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 10–17

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XXXVIII. To the Kouretes · Lines 10–17

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Ancient Greek

p. 138

XXXVIII. ΚΟΥΡΗΤΩΝ

θυμίαμα λίβανον

μαρμαίροντες ὅπλοις· πτήσσουσι δὲ θῆρες ἅπαντες

ὁρμώντων, θόρυβος δὲ βοή τ’ εἰς οὐρανὸν ἵκει,

εἱλιγμοῖς τε ποδῶν κονίη νεφέλας ἀφικάνει

ἐρχομένων· τότε δή ῥα καὶ ἄνθεα πάντα τέθηλε.

δαίμονες ἀθάνατοι, τροφέες τε καὶ αὖτ’ ὀλετῆρες,

ἡνίκ’ ἂν ὁρμαίνητε χολούμενοι ἀνθρώποισιν

ὀλλύντες βίοτον καὶ κτήματα ἠδὲ καὶ αὐτοὺς

πιμπράντες· στοναχεῖ δὲ μέγας πόντος βαθυδίνης,

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

p. 139

XXXVIII. To the Kouretes

fumigation from frankincense

flashing in your armour; and all the wild beasts cower

as you rush on, and the din and the shout reach heaven,

and at the whirling of your feet the dust reaches the clouds

as you come; then indeed the flowers too are all in bloom.

Immortal daimones, nourishers and in turn destroyers,

whenever you stir yourselves in anger against men,

destroying their living and their goods, and the men themselves

burning — then the great deep-eddying sea groans,

14–19.τροφέες τε καὶ αὖτ’ ὀλετῆρες — nourishers and destroyers. The doubleness is the figure used of Earth at XXVI.2 (πάντροφε … παντολέτειρα) and of Persephone at XXIX.16 (φέρβεις … φονεύεις), but there it took half a line and here it takes six. With the dance at 8–13 it makes twelve consecutive lines of things happening — much the longest narrative stretch in the book so far; the abduction of Persephone at XVIII.12–15, the nearest rival, runs to four.

13.τότε δή ῥα καὶ ἄνθεα πάντα τέθηλε — the flowers bloom because they danced. It sits between the dust reaching the clouds and the anger of 14, and is the hinge of the hymn.

15, 17.Two entries that were missing or wrong in this edition’s first reading and have been corrected against the page. At 15 Abel records ἂν ὁρμαίνητε Bentley] ἀνορμαίνωνται — Bentley appears nowhere else in the volume so far, and the whole temporal clause is his. At 17 the word is πιμπράντες, from πίμπρημι, “setting on fire”, and it governs αὐτούς at the end of 16: the Kouretes destroy the living and the goods and burn the men. στοναχεῖ δέ that follows is the apodosis of ἡνίκ’ ἄν at 15, with δέ apodotic — not another item in the list, which is why the storm at 17–19 is the Kouretes’ doing and not 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.

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.