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 HymnsXXXI. Hymn of the Kouretes · Lines 1–7

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XXXI. Hymn of the Kouretes · Lines 1–7

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p. 114

XXXI. ΥΜΝΟΣ ΚΟΥΡΗΤΩΝ

Σκιρτηταὶ Κουρῆτες, ἐνόπλια βήματα θέντες,

ποσσίκροτοι, ῥομβηταί, ὀρέστεροι, εὐαστῆρες,

κρουσιλύραι, παράρυθμοι, ἐπεμβάται ἴχνεσι κούφοις,

ὁπλοφόροι, φύλακες, κοσμήτορες, ἀγλαόφημοι,

μητρὸς ὀρειμανέος συνοπάονες, ὀργιοφάνται·

ἔλθοιτ’ εὐμενέοντες ἐπ’ εὐφήμοισι λόγοισι,

βουκόλῳ εὐάντητοι ἀεὶ κεχαρηότι θυμῷ.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XXXI. Hymn of the Kouretes

p. 115

XXXI. Hymn of the Kouretes

(no fumigation named)

Leaping Kouretes, who set down armed steps,

foot-stamping, whirlers, of the mountains, criers of euhoi,

lyre-strikers, out of rhythm, treading with light footfalls,

bearers of arms, guardians, marshals, of splendid fame,

fellow-attendants of the mountain-raving Mother, you who show the orgia;

may you come with favour at words of good omen,

kindly met always toward the oxherd, with a rejoicing heart.

Title.No fumigation rubric, and the heading is ΥΜΝΟΣ ΚΟΥΡΗΤΩΝ, not the bare genitive. The same pair of anomalies as at XXIX; see the note there.

5, 7.Two titles in three lines, and they are not on the same footing. βουκόλος, the oxherd, is a documented grade of office in Bacchic associations — the cowherds and their ἀρχιβούκολος at Pergamon, βουκολικός among the offices of the Athenian Iobakchoi, and the Eretrian stone. ὀργιοφάντης, one who shows the ὄργια, is a rare priestly title with two inscriptions to its name — at Hekate’s sanctuary at Lagina, and at Nikaia — and an Argive epigram, AP 9.688; in none of them is it an association’s grade. Note too that at VI.11 the ὀργιοφάνται were the human celebrants, whereas here the word is an epithet of the Kouretes themselves. What is certain is the line: I.10 βουκόλῳ εὐμενέουσαν ἀεὶ κεχαρηότι θυμῷ, XXXI.7 βουκόλῳ εὐάντητοι ἀεὶ κεχαρηότι θυμῷ — one word changed, with the whole of Hymns II–XXX, three hundred and eighty-five lines, between them. The same officer is commended to Hekate and to the Kouretes in the same words.

2.ῥομβηταί, whirlers — an agent-noun from ῥόμβος, the whirled instrument. At IV.4 and VIII.7 the word was an image for the turning of the heavens (ῥόμβου δίνῃσιν, ῥόμβου … δινεύμασιν); here it names what the dancers themselves are.

3.παράρυθμοι, out of rhythm. Abel queries πολύρυθμοι in the apparatus without adopting it. Either the armed dance is deliberately counter-rhythmic or the text is unsound; the hymn gives no help.

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.

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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.