The Orphic Hymns are a collection of eighty-seven ancient Greekhymns addressed to various deities, which are among the few extant works of Orphic literature. They were composed in Asia Minor, most likely around the time of the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, and were used in the rites of a religious community which existed in the region. The Hymns were in antiquity attributed to the mythical poet Orpheus, and modern scholarship has mostly continued to see the collection as being situated in the Orphic literary tradition.
The collection of eighty-seven hymns is preceded by a proem, in which Orpheus addresses his student Musaeus, calling upon various deities to attend the recitation of the hymns. The individual hymns in the collection, which are all very brief, typically call for the attention of the deity they address, before describing them, and highlighting aspects of their divinity. These descriptions primarily consist of strings of epithets, which make up a significant portion of the hymns' content, and are designed to summon the powers of the god. Most of the deities addressed in the Hymns are derived from mainstream Greek mythology, with the notable exception of Protogonos, a decidedly Orphic deity. The god featured most prominently in the collection is Dionysus, who is the recipient of around eight hymns, and is mentioned throughout the collection, under various names. Several deities addressed in the Hymns—Mise, Hipta, and Melinoe—previously known only though the collection, were in the early 20th century discovered in inscriptions from Asia Minor.
The Orphic Hymns seem to have belonged to a cult community in Asia Minor, which used the collection in ritual. The Hymns themselves appear to reference various members of this cult, and employ the word boukolos (βουκόλος), which is often used to refer to worshippers of Dionysus. The rite in which the Orphic Hymns featured was the teletē (τελετή, a term which usually refers to a rite of initiation into mysteries), and this ceremony appears to have taken place at nighttime. In addition, most hymns specify an offering to be made to the deity, which was probably burned during the performance of the hymn. Scholars have noted the apparent lack of Orphic doctrines in the collection, including the paucity of interest in the afterlife, and the absence of explicit mentions of known Orphic myths; certain themes and references, however, have been interpreted as pointing to the presence of Orphic thought in the Hymns.
No references to the Orphic Hymns survive in other ancient sources from antiquity, with their earliest mention coming from the Byzantine writer Ioannes Galenos. From perhaps as early as late antiquity, the Orphic Hymns were preserved in a codex which also included the Orphic Argonautica and other Greek hymns such as the Homeric Hymns. The first codex containing the Orphic Hymns to reach Western Europe seems to have arrived in Italy in the early 15th century, and may be the codex from which all surviving manuscripts descend. Following the arrival of the Orphic Hymns in Renaissance Italy, the collection seems to have been relatively popular amongst the educated, and in 1500 the first edition of the Hymns was published. Other notable editions from the following centuries include those by Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann, Jenő Ábel[de], and Wilhelm Quandt.
Date and composition
Roman mosaic of Orpheus, the mythical poet to whom the Orphic Hymns were attributed, from Palermo, 2nd century AD
Around the beginning of the 20th century, several scholars believed that the Hymns were produced in Egypt, primarily on the basis of stylistic similarities to Egyptian magical hymns, and the mention of deities which are found elsewhere in Egyptian literature.[2] Modern scholarship, however, now essentially unanimously agrees upon Asia Minor as the place of composition;[3] in particular, the names of deities such as Mise, Hipta, and Melinoe, otherwise known only through the Hymns, have been found in inscriptions in the region.[4] In 1910, a number of such inscriptions were discovered in a temenos of Demeter (a sacred area dedicated to the goddess), located in Pergamon, a city near the Western coast of Asia Minor; this discovery led Otto Kern to postulate that Pergamon was the location in which the collection was composed.[5] While Christian Lobeck conceived of the collection as a "purely literary work", written by a scholar as an exercise,[6] others such as Albrecht Dieterich argued that the Hymns were liturgical in function, designed for ritual performance by a cult community, a perspective almost universally accepted by modern scholars.[7] Kern argued that this group existed at the temenos in Pergamon itself, a view with which some have subsequently agreed.[8] Scholars have at times stated that the collection was the product of a single author,[9] though it has also been questioned whether or not the proem was composed separately.[10]
Estimates for the date of the Orphic Hymns' composition vary widely.[11] While there are several Greek authors who mention hymns attributed to Orpheus, the earliest certain reference to the collection of eighty-seven hymns comes from the Byzantine writer Ioannes Galenos.[12] It is possible that they were composed at an early date without being mentioned, though it is more likely that they were produced somewhere from the 1st to 4th centuries AD.[13] On the basis of the language and meter of the Hymns, the early 20th-century scholar Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff judged that they could not have been composed before the 2nd century AD,[14] but were earlier than the 5th-century AD poet Nonnus,[15] and around the same time Leonard van Liempt wrote that he saw their language as the same used in 3rd- and 4th-century AD poetry.[16] More recently, most scholars have dated the collection to around the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD,[17] with Gabriella Ricciardelli pointing to the prominence of Dionysism at that time in Asia Minor.[18]
The Orphic Hymns are one of the few extant works of Orphic literature.[19] The collection is attributed to Orpheus in the manuscripts in which it survives,[20] and is written in the voice of Orpheus, opening with the proem, entitled "Orpheus to Musaeus", which is an address from the poet to the legendary author Musaeus of Athens.[21] In the rest of the collection, there are several passages which indicate the work was written as though Orpheus was the composer:[22]Orphic Hymn 76 to the Muses mentions "mother Calliope",[23] and Orphic Hymn 24 to the Nereids refers to "mother Calliope and lord Apollo", alluding to the parentage of Orpheus (whose father was sometimes considered to be Apollo).[24] The collection can be seen as part of the broader genre of hymnic literature attributed to Orpheus,[25] of which there are examples dating back at least as far as the 5th century BC;[26] though some scholars have brought into question how "Orphic" the collection can be considered, partly due to the apparent lack of Orphic narratives and eschatological ideas,[27] there are several places in which the language bears similarity to other works of Orphic literature.[28]W. K. C. Guthrie, who placed the Hymns at the temenos in Pergamon, went so far as to state that the group to whom they belonged was an "Orphic society";[29]Ivan Linforth, however, whose approach to Orphism has been noted for its scepticism, contests that it is equally likely that the name of Orpheus was simply stamped upon the work for its "prestige".[30] More recently, scholars such as Jean Rudhardt[fr] and Anne-France Morand have seen the Hymns as markedly Orphic in nature, and in line with the preceding tradition of Orphic literature.[31]
Structure and style
In addition to the proem, the Orphic Hymns consist of eighty-seven very brief poems,[32] which range from six to thirty lines in length.[33] In the surviving manuscripts, the hymn addressed to Hecate is appended to the proem,[34] though modern editions present it separately, as the first hymn of the collection.[35] In the order of the hymns there occurs a progression from life to death:[36] the second hymn is addressed to Prothyraia, a goddess associated with birth, while the last is dedicated to Thanatos (Death), and ends in the word gēras (γῆρας, 'old age').[37] The collection is also arranged in such a way that the earliest primordial deities appear in the first hymns, while later gods are found further on.[38] As such, the earliest hymns are addressed to deities who feature in Orphic cosmogony, such as Nyx (Hymn 3), Uranus (Hymn 4), Aether (Hymn 5), and Protogonos (Hymn 6).[39] There often exists a link between adjacent hymns—such as the shared "allness" of Pan (Hymn 11) and Heracles (Hymn 12)—and a "logic of cosmogonies" is present in, for example, the placement of the hymns to Cronus (Hymn 13) and Rhea (Hymn 14) ahead of those to their children (Hymns 15–18).[40] Fritz Graf also sees religious significance in the ordering of the hymns.[41]
Friend, use it to good fortune. Learn now Mousaios, a mystical and most holy rite, a prayer which surely excels all others.
The collection begins with a poem entitled "Orpheus to Musaeus",[43] often referred to as the proem,[44] proemium, or prologue,[45] in which Orpheus speaks to Musaeus (who is often described as his student or son in Greek literature).[46] The proem has 54 lines, including the final ten which make up the hymn to Hecate (which is attached without separation or a title).[47] It opens with a two-line dedication in which Orpheus asks Musaeus to learn the rite (thuēpoliē, θυηπολίη) and prayer (eukhē, εὐχή), the latter of these referring to the address which follows from lines three to fourty-four, in which around seventy different deities are called upon to attend the rite in question (which would go alongside the performance of the text).[48] The purpose of this prayer is seemingly to name and devote a hymn to "all" the gods,[49] though it addresses numerous deities not mentioned in the collection itself, and omits others who are subjects of hymns.[50] Partly on the basis of this difference in the deities mentioned, as well as the presence of the word thuēpoliē (which does not appear in the rest of the collection)[51] at the beginning and end of the proem, M. L. West argues that the proem was originally a separate Orphic poem.[52] Morand, however, argues for the common authorship of the proem and the rest of the collection, pointing to the similarities in the usage of epithets, and in the way deities are characterised between the two.[53]
Each individual hymn in the collection has three internal parts: the invocation, the development, and the request.[54] In some hymns, however, especially those shorter in length, these three parts can be difficult to distinguish, and may not occur in order.[55] The invocation is brief, typically appears at the start of the hymn, and is designed to gain the attention of the hymn's addressee.[56] It names the deity (sometimes using a cult title, called an epiclesis), and usually calls upon them with a verb, which may be in the imperative,[57] though sometimes no such verb is present, in which case the god is simply named.[58] The development (also referred to as the amplification)[59] makes up the main, central portion of the hymn, and is the longest section;[60] it follows immediately from the invocation, with the point at which it begins often being difficult to distinguish.[61] It consists mostly of descriptions of the deity, particularly in the form of numerous epithets, and may discuss different features or aspects of the god, as well as include information such as their familial relations, or locations in which they are worshipped;[62] the purpose of this section is to gratify the deity so that they choose to make themselves present.[63] The request (also referred to as the prayer)[64] generally finishes the hymn, and is usually only around one or two lines in length.[65] It opens with several verbs which typically ask for the god to listen to what the speaker has to say, and for them to be present.[66] The content of the request varies across the collection: some hymns ask the deity to come favourably, some ask for their presence at the mystery, or to accept a sacrifice,[67] while others ask for certain outcomes, such as health, prosperity, or wealth,[68] with this outcome in some instances being specific to the god, such as asking the Clouds to bring rain, or Hygieia to ward off illnesses.[69]
The hymns in the collection are similar to each other in their style and language (with several exceptions, which Ricciardelli suggests may not have been part of the original collection).[70] They are written in dactylic hexameter, the metre of Homeric poetry,[71] and display a consistency in metrical composition.[72] According to Rudhardt, in terms of vocabulary and grammar, the Hymns find a "distant model" (modèle lointain) in the works of Hesiod and Homer, but also contain a number of words and forms from later literature, spanning from the 5th-century BC to the first centuries AD.[73] In particular, the language of the collection bears similarity to that of late works such as Nonnus's Dionysiaca, the Greek Magical Papyri, and several poems from the Greek Anthology.[74] The most distinctive feature of the Hymns is their use of concatenations of epithets, which comprise a large part of their content.[75] They also make extensive use of phonic repetition,[76] as well as forms of wordplay, such as etymologies on the names of gods.[77] Other notable stylistic elements include the frequent use of compound adjectives as epithets, the tendency to juxtapose contrasting descriptions of deities, and the use of asyndeton.[78]
Religious significance
It is largely accepted in modern scholarship that the Orphic Hymns were liturgical in function, and were used in religious rites by a cult which existed in Asia Minor.[79] According to Morand, this group performed initiations into some form of mysteries.[80] The term boukolos (βουκόλος, "cowherd") is found in the Hymns, a religious title which is often used elsewhere to refer to worshippers of Dionysus, and is connected to Orpheus in some contexts.[81] The use of the word boukolos and the prominence of Dionysus in the collection indicate that he was the central god of the cult which used the Hymns.[82] Within the collection itself, Morand sees a number of different members of the group's religious hierarchy as being mentioned:[83] the mustai (μύσται), the regular members of the cult (and the group mentioned most frequently);[84] the neomustai (νεομύσται), the "new initiates";[85] the mustipoloi (μυστιπόλοι), who were likely members involved in initiations and ritual activity;[86] and the orgiophantai (ὀργιοφάνται), who seem to have been members involved in initiation rites (similarly to the mustipoloi), and who may also have been responsible for displaying holy objects.[87]
Most of the hymns in the collection contain a specification of an offering to be made to the deity, which is given as part of the title of the hymn;[88] only eight hymns lack such an offering in the title.[89] During the reciting of a hymn, its specified offering would likely have been burned.[90] For most of the hymns, the offering specified is an aromatic, incense (or incense powder or granules), storax, or myrrh.[91] In some cases a combination of offerings is asked for.[92] Several hymns specify a unique offering to be given to the deity, such as torches to Nyx, saffron to Aether, poppies to Hypnos, and grain (excluding beans or herbs) to Earth; Orphic Hymn 53 to Amphietes asks for a libation of milk in addition to an offering.[93] While in a few cases there is a recognisable link between a deity and their offering, as with poppies for Hypnos, or grain for Earth, for most of the hymns there is no clear reasoning behind the choice of offering.[94] The absence of animals from the offerings may be related to the supposed prohibition of animal sacrifice in Orphic belief.[95]
The ceremony in which the Hymns played a role was the teletē (τελετή),[96] a term which usually refers to a rite of initiation into mysteries.[97] Within the Hymns, there are numerous references to the teletē,[98] including several mentions of the pantheios teletē (πάνθειος τελετή), an initiation rite to all of the gods.[99] This rite appears to have occurred at nighttime, and may have included the playing of a tambourine at points.[100] The Hymns also contain several instances of the term orgion (ὄργιον), which may refer to sacred objects which featured in the rite.[101] According to Fritz Graf, the placement of the hymn to Hecate (Hymn 1) at the beginning of the collection may reflect the placement of a hekataion at the entry to the building in which the rite took place, which participants would have walked past before its commencement.[102] Graf also argues that the presence of the hymn to Nyx (Hymn 3) early on is an indication that the Hymns accompanied a nocturnal ritual, which began at dusk and lasted through the night.[103]
Scholars have noted the apparent dearth of Orphic doctrines in the Hymns.[104] As a whole, the collection shows little concern for the afterlife, and at no point references the idea of metempsychosis, which is often associated with Orphism;[105] according to Paul Veyne, the Hymns are essentially uninterested in what happens after death, being concerned only with "this world".[106] Morand, however, points to, within the collection, the references to souls, and the roles played by memory and purity, as well as parallels between the Hymns and similar evidence such as the gold lamellae, ultimately concluding that this information is "reconcilable with Orphism" ("conciliable avec l'orphisme").[107] Throughout the collection, however, there is no explicit mention of any major Orphic myth,[108] including the story of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans,[109] which has often been considered the central myth of Orphism;[110] one element of the myth, however, the so-called "Orphic anthropogony", may be alluded to in the hymn to the Titans, which calls its addressees the "ancestors of our fathers".[111] The Hymns also make no concrete prescriptions as to a certain way of life, though the absence of meat in the offerings could imply a prohibition of animal sacrifice, and the explicit disallowing of beans in the offering to Gaia may similarly indicate a forbiddenness around eating beans,[112] both of which could suggest an Orphic way of life.[113] In addition, the idea of purity holds significance in the Hymns, with the hymn to Eros asking the god to come to the initiates and "banish from them vile impulses",[114] which potentially indicates adherence to some form of "sexual ethics".[115]
Deities in the Hymns
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Orphic Hymns is the strings of epithets which comprise a significant portion of their content.[116] In contrast to the Homeric Hymns, where the middle part of individual hymns often presents a narrative involving the god, in the Orphic Hymns the development section consists mostly of these concatenations of epithets,[117] which themselves serve as the primary vehicle of mythic content in the collection.[118] The purpose of these chains of epithets is to acquire the attention of the god and to summon their powers.[119] To this end, and to gain the goodwill of their addressee, a variety of appellations are used, each of which serves to highlight an aspect of the deity, such as elements of their power, locations of worship, or their part in myths.[120] In addition, a significant portion of the epithets used are applied to more than one deity, contributing to the broader syncretistic tendencies of the text.[121] While a number of the epithets in the collection are hapax legomena, quite a few are derived from earlier literature, especially the works of Homer and Hesiod, while others, though without prior attestation, are references to the deity's role in an existing myth;[122] others still are allusions to known cult titles of the god, which were utilised in certain geographical locations.[123] According to Rudhardt, while the paratactic clusters of epithets in the Hymns may seem to indicate "rudimentary thought", within them is contained a sort of syntax, where adjacent terms bear relation to each other in subtle ways.[124]
A number of the gods featured in the Hymns are identified with one another.[125] On the basis of shared attributes or associations, two deities in the collection may be brought closer together to the point of coalescing, partially or fully;[126] these linkings of pairs of gods are not complete assimilations, however, as each deity, while adopting features of the other god, still retains their own individual characteristics.[127] Though Jane Ellen Harrison, writing at the beginning of the 20th century, saw this identifying tendency as conferring upon the collection an "atmosphere of mystical monotheism",[128] this idea of a monotheistic bent to the Hymns has been rejected by more recent scholars.[129] Two deities who are prominently identified with each other in the collection are Dionysus and the Orphic god Protogonos: both are described at times as possessing taurine features, or as being "dual" or "double" in nature, and Dionysus, in his own hymn, is at one point directly addressed as "Protogonos".[130] Other examples of deities who are identified in the Hymns include Artemis and Hecate,[131]Rhea and the Mother of the Gods,[132] and Demeter and the Mother Antaia.[133] Scholars have also noted the similarity between how deities are identified in the Hymns and other works of Orphic literature,[134] with the collection seeming to follow an existing Orphic tradition in linking certain pairs of gods.[135]
Mosaic of Dionysus, the deity featured most prominently in the Orphic Hymns, from the House of Poseidon in Zeugma, 3rd century AD
Most of the gods mentioned in the Orphic Hymns are known within mainstream Greek mythology.[137] The only definitively Orphic deity in the collection is Protogonos,[138] the "first-born god" who emerges from an egg, also referred to as Ericepaios, Phanes, Priapus and Antauges;[139] he is addressed in Orphic Hymn 6, a hymn which scholars see as congruent with earlier Orphic literature.[140] Of all the deities featured in the Hymns, however, the one given the place of greatest prominence is Dionysus,[141] the recipient of around eight separate hymns, more than any other deity.[142] These hymns address him in various manifestations,[143] and comprise the central portion of the collection (Hymns 30–38).[144] He appears throughout the collection, being explicitly mentioned in twenty-two of the eight-seven hymns,[145] under a myriad of epithets.[146] Across various hymns, he is described as the son of Zeus and either Semele or Persephone, as having been stitched into the thigh of Sabazius before his birth, and as having been nursed by nymphs or other figures as an infant;[147] in addition, he is also associated in various ways with a number of other deities.[148] Also prominent in the Hymns is Zeus, who receives four hymns, and is depicted in a manner largely in line with his characterisation in the standard Greek tradition;[149] other major Greek gods of importance in the collection include Demeter and Persephone.[150] Heracles, who is portrayed quite differently from traditional depictions, is made both a Titan and a solar deity.[151] The Hymns also contain several references to non-Greek deities attested in other literature, such as the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Anatolian god Men.[152]
Several gods addressed in the Orphic Hymns have little or no literary attestation outside of the collection; three of these deities previously unknown outside of the Hymns—Mise, Hipta, and Melinoe—have since been discovered in inscriptions in Asia Minor,[153] leading scholars to consider the region to be the collection's place of origin.[154] In the Hymns, Mise is depicted as an androgynous deity, identified with Dionysus, and described as the daughter of the Egyptian goddess Isis,[155] and mention of her in inscriptions around Pergamon indicate that she featured in cult in the region.[156] Hipta is portrayed by the collection as the nurse of the infant Dionysus, and described as "glorifying" the mysteries of Sabazios;[157] inscriptions near LydianPhiladelphia, dating between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, similarly associate her with Sabazios, and evince that she was the subject of cult in the area (and perhaps indicate that she had her own sanctuary there).[158] Melinoe is a goddess in the Hymns associated with Hecate and seemingly considered the daughter of Zeus and Persephone,[159] who is also mentioned on a bronze tablet from Pergamon.[160] According to Morand, this epigraphic evidence, which is roughly contemporaneous with the Orphic Hymns,[161] indicates deities such as Mise and Hipta were not invented by the author of the Hymns.[162]
Transmission and scholarship
There exist no references to the Orphic Hymns from antiquity;[163] though hymns attributed to Orpheus are mentioned in works such as the Derveni papyrus (4th century BC) and Pausanias's Description of Greece (2nd century AD), these almost certainly do not refer to the collection of eighty-seven hymns.[164] The earliest definite reference to the Hymns comes from the Byzantine writer Ioannes Galenos, who mentions the collection thrice in his scholium on Hesiod's Theogony.[165] He refers to epithets from the hymns to Helios and Selene,[166] and quotes lines from those to Helios and Hecate;[167] according to Rance Hunsucker, it is relatively likely that Galenos was in possession of a full copy of the collection.[168]
As early as perhaps late antiquity, the Orphic Hymns were collected into a single codex, which also contained the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic Argonautica, and the Hymns of Callimachus and Proclus.[169] The earliest known codex containing the Orphic Hymns to arrive in Western Europe was brought to Venice from Constantinople by Giovanni Aurispa in 1423,[170] and shortly afterwards, in 1427, Francesco Filelfo brought to Italy another codex containing the collection; both of these manuscripts are among those which are now lost.[171] The surviving codices, of which there are thirty-seven, all date roughly between 1450 and 1550, and often include the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic Argonautica, Hesiodic works, or the Hymns of Callimachus or Proclus.[172] All of the extant codices descend from the archetype, denoted in scholarship by the siglum Ψ,[173] which likely dated to the 12th or 13th century,[174] and may have been the manuscript transported by Aurispa to Venice.[175] From this manuscript are derived four apographs—φ, θ, A, and B (in chronological order of transcription)—which resulted from the gradual introduction of errors in copies of the archetype.[176] Various further manuscripts are descended from the hyparchetypes φ and θ,[177] with both manuscripts being recoverable only from these descendants,[178] while A and B, which omit the Homeric Hymns (and in the latter case the Hymns of Callimachus also), are preserved in surviving editions.[179] Another manuscript, h, of less clear origin, was likely also an apograph of Ψ, though it may not have been an immediate descendant.[180]
In the mid 15th century, following the arrival of the codex brought by Aurispa to Venice, the Orphic Hymns seem to have attained a level of popularity amongst the educated of Renaissance Italy.[181] This attention around the work, however, may have been due to the Greek scholar and NeoplatonistGemistos Plethon, who visited Florence around this time,[182] and seems to have known of the collection;[183] Rudolf Keydell has even postulated that the manuscript h may have had its origins with Plethon.[184] In the latter part of the 15th century, the Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino translated the Orphic Hymns into Latin during his youth, seemingly the first translation of the collection, though it remained unpublished.[185] The editio princeps of the Hymns was produced in Florence in 1500 by Filippo Giunta;[186] this codex, denoted in scholarship by the siglum Iunt, is descended from φ.[187] This was followed shortly afterwards by the publication of an edition by the Aldine Press in 1517, and the first printing of a translation (in Latin) of the collection in 1519, written by Marcus Musurus;[188] by the end of the 16th century, a total of six editions had been published.[189] Editions of the Hymns published over the following two centuries are surpassed by the version of the text in the voluminous 1805 collection of Orphic literature by Gottfried Hermann.[190] Around this time also came the first complete English translation of the collection, produced in 1792 by the Neoplatonist Thomas Taylor, and the first complete German translation, by David Karl Philipp Dietsch, published in 1822.[191] Hermann's edition was followed by Jenő Ábel[de]'s 1885 collection of Orphic literature, which has been heavily criticised, including his rendering of the Hymns.[192] In the 20th century, the critical edition by Willhelm Quandt, first published in 1941, and revised in 1955 with additions,[193] sought to provide an accurate reconstruction of Ψ, with the exception of a number of what Quandt perceived to be spelling errors in the archetype, which he corrects.[194] Recent renderings of the Hymns include the 1977 English translation by Apostolos Athanassakis, the first since Taylor's,[195] the 2000 edition, with Italian translation and commentary, by Gabriela Ricciardelli,[196] and the 2014 Budé edition by Marie-Christine Fayant, with French translation and commentary.[197]
List of the Orphic Hymns
The deities to whom each of the Orphic Hymns are dedicated are as follows:[198]
↑ Morand 2001, p. 35. West 1968, p. 288 n. 3 argues that Galenos lived in or after the 9th century AD, and it is certain that he lived no later than the 14th century AD; see Hunsucker, p. 5 n. 3.
↑ Linforth, p. 186; Herrero de Jáuregui 2015, p. 230.
↑ Morand 2015, p. 211. Musaeus is often described in Greek literature as the son or student of Orpheus; see Herrero de Jáuregui 2010, p. 232. On the proem and its place in the collection, see §Structure and style.
↑ Otlewska-Jung, p. 77. In a number of manuscripts, the phrase Eutukhōs khrō, etaire (Εὐτυχῶς χρῶ, ἑταῖρε, 'use it favourably, friend') is added behind the title; see Morand 2015, p. 211 with n. 9; Ricciardelli 2008, p. 328; West 1968, p. 288 n. 3.
↑ Morand 2015, p. 209; Herrero de Jáuregui 2015, p. 224.
↑ West 1968, p. 288; Herrero de Jáuregui 2015, p. 232. According to Herrero de Jáuregui, this kind of address, from the teacher figure to the student, is a "typical feature of didactic poetry", and Orpheus can here be seen as the "prototype of the poet and the priest who would compose and sing hymns", while Musaeus can be seen as the "prototype of the initiates who would listen to them".
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, p. xlii; Ricciardelli 2008, p. 329.
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, p. xliii; Ricciardelli 2008, p. 329.
↑ Morand 2015, p. 210, translates this term as "a ritual usually linked with sacrifice".
↑ West 1968, p. 288–9. West argues that this poem was called Thuēpolikon (Θυηπολικόν), which is a title listed by the 10th-century AD Suda among the works it attributes to Orpheus. West argues that "[t]he title would naturally be derived from the references to a θυηπολίη at the beginning and end of the poem".
↑ Rudhardt 1991, p. 264; Rudhardt 2008, Chapter I, para. 21.
↑ Morand 2001, pp. 41–2. For an outline of the ways in which various hymns deviate from this standard structure, see Rudhardt 2008, Chapter I, paras. 23–4.
↑ Morand 2001, p. 47; Morand 2015, p. 215; Ricciardelli 2000, p. xxxii.
↑ Morand 2001, p. 45. In several hymns the addressee is not named at all; see Morand 2001, p. 48. For example, Orphic Hymn 69 does not name its recipients, the Erinyes, as saying their name was believed to bring strife upon the person who spoke it.
↑ Morand 2001, p. 58. Myths in which the god features are usually only ever briefly alluded to (often through the use of epithets), though there are a few exceptions to this; see Morand 2001, p. 59 with n. 91. Some hymns also contain an intermediate request, which is located within the development; see Morand 2001, pp. 48–9.
↑ Ricciardelli 2008, p. 345; Ricciardelli 2000, pp. xxxi–ii; Rudhardt 2008, Introduction, para. 25. Ricciardelli 2000 cites OH 59 to the Moirai, OH 55 to Aphrodite, OH 38 to the Kouretes, and OH 57 to Hermes Cthonias as examples of such hymns; cf. Rudhardt 2008, Introduction, paras. 8–16.
↑ Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 175. On dactylic hexameter as the metre of Homeric poetry, and its use in works attributed to Orpheus, see Edmonds 2013, pp. 4, 74.
↑ Morand 2010b, p. 157, et passim; Ricciardelli 2008, p. 344–5.
↑ Ricciardelli 2008, pp. 343–4; Morand 2001, pp. 96–7.
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, p. xxxiv; Graf and Johnston, p. 155; Graf 2009, p. 170; see also Linforth, p. 186. For a discussion of where this group existed, and when the Hymns were composed, see §Date and composition above.
↑ Morand 2001, p. 238; cf. Ricciardelli 2000, p. xxxv.
↑ Morand 2001, p. 286. The term appears twice, in OH 1 to Hecate, and OH 31 to the Kouretes. For an extensive discussion of the term boukolos, see Morand 2001, pp. 249–82.
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, p. xxv. According to Morand 2001. pp. 232–5, the group may have been called a thiasus.
↑ Morand 2001, pp. 101, 103; Ricciardelli 2000, p. xxxvii; Ricciardelli 2008, p. 335. Titles which include offerings contain the name of the deity, after which comes the word thumiama (θυμίαμα), and then a specification of the offering; see Morand 2001, p. 103.
↑ Morand 2001, p. 103. For a discussion of these eight hymns, and the possible reasoning for them not having an offering, see Morand 2001, pp. 111–5.
↑ Morand 2001, pp. 150–1; Edmonds 2019, p. 164. Morand states that grain, the offering to Earth, might be the possible exception to this.
↑ Morand 2001, pp. 322–4. For a discussion of these substances, see Morand 2001, pp. 118–26.
↑ Morand 2001, pp. 209–30. In her discussion of the afterlife in the Hymns, she also considers the role of the underworld and underworld deities in the collection, and how concepts such as death, fate, and salvation are treated. In addition, she posits that the lack of interest in the afterlife might be due to the collection's audience and genre, or due to religious reasons, pointing to mysteries having often kept cult secrets.
↑ Rudhardt 1991, p. 269. West 1983, p. 252, does, however, see several mythic parallels between the Hymns and the Orphic Rhapsodies.
↑ Hopman-Govers, p. 40; Ricciardelli 2008, p. 346.
↑ Graf 2009, pp. 181–2; OH 58.9–10 (Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 48; Quandt, p. 42). See also OH 61.11–2 (Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. 50; Quandt, p. 44), which asks Nemesis to "grant nobility of mind", and "put an end to repulsive thoughts, thoughts unholy, fickle and haughty".
↑ Morand 1997, p. 169; Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, para. 5; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. xvi. According to Athanassakis and Wolkow, the number of hymns addressed to him can be seen as anywhere between seven and nine, depending upon whether the hymns to Mise and Corybas are counted.
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, pp. xxxv–xxxvi; Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, para. 5; see also Ricciardelli 2008, p. 332. Further examples given by Rudhardt include Tyche being born from his blood, Aphrodite being his companion, and Palaemon being his foster brother. For a more detailed discussion of the role of Dionysus in the Hymns, see Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, paras. 51–80.
↑ Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, paras. 6, 22. For a detailed discussion of Zeus's role in the collection, see Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, paras. 22–50.
↑ Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. xi. Mise and Hipta do have some attestation elsewhere in literature, whereas Melinoe, outside of the Hymns, is only mentioned in an inscription.
↑ Morand 2001, pp. 169–72; Athanassakis and Wolkow, pp. 148–9; similarly, see Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, paras. 163–8. According to Rudhardt, the Hymns see in Mise "the feminine form of a bisexual divinity who manifests himself elsewhere in Dionysus, in Iacchos and in other gods".
↑ West 1968, p. 288; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. ix; Quandt, p. 3*. On the dating of this work, Hunsucker, p. 5 n. 3 gives a terminus ante quem of the early 14th century, and West 1968, p. 288 n. 3 sees a date of composition in or after the 9th century.
↑ Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. ix; Quandt, p. 10*; cf. Hunsucker, pp. 6–7. The codex also included the Homeric Hymns and the Hymns of Callimachus.
↑ Quandt, p. 10*; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. ix. In total, there are six now-lost codices listed by Quandt.
↑ Quandt, pp. 3–9*; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. ix.
↑ Quandt, p. 45*. The one possible exception to this is the manuscript h (see below). For Quandt's analysis of the defects in φ and its descendents, see pp. 12–4; in θ and its descendents, see pp. 14–7; in A and its child, see pp. 17–8; and in B, see p. 19.
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, p. xlvii. For a more detailed discussion of this codex, see Quandt, pp. 19–22*.
↑ Hunsucker, p. 7; cf. Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. ix.
↑ Hunsucker, p. 7; Athanassakis and Wolkow, p. ix.
↑ According to Hladký, pp. 43, 265–6, Plethon edited and altered the Hymns, while Diller, p. 37 discusses an autograph belonging to Plethon containing various Orphic Hymns, and notes that Plethon quotes from these hymns in another autograph; cf. Hunsucker, p. 7.
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, pp. xlvii; Hunsucker, p. 7; Blumenthal, p. 145.
↑ Schwab, pp. 302–3 with n. 5; Hunsucker, p. 8 with n. 2. According to Hunsucker, Ficino likely made this translation in the 1460s.
↑ Hunsucker, p. 9; Quandt, p. 5*. The edition also contained the Orphic Argonautica and the Hymns of Proclus.
↑ Quandt, pp. 12–3*; Ricciardelli 2000, pp. xlvi–xlvii.
Hades, in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed joint rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side.
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Leto is a goddess and the mother of Apollo and Artemis. She is the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe, and the sister of Asteria.
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone, also called Kore or Cora, is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld, who would later also take her into marriage.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Hestia is the virgin goddess of the hearth and the home. In myth, she is the firstborn child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and one of the Twelve Olympians.
In Greek mythology, the Titans were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), with six male Titans—Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus—and six female Titans, called the Titanides or Titanesses—Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus by the Greeks for a frenzy he is said to induce called baccheia. As Dionysus Eleutherius, his wine, music, and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His thyrsus, a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus was a god sometimes identified with an Orphic Dionysus, a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reborn. In the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is paired with Gaia and called the "highest" god, though perhaps only in reference to the gods of the underworld. Aeschylus, however, links Zagreus with Hades, possibly as Hades' son, or as Hades himself. Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' katachthonios alter ego", Timothy Gantz postulated that Zagreus, originally the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone.
In Greek mythology and religion, Themis is the goddess and personification of justice, divine order, law, and custom. She is one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia and Uranus, and the second wife of Zeus. She is associated with oracles and prophecies, including the Oracle of Delphi. Her symbol is the Scales of Justice.
In Greek mythology, Coeus, also called Polus, was one of the Titans, one of the three groups of children born to Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth).
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Iacchus was a minor deity, of some cultic importance, particularly at Athens and Eleusis in connection with the Eleusinian mysteries, but without any significant mythology. He perhaps originated as the personification of the ritual exclamation Iacche! cried out during the Eleusinian procession from Athens to Eleusis. He was often identified with Dionysus, perhaps because of the resemblance of the names Iacchus and Bacchus, another name for Dionysus. By various accounts he was a son of Demeter, or a son of Persephone, identical with Dionysus Zagreus, or a son of Dionysus.
In Greek mythology, Erebus, or Erebos, is the personification of darkness. In Hesiod's Theogony, he is the offspring of Chaos, and the father of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Nyx (Night); in other Greek cosmogonies, he is the father of Aether, Eros, and Metis, or the first ruler of the gods. In genealogies given by Roman authors, he begets a large progeny of personifications upon Nox, while in an Orphic theogony, he is the offspring of Chronos (Time).
In Greek mythology, Nyx is the goddess and personification of the night. In Hesiod's Theogony, she is the offspring of Chaos, and the mother of Aether and Hemera (Day) by Erebus (Darkness). By herself, she produces a brood of children which are mainly personifications of primarily negative forces. She features in a number of early cosmogonies, which place her as one of the first deities to exist. In the works of poets and playwrights, she lives at the ends of the Earth, and is often described as a black-robed goddess who drives through the sky in a chariot pulled by horses. In the Iliad, Homer relates that even Zeus fears to displease her.
In Greek mythology, the goddess Pandia or Pandeia was a daughter of Zeus and the goddess Selene, the Greek personification of the moon. From the Homeric Hymn to Selene, we have: "Once the Son of Cronos [Zeus] was joined with her [Selene] in love; and she conceived and bare a daughter Pandia, exceeding lovely amongst the deathless gods." An Athenian tradition perhaps made Pandia the wife of Antiochus, the eponymous hero of Antiochis, one of the ten Athenian tribes (phylai).
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto was the ruler of the Greek underworld. The earlier name for the god was Hades, which became more common as the name of the underworld itself. Pluto represents a more positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife. Ploutōn was frequently conflated with Ploûtos, the Greek god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because as a chthonic god Pluto ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest. The name Ploutōn came into widespread usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Pluto was venerated as both a stern ruler and a loving husband to Persephone. The couple received souls in the afterlife and are invoked together in religious inscriptions, being referred to as Plouton and as Kore respectively. Hades, by contrast, had few temples and religious practices associated with him, and he is portrayed as the dark and violent abductor of Persephone.
In Orphic cosmogony Phanes or Protogonos is a primeval deity who was born from the cosmic egg at the beginning of creation. He is referred by various names, including Erikepaios "Power" and Metis "Thought".
The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. The hymns praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, often involving a deity's birth, their acceptance among the gods on Mount Olympus, or the establishment of their cult. In antiquity, the hymns were generally, though not universally, attributed to the poet Homer: modern scholarship has established that most date to the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, though some are more recent and the latest, the Hymn to Ares, may have been composed as late as the fifth century CE.
Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices originating in the ancient Greek and Hellenistic world, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into the Greek underworld and returned. This type of journey is called a katabasis and is the basis of several hero worships and journeys. Orphics revered Dionysus and Persephone. Orphism has been described as a reform of the earlier Dionysian religion, involving a re-interpretation or re-reading of the myth of Dionysus and a re-ordering of Hesiod's Theogony, based in part on pre-Socratic philosophy.
In Greek mythology, Aether, Æther, Aither, or Ether is the personification of the bright upper sky. According to Hesiod, he was the son of Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night), and the brother of Hemera (Day). In Orphic cosmogony Aether was the offspring of Chronos (Time), and the brother of Chaos and Erebus.
Thalassa was the general word for 'sea' and for its divine female personification in Greek mythology. The word may have been of Pre-Greek origin and connected to the name of the Mesopotamian primordial sea goddess Tiamat.
Melinoë is a chthonic goddess invoked in one of the Orphic Hymns, and represented as a bringer of nightmares and madness. In the hymn, Melinoë has characteristics that seem similar to Hecate and the Erinyes, and Melinoë's name is sometimes thought to be an epithet of Hecate. The name "Melinoë" also appears on a metal tablet in association with Persephone.
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