From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →- English renderings
- destructive fate; death-bringing danger
Meaning
Heracles and Rhea are asked to send away κῆρες; Asclepius stops death’s κῆρες; appended Ares asks for escape from violent ones. These are threatening powers or fatal dangers, not ordinary emotional cares. The poems’ active expulsion language can personify them, but it does not require one fully described individual spirit behind every plural occurrence.
Places to read
- Hymn XII · Line 16Read the word in its hymn.
Attested forms
κῆράς; κῆρας
Occurrence inventory
4 in total. XII.16; XIV.14; LXVII.4; LXXXVIII.17