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 wordἘλαύνω describes driving or impelling.
- In the Orphic HymnsHelios drives his track in rotary movement (VIII.7), and Zeus drives the fire-gleaming cosmos (XIX.1).
- TranslationThe English drive often works well if its accompanying direction is preserved.
- A place to readHelios drives along a defined cosmic course.
- English renderings
- drive, impel, drive away
Meaning
Ἐλαύνω describes driving or impelling. Direction is supplied by the construction: the verb can drive something along a course, drive it into a place or drive it away. Passive forms place the moving subject under an external force, while the difficult middle in Semele’s hymn needs separate attention.
Use in the book
Helios drives his track in rotary movement (VIII.7), and Zeus drives the fire-gleaming cosmos (XIX.1). Clouds are driven by winds throughout the cosmos (XXI.2), whereas Nereus confines winds driven into hidden sea-recesses (XXIII.6). These passages vary the agent, route and destination without changing the underlying idea of compelled motion. Dionysos, dancing with Nymphs, is driven by frenzies (XLVI.5), transferring the impelling force to an inward condition.
Removal is explicit when Nomos drives envy outside (LXIV.6) and Daimon is asked to drive off groaning cares (LXXIII.7). Semele’s ἐλάσσατο with great birth-pangs and a fire-bearing flash is harder (XLIV.4). The middle form is clear, but whether drive out or force through best conveys the action remains interpretive. Nothing in the verb warrants turning the fiery labour into an uncomplicated painless delivery.
Places to read
- Hymn VIII · Line 7Helios drives along a defined cosmic course.
- Hymn XXI · Line 2Clouds undergo driving by winds.
- Hymn XLVI · Line 5Frenzies impel the dancing god.
- Hymn LXIV · Line 6The adverb outside makes expulsion explicit.
- Hymn XLIV · Line 4Semele’s middle construction requires a qualified interpretation.
Translation
The English drive often works well if its accompanying direction is preserved. In LXIV.6 the edition adopts outside, ἐκτός, against reported αὐτός, and also adopts worthless envy against a different reported phrase. Its expulsion sentence is therefore an adopted construction, not an unchanged transcription of every reported reading.
Attested forms
ἐλάσσας; ἐλάσσατο; ἐλαύνει; ἐλαυνόμεναι; ἐλαυνομένας; ἐλαυνόμενος; ἐλαύνων
Occurrence inventory
8 in total. VIII.7; XIX.1; XXI.2; XXIII.6; XLIV.4; XLVI.5; LXIV.6; LXXIII.7