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 wordἌρτεμις is the divine name, but its appearances here also show how a name can be joined to other divine titles in direct address.
- In the Orphic HymnsThe Prayer invokes maiden Artemis as arrow-pourer beside Phoibos (Prayer.7).
- TranslationThe supplied English generally retains Artemis rather than substituting a Roman name.
- A place to readMaiden and arrow-pourer in the general invocation.
- English renderings
- Artemis
Meaning
Ἄρτεμις is the divine name, but its appearances here also show how a name can be joined to other divine titles in direct address. The heading of XXXVI identifies her own hymn; not every title within it is a separate token of Ἄρτεμις.
Use in the book
The Prayer invokes maiden Artemis as arrow-pourer beside Phoibos (Prayer.7). Leto’s hymn likewise names Phoibos and Artemis as the children she bore, retaining the arrow-bearing characterization (XXXV.4). These uses supply familiar sibling and parental relations without narrating an extended life of the goddess.
The childbirth hymn addresses “Artemis Eileithyia” and august Prothyraia at II.12. In that local prayer, names and functions converge upon assistance with delivery. Fortune’s hymn names leading Artemis at LXXII.3, introducing another explicit identification within its own address. These connections deserve recording, but do not authorize declaring all the named recipients universally identical across the collection.
Places to read
- Prayer to Musaeus · Line 7Maiden and arrow-pourer in the general invocation.
- Hymn XXXV · Line 4Artemis named among Leto’s children.
- Hymn II · Line 12The convergence of Artemis, Eileithyia and Prothyraia.
- Hymn LXXII · Line 3Artemis named in the invocation of Fortune.
Translation
The supplied English generally retains Artemis rather than substituting a Roman name. Her own hymn’s childbirth, wild-animal and gendered-form descriptions should be reached through their lexical entries. The name’s four verse occurrences are a narrow retrieval fact, not a measure of the total importance or extent of Artemis’s presence in the book.
Attested forms
Ἄρτεμί; Ἄρτεμιν; Ἄρτεμις
Occurrence inventory
4 in total. Prayer.7; II.12; XXXV.4; LXXII.3
Heading and incense rubric evidence
ΑΡΤΕΜΙΔΟΣ · XXXVI.heading. XXXVI. ΑΡΤΕΜΙΔΟΣ
Local sense
Artemis as the hymn's divine recipient