From the book
The Orphic Collection, Volume I: The Hymns
Attributed to Orpheus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe form can qualify a season or stand substantivally for a recurring observance.
- In the Orphic HymnsSemele's hymn has τριετηρίδας ὥρας, trieteric seasons, when participants enact Bacchos's fruitful birth-pang (XLIV.7–8).
- TranslationThe English trieteric wisely preserves the ancient term.
- A place to readThe adjective qualifies expressed seasons.
- English renderings
- trieteric season or observance
Meaning
The form can qualify a season or stand substantivally for a recurring observance. It belongs to the trieteric vocabulary associated here with Dionysian celebration. Third-year recurrence is traditionally inclusive in Greek festival terminology, so it should not be silently converted into a modern interval of three complete years.
Use in the book
Semele's hymn has τριετηρίδας ὥρας, trieteric seasons, when participants enact Bacchos's fruitful birth-pang (XLIV.7–8). Silenos's praise similarly speaks of τριετηρίσιν ὥραις at LIV.3. In both, the word qualifies an expressed noun for seasons or times.
At LII.8, by contrast, the consecrated τριετηρίδας can stand as the observances through which Dionysos revels around nurses. The adopted τιθήνας in that phrase is textually significant, so a calendar account and a nursing scene should not be presented as equally unproblematic inherited facts. Related τριετής, τριετήρ and the heading adjective τριετηρικός remain individually accessible rather than being collapsed into one undifferentiated form.
Places to read
- Hymn XLIV · Line 7The adjective qualifies expressed seasons.
- Hymn LII · Line 8The substantive use denotes observances, beside the adopted nurses reading.
- Hymn LIV · Line 3Silenos is honoured at trieteric seasons.
Translation
The English trieteric wisely preserves the ancient term. Feasts at LII.8 is an explanatory rendering of the substantive construction, not an additional Greek noun. The hymns give recurring-time language, not enough dates or procedural detail to reconstruct one complete historical festival calendar.
Attested forms
τριετηρίδας; τριετηρίσιν
Occurrence inventory
3 in total. XLIV.7; LII.8; LIV.3