At the very beginnings of the Archaic Age, the great singer Orpheus taught a new religion that centered around the immortality of the human soul and its journey after death. He felt that achieving purity by avoiding meat and refraining from committing harm further promoted the pursuit of a peaceful life. Elements of the worship of Dionysus, such as shape-shifting and ritualistic ecstasy, were fused with Orphic beliefs to produce a powerful and illuminating new religion that found expression in the mystery cults. Practitioners of this new religion composed a great body of poetry, much of which is translated in The Orphic Hymns. The hymns presented in this book were anonymously composed somewhere in Asia Minor, most likely in the middle of the third century AD. At this turbulent time, the Hellenic past was fighting for its survival, while the new Christian faith was spreading everywhere. The Orphic Hymns thus reflect a pious spirituality in the form of traditional literary conventions. The hymns themselves are devoted to specific divinities as well as to cosmic elements. Prefaced with offerings, strings of epithets invoke the various attributes of the divinity and prayers ask for peace and health to the initiate. Apostolos N. Athanassakis and Benjamin M. Wolkow have produced an accurate and elegant translation accompanied by rich commentary.
Apostolos N. Athanassakis is the Argyropoulos Chair in Hellenic Studies and a professor emeritus of classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the translator of several books, including Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield and The Homeric Hymns, both published by Johns Hopkins. Benjamin M. Wolkow is a lecturer in the Classics Department of the University of Georgia.
Preface Introduction The Orphic Hymns Orpheus to Mousaios 1. To Hekate 2. To Prothyraia 3. To Night 4. To Sky 5. To Ether 6. To Protogonos 7. To the Stars 8. To the Sun 9. To Selene 10. To Physis 11. To Pan 12. To Herakles 13. To Kronos 14. To Rhea 15. To Zeus 16. To Hera 17. To Poseidon 18. To Plouton 19. To Zeus the Thunderbolt 20. To Astrapaios Zeus 21. To the Clouds 22. To the Sea 23. To Nereus 24. To the Nereids 25. To Proteus 26. To Earth 27. To the Mother of the Gods 28. To Hermes 29. Hymn to Persephone 30. To Dionysos 31. Hymn to the Kouretes 32. To Athene 33. To Nike 34. To Apollon 35. To Leto 36. To Artemis 37. To the Titans 38. To the Kouretes 39. To Korbas 40. To Eleusinian Demeter 41. To Mother Antaia 42. To Mise 43. To the Seasons 44. To Semele 45. Hymn to Dionysos Bassareus and Triennial 46. To Liknites 47. To Perikionios 48. To Sabazios 49. To Hipta 50. To Lysios Lenaios 51. To the Nymphs 52. To the God of Triennal Feasts 53. To the God of Annual Feasts 54. To Silenos Satyros and Bacchae 55. To Aphrodite 56. To Adonis 57. To Chthonic Hermes 58. To Eros 59. To the Fates 60. To the Graces 61. Hymn to Nemesis 62. To Dike 63. To Justice 64. Hymn to Nomos 65. To Ares 66. To Hephaistos 67. To Asklepios 68. To Hygeia 69. To the Erinyes 70. To the Eumenides 71. To Melinoe 72. To Tyche 73. To Daimon 74. To Leukothea 75. To Palaimon 76. To the Muses 77. To Mnemosyne 78. To Dawn 79. To Themis 80. To Boreas 81. To Zephyros 82. To Notos 83. To Okeanos 84. To Hestia 85. To Sleep 86. To Dream 87. To Death Notes Select Bibliography Index Nominum Index Locorum
The only English translation of the mysterious and cosmic Greek poetry known as the Orphic Hymns.
