From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordΕὐίερος marks sacred or auspicious character.
- In the Orphic HymnsThe Stars are summoned with well-hallowed voices (VII.2), and their rite bears the same adjective (VII.12).
- TranslationAt VII.2 the verse prints εὐιέροις, while the apparatus’s compound label is εὐιέραις, marked sic, against reported εὖ ἱεραῖς.
- A place to readThe compound qualifies the voices of invocation.
- English renderings
- well-hallowed, sacred, ritually auspicious
Meaning
Εὐίερος marks sacred or auspicious character. The compound is applied to speech, rites, offerings, divine persons, an initiate, fruit and a wand. That breadth makes the qualified noun essential: well-hallowed is an edition-wide rendering, not a separate ancient category whose limits exclude all other holiness words.
Use in the book
The Stars are summoned with well-hallowed voices (VII.2), and their rite bears the same adjective (VII.12). Palaimon is called to well-hallowed rites (LXXV.3), Hephaistos to libations (LXVI.10), and Mnemosyne is asked to awaken memory of such a rite (LXXVII.10). In these settings the word helps characterize the means and occasion of divine approach.
Its reach is wider than ceremony alone. Mise and Bakchos receive it as divine qualifications (XLII.3; XXIV.11). Fruit that brings generation to fulfilment is well-hallowed (LIII.10), as is Hermes’s sleep-giving wand (LVII.8). Antaia is invited to a well-hallowed initiate (XLI.10). In Meilinoe’s closing petition it qualifies the face she is to show the initiates (LXXI.12), linking sacred appearance with favourable disposition after the hymn’s terrifying manifestations.
Places to read
- Hymn VII · Line 2The compound qualifies the voices of invocation.
- Hymn XLIV · Line 9A table and mysteries receive distinct holiness descriptions.
- Hymn LIII · Line 10Productive fruit extends the adjective beyond ritual actions.
- Hymn LVII · Line 8Hermes’s sleep-giving wand is sacred.
- Hymn LXXI · Line 12The adopted adjective qualifies Meilinoe’s face.
Translation
At VII.2 the verse prints εὐιέροις, while the apparatus’s compound label is εὐιέραις, marked sic, against reported εὖ ἱεραῖς. At LXXI.12 the apparatus asks εὐιέροις?, an unadopted query that would attach the adjective to the initiates rather than the face. It is a proposed alternative, not another witnessed primary occurrence.
Attested forms
εὐιέροις; εὐίερον; εὐίερόν; εὐιέρου; εὐιέρους; εὐιέρῳ
Occurrence inventory
14 in total. VII.2; VII.12; XI.22; XXIV.11; XLI.10; XLII.3; XLIV.9; LIII.10; LVII.8; LXVI.10; LXXI.12; LXXV.3; LXXVII.10; LXXIX.12