⸻ · ⸻
The Orphic Hymns
the Orphic tradition · Hymn 85, lines 7–8 · Brother of Lethe and Death
85.7
The Orphic Hymns 85.7 · Brother of Lethe and Death
Sleep keeps souls safe, and he is the brother of Forgetting and of Death.
· · ·
καὶ1
kaì
and
ἀπάγεις2
apágeis
you take away
μελέτην3
melétēn
the carepractice
θανάτου4
thanátou
of death
, διασώζων5
diasṓzōn
keeping safe
ψυχὰς6
psychàs
the souls
; γὰρ7
gàr
for
ἔφυς8
éphys
you are
αὐτοκασίγνητος9
autokasígnētos
the own brother
Λήθης10
Lḗthēs
of LetheForgetting
τε11
te
and
Θανάτου12
Thanátou
of Death
. and you take away the care of death, keeping safe the souls; for you are the own brother of Lethe and of Death.
and you take away the care of death, keeping safe the souls; for you are the own brother of Lethe and of Death.
Interpretation
and you take away the care of death, keeping souls safe; for you are the own brother of Lethe and of Death.
In the Iliad Sleep and Death are twin brothers who carry the body of Sarpedon home to Lycia, and the hymn adds Lethe, Forgetting, as a third member of the family. The line before turns on meletē, a word that means both "care" and "practice." The text printed here has a correction, "you take away the care of death"; the manuscripts read "you bring on a meletē of death," a rehearsal for dying, and that is the phrase Socrates uses in Plato's Phaedo when he calls philosophy rightly practiced "a practice of death."
85.9
The Orphic Hymns 85.9 · Come gently, keep the initiates safe
The prayer: may Sleep come gently and sweetly, and keep the initiates safe for the sacred work.
· · ·
But, blessed one, I pray you to come tempered and sweet, kindly keeping safe the initiates for the divine works.