ORPHIC HYMN TO APOLLO

The English translation of the Orphic Hymn to Apollo is by Thomas Taylor (1792) .Some of the words have been written in a contemporary spelling, for the sake of easier reading. The original Hymn in Greek is below the English translation.

English Translation

Blessed Paean, come, propitious to my prayer,

Illustrious power, whom Memphian tribes revere,

Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health,

Lycorian Phoebus, fruitful source of wealth .

Spermatic, golden-lyred, the field from thee

Receives its constant, rich fertility.

Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing,

Python-destroying, hallowed, Delphian king:

Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's Head,

Noble and lovely, armed with arrows dread:

Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine,

Power far diffused, and course oblique is Thine.

O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye

Views all within, and all beneath the sky:

Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure,

Who, omens good reveals, and precepts pure:

Hear me entreating for the human kind,

Hear, and be present with benignant mind;

For You survey this boundless aether all,

And every part of this terrestrial ball

Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight,

Extends beneath the gloomy, silent night;

Beyond the darkness, starry-eyed, profound,

The stable roots, deep fixed by Thee are found.

The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are Thine,

Thyself all the source and end divine:

'Tis Thine all Nature's music to inspire,

With various-sounding, harmonising lyre;

Now the last string thou tun'ft to sweet accord,

Divinely warbling now the highest chord;

The immortal golden lyre, now touched by Thee,

Responsive yields a Dorian melody.

All Nature's tribes to Thee their difference owe,

And changing seasons from thy music flow

Hence, mixed by Thee in equal parts, advance

Summer and Winter in alternate dance;

This claims the highest, that the lowest string,

The Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring .

Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horned named,

Emitting whistling winds through Syrinx famed;

Since to Thy care, the figured seal's consigned,

Which stamps the world with forms of every kind.

Hear me, blessed power, and in these rites rejoice,

And save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

Ancient Greek Text

Ἐλθέ, μάκαρ Παιὰν τιτυοκτόνε, Φοῖβε Λυκωρεῦ,

Μεμφῖτ’, ἀγλαότιμος, ἰῃϊος, ὀλβιοδῶτα.

χρυσολύρη, σπερμεῖος, ἀρότριε, Πύθιε, Τιτάν,

Γρύνειε, Σμινθεῦ, Πυθοκτόνε, Δελφικέ, μάντι,

ἄγριε, φωσφόρε δαῖμον, ἐράσμιε, κύδιμε κοῦρε·   5

Μουσαγέτη, χαροποιός, ἑκηβόλε, τοξοβέλεμνε,

Βράγχιε καὶ Διδυμεῦ, ἑκάεργος, Λοξία, ἁγνέ·

Δήλι’ ἄναξ πανδερκὲς ἔχων φαεσίμβροτον ὄμμα,

χρυσοκόμη, καθαρὰς φήμας χρησμούς τ’ ἀναφαίνων·

κλῦθί μευ εὐχομένου λαῶν ὕπερ εὔφρονι θυμῷ.   10

τόνδε σὺ γὰρ λεύσσεις τὸν ἀπείριτον αἰθέρα πάντα,

γαῖάν τ’ ὀλβιόμοιρον ὕπερθέν καὶ δι’ ἀμολγοῦ

νυκτὸς ἐν ἡσυχίῃσιν ὑπ’ ἀστεροομμάτου ὄρφνης

ῥίζας νέρθε δέδορκας, ἔχεις δέ τε πείρατα κόσμου

παντός· σοὶ δ’ ἀρχή τε τελευτή τ’ ἐστὶ μέλουσα,   15

παντοθαλής, σὺ δὲ πάντα πόλον κιθάρῃ πολυκρέκτῳ

ἁρμόζεις, ὁτὲ μὲν νεάτης ἐπὶ τέρματα βαίνων,

ἄλλοτε δ’ αὖθ’ ὑπάτην, ποτὲ Δώριον εἰς διάκοσμον

πάντα πόλον κιρνὰς, κρίνεις βιοθρέμμονα φῦλα,

ἁρμονίῃ κεράσας παγκόσμιον ἀνδράσι μοῖραν·   20

μίξας χειμῶνος θέρεός τ’ ἴσον ἀμφοτέροισιν,

εἰς ὑπάτας χειμῶνα, θέρος νεάταις διακρίνας,

Δώριον εἰς ἔαρος πολυηράτου ὥριον ἄνθος.

ἔνθεν ἐπωνυμίην σε βροτοὶ κλῄζουσιν ἄνακτα

Πᾶνα, θεὸν δικέρωτ’, ἀνέμων συρίγμαθ’ ἱέντα·   25

οὕνεκα παντὸς ἔχεις κόσμου σφρηγῖδα τυπῶτιν.

κλῦθι μάκαρ, σώζων μύστας ἱκετηρίδι φωνῇ.