Orpheus (attributed) · Orphic Hymns Ὕμνοι Ὀρφικοί

Orpheus (attributed), Orphic Hymns 32–36: Hymns 32-36: Pallas, Victory, Apollo, Latona, Diana

Pallas (Athena) is hailed as the fierce daughter of Zeus who roused the Phlegraean giants to flight, and Victory as the goddess whom men desire in battle. The longest hymn of the group invokes Apollo as Paean, the healer and slayer of Tityus, who tunes the music of the universe on his lyre. Latona and Diana follow, the latter as the torch-bearing Dictynna who presides over births.

English only: this edition has no Greek text for this passage.Lines 32–36 · 804 words · click a number to copy its link

To Pallas. A Hymn.

Only-Begotten, noble race of Jove,
Blessed and fierce, who joy'st in caves to rove:
O, warlike Pallas, whose illustrious kind,
Ineffable and effable we find:
Magnanimous and fam'd, the rocky height,
And groves, and shady mountains thee delight;
In arms rejoicing, who with Furies dire
And wild, the souls of mortals dost inspire.
Gymnastic virgin of terrific mind,
Dire Gorgons bane, unmarried, blessed, kind:
Mother of arts, impetuous; understood,
Rage to the wicked, wisdom to the good:
Female and male, the arts of war are thine,
Fanatic, much-form'd dragoness, divine:
O'er the Phlegrean giants, rous'd to ire,
Thy coursers driving, with destruction dire.
Sprung from the head of Jove, of splendid mien,
Purger of evils, all-victorious queen.
Hear me, O Goddess, when to thee I pray,
With supplicating voice both night and day,
And in my latest hour, give peace and health,
Propitious times, and necessary wealth,
And, ever present, be thy vot'ries aid,
O, much implor'd, art's parent, blue eyed maid.

To Victory. The Fumigation from Manna.

O Powerful Victory, by men desir'd,
With adverse breasts to dreadful fury fir'd,
Thee I invoke, whose might alone can quell
Contending rage, and molestation fell!
'Tis thine in battle to confer the crown,
The victor's prize, the mark of sweet renown;
For thou rul'st all things, Victory divine
And glorious strife, and joyful shouts are thine.
Come, mighty Goddess, and thy suppliant bless,
With sparkling eye, elated with success
May deeds illustrious thy protection claim,
And find, led on by thee immortal Fame,

To Apollo. The Fumigation from Manna.

Blest Pæan, come, propitious to my pray'r,
Illustrious pow'r, whom Memphian tribes revere
Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health,
Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth
Spermatic, golden-lyr'd, the field from thee
Receives it's constant, rich fertility,
Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing,
Python-destroying, hallow'd, Delphian king
Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head,
Noble and lovely, arm'd with arrows dread
Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine,
Pow'r far diffused, and course oblique is thine,
O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye
Views all within, and all beneath the sky
Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure,
Who, omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure:
Hear me entreating for the human kind,
Hear, and be present with benignant mind;
For thou survey'st this boundless æther all,
And ev'ry part of this terrestrial ball
Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight,
Extends beneath the gloomy, silent night;
Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound,
The stable roots, deep fix'd by thee are found.
The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine,
Thyself of all the source and end divine:
'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire,
With various-sounding, harmonising lyre
Now the last string thou tun'st to sweet accord,
Divinely warbling now the highest chord;
Th' immortal golden lyre, now touch'd by thee,
Responsive yields a Dorian melody, a
All Nature's tribes to thee their diff'rence owe,
And changing seasons from thy music flow:
Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts, advance
Summer and Winter in alternate dance;
This claims the highest, that the lowest string,
The Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring
Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horn'd nam'd,
Emitting whistling winds thro' Syrinx fam'd;
Since to thy care, the figur'd seal's consign'd,
Which stamps the world with forms of ev'ry kind.
Hear me, blest pow'r, and in these rites rejoice,
And save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

To Latona. The Fumigation from Myrrh.

Dark veil'd Latona, much invoked queen,
Twin-bearing Goddess, of a noble mien;
Cæantis great, a mighty mind is thine,
Offspring prolific, blest of Jove divine:
Phœbus proceeds from thee, the God of light,
And Dian fair, whom winged darts delight;
She in Ortygia's honor'd regions born,
In Delos he, which mountains high adorn.
Hear me, O Goddess, with propitious mind,
And end these holy rites, with aspect kind.

To Diana. The Fumigation from Manna.

Hear me, Jove's daughter, celebrated queen,
Bacchian and Titan, of a noble mien:
In darts rejoicing and on all to shine,
Torch-bearing Goddess, Dictynna divine;
O'er births presiding, and thyself a maid,
To labour-pangs imparting ready aid
Dissolver of the zone and wrinkl'd care,
Fierce huntress, glorying in the Sylvan war:
Swift in the course, in dreadful arrows skill'd,
Wandering by night, rejoicing in the field
Of manly form, erect, of bounteous mind,
Illustrious dæmon,, nurse of human kind:
Immortal, earthly, bane of monsters fell,
'tis thine, blest maid, On woody hills to dwell:
Foe of the stag, whom woods and dogs delight,
In endless youth who flourish fair and bright.
O, universal queen, august, divine,
A various form, Cydonian pow'r, is thine:
Dread guardian Goddess, with benignant mind
Auspicious, come to mystic rites inclin'd
Give earth a store of beauteous fruits to bear,
Send gentle Peace, and Health with lovely hair,
And to the mountains drive Disease and Care,

People and places in this passage

English translation by Thomas Taylor (1792). Original text: Greek text not included; Taylor translated from the 18th-century editions of the Orphic Hymns (Gesner, 1764, and earlier).

Text layer: Public domain (Thomas Taylor died 1835; the 1787 and 1792 editions; text recovered by OCR from Internet Archive scans). English only.. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.

Orphic Hymns 32–36: Pallas, Victory, Apollo, Latona, Diana