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 HymnsXXXVIII. To the Kouretes · Lines 1–9

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XXXVIII. To the Kouretes · Lines 1–9

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p. 136

XXXVIII. ΚΟΥΡΗΤΩΝ

θυμίαμα λίβανον

Χαλκόκροτοι Κουρῆτες, Ἀρήια τεύχε’ ἔχοντες,

οὐράνιοι χθόνιοί τε καὶ εἰνάλιοι, πολύολβοι,

ζῳογόνοι πνοιαί, κόσμου σωτῆρες ἀγαυοί,

οἵτε Σαμοθρῄκην, ἱερὴν χθόνα, ναιετάοντες

κινδύνους θνητῶν ἀπερύκετε ποντοπλανήτων·

ὑμεῖς καὶ τελετὴν πρῶτοι μερόπεσσιν ἔθεσθε,

ἀθάνατοι Κουρῆτες, Ἀρήια τεύχε’ ἔχοντες·

νωμᾶτ’ Ὠκεανόν, νωμᾶθ’ ἅλα δένδρεά θ’ αὔτως·

ἐρχόμενοι γαῖαν κοναβίζετε ποσσὶν ἐλαφροῖς,

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XXXVIII. To the Kouretes

p. 137

XXXVIII. To the Kouretes

fumigation from frankincense

Kouretes of clashing bronze, holding warlike arms,

of heaven and of earth and of the sea, rich in blessing,

life-begetting breaths, noble saviours of the kosmos,

you who dwell in Samothrace, that sacred ground,

and ward off the dangers of mortals who wander the sea;

you too were the first to establish the rite among men,

immortal Kouretes, holding warlike arms;

you sway Okeanos, you sway the sea and the trees alike;

as you come you make the earth ring with light feet,

6.ὑμεῖς καὶ τελετὴν πρῶτοι μερόπεσσιν ἔθεσθε. The second founder-claim in the collection, in the same shape as the Nereids’ at XXIV.10, ὑμεῖς γὰρ πρῶται τελετὴν ἀνεδείξατε σεμνήν. Rival claims of this kind are a commonplace — Diodorus 5.64.4 gives the rite to the Idaean Daktyls, whom Strabo equates with the Kouretes, and 5.48.4–5 gives the Samothracian rites to Iasion — so the Kouretes’ claim has company. The Nereids’ has none that I can find, which makes XXIV, not this hymn, the odd one.

1, 7.The same line twice with one word changed — Χαλκόκροτοι at 1, ἀθάνατοι at 7 — closing the opening address and opening the second. No line anywhere in the collection so far is repeated exactly; a whole line returns with a single word altered in three places only, and this is one of them. The others are IV.2 / XV.7, πρεσβυγένεθλ’ / παντογένεθλ’, ἀρχὴ πάντων πάντων τε τελευτή, of Ouranos and of Zeus; and I.10 / XXXI.7, the oxherd commended to Hekate and to the Kouretes. Two of the three involve these same powers.

4, 21, 23.Samothrace twice, sons of Zeus, and a heavenly pair. The Kouretes are put on Samothrace, made Zeus’s own boys, and called οὐράνιοι δίδυμοι — and line 5 has already asked them to save men at sea. These identifications are not the hymn’s own leap: Strabo 10.3.7 reports that some make the Korybantes, the Kabeiroi, the Idaean Daktyls and the Telchines identical with the Kouretes, and 10.3.19–21 that the Korybantes were sons of Zeus and identical with the Kabeiroi, with everything said of the Samothracian gods transferred by some to the Dioskouroi. What the hymn does is assemble what Strabo already reports as current, and argue for none of it. One caution the note must keep: the inscriptions from Samothrace itself name only Θεοὶ Μεγάλοι, the Great Gods — that they “were” the Kabeiroi is an identification made from outside and still disputed.

3, 22.πνοιαί, breaths, twice — ζῳογόνοι at 3 and ἀέναοι, ψυχοτρόφοι, ἠεροειδεῖς at 22. The armed dancers of the opening have become winds by the end, which is what makes the storm of 14–19 their doing rather than a simile.

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.