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The Orphic Hymns
the Orphic tradition · Hymn 33, lines 8–9 · Come with a bright eye
33.8
The Orphic Hymns 33.8 · Come with a bright eye
The prayer: come, and bring a good end to glorious deeds.
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ἀλλά1
allá
But
μάκαιρʼ2
mákair’
blessed one
, ἔλθοις3
élthois
may you come
, πεποθημένη4
pepothēménē
longed for
, with
φαιδρῷ5
phaidrôi
bright
ὄμματι6
ómmati
eyeseye
, αἰεὶ7
aieì
always
ἄγουσα8
ágousa
bringing
ἐσθλὸν9
esthlòn
a good
τέλος10
télos
endfulfillment
ἐπʼ11
ep’
to
εὐδόξοις12
eudóxois
glorious
ἔργοις13
érgois
deeds
. But, blessed one, may you come, longed for, with bright eyes, always bringing a good end to glorious deeds.
But, blessed one, may you come, longed for, with bright eyes, always bringing a good end to glorious deeds.
Interpretation
But, blessed one, may you come, longed for, with a bright eye, always bringing a good end to glorious deeds.
The prayer asks Victory to come "with a bright eye," the look of a goddess who favors you, and to bring "a good end" to glorious deeds. Telos is the completion of a thing, its outcome. The manuscripts read kleos, "glory," and the correction Abel accepts turns the request from fame to success; the same phrase, telos esthlon, appears in the prayer to Hermes (28) as "a good end of life."
34.1
The Orphic Hymns 34.1 · Come, blessed Paian, god of the golden lyre
The hymn to Apollo, sung over frankincense powder. It opens with a long run of his titles, many of them taken from the places where he was worshipped, from Delphi to Memphis in Egypt.
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Of Apollo. Incense: frankincense powder. Come, blessed one, Paian, slayer of Tityos, Phoebus, Lykoreus, Memphite, splendidly honored, hailed with iē, giver of blessings, golden-lyred, lord of seeds, god of the plough, Pythian, Titan,