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The Orphic Hymns
the Orphic tradition · Hymn 26, lines 8–9 · The stars wheel around her
26.8
The Orphic Hymns 26.8 · The stars wheel around her
Earth delights in rain, and the whole ornament of the stars turns around her.
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ὀμβροχαρές1
ombrocharés
lover of rainrejoicing in rain
, περὶ2
perì
around
τὴν3
tḕn
whom
πολυδαίδαλος4
polydaídalos
the richly wrought
κόσμος5
kósmos
arrayorder, ornament
ἄστρων6
ástrōn
of the stars
εἱλεῖται7
heileîtai
revolvesis wound round
ἀενάῳ8
aenáōi
with ever-flowing
φύσει9
phýsei
nature
καὶ10
kaì
and
δεινοῖς11
deinoîs
dread
ῥεύμασι12
rheúmasi
currents
. lover of rain, around whom the richly wrought array of the stars revolves with ever-flowing nature and dread currents.
lover of rain, around whom the richly wrought array of the stars revolves with ever-flowing nature and dread currents.
Interpretation
lover of rain, around whom the richly wrought array of the stars revolves, in its ever-flowing nature and its dread currents.
The picture is the ancient model of the universe, with the earth fixed at the center and the heavens turning around it. The "array of the stars" uses kosmos in its old sense of an ordered arrangement or an ornament, the word for soldiers drawn up in ranks or for a woman's jewelry. Around Earth that whole jeweled order wheels without stopping, and the hymn calls its nature aenaos, "ever-flowing," the word for a river or a spring that never runs dry.
26.10
The Orphic Hymns 26.10 · Increase the fruits
The prayer: let the crops grow, in good seasons.
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But, blessed goddess, may you increase the gladdening fruits, with a kindly heart, together in prosperous seasons.