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 HymnsXXVII. To the Mother of the Gods · Lines 8–14

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XXVII. To the Mother of the Gods · Lines 8–14

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Ancient Greek

p. 102

XXVII. ΜΗΤΡΟΣ ΘΕΩΝ

θυμίαμα ποικίλα

σοὶ ποταμοὶ κρατέονται ἀεὶ καὶ πᾶσα θάλασσα,

Ἱστίη αὐδαχθεῖσα· σὲ δ’ ὀλβοδότιν καλέουσι,

παντοίων ἀγαθῶν θνητοῖς ὅτι δῶρα χαρίζῃ.

ἔρχεο πρὸς τελετήν, ὦ πότνια, τυμπανοτερπές,

πανδαμάτορ, Φρυγίης σώτειρα, Κρόνου συνόμευνε,

Οὐρανόπαι, πρέσβειρα, βιοθρέπτειρα, φίλοιστρε·

ἔρχεο γηθόσυνος, κεχαρισμένη εὐσεβίῃσιν.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XXVII. To the Mother of the Gods

p. 103

XXVII. To the Mother of the Gods

fumigation from various substances

by you the rivers are mastered always, and all the sea,

named Hestia; and you they call giver of prosperity,

because you grant to mortals the gifts of every good thing.

Come to the rite, O lady, delighting in the drum,

all-subduer, saviour of Phrygia, bedfellow of Kronos,

child of Ouranos, eldest, nurse of life, lover of the goad;

come rejoicing, well pleased with acts of piety.

9.Ἱστίη αὐδαχθεῖσα, “called Hestia”. A fourth name for this goddess in one book — Rhea, Kybele by her furniture, the Mother of the Gods by this hymn’s title, and now Hestia. The reporting construction (αὐδαχθεῖσα, and καλέουσι in the same line) says what people call her rather than asserting the identity — but the apparatus on this page shows that both Ἱστίη and αὐδαχθεῖσα· σὲ δ’ are Hermann’s, against the codices’ ἑστία … αὐδαχθῆς σὲ δέ. The identification is safe, since ἑστία is the same word; the reporting is the editor’s.

12.Φρυγίης σώτειρα: the hymn names her cult region, and Phrygia is where the Mother’s cult in fact belongs (Strabo 10.3.12). The collection names the underworld freely — Tartaros at XVIII.2, Acheron at XVIII.10, Okeanos at XI.15 and XXII.1 — but places on the map of the living world only three times so far: Eleusis at XVIII.15, Phrygia here, and Phlegra at XXXII.12.

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.