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The Orphic Hymns
the Orphic tradition · Hymn 42, lines 8–11 · With your mother Isis by the Nile
42.8
The Orphic Hymns 42.8 · With your mother Isis by the Nile
Last comes Egypt, with its wheat fields along the Nile, where Isis is called Mise's mother, and the prayer asks Mise to come kindly to the rites.
· · ·
ἢ1
ḕ
or
καὶ2
kaì
—
ἁγνοῖς3
hagnoîs
in the holy
πυροφόροις4
pyrophórois
wheat-bearing
πεδίοις5
pedíois
plains
ἐπαγάλλεαι6
epagálleai
you exult
σὺν7
sỳn
with
σῇ8
sêi
your
μητρὶ9
mētrì
mother
, θεᾷ10
theâi
the goddess
, σεμνῇ11
semnêi
revered
μελανηφόρῳ12
melanēphórōi
black-robed
Ἴσιδι13
Ísidi
Isis
, παρὰ14
parà
beside
χεῦμα15
cheûma
the stream
Αἰγύπτου16
Aigýptou
of Egypt
σὺν17
sỳn
with
ἀμφιπόλοισι18
amphipóloisi
your attendant
τιθήναις19
tithḗnais
nurses
: ἔλθοις20
élthois
may you come
εὐμενέουσʼ21
eumenéous’
kindly
, ἐκτελέουσʼ22
ekteléous’
bringing about
ἀγάθʼ23
agáth’
good things
ἐπʼ24
ep’
in
ἀέθλοις25
aéthlois
our laborscontests
. or in the holy wheat-bearing plains you exult with your mother, the goddess, revered, black-robed Isis, beside the stream of Egypt with your attendant nurses: may you come kindly, bringing about good things in our labors.
or in the holy wheat-bearing plains you exult with your mother, the goddess, revered, black-robed Isis, beside the stream of Egypt with your attendant nurses: may you come kindly, bringing about good things in our labors.
Interpretation
or exult in the holy wheat-bearing plains with your mother, the goddess, revered Isis in her black robes, beside the stream of Egypt, with your attendant nurses: may you come kindly, and bring about good things in our labors.
The last place is Egypt. Pyrophoros comes here from pyros, "wheat", and means "wheat-bearing"; Homer uses it of fields, and the plains along the Nile were famous for their grain. Isis is called Mise's mother, and Herodotus already wrote that Isis is Demeter in the Greek language, so by the usual Greek equation Mise is a daughter of Demeter. The word for "black-robed" was also the title of a group of Isis's priests on Delos.
43.1
The Orphic Hymns 43.1 · Daughters of Themis and Zeus
The Seasons, the Horai, are three sisters named for the virtues of a city, daughters of Themis and Zeus.
· · ·
Of the Seasons. Incense: aromatics. Seasons, daughters of Themis and of lord Zeus, Eunomia, Dike, and Eirene, rich in blessings,