From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe middle forms of ἀγάλλω combine delight with splendour or proud display.
- In the Orphic HymnsHekate delights in deer (I.4), and Hippa in the rites of holy Sabos (XLIX.2).
- TranslationThe aligned English varies “delighting” and “glorying,” appropriately keeping more than one aspect of the middle verb available.
- A place to readDelight in a characteristic creature.
- English renderings
- delight in; glory in; display splendour
Meaning
The middle forms of ἀγάλλω combine delight with splendour or proud display. In this collection they are participles, describing a deity or group in an ongoing characteristic relation. A dative often supplies what the subject delights in; translating only “rejoicing” can leave that relation undescribed.
Use in the book
Hekate delights in deer (I.4), and Hippa in the rites of holy Sabos (XLIX.2). The syntax accommodates a characteristic animal and a ritual activity without making them equivalent objects. Nereus glories in his fifty daughters (XXIII.2), while the sea goddess glories in ships (XXII.6), linking pleasure to different kinds of company or possession.
Protogonos’s golden wings at VI.2 make visible adornment especially prominent: he glories in them and appears splendid through them. The Nereids on the Tritons’ conveyances at XXIV.4 similarly bring delighted movement and display together. The verb’s usefulness lies in this overlap, not in a choice between an exclusively inward emotion and an exclusively outward decoration.
Places to read
- Hymn I · Line 4Delight in a characteristic creature.
- Hymn VI · Line 2Golden wings unite adornment and exultation.
- Hymn XXIII · Line 2Nereus’s daughters as the source of his delight.
- Hymn XLIX · Line 2Rites as the object of divine delight.
Translation
The aligned English varies “delighting” and “glorying,” appropriately keeping more than one aspect of the middle verb available. The Greek participle in XLIX.2 describes the goddess whom the Greek calls Hippa and the English calls Hipta; it does not describe the human keepers of the rites. The related noun ἄγαλμα should be read in its own construction, rather than mechanically translated from this verb.
Attested forms
ἀγαλλόμεναι; ἀγαλλομένη; ἀγαλλομένην; ἀγαλλόμενον; ἀγαλλόμενος
Occurrence inventory
6 in total. I.4; VI.2; XXII.6; XXIII.2; XXIV.4; XLIX.2