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 HymnsIII. To Nyx · Lines 1–7

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III. To Nyx · Lines 1–7

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p. 24

III. ΝΥΚΤΟΣ

θυμίαμα δαλούς

Νύκτα θεῶν γενέτειραν ἀείσομαι ἠδὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν.

Νὺξ γένεσις πάντων, ἣν καὶ Κύπριν καλέσωμεν.

κλῦθι μάκαιρα θεά, κυαναυγής, ἀστεροφεγγές,

ἡσυχίῃ χαίρουσα καὶ ἠρεμίῃ πολυύπνῳ,

εὐφροσύνη, τερπνή, φιλοπάννυχε, μῆτερ ὀνείρων,

λυσιμέριμν’, ἀγαθήν τε πόνων ἀνάπαυσιν ἔχουσα,

ὑπνοδότειρα, φίλη πάντων, ἐλάσιππε, νυχαυγές,

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: III. To Nyx

p. 25

III. To Nyx

fumigation from torches

Nyx, mother of gods and of men, I shall sing.

Nyx, origin of all things, whom let us also call Kypris.

Hear, blessed goddess, dark-gleaming, star-shining,

rejoicing in quiet and in sleep-filled stillness,

gladness, delight, lover of the all-night rite, mother of dreams,

looser of cares, holding a good rest from toils,

giver of sleep, dear to all, driver of horses, night-gleaming,

Rubric.δαλοί, firebrands — burning wood, not a resin. The offering for a night rite is the light carried into it. It is not the only rubric that names no aromatic: Pan at XI is given ποικίλα, various substances, and later hymns call for all seeds but beans (XXVI), everything but frankincense with a milk libation (LIII), and poppy (LXXXV).

2.Night as γένεσις πάντων, the origin of all things, aligns this hymn with the Eudemian theogony and — on the usual reconstruction, which West and Brisson dispute — with the Derveni papyrus, both of which begin from Night. It does not align with the Rhapsodies, which begin from Chronos and the egg (see VI.1–2 below), or with the Hieronyman theogony, which begins from water. There is no single Orphic cosmogony. — Her identification with Kypris is asserted here without argument, but the collection warrants it elsewhere: at LV.2–3 Aphrodite is φιλοπάννυχε, νυκτερία and μῆτερ ἀνάγκης, which is the whole complex of this hymn — the all-night rite of line 5 and the ἀνάγκη of line 11.

5.φιλοπάννυχος is formed on πάννυχος, “all night long”, and recurs of Aphrodite at LV.2. It is tempting to read it as evidence of when the association actually met; that is inference, not what the line says.

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.