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The Orphic Hymns
the Orphic tradition · Hymn 53, lines 8–10 · Come with a beaming face
53.8
The Orphic Hymns 53.8 · Come with a beaming face
The prayer: come to the rite, the god of green and ripening fruit.
· · ·
ἀλλά1
allá
But
, μάκαρ2
mákar
blessed one
, χλοόκαρπε3
chloókarpe
green-fruited
, κερασφόρε4
kerasphóre
horned
, κάρπιμε5
kárpime
fruitful
Βάκχε6
Bákche
Bacchus
, βαῖνʼ7
baîn’
come
ἐπὶ8
epì
to
the
τελετὴν9
teletḕn
rite
πάνθειον10
pántheion
of all the gods
with a
γανόωντι11
ganóōnti
beaminggleaming
προσώπῳ12
prosṓpōi
face
, βρυάζων13
bryázōn
teeming
with
εὐιέροις14
euiérois
holyfit for sacrifice
τελεσσιγόνοισι15
telessigónoisi
full-ripe
καρποῖσι16
karpoîsi
fruits
. But, blessed one, green-fruited, horned, fruitful Bacchus, come to the rite of all the gods with a beaming face, teeming with holy, full-ripe fruits.
But, blessed one, green-fruited, horned, fruitful Bacchus, come to the rite of all the gods with a beaming face, teeming with holy, full-ripe fruits.
Interpretation
But, blessed one, green-fruited, horned, fruitful Bacchus, come to the rite of all the gods with a beaming face, teeming with holy fruits grown full and ripe.
The last lines call the god of growing things. Chlookarpos, "green-fruited," is a word the book also gives to Demeter (40), and the fruits he teems with are euieroi, "fit for sacrifice," fruit good enough for the altar. He is horned as well: Dionysus was often pictured with horns or worshipped in the shape of a bull, and Hymn 52 calls him "bull-horned." The rite he is asked to come to is pantheios, "of all the gods," and the same phrase returns in the next hymn, which may mean that the hymns were sung in a single ceremony where many gods were called in turn.
54.1
The Orphic Hymns 54.1 · Nurse of Bacchus
A hymn to Silenus, the old companion who reared the infant Dionysus, honored at the three-year feasts.
· · ·
Of Silenus, the Satyr, and the Bacchae. Incense: frankincense powder. Hear me, O most revered nurse, foster-father of Bacchus, by far the best of the Silenoi, honored by all the gods and mortal men at the seasons of the three-year feasts,