Explained vocabulary

Bud-faced — καλυκῶπις

καλυκῶπις

kalykōpis

Nereids, Graces, nymphs, and Themis are characterized by a bud-like or flower-like face.

From the book

The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns

Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →
English renderings
bud-faced; flower-like in beauty

Meaning

Nereids, Graces, nymphs, and Themis are characterized by a bud-like or flower-like face. The epithet places feminine beauty near flourishing growth without specifying a botanical species. At LV.22 the apparatus reports κυανώπισιν, dark-eyed or dark-faced, against adopted καλυκώπισιν. The contrast is real, but an English gloss should not force a single rigid face-versus-eye division into all -ωπις compounds.

Places to read

  1. Hymn XXIV · Line 1Read the word in its hymn.

Attested forms

καλυκώπιδα; καλυκώπιδες; καλυκώπισιν

Occurrence inventory

4 in total. XXIV.1; LV.22; LX.10; LXXIX.2

Consequential readings

AV084_06