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 HymnsXL. To Demeter of Eleusis · Lines 11–20

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XL. To Demeter of Eleusis · Lines 11–20

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Ancient Greek

p. 146

XL. ΔΗΜΗΤΡΟΣ ΕΛΕΥΣΙΝΙΑΣ

θυμίαμα στύρακα

λαμπαδόεσσ’, ἁγνή, δρεπάνοις χαίρουσα θερείοις·

σὺ χθονίη, σὺ δὲ φαινομένη, σὺ δὲ πᾶσι προσηνής·

εὔτεκνε, παιδοφίλη, σεμνή, κουροτρόφε κούρη,

ἅρμα δρακοντείοισιν ὑποζεύξασα χαλινοῖς

ἐγκυκλίοις δίναις περὶ σὸν θρόνον εὐαζόντων,

μουνογενές, πολύτεκνε θεά, πολυπότνια θνητοῖς,

ἧς πολλαὶ μορφαί, πολυάνθεμοι, ἱεροθηλεῖς·

ἐλθέ, μάκαιρ’, ἁγνή, καρποῖς βρίθουσα θερείοις,

εἰρήνην κατάγουσα καὶ εὐνομίην ἐρατεινὴν

καὶ πλοῦτον πολύολβον, ὁμοῦ δ’ ὑγίειαν ἄνασσαν.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XL. To Demeter of Eleusis

p. 147

XL. To Demeter of Eleusis

fumigation from storax

torch-bearing, holy, rejoicing in the sickles of summer;

you are of the earth, you are also manifest, you are gentle to all;

blessed in children, child-loving, august, maiden, nurse of the young,

you who yoked the chariot with bridles of serpents

in the wheeling eddies of those who cry euhoi about your throne,

sole-born, of many children, goddess, greatly revered among mortals,

whose forms are many, many-flowered, sacred in their blooming;

come, blessed one, holy, heavy with the fruits of summer,

bringing peace back, and lovely good order,

and wealth rich in blessing, and with them health the queen.

12.σὺ χθονίη, σὺ δὲ φαινομένη — you are of the earth, you are also the one who appears. Three σύ in one line, the middle pair setting the hidden goddess against the manifest one. The collection states the double aspect without a word of explanation, as it does the double natures at VI.1, IX.4, XXX.2, XXXII.10, XXXIX.5 and XLII.4.

14–15.The serpent-drawn car, and a difficulty. `εὐαζόντων` is Hermann’s, for the codices’ `εὐάζουσα`: with his text it is the revellers about the throne who cry out, with theirs it is the goddess herself. The genitive plural has no expressed subject in Abel’s text, so the English supplies “they” and marks nothing; the choice belongs to the editor, not to the hymn.

16.μουνογενές, πολύτεκνε in one line: sole-born and of many children. Elsewhere the word is used of Persephone (XXIX.2) and Athena (XXXII.1), each time of a daughter; here it is used of a mother in the same breath as her fertility.

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.