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 wordπολυώνυμος praises a figure as bearing or receiving many names.
- In the Orphic HymnsProthyraia, Physis, Pan, Hera, the Mother, Artemis, Demeter and several Dionysian recipients are many-named.
- TranslationThe English “of many names” is a sound orientation, but its repeated appearance should not replace attention to agreement and naming clauses.
- A place to readMany-named praise in the childbirth invocation.
- English renderings
- many-named; of many names
Meaning
πολυώνυμος praises a figure as bearing or receiving many names. It does not by itself tell whether those names are personal names, local titles or descriptive epithets. Nor does sharing the adjective establish that every divine recipient is interchangeable with every other.
Use in the book
Prothyraia, Physis, Pan, Hera, the Mother, Artemis, Demeter and several Dionysian recipients are many-named. The local sequence shows how the praise works. In XLV.2 Bassaros and Bakcheus immediately precede πολυώνυμε, making multiplicity audible in the address itself. In X.13 the term accompanies Physis’s naming through Dike and persuasion of the Charites. The Moirai receive the plural πολυώνυμοι (LIX.2), while at XLII.2 πολυώνυμον qualifies the seed of Eubouleus rather than functioning as an independent vocative. The range extends beyond simply counting names for Dionysos: the same capacity to receive varied address belongs to different kinds of divine power.
Places to read
- Hymn II · Line 1Many-named praise in the childbirth invocation.
- Hymn X · Line 13The adjective among naming-predications of Physis.
- Hymn XLV · Line 2Two Bacchic names directly beside the epithet.
- Hymn XLII · Line 2Neuter agreement with seed.
- Hymn LIX · Line 2Plural address to the Moirai.
Translation
The English “of many names” is a sound orientation, but its repeated appearance should not replace attention to agreement and naming clauses. In particular, the neuter form in Mise’s hymn belongs with σπέρμα. A local hymn may connect named identities explicitly, yet the adjective alone supplies no complete catalogue and no general identity formula for the collection. Related form-words such as πολύμορφος describe multiplicity of appearance, not automatically multiplicity of names.
Attested forms
πολυώνυμε; πολυώνυμοι; πολυώνυμον
Occurrence inventory
14 in total. II.1; X.13; XI.10; XVI.9; XXVII.4; XXXVI.1; XL.1; XLI.1; XLII.2; XLV.2; L.2; LII.1; LVI.1; LIX.2