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 wordῥοῖζος combines audible rushing with forceful movement.
- In the Orphic HymnsHera is shaken with airy rushings, and Poseidon shakes salt water with marine rushings (XVI.8; XVII.6).
- TranslationThe English varies its rendering appropriately across these scenes.
- A place to readAiry rushings in Hera’s movement.
- English renderings
- rushing sound; whirr; whistle
Meaning
ῥοῖζος combines audible rushing with forceful movement. “Whirr,” “whistling rush” and “rushing” each bring out a different part of that acoustic image. The noun does not necessarily identify a musical instrument; the source often supplies air, sea or a storm as the moving and sounding medium.
Use in the book
Hera is shaken with airy rushings, and Poseidon shakes salt water with marine rushings (XVI.8; XVII.6). The corresponding datives keep sound close to the motion of elemental surroundings. Zeus’s thunderbolt turns in a boundless whirr (XIX.10), while the storm-blast’s rushings accompany the shaken ground at Kadmos’s house (XLVII.5). Law offers a less literal application: he drives worthless envy outside in the manner of a rushing whistle (LXIV.6). The expulsion borrows the force and speed of the acoustic image. Reading all these as the name of one ritual sound-making device would remove the objects and comparisons the verses actually provide.
Places to read
- Hymn XVI · Line 8Airy rushings in Hera’s movement.
- Hymn XVII · Line 6Marine rushings and shaking water.
- Hymn XIX · Line 10The thunderbolt’s boundless whirr.
- Hymn XLVII · Line 5Rushing storm-force at Kadmos’s house.
- Hymn LXIV · Line 6An explicit comparison for expelling envy.
Translation
The English varies its rendering appropriately across these scenes. At LXIV.6 the Greek explicitly has τρόπον, “in the manner of,” which makes the comparison clearer than a bare “with a whistling rush” may suggest. The related ῥοιζήτωρ names a rushing agent, and ῥοίζημα a rushing sound or effect; those formations are separate entries rather than extra inflections of ῥοῖζος.
Attested forms
ῥοίζοις; ῥοίζοισι; ῥοίζου
Occurrence inventory
5 in total. XVI.8; XVII.6; XIX.10; XLVII.5; LXIV.6