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 wordπέμπω describes sending something toward a recipient or away to a destination.
- In the Orphic HymnsRains are sent to mother earth, prosperity to initiates and a favourable wind to ships.
- TranslationThe printed πέμπεις in Dawn’s hymn (LXXVIII.5) is indicative, “you send,” against the apparatus’s reported optative πέμποις, “may you send.” The difference separates assertion from wish.
- A place to readRain sent toward a beneficial destination.
- English renderings
- send; dispatch; convey
Meaning
πέμπω describes sending something toward a recipient or away to a destination. Its object and directional phrases decide whether the action bestows a benefit or removes a harm. The petitions use imperatives, infinitives and optatives; participles also describe the god’s characteristic activity. These are different constructions of one ordinary but versatile verb.
Use in the book
Rains are sent to mother earth, prosperity to initiates and a favourable wind to ships. Kronos and chthonic Hermes are asked to send a good completion of life or work (XIII.10; LVII.12). Law is asked to send remembrance of himself, extending sending beyond tangible gifts (LXIV.13). By contrast, Artemis sends sicknesses and pains to mountain peaks, and Rhea dispatches defilements and dooms to earth’s limits (XXXVI.16; XIV.14). The action is beneficial because of its destination, not because its object is good. The destructive griefs of LXXIII.8 themselves send ruin across the earth, showing that neither divine agency nor benevolence belongs inherently to the verb. Dawn’s sending Night below earth is instead a description of the daily transition.
Places to read
- Hymn XXI · Line 7Rain sent toward a beneficial destination.
- Hymn XXXVI · Line 16Illness sent away.
- Hymn LXIV · Line 13Remembrance as the requested gift.
- Hymn LXXIII · Line 8Sending that spreads destruction.
- Hymn LXXVIII · Line 5Assertion rather than petition in the adopted form.
Translation
The printed πέμπεις in Dawn’s hymn (LXXVIII.5) is indicative, “you send,” against the apparatus’s reported optative πέμποις, “may you send.” The difference separates assertion from wish. Elsewhere the English “may you send” accurately signals an optative, whereas an infinitive may depend on the preceding invocation rather than stand as a direct command.
Attested forms
πέμπε; πέμπει; πέμπειν; πέμπεις; πέμποις; πέμπουσ’; πέμπουσα; πέμπων
Occurrence inventory
14 in total. XIII.10; XIV.14; XXI.7; XXII.10; XXIII.7; XXIV.9; XXV.11; XXXVI.16; LVII.12; LXIV.13; LXXIII.8; LXXVIII.5; LXXXII.5; LXXXII.7