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 HymnsLVII. To Chthonic Hermes · Lines 1–6

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LVII. To Chthonic Hermes · Lines 1–6

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Ancient Greek

p. 190

LVII. ΕΡΜΟΥ ΧΘΟΝΙΟΥ

θυμίαμα στύρακα

Κωκυτοῦ ναίων ἀνυπόστροφον οἶμον ἀνάγκης,

ὃς ψυχὰς θνητῶν κατάγεις ὑπὸ νέρτερα γαίης,

Ἑρμῆ, βακχεχόροιο Διωνύσοιο γένεθλον

καὶ Παφίης κούρης, ἑλικοβλεφάρου Ἀφροδίτης,

ὃς παρὰ Φερσεφόνης ἱερὸν δόμον ἀμφιπολεύεις,

αἰνομόροις ψυχαῖς πομπὸς κατὰ γαῖαν ὑπάρχων,

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns: LVII. To Chthonic Hermes

p. 191

LVII. To Chthonic Hermes

fumigation from storax

Dwelling on Kokytos' road of necessity, that knows no return,

you who lead the souls of mortals down to the nether places of earth,

Hermes, offspring of Dionysos of the bacchic dance

and of the Paphian girl, quick-glancing Aphrodite,

you who attend the sacred house of Phersephone,

being escort under the earth to grim-fated souls,

3–4.Hermes here is the son of Dionysos and Aphrodite. The collection's own hymn to Hermes says otherwise in its first line: XXVIII.1 addresses him as Ἑρμεία, Διὸς ἄγγελε, Μαιάδος υἱέ — Zeus's messenger and Maia's son, which is the standard descent (Hesiod, Theogony 938; Homeric Hymn 4.1–3). The underworld Hermes is given a different parentage altogether, and the half-line that carries it is not transmitted: the codices read βάκχε χοροῖο, a vocative and a genitive, and βακχεχόροιο — one compound adjective agreeing with Dionysos — is the conjecture Abel credits to Casaubonus, presumably Isaac Casaubon, though the attribution has not been traced to a printed source. So the parentage stands on an emendation of uncertain provenance.

6, 11.αἰνομόροις ψυχαῖς … ψυχαῖς αἰνομόροις. The same two words close the hymn in the reverse order, five lines apart, and the second of them is Abel's own: the codices read ἀενάοις, “ever-flowing”, which would make the souls everlasting rather than ill-fated. The repetition that looks like the poet's ring-composition is in part the editor's.

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.