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 HymnsLXXVIII. To Eos · Lines 8–13

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Facing Pages · Branch 130 of 147

LXXVIII. To Eos · Lines 8–13

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Ancient Greek

p. 254

LXXVIII. ΗΟΥΣ

θυμίαμα μάνναν

ὃς φεύγει τὴν σὴν ὄψιν καθυπέρτερον οὖσαν,

ἡνίκα τὸν γλυκὺν ὕπνον ἀπὸ βλεφάρων ἀποσείσῃς,

πᾶς δὲ βροτὸς γήθει, πᾶν ἑρπετὸν ἄλλα τε φῦλα

τετραπόδων πτηνῶν τε καὶ εἰναλίων πολυεθνῶν·

πᾶσι γὰρ ἐργάσιμον βίοτον θνητοῖσι πορίζεις.

ἀλλά, μάκαιρ’, ἁγνή, μύσταις ἱερὸν φάος αὔξοις.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LXXVIII. To Eos

p. 255

LXXVIII. To Eos

fumigation from manna

who flees your face as it stands supreme,

when you shake the sweet sleep from the eyelids,

and every mortal rejoices, and every creeping thing, and the other tribes

of four-footed and winged and sea-dwelling, of many nations;

for to all mortals you furnish a workable livelihood.

But, blessed and holy, may you increase the sacred light for the initiates.

Extent.Thirteen lines. Abel's marginal numerals stand beside ἀντολίαις (5) and πᾶς δὲ βροτὸς γήθει (10), and three lines follow the second of them. The block's first count, taken from a page overview, made the hymn twelve; the margin and a line count settle it. The block therefore runs to ninety-five lines, not ninety-four.

Abel's queries.With LXXI.12 εὐιέροις? and the two here, the volume now has seven interrogative entries in Abel's apparatus, over the text set through LXXVIII: IX.9 κερασφόρε Abel] τελεσφόρε; an σελασφόρε scribendum?, XXXI.3 πολύρυθμοι?, XL.18 καρποῖσι βρύουσα?, LVIII.2 τοξουλκῆ?, LXXI.12 εὐιέροις?, and the two here. They fall into two forms — a bare word with a question mark, and a full Latin question, An … scribendum? — and both forms are present from IX.9 onward, so neither is new. All seven are conjectures the editor puts on the page without adopting, and they are the clearest sign in the book that Abel regarded his own text as provisional. They are recorded here in his words and are not taken into the text.

10–11.πᾶν ἑρπετὸν ἄλλα τε φῦλα | τετραπόδων πτηνῶν τε καὶ εἰναλίων — every creeping thing, and the other tribes of four-footed and winged and sea-dwelling. The division of the animals into creeping, four-footed, winged and marine is a catalogue of the whole animate world, and the hymn's point is that all of it wakes with the light; the next line then narrows to mortals and their working day. ἐργάσιμον βίοτον, a workable livelihood, is among the plainest statements in the set text of what a god is for.

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.