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 wordπαύω makes an activity, condition or experience cease.
- In the Orphic HymnsAsklepios stops harsh diseases and death-dooms, while Korybas stills the apparitions of a frightened, unholy soul (LXVII.4; XXXIX.10).
- TranslationThe English varies “stop,” “still,” “put an end to” and “end” according to the object.
- A place to readStilling apparitions.
- English renderings
- stop; bring to an end; still
Meaning
παύω makes an activity, condition or experience cease. Its emotional or ethical value comes from what is stopped, not from the verb alone. Present participles can characterize a divine power as habitually stopping something; the aorist imperative παῦσον asks for a decisive cessation in the present petition.
Use in the book
Asklepios stops harsh diseases and death-dooms, while Korybas stills the apparitions of a frightened, unholy soul (LXVII.4; XXXIX.10). Both are protective cessations, but the objects distinguish bodily affliction from disturbing appearances. Nemesis stops hateful purposes as she grants good understanding (LXI.11–12), making cessation part of moral improvement. Hephaistos is asked to stop the raging madness of untiring fire (LXVI.12). The striking counterexample is Death, who ends the prime of the young at LXXXVII.7. Here the same verb names the threatened loss against which the closing petition asks for long life. “Heal” would therefore be too narrow as a general translation.
Places to read
- Hymn XXXIX · Line 10Stilling apparitions.
- Hymn LXI · Line 11Ending harmful purposes.
- Hymn LXVI · Line 12Direct request to restrain raging fire.
- Hymn LXVII · Line 4Medical relief within the hymn’s praise.
- Hymn LXXXVII · Line 7Death’s harmful ending of youthful prime.
Translation
The English varies “stop,” “still,” “put an end to” and “end” according to the object. Those variations do not identify different Greek verbs. At LXVI.12 the adjacent text about fire and bodily burning should remain in view: the prayer seeks restraint of destructive fire, not a simple assertion that all fire must cease. The compound παυσίπονος narrows cessation specifically toward toil or pain.
Attested forms
παύουσα; παῦσον; παύων
Occurrence inventory
5 in total. XXXIX.10; LXI.11; LXVI.12; LXVII.4; LXXXVII.7