From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordαἰών can name duration or an age, and in an invocation can be presented as the divine power Aion.
- In the Orphic HymnsThe Prayer invokes the surpassing might of Atlas and Aion at line 28.
- TranslationThe translation uses “Aion” in the Prayer and “the age” in Kronos’s hymn.
- A place to readAion’s might invoked beside Atlas.
- English renderings
- duration; age; Aion
Meaning
αἰών can name duration or an age, and in an invocation can be presented as the divine power Aion. Its two occurrences here move between those possibilities. Neither an uppercase initial nor a modern English choice of “eternity” is sufficient to supply a full cosmological account.
Use in the book
The Prayer invokes the surpassing might of Atlas and Aion at line 28. Within a list of divine recipients, Aion is not merely the length of somebody’s individual life; personified duration belongs to the invocation. The next line separately names unceasing Chronos, so the Prayer preserves distinct expressions even where their temporal associations invite comparison.
Kronos is addressed as all-begetting father of αἰών at XIII.5. The genitive can be read as “of the age” or of enduring time, with the personifying force of fatherhood still audible. The line establishes a relationship in the hymn’s language, but not a complete genealogy or a doctrine identifying Kronos and Chronos in every use.
Places to read
- Prayer to Musaeus · Line 28Aion’s might invoked beside Atlas.
- Hymn XIII · Line 5Kronos as father of the age or duration.
Translation
The translation uses “Aion” in the Prayer and “the age” in Kronos’s hymn. That difference usefully leaves the two local constructions visible. The related adjective αἰώνιος likewise needs its own contexts: lasting sleep, an enduring divine eye and a divine epithet are not automatically identical statements about eternity.
Attested forms
Αἰῶνος; αἰῶνος
Occurrence inventory
2 in total. Prayer.28; XIII.5