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 HymnsXIX. To Zeus of the Thunderbolt · Lines 17–23

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XIX. To Zeus of the Thunderbolt · Lines 17–23

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Ancient Greek

p. 82

XIX. ΚΕΡΑΥΝΙΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ

θυμίαμα στύρακα

οὐράνιον προκάλυμμ’ ἀφίεις ἀργῆτα κεραυνόν.

ἀλλά, μάκαρ, θυμὸν βαρὺν ἔμβαλε κύμασι πόντου

ἠδ’ ὀρέων κορυφῇσι· τὸ σὸν κράτος ἴσμεν ἅπαντες.

ἀλλὰ χάριν λοιβῆς σὺ δίδου, φρεσὶν αἴσιμα πάντα,

ζωήν τ’ ὀλβιόθυμον, ὁμοῦ θ’ ὑγίειαν ἄνασσαν

εἰρήνην τε θεάν, κουροτρόφον, ἀγλαότιμον,

καὶ βίον εὐθύμοισιν ἀεὶ θάλλοντα λογισμοῖς.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XIX. To Zeus of the Thunderbolt

p. 83

XIX. To Zeus of the Thunderbolt

fumigation from storax

the heavenly covering, you let loose the white thunderbolt.

But, blessed one, cast your heavy anger into the waves of the sea

and onto the peaks of the mountains; we all know your power.

But grant a favour for the libation — all things fitting in the mind,

and a life of blessed spirit, and with it health the queen,

and peace the goddess, nurse of the young, of splendid honour,

and a life for ever flourishing with cheerful reckonings.

18–19.And then the only thing the hymn asks of the bolt: that the anger go into the sea and the mountain-tops, away from the people saying the words. τὸ σὸν κράτος ἴσμεν ἅπαντες — “we all know your power” — is the argument for the request, and it is the one line in the collection so far that sounds frightened.

20–23.These four lines are word for word the alternative close of the Zeus hymn that the Thryllitianus codex gives in place of XV.7–11. The same quatrain therefore ends two different hymns to Zeus in the tradition — here in every manuscript, there in one only. Whether the Thryllitianus scribe borrowed from this hymn, or both draw on a stock closing formula, cannot be settled from the evidence; but it shows how these endings travelled, and it weakens any claim that the Thryllitianus variant represents a distinct theology. See the note at XV, Variant.

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.