The Orphic Hymns Read online

  53. To the God of Annual Feasts

  incense—all other things, save frankincense—a libation of milk, too

  I call upon Bacchos, the god we worship annually,

  chthonic Dionysos,

  together with the fair-tressed Nymphs

  he is roused.

  In the sacred halls of Persephone

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  he slumbers and puts to sleep

  pure

  Bacchic time, every third year.

  When he himself stirs up

  the triennial revel again,

  he sings a hymn

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  together with his fair-girdled nurses.

  As the seasons revolve,

  he puts to sleep and wakes up the years.

  O blessed and fruit-giving Bacchos,

  O horned spirit of the unripe fruit,

  come to this most sacred rite

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  with a glow of joy on your face,

  come teeming with fruit

  that is holy and perfect.

  54. To Silenos Satyros and the Bacchae

  incense—powdered frankincense

  Hear me, foster father

  of Bacchos, father and nurturer,

  best of the Silenoi,

  honored by all the gods,

  honored by mortal men

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  in the same triennial feasts.

  Pure and prized marshal

  of the pastoral band,

  wakeful reveler and companion

  of the fair-girt nurses,

  leader of the ivy-crowned

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  Naiads and of the Bacchantes,

  take all the Satyrs,

  half-men, half-beast,

  come howling

  to the Bacchic lord.

  The Bacchantes escort

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  the holy Lenaian procession

  in sacred litanies

  revealing torch-lit rites,

  shouting, thyrsos-loving,

  finding calm in the revels.

  55. To Aphrodite

  Heavenly, smiling Aphrodite,

  praised in many hymns,

  sea-born revered goddess of generation,

  you like the night-long revel,

  you couple lovers at night,

  3

  O scheming mother of Necessity.

  Everything comes from you:

  you have yoked the world,

  you control all three realms,

  you give birth to all,

  to everything in heaven,

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  to everything upon the fruitful earth,

  to everything in the depths of the sea,

  O venerable companion of Bacchos.

  You delight in festivities,

  O bride-like mother of the Erotes,

  O Persuasion, whose joy is in the bed of love,

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  secretive giver of grace,

  visible and invisible,

  lovely-tressed daughter of a noble father,

  bridal feast companion of the gods,

  sceptered, she-wolf,

  beloved and man-loving,

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  giver of birth and life.

  Your maddening love-charms

  yoke mortals,

  they yoke the many races of beasts

  to unbridled passion.

  Come, O goddess born in Kypros:

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  you may be on Olympos,

  O queen, exulting

  in the beauty of your face,

  you may be in Syria,

  country of fine frankincense,

  you may be driving

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  your golden chariot in the plain,

  you may lord it over

  Egypt’s fertile river bed.

  Come, whether you ride your swan-drawn chariot

  over the sea’s billows,

  joining the creatures of the deep

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  as they dance in circles,

  or on land in the company

  of the dark-faced nymphs

  as light-footed they frisk

  over the sandy beaches.

  Come lady, even if you are

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  in Kypros that cherishes you,

  where fair maidens and chaste brides

  throughout the year sing of you,

  O blessed one,

  as they sing of immortal, pure Adonis.

  Come, O beautiful,

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  O comely goddess,

  I summon you with holy words,

  I summon you with a pious soul.

  56. To Adonis

  incense—aromatic herbs

  Hear my prayer, O best,

  O many-named god.

  Fine-haired, solitary,

  ever bursting with lovely song,

  Eubouleus, many-shaped,

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  noble nurturer of all,

  male and female in one …

  unwithering bloom, O Adonis,

  you vanish and then shine again

  in the fair season’s turn.

  Two-horned spirit of growth,

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  much loved and wept for,

  fair one, joyful hunter,

  god of the luxuriant mane,

  desire is in you, O sweet blossom,

  O son of Aphrodite and Eros,

  born on the bed

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  of lovely-tressed Persephone.

  You dwell deep

  in murky Tartaros,

  then again toward Olympos

  you carry your blossoming body.

  Come, O blessed one, bring

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  earth’s fruits to the initiates.

  57. To Chthonic Hermes

  incense—storax

  You dwell on the road all must take,

  the road of no return, by the Kokytos,

  you guide the souls

  of mortals to the nether gloom.

  Hermes, offspring of Dionysos

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  who revels in the dance,

  and of Aphrodite, the Paphian maiden

  of the fluttering eyelids,

  you haunt the sacred house of Persephone

  as guide throughout the earth of ill-fated souls,

  the souls you bring to their destined harbor

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  when their time has come;

  you charm them with your sacred wand,

  you give them sleep

  from which you rouse them again.

  It is to you indeed

  that Persephone gave the high office

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  throughout broad Tartaros

  to lead the way

  for the everlasting souls of men.

  O blessed one, grant a good end

  for the labors of the initiates.

  58. To Eros

  incense—aromatic herbs

  I call upon you, great, pure,

  lovely and sweet Eros,

  winged archer who runs

  swiftly on a path of fire,

  who plays together with gods

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  and mortal men.

  Inventive, two-natured,

  you are master of all:

  of the sky’s ether, of the sea and the land,

  of the all-begetting winds,

  which for mortals the goddess

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  of grass and grain nurtures,

  of all that lies in Tartaros,

  of all that lies in the roaring sea;

  you alone govern

  the course of all these.

  O blessed one, come to the initiates

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  with pure thought,

  banish from them

  vile impulses.

  59. To the Fates

  incense—aromatic herbs

  Boundless Fates,

  dear children of dark Night,

  hear my prayer,

  O many-named

  dwellers
on the lake of heaven,

  3

  where the frozen water is broken

  by night’s warmth

  in the shady hollow of a sleek cave;

  from there you fly to the vast earth,

  home of mortals, from there,

  clothed in purple, you march

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  toward men,

  whose noble aims

  match their vain hopes,

  in the realm of the dead,

  where glory drives her chariot on

  all over the earth

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  beyond the ends of Justice,

  of anxious hope, of primeval law,

  of the measureless principle of order.

  In life Fate alone watches;

  the other immortals

  who dwell on the peaks

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  of snowy Olympos do not,

  except for Zeus’ perfect eye.

  Fate and Zeus’ mind

  know all things

  for all time.

  I pray to you to come,

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  gently and kindly,

  Atropos, Lakhesis, Klotho,

  offspring of noble stock.

  Airy, invisible, inexorable,

  ever indestructible,

  you give all and take all,

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  being to men the same as necessity.

  Fates, hear my prayers,

  receive my libations,

  come gently to the initiates,

  free them from pain.

  60. To the Graces

  incense—storax

  Hear me, O illustrious,

  O renowned Graces,

  daughters of Zeus

  and full-bosomed Eunomia,

  Aglaia, Thalia,

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  blessed Euphrosyne,

  lovely, wise, and pure

  mothers of joy,

  many-shaped, ever-blooming,

  beloved of mortals.

  We pray that each in her turn

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  with a flower’s beauty on her face, enchanting,

  come, ever gentle, to the initiates

  to bring them prosperity.

  61. Hymn to Nemesis

  Nemesis, I call upon you,

  O goddess, O great queen,

  your all-seeing eye looks upon

  the lives of man’s many races.

  Eternal and revered,

  3

  you alone rejoice in the just,

  you change and vary,

  you shift your word.

  All who bear the yoke

  of mortality fear you,

  you care about the thoughts of all;

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  the arrogant soul,

  the reckless one,

  finds no escape.

  You see all, you hear all,

  you arbitrate all.

  O sublime deity,

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  in whom dwells justice for men,

  come, blessed and pure one,

  ever helpful to the initiates,

  grant nobility of mind,

  put an end to repulsive thoughts,

  thoughts unholy,

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  fickle and haughty.

  62. To Dike

  incense—frankincense

  I sing of the all-seeing eye

  of comely and radiant Dike,

  who is seated upon the sacred throne

  of lord Zeus.

  From heaven you watch the lives

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  of the many human races,

  you crush the unjust

  with just retribution,

  matching things lawless

  through the truth of equality.

  For whenever base opinions

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  prevail in difficult verdicts,

  because men wish more

  than is fair,

  you intervene and rouse