From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordπερικιόνιος is the adopted epithet of Bakchos in hymn XLVII.
- In the Orphic HymnsThe opening calls the god pillar-encircling and wine-giving.
- TranslationThe English “pillar-encircling” gives a useful orientation while the Greek must be read with ἑλισσόμενος, “winding,” and the house-scene.
- A place to readThe epithet whose following narrative supplies its local explanation.
- English renderings
- pillar-encircling
Meaning
περικιόνιος is the adopted epithet of Bakchos in hymn XLVII. Its pillar-related force is clarified by the poem’s surrounding account of encirclement and support. A lexical explanation should begin with that action rather than treating the title as sufficient evidence for a complete reconstruction of a building or cult object.
Use in the book
The opening calls the god pillar-encircling and wine-giving. The relative clause then describes him winding around Kadmos’s house on every side and stopping the earth’s violent quakings (XLVII.1–3). A fire-bearing flash has shaken the ground amid the storm-blast’s rushing, after which a “bond of all things” runs up. The protective circling explains why the compound is more than a decorative architectural adjective: the god’s movement checks the destructive shaking. Yet the poem’s compressed description leaves the precise physical relation of pillars, house and rising bond less explicit than the English title might suggest. Its closing request returns to the revelling god’s joyful approach.
Places to read
- Hymn XLVII · Line 1The epithet whose following narrative supplies its local explanation.
Translation
The English “pillar-encircling” gives a useful orientation while the Greek must be read with ἑλισσόμενος, “winding,” and the house-scene. At XLVII.2 the apparatus adopts the adverbial “on every side” against reported “around all things”; at .4 “shook” replaces a reported “conquered.” Those nearby choices affect the explanatory scene, but they are not variant forms of περικιόνιος itself.
Attested forms
περικιόνιον
Occurrence inventory
1 in total. XLVII.1
Heading and incense rubric evidence
ΠΕΡΙΚΙΟΝΙΟΥ · XLVII.heading. XLVII. ΠΕΡΙΚΙΟΝΙΟΥ
Local sense
Perikionios, a Dionysian title