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The Orphic Hymns
the Orphic tradition · Hymn 4, lines 1–3 · Heaven, father of all
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Hymn 4 · Heaven
ΟΥΡΑΝΟΥ, θυμίαμα λίβανον
Of Heaven · incense: frankincense
4.1
The Orphic Hymns 4.1 · Heaven, father of all
Ouranos, the sky, receives the first of the hymns to the great powers of the world. He is the father of all, the beginning and the end of everything, and he turns round the earth like a ball.
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ΟΥΡΑΝΟΥ1
Ouranoû
Of HeavenOuranos
. θυμίαμα2
thymíama
Incense
λίβανον3
líbanon
frankincense
. Οὐρανὲ4
Ouranè
Heaven
, παγγενέτορ5
pangenétor
father of all
, μέρος6
méros
part
κόσμου7
kósmou
of the world
αἰὲν8
aièn
ever
ἀτειρές9
ateirés
unweariednever worn away
, πρεσβυγένεθλʼ10
presbygénethl’
first-born
, ἀρχὴ11
archḕ
beginning
πάντων12
pántōn
of all things
τε13
te
and
τελευτή14
teleutḗ
end
πάντων15
pántōn
of all things
, κοσμοκράτορ16
kosmokrátor
ruler of the world
, ἑλισσόμενος17
helissómenos
whirling
σφαιρηδὸν18
sphairēdòn
like a spherelike a ball
περὶ19
perì
around
γαῖαν20
gaîan
the earth
, Of Heaven. Incense: frankincense. Heaven, father of all, part of the world ever unwearied, first-born, beginning of all things and end of all things, ruler of the world, whirling like a sphere around the earth,
Of Heaven. Incense: frankincense. Heaven, father of all, part of the world ever unwearied, first-born, beginning of all things and end of all things, ruler of the world, whirling like a sphere around the earth,
Interpretation
Of Heaven. Incense: frankincense. Heaven, father of all, part of the world that never wears out, first-born, beginning of all things and end of all things, ruler of the world, whirling like a sphere around the earth,
Ouranos is the ordinary Greek word for the sky, and in Hesiod he is also a god: the husband of Earth, the father of the Titans and the first king of the world. The hymn keeps the god but gives him the shape that Greek astronomers gave the sky, a great sphere turning around the earth, which sits at its center. The line that calls him "beginning of all things and end of all things" returns word for word in the hymn to Zeus (15).
4.4
The Orphic Hymns 4.4 · House of the blessed gods
Heaven is where the gods live. He travels in an endless whirl, wraps around everything to guard it, and holds the necessity of nature in his breast.
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house of the blessed gods, travelling in the eddies of the whirl, guardian of all in the upper air and on the earth, wrapped around them, holding in your breast the immense necessity of nature,