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 HymnsXLVII. To Perikionios · Lines 1–6

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XLVII. To Perikionios · Lines 1–6

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Ancient Greek

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XLVII. ΠΕΡΙΚΙΟΝΙΟΥ

θυμίαμα ἀρώματα

Κικλήσκω Βάκχον περικιόνιον, μεθυδώτην,

Καδμείοισι δόμοις ὃς ἑλισσόμενος πέρι πάντη

ἔστησε κρατεροὺς βρασμοὺς γαίης ἀποπέμψας,

ἡνίκα πυρφόρος αὐγὴ ἐκίνησε χθόνα πᾶσαν

πρηστῆρος ῥοίζοις· ὁ δ’ ἀνέδραμε δεσμὸς ἁπάντων.

ἐλθέ, μάκαρ, βακχευτά, γεγηθυίαις πραπίδεσσι.

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: XLVII. To Perikionios

p. 161

XLVII. To Perikionios

fumigation from aromatics

I call Bakchos the pillar-encircling, the giver of wine,

who, winding about the house of Kadmos on every side,

stayed the earth’s strong quakings, driving them away

when the fire-bearing flash shook the whole ground

with the rushings of the storm-blast; and the bond of all things ran up.

Come, blessed one, reveller, with rejoicing heart.

1–5.Perikionios, “about the pillar”, explained by an event: the god winds himself round the house of Kadmos and holds it as the lightning that killed Semele shakes the ground. The hymn before this one is to Semele; this one tells what happened to the house in the same instant, without naming her. The title is not the hymn’s invention — LSJ cites περικιόνιος as a name of the Theban Dionysos from Mnaseas fr. 18, in the scholiast on Euripides, Phoenissae 651 — and the plant winding round the blasted chamber is on stage at Phoenissae 649–656 and Bacchae 6–12. What appears to be this hymn’s own is the earthquake, and the god holding the house up through it.

5.ὁ δ’ ἀνέδραμε δεσμὸς ἁπάντων — and the bond of all things ran up. The line is obscure and the hymn gives no help: the bond may be the vine running up the pillar, which would be the cult image; it may be the god himself as what holds all things together; it may be the earth’s own binding, released and springing back. Nothing in the apparatus touches it, so the difficulty is transmitted.

4.ἐκίνησε is Scriverius’ for the codices’ ἐνίκησε, “conquered”. With the manuscripts the flash overcomes the earth rather than shaking it, which removes the earthquake the rest of the hymn is about.

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.