hymn · Greek

Hymn to Dionysus Trieterikos

Bakkhos phrenetic, much named, blessed, divine, bull-horned, Lernaion, bearer of the vine; from fire descended, ranging, Nysion king, from whom initial ceremonies spring. Liknitos, pure and fiery bright, prudent, Eubouleos crown-bearer, wandering in the night; nursed in Mount Mero, all-mysterious power, triple, ineffable, Zeus' secret flower; Erikepaios, first-begotten named, of Gods the father and the offspring famed. Bearing a sceptre, leader of the choir, whose dancing feet phrenetic furies fire, when the triennial band thou dost inspire, Omadion, captor, of a fiery light, born of two mothers, Amphietos bright; love, mountain-wandering, clothed with skins of deer, Paian golden-rayed, whom all revere. Great annual god of grapes, the ivy crowned, Bassaros, lovely, virginlike, renowned. Come, blessed power, regard thy mystic's voice, propitious come, and in these rites rejoice.

Commentarius · Commentary

The extreme case of the Orphic method: the hymn consists almost entirely of forms of address, and the god is named here by dozens of titles in succession.

The point of this is not grandeur. Θεῶν πάτερ ἠδὲ καὶ υἱέ — father of gods and also son; πρωτόγον᾽, ἠρικεπαῖε — first-born, Erikepaios. Protogonos and Erikepaios are names of the Orphic first-born god, Phanes, not of Dionysus. By setting them in one series the hymn identifies the two, and the identification is accomplished by the listing itself. Orphic theology works by accumulation of names: what is named together is one.

Ἠρικεπαῖος is an obscure word, apparently not Greek; it occurs in Orphic texts and inscriptions, and nobody knows its meaning. It does not yield to translation and has been left as it stands.

Ὄργιον ἄρρητον — unspeakable rite. The god is called neither a participant in the ritual nor its recipient but the ritual itself. Then teletarcha, master of the mysteries, and "celebrating the holy trietērides": on that two-year cycle see orphic-amphietus-001.

Fons · Source

AuthorAnonymous (Orphic corpus)

WorkOrphic Hymns

Section52

PeriodHellenistic to Roman imperial (3rd c. BC – 2nd c. AD)

OccasionOrphic hymn to Dionysus Trietericus (of the triennial rites) — long catalogue of his epithets and aspects

English translationThomas Taylor, 1792

Classificatio · Taxonomy

CultureGreek

Formhymn

DeitiesDionysus

FunctionsInvocation

Spherefertility