The Orphic Hymns

by Unknown

  15. To Zeus

  Zeus is the chief deity of the Greek pantheon, and his role in myth and cult is as wide-ranging as his power. A large portion of Hesiod’s Theogony treats his ascendancy to ruler of the universe. He is hidden away on Krete as a babe, frees his siblings who had been swallowed by his father, Kronos, at birth, and then leads a successful rebellion against him and most of his father’s brethren, the Titans (see OH 13i). Hesiod then gives a brief portrayal of his victory over a second threat, the monstrous Typhon (820–880; see Apollodoros 1.6.3 for a fuller account). After dividing the universe among himself and his brothers (see OH 17.7n), Zeus takes on a series of wives, who give birth to a number of important divinities and heroes (886–926). Of his countless affairs in mythology, the two most significant ones to Orphism are his union with his mother Rhea, which produces Persephone (this is specific to Orphism; see OH 14i and OH 29i), and his relations with Semele, which produces Dionysos (see OH 44i).

  In cult, Zeus was worshipped in diverse ways, from a personal, household deity that brought good fortune (cf. line 11 below and OH 19.20; see also OH 73i) to a Panhellenic god who symbolized a common Greek culture (e.g., at Olympia and the Olympian Games). As a weather god, he is often called on to bring life-nourishing rain to the crops; he thus has fertility associations. In Iliad 14.346–351, when Zeus embraces Hera before they make love on Mount Ida, the earth itself blossoms into a breath-taking array of flowers and they draw a golden cloud around them that sheds dew; this scene seems to be reminiscent of a very old myth of the union of Father Sky and Mother Earth as the source of life itself (see also OH 4i). An inscription found at Palaikastro, Krete, preserves a hymn that invokes him as the “greatest kouros [youth]” and prays that he “leap into” the flocks, fields, and homes as a spur to growth (see also OH 31i). The fertility aspect of Zeus may even endow this celestial god with a chthonic character (cf. OH 7.9n), and he sometimes is depicted in the form of a snake. Note, too, that when Zeus impregnates Rhea/Demeter, both are in the form of a snake. Another important aspect of Zeus in Greek religion is his role in maintaining social institutions. He is one of the gods who protects the sanctity of oaths (like Sun; see OH 8i). Both guest and host are under his guardianship, as well as suppliants and beggars. In general, justice and order, the underlying principles of human community, are his responsibility. This is symbolized in myth, where Dike is his daughter and Themis his first wife (see OH 43i, OH 62i, and OH 79i). For more on his role in Greek religion and cult, see Burkert 1985, pp. 125–131, and Larson 2007, pp. 15–28.

  It is interesting that in this hymn there is scarcely any attention paid to his mythological exploits or his role in human affairs. He is above all presented as a cosmic god, the creator of the universe and universal order, all-powerful and majestic. The same is true of the other two hymns addressed to him as “Thunderbolt” and Astrapaios, respectively (OH 19 and OH 20). His placement in this collection serves as a culmination of the cosmogonic arc that defines the previous fourteen hymns, all of which are addressed to primeval beings. There is a gradual movement from abstractions to concrete anthropomorphism (see OH 11i, OH 12i, and OH 13i); it is almost as if the known universe is taking shape before the initiates’ eyes. Once the divine pair of Zeus and Hera is reached, the cosmogony proper has come to a close, and the theogony can begin (see also note to lines 3–5). This is further reinforced by the following consideration. The direction of the arrangement of entities up until now has been chronological, but only four of the original six Olympian gods are grouped together here. The hymns to Demeter and Hestia should properly find their place among these. But the dynamic, chronological movement has ended; instead the collection takes a more static, horizontal approach, branching out as it were over the family tree of Zeus (eventually focusing, of course, on Dionysos and Dionysian cult). Furthermore, the constituent elements of the world—fire, air, water, and earth—are singularly emphasized in the hymns to Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Plouton, respectively. This sequence is repeated by the following hymns, which adhere to the same order: fire (OH 19–20), air (OH 21), water (OH 22–25), and earth (OH 26–27). Demeter, who also is associated with the element earth, is in a sense already present in OH 26–27 by dint of her identification with primeval goddesses (Rhea, Kybele). Furthermore, her prominence in the Eleusinian Mysteries makes her hymn more appropriate of the central group that treats figures of Dionysian cult (OH 40–54). The domestic associations of Hestia, who could be equated with the element fire, would not easily fit the cosmological context (see further OH 84i). This “elemental” placement of hymns also recurs toward the end of the collection (OH 79–84), albeit in a different order (see OH 79i), and similar groupings are found in the opening address to Mousaios (see OH O.3–5+n, and OH O.32–33). The order of hymns 15–18 and 19–27 is the same as in the Stoic creation of the elements out of the primeval fire, attributed to Khrysippos, following Zeno (Long and Sedley 1987, fragment 47A; cf. 46C).

  There is a very short Homeric hymn addressed to Zeus where he is paired with Themis. Kallimakhos and the Stoic philosopher Kleanthes each wrote a hymn to Zeus, and Aratos opens his Phainomena with an invocation to Zeus as the one who set the stars in the sky as signs for mankind (1–18).

  3–5: In the first instance, these lines are typical in the way the power of a god is presented by describing his efficacy throughout the range of creation. Kleanthes uses the same technique in his hymn to Zeus (15–16), and we also find it elsewhere in our collection (see OH 10.14–16n and in particular OH 19.9–19). Nevertheless, there is special point to its appearance here, for it is probably meant literally. In the Orphic cosmogony found in the Rhapsodies, Zeus is said to have swallowed Protogonos and with him the entire cosmos and then to have reconstituted them again in a second act of creation; it seems that some version of this account was already present by the Classical period, for the exegete in the Derveni papyrus (fourth century BC) alludes to a similar, if not the same, story (see Orphic fragment 12, 14, 31, 237–243, West 1982, pp. 84–93, 218–220, 237–241, and Betegh 2004, pp. 111–122, 125–126, 169–181). Of particular note is the existence of a hymn to Zeus, found in the Pseudo-Aristotle De mundo (401a25 = Orphic fragment 31) and the Rhapsodies (Orphic fragment 243), which probably ultimately derive from whatever poem the Derveni author is analyzing (see Orphic fragment 14). The one in the Rhapsodies, far more extensive than the other two, actually matches physical features with Zeus’ body parts; compare the allegorical interpretation of “cosmic Pan” (see OH 11i) and in Norse mythology the creation of the world out of the carcass of Ymir by Óðin, Vili, and Vé. The act of swallowing is also reminiscent of Kronos’ attempts to thwart any potential threat from his children by swallowing them, and it should be recalled that Zeus swallows Metis when he learns that she is fated to bear a son mightier than he is (Hesiod Theogony 886–900). The motif is taken up in the Orphic story but turned on its head. Zeus is not worried about losing his supremacy; rather he is seeking to establish it (see also note to line 7).

  6 scepter: Traditionally the symbol of a sovereign’s power. The symbolism is also employed in the Orphic succession stories (see OH 10.26n).

  7 beginning and end of all: We find similar sentiments in all three Orphic hymns to Zeus (see note to lines 3–5); compare also Aratos Phainomena 14. By swallowing Protogonos and recreating the world, Zeus in effect becomes the oldest being. Betegh argues that the strange second creation is meant, among other things, to resolve a contradiction that was felt between Zeus’ supreme power and the fact that he is not among the oldest, but rather youngest generation of gods; by having Zeus recreate the world, one and the same entity acquires both priority in age and power (Betegh 2004, pp. 172–174). Our collection might also be attempting to come to grips with the problem in another way. This hymn to Zeus appears in its proper chronological sequence, but Zeus is the first god mentioned in Orpheus’ address to Mousaios (OH O.3, right before Earth). For the personified Beginning and End, see OH O.41+n. The same phrase here is
used of Sky in his hymn (see OH 4.2+n).

  8–9: The reference to thunder and lightning, as well as the thunderbolt mentioned in line 6, anticipate OH 19 and OH 20. The role of Zeus as weather god and Zeus as fertility god is suggested in these lines (“increaser,” “sower”). While purity is of great concern in many contexts, it is interesting to note that Zeus was sometimes worshipped under the title Katharsios (Purifier); see OH 20i and also OH 30.4n.

  10–11 health, / … peace and riches: While such requests are made throughout the collection, it is nevertheless perhaps significant that Eirene (Peace) is one of the Seasons, daughters of Zeus and Themis (see OH 43i). Hygeia, health personified, is the addressee of OH 68; she is sometimes invoked with Zeus over libations poured at symposia (see OH 68i and OH 73i). The collocation of health, peace, and wealth appear frequently in requests: see OH 14.12–13 (Rhea), OH 17.10 (Poseidon), OH 19.21 (Zeus the Thunderbolt), OH 23.8 (Nereus), OH 32.15–16 (Athene). Note that fertility replaces wealth in OH 10.31 (Physis) and OH 36.14–15 (Artemis). In OH 40 (Eleusinian Demeter), this type of request reaches a crescendo, combining health, peace, wealth, and law, perhaps because of the hymn’s prominence in the collection (see OH 40i+18–20n).

  16. To Hera

  Hera is a daughter of Kronos and Rhea, and the sister-wife of Zeus; see, e.g., the Homeric Hymn to Hera. She has fertility connections, as can be seen in Homer, who in the Iliad portrays her and Zeus making love on top of a mountain, reminiscent of the marriage between Father Sky and Mother Earth (see OH 15i). She is identified with a number of earth-mother goddesses, along with Hestia, in an Orphic verse cited in the Derveni papyrus (see OH 14i). As with Earth herself, Hera is able to produce children parthenogenetically, such as Typhon (Homeric Hymn to Apollon 3.326–352), whose parents, according to Hesiod, are Earth and Tartaros (see OH 18.2n). Typhon becomes the arch-enemy of Zeus, and this incident reflects one of the more pervasive themes in mythology, namely, the constant bickering of Hera and Zeus. Occasionally Hera stands up to Zeus directly; Homer, for example, briefly mentions her role with Athene and Poseidon in their attempted coup of Zeus (Iliad 1.396–406). More often, however, Hera unleashes her fury on Zeus’ lovers and illegitimate children. She is particularly adamant in pursuing Herakles. Dionysos and those around him do not escape her wrath, either. By her machinations Semele is destroyed (see OH 44i), Ino suffers (see OH 74i), and Dionysos himself, as Herakles and Io, is driven mad (see Euripides Kyklops 3, Plato Laws 672b, and Apollodoros 3.5.1). In the Orphic myth of Dionysos’ death, it is sometimes Hera who spurs the Titans to kill the child (see OH 37i and Orphic fragment 304). While in the myth known as the “Return of Hephaistos” (see OH 66i) Dionysos does appear to help Hera, nonetheless it is also possible that the reconciliation Dionysos indirectly effected by leading Hephaistos back to Olympos also led to a grudging reconciliation between him and his step-mother. Thus two outsiders would be integrated into the divine order together.

  Despite Hera’s antipathy to Dionysos in myth, we do in fact sometimes find them together in cult. Alkaios refers to a sanctuary dedicated to Zeus, Hera, and Dionysos on Lesbos (fragment 129). At Olympia, where her temple predated the one to Zeus, there was a chorus in honor of Physkoa, a local lover of Dionysos, performed at games held in Hera’s honor (Pausanias 5.16.1–8). In general, Hera’s role in cult is largely one of maintaining social order. She is usually worshipped as a civic goddess, one who protects and maintains the well-being of the community, particularly in her capacity as the goddess of marriage, one of the most important institutions in the ancient world. For more information on her role in Greek religion, see Burkert 1985, pp. 131–135, and Larson 2007, pp. 29–40. In this hymn, however, her traditional cultic roles are omitted as is her mythological persona. Indeed, she is scarcely conceived as an anthropomorphic goddess but instead closely identified with the air and life-bringing rains. Her fertility associations are thus maintained without the usual concomitant chthonic character. While Zeus is sometimes equated with air (see Betegh 2004, pp. 193–197), it is Hera who more often is considered a manifestation of this element. Plato etymologically relates her name and the word for air (Cratylus 404c), and the Stoics also make the identification (see Long and Sedley 1987, fragment 54A, and OH 21i). It is possible that such a connection was also attributed to Orpheus; see Orphic fragment 202(iv). As already mentioned, Hera is sometimes claimed to be the mother of Typhon. This creature is associated with destructive winds (Hesiod Theogony 869–880; see also OH 23.5–7n), and perhaps the version that makes Hera his mother was influenced by a play on Hera/air as in Plato. This hymn thus fits in the sequence of gods that are correlated with the four elements, and the hymn to the Clouds (OH 21) would be its analogue in the subsequent group that replicates this pattern (see OH 15i). It also forms a male/female pair with the previous hymn, a common structural feature of the collection (see OH 14.8–9n).

  3 soft breezes you send … nourish the soul: The word for “soul” in Greek, “psukhē,” also has the connotations of “life” in general, and this is probably its sense here as it is at OH 38.22 of the Kouretes, who appear to be manifestations of the “soft breezes” (see also OH 38.3+n). Furthermore, it is etymologically connected with the verb “psukhō,” “I blow,” and our composer, who elsewhere displays an ear for such wordplay, likely intends one here as well.

  4 mother of rains, mother of the winds: For the connection of rain and wind, see OH 21i.

  4 you give birth to all: The epithet used here is also given to Hera by Alkaios (fragment 129).

  17. To Poseidon

  Poseidon is a son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea, and a brother of Zeus and Hades. He is the god of the sea, and sometimes the sea itself, as in the Lesser Krater, attributed to Orpheus (Orphic fragment 413.7). As our hymn explains, the sea fell to him by lot when the world was divided (line 7 and see note), and all bodies of water fall under his control. Nevertheless, he does infringe a bit on Zeus’ power over the storms, and we often find him stirring them up in mythology (e.g., Odyssey 5.282–296). Also like Zeus, Poseidon is a father of heroes, Theseus being the most famous example. In some variants Poseidon is even the father of Persephone, mating with Demeter in the form of a horse (see OH 69i), which also produces the wonder horse Areion. This points to another important sphere of Poseidon, that of horses (see, e.g., Iliad 23.306–308, Sophokles Oedipus at Kolonos 712–715, and Aristophanes Knights 551–558). A famous equine offspring of his is Pegasos, born to Medousa after she is beheaded by Perseus (Hesiod Theogony 278–281). Another important function of Poseidon is his role in causing earthquakes; his common epithet “shaker of the earth” appears in line 4. He was also imagined to hold or embrace the earth, as another common epithet of his, “holder of the earth,” attests (see line 1). Both epithets are juxtaposed as a playful oxymoron by Hesiod (Theogony 15), and we find each one used in cult. Poseidon was an important deity in bronze-age Pylos (Nestor’s father, Neleus, is his son), and of course he was especially worshipped by those communities whose livelihood depended on the sea, such as Korinth. One tradition reported by Pausanias claimed that Poseidon was the god of Delphi along with Earth until he switched places with Apollon, taking this god’s old site at Kalaurea (2.33.2, 10.5.6). This is an island off Troizen, where Poseidon was an important divinity, and it was also the birthplace of Theseus. Poseidon contended with Athene for this island, but Zeus awarded it to both of them (Pausanias 2.30.6). They also fought over Athens, but here Athene was victorious; the myth is depicted on the west pediment of the Parthenon. A strange ritual to Poseidon as god of horses is portrayed in the Homeric Hymn to Apollon 3.230–238. For more details on his cults, see Burkert 1985, pp. 136–139, and Larson 2007, pp. 57–68. Orphism seems to have adopted the traditional view of this god. Indeed, this hymn is wholly composed of conventional items. It represents the element of water, and it is the third of a series of hymns that links some of the Olympian divinities sprung from Kronos and Rhea with the four elements (see OH 15i). OH 22–25, dedicated to
maritime divinities, are analogously placed.

  1: This line is almost identical to the one in the Homeric Hymn to Poseidon, except that instead of “hearken” the Homeric hymn reads “hail” (22.6). The opening address to Mousaios also refers to Poseidon as the “dark-maned holder of the earth” (OH O.5).

  3: For one view of how the Greeks imagined his abode, see the languorous dreamscape of Poseidon’s palace depicted by Bacchylides (17.97–129); see also OH 24.2–3+n.

  5–6: Poseidon’s driving his chariot on the sea is a literary trope as old as Homer (Iliad 13.23–31).

  7: After Zeus becomes king, he divides the world among himself and his two other brothers. They draw lots: Hades wins the underworld, Poseidon the seas, and Zeus the sky (see Iliad 15.185–195, Hesiod Theogony 881–885, and Apollodoros 1.2.1). This was adopted into Orphic mythology as well (Orphic fragment 236). A very similar line appears in line 6 of the following hymn; cf. also OH 15i.

  9–10: As the “shaker of the earth” (line 4), Poseidon naturally has the power both to cause and prevent earthquakes. Likewise, as the god of the sea he is able to wreck ships or save them (see Hesiod Works and Days 665–668, where he shares this power with Zeus). The Kouretes also hold the power to hinder or help sailors (OH 38.5, 14–17, 23–25), the latter function easing their identification with the Dioskouroi, who are traditionally worshipped as saviors of sailors (see OH 38.21+i). Other gods, too, are invoked in this capacity as well: Tethys (OH 22.9–10), Leukothea (OH 74.4–9) and Leukothea’s son Palaimon (OH 75.5–8).

  18. To Plouton

  Plouton is another name for Hades. His name is connected with “ploutos” (“wealth”), although Ploutos also is the name of a separate divinity (see OH 40.16n), one of the many personified divine abstractions found in Greek religious thought. Originally Plouton was a separate god, but he merged with Hades sometime before the fourth century BC and their names became more or less interchangeable. This early merging is probably at the root of the god’s dual function as both lord of the dead (Hades) and as provider of the fruits of the earth, including mineral wealth (Plouton). While at first blush it might seem odd for a god to be so intimately connected with both life and death, it should be kept in mind that many divinities hold power over binary opposites. Persephone, too, is a goddess of life and death; see OH 29+i, especially lines 15–16, and OH 30i. Crops and other vegetation come out from below the earth and thus could be interpreted as being caused by Hades and Persephone. There are very few myths associated with Hades-Plouton. The most prominent one is his abduction of Persephone, which is mentioned in lines 12–15 (see OH 41i). This story is part of the foundation myth of the Eleusinian Mysteries (see OH 40i). When Hades receives cult attention, it is almost always in his capacity as a fertility god, and he is usually worshipped alongside his wife Persephone, also called Kore (a word that means “maiden” in Greek). Hades is the son of Kronos and Rhea, and thus brother to Zeus and Poseidon. The placement of this hymn completes the genealogical pattern of Zeus-Poseidon-Hades. Further, with the strong association of Plouton with earth, it also ends the series of the four elements that was initiated with the hymn to Zeus; see OH 15i. The analogous hymns are OH 26–27, and note that OH 29 is a hymn addressed to Persephone.