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 HymnsLXXV. To Palaimon · Lines 1–8

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LXXV. To Palaimon · Lines 1–8

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Ancient Greek

p. 244

LXXV. ΠΑΛΑΙΜΟΝΟΣ

θυμίαμα μάνναν

Σύντροφε βακχεχόροιο Διωνύσου πολυγηθοῦς,

ὃς ναίεις πόντοιο βυθοὺς ἁλικύμονας, ἁγνούς,

κικλήσκω σε, Παλαῖμον, ἐπ’ εὐιέροις τελετῇσιν

ἐλθεῖν εὐμενέοντα, νέῳ γήθοντα προσώπῳ,

καὶ σώζειν μύστας κατά τε χθόνα καὶ κατὰ πόντον·

ποντοπλάνοις γὰρ ἀεὶ νηυσὶν χειμῶνος ἐναργὴς

φαινομένου σωτὴρ μοῦνος θνητοῖς ἀναφαίνῃ,

ῥυόμενος μῆνιν χαλεπὴν κατὰ πόντιον οἶδμα.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LXXV. To Palaimon

p. 245

LXXV. To Palaimon

fumigation from manna

Foster-brother of Dionysos of the Bacchic dance, of many joys,

you who dwell in the sea's depths, salt-billowed and holy,

I call you, Palaimon, to the well-hallowed rites

to come kindly, rejoicing with a youthful face,

and to save the initiates both over land and over sea;

for to sea-wandering ships always, manifest, when the storm

shows itself, you shine out sole saviour to mortals,

warding off the harsh wrath upon the swell of the sea.

1.Σύντροφε — foster-brother, one brought up alongside. Palaimon is Melikertes, Ino's son, who went into the sea with her; on the hymn's own genealogy that makes Dionysos, whom his mother nursed, the child he was raised with. The word is the hinge between this hymn and the last, and it occurs nowhere else in the text set so far, through LXXVIII.

6–7.One ending changes what appears. The codices read φαινόμενος, nominative, agreeing with the god: appearing, sole saviour, you shine out to mortals. Hermann's genitive φαινομένου makes a genitive absolute with χειμῶνος — when the storm shows itself — and moves the appearing from the god to the weather. Abel prints Hermann's reading, and the English follows it, keeping the participle's break across the line as the Greek has it. The manuscript reading leaves the storm merely mentioned and doubles the god's appearing, ἐναργής … φαινόμενος … ἀναφαίνῃ, which is not obviously wrong for a hymn of this kind.

3.ἐπ’ εὐιέροις τελετῇσιν — to the well-hallowed rites. This is the phrase behind Abel's query at LXXI.12, where his text prints εὐίερον with πρόσωπον and his apparatus adds only εὐιέροις?; and it returns at LXXVII.10, εὐιέρου τελετῆς. The adjective is one of the collection's own: it stands at VII.2, VII.12, XI.22, XXIV.11, XLI.10, XLII.3, XLIV.9, LIII.10, LVII.8 and LXVI.10 before this block — ten places. At the first of them the manuscripts give it as two words, εὖ ἱεραῖς, and Lennep joined them; everywhere else it is transmitted as the compound.

5.κατά τε χθόνα καὶ κατὰ πόντον — over land as well as over sea. A sea-god asked to save on land too: the petition exceeds the office the rest of the hymn gives him, and the next three lines are entirely maritime. The collection does the same thing at LXXIV.8–10, where Leukothea, having been asked for ships, is asked for a fair wind.

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.