Orphic Hymns

The title page presents The Hymns of Orpheus, translated from Greek with a preliminary dissertation on the life and theology of Orpheus, printed in London in 1792. A note by JBH explains the typography change of long 's' and the retention of original spellings. The Preface argues that literary and natural worlds both undergo revolution, that arts and sciences flourish at different periods, and that wisdom flourished first among the Egyptians, then in Greece, while Romans pursued polite literature and moderns pursue experimental enquiry. The author states the age of true philosophy is past, and expects approval from the few. He defends his use of rhyme, discusses translation, cites the author of the Letters on Mythology, praises Mr. Sydenham, and advocates faithful and animated paraphrase, noting the compound epithets of the Hymns. He declares ancient philosophy his study and desires only the praise of the liberal. The Dissertation, Section I, states the history of Orpheus is obscure, like that of Homer and Euclid. All antiquity except perhaps Aristotle celebrates Orpheus. General assent holds a person named Orpheus lived, son of Œagrus, in Thrace, founder of theology among the Greeks, offspring of a Muse, who taught the Greeks their rites, from whom Homer's muse and the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato flowed, and who by his lyre drew rocks, woods, and beasts. The text proposes investigating the original Orpheus and later men bearing the name. The first, genuine Orpheus was a Thracian poet, disciple of Linus, who flourished, says Suidas, when the Athenian kingdom dissolved.

Section II opens with a proposal to proceed to Orpheus's theology, exchanging conjecture for evidence and fable for truth. The author states that information will be drawn from the writings of the latter Platonists as the only genuine sources, and declares vulgar mythology useless, comparing anyone using modern hypothesis to one tracing a stream to its involutions. The author of the Letters on Mythology is said to argue that the Orphic hymns deify parts of nature as lifeless matter; the author counters that ancient philosophers regard deity as an exuberant fountain filling the world with life, populating the universe with divinities, dæmons, souls, and men. The Platonic arguments for subordinate intelligences are set out: beings that move only, that move themselves, that move and are moved, and that are moved only; soul is shown to be self-motive and prior to body, requiring governing souls for the heavens, and intellect prior to soul. The chain descends from unity through intellect and soul to body. Orpheus is said to fill all things with Gods subordinate to the demiurgus, positing two worlds and three demiurgic principles (Jovial, Dionysiacal, Adonical), with orders of Gods, angels, dæmons, and heroes. Proclus is quoted on the multitude around each God and on the division of male and female. Verses quoted by Proclus describe Jove containing all things. Cudworth's phrase "God is all things" is cited, qualified as present everywhere yet separate. Porphyry is quoted on God, intellect, and soul being everywhere and nowhere. Onatus the Pythagorean and Plotinus defend a multitude of subordinate Gods, and Proclus explains why souls remember superior principles; Porphyry compares souls to those entering a foreign region.

The text observes that just as most inhabitants of a pestiferous region decline while few keep their strength, most of mankind, placed in generation, are subject to passions, and it is astonishing when souls remain sober and pure, living immaterially amid material concerns, drinking the cup of oblivion without sleeping, and opening the gates of truth. It affirms that more may be known of such natures through ancient philosophy, and recommends the investigation. It then turns to sacrifice according to Orpheus and the Platonists, defending the Greek theologists against the charge of worshipping the creature, and stating they distinguished worship of the Deity from that of subordinate Gods. It presents a paraphrase of Porphyry's second book on abstinence. Quoting Theophrastus, it describes a learned nation by the Nile first sacrificing from domestic fire with green herbs, not aromatics; the perpetual temple fire; the terms thymiaterion, thyein, thysiai; later oak, nuts (the proverb "enough of the oak"), barley, meal, and wine, honey, and oil libations; and the Athenian procession honouring the sun and hours. Theophrastus argues against animal sacrifice and honours Earth as common Vesta. Porphyry then describes sacrifice for the intellectual life: silent worship of the supreme God, hymns to intelligible divinities, purest thoughts as offerings. He notes the Pythagoreans sacrificed numbers and figures, naming them Minerva, Apollo, and offered no animal. Platonists describe the first God, the soul of the world, and daemons—good and malevolent—their aerial bodies, and messengers between Gods and men. Concluding Porphyry, the author adds his account of prayer preserved by Proclus in the Commentary on the Timæus: classes of impiety, prayer conjoining worthy men with divinity, the Bramins, Magi, and Greeks. The power of prayer consists in sympathy and similitude, illustrated by the lyre; Theodorus says all things pray except the first.

The text states that generative causes are contained in their effects, celestial orbs impart good to the terrestrial region, and various leaders exist in the universe, with orders of angels dancing round ruling deities, dæmons, heroes, souls, animals, and plants. After noting that images derive their hypostasis from similitude, the author turns from this digression to sacrifice and prayer, presenting a paraphrase of Proclus. Proclus states that ancient priests, observing sympathy in natural things, fabricated a sacred science. He cites heliotropes and selenitropes, saying all things pray and compose hymns to their leaders; the sunflower dances toward the sun. He describes deducing divine virtues downward, the example of heated paper inflaming near a lamp, the lotus folding and expanding its leaves, and stones—the sun-stone, the eye of heaven, the lunar stone, and Helioselenus. He states all things are full of divine natures, names the palm, date, and laurel, and describes priests mingling and purifying substances with sulphur, bitumen, and marine water, offering animals, and ascending from dæmons to the Gods. The passage closes "Thus far Proclus." The author then argues that Greek theology is not absurd, criticizes ridiculing ancient philosophers to support Christianity, and praises the Platonic writers. Footnotes follow, citing Proclus, Eschenbach, Pythagoras, and others.

Section III opens by stating it is time to discuss the Hymns, of which Onomacritus is the reputed author. Gesner observes the dialect is no objection to their antiquity. Per Iamblichus, the Thracian Orpheus, more ancient than Homer and Hesiod, used the Doric dialect; the Athenian Onomacritus may have changed the dialect or added and removed material, as Herodotus reports he did with oracles. Gesner doubts Onomacritus invented everything, and compares the Doric objection to the Pelasgic letters Orpheus used per Diodorus Siculus. The hymns are mentioned by Plato in his Eighth Book of Laws and by Pausanias, whose words (translated by the author of the Letters on Mythology) describe Orpheus on Mount Helicon with ΤΕΛΕΤΗ and beasts, his hymns short and few, sung by the Lycomedes family at mysteries, adopted by religion over Homer's. Suidas mentions τελεται ascribed by some to Onomacritus; Scaliger holds they should be called initiations. The author entitles them mystical initiations. The theology descended from Orpheus to Pythagoras to Plato, evidenced by Proclus, Syrianus, and Suidas, noting Pythagoras was initiated by Aglaophemus. The author states the hymns agree with Pythagorean doctrine. From Nicomachus's Theological Arithmetic (preserved by Photius), an anonymous manuscript, and Meursius's Denarius Pythagoricus, the author compares divinities assigned to numbers—monad through decad—with epithets in the hymns, listing correspondences for each. A further discovery from Ficinus's passage (likely from Proclus, also preserved by Gyraldus and Natales Comes) pairs nostic and animating powers across the orbs, with nine Bacchuses and nine Muses revolving around one Apollo. The author gives comparisons, then closes, wishing Proclus's Commentary on the Cratylus were published.

The span opens under the heading "The Initiations of Orpheus" with the poem "To Musæus," in which the speaker bids Musæus attend the sacred song and learn the rites of sacrifice. The speaker invokes in succession Jove, earth, sun, moon, and stars; Neptune; Ceres and Proserpine; Dian and Phœbus; Bacchus, Mars, Vulcan; the power risen from foam, Pluto, Hebe, Hercules; Justice, Piety, the nymphs, Pan, Juno, Memory, the Muses, the Hours, Latona, Dione, the Curetes, the Idæan Gods, Themis, Night, Day, Faith, Saturn, Rhea, Thetis, Ocean, Atlas, Eternity, the Stygian pool, Providence, dæmons, Bacchus and Semele, Leucothea, Palæmon, Adrastria, Victory, Esculapius, Minerva, thunders and winds, Attis, Adonis, and finally Einodian Hecate, described as key-bearer and huntress, asked to grant success. Footnotes cite Gesner and Proclus on two kinds of fables and on occult significations (Saturnian bonds, Vulcan's precipitation, castration), and Jo Diaconus and Diodorus on Diana's names. Hymn I addresses Prothyræa (Diana), goddess of labour pains and gate-keeper of life. Hymn II addresses Night, parent of Gods and men, called Venus. Hymn III addresses Heaven, father of all, progenitor of Time. Hymn IV addresses Fire, ruler of the sky. Hymn V addresses Protogonus, the egg-born first-begotten, also called Ericapæus, Phanes, and Priapus, with footnotes on Phanes, Æther, Chaos, and the succession of kings. Hymn VI addresses the Stars, progeny of Night, running in seven zones. Hymn VII addresses the Sun as golden Titan, lord of seasons, called immortal Jove and guardian placed by the demiurgus.

Hymn VIII, to the Moon, is offered with a fumigation from aromatics. The speaker calls on the Goddess queen who diffuses silver light, is bull-horned, wanders through Night, rides surrounded by stars, shines female and male with borrowed rays, waxes and wanes, is mother of ages, lover of horses and vigilance, foe of strife, and gives Nature's works their end; the speaker hails all-wise Diana and asks her to shine on the sacred rites and accept his praise. Footnotes discuss the names Selene and Mene and the naming of gods. Hymn IX, to Nature, uses fumigation from aromatics. The speaker addresses Nature as all-parent, much-mechanic mother, untamed yet all-taming, immortal, first-born, self-generated father of her own essence, all-sustaining, justice ruling the deep, sweet to the good and bitter to the bad, father and mother, all-spermatic mind who whirls the world on an eternal hinge, holds the reins from a circling car, and is Parca and Providence; he prays for plenteous seasons, wealth, peace, and health. Hymn X, to Pan, uses fumigation from various odors. The speaker calls strong Pan, substance of the whole, universal soul, goat-footed and horned Bacchanalian power, refuge from human fears, whom shepherds and nymphs attend, serpent-horned Jove upholding earth, sea, air, and fire; he asks Pan to attend the rites, grant a prosperous end, and drive panic Fury from mankind. Hymn XI, to Hercules, uses fumigation from frankincense. The speaker hails Hercules, untamed Titan, father of Time, archer and deliverer performing twelve labours, reigning among the gods; he asks him to attend the rites, convey mitigations of disease, and disarm noxious fate. Hymn XII, to Saturn, uses fumigation from storax. The speaker addresses Saturn as etherial father, mighty Titan, to whom perfection and decrease belong, who consumes and restores forms, husband of Rhea; he asks a blameless life and blessed end.

Hymn XIII addresses Rhea, daughter of Protogonus, driver of a lion-drawn car and mother of Jove, called Saturn's queen; she is asked to bring abundance and drive away disease. Hymn XIV addresses Jove, Saturnian king and all-parent, source of abundance, asked to grant health, peace, and wealth. Hymn XV addresses Juno, Jove's queen, aerial-formed mother of clouds and winds, and asks her to come serene. Hymn XVI invokes Neptune, ruler of the sea, bearer of the brazen trident, holder of the third division, asked for peace, health, and abundance. Hymn XVII addresses Pluto, terrestrial Jove, king of the underworld, who bore captive Proserpine in a four-yoked car to Eleusina and keeps the maid in the cave of Atthis; he is asked to favor the mystic's rites. Hymn XVIII addresses thundering Jove, wielder of lightning and thunder, asking his wrath appear over sea and mountains, and for health, peace, and reason. Hymn XIX calls Jove as author of lightning, seeking a peaceful end. Hymn XX addresses the Clouds, parents of rains, asked to fall on Earth with showers. Hymn XXI calls Tethys, empress of Ocean and mother of Venus, asking safe passage for ships. Hymn XXII invokes Nereus, keeper of the deep with fifty nymphs, asking he cease shaking the earth and send health. Hymn XXIII addresses the Nereids, fifty nymphs following the Triton, who first disclosed the rites of Bacchus and Proserpine; the speaker names Calliope as his origin. Hymn XXIV calls Proteus, keeper of the deep's keys, knower of past and future. Hymn XXV addresses the Earth, source of gods and men. Hymn XXVI addresses the Mother of the Gods, lion-drawn, called Vesta and Phrygian saviour. Hymn XXVII invokes Mercury (Hermes), Maia's son, slayer of Argus, asking graceful speech and memory. Hymn XXVIII addresses Proserpine, Pluto's wife and mother of Bacchus, who produces and kills life. Hymn XXIX calls Bacchus, twice-shaped, born of Jove and Proserpine. Hymn XXX addresses the leaping Curetes, guards of Proserpine, asked to defend the speaker's life.

Hymn XXXI addresses Pallas as only-begotten offspring of Jove, warlike, joying in caves, delighting in rocky heights and groves, sprung from the head of Jove, bane of the Gorgons, mother of arts, female and male, driving her coursers over the Phlegrean giants; the speaker prays for peace, health, and wealth, invoking the blue-eyed maid. Hymn XXXII invokes Victory, whose might quells contending rage and who confers the victor's crown, asking her to bless the suppliant. Hymn XXXIII calls Blest Pæan Apollo, slayer of Tityus, Python-destroyer, Delphian king, whose lyre inspires Nature's music, tuning highest and lowest strings, mixing summer and winter, named Pan-royal, holder of the figured seal; the speaker asks him to save his mystics. Hymn XXXIV addresses dark-veiled Latona, twin-bearing, from whom Phœbus and Dian proceed, born in Ortygia and Delos, asking her to end the rites kindly. Hymn XXXV invokes Diana, Jove's daughter, torch-bearing Dictynna, presiding over births, huntress, of manly form, asking her to send Peace and Health and drive away Disease. Hymn XXXVI calls the Titans, born of heaven and earth, dwelling in Tartarus, sources of the race of man, asking them to avert their rage. Hymn XXXVII addresses the Curetes, brass-beating Salians, dwelling in Samothracia, who shake ocean and beat the earth in glittering arms, nursing and destroying mankind. Hymn XXXVIII calls Corybas, ruler of the earthly ball, who kills each of his brothers and transmutes Ceres' body into a dragon, asking him to drive away fears. Hymn XXXIX invokes Ceres, universal mother, source of wealth, dwelling in Eleusina, who yoked ploughing oxen, guiding a dragon-yoked car, asking for increase, Peace, and Health. Hymn XL addresses the Ceralian queen who, wandering in grief, found relief in Eleusina, discovering Proserpine in Avernus, with Bacchus attending, asking her to bless the suppliant.

Hymn XLI addresses Mises with a fumigation from storax, calling Thesmophorus, a spermatic god of various names bearing a leafy rod, named ineffable queen and two-fold Iacchus, both male and female; the speaker names locations—the divine fane, Phrygia, Cyprus with Cytherea, and the fertile plains with the dark mother Isis near sacred Egypt—and asks the power to attend and end these labours. Hymn XLII addresses the Seasons, daughters of Jove and Themis, flowery powers attending Proserpine when the Fates and Graces lead her up to light with Ceres and Jove, asking them to bear fruits and tend a mystic's life. Hymn XLIII invokes Semele, Cadmean queen, mother of Bacchus, forced into light by love's thunder, permitted by Proserpine to visit mortals; the speaker asks her to bless the rites. Hymn XLIV calls Dionysius Bassareus Triennalis, bull-faced, begot from thunder. Hymn XLV invokes Liknitus Bacchus, nursed by Proserpine. Hymn XLVI addresses Bacchus Pericionius, who twined round the pillars of Cadmus's house. Hymn XLVII calls Sabasius, Saturn's offspring, who inserted Bacchus within his thigh. Hymn XLVIII invokes Ippa, nurse of Bacchus. Hymn XLIX addresses Lysius Lenæus, born of two mothers, god of wine. Hymn L calls the Nymphs, ocean-born nurses of Bacchus. Hymn LI invokes Trietericus, pupil of Proserpine, called Ericapæus and Apollo. Hymn LII addresses Amphietus Bacchus, roused from Proserpine's abode. Hymn LIII calls Silenus, Satyrus, and the priestesses of Bacchus. Hymn LIV invokes Venus, sea-born, joining the world in harmony. Hymn LV addresses Adonis, doomed to set and rise, descended from Proserpine's bed. Hymn LVI calls the terrestrial Hermes, given souls to guide by Proserpine. Hymn LVII invokes Cupid. Hymn LVIII addresses the Fates—Atropos, Lachesis, Clotho—daughters of night. Hymn LIX calls the Graces—Thalia, Aglaia, Euphrosyne—descended from Jove and Eunomia.

The speaker invokes Nemesis, almighty queen who sees mortal deeds, rejoices in the just, and reveals concealed thoughts; the speaker asks her aid, strength to reason, and averting of impious counsels. To Justice, the piercing eye placed by heaven's king, belong revenge and punishment; the speaker asks her to hear as Fate's final hour nears. A footnote cites Demosthenes' speech against Aristogiton on Δικη. Equity is addressed as friend of just conduct, foe to the unjust; the speaker asks her to destroy evil deeds. Law, holy king of Gods and men, is called, foe to the lawless; the speaker asks to fix sight on right. Mars, blood-loving and wall-shaking, is bidden to stay strife, yield to Venus and Bacchus, and give abundance. Vulcan, unwearied fire and all-taming artist, is asked to incline to holy rites and suppress fire's rage. Esculapius, physician and Apollo's offspring, is asked to bring Health and restrain pestilence. Health, mother of all, is invoked to avert disease. The Furies—Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megara—dwelling near Styx, are asked to suppress rage. The Furies are again invoked, born of terrestrial Jove and Proserpine. Melinoe, born when Jove deceived Proserpine under Pluto's semblance, is asked to expel fears. Fortune is called to give abundance. The Dæmon, or mild Jove holding keys of sorrow and delight, is asked to disperse care. Leucothea, Cadmus' daughter and Bacchus' nurse, is asked to guard ships. Palæmon, nursed with Dionysius, is asked to defend ships and avert the deep's ire.

Hymn LXXV, to the Muses, with fumigation from frankincense, invokes the Daughters of Jove, the Pierian Nine, as sources of virtue who form the youthful mind, nurse the soul, lead the intellect to sacred light, and disclose holy rites; it names Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Thalia, Polymina, Melpomene, Terpischore, Urania, and Calliope, and asks them to shine on their mystics and bring desire and sacred fire. An extended footnote paraphrases Proclus on three kinds of poetry—inspired (Fury of the Muses), rational (diánoia), and imitative (subdivided into conjectural and phantastic)—citing Plato's Phædrus, Iö, Laws, Alcibiades, Sophista, and Republic, Homer, Demodocus, Phemius, Thamyris, and Clytemnestra's lyrist. Hymn LXXVI, to Mnemosyne, invokes the consort of Jove, source of the Nine, who joins soul with intellect and wakes thought, asking her to wake the mystic's memory and break Lethe's fetters; a footnote paraphrases Platonic doctrine and Porphyry on memory and reminiscence. Hymn LXXVII, to Aurora, with fumigation from manna, hails the blushing goddess whose ray leads the day, angel of Titan, who rouses labour and delights mankind, asking her light to increase in the mystic's mind. Hymn LXXVIII, to Themis, invokes the virgin first to give prophetic oracles at Pytho, from whom Apollo's oracles arose, who taught initial rites and delights in Bacchus' choirs. Hymn LXXIX, to Boreas, the North Wind, asks the cold power to blow favourably and dissolve misty clouds. Hymn LXXX, to the West Wind, addresses Zephyrs giving rest and speeding ships. Hymn LXXXI, to the South Wind, calls swift powers bearing humid, flowery clouds and fruitful rains. Hymn LXXXII, to Ocean, invokes the ever-flowing sire from whom Gods and men arose, surrounding earth and purifying the powers divine.

Hymn LXXXIII, To Vesta, with fumigation from aromatics, addresses the daughter of Saturn as the seat of unwearied flame, names her ministers in sacred rites, states the Gods fixed their place in her, calls her basis of the mortal race and much-formed, laughing, blessed queen, and asks her to accept the rites and grant health and good. A footnote identifies Vesta with the earth and mother of the Gods, cites Philolaus (via Stobæus) placing fire at the centre and Simplicius on the fire as demiurgic power. Another footnote cites Proclus interpreting the laughter of the Gods, assigning laughter to Gods and tears to men. Hymn LXXXIV, To Sleep, fumigation from poppy, calls Sleep king of Gods and men, tamer of cares, and names death and Lethe his brothers, asking him to save the mystics. Hymn LXXXV, To the Divinity of Dreams, fumigation from aromatics, invokes dreams as angel of future fates and source of oracles, friendly to the upright but averse to the wicked, asking the power to reveal heaven's signatures. Hymn LXXXVI, To Death, fumigation from manna, hails Death whose empire extends to all, who spares no youth, controlled by no arts, asking Death to spare life to abundant age. "THE END." A footnote cites Porphyry on two kinds of death. A closing address urges liberal readers to translate Platonic philosophy, laments commerce trampling truth, and calls readers to depart like Ulysses from Calypso toward the realms of intellect.