Orphic Hymns

The Orphic Hymns are a collection of eighty-seven ancient Greek hymns addressed to various deities, which were attributed to the mythical poet Orpheus in antiquity. They were composed in Asia Minor, most likely around the time of the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, and were used in the rites of a religious community which existed in the region. The Hymns are one of the few extant works of Orphic literature (a tradition of texts which were attributed to Orpheus in antiquity), and are largely viewed by modern scholarship as being congruent with the preceding Orphic literary tradition.

The collection of eighty-seven hymns is preceded by a proem, in which Orpheus addresses his student Musaeus, calling upon various deities to attend the recitation of the hymns. The individual hymns in the collection, which are all very brief, typically call for the attention of the deity they address, before describing them, and highlighting aspects of their divinity. These descriptions primarily consist of strings of epithets, which make up a significant portion of the hymns' content, and are designed to summon the powers of the god. Most of the deities addressed in the Hymns are derived from mainstream Greek mythology, with the notable exception of Protogonos, a decidedly Orphic deity. The god featured most prominently in the collection is Dionysus, who is the recipient of around eight hymns, and is mentioned throughout the collection, under various names. Several deities addressed in the Hymns—Mise, Hipta, and Melinoe—previously known only though the collection, were in the early 20th century discovered in inscriptions from Asia Minor.

The Orphic Hymns seem to have belonged to a cult community in Asia Minor, which used the collection in ritual. The Hymns themselves appear to reference various members of this cult, and employ the word boukólos (βουκόλος), which is often used to refer to worshippers of Dionysus. The rite in which the Orphic Hymns featured was the teletḗ (τελετή, a term which usually refers to a rite of initiation into mysteries), and this ceremony appears to have taken place at nighttime. In addition, most hymns specify an offering to be made to the deity, which was probably burned during the performance of the hymn. Scholars have noted the apparent lack of Orphic doctrines in the collection, including the paucity of interest in the afterlife, and the absence of explicit mentions of known Orphic myths; certain themes and references, however, have been interpreted as pointing to the presence of Orphic thought in the Hymns.

No references to the Orphic Hymns survive in other ancient sources from antiquity, with their earliest mention coming from the Byzantine writer Ioannes Galenos. From perhaps as early as late antiquity, the Orphic Hymns were preserved in a codex which also included the Orphic Argonautica and other Greek hymns such as the Homeric Hymns. The first codex containing the Orphic Hymns to reach Western Europe seems to have arrived in Italy in the early 15th century, and may be the codex from which all surviving manuscripts descend. Following the arrival of the Orphic Hymns in Renaissance Italy, the collection seems to have been relatively popular amongst the educated, and in 1500 the first edition of the Hymns was published. Other notable editions from the following centuries include those by Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann, Jenő Ábel, and Wilhelm Quandt.

Composition and attribution

Roman mosaic of Orpheus, the mythical poet to whom the Orphic Hymns were attributed, from Palermo, 2nd century AD

Around the beginning of the 20th century, several scholars believed that the Hymns were produced in Egypt, primarily on the basis of stylistic similarities to Egyptian magical hymns, and the mention of deities which are found elsewhere in Egyptian literature. Modern scholarship, however, now essentially unanimously agrees upon Asia Minor as the place of composition; in particular, the names of deities such as Mise, Hipta, and Melinoe, otherwise known only through the Hymns, have been found in inscriptions in the region. In 1910, a number of such inscriptions were discovered in a temenos of Demeter (a sacred area dedicated to the goddess), located in Pergamon, a city near the Western coast of Asia Minor; this discovery led Otto Kern to postulate that Pergamon was the location in which the collection was composed. While Christian Lobeck believed that the collection had been written by a scholar as an exercise, others such as Albrecht Dieterich argued that the Hymns were liturgical in function, designed for ritual performance by a cult community, a perspective almost universally accepted by modern scholars. Kern argued that this group existed at the temenos in Pergamon itself, a view with which some have subsequently agreed. Scholars have at times stated that the collection was the product of a single author, though it has also been questioned whether or not the proem was composed separately.

Estimates for the date of the Orphic Hymns' composition vary widely. While there are several Greek authors who mention hymns attributed to Orpheus, the earliest certain reference to the collection of eighty-seven hymns comes from the Byzantine writer Ioannes Galenos. It is possible that they were composed at an early date without being mentioned, though it is more likely that they were produced somewhere from the 1st to 4th centuries AD. On the basis of the language and meter of the Hymns, the early 20th-century scholar Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff judged that they could not have been composed before the 2nd century AD, but were earlier than the 5th-century AD poet Nonnus, and around the same time Leonard van Liempt wrote that he saw their language as the same used in 3rd- and 4th-century AD poetry. More recently, most scholars have dated the collection to around the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, with Gabriella Ricciardelli pointing to the prominence of Dionysism at that time in Asia Minor.

The collection is attributed to the mythical poet Orpheus in the manuscripts in which it survives, and is written in the voice of Orpheus, opening with a proem, entitled "Orpheus to Musaeus", which is an address from the poet to the legendary author Musaeus of Athens. In the rest of the collection, there are several passages which indicate the work was written as though Orpheus was the composer: Orphic Hymn 76 to the Muses mentions "mother Calliope", and Orphic Hymn 24 to the Nereids refers to "mother Calliope and lord Apollo", alluding to the parentage of Orpheus (whose father was sometimes said to be Apollo).

The Orphic Hymns are one of only a few extant works of Orphic literature, a tradition of texts attributed to Orpheus in antiquity, which dealt with certain themes and myths distinct from those in mainstream Greek literature. The collection can also be seen as part of the genre of hymnic literature attributed to Orpheus, of which there are examples dating back at least as far as the 5th century BC. Though some scholars have brought into question how "Orphic" the collection can be considered, partly due to the apparent lack of Orphic narratives and eschatological ideas, there are several places in which the language bears similarity to other works of Orphic literature. W. K. C. Guthrie, who placed the Hymns at the temenos in Pergamon, went so far as to state that the group to whom they belonged was an "Orphic society"; Ivan Linforth, however, whose approach to Orphism has been noted for its scepticism, contests that it is equally likely that the name of Orpheus was simply stamped upon the work for its "prestige". More recently, scholars such as Jean Rudhardt and Anne-France Morand have seen the Hymns as markedly Orphic in nature, and in line with the preceding tradition of Orphic literature.

Structure and style

In addition to the proem, the Orphic Hymns consist of eighty-seven very brief poems, which range from six to thirty lines in length. In the surviving manuscripts, the hymn addressed to Hecate is appended to the proem, though modern editions present it separately, as the first hymn of the collection. In the order of the hymns there occurs a progression from life to death: the second hymn is addressed to Prothyraia, a goddess associated with birth, while the last is dedicated to Thanatos (Death), and ends in the word gêras (γῆρας, 'old age'). The collection is also arranged in such a way that the earliest primordial deities appear in the first hymns, while later gods are found further on. As such, the earliest hymns are addressed to deities who feature in Orphic cosmogony, such as Nyx (Hymn 3), Uranus (Hymn 4), Aether (Hymn 5), and Protogonos (Hymn 6). There often exists a link between adjacent hymns—such as the shared "allness" of Pan (Hymn 11) and Heracles (Hymn 12)—and a "logic of cosmogonies" is present in, for example, the placement of the hymns to Cronus (Hymn 13) and Rhea (Hymn 14) ahead of those to their children (Hymns 15–18). Fritz Graf also sees religious significance in the ordering of the hymns.

Friend, use it to good fortune.
Learn now Mousaios,
   a mystical and most holy rite,
a prayer which surely
   excels all others.

— Proem, "Orpheus to Musaeus", lines 1–2, translated by Apostolos Athanassakis and Benjamin Wolkow

The collection begins with a poem entitled "Orpheus to Musaeus", often referred to as the proem, proemium, or prologue, in which Orpheus speaks to Musaeus (who is often described as his student or son in Greek literature). The proem has 54 lines, including the final ten which make up the hymn to Hecate (which is attached without separation or a title). It opens with a two-line dedication in which Orpheus asks Musaeus to learn the rite (thuēpolíē, θυηπολίη) and prayer (eukhḗ, εὐχή), the latter of these referring to the address which follows from lines three to forty-four, in which around seventy different deities are called upon to attend the rite in question (which would go alongside the performance of the text). The purpose of this prayer is seemingly to name and devote a hymn to "all" the gods, though it addresses numerous deities not mentioned in the collection itself, and omits others who are subjects of hymns. Partly on the basis of this difference in the deities mentioned, as well as the presence of the word thuēpolíē (which does not appear in the rest of the collection) at the beginning and end of the proem, M. L. West argues that the proem was originally a separate Orphic poem. Morand, however, argues for the common authorship of the proem and the rest of the collection, pointing to the similarities in the usage of epithets, and in the way deities are characterised between the two.

Each individual hymn in the collection has three internal parts: the invocation, the development, and the request. In some hymns, however, especially those shorter in length, these three parts can be difficult to distinguish, and may not occur in order. The invocation is brief, typically appears at the start of the hymn, and is designed to gain the attention of the hymn's addressee. It names the deity (sometimes using a cult title, called an epiclesis), and usually calls upon them with a verb, which may be in the imperative, though sometimes no such verb is present, in which case the god is simply named. The development (also referred to as the amplification) makes up the main, central portion of the hymn, and is the longest section; it follows immediately from the invocation, with the point at which it begins often being difficult to distinguish. It consists mostly of descriptions of the deity, particularly in the form of numerous epithets, and may discuss different features or aspects of the god, as well as include information such as their familial relations, or locations in which they are worshipped; the purpose of this section is to gratify the deity so that they choose to make themselves present. The request (also referred to as the prayer) generally finishes the hymn, and is usually only around one or two lines in length. It opens with several verbs which typically ask for the god to listen to what the speaker has to say, and for them to be present. The content of the request varies across the collection: some hymns ask the deity to come favourably, some ask for their presence at the mystery, or to accept a sacrifice, while others ask for certain outcomes, such as health, prosperity, or wealth, with this outcome in some instances being specific to the god, such as asking the Clouds to bring rain, or Hygieia to ward off illnesses.

The hymns in the collection are similar to each other in their style and language (with several exceptions, which Ricciardelli suggests may not have been part of the original collection). They are written in dactylic hexameter, the metre of Homeric poetry, and display a consistency in metrical composition. According to Rudhardt, in terms of vocabulary and grammar, the Hymns find a "distant model" (modèle lointain) in the works of Hesiod and Homer, but also contain a number of words and forms from later literature, spanning from the 5th-century BC to the first centuries AD. In particular, the language of the collection bears similarity to that of late works such as Nonnus's Dionysiaca, the Greek Magical Papyri, and several poems from the Greek Anthology. The most distinctive feature of the Hymns is their use of concatenations of epithets, which comprise a large part of their content. They also make extensive use of phonic repetition, as well as forms of wordplay, such as etymologies on the names of gods. Other notable stylistic elements include the frequent use of compound adjectives as epithets, the tendency to juxtapose contrasting descriptions of deities, and the use of asyndeton.

Religious significance

It is largely accepted in modern scholarship that the Orphic Hymns were liturgical in function, and were used in religious rites by a cult which existed in Asia Minor. According to Morand, this group performed initiations into some form of mysteries. The term boukólos (βουκόλος, "cowherd") is found in the Hymns, a religious title which is often used elsewhere to refer to worshippers of Dionysus, and is connected to Orpheus in some contexts. The use of the word boukólos and the prominence of Dionysus in the collection indicate that he was the central god of the cult which used the Hymns. Within the collection itself, Morand sees a number of different members of the group's religious hierarchy as being mentioned: the mústai (μύσται), the regular members of the cult (and the group mentioned most frequently); the neomústai (νεομύσται), the "new initiates"; the mustipóloi (μυστιπόλοι), who were likely members involved in initiations and ritual activity; and the orgiophántai (ὀργιοφάνται), who seem to have been members involved in initiation rites (similarly to the mustipóloi), and who may also have been responsible for displaying holy objects.

Most of the hymns in the collection contain a specification of an offering to be made to the deity, which is given as part of the title of the hymn; only eight hymns lack such an offering in the title. During the reciting of a hymn, its specified offering would likely have been burned. For most of the hymns, the offering specified is an aromatic, incense (or incense powder or granules), storax, or myrrh. In some cases a combination of offerings is asked for. Several hymns specify a unique offering to be given to the deity, such as torches to Nyx, saffron to Aether, poppies to Hypnos, and grain (excluding beans or herbs) to Earth; Orphic Hymn 53 to Amphietes asks for a libation of milk in addition to an offering. While in a few cases there is a recognisable link between a deity and their offering, as with poppies for Hypnos, or grain for Earth, for most of the hymns there is no clear reasoning behind the choice of offering. The absence of animals from the offerings may be related to the supposed prohibition of animal sacrifice in Orphic belief.

The ceremony in which the Hymns played a role was the teletḗ (τελετή), a term which usually refers to a rite of initiation into mysteries. Within the Hymns, there are numerous references to the teletḗ, including several mentions of the pántheios teletḗ (πάνθειος τελετή), an initiation rite to all of the gods. This rite appears to have occurred at nighttime, and may have included the playing of a tambourine at points. The Hymns also contain several instances of the term órgion (ὄργιον), which may refer to sacred objects which featured in the rite. According to Fritz Graf, the placement of the hymn to Hecate (Hymn 1) at the beginning of the collection may reflect the placement of a hekataion at the entry to the building in which the rite took place, which participants would have walked past before its commencement. Graf also argues that the presence of the hymn to Nyx (Hymn 3) early on is an indication that the Hymns accompanied a nocturnal ritual, which began at dusk and lasted through the night.

Certain religious ideas which scholars believe appeared in now-lost Orphic poems are referred to as Orphic "doctrines"; scholars of the Orphic Hymns have noted the apparent dearth of such Orphic doctrines in the collection of hymns. As a whole, the collection shows little concern for the afterlife, and at no point references the idea of metempsychosis, which is often associated with Orphism; according to Paul Veyne, the Hymns are essentially uninterested in what happens after death, being concerned only with "this world". Morand, however, points to, within the collection, the references to souls, and the roles played by memory and purity, as well as parallels between the Hymns and similar evidence such as the gold lamellae, ultimately concluding that this information is "reconcilable with Orphism" ("conciliable avec l'orphisme"). Throughout the collection, however, there is no explicit mention of any major Orphic myth, including the story of the dismemberment of Dionysus by the Titans, which has often been considered the central myth of Orphism; one element of the myth, however, the so-called "Orphic anthropogony", may be alluded to in the hymn to the Titans, which calls its addressees the "ancestors of our fathers". The Hymns also make no concrete prescriptions as to a certain way of life, though the absence of meat in the offerings could imply a prohibition of animal sacrifice, and the explicit disallowing of beans in the offering to Gaia may similarly indicate a forbiddenness around eating beans, both of which could suggest an Orphic way of life. In addition, the idea of purity holds significance in the Hymns, with the hymn to Eros asking the god to come to the initiates and "banish from them vile impulses", which potentially indicates adherence to some form of "sexual ethics".

Deities in the Hymns

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Orphic Hymns is the strings of epithets which comprise a significant portion of their content. In contrast to the Homeric Hymns, where the middle part of individual hymns often presents a narrative involving the god, in the Orphic Hymns the development section consists mostly of these concatenations of epithets, which themselves frequently allude to myths. The purpose of these chains of epithets is to acquire the attention of the god and to summon their powers. To this end, and to gain the goodwill of their addressee, a variety of appellations are used, each of which serves to highlight an aspect of the deity, such as elements of their power, locations of worship, or their part in myths. In addition, epithets will frequently be applied to more than one deity, contributing to the tendency of the collection to bring together separate gods. While a number of the epithets in the collection are hapax legomena, quite a few are derived from earlier literature, especially the works of Homer and Hesiod, while others, though without prior attestation, are references to the deity's role in an existing myth; others still are allusions to known cult titles of the god, which were utilised in certain geographical locations. According to Rudhardt, while the paratactic clusters of epithets in the Hymns may seem to indicate "rudimentary thought", within them is contained a sort of syntax, where adjacent terms bear relation to each other in subtle ways.

A number of the gods featured in the Hymns are identified with one another. Through attributing similar characteristics to two different deities, the collection can bring these gods closer to each other, almost to the point of them merging; these pairs of gods are not completely assimilated, however, as each deity, while adopting features of the other god, still retains their own individual characteristics. Though Jane Ellen Harrison, writing at the beginning of the 20th century, saw this identifying tendency as conferring upon the collection an "atmosphere of mystical monotheism", this idea of a monotheistic bent to the Hymns has been rejected by more recent scholars. Two deities who are prominently identified with one another in the collection are Dionysus and the Orphic god Protogonos: both are described at times as possessing taurine features, or as being "dual" or "double" in nature, and Dionysus, in his own hymn, is at one point directly addressed as "Protogonos". Other examples of deities who are identified with each other in the Hymns include Artemis and Hecate, Rhea and the Mother of the Gods, and Demeter and the Mother Antaia. Scholars have also noted the similarity between how deities are identified in the Hymns and other works of Orphic literature, with the collection seeming to follow an existing Orphic tradition in linking certain pairs of gods.

Mosaic of Dionysus, the deity featured most prominently in the Orphic Hymns, from the House of Poseidon in Zeugma, 3rd century AD

Most of the gods mentioned in the Orphic Hymns are known within mainstream Greek mythology. The only definitively Orphic deity in the collection is Protogonos, the "first-born god" who emerges from an egg, also referred to as Ericepaios, Phanes, Priapus and Antauges; he is addressed in Orphic Hymn 6, a hymn which scholars see as congruent with earlier Orphic literature. Of all the deities featured in the Hymns, however, the one given the place of greatest prominence is Dionysus, the recipient of around eight separate hymns, more than any other deity. These hymns address him in various manifestations, and comprise the central portion of the collection (Hymns 30–38). He appears throughout the collection, being explicitly mentioned in twenty-two of the eight-seven hymns, under a myriad of epithets. Across various hymns, he is described as the son of Zeus and either Semele or Persephone, as having been stitched into the thigh of Sabazius before his birth, and as having been nursed by nymphs or other figures as an infant; in addition, he is also associated in various ways with a number of other deities. Also prominent in the Hymns is Zeus, who receives four hymns, and is depicted in a manner largely in line with his characterisation in the standard Greek tradition; other major Greek gods of importance in the collection include Demeter and Persephone. Heracles, who is portrayed quite differently from traditional depictions, is made both a Titan and a solar deity. The Hymns also contain several references to non-Greek deities attested in other literature, such as the Egyptian goddess Isis and the Anatolian god Men.

Several gods addressed in the Orphic Hymns have little or no literary attestation outside of the collection; three of these deities previously unknown outside of the Hymns—Mise, Hipta, and Melinoe—have since been discovered in inscriptions in Asia Minor, leading scholars to consider the region to be the collection's place of origin. In the Hymns, Mise is depicted as an androgynous deity, identified with Dionysus, and described as the daughter of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and mention of her in inscriptions around Pergamon indicate that she featured in cult in the region. Hipta is portrayed by the collection as the nurse of the infant Dionysus, and described as "glorifying" the mysteries of Sabazios; inscriptions near Lydian Philadelphia, dating between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, similarly associate her with Sabazios, and evince that she was the subject of cult in the area (and perhaps indicate that she had her own sanctuary there). Melinoe is a goddess in the Hymns associated with Hecate and seemingly considered the daughter of Zeus and Persephone, who is also mentioned on a bronze tablet from Pergamon. According to Morand, this epigraphic evidence, which is roughly contemporaneous with the Orphic Hymns, indicates deities such as Mise and Hipta were not invented by the author of the Hymns.

Transmission and scholarship

A page from the Leidensis BPG 74C manuscript, which dates to the 15th century, and is part of the φ family. This page contains the first 18 lines of the proem.

There exist no references to the Orphic Hymns from antiquity; though hymns attributed to Orpheus are mentioned in works such as the Derveni papyrus (4th century BC) and Pausanias's Description of Greece (2nd century AD), these almost certainly do not refer to the collection of eighty-seven hymns. The earliest definite reference to the Hymns comes from the Byzantine writer Ioannes Galenos, who mentions the collection thrice in his scholium on Hesiod's Theogony. He refers to epithets from the hymns to Helios and Selene, and quotes lines from those to Helios and Hecate; according to Rance Hunsucker, it is relatively likely that Galenos was in possession of a full copy of the collection.

As early as perhaps late antiquity, the Orphic Hymns were collected into a single codex, which also contained the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic Argonautica, and the Hymns of Callimachus and Proclus. The earliest known codex containing the Orphic Hymns to arrive in Western Europe was brought to Venice from Constantinople by Giovanni Aurispa in 1423, and shortly afterwards, in 1427, Francesco Filelfo brought to Italy another codex containing the collection; both of these manuscripts are among those which are now lost. The surviving codices, of which there are thirty-seven, all date roughly between 1450 and 1550, and often include the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic Argonautica, Hesiodic works, or the Hymns of Callimachus or Proclus. All of the extant codices descend from the archetype, denoted in scholarship by the siglum Ψ, which likely dated to the 12th or 13th century, and may have been the manuscript transported by Aurispa to Venice. From this manuscript are derived four apographs—φ, θ, A, and B (in chronological order of transcription)—which resulted from the gradual introduction of errors in copies of the archetype. Various further manuscripts are descended from the hyparchetypes φ and θ, with both manuscripts being recoverable only from these descendants, while A and B, which omit the Homeric Hymns (and in the latter case the Hymns of Callimachus also), are preserved in surviving editions. Another manuscript, h, of less clear origin, was likely also an apograph of Ψ, though it may not have been an immediate descendant.

In the mid 15th century, following the arrival of the codex brought by Aurispa to Venice, the Orphic Hymns seem to have attained a level of popularity amongst the educated of Renaissance Italy. This attention around the work, however, may have been due to the Greek scholar and Neoplatonist Gemistos Plethon, who visited Florence around this time, and seems to have known of the collection; Rudolf Keydell has even postulated that the manuscript h may have had its origins with Plethon. In the latter part of the 15th century, the Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino translated the Orphic Hymns into Latin during his youth, seemingly the first translation of the collection, though it remained unpublished. The editio princeps of the Hymns was produced in Florence in 1500 by Filippo Giunta; this codex, denoted in scholarship by the siglum Iunt, is descended from φ. This was followed shortly afterwards by the publication of an edition by the Aldine Press in 1517, and the first printing of a translation (in Latin) of the collection in 1519, written by Marcus Musurus; by the end of the 16th century, a total of six editions had been published. Editions of the Hymns published over the following two centuries are surpassed by the version of the text in the voluminous 1805 collection of Orphic literature by Gottfried Hermann. Around this time also came the first complete English translation of the collection, produced in 1787 by the Neoplatonist Thomas Taylor, and the first complete German translation, by David Karl Philipp Dietsch, published in 1822. Hermann's edition was followed by Jenő Ábel's 1885 collection of Orphic literature, which has been heavily criticised, including his rendering of the Hymns. In the 20th century, the critical edition by Willhelm Quandt, first published in 1941, and revised in 1955 with additions, sought to provide an accurate reconstruction of Ψ, with the exception of a number of what Quandt perceived to be spelling errors in the archetype, which he corrects. Recent renderings of the Hymns include the 1977 English translation by Apostolos Athanassakis, the first since Taylor's, the 2000 edition, with Italian translation and commentary, by Gabriela Ricciardelli, and the 2014 Budé edition by Marie-Christine Fayant, with French translation and commentary.

List of the Orphic Hymns

No.	Title (usually including offering)	Addressee	Identity of Addressee	Lines	Content	Ref.
1	None	Hecate	A sepulchral goddess in Greek religion	10	Connects her with Artemis, associates her with the Moon
2	"Offering of Prothyraia, storax"	Prothyraia	An epithet of Hecate, Eileithyia, and Artemis	14	Assimilates her with Artemis, celebrates her role in promoting childbirth
3	"Offering of Nyx, firebrands"	Nyx	Personification of Night in the Theogony	14	Describes her as mother of gods and men, calls her Cypris, an epithet of Aphrodite
4	"Offering of Ouranos, frankincense"	Uranus	Father of the Titans in the Theogony	9	Emphasises his antiquity, identifies him with the cosmos
5	"Offering of Aither, saffron"	Aether	The uppermost level of the atmosphere	6	Describes it as the dwelling of Zeus
6	"Offering of Protogonos, myrrh"	Protogonos	Important god in Orphic literature	11	Portrays him similarly to Orphic tradition, as born from an egg in a burst of light
7	"Offering of the Stars, spices"	Stars	The stars, treated as divinities	13	Describes them as children of Night, and as controlling human destiny
8	"Offering for Helios, gum of frankincense"	Helios	God with a cult from at least Homer's time	20	Describes him as a Titan, refers to him under the name Hyperion
9	"Offering for Selene, spices"	Selene	Daughter of Hyperion in the Theogony	12	Focuses on her astronomical role as the moon, calls her "mother of time"
10	"Offering of Physis, spices"	Physis	Nature, sometimes a personification in philosophical literature	30	Depicts subject as a mytserious power which pervades the world
11	"Offering of Pan, various"	Pan	God who is half-goat, initially from Arcadia	23	Represents him as rustic god, who protects shepherds, and as a cosmic god
12	"Offering of Herakles, frankincense"	Heracles	Greek hero who performs labours	16	Describes him as a solar deity, seemingly identifies him with Apollo
13	"Offering of Kronos, storax"	Cronus	Youngest of the Titans	10	Addresses her as controller of the cosmos, and of natural activity
14	"Offering of Rhea, spices"	Rhea	Titan mother of Zeus	14	Describes her as daughter of Protogonos, identifies her with Cybele
15	"Offering of Zeus, storax"	Zeus	Ruler of the cosmos in the Theogony	11	Describes him similarly to the regular Greek tradition
16	"Offering of Hera, spices"	Hera	Wife of Zeus, daughter of Cronus	10	Identifies her with the air
17	"Offering of Poseidon, myrrh"	Poseidon	God of the sea, brother of Zeus	10	Addresses him as ruler of the sea, and as being able to shake the earth
18	"For Pluto"	Pluto	A name for Hades, originally a separate god	19	Describes him in his role as an underworld god
19	"Offering of Zeus Keraunos, storax"	Zeus Keuranos	"The Lightning of Zeus"	23	Provides a detailed physical description of the thunderbolt
20	"Offering of Zeus Astrapeus, gum of frankincense"	Zeus Astrapeus	"Flashing" (Lampeggiante) Zeus	6	Describes the sight and sound of Zeus's lightning, and its dangerous power
21	"Offering of the Nephe, myrrh"	Nephe	The Clouds	7	Treats them as natural phenomena, producing rain and thunder
22	"Offering of Thalassa, gum of frankincense"	Thalassa	The Sea	10	Identifies her with Tethys
23	"Offering of Nereus: myrrh"	Nereus	Son of Pontus in the Theogony	8	Associates him with earthquakes
24	"Offering of the Nereids, spices"	Nereids	Daughters of Nereus and Doris	12	Describes them as revealing the rite of Bacchus and Persephone
25	"Offering of Proteus, storax"	Proteus	An "Old Man of the Sea" in the Odyssey	25	Describes him as all-knowing, and asks him to give foresight
26	"Offering of Ge, every seed except beans and spices"	Gaia	Earth, a mother goddess	11	Describes her as a providing nourishment, also treats her as a cosmic body
27	"Offering of the Mother of the Gods, various"	Mother of the Gods	Cybele, a Phrygian goddess	14	Identifies her with Rhea, as well as Hestia
28	"Offering of Hermes, frankincense"	Hermes	Son of Zeus and Maia	12	Emphasises his role in the domain of language
29	"Hymn of Persephone"	Persephone	Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, abducted by Hades	20	Depicts her as dual, as both a fertility goddess and queen of the underworld
30	"Offering of Dionysos, storax"	Dionysus	God described as being born three times	9	Describes him as son of Zeus and Persephone, identifies him with Protogonos
31	"Hymn of the Kouretes"	Kouretes	Group of men who noisily dance around the infant Zeus	7	Connects them to mountains, uses epithets which allude to their part in Zeus's infancy
32	"Offering of Athena, spices"	Athena	Major Greek deity, popular in cult	17	In addition to typical descriptions, associates her with mountains and caves
33	"Offering of Nike, manna"	Nike	Victory, daughter of Styx and Pallas	9	Associates her with war
34	"Offering of Apollo, manna"	Apollo	Major Greek god, son of Zeus and Leto	27	Presents a traditional depiction, then addresses him as a cosmic solar god
35	"Offering of Leto, myrrh"	Leto	Mother of Apollo and Artemis	7	Emphasis her role as mother of her children
36	"Offering of Artemis, manna"	Artemis	Sister of Apollo, connected with Asia Minor	16	Depicts her traditionally, as a hunting goddess, and goddess of childbirth
37	"Offering of the Titans, frankincense"	Titans	Twelve offspring of Earth and Sky	9	Describes them as ancestors of all living creatures
38	"Offering of the Kouretes, frankincense"	Kouretes	Group of men who noisily dance around the infant Zeus	25	Portrays them as being winds, describes them as living on Samothrace
39	"Offering of Korybant, frankincense"	Corybant	Singular form of "Corybantes", figures who worship Cybele	39	Describes him as capable of dispelling fears
40	"Offering of Demeter Eleusinia, storax"	Eleusinian Demeter	Major fertility deity, goddess of agriculture	20	Describes her as the first to have harvested crops, calls her "torch-bearing"
41	"Offering of Mother Antaia, spices"	Mother Antaia	A name for Demeter	10	Describes her search for Persephone in the underworld
42	"Offering of Mise, storax"	Mise	A goddess attested in Anatolian inscriptions	11	Identifies her with Dionysus, describes her as the daughter of Isis
43	"Offering of the Horai, spices"	Horae	Personifications of the seasons	11	Connects them with nature, references Persephone's return from the underworld
44	"Offering of Semele, storax"	Semele	Mother of Dionysus by Zeus	11	Alludes to her death upon witnessing Zeus's true form
45	"Hymn of Dionysos Bassareus Trieterikos"	Dionysus Bassareus Trieterikos	A manifestation of Dionysus	46	References a "maenadic ritual", mentions Dionysus's thyrsus
46	"Offering of Liknites, manna"	Liknites	Cult title of Dionysus	8	Associates Dionysus with vegetation, describes Persephone as his nurse
47	"Offering of Perikionios, spices"	Perikionios	A manifestation of Dionysus	6	Describes his protection of Cadmus's palace
48	"Offering of Sabazios, spices"	Sabazius	God from Phrygia, honoured in Greek cult	6	Describes him as stitching Dionysus into his thigh
49	"Offering of Hipta, storax"	Hipta	Goddess mentioned in Lydian inscriptions	7	Describes her as rearing Dionysus, and as glorifying the rite of Sabazios
50	"(Hymn) of Lysios Lenaios"	Lysios Lenaios	Two epithets of Dionysus	10	Associates Dionysus with vegetation, calls him "Epaphian"
51	"Offering of the Nymphs, spices"	Nymphs	Young women who are nature divinities	19	Describes them as "nurses of Bacchus", and daughters of Oceanus
52	"Offering of Trieterikos, spices"	Trieterikos	Dionysus, god of the trieterides	13	Calls Dionysus "of many names", applies numerous epithets to him
53	"Offering of Amphietes, everything except frankincense, and offer milk"	Amphietes	Dionysus	10	Describes Dionysus as "chthonic", associates him with vegetation
54	"Offering of Silenos, Satyros, Bakkhai, manna"	Silenus, Satyrs, Bacchae	Figures in the thiasos of Dionysus	11	Describes Silenus as leading the Naiads and Bacchae in the Lenaian rite
55	"For Aphrodite"	Aphrodite	Goddess of love and sex	29	Calls Necessity her daughter, lists locations of significance to her
56	"Offering of Adonis, spices"	Adonis	Fertility god, Near Eastern in origin	12	Identifies him with Dionysus, says he is born of Persephone
57	"Offering of Hermes Chthonios, storax"	Hermes Chthonius	The chthonic Hermes, associated with the dead	12	Calls him the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite
58	"Offering of Eros, spices"	Eros	One of the earliest gods in the Theogony	10	Describes him as playing gods and mortals, calls him "two-natured"
59	"Offering of the Moirai, spices"	Moirai	The Fates, often three in number	21	Tells of their cosmic abode, and how they look over mortals
60	"Offering of the Charites, storax"	Charites	Female deities, often associated with the Horae	7	Calls them daughters of Lawfulness, a Hora
61	"Hymn of Nemesis"	Nemesis	A goddess who punishes transgressive mortals	12	Describes her as monitoring the speech the thoughts of mortals
62	"Offering of Dike, frankincense"	Dike	A Hora in the Theogony	11	Refers to her "all-seeing eye", mentions her as having a place on Zeus's throne
63	"Offering of Dikaiosyne, frankincense"	Dikaiosyne	A goddess difficult to distinguish from Dike	16	Connects her with the image of scales
64	"Hymn of Nomos"	Nomos	Law, sometimes the father of Dike or Dikaiosyne	13	Describes him as law operating in the cosmic and mortal realms
65	"Offering of Ares, frankincense"	Ares	God of war	9	Calls him Cypris, an epithet of Aphrodite, and Lyaeus, an epithet of Dionysus
66	"Offering of Hephaistos, gum of frankincense"	Hephaestus	Blacksmith god, often the son of Zeus and Hera	13	Refers to Hephaestus as the element of fire, in the universe and the body
67	"Offering of Asklepios, manna"	Asclepius	A divine physician, with some cult	9	Calls him Paean, an epithet of Apollo, calls him Apollo's son
68	"Offering of Hygeia, manna"	Hygeia	Health, often associated with Asclepius	13	States that she is adored by everyone, except for Hades
69	"Offering of the Erinnyes, storax and manna"	Erinyes	Female figures who enact vengeance upon criminals	17	Places their home next to the River Styx, describes them similarly to the Moirai
70	"Offering of the Eumenides, spices"	Eumenides	The "benevolent aspect" (aspetto benevolo) of the Erinyes	11	Describes them as even more petrifying than in the previous hymn
71	"Offering of Melinoe, spices"	Melinoe	Goddess with no literary attestation elsewhere	12	Connects her with Hecate, describes her as Persephone's daughter
72	"Offering of Tyche, frankincense"	Tyche	Goddess of fortune and fate	10	Says she is born from the blood of Eubuleus, identifies her with Artemis
73	"Offering of Daimon, frankincense"	Daimon	Figure similar to Tyche	9	Calls him Zeus, applies the epithet ploutodoten ('giver of wealth') to him
74	"Offering of Leukothea, storax"	Leucothea	A sea goddess	10	Calls her a nurse of Dionysus, asks her to save boats at sea
75	"Offering of Palaimon, manna"	Palaemon	Sea god, who was originally Melicertes	8	Places his as part of the thiasos of Dionysus
76	"Offering of the Muses, frankincense"	Muses	Daughters of Zeus and Persephone	12	Describes them as teaching the mysteries
77	"Offering of Mnemosyne, frankincense"	Mnemosyne	Mother of the Muses by Zeus	10	Describes her as being able to revive memories
78	"Offering of Eos, manna"	Eos	Dawn, who rises at the edge of the world each morning	13	Describes the light she brings each day, and how she dispels sleep
79	"Offering of Themis, frankincense"	Themis	One of the Titans, sometimes assimilated with Earth	12	Calls her the first to establish oracular sites and the worship of Bacchus
80	"Offering of Boreas, frankincense"	Boreas	The north wind	6	Describes him as hailing from Thrace
81	"Offering of Zephyros, frankincense"	Zephyrus	The west wind	6	Puts emphasis on the sea
82	"Offering of Notos, frankincense"	Notus	The south wind	7	Asks him to bring clouds which will produce rain
83	"Offering of Okeanos, spices"	Oceanus	The river encircling the world according to Homer	9	Calls him the progenitor of the gods, describes him as encompassing the world
84	"Offering of Hestia, spices"	Hestia	Goddess of the hearth	8	Contains earth-related phrases which link her with Gaia and Hades
85	"Offering of Hypnos, with poppy"	Hypnos	Sleep, twin brother of Death in the Iliad	10	Calls him the brother of Death and Oblivion
86	"Offering of Oneiros, spices"	Oneiros	A "disastrous" (funesto) Dream	18	Depicted as bringer of revelations during sleep
87	"Offering of Thanatos, manna"	Thanatos	Death, brother to Sleep and child of Night	12	Asks him for a long life, describes him as dissolving (ἐκλύης) the bonds of life

Editions and translations

• Taylor, Thomas (1824) [1787], The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus, C. Whittingham, Chiswick. OCLC 913055190.
• Hermann, G. (1805), Orphica, Leipzig, C. Fritsch. OCLC 3332126. Internet Archive.
• Dietsch, David Karl Philipp (1822), Die Hymnen des Orpheus: griechisch und deutsch, Erlangen, Palm und Enke Verlag. OCLC 310526470.
• Abel, Eugenius (1885), Orphica, Leipzig, Sumptibus Fecit G. Freytag. OCLC 983822311. Internet Archive.
• Plassmann, J. O. (1928), Orpheus: Altgriechische Mysteriengesänge, Jena, Diederichs. OCLC 10027445.
• Quandt, Wilhelm (1955), Orphei Hymni, Berlin, Weidmann. OCLC 22971774.
• Athanassakis, Apostolos N. (1977), The Orphic Hymns: Text, Translation, and Notes, Atlanta, Scholars Press. ISBN 0891301194.
• Ricciardelli, Gabriella (2000), Inni Orfici, Milan, Mondadori. ISBN 8804476613.
• Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow (2013), The Orphic Hymns, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9781421408828. Internet Archive.
• Fayant, Marie-Christine (2014), Hymnes Orphiques, Collection Budé, Paris, Les Belles Lettres. ISBN 9782251005935.

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