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 HymnsXLIII. To the Horai · Lines 1–11

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XLIII. To the Horai · Lines 1–11

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Ancient Greek

p. 152

XLIII. ΩΡΩΝ

θυμίαμα ἀρώματα

Ὧραι, θυγατέρες Θέμιδος καὶ Ζηνὸς ἄνακτος,

Εὐνομίη τε Δίκη τε καὶ Εἰρήνη πολύολβε,

εἰαριναί, λειμωνιάδες, πολυάνθεμοι, ἁγναί,

παντόχροοι, πολύοδμοι ἐν ἀνθεμοειδέσι πνοιαῖς,

Ὧραι ἀειθαλέες, περικυκλάδες, ἡδυπρόσωποι,

πέπλους ἐννύμεναι δροσεροὺς ἀνθῶν πολυθρέπτων,

ἁγνῆς Φερσεφόνης συμπαίκτορες, εὖτέ ἑ Μοῖραι

καὶ Χάριτες κυκλίοισι χοροῖς ποτὶ φῶς ἀνάγωσι

Ζηνὶ χαριζόμεναι καὶ μητέρι καρποδοτείρῃ·

ἔλθετ’ ἐπ’ εὐφήμους τελετὰς ὁσίας νεομύστοις

εὐκάρπους καιρῶν γενέσεις ἐπάγουσαι ἀμεμφῶς.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XLIII. To the Horai

p. 153

XLIII. To the Horai

fumigation from aromatics

Horai, daughters of Themis and of Zeus the lord,

Eunomia and Dike and Eirene rich in blessing,

of the spring, of the meadows, many-flowered, holy,

of every colour, of many scents, in flower-shaped breezes,

Horai ever-blooming, circling about, of sweet face,

clothing yourselves in dewy robes of thick-grown flowers,

playmates of holy Phersephone, whenever the Moirai

and the Charites in circling dances lead her up to the light,

in favour to Zeus and to the fruit-giving mother;

come to the pure rites of good omen, for the new initiates,

bringing on the fruitful births of the seasons blamelessly.

7–9.The anodos. Persephone is led up to the light by the Fates and the Graces, in circling dances, to please Zeus and Demeter — the return from below, given three lines and no abduction. The collection has told the seizure twice so far, at XVIII.12–15 and XXIX.14, and nowhere the return. I can find no ancient text or image in which the Moirai and Charites lead her up; the ingredients are conventional and the combination appears to be this hymn’s. Line 7 is editorial at three points, and one of them matters: the ἑ that gives ἀνάγωσι its object, and the English its “her”, comes in with Hermann’s εὖτέ ἑ for the codices’ ἡνίκα, which left the object unexpressed.

1–2.The Horai are named by their Hesiodic names — Eunomia, Dike, Eirene, daughters of Themis and Zeus, Theogony 901–903 — and then, from line 3 on, treated entirely as flowers and seasons; the three abstractions of good government are never mentioned again. The Moirai who arrive at 7 are their sisters in the very next lines of Hesiod, Theogony 904–906, so the hymn is not reaching outside its own genealogy to fetch them.

11.καιρῶν γενέσεις: the births of the seasons, where the hymn’s own title-word is ὧραι. The collection uses ὧραι in three senses already — the goddesses here, the seasons at XXXII.17 and XXVI.11, and “hours” at XXXII.15 — and this line sets the goddesses beside a different word for the same thing.

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.