The Orphic Hymns are a collection of eighty-seven ancient Greekhymns addressed to various deities, which were attributed to the mythical poet Orpheus in antiquity. 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 are one of the few extant works of Orphic literature (a tradition of texts which were attributed to Orpheus in antiquity), and are largely viewed by modern scholarship as being congruent with the preceding 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 through 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 boukólos (βουκόλος), which is often used to refer to worshippers of Dionysus. The rite in which the Orphic Hymns featured was the teletḗ (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.
Composition and attribution
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 believed that the collection had been 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.[4] 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,[13] but were earlier than the 5th-century AD poet Nonnus,[14] 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.[15] More recently, most scholars have dated the collection to around the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD,[16] with Gabriella Ricciardelli pointing to the prominence of Dionysism at that time in Asia Minor.[17]
The collection is attributed to the mythical poet Orpheus in the manuscripts in which it survives,[18] and is written in the voice of Orpheus, opening with a proem, entitled "Orpheus to Musaeus", which is an address from the poet to the legendary author Musaeus of Athens.[19] In the rest of the collection, there are several passages which indicate the work was written as though Orpheus was the composer:[20]Orphic Hymn 76 to the Muses mentions "mother Calliope",[21] and Orphic Hymn 24 to the Nereids refers to "mother Calliope and lord Apollo", alluding to the parentage of Orpheus (whose father was sometimes said to be Apollo).[22]
The Orphic Hymns are one of only a few extant works of Orphic literature, a tradition of texts attributed to Orpheus in antiquity, which dealt with certain themes and myths distinct from those in mainstream Greek literature.[23] The collection can also be seen as part of the genre of hymnic literature attributed to Orpheus,[24] of which there are examples dating back at least as far as the 5th century BC.[25] 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,[26] there are several places in which the language bears similarity to other works of Orphic literature.[27]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";[28]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".[29] 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.[30]
Structure and style
In addition to the proem, the Orphic Hymns consist of eighty-seven very brief poems,[31] which range from six to thirty lines in length.[32] In the surviving manuscripts, the hymn addressed to Hecate is appended to the proem,[33] though modern editions present it separately, as the first hymn of the collection.[34] In the order of the hymns there occurs a progression from life to death:[35] 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 gêras (γῆρας, 'old age').[36] 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.[37] 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).[38] 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).[39]Fritz Graf also sees religious significance in the ordering of the hymns.[40]
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",[42] often referred to as the proem,[43] proemium, or prologue,[44] in which Orpheus speaks to Musaeus (who is often described as his student or son in Greek literature).[45] The proem has 54 lines, including the final ten which make up the hymn to Hecate (which is attached without separation or a title).[46] It opens with a two-line dedication in which Orpheus asks Musaeus to learn the rite (thuēpolíē, θυηπολίη) and prayer (eukhḗ, εὐχή), the latter of these referring to the address which follows from lines three to forty-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).[47] The purpose of this prayer is seemingly to name and devote a hymn to "all" the gods,[48] though it addresses numerous deities not mentioned in the collection itself, and omits others who are subjects of hymns.[49] Partly on the basis of this difference in the deities mentioned, as well as the presence of the word thuēpolíē (which does not appear in the rest of the collection)[50] at the beginning and end of the proem, M. L. West argues that the proem was originally a separate Orphic poem.[51] 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.[52]
Each individual hymn in the collection has three internal parts: the invocation, the development, and the request.[53] In some hymns, however, especially those shorter in length, these three parts can be difficult to distinguish, and may not occur in order.[54] The invocation is brief, typically appears at the start of the hymn, and is designed to gain the attention of the hymn's addressee.[55] 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,[56] though sometimes no such verb is present, in which case the god is simply named.[57] The development (also referred to as the amplification)[58] makes up the main, central portion of the hymn, and is the longest section;[59] it follows immediately from the invocation, with the point at which it begins often being difficult to distinguish.[60] 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;[61] the purpose of this section is to gratify the deity so that they choose to make themselves present.[62] The request (also referred to as the prayer)[63] generally finishes the hymn, and is usually only around one or two lines in length.[64] 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.[65] 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,[66] while others ask for certain outcomes, such as health, prosperity, or wealth,[67] 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.[68]
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).[69] They are written in dactylic hexameter, the metre of Homeric poetry,[70] and display a consistency in metrical composition.[71] 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.[72] 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.[73] The most distinctive feature of the Hymns is their use of concatenations of epithets, which comprise a large part of their content.[74] They also make extensive use of phonic repetition,[75] as well as forms of wordplay, such as etymologies on the names of gods.[76] 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.[77]
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.[78] According to Morand, this group performed initiations into some form of mysteries.[79] The term boukólos (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.[80] The use of the word boukólos and the prominence of Dionysus in the collection indicate that he was the central god of the cult which used the Hymns.[81] Within the collection itself, Morand sees a number of different members of the group's religious hierarchy as being mentioned:[82] the mústai (μύσται), the regular members of the cult (and the group mentioned most frequently);[83] the neomústai (νεομύσται), the "new initiates";[84] the mustipóloi (μυστιπόλοι), who were likely members involved in initiations and ritual activity;[85] and the orgiophántai (ὀργιοφάνται), who seem to have been members involved in initiation rites (similarly to the mustipóloi), and who may also have been responsible for displaying holy objects.[86]
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;[87] only eight hymns lack such an offering in the title.[88] During the reciting of a hymn, its specified offering would likely have been burned.[89] For most of the hymns, the offering specified is an aromatic, incense (or incense powder or granules), storax, or myrrh.[90] In some cases a combination of offerings is asked for.[91] 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.[92] 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.[93] The absence of animals from the offerings may be related to the supposed prohibition of animal sacrifice in Orphic belief.[94]
The ceremony in which the Hymns played a role was the teletḗ (τελετή),[95] a term which usually refers to a rite of initiation into mysteries.[96] Within the Hymns, there are numerous references to the teletḗ,[96] including several mentions of the pántheios teletḗ (πάνθειος τελετή), an initiation rite to all of the gods.[97] This rite appears to have occurred at nighttime, and may have included the playing of a tambourine at points.[98] The Hymns also contain several instances of the term órgion (ὄργιον), which may refer to sacred objects which featured in the rite.[99] 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.[100] 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.[101]
Certain religious ideas which scholars believe appeared in now-lost Orphic poems are referred to as Orphic "doctrines";[102] scholars of the Orphic Hymns have noted the apparent dearth of such Orphic doctrines in the collection of hymns.[103] 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;[104] according to Paul Veyne, the Hymns are essentially uninterested in what happens after death, being concerned only with "this world".[105] 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").[106] Throughout the collection, however, there is no explicit mention of any major Orphic myth,[107] including the story of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans,[108] which has often been considered the central myth of Orphism;[109] 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".[110] 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,[111] both of which could suggest an Orphic way of life.[112] 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",[113] which potentially indicates adherence to some form of "sexual ethics".[114]
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.[115] 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,[116] which themselves frequently allude to myths.[62] The purpose of these chains of epithets is to acquire the attention of the god and to summon their powers.[117] 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.[118] In addition, epithets will frequently be applied to more than one deity, contributing to the tendency of the collection to bring together separate gods.[119] 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;[120] others still are allusions to known cult titles of the god, which were utilised in certain geographical locations.[121] 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.[122]
A number of the gods featured in the Hymns are identified with one another.[123] Through attributing similar characteristics to two different deities, the collection can bring these gods closer to each other, almost to the point of them merging;[124] these pairs of gods are not completely assimilated, however, as each deity, while adopting features of the other god, still retains their own individual characteristics.[125] 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",[126] this idea of a monotheistic bent to the Hymns has been rejected by more recent scholars.[127] Two deities who are prominently identified with one another 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".[128] Other examples of deities who are identified with each other in the Hymns include Artemis and Hecate,[129]Rhea and the Mother of the Gods,[130] and Demeter and the Mother Antaia.[131] Scholars have also noted the similarity between how deities are identified in the Hymns and other works of Orphic literature,[132] with the collection seeming to follow an existing Orphic tradition in linking certain pairs of gods.[133]
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.[135] The only definitively Orphic deity in the collection is Protogonos,[136] the "first-born god" who emerges from an egg, also referred to as Ericepaios, Phanes, Priapus and Antauges;[137] he is addressed in Orphic Hymn 6, a hymn which scholars see as congruent with earlier Orphic literature.[138] Of all the deities featured in the Hymns, however, the one given the place of greatest prominence is Dionysus,[139] the recipient of around eight separate hymns, more than any other deity.[140] These hymns address him in various manifestations,[141] and comprise the central portion of the collection (Hymns 30–38).[142] He appears throughout the collection, being explicitly mentioned in twenty-two of the eight-seven hymns,[143] under a myriad of epithets.[141] 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;[143] in addition, he is also associated in various ways with a number of other deities.[144] 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;[145] other major Greek gods of importance in the collection include Demeter and Persephone.[146] Heracles, who is portrayed quite differently from traditional depictions, is made both a Titan and a solar deity.[147] 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.[136]
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,[148] leading scholars to consider the region to be the collection's place of origin.[149] In the Hymns, Mise is depicted as an androgynous deity, identified with Dionysus, and described as the daughter of the Egyptian goddess Isis,[150] and mention of her in inscriptions around Pergamon indicate that she featured in cult in the region.[151] Hipta is portrayed by the collection as the nurse of the infant Dionysus, and described as "glorifying" the mysteries of Sabazios;[152] 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).[153] Melinoe is a goddess in the Hymns associated with Hecate and seemingly considered the daughter of Zeus and Persephone,[154] who is also mentioned on a bronze tablet from Pergamon.[155] According to Morand, this epigraphic evidence, which is roughly contemporaneous with the Orphic Hymns,[156] indicates deities such as Mise and Hipta were not invented by the author of the Hymns.[157]
Transmission and scholarship
Textual history
A page from the Leidensis BPG 74C manuscript, which dates to the 15th century, and is part of the φ family. This page contains the first 18 lines of the proem.
There survive no references to the Orphic Hymns from antiquity;[159] 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.[160] 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,[161] which has been dated to the 12th century AD.[163] He refers to epithets from the hymns to Helios and Selene,[164] and quotes lines from those to Helios and Hecate;[165] according to Rance Hunsucker, it is relatively likely that Galenos was in possession of a full copy of the collection.[166]
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.[167] The earliest known codex containing the Orphic Hymns to arrive in Western Europe was brought to Venice from Constantinople by Giovanni Aurispa in 1423,[168] 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.[169] 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.[170] All of the extant codices descend from the archetype, denoted in scholarship by the siglum Ψ,[171] which likely dated to the 12th or 13th century,[172] and may have been the manuscript transported by Aurispa to Venice.[173] 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.[174] Various further manuscripts are descended from the hyparchetypes φ and θ,[175] with both manuscripts being recoverable only from these descendants,[176] while A and B, which omit the Homeric Hymns (and in the latter case the Hymns of Callimachus also), are preserved in surviving editions.[177] Another manuscript, h, of less clear origin, was likely also an apograph of Ψ, though it may not have been an immediate descendant.[178]
In the latter part of the 15th century, the Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino translated the Orphic Hymns into Latin during his youth, seemingly producing the first translation of the collection, though it remained unpublished.[179] The editio princeps of the Hymns was produced in Florence in 1500 by Filippo Giunta;[180] this codex, denoted in scholarship by the siglum Iunt, is descended from φ.[181] 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;[182] by the end of the 16th century, a total of six editions had been published.[183] 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.[184] Around this time also came the first complete English translation of the collection, produced in 1787 by the Neoplatonist Thomas Taylor, and the first complete German translation, by David Karl Philipp Dietsch, published in 1822.[185] 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.[186] In the 20th century, the critical edition by Wilhelm Quandt, first published in 1941, and revised in 1955 with additions,[187] 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.[188] Recent renderings of the Hymns include the 1977 English translation by Apostolos Athanassakis, the first since Taylor's,[189] the 2000 edition, with Italian translation and commentary, by Gabriela Ricciardelli,[190] and the 2014 Budé edition by Marie-Christine Fayant, with French translation and commentary.[191]
Reception and scholarship
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.[192] This attention around the work may have been due to the Greek scholar and NeoplatonistGemistos Plethon, who visited Florence around this time;[193] Plethon is known to have been familiar with the Orphic Hymns,[194] having produced an autograph of a selection of the hymns from the collection[195] (a codex which scholars have identified as the source of the h family of manuscripts).[196] Ficino, whose work may have been influenced by Plethon, believed that the Hymns were the genuine writings of Orpheus himself,[194] and appears to have had a liking for singing their contents, believing that the collection was capable of "bringing the human soul into alignment with the harmonies of the heavens".[197] Subsequent Renaissance writers, such as Pico della Mirandola, viewed the Hymns as containing deep theological doctrines hidden within them, and saw the various gods they mention as merely aspects of a single, underlying god.[198] In the 1540s, Agostino Steuco and Giglio Gregorio Giraldi put forward the idea that the collection was the work of another Orpheus, who supposedly lived long after the original Orpheus was believed to have existed.[199]Daniel Heinsius, writing in 1627, attributed the collection to the Athenian Onomacritus, to whom Orphic poetry had sometimes been ascribed in antiquity, and this idea of Onomacritan authorship of the Hymns became the dominant view in the 17th century.[200] By 1689, Henri Estienne had expressed scepticism towards this attribution, while in the mid-18th century Jean-Baptiste Souchay[fr] wrote that Onomacritus had simply modified the dialect of the Orphic Hymns to Ionic Greek, but that they were genuinely written by Orpheus,[201] having been produced earlier than the 5th century BC.[202]
In the late-18th century, the Göttingen school of history lambasted the idea that Orphic literature was a product of early antiquity; Johann Gottlob Schneider argued, on the basis of their lack of mention among ancient authors, that the Orphic Hymns were produced (likely in the 3rd century AD) for use in the debate over Orphism and Orpheus which raged in late antiquity between Christian and Neoplatonic apologists.[203] Schneider decried the Hymns as a "hogwash of mystical sayings and allegorical prattlings", while his contemporary, Christoph Meiners, described their style as horridus, and supported a late dating, viewing the collection as containing a kind of confused Stoicism.[204] Around the same time, in 1780, Dietrich Tiedemann argued that the individual hymns in the collection were of highly diverse origins and dates,[205] with the surviving collection of Orphic Hymns simply being a compilation.[206] In contrast to this sceptical approach, however, the Neoplatonist Taylor, writing in his translation of the Hymns, adopted a mystical view of the collection, and claimed they had belonged to the Eleusinian Mysteries.[207] At the start of the 18th-century, scholars such as Georg Friedrich Creuzer and Friedrich Sickler believed that the Hymns, while composed in (or possibly after) the Hellenistic period, were a later rendering of a much earlier collection.[208]Christian Lobeck, writing in his 1829 work Aglaophamus, held that the collection was composed by an individual from the Byzantine era,[209] and rejected the idea of them belonging to a cult community, believing that their author produced them as a scholarly exercise.[210] Several decades later, Christian Petersen posed a challenge to Lobeck's view, conceiving of the collection as an expression of Stoic thought, pointing to its tendency to treat deities as though they are aspects of nature,[211] and dating it to either the 1st or 2nd centuries AD.[212]
In the later part of the 19th century, excavation in western Anatolia brought to light epigraphic evidence, which led to the establishment of the idea that the Orphic Hymns had been liturgical in function.[213] The discovery of inscriptions containing the word boukólos (βουκόλος) around the time of Petersen's work, led Rudolf Schöll to postulate in 1879 that the Hymns had belonged to a Bacchic mystery group.[214] Around a decade later, Albrecht Dieterich, in a study of the Hymns recognised by scholars as definitively establishing their ritual nature,[215] concluded that the collection belonged to a cult community which engaged in mysteries, and judged that this group possessed an internal hierarchy.[216] He dated the collection to around the 1st or 2nd centuries BC,[217] and locates its origins to a coastal region of either Asia Minor or Egypt (with him favouring the city of Alexandria as its location).[218]Ernst Maass, writing in 1895, claimed that the term boukólos referred to Orpheus himself,[219] while, ten years later, the Czech scholar Zdenko Baudnik studied in detail the Stoic characteristics of the Hymns, and supported the idea of an Alexandrian origin.[220] Around the beginning of the 20th century, the discovery of inscriptions in western Asia Minor to deities featured in the Hymns, such as Hipta, Erikepaios, and Melinoe, led Otto Kern to conclude in 1910 that the collection was composed in Asia Minor, for use by a Dionysian cult;[221] a year later, he argued that the Hymns originated specifically from Pergamon, and that the cult community which used them existed at the sanctuary of Demeter in the city, where inscriptions to a number of deities addressed in the collection had been discovered.[223] His view that the Hymns originated in Asia Minor received unanimous acceptance, though his argument that their location could narrowed down to Pergamon was treated with greater scepticism.[224]
Following the publication of Kern's papers on the location of the Hymns' composition, scholars such as Felix Jacoby and W. K. C. Guthrie argued that the collection belonged to an Orphic society,[225] though the latter considered it improbable that the group was "Orphic in the strict sense of accepting the whole body of Orphic dogma".[226] In 1930, Leonard van Liempt studied the collection's vocabulary, concluding that it was similar to that used in 3rd- and 4th-century AD poetry.[227] Several years later, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff would judge that the collection lacked all poetic merit, and half a century afterwards, in 1983, M. L. West would dismiss them as evidence merely of "cheerful and inexpensive dabbling in religion by a literary-minded burgher and his friends".[228] After the publication of Quandt's edition of the Hymns, they received little attention until towards the end of the 20th century,[229] when scholarly interest in the collection was rekindled, driven mainly by the work of Jean Rudhardt[fr].[190] In the wake of Rudhardt's writings, the 21st-century scholarship of the collection has, according to Daniel Malamis, moved beyond the evaluation of them as "trivial or low-brow" from scholars such as Wilamowitz and West, with scholars "emphasis[ing] the ritual and performative aspect of the hymns".[230]
↑ 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.
↑ Otlewska-Jung, p.77. In a number of manuscripts, the phrase Eutukhôs khrô, hetaîre (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.
↑ 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".
↑ Morand 2015, p.210 translates this term as "a ritual usually linked with sacrifice".
↑ West 1968, pp.288–289. West argues that this poem was called Thuēpolikón (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".
↑ Morand 2001, pp.41–42. For an outline of the ways in which various hymns deviate from this standard structure, see Rudhardt 2008, Chapter I, paras. 23–24.
↑ 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.48–49.
↑ Athanassakis & Wolkow, p.175. On dactylic hexameter as the metre of Homeric poetry, and its use in works attributed to Orpheus, see Edmonds 2013a, pp.4, 74.
↑ 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 boukólos, see Morand 2001, pp.249–282.
↑ 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.111–115.
↑ Morand 2001, pp.150–151; Edmonds 2019, p.164. Morand states that grain, the offering to Earth, might be the possible exception to this.
↑ Morand 2001, pp.209–230. 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.
↑ Graf 2009, pp.181–182; OH 58.9–10 (Athanassakis & Wolkow, p.48; Quandt, p.42). See also OH 61.11–2 (Athanassakis & 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 & 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 & 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.169–172; Athanassakis & Wolkow, pp.148–149; similarly, see Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, paras. 163–168. 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".
↑ Quandt, pp.6*, 13*. This codex is a descendant of the same manuscript from which the editio princeps is descended. For its date, see the "stemma général" in Vian 1980.
↑ Roilos, pp.231–232. The work has a terminus ante quem of the early 14th century,[162] and West 1968, p.288 n. 3 sees a date of composition in or after the 9th century.
↑ 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. 12–14; in θ and its descendents, see pp. 14–17; in A and its child, see pp. 17–18; and in B, see p. 19.
↑ Malamis, p.157. Malamis notes that both scholars were putting forward arguments which were bolstered by an early dating of the collection. Compare their views with that of Johann Gerlach in 1797, on which see Hunsucker, p.21; Malamis, pp.157–158.
↑ Linforth, p.185; Malamis, p.172. The sanctuary, which was unearthed in 1910, is a témenos (τέμενος). Among the deities mentioned in the inscriptions found in the sanctuary are Mise, Melinoe, the Winds, Asclepius, and Night; notably, however, there is no mention of Dionysus.[222]
↑ In the manuscripts in which the Orphic Hymns survive, the hymn to Hecate is appended to the proem, without division, a separate title, or the specification of an offering. Some scholars have also argued that it may not have originally been part of the collection.[231]
↑ Different manuscripts provide the hymn with different titles; it can be read as either Κεραυνίου Διός, which translates to "Zeus of the lightning", or Κεραυνοῦ Διός, which translates to "Zeus Keuranos" or "the Lightning of Zeus".[286] Here, following Quandt, p.18, the latter reading is given.
↑ Pliny the Elder. 1. Jh. Naturalis historia. Übersetzt und erläutert von Philipp H. Külb. Metzler, Stuttgart 1840–1864. Buch XII, Kapitel 32 (Digital link).
↑ Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, para. 210. The hymn brings attention to the apparent paradox of her being a goddess of childbirth, but having not given birth herself.[339] It also applies the epithet "Titanine" to her.[340]
↑ Morand 2001, pp.216–217. According to Morand, as this places them as ancestors of mankind, this passage is a possible reference to the so-called "Orphic anthropogony", the purportedly Orphic idea of humans containing within themselves a form of original fault. Christopher A. Faraone has identified this hymn as a thumokatachon, a kind of magical spell attested elsewhere in Greek literature.[344]
↑ Rudhardt 2008, Chapter II, paras. 119–120, 122. According to Rudhardt, this hymn shows the influence of an Orphic version of the myth of the abduction of Persephone.[357]
↑ Athanassakis & Wolkow, p.152. Bassareus is a form of Dionysus in which he is wearing the fur of a fox (una pelliccia di volpe), while Trieterikos, meaning "triennial", is the name for the god to whom the Trieterides festival was dedicated.[368]
↑ Athanassakis & Wolkow, p.153. The name means "he who is in the liknon" (colui che è nelλίκνον), and was identified by the 5th- or 6th-century AD Hesychius as an epithet of Dionysus; according to Ricciardelli, the name should thus be taken as referring to the infant Dionysus.[372]
↑ Edmonds 2013b, p.415. Edmonds believes that this hymn, through its use of this epithet, is assimilating Dionysus with an Egyptian figure "who is identified in various sources as Osiris, Apis, and Epaphus".[387]
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, p.432. The trieterides (meaning "triennial") were festivals which took place every second year (and so would in the modern day be considered biennial).
↑ Athanassakis & Wolkow, pp.200, 202. After having been pursued her crazed husband to the edge of a coastal cliff, Ino, clutching her son Melicertes, jumps from the edge; the gods of the sea turn her into Leucothea, and her son into Palaemon.
↑ Ricciardelli 2000, p.533. Ricciardelli states that the hymn's addressee is similar to (though not the same as) the personification of Dream which Zeus sends to Agamemnon in the Iliad.
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 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 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".
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. 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.
Mene, in ancient Greek religion and mythology, is an epithet of Selene, the Greek lunar goddess as a goddess presiding over the months.
The Orphic Argonautica or Argonautica Orphica is a Greek epic poem dating from the 4th century CE. It is narrated in the first person in the name of Orpheus and tells the story of Jason and the Argonauts. It is not known who the real author is. The poem is found in manuscripts either on its own or together with the Orphic Hymns and other hymns such as the Homeric Hymns and those of Proclus and Callimachus. The poem was lost, but in the fifteenth century it was found and copied in a manuscript by the Neoplatonic Greek scholar Constantine Lascaris, who is considered a Pythagorean Orpheus. Another related work is the Lithica.
In Greek mythology, Priapus is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens, and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism. He became a popular figure in Roman erotic art and Latin literature, and is the subject of the often humorously obscene collection of verse called the Priapeia.
In Greek mythology, Lethe is the personification of forgetfulness and oblivion. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Lethe was the daughter of Eris (Strife), with no father mentioned. Her name was also given to Lethe, the river of oblivion in the Underworld.
Prothyraia is the figure addressed in the second of the Orphic Hymns, a collection of ancient Greek hymns composed around the 2nd and 3nd centuries AD.
Hipta is an Anatolian goddess attested in inscriptions from the Katakekaumene region of Lydia, and addressed in the forty-ninth of the Orphic Hymns. In the inscriptions which mention her, which date roughly to between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, she is called "Mother Hipta" and is often mentioned alongside the Phrygian god Sabazios. This epigraphic evidence indicates that Hipta and Sabazios were the subject of worship in the region, and suggests that there existed a sanctuary dedicated to the two gods in the area.
Mise or Misé is an Anatolian goddess addressed in one of the Orphic Hymns. She is first mentioned in a mime by the Greek poet Herodas, which references a "Descent of Mise". In the Orphic Hymn addressed to her, she is identified with Dionysus, and depicted as a female version of the god. She is also named in two inscriptions discovered around the city of Pergamon in Asia Minor, which indicate that there existed a local cult to her in the area.
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