The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns

Name: The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Author: Attributed to Orpheus

Explore the Lexicon

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The HymnsLV. To Aphrodite · Lines 1–10

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

Facing Pages · Branch 93 of 147

LV. To Aphrodite · Lines 1–10

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 180

LV. ΕΙΣ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΝ

Οὐρανίη, πολύυμνε, φιλομμειδὴς Ἀφροδίτη,

ποντογενές, γενέτειρα θεά, φιλοπάννυχε, σεμνή,

νυκτερίη, ζεύκτειρα, δολοπλόκε, μῆτερ ἀνάγκης·

πάντα γὰρ ἐκ σέθεν ἐστίν, ὑπεζεύξω δέ τε κόσμον

καὶ κρατέεις τρισσῶν μοιρῶν, γεννᾷς δὲ τὰ πάντα,

ὅσσα τ’ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐστι καὶ ἐν γαίῃ πολυκάρπῳ

ἐν πόντου τε βυθῷ, σεμνὴ Βάκχοιο πάρεδρε,

τερπομένη θαλίῃσι, γαμοστόλε, μῆτερ ἐρώτων,

πειθοῖ λεκτροχαρές, κρυφίη, χαριδῶτι ἄνασσα,

φαινομένη, ἀφανής, ἐρασιπλόκαμ’, εὐπατέρεια,

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LV. To Aphrodite

p. 181

LV. To Aphrodite

(no fumigation named)

Heavenly one, much-hymned, laughter-loving Aphrodite,

sea-born, mother and goddess, lover of the all-night rite, august,

of the night, yoker, weaver of guile, mother of Necessity;

for all things are from you, and you have yoked the kosmos beneath you

and you rule over three lots, and you bring forth all things,

all that are in heaven and in the much-fruited earth

and in the deep of the sea, august one seated beside Bakchos,

delighting in festivities, arrayer of marriage, mother of the Loves,

glad in the bed through persuasion, hidden one, giver of grace, queen,

manifest, unseen, of lovely hair, of a noble father,

3, 13.μῆτερ ἀνάγκης at 3 and ἀχαλινώτοισιν ἀνάγκαις at 13: she is the mother of Necessity and the one who yokes mortals in necessities. No source outside this hymn makes Aphrodite the mother of Ananke, whose parentage in the Orphic material is elsewhere Hydros and Ge. ζεύκτειρα at 3, ὑπεζεύξω at 4 and ἐνζεύξασα at 13 make the yoking the hymn’s figure — and ζεύκτειρα is attested nowhere else in Greek, of her or of anyone. The yoke of desire itself is ordinary (it is the argument of the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite); the word is not. ἐνζεύξασα at 13 is Hermann’s for the simple ζεύξασα.

4–7.The cosmological claim: all things are from her, she has yoked the kosmos, she rules three lots and brings forth everything. The hymn then names its own three — heaven, the much-fruited earth, the deep of the sea. That is the ordinary tripartition of the world, and not quite the Homeric division of lots, in which earth is the portion left common to the three brothers; the collection has used τριτάτης μοίρης twice, at XVII.7 of Poseidon’s sea and XVIII.6 of Plouton’s earth, each time of a god who holds one. Here one goddess is given all three, and what she is given is the world rather than the brothers’ shares.

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.