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Hear — κλύω

κλύω

klyō

Κλύω often means hear or heed.

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 wordΚλύω often means hear or heed.
  • In the Orphic HymnsThe hearing formula opens many hymns and returns near their closing petitions.
  • TranslationCapitalization, added accents before enclitics, and elision account for several visible forms in the inventory.
  • A place to read“Hear me praying” joins attention to a good-life petition.
English renderings
hear; give heed

Meaning

Κλύω often means hear or heed. Its most conspicuous forms here are the imperatives κλῦθι and κλῦτε, addressing one recipient or several. Though grammatically aorist, these imperatives are present appeals for attention, not statements that the deity heard something in the past.

Use in the book

The hearing formula opens many hymns and returns near their closing petitions. It may take the praying person, a voice, or words as its complement. “Hear me praying” combines μευ with the participle εὐχομένου; “hear the voice” and “hear the words” foreground the utterance itself. The different constructions preserve the same basic orientation toward an attentive divine recipient.

Hearing is usually joined to an intended response: Zeus should grant health, Persephone send up crops, Corybas remove anger, and the Sun show a pleasant life. The imperative does not merely request sensory registration. Yet requested attention is not proof of an answered prayer. Death himself is asked to hear in a hymn that later declares his resistance to supplication. Night and Kronos also appear with present participles, hearing the supplicatory voice as part of the desired favourable encounter. These forms show the same relationship from the deity’s side rather than introducing a different ritual act.

Places to read

  1. Hymn XXVIII · Line 11“Hear me praying” joins attention to a good-life petition.
  2. Hymn VIII · Line 20The object is the speaker’s words and the response sought is a pleasant life.
  3. Hymn XXXIX · Line 9Hearing is coupled with the removal of anger.
  4. Hymn LXX · Line 1The plural imperative addresses the Eumenides collectively.
  5. Hymn LXXXVII · Line 1Even Death receives an appeal to hear.
  6. Hymn XIII · Line 9A participle describes Kronos hearing a suppliant voice.

Translation

Capitalization, added accents before enclitics, and elision account for several visible forms in the inventory. They should not be promoted into separate verbs. Conversely, κλύω and καλέω are not interchangeable acts: the worshipper calls, and the divine recipient is asked to hear.

Attested forms

κλῦθ’; Κλῦθί; κλῦθί; Κλῦθι; κλῦθι; κλύουσα; Κλῦτέ; κλῦτέ; Κλῦτε; κλύων

Occurrence inventory

39 in total. II.1; II.13; III.3; III.13; IV.9; VIII.1; VIII.20; IX.1; XIII.9; XV.10; XVII.1; XXII.9; XXVIII.1; XXVIII.11; XXIX.17; XXX.8; XXXII.16; XXXIV.10; XXXIV.27; XXXV.6; XXXVI.1; XXXIX.9; XLVIII.1; XLIX.4; L.1; LIV.1; LVI.1; LIX.2; LX.1; LXIII.12; LXVI.10; LXVIII.2; LXIX.1; LXX.1; LXXIV.3; LXXVIII.1; LXXXIII.6; LXXXVII.1; LXXXVIII.9