From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordἙκάτη is the name of the goddess addressed in Hymn I and its heading.
- In the Orphic HymnsThe first line combines a road-epithet, a three-way designation and darkness (I.1).
- TranslationThe edition prints ἐρεμνήν, dark, with an apparatus attribution to Wiel, against reported ἐραννήν, lovely.
- A place to readThe name is the object of invocation and receives the road, three-way and dark titles.
- English renderings
- Hekate
Meaning
Ἑκάτη is the name of the goddess addressed in Hymn I and its heading. The opening gives an accusative object to I call: the speaker summons Hekate through several qualifying titles. Those titles explain the local portrait more directly than any unverified derivation of the name.
Use in the book
The first line combines a road-epithet, a three-way designation and darkness (I.1). Roads and their branching places locate her presence in spaces of passage, while the dark description gives that presence a particular atmosphere. The following line extends her reach to heaven, earth and sea; later the hymn includes solitude and delight in deer. These are cumulative facets of the addressee, not separate goddesses introduced each time an epithet changes.
The ending asks her to be kindly to the oxherd (I.10). This petition matters for reading the formidable opening: darkness and an unassailable appearance do not prevent a hoped-for favourable relationship. Her name organizes the series of attributes, but it should not absorb their lexical distinctions. Road-associated ἐνόδιος, three-way language and the word dark each have their own work to do.
Places to read
- Hymn I · Line 1The name is the object of invocation and receives the road, three-way and dark titles.
Translation
The edition prints ἐρεμνήν, dark, with an apparatus attribution to Wiel, against reported ἐραννήν, lovely. That is a consequential difference in the portrait adjacent to the name, not a variant name of the goddess. The access entry retains Hekate while linking the distinct epithets and the closing request for favour.
Attested forms
Ἑκάτην
Occurrence inventory
1 in total. I.1
Heading and incense rubric evidence
ΕΚΑΤΗΝ · I.heading. I. ΕΙΣ ΕΚΑΤΗΝ
Local sense
Hekate, the named recipient of Hymn I