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 wordἄρρητος describes what is not to be spoken or cannot readily be expressed.
- In the Orphic HymnsProtogonos and Dionysos are unutterable beside hidden descriptions, and Mise is an unutterable lady.
- TranslationThe apparatus at XXXII.3 attributes ἀρρήτη ῥητή to Abel against ἄρρητε ῥητή, retaining the crucial opposition while changing the first form.
- A place to readAthena as both unutterable and utterable.
- English renderings
- unutterable; unspeakable; secret
Meaning
ἄρρητος describes what is not to be spoken or cannot readily be expressed. Its range includes secrecy, exceptional divine character and the difficulty of articulation. A formal prohibition is possible in an appropriate context, but is not automatically present whenever a deity receives the epithet.
Use in the book
Protogonos and Dionysos are unutterable beside hidden descriptions, and Mise is an unutterable lady. Birth and marriage language also receives the word: Persephone is born through unutterable begettings at XXIX.7, and Dionysos through unutterable beds at XXX.7. These formulations mark the divine acts as beyond ordinary open narration without specifying a rulebook of forbidden names.
Athena offers a decisive counterexample to a uniform secrecy gloss. At XXXII.3 she is both unutterable and utterable, with the two adjectives placed side by side. The point is a paired claim about the goddess, not a simple ban on speech. At LII.5 an unutterable orgion stands beside threefold nature and Zeus’s hidden shoot, bringing mystery-language into an especially compressed divine description.
Places to read
- Hymn XXXII · Line 3Athena as both unutterable and utterable.
- Hymn XXIX · Line 7Unutterable begetting in Persephone’s description.
- Hymn XXX · Line 7The hidden marriage-bed context of Dionysos’s birth.
- Hymn LII · Line 5An unutterable orgion beside a hidden divine shoot.
Translation
The apparatus at XXXII.3 attributes ἀρρήτη ῥητή to Abel against ἄρρητε ῥητή, retaining the crucial opposition while changing the first form. The near-identical spelling ἄρρηκτος means “unbreakable,” not “unutterable”; the apparatus alternative at XIII.4 concerns that separate entry and is not another printed token here.
Attested forms
ἄρρητ’; ἀρρήτη; ἀρρήτοις; ἀρρήτοισι; ἄρρητον
Occurrence inventory
8 in total. VI.5; XII.4; XXIX.7; XXX.3; XXX.7; XXXII.3; XLII.3; LII.5