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 wordΔισώματος means two-bodied or double-bodied.
- In the Orphic HymnsThe occurrence belongs to Meilinoe’s difficult birth narrative (LXXI.5).
- TranslationThe access form and local agreement are secure; the narrative attachment remains qualified.
- A place to readThe adjective agrees with χροιήν within the contested bodily action.
- English renderings
- two-bodied
Meaning
Δισώματος means two-bodied or double-bodied. Its lexical formation and agreement are clearer than the narrative in which it occurs: δισώματον qualifies the feminine accusative χροιήν, the skin or bodily complexion. The adjective does not itself identify whose body is involved or what twofold character is intended.
Use in the book
The occurrence belongs to Meilinoe’s difficult birth narrative (LXXI.5). The preceding lines name Persephone and Zeus, then describe a deceptive union involving the name Plouton. The printed text must retain Zeus: he is present in LXXI.3, not supplied solely by the translator. In the next line the action expressed by ἔσπασε and the attachment of Persephone’s genitive leave the bodily event difficult to reconstruct.
The translation understands an angry drawing off of Persephone’s two-bodied flesh. This is a continuous interpretation, but it should not be promoted into certainty about possession, agency or a settled two-coloured appearance. The later account of Meilinoe’s strange manifestations makes bodily doubleness relevant to the hymn’s imagery, yet does not resolve every step of the birth scene. Above all, two-bodied must not be silently replaced by two-natured or two-mothered because those compounds occur elsewhere in the collection.
Places to read
- Hymn LXXI · Line 5The adjective agrees with χροιήν within the contested bodily action.
Translation
The access form and local agreement are secure; the narrative attachment remains qualified. The apparatus reports Πλούτων against adopted elided Πλούτων’ in LXXI.4, a consequential part of the surrounding difficulty. It does not offer a variant of δισώματον that would settle the scene. The English flesh is an interpretive rendering of χροιήν, not an independent anatomical authority.
Attested forms
δισώματον
Occurrence inventory
1 in total. LXXI.5