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 HymnsLXXVII. To Mnemosyne · Lines 1–10

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LXXVII. To Mnemosyne · Lines 1–10

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Ancient Greek

p. 250

LXXVII. ΜΝΗΜΟΣΥΝΗΣ

θυμίαμα λίβανον

Μνημοσύνην καλέω, Ζηνὸς σύλλεκτρον, ἄνασσαν,

ἣ Μούσας τέκνωσ’ ἱεράς, ὁσίας, λιγυφώνους,

ἐκτὸς ἔχουσ’ ἀπάτης μνήμην βλαψίφρονος αἰεί,

πάντα νόον συνέχουσα βροτῶν ψυχῇσι σύνοικον,

εὐδύνατον κρατερὸν θνητῶν αὔξουσα λογισμόν,

ἡδυτάτη, φιλάγρυπνος ὑπομνήσκουσά τε πάντα,

ὧν ἂν ἕκαστος ἀεὶ στέρνοις γνώμην κατάθηται,

οὔτι παρεκβαίνουσ’, ἐπεγείρουσα φρένα πᾶσιν.

ἀλλά, μάκαιρα θεά, μύσταις μνήμην ἐπέγειρε

εὐιέρου τελετῆς, λήθην δ’ ἀπὸ τῶνδ’ ἀπόπεμπε.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LXXVII. To Mnemosyne

p. 251

LXXVII. To Mnemosyne

fumigation from frankincense

I call Mnemosyne, bedfellow of Zeus, queen,

who bore the Mousai, sacred, pure, clear-voiced,

keeping memory always outside mind-harming deceit,

holding together the whole mind that dwells with the souls of mortals,

increasing the strong and greatly able reasoning of mortals,

sweetest, lover of wakefulness, and putting all things in mind,

whatever each man lays up always as purpose in his breast,

never straying aside, rousing the wits in all.

But, blessed goddess, rouse in the initiates the memory

of the well-hallowed rite, and send forgetfulness away from them.

3.Three of this line's words are editors', and the manuscripts say something else. The codices read ἐκτὸς ἐοῦσα κακῆς μνήμης βλαψίφρονος αἰεί — being always outside evil mind-harming memory, which makes the goddess stand clear of bad remembering. Hermann's ἔχουσα for ἐοῦσα and his accusative μνήμην for μνήμης turn her from someone outside memory into someone who keeps memory outside something, and Wiel's ἀπάτης for κακῆς supplies what she keeps it outside of. The printed line is about deceit; the transmitted line is about memory itself. The English follows the printed text. The sic on ἔχουσα is Abel's usual flag that the lemma quotes Hermann's unelided form where his own verse prints ἔχουσ’.

9–10.μνήμην … λήθην: the hymn ends by asking for one and against the other, and the two words frame the whole book's account of what an initiation is for — the rite is to be remembered. Forgetting is what the goddess is asked to send away, and the pairing is the whole argument of the hymn: what the initiate must not lose is the rite. εὐιέρου τελετῆς is the phrase of LXXV.3 and the one Abel reaches for in his query at LXXI.12.

5, 7.εὐδύνατον … λογισμόν — the greatly able reasoning. λογισμός is a philosopher's word in a hymn, and it sits beside νόος at 4, φρήν at 8 and γνώμη at 7. The edition renders γνώμη purpose on the ruling made at Block 10 against βουλή, counsel — in twelve of the thirteen places it stands, once LXXXVI.5, 8 and 17 are counted in; the thirteenth, XXXIX.7, still reads designs and is on the final-run list; here the purpose is what a man lays up in his breast — στέρνοις κατάθηται — and what the goddess then reminds him of. The codices read ἑκάστοις and κάτθηται at 7, both recorded without an editor's name.

1–2.σύλλεκτρον — bedfellow, sharer of the bed. Mnemosyne is named by her relation to Zeus and then by her daughters, and the hymn says nothing else about her origins; the Titaness of Hesiod's genealogy is not mentioned. The preceding hymn began from the other end, Μνημοσύνης καὶ Ζηνὸς … θύγατρες: both hymns open on her name, one taking her as the mother of the addressees and the other as the addressee herself, and both name Zeus in the same line.

6.φιλάγρυπνος — lover of wakefulness, or fond of lying awake. The adjective is used of the sleepless as well as of the watchful, and a goddess of memory who does not sleep is doing something more particular than remembering. The hymn does not say what, and the edition does not supply it. Hermann's τε for the codices' δέ at this line is the only change in it.

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.