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 HymnsXVII. To Poseidon · Lines 1–10

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XVII. To Poseidon · Lines 1–10

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Ancient Greek

p. 72

XVII. ΠΟΣΕΙΔΩΝΟΣ

θυμίαμα σμύρναν

Κλῦθι, Ποσείδαον γαιήοχε, κυανοχαῖτα,

ἵππιε, χαλκοτόρευτον ἔχων χείρεσσι τρίαιναν,

ὃς ναίεις πόντοιο βαθυστέρνοιο θέμεθλα,

ποντομέδων, ἁλίδουπε, βαρύκτυπος, ἐννοσίγαιε,

κυμοθαλές, χαριτῶπα, τετράορον ἅρμα διώκων,

εἰναλίοις ῥοίζοισι τινάσσων ἁλμυρὸν ὕδωρ,

ὃς τριτάτης μοίρης ἔλαχες βαθὺ χεῦμα θαλάσσης,

κύμασι τερπόμενος θηρσίν θ’ ἅμα, πόντιε δαῖμον·

ἕδρανα γῆς σώζοις καὶ νηῶν εὔδρομον ὁρμήν,

εἰρήνην, ὑγίειαν ἄγων ἠδ’ ὄλβον ἀμεμφῆ.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XVII. To Poseidon

p. 73

XVII. To Poseidon

fumigation from myrrh

Hear, Poseidon, earth-holder, dark-maned,

god of horses, holding in your hands the bronze-wrought trident,

you who dwell in the foundations of the deep-breasted sea,

ruler of the deep, loud in the brine, heavy-sounding, earth-shaker,

flourishing in waves, of gracious face, driving the four-horse chariot,

shaking the salt water with the rushings of the sea,

you who by the third lot were allotted the deep stream of the sea,

delighting in the waves and in the beasts alike, daimon of the deep;

may you keep safe the seats of the earth and the fair course of ships,

bringing peace, health, and blameless prosperity.

7.τριτάτη μοῖρα, the third lot: the division of the world by lot among Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, which Poseidon recounts at Iliad 15.187–93. The hymn's numbering is not Homer's — there Poseidon is the second brother and Hades the third (τρίτατος δ’ Ἀΐδης), and the phrase τριτάτῃ ἐνὶ μοίρῃ at 15.195 is used of Zeus's share. The next hymn repeats the half-line verbatim of Plouton at XVIII.6, and departs from Homer further still.

Variant.Abel prints in brackets an entirely different Poseidon hymn from the codex Thryllitianus — not an alternative ending, as at XV, but a second hymn. It is a centonic reassembly rather than a fresh composition: one line is verbatim from the received hymn (the trident, XVII.2 = variant 5), a second is adapted (the chariot, XVII.5 ~ variant 6), and its closing couplet is lifted from the following hymn, variant 7–8 answering XVIII.17–18, the second of them word for word. Its theology is also its own: Poseidon is son of Zeus, father of gods and men, dwelling on Olympos, holding the second lot. The received hymn says nothing of Zeus at all — the brother-genealogy is Homer's and Hesiod's, not this hymn's. Both versions stood in the tradition.

Variant 8.μυστιπόλοις here and at XVIII.18 — those who conduct the mysteries. Abel prints μυστιπόλοις in the text but reports Hermann's reading as μυστοπόλοις, marked sic, errore? — a suspected slip for the form printed. The manuscripts give μουσοπόλοις, “servants of the Muses”, which would make the hymn rejoice in poets rather than in celebrants.

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.