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The Orphic Hymns
the Orphic tradition · Hymn 41, lines 9–10 · Come to your initiate
41.9
The Orphic Hymns 41.9 · Come to your initiate
The prayer: come, gracious, to the initiate who prays.
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ἀλλά1
allá
But
λίτομαί2
lítomaí
I beg
σε3
se
you
θεά4
theá
goddess
, βασίλεια5
basíleia
queen
πολυλλίστη6
polyllístē
sought with many prayers
, ἐλθεῖν7
eltheîn
to come
εὐάντητον8
euántēton
gracious
ἐπʼ9
ep’
to
σέο10
séo
your
εὐιέρῳ11
euiérōi
devout
μύστῃ12
mýstēi
initiate
. But I beg you, goddess, queen sought with many prayers, to come gracious to your devout initiate.
But I beg you, goddess, queen sought with many prayers, to come gracious to your devout initiate.
Interpretation
But, goddess, I beg you, queen sought with many prayers: come gracious to your devout initiate.
The word for "sought with many prayers", polyllistos, is Homeric. Odysseus uses it in the Odyssey when he swims, half drowned, to the mouth of a river on Scheria and begs its god to save him. Most of these hymns pray for the initiates in the plural. This one asks for a single person, "your devout initiate", as the first hymn asked Hekate to be kind to "the herdsman".
42.1
The Orphic Hymns 42.1 · Mise, male and female
A hymn to Mise, a little-known goddess, who is called on together with Dionysus. She is male and female at once, and she is named Iakchos, the god of the Eleusinian procession.
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Of Mise. Incense: storax. I call Dionysus the Lawgiver, bearer of the fennel wand, the much-remembered, many-named seed of Eubouleus, and pure and holy Mise, the secret queen, male and female, two-natured, Iakchos, who sets free;