The Orphic Hymns

by Unknown

  This hymn equates the Kouretes, the Dioskouroi, and the gods of Samothrace by associating these figures with the winds that are connected with fertility and the dangers of the sea; what binds these two ideas together, in turn, is the idea that certain winds come at certain seasons (cf. Hesiod’s extended discourse on the topic at Works and Days 618–694). This hymn should be compared to those addressed to Leuokothea and Palaimon (OH 74–75), the winds Boreas, Zephyros, and Notos (OH 80–82), the other hymn to the Kouretes (OH 31), the one to Korybas (OH 39), and the two Homeric hymns to the Dioskouroi (nos. 17 and 33).

  1–2: The hymn opens with traditional attributes of the Kouretes. The percussive sound of the beating of brazen arms is analogous to the bronze clappers and cymbals used in ecstatic cult, particularly that of Kybele (see OH 27.11n).

  2 dwellers of heaven, of earth and sea: Compare also line 8. Numerous divinities in this collection are connected with these three realms; see OH 10.14–16n. There is a natural analogue to this, though, since the Kouretes are identified with the winds, which are physically present in all three.

  3 life-giving breezes: The Kouretes are connected with fertility, as they are in Kretan cult (see OH 31i), but here, and in lines 22 and 24, they are identified with the winds that blow throughout the world. The association is perhaps facilitated by the connection of the Kouretes with Zeus, the storm and weather god. In our collection Hera, who is associated with air, sends “soft breezes” that “nourish the soul” (see OH 16.3+n).

  6 first to set up sacred rites for mortals: The Kouretes, as in OH 31.5, are portrayed as mythical paradigms for actual cult practice; see further OH 76.7+n.

  13–19: The typical Greek conception that what a god gives can also be taken away by the same god is found here. This is further strengthened by the identification with winds, which can be gentle and beneficial or powerful and destructive. As with many other hymns in the collection, the composer is aware of this contradictory dichotomy so essential to Greek religious thought. The negative side is acknowledged in these lines; the positive side is explicitly desiderated at the end (lines 24–25).

  20–21 Kouretes, Korybantes, … / masters of Samothrace, true Dioskouroi: The hymn reaches a crescendo with the aggregation of various appellations. The Kabeiroi in the opening address to Mousaios seem to be viewed as another name for the Dioskouroi; see OH O.20+20–22n and OH 39i.

  39. To Korybas

  Korybas is the singular form of Korybantes, the group of priests and adherents of Kybele who were known to practice rites designed to cure madness (see OH 27.13n) and who were often equated with the Kouretes (see OH 31i). In this regard, it is significant that Korybas is called Koures, the singular of Kouretes, in line 3 (and see below). Sometimes Korybas is said to be the son of Kybele and the eponymous father of the Korybantes (Diodorus Siculus 5.49). Hippolytos reports of a hymn to Attis, well-known in his time, which was understood by the Naassenes, a sect of Christianity, as expressing their own beliefs (Refutation of All Heresies 5.9.8; translation and discussion in Borgeaud 2004, pp. 106–107). In this hymn, Attis is said to have been called Adonis by the Assyrians, Osiris by the Egyptians, Adamna by the Samothracians, Korybas by the Haemonians, and Papas by the Phrygians. “Haemonians” is a synecdoche for Thessalians, a people infamous for its witches (see OH 1.1n).

  Clement of Alexandria in his Protrepticus relates a foundational myth for the rites of the Korybantes (2.19). In this story, they are three brothers; two of the brothers kill the third; they then cover the body with a purple cloth and garlands, convey it on a bronze shield, and bury it on the foothills of Mount Olympos. Clement summarizes the mysteries succinctly as “murders and burials.” This story is almost certainly alluded to in line 6 of this hymn. If so, we see that Korybas, thus foully murdered, becomes a restless spirit roaming the earth and potentially wreaking vengeance on any he encounters by driving them to madness; compare with the Erinyes and Melinoe (see OH 69i and OH 71.4–5+n). Like Melinoe, he is also called on to avert the horrid phantoms he is also capable of sending (see OH 71.11n).

  Clement further identifies these brothers with the Kabeiroi, another group of divinities found in mystery cults. In fact, these gods are equated at times with those of Samothrace. They are mentioned in the opening address to Mousaios with the Kouretes and Korybantes (see OH O.20–22+n), and it seems likely that the association is lurking in the background here, more tightly connecting Korybas with the previous hymn to the Kouretes who are invoked as Samothracian gods (OH 38.4, 21; compare also the Attis hymn cited above). What is more, Clement says that the brothers as fugitives took a basket containing the genitals of their dead brother, now called Dionysos, to Etruria, where they established his worship (cf. OH 46i). He ends his account by acknowledging that some people with reason call Dionysos Attis. The connection is significant, because Attis castrates himself after suffering madness sent by Kybele (see OH 27i). A loose identification among Attis, Dionysos, and Korybas seems to lie at the heart of our hymn. It is probably as a doublet of Dionysos that Korybas is called “the greatest king of eternal earth” (line 1) and “warlike” (line 2 see note) and this identification helps explain why the hymn follows one dedicated to the Kouretes, who in Orphic accounts guard the enthroned infant Dionysos (see OH 31i).

  The merging of identities is further underscored by the presence of Demeter in this hymn, called Deo in line 7. This goddess is sometimes equated with Rhea and Kybele (see OH 14i and OH 27i). Clement, in his discussion of the Korybantic rites, notes that the priests, called “Lords of the Rites” (Greek “Anaktotelestai”), do not allow celery to be placed on the altar, since they consider it to have been born from the blood of the murdered brother. He then compares this taboo with the worship of Demeter during the Thesmophoria festival, where pomegranate seeds that have fallen on the floor are forbidden to be consumed on the grounds that such seeds were born from the blood of Dionysos. Clement’s discussion of the Eleusinian Mysteries frames his account of the rites of the Kabeiroi. Interestingly enough, Psellos at Quaenam sunt graecorum Opiniones de daemonibus 3 says that a Korybas and a Koures were mimetic forms of demons who were included in the initiation to the Eleusinian Mysteries. Prima facie, this indicates that the pair Korybas/Koures belonged to that part of Orphic/Dionysiac demonology that became connected with Eleusis, at least in the minds of those who tried to unravel the mysteries. It is therefore no surprise that the block of four “Eleusinian” hymns in our collection immediately follow this one.

  Korybas, then, as an analogue of the murdered Dionysos, ends the theme of this god’s rebirth that is implicit in OH 31–38, which are addressed to figures who played a role in this endeavor (and divinities subordinate to them), and which transitions to the central section of the collection (see further OH 30i, OH 32i, OH 40i).

  2 the warlike: This is an adjective used of Dionysos at OH 30.4 and of the Kouretes’ weapons at OH 38.1 and 7.

  8 into the shape of a savage, dark dragon: The significance of this is obscure. It is probably alluding to some myth now lost to us. Clement cites an anonymous poet referring to the birth of Dionysos from Persephone and Zeus: “A bull, father of a dragon [or: snake], and a father of a bull, a dragon [or: snake]; / in the mountain an oxherd carries his secret goad” (Protrepticus 2.16.3). Note that Demeter’s chariot is drawn by dragons in the following hymn (see OH 40.14+n).

  40. To Eleusinian Demeter

  Demeter is the goddess of agriculture, specifically of cereals and their cultivation. She is one of the “original six” Olympians born from Kronos and Rhea. However, as one of the most important fertility goddesses in the Greek pantheon, she often is identified with Earth herself. In antiquity, her name was commonly analyzed as “dē” (believed to have been a variant of “gē,” “earth”) and “mētēr” (“mother”); Orphic fragment 399, for example, addresses her as “Earth mother of all, Demeter, giver of prosperity and wealth.” This identification extends to other fertility goddesses as well, such as Rhea and Kybele (see OH 14i an
d OH 27i). It is reported that Orpheus himself supposedly claimed Rhea was known as Demeter after the birth of Zeus, etymologizing the “dē” element as related to the “di-” root in Zeus’ name (Orphic fragment 206). Zeus mates with her, and she gives birth to a daughter, Persephone, with whom she is closely connected in cult. We find mention of this already in Hesiod Theogony 912–914. In Orphic accounts of this union, Demeter, here equated with her mother Rhea, attempts to flee the amorous attentions of her son Zeus by transforming herself into a snake. Undeterred, Zeus does likewise, and from this was born Persephone, who has monstrous features that frighten her mother away (see OH 14i). A similar story is found in Arkadia; here, Demeter turns herself into a horse to escape Poseidon, who follows suit. Their children are the Erinyes and the wonder horse Areion (see OH 69i). The ophidian rape by Zeus has been diplomatically omitted from this hymn.

  The most important myth concerning Demeter is the abduction of Persephone by Hades, memorably told in the beautiful Homeric Hymn to Demeter. The story, however, is not mentioned at all in this hymn but in the following one to Mother Antaia, another name of Demeter, as well as in OH 18, OH 29 and OH 43. For details, see OH 41i. It is notable that again, just as in the case of Zeus’ rape of Demeter, the unpleasantness of the abduction of Persephone is passed over in silence in this hymn.

  The account of Persephone’s abduction, Demeter’s search for her, and their consequent reunion formed the foundation myth of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were very old, perhaps performed in some form as far back as the bronze age. Eleusis is a village that was originally independent of Athens but eventually became part of its territory at some point before the seventh century. The cult was appropriated by the Athenians, who in later times worked hard to give these local mysteries Panhellenic importance, much like Delphi. In this they were quite successful. The mysteries were very popular and continued unabated until officially shut down by the emperor Theodosius in 392 AD, although they were by then already largely neglected. For details of the cult, see Burkert 1985, pp. 285–290, and Larson 2007, pp. 69–85, who also discusses other cults of Demeter and Persephone. The Eleusinian Mysteries were concerned with securing wealth and happiness in this life and a better fate in the hereafter—concerns which we find also in Dionysian/Orphic mysteries, among others, as well. Our hymn focuses exclusively on the material benefits of this life, and it radiates a joy in the wealth and abundance of the world, which may help to explain the omissions of the unsavory mythological elements as noted above. The Eleusinian Mysteries might also be specifically mentioned in our collection because they were felt to have special connection with the actual cult in which the Hymns were in use. It is notable that Mousaios had connections with the Mysteries; see OH Oi. Their prestige might also be a factor in their appearance throughout the collection; compare their possible influence on the early development of the Orphic myth of Dionysos in Graf/Johnston 2007, pp. 73–75. At any rate, the polytheistic nature of Greek religion made such associations possible. One may be a member of many mystery religions, to hedge one’s bets as it were. On one of the Bacchic gold tablets, for example, the initiate claims to “have the rites of Bacchos and Demeter Chthonia and the Mountain Mother” (no. 28). Most likely some, if not all, of our initiates were members in other mystery cults, too.

  This hymn is the first of a group of four with Eleusinian themes. It comes in the middle of the collection (in terms of number of lines), and it leads directly to the ritual complex involving Dionysos (see OH 44i), which probably was the high point of the rite during which these hymns were originally performed. It is perhaps not accidental that Eleusinian Demeter receives the most elaborate request at the end of her hymn: peace, law, wealth, and health. A number of hymns before this one mention three of these items in their closing appeals (see OH 15i), and the only hymns that mention even two of these afterward are OH 65 and OH 84.

  1 Deo: This name of Demeter is usually understood by modern scholars to be a shortened form of “Demeter,” although it is possible that it is just a by-form of the “dē” element. Ancient scholars saw it as such and tried to attach it to words that alluded to aspects of her mythology. For example, the author of the Derveni papyrus, in his interpretation of a poem by Orpheus, asserts that the “dē” is derived from a Greek verb meaning “to tear, to cut up” and explains that Zeus injured the goddess during intercourse, something which he reports that Orpheus “makes clear” later in the poem he was reading (see Betegh 2004, pp. 189–190; the Derveni author might be giving an allegorical meaning to an explicit mention of plowing).

  2 nurturer of youths: This epithet is applied to other divinities in our collection: Hekate (OH 1.8), Artemis (OH 36.8), and Eirene (Peace) in the hymn to Ares (OH 65.9; cf. OH 12.8 and OH 19.22). As the hymn to Ares makes clear, peace and agriculture are closely linked, for when there is no war, men turn their swords to ploughshares; compare lines 4 and 19 of this hymn. Demeter may also be seen as a nurturer of youths insofar as she was nurse to Demophoön and tried to make him immortal (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.98–255). This same epithet recurs in line 13.

  8–9: Those who were the first to do something were held in high regard by the ancient Greeks, who did not hesitate to invent such figures and/or give credit to the gods when no historical personage was at hand. Here Demeter is lauded as the first to create crops and the first to develop the technical means to harvest them. In respect to the latter, she fits the pattern of the culture hero, the one whose innovations pave the way for the development and improvement of human civilization; cf. OH 38.6+n and OH 76.7+n, where the Kouretes and the Muses respectively teach mortals the sacred rituals (as does Demeter in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.473–482). The most famous divine culture hero in myth is probably Prometheus (see, for example, Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 436–506, and cf. OH 28i and OH 66i). Demeter is said to have taught the Eleusinian prince Triptolemos the secrets of agriculture, and he in turn traveled the world to teach his fellow man. We find Demeter linked to plowing in Hesiod’s injunction to his brother to pray to Demeter and Chthonian Zeus right before beginning to plow (Works and Days 465–469). Another early connection between the goddess and agricultural technique is found in a Homeric simile where Demeter is shown separating grain from chaff (Iliad 5.499–502).

  10 Bromios: Another name for Dionysos; the name means the “roarer” (cf. OH 30.1+n). This god becomes associated with Demeter at Eleusis through Iacchos, who seems to be a personified form of the cry the sacred procession would shout out on their way to Eleusis; see OH 42.4+n.

  11 torch-bearing and pure: Torches are typical staples in the process of celebrating fertility divinities, who often have their festivities celebrated at night, including Dionysian revels (see OH 52i and OH 54.10). They were an important part of the Eleusinian cult, as might be deduced from the title of one of its highest functionaries, the Dadoukhos (a word meaning “torch-bearer”); see OH 42.4n. Demeter carries a torch while fasting and in search of her daughter (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.47–50, 59–63), and Artemis-Persephone is called Torch-Bearer” (see OH 36.3n). See further OH 9.3n. Purity is a general concern in Greek religion but especially in matters such as initiations. For example, potential initiates in the Eleusinian Mysteries needed to bathe themselves in the sea along with the pig they were to sacrifice. Both these adjectives, then, are as much descriptive of our initiates as they are of the goddess herself. See also OH 30.4+n.

  14: A different kind of yoking than mentioned in line 8. Triptolemos is often portrayed in a winged chariot, bringing the knowledge of Demeter to all (see Boardman 1991, p. 219, Boardman 1975, p. 226, and Boardman 1989, p. 226). The dragons here are symbolic of Demeter’s chthonic connection; compare line 12 where the goddess is addressed as appearing from beneath the earth. Demeter Chthonia (Demeter From Beneath the Earth) was in fact worshipped at Hermione (see Larson 2007, pp. 78–79). The dragons might also have a connection with Korybas, who in the previous hymn was said to have taken the form of a dragon in accordance with
“Deo’s thinking” (lines 7–8), an obscure allusion.

  15: Demeter is here described in maenadic terms; see OH 1.3n. The throne might be referring to Kybele’s throne (see OH 27.5+9n). The circular movement perhaps symbolizes the revolution of the celestial bodies around the earth (see OH 4.3n).

  16 only daughter … many children: The contrasting juxtaposition is typical of our poet’s style, but the reference here is somewhat puzzling. Persephone is usually her only child in myth, but Demeter sometimes is said to have children beside her. In an early myth, she has as a lover the mortal hero Iasion, with whom she lies in a thrice-plowed field. From this union she gives birth to Ploutos (Wealth; see OH 18i), but Iasion is killed by Zeus (Hesiod Theogony 969–974 and Odyssey 5.125–128; see also Homeric Hymn to Demeter 2.488–489). Herodotos mentions that Aeschylus (in a play now lost to us) made Artemis the daughter of Demeter on the basis of an Egyptian tale (2.156.5–6); the historian, however, is skeptical of this last detail. Kallimakhos says that Hekate was the daughter of Demeter (fragment 466; see Orphic fragment 400). Since Artemis and Hekate eventually are identified as the same goddess, it is possible that both births point to one original account, perhaps Orphic. They both might have already been identified with Persephone, too (see OH 29i). However, in our collection Persephone is explicitly said to be Demeter’s only daughter (OH 29.1–2). It is difficult, though not impossible, to construe “many” to just mean Persephone-Artemis-Hekate and Ploutos. On the other hand, “many children” may be symbolic insofar as Demeter is viewed as a nurturer of children (see lines 2 and 13) or it may be used in the sense that the crops she sends up are “her children.” The attribute “only daughter” is even more puzzling, as she has two sisters, Hestia and Hera, in conventional mythology. But Demeter was equated with Hestia and Hera in early Orphic thought (see OH 14i and Betegh 2004, p. 222), and our composer might have in mind Demeter as the personification of female fertility in these lines; this gains some support from the general description of her powers in line 17 and the “many children” in line 16, if we are to understand this attribute broadly.