The Orphic Hymns Read online

  1 loud roaring, reveling: Dionysian worship, particularly the ecstatic elements, was marked by noise: voices raised in song, the clatter of percussive elements (see also OH 27.11n), the sounds of the victim. The epithet used here is closely related to Bromios (Roarer), another name for Dionysos; see OH 40.10+n. Compare “howling” in line 4, and see further OH 29.8, OH 45.4, OH 48.3, and OH 49.3. The “Bacchic cries” of the Erinyes are similarly described (OH 69.2) as well as the crashing of the rain clouds (OH 21.3). For a description of the (maenadic) revel, see OH 52i.

  2 primeval, two-natured, thrice-born: A numerical sequence. The word translated here as “primeval” is “prōtogonos,” also used of Dionysos at OH 52.6. It is one of the names of the pivotal Orphic divinity responsible for the creation of the world. The two gods share many features and indeed can be considered the same being (or different manifestations thereof); see OH 6i and note to lines 3–4 below. “Two-natured” probably refers to Dionysos’ androgyny, a characteristic shared with Protogonos and other divinities in the collection (see OH 6.1+n and OH 9.4n). It is interesting to note that Apollodoros says that Zeus instructed Ino to raise Dionysos as a girl (3.4.3), and that Mise seems to be interpreted as Dionysos in his feminine manifestation (see OH 42i). Another possibility is that “two-natured” reflects the andromorphic and teratomorphic side of the god, but this is probably what “two-shaped” in the following line is meant to indicate. See also OH 52.5+n, where the god is said to have a “three-fold” nature. The epithet “thrice-born” also contains some ambiguity. In traditional mythology, Dionysos was born from Semele and from Zeus, insofar as Zeus saved the child after the death of Semele and kept him in his thigh until the child fully gestated (see OH 44i; cf. OH 45.1 and OH 50.3+n). Orphism presented an alternate birth, one where Zeus mated with Persephone in the form of a snake, as briefly mentioned below in lines 6–7 (see also OH 29i+7–8n). Also, in Orphic mythology Dionysos is eventually torn apart and killed by the Titans (see OH 37i); he is then either reconstituted (by Rhea, Demeter, Apollon, or Zeus; see Orphic fragment 59, 322, 325–326) or born again through Semele (see OH 44i). Some authors who refer to a “thrice-born” Dionysos count the birth from Semele, Zeus, and the reconstitution of Dionysos after being dismembered by the Titans (see Orphic fragment 59). It is difficult to securely affirm that interpretation here, as our poet explicitly considers Dionysos the son of Persephone (but see OH 46.6–7+n). The matter is further complicated by the fact that Dionysos is said to have two mothers at OH 50.1. This would indicate Persephone and Semele, but it is hard in that case to reconcile the third birth as either Dionysos being born from Zeus’ thigh (which would seem to contradict the idea of Persephone as mother) or as the reconstitution of the dismembered Dionysos (which would seem to be how some Orphics worked in Semele as the mother of Dionysos). In other words, the births to which “thrice-born” here refers are problematic, since there are four possible births found in our sources (Semele, Zeus, Persephone, reconstitution), all of which are alluded to at different points throughout the collection. The ambiguity, though, might be intentional (see the introduction to this hymn).

  3 ineffable, secretive: Just like the god, so too the cult. It is a typical characteristic of mystery cults that certain aspects of their rites are known only to the privileged few who have undergone initiation; cf. “pure” in line 4. See also OH 42.3, OH 50.3 and OH 52.5.

  3–4 two-horned … / … bull-faced: The bull is used as a sacrificial animal in Dionysian cult, and Dionysos, the suffering god, is sometimes identified with the victim. Plutarch reports that the women of Elis called on Dionysos to come with the following verses: “Come, o hero Dionysos/to the Eleans’ temple/with the Graces/to the pure temple/descend your oxen-foot/o worthy bull/o worthy bull” (Quaestiones graecae 299a–b = PMG 871). Likewise, Pentheus, under the spell of the god, experiences double vision and perceives him horned like a bull (Euripides Bacchae 918–924; cf. also 99–104 and 1017). Protogonos “bellows like a bull” in OH 6.3 (and see note to that line). Dionysos is bull-faced again at OH 45.1 and is described as horned at OH 52.2 and 10, and OH 53.8. See also OH 50.5+n.

  4 warlike: Dionysos occasionally engages in combat. Most famous is his participation in the Gigantomachy (Apollodoros 1.6.2). In Euripides Bacchae, the maenads, roused to violence, attack a village and rout its defenders (751–764), and the god is explicitly linked to the panic of war (303–304; cf. OH 11i and OH 32.6n). Korybas, who seems to be an analogue for Dionysos, is also called “warlike” (OH 39.2+n). See further OH 45.5+n.

  4 pure: Purity is essential in ritual, and, as in line 3, the god and his worshippers share the same quality; see introduction as well as OH 15.8+8–9n, OH 40.11+n, OH 53.4, and OH 84.4+n. The idea recurs in the Bacchic gold tablets; see the discussion in Graf/Johnston 2007, pp. 121–131.

  5 raw flesh in triennial feasts: An important part of maenadism is the notion of sparagmos, the ripping apart of wild animals by the frenzied women, and of ōmophagia, the eating of the raw flesh afterward (see OH 52i). It is not known whether this was actually practiced in cult or is merely a mythological embellishment. Dionysos is invoked as Omestes (Eater of Raw Flesh) by Alkaios (fragment 129). See also OH 52.7, where Dionysos also is said to take raw flesh in the hymn dedicated to him as God of Triennial Feasts.

  5 wrapped in foliage, decked with grape clusters: Dionysos appears to be imagined as the grape-vine itself at OH 50.5 (and see note to that line).

  6 Eubouleus: Dionysos is also called this at OH 52.4. The name is also used of Zeus and Adonis in the collection and elsewhere of Protogonos; see OH 6i and OH 41.8n.

  8 fair-girdled nurses: A number of female divinities are called the nurses of Dionysos in the collection: the Nymphs (OH 42.10, OH 46.3, OH 51.3, and OH 53.6; in this last they are also called “fair-girdled”), Aphrodite (OH 46.3), and Hipta (OH 49.1). See further OH 46.2–3n and OH 51.3n.

  31. Hymn to the Kouretes

  The Kouretes are a band of armed young men connected with Krete. In myth, they dance about the infant Zeus and clatter their arms in order to muffle the sound of his crying. Hesiod tells the story of how his mother, Rhea, was sent to Krete, but he does not mention the Kouretes (Theogony 453–500). The poet, however, is aware of them, for in one of the fragments from the Catalogue of Women he mentions them as “sportive, dancing gods” (fragment 123); they are either the siblings or cousins of the satyrs and the mountain nymphs. Already in Hesiod, then, there is some relationship with Dionysian figures. Kallimakhos narrates the story of their dancing around Zeus in his Hymn to Zeus 52–54. These various characteristics—percussive sounds, wild dancing, mountain dwelling, and the link with Rhea—facilitated an identification with the Korybantes of Kybele (see OH 14.3n and OH 27i), and the two names are often interchangeable (e.g., OH 38.20 and cf. Kallimakhos Hymn to Zeus 46). Our hymn blends Kretan and Phrygian imagery. The Kouretes, whose name translates as “youths,” played a role in Kretan cult. A hymn found inscribed at Palaikastro in Krete addresses Zeus as the “greatest kouros” and calls on him to usher in fertility for the new year. In particular he is asked to “leap into” the fields, animals, and homes of the town to spark fertility and bring wealth; see also OH 45.7n. A fragment from Euripides’ Kretans hints at an initiatory ritual that is possibly Orphic (fragment 472 = Orphic fragment 567). Pythagoras is supposed to have been initiated in their cult at Mount Ida, where he also allegedly saw the tomb of Zeus, who was considered to die and then be reborn each spring. The existence of a religious fraternity that bore the name Kouretes at Ephesos lends special significance to the whole collection (see Burkert 1985, p. 173). The Kouretes also gained prominence within Orphic circles. They guard the infant Dionysos on Krete, just as they guarded the infant Zeus (Orphic fragment 297), sometimes with Athene (see OH 32i). However, they do not seem to be hiding him but outright guarding him, and, unlike in the case of Zeus, they fail to protect him against the machinations of the Titans. On occasion we find the Kouretes surrounding Dionysos in the material
record; for example, they appear on a relief from an altar at Kos, dated to the middle second century BC (see Burkert 1993, pp. 270–271). Some sources have them guarding the infant Persephone/Kore as well (Orphic fragment 279). Athene is sometimes imagined to be their leader (Orphic fragment 267–268), the overlap with dancing in armor a clear point of contact (see Plato Laws 796d, where he also mentions the Dioskouroi of Sparta). This helps explain why her hymn immediately follows; see OH 32i. The Kouretes are invoked by name in the fragmentary Gurôb Papyrus, shortly after Demeter and Rhea, with whom they might have been explicitly connected as they are in the Orphic fragments. For more information, see West 1983, pp. 166–168, Larson 2007, pp. 24–25, and Graf/Johnston 2007, pp. 82–83. This hymn should be compared to OH 38 and OH 39.

  1–4: In Greek cult, young men sometimes danced in armor, the most famous of which was the pyrrhikhē, although this is sometimes used as a quasi-technical term to describe all such dances. A number of origins for the pyrrhikhē were proposed by ancient scholars, and the Kouretes are sometimes thought to be its inventors. Interestingly enough, Attic vase paintings sometimes have the very unwarlike satyrs dancing in armor, a curious inversion of roles that may be parody or may hint at a Dionysian connection with the dance (see Ceccarelli 2004, pp. 108–111). Other armed dances were known, too, and they did not always take place in cultic settings. For an example of such entertainment at a symposium performed by a woman, see Xenophon Symposium 2.11. Armed young men dancing and singing in cult are also found in Rome, where a group known as the Salii would dance and sing at certain festivals; we find mention of a particular song, the carmen saliare, in ancient sources, but what little text has come down to us is very corrupt.

  3 discordant is the lyre you strike: Harmony, both in music and in its more general application to anything exhibiting a balanced structure, was an important component of Greek morality, and we find writers, notably Plato, using the idea of harmonious music as a symbol of order, civilization, and rationality. Conversely, the lack of harmony often carries the opposite connotations. Thus, the cacophony implied by this line goes hand-in-hand with the wild, “out of control” ecstatic dance movements of the Kouretes and thus prepares for the mention of “mountain frenzy” in line 5 (compare also the “howling” in line 2). See also OH 27.11n.

  5 priests in the train of a mother: Compare OH 38.6, where the Kouretes are mentioned as the “first to set up sacred rites for mortals.” In both passages, the Kouretes gain significance as the mythical paradigm for the practitioners of the actual ritual for which our collection was composed.

  32. To Athene

  Athene is one of the chief divinities of the Greek pantheon. Her life begins in impressive fashion. Zeus takes as his first wife Metis (Counsel, Resourcefulness, Wisdom) but finds out later that she is destined to give birth to a mighty daughter and a son who will overthrow his father. Zeus’ grandfather, Sky, had tried to forestall a similar fate by pushing his children back into Earth’s womb at birth, which did not work. His son, Kronos, took the next step of swallowing his children at birth to avoid a similar fate, but this, too, failed to prevent his demise. Zeus goes even further—he swallows the mother before she is even able to give birth! Eventually, though, he gets a headache. Hephaistos performs exploratory surgery and splits his head open with an axe—then suddenly out pops a goddess, fully armed, shouting a lusty battle cry, and scaring the assembled gods. Thus Athene makes her debut on the cosmic stage; see Hesiod Theogony 886–900 and 924–926, Homeric Hymn to Athene (no. 28), Pindar Olympian Odes 7.35–44, and Apollodoros 1.3.6. The motif was popular in Attic vase painting.

  From the very beginning, then, Athene is associated with war. However, she is unlike Ares, the other war god, in that he revels in the blood and gore of fighting, while she, taking after her mother, is more interested in the intellectual aspects of strategy and tactics (see OH 65i). The battle of Herakles and Kyknos, a son of Ares, in Hesiod’s Shield is, in some ways, a battle by proxy between these two divinities. War is not the only pursuit to which she applies her wisdom. Athene is the goddess of all sorts of handiwork, both in the female domain, such as weaving, and in the male domain, such as carpentry (see note to line 8). She is very much a figure invested in human civilization. Her closeness to the mortal sphere is reflected in her intimate relationship with heroes, as for example when she appears to her favorite Odysseus, a hero after her own mind, on Ithaka (Odyssey 13.221–440). She is also particularly connected with Herakles. An instructive contrast to her relation with human beings would be the aloofness of Apollon (see OH 34i), although she falls short of Dionysos’ “possessive” nearness (see OH 30i).

  It is perhaps not surprising, then, that she was a very popular figure in cult, especially at Athens, the city after which she seems to have been named. Her claim to this polis is told in the story of her competition with Poseidon. They vied for the title of its chief divinity and held a sort of contest. Poseidon caused a salt spring to gush forth on the acropolis, while Athene planted an olive tree. She was chosen because of the utility of her gift (see Herodotos 8.55 and Apollodoros 3.14.1–2). The most important festival in Athens, the Panathenaia, was held every year in her honor, on the occasion of her victory against the giants in the Gigantomachy. Every fourth year the Panathenaia was more elaborately celebrated and included athletic and poetic contests. The cultural hegemony of Athens throughout the centuries ought not to blind us, however, to her extensive worship throughout all of Greece. For example, Kallimakhos’ fifth hymn, known as the Bath of Pallas, alludes to a rite at Argos during which her cult image, the Palladion, was washed in the river Inakhos and carried with the shield of Diomedes in a procession (1–56). For more information on her role in myth and cult, see Burkert 1985, pp. 139–143, and Larson 2007, pp. 41–57.

  Orphism seems to have accepted her traditional birth (see Orphic fragment 263–266 and cf. also Mousaios fragment 75), but she is given a special role in accounts of the infant Dionysos’ death at the hands of the Titans. She saves the still beating heart of the dismembered child and returns it to Zeus, who later brings about the rebirth of Dionysos (see OH 44i). Such a connection between these divinities may seem odd at first glance, but there are a number of points of contact. Both were prominent at Athens, both were born from the body of Zeus (head, thigh), both are famous for their role in the Gigantomachy (see note to line 12), and both have a connection with vegetation (olive, ivy). Athene, like Dionysos, is sometimes associated with mountains (see note to lines 4–5) and madness (see note to line 6), while both have a touch of the androgynous about them (see note to line 10). Her role in saving his heart might have been influenced by the story of the Athenian king Erikhthonios. He was born when Hephaistos, enamored of Athene, wanted to make love to her. She refuses his advances (cf. line 8), but some of his semen falls on her thigh. Disgusted, she wipes it off with wool, and throws it down upon the earth, which, thus fecundated, becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child. This child Athene hides in a box with a serpent (in some versions the child himself is serpentine) and entrusts the box to the daughters of the Athenian king Kekrops with orders not to open it. Of course they disobey the order, and eventually they are either killed by the snake or, driven mad by Athene, leap from the acropolis to their death (see Euripides Ion 20–26 and 267–274, Pausanias 1.18.2, and Apollodoros 3.14.6). Athene’s protection of a child, the chthonic character of this child, and the element of madness could easily have suggested to the person who originated the Orphic tale a way to work in Athene. Furthermore, the infant Dionysos is guarded by the Kouretes, whose leader is sometimes said to be Athene (see OH 31i). In one sense, then, this virgin goddess has a somewhat analogous relationship to her younger half-brother Dionysos as Artemis does to Apollon, whose birth she assists shortly after her own in some versions of the story (see OH 36i). Both goddesses are also virgin goddesses who can offer protection (to young people and warriors), and in our collection both are associated with mountains, are described as masculine, a
nd are said to be fond of madness (see note to lines 4–5 and 10 below). The connection with the Kouretes, mountains, and madness also brings Athene into connection with Kybele, the Phrygian mother goddess (see OH 27i) as well as Rhea (see OH 14i). Athene, then, is intricately bound up in a web of associations centered around chthonic divinities.

  This role of the Kouretes and Athene in the (re)birth of Dionysos in the tradition probably explains why their hymns follow the first one in the collection addressed to him. Apollon also has a part to play in the Titans’ attack on Dionysos, and this might well be the reason why the hymns to Apollon and the Titans (OH 34 and OH 37) occur in this sequence, too. The first hymn to Dionysos functions symbolically as his “birth,” and it is not surprising that we find in quick succession a number of divinities (along with related ones subordinated to them) at this point in the collection. The second hymn to the Kouretes and the one to Korybas form a bridge to the one to Eleusinian Demeter (OH 38–40; see OH 39i), which is the first hymn of the central group that focuses on Dionysos in his cultic aspects (see OH 40i).

  This hymn to Athene should be compared to the two Homeric hymns in her honor (nos. 11 and 28) and Proclus’ Hymn to Athene Polymetis (no. 7). The fact that the name Athene never appears in the collection as well as this hymn’s lack of attention to Athenian myth suggests that the composer is consciously presenting the goddess as a Panhellenic (or even Panmediterranean) divinity.

  1 Pallas: A common alternate name of Athene, who is often invoked with both. The ancients interpreted the name to mean “brandisher, shaker (of arms)” or “virgin.” Another attempt at etymology was offered in Orphism, where the name was thought to refer to the fact that Athene saved Dionysos’ heart while it was still “shaking,” i.e., beating (see Clement of Alexandria Protrepticus 2.18.1 and West 1983, p. 162). In some accounts, Pallas is the name of a giant that Athene killed in the Gigantomachy and from whom she took the name (see note to line 12 and Burkert 1985, p. 140). This giant is said to be her father in some versions of this story, thus offering a faint reflection of the implicit threat to Zeus that Athene and her unborn brother once posed (compare also her role with Poseidon and Hera in a failed coup against Zeus at Iliad 1.396–406). The name Pallas appears in the Gurôb Papyrus; see Graf/Johnston 2007, pp. 188–189.