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 HymnsLXXIX. To Themis · Lines 7–12

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LXXIX. To Themis · Lines 7–12

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Ancient Greek

p. 258

LXXIX. ΘΕΜΙΔΟΣ

θυμίαμα λίβανον

πάντιμ’, ἀγλαόμορφε, σεβάσμιε, νυκτιπόλευτε·

πρώτη γὰρ τελετὰς ἁγίας θνητοῖς ἀνέφηνας,

Βακχιακὰς ἀνὰ νύκτας ἐπευάζουσα ἄνακτα·

ἐκ σέο γὰρ τιμαὶ μακάρων μυστήριά θ’ ἁγνά.

ἀλλά, μάκαιρ’, ἔλθοις κεχαρισμένη εὔφρονι βουλῇ

εὐιέρους ἐπὶ μυστιπόλους τελετὰς σέο, κούρη.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LXXIX. To Themis

p. 259

LXXIX. To Themis

fumigation from frankincense

all-honoured, of splendid form, revered, roaming by night;

for you first revealed the consecrated rites to mortals,

crying euhoi to the lord through the Bacchic nights;

for from you come the honours of the blessed and the holy mysteries.

But, blessed one, may you come well pleased, with kindly counsel,

to your well-hallowed, mystery-celebrating rites, maiden.

7.The line opens exactly as XIV.5 does of Rhea — πάντιμ’, ἀγλαόμορφε — and then diverges. Abel prints the elided πάντιμ’ against the manuscripts' πάντιμε, which the apparatus records. That is the same lemma/text divergence as at LXIII.3, and the same way about: there too the codices read the unelided πάντιμε and the printed line elides — though at LXIII.3 the elision is Dinner's, and the divergence in that entry is between the lemma πάντιμ and the verse πάντιμ’, the apostrophe itself.

8.ἁγίας. This is the fifth of the collection's “holy” words, after ἁγνός, ἱερός, ὅσιος and εὐίερος, and it is rendered consecrated here and throughout — a ruling taken at this block, with all six occurrences (VI.11, XLI.7, LII.8, LIV.10, LV.28 and this line) finally in view. The five earlier places still read holy or hallowed and are listed for repair in the final run.

11.εὔφρονι βουλῇ, “with kindly counsel”, is the collection's most persistent closing formula: XIV.12, LIX.20, LXX.1, LXXIV.9 and here — five places. (Block 12's note counted four; this line is the fifth and the note has been amended.) At XIV.12 and LIX.20 the English still reads kindly purpose, which is the rendering this edition reserves for γνώμη; a final-run repair.

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.