel prints a proper name in its place. (This note first said six; LXXXIV.1 was added when Block 13 was set.) Of the printed seven only LXXVI.6 and LXXXIV.1 carry an apparatus entry on their line, and those fall on νόου and on Ἱστίη, not on the adjective, which no editor has ever touched. θρέπτειραν, nurse, likewise returns in the plural at LXXVI.5, of the Mousai as nurses of the soul.

6–7.μούνη δὲ θνητῶν οἰκτρὸν μόρον εἰν ἁλὶ λύεις — and you alone loose the piteous doom of mortals at sea. LXXV.7 gives the same office to her son: σωτὴρ μοῦνος, sole saviour, to mortals in a storm. Two consecutive hymns each say their god is the only one who does this, and neither carries an apparatus entry on the word. And the office is not theirs alone: XXXVIII.5 asks the Kouretes to ward off the dangers of sea-wandering mortals, in a line of the same shape and with the cognate adjective ποντοπλάνητος. The collection does not notice the contradiction, and the edition does not reconcile it; it is worth setting beside LXIV.8 and LVIII.8, where Nomos and Eros are each said to hold the tiller alone.

9.σωτήριος εὔφρονι βουλῇ. XIV.12 reads ἐλθέ, μάκαιρα θεά, σωτήριος εὔφρονι βουλῇ, of Rhea — the same two words in the same order at the same place in the line. Neither carries an apparatus entry on the phrase. εὔφρονι βουλῇ alone stands also at LXX.1 and LIX.20.

1, 7.Both of the hymn's apparatus entries are Hermann's and both are formal: the Ionic accusative Λευκοθέην for the codices' λευκοθέαν, and the subjunctive ἔλθῃς for the optative ἔλθοις after οἷς ἄν. The second is not a one-off. Hermann made the identical substitution at XXXIII.5, φέρῃς for φέροις, in a line that shares this one's whole opening — οἷς ἂν ἐφορμαίνουσα stands at XXXIII.5 and at LXXIV.7, five words in common between two hymns forty apart, with the same editor's hand at the same place in each. Neither line carries any other entry. The text of this hymn is otherwise the manuscripts': two entries in ten lines, which is the lightest apparatus in the block.

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.