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 HymnsLV. To Aphrodite · Lines 11–19

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LV. To Aphrodite · Lines 11–19

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Ancient Greek

p. 182

LV. ΕΙΣ ΑΦΡΟΔΙΤΗΝ

νυμφιδίη, σύνδαιτι, θεῶν σκηπτοῦχε, λυκείη,

γεννοδότειρα, φίλανδρε, ποθεινοτάτη, βιοδῶτι,

ἐνζεύξασα βροτοὺς ἀχαλινώτοισιν ἀνάγκαις

καὶ θηρῶν πολὺ φῦλον ἐρωμανέων ὑπὸ φίλτρων·

ἔρχεο, Κυπρογενὲς θεῖον γένος, εἴτ’ ἐν Ὀλύμπῳ

ἐσσί, θεὰ βασίλεια, καλῷ γήθουσα προσώπῳ,

εἴτε καὶ εὐλιβάνου Συρίης ἕδος ἀμφιπολεύεις,

εἴτε σύ γ’ ἐν πεδίοισι σὺν ἅρμασι χρυσεοτεύκτοις

Αἰγύπτου κατέχεις ἱερῆς γονιμώδεα λουτρά,

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

p. 183

LV. To Aphrodite

(no fumigation named)

bridal, feast-fellow, sceptred among gods, Lykeia,

birth-giving, husband-loving, most longed-for, giver of life,

you who have yoked mortals in unbridled necessities

and the great tribe of wild beasts, maddened with love, beneath charms;

come, Cyprus-born, divine race — whether you are on Olympos,

goddess and queen, rejoicing in your fair face,

or tend the seat of Syria that is rich in frankincense,

or on the plains, with chariots wrought of gold,

hold the birth-giving baths of sacred Egypt,

15–26.Places offered as alternatives — Olympos, Syria, Egypt, the open sea, the shore, Cyprus. The same construction as the Mise hymn at XLII.5–10, and twice as long; three hymns in the collection use it, XLIX.5–6 offering Hipta two, XLII four, this one the most, and all three fall within fourteen hymns of one another. Syria is new to the book — Aphrodite Ourania’s Syrian seat is attested, Herodotus 1.105 calling the temple at Askalon the oldest of all hers — and Egypt is named for the third time (XXXIV.2, XLII.10). ἐν χθονὶ Δίῃ at 22 is probably not a place: χθὼν δῖα, the divine earth, is a stock epic phrase (Il. 14.347, Od. 13.275), and the English follows it. Abel’s capital would make it the island Dia; the count of countries depends on which is right. Note too that the swans at 20 and the sea-beasts at 21 are both Wiel’s conjectures, for the codices’ κυανέοις and θνητῶν.

11.λυκείη is Abel’s own conjecture, and the manuscripts read λύκαινα — a she-wolf. That changes the difficulty entirely. The transmitted text puts a she-wolf among the bridal epithets; Abel replaced her with an adjective that is unattested of Aphrodite anywhere, and whose three possible derivations — λύκος (wolf), λύκη (first light), Lykia — are the three the ancients themselves offered for Apollo Lykeios. The English leaves it transliterated rather than choosing among them. And the manuscripts’ wolf is not unmotivated: Homeric Hymn 5.69–74 has grey wolves and lions fawning on Aphrodite on Ida, whom she then fills with desire to mate — which is line 14 of this hymn, three lines later.

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.