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The Orphic Hymns

the Orphic tradition · Hymn 71, lines 1–3 · Born by the river of wailing

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Hymn 71 · Melinoe

ΜΕΙΛΙΝΟΗΣ, θυμίαμα ἀρώματα Of Melinoe · incense: aromatics

71.1

The Orphic Hymns 71.1 · Born by the river of wailing

Melinoe is a goddess of the underworld, and little is known of her beyond this hymn. She is a daughter of Persephone, born beside one of the rivers of the dead.

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ΜΕΙΛΙΝΟΗΣ¹

Meilinóēs

Of Melinoe

θυμίαμα²

thymíama

Incense

ἀρώματα³

arṓmata

aromatics

καλέω⁴

kaléō

I call

Μειλινόην⁵

Meilinóēn

Melinoe

νύμφην⁶

nýmphēn

nymphbride

χθονίην⁷

chthoníēn

of the underworld

κροκόπεπλον⁸

krokópeplon

saffron-robed

ἣν⁹

hḕn

whom

σεμνὴ¹⁰

semnḕ

revered

Φερσεφόνη¹¹

Phersephónē

Persephone

ἐλοχεύσατο¹²

elocheúsato

bore

παρὰ¹³

parà

προχοαῖς¹⁴

prochoaîs

the mouth

Κωκυτοῦ¹⁵

Kōkytoû

of Kokytosriver of wailing

in the

ἱεροῖς¹⁶

hieroîs

holy

λέκτροις¹⁷

léktrois

bed

Ζηνὸς¹⁸

Zēnòs

of Zeus

Κρονίοιο¹⁹

Kroníoio

son of Kronos

Of Melinoe. Incense: aromatics. I call Melinoe, nymph of the underworld, saffron-robed, whom revered Persephone bore at the mouth of Kokytos, in the holy bed of Zeus, son of Kronos,

Interpretation

Of Melinoe. Incense: aromatics. I call Melinoe, saffron-robed nymph of the underworld, whom revered Persephone bore at the mouth of the river Kokytos, in the holy bed of Zeus, son of Kronos,

Kokytos, "Wailing," is one of the rivers of the underworld; in the Odyssey Circe names it among the waters Odysseus will find at the edge of the land of the dead. Melinoe is born at its mouth, and her mother is Persephone, who in the hymn just before was also the mother of the Eumenides. Her saffron robe she shares with Hekate, who wears the same krokopeplos in the first hymn of the book. The manuscripts spell her name Mēlinoē, which is why translations call her Melinoe; this edition prints Meilinoē, a spelling that seems to link the name to meilichos, "gentle," and would make it a soothing name for a frightening goddess, like "Eumenides."

Athenian white-ground oil flask made for a grave, about 460 to 450 BC, by the Tymbos Painter. No ancient image of Melinoe survives. The hymn says she sends airy phantoms in the night; Greek painters drew a dead person's soul as a tiny winged figure, like this one flying to Charon, the ferryman of the dead.Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, V 547 · photo Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

71.4

The Orphic Hymns 71.4 · Zeus in the shape of Plouton

How Melinoe was conceived: Zeus came to Persephone disguised as her husband Plouton, and the child was born with a double body.

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with whom Zeus lay, disguised as Plouton, by crafty tricks; and through Persephone's anger she took on a two-bodied skin,

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