Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

Attributed to Orpheus

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns

Name: The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Author: Attributed to Orpheus

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The HymnsXXVI. To Gaia · Lines 1–11

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 52 of 147

XXVI. To Gaia · Lines 1–11

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 98

XXVI. ΓΗΣ

θυμίαμα πᾶν σπέρμα πλὴν κυάμων καὶ ἀρωμάτων

Γαῖα θεά, μῆτερ μακάρων θνητῶν τ’ ἀνθρώπων,

πάντροφε, πανδώτειρα, τελεσφόρε, παντολέτειρα,

αὐξιθαλές, φερέκαρπε, καλαῖς ὥρῃσι βρύουσα,

ἕδρανον ἀθανάτου κόσμου, πολυποίκιλε κούρη,

ἣ λοχίαις ὠδῖσι κύεις καρπὸν πολυειδῆ,

ἀιδίη, πολύσεμνε, βαθύστερν’, ὀλβιόμοιρε,

ἡδυπνόοις χαίρουσα χλόαις, πολυάνθεμε δαῖμον,

ὀμβροχαρές, περὶ τὴν κόσμος πολυδαίδαλος ἄστρων

εἱλεῖται φύσει ἀενάῳ καὶ ῥεύμασι δεινοῖς.

ἀλλά, μάκαιρα θεά, καρποὺς αὔξοις πολυγηθεῖς

εὐμενὲς ἦτορ ἔχουσα, σὺν εὐόλβοισιν ἐν ὥραις.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XXVI. To Gaia

p. 99

XXVI. To Gaia

fumigation from every seed except beans and aromatics

Gaia goddess, mother of the blessed and of mortal men,

all-nourishing, all-giving, bringing to fulfilment, all-destroying,

making growth and bloom, fruit-bearing, teeming with fair seasons,

seat of the immortal kosmos, maiden of many patterns,

you who bring forth in the pangs of childbed a fruit of many kinds,

everlasting, most august, deep-breasted, of blessed lot,

rejoicing in sweet-breathing grasses, daimon of many flowers,

rain-delighting, about whom the intricate order of the stars

wheels in an everlasting nature and in dread currents.

But, blessed goddess, may you increase the gladdening fruits,

holding a kindly heart, in seasons of good fortune.

Rubric.Every seed except beans and aromatics. The bean prohibition is the well-known Pythagorean and Orphic taboo (Aristotle fr. 195 Rose ap. Diogenes Laertius 8.34; the Orphic verse OF 291 Kern, which ranks eating beans with eating one's parents' heads; and Pausanias 1.37.4 on the hero Kyamites at Eleusis, where he declines to explain the rule). This is the collection's plainest ritual restriction — an instruction about what may be burnt, not a description of a god — though LIII goes further and prescribes an act, πάντα πλὴν λιβάνου καὶ σπένδε γάλα. The exclusion of aromatics is the more curious half, since ἀρώματα is the commonest offering in the book.

2.πανδώτειρα and παντολέτειρα, all-giving and all-destroying, at either end of the same line, with τελεσφόρε between them and no conjunction anywhere. Compare the paradoxes of the Physis hymn at X.8–10.

8–9.The stars wheel about the earth, stated as a fact about the goddess. The arrangement was stated already of Ouranos at IV.3 (σφαιρηδὸν ἑλισσόμενος περὶ γαῖαν) and of Okeanos at XI.15 — here for the first time from the earth's own side.

10–11.The request is a good harvest, and it closes on the Physis hymn's own words: σὺν εὐόλβοισιν ἐν ὥραις is repeated verbatim from X.29. But the requests differ — Physis is asked for peace, health and the increase of all things; Earth for the fruits alone. The same formula, narrowed to the field.

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.