From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordΨύχω is a verb of cooling or chilling.
- In the Orphic HymnsThe Daimon hymn first calls its recipient gentle Zeus, all-begetter and life-giver, then great Zeus and giver of wealth.
- TranslationThe English “chilling the life” preserves the unfavourable contrast.
- A place to readChilling reverses the preceding description of wealth and abundance.
- English renderings
- cool, chill
Meaning
Ψύχω is a verb of cooling or chilling. The printed ψύχοντα is its present active accusative masculine participle, agreeing with the Daimon being invoked. It is not a form of ψυχή, soul, despite the similar letters; the direct object here is βίον, life.
Use in the book
The Daimon hymn first calls its recipient gentle Zeus, all-begetter and life-giver, then great Zeus and giver of wealth. In line 4 he enters a house in abundance; line 5 turns with ἔμπαλι δέ to his reverse action, chilling the life of much-toiling mortals. The word therefore has an adverse local force, not merely the pleasant refreshment that cooling might convey elsewhere.
The next line explains why both sides belong to the address: the keys of grief and joy rest in this power. The petition then asks that destructive cares be driven away and a good, sweet completion of life be granted. Cooling forms part of the hymn’s account of a power able to affect life in opposed ways. It should not be isolated into a separate deity or turned into a technical physiological mechanism. Its function is to make the need for favourable action acute.
Places to read
- Hymn LXXIII · Line 5Chilling reverses the preceding description of wealth and abundance.
Translation
The English “chilling the life” preserves the unfavourable contrast. The preceding Greek line has βρυάζων, teeming or abounding, not a verb meaning “warming.” Although warm/cold imagery may be suggested by ψύχω, the actual printed opposition is abundant entry versus chilling life. Keeping that distinction also prevents an invented pair of physical processes from replacing the hymn’s concern with prosperity, grief and joy.
Attested forms
ψύχοντα
Occurrence inventory
1 in total. LXXIII.5