The Orphic Hymns

bridal, companion at the feast, sceptre-bearer among the gods, wolfish one, giver of heirs, lover of men, most longed for, giver of life, you who have yoked mortals in unbridled necessities, and the great tribe of beasts with love-maddening charms;

Three times the hymn reaches for the yoke. She is zeukteira, "the one who yokes," she "put the world under the yoke," and here she has "yoked" mortals and beasts alike. Greek poets often spoke of marriage as a yoke, two animals bound to pull together. But the necessities she binds us with are achalinōtoi, "unbridled," a word for a horse without a bit, so the hymn pictures a yoke with no reins to steer it. The animals are bound by the same force, through charms that drive them mad with love.