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 wordπαντογένεθλος joins comprehensiveness with generation or kind.
- In the Orphic HymnsZeus is all-generating immediately before “beginning of all things and end of all” (XV.7).
- TranslationThe English consistently uses “all-begetting,” while LSJ distinguishes “of every kind” at LVIII.6 from the generative sense at XV.7.
- A place to readGeneration joined to beginning and end.
- English renderings
- all-generating; of every kind
Meaning
παντογένεθλος joins comprehensiveness with generation or kind. In direct address it can call a deity the begetter of all; with a plural noun it can also characterize things of every kind. That distinction matters more than supplying one English equivalent everywhere. The three forms here reflect different grammatical attachments, not three independently established divine titles.
Use in the book
Zeus is all-generating immediately before “beginning of all things and end of all” (XV.7). Hera receives the same adjective after being named mother of rains and nurse of winds (XVI.4). Both contexts make generative agency prominent. In Eros’s hymn, however, παντογένεθλα qualifies the breaths that green-fruited Rhea feeds for mortals (LVIII.6). Those breaths belong to the broad domain whose keys and tiller Eros holds. Calling them “all-generating” gives them productive power; “of every kind” emphasizes the range of life-sustaining airs. The syntax establishes what is qualified but does not by itself choose between those senses.
Places to read
- Hymn XV · Line 7Generation joined to beginning and end.
- Hymn XVI · Line 4Hera’s generating and nourishing powers.
- Hymn LVIII · Line 6The disputed description of the breaths, not of Rhea herself.
Translation
The English consistently uses “all-begetting,” while LSJ distinguishes “of every kind” at LVIII.6 from the generative sense at XV.7. The alternative is therefore substantive, not a correction of a supposed grammatical error. At LVIII.6 the edition also adopts the name Ῥέα against reported θεά, “goddess”; that separate decision identifies the feeder without settling the adjective.
Attested forms
παντογένεθλ’; παντογένεθλα; παντογένεθλε
Occurrence inventory
3 in total. XV.7; XVI.4; LVIII.6
Lexical references
Further source
LSJ, παντογένεθλος. Lexical sense or textual qualification checked in the official Perseus LSJ entry; the supplied Greek remains primary.