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Notes on the Orphic Hymns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. L. West
M. L. West
Affiliation:
University College, Oxford
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Extract

Each of the Orphic Hymns is headed in the manuscripts by the name of the deity to which it is addressed, and in most cases a specification of the kind of incense to be used: thus 2 Only the first hymn lacks a heading. It is preceded in the manuscripts by a poem in which Orpheus addresses Musaeus and teaches him a prayer to a multitude of gods

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , December 1968 , pp. 288 - 296
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1968

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References

page 288 note 1 These originated as memoranda of things to have ready. Cf. 53 The senseless heading of 3, must be corrected to There is another omission in the heading of 85,

page 288 note 2 Petersen, C., Phil. 27 (1868), 389;Google ScholarKern, O., Hermes 75 (1940), 20–5.Google Scholar

page 288 note 3 Quandt, , Orphei Hymni p. 3* n. 2,Google Scholar suggests that he found the hymn bearing the title because he quotes the first verse as evidence that Orpheus identified Hecate with the moon. But it is hard to see the author or anyone later giving the hymn to Selene, and I would prefer to suppose that Diaconus read the moon into The Stoics had identified Artemis with the moon, and given to her various epithets, including new meanings to suit. Cf. Plut, . de fac. lun. 937Google Scholar Cornut. 34 p. 72. 13 Lang; GDK (= Heitsch, , Griechische Dichterfragmente der römischen Kaiserzeit) 59. 10. 24–6.Google Scholar

In view of the minuscule corruption that he presupposes in Hes, . Th. 358, Diaconus cannot be earlier than the ninth century; and Mr. N. G. Wilson tells me that the Greek seems to him to belong to the middle Byzantine period. The only ground for an earlier dating was the inference from Diaconus' epilogue that he had a son studying at Athens. Mr. Wilson points out, however, that the passage is probably no more than a compliment to the son on his mastery of Atticist prose.Google Scholar

page 289 note 1 Cf. Quandt, pp. 27* ff.

page 289 note 2 According to Quandt, p. 44* n. I, the scribe simply took the word from in the text. He does not suggest why he should have written it in the margin.

page 289 note 3 In the archetype of the manuscripts (twelfth-thirteenth century, according to Pfeiffer, , Callimachus ii. lxxxiv)Google Scholar the heading was simply , to which one or two later copies added or The earnest message that follows it is not meant to be said by Orpheus but was written in a copy given as a present. Aunts write similarly in Bibles.

page 291 note 1 GGA 1942, 77 ff.Google Scholar He did not entirely convince von Blumenthal, Gnomon 19 (1943), 145.Google Scholar

page 291 note 2 34. 7 24 The hypothesis that these are conjectures (Quandt) can only be based on the preconceived belief that ‘ψ’ is the sole source of the extant manuscripts. The same must be said of Quandt's persistent unfairness to the family φ. Cf. pp. 81 f. of the second impression. Of h's other good readings, some probably are conjectures (7. 2, 5, 8. 3, 32. i, 66. 3), others are shared with φ (32. 15,46.4,86.3,4).

page 291 note 3 Rh. Mus. 60 (1905), 1 ff.Google Scholar = Kl. Schr. iv. 471 ff.Google Scholar in IG V (2) 288Google Scholar is genitive of

page 292 note 1 Cf. already Il. 2. 781 f.Google Scholar See in general the instructive article of Keydell, R., ‘Mythendeutung in den Dionysiaka des Nonnos’ in Gedenkschrift für Georg Rohde, Tübingen, 1961, 105–14.Google Scholar

page 293 note 1 The phrase may have originated in Euripides, for he is the most likely common source for Isyllus (53 Powell) and the Orphic hymn.

page 294 note 1 Elaphrios was an epithet of Zeus in Crete and Cnidos, Elaphia of Artemis in various places.

page 294 note 2 Edited by Minns, E.H., JHS xxxv (1915), 28 ff.Google Scholar

page 294 note 3 Minns discusses it on p. 55.

page 295 note 1 I see that this fragment was adduced by Theiler, p. 257, whose treatment of the passage is nevertheless violent. It is no. 52 in M. Marcovich's new edition.