Orphic Hymn to Athena

The Orphic Hymn to Athena
Translation by Thomas Taylor

To Pallas,
with an incense of aromatic herbs

Only-begotten, noble race of Jove,
Blessed and fierce, who joyest in caves to rove:
O, warlike Pallas, whose illustrious kind,
Ineffable and effable we find:
Magnanimous and famed, the rocky height,
And groves, and shady mountains thee delight:
In arms rejoicing, who with Furies dire
And wild, the souls of mortals dost inspire.
Gymnastic virgin of terrific mind,
Dire Gorgon's bane, unmarried, blessed, kind:
Mother of arts, impetuous; understood,
Rage to the wicked, wisdom to the good:
Female and male, the arts of war are thine,
Fanatic, much-formed dragoness, divine:
Over the Phlegrean giants, roused to ire,
Thy coursers driving, with destruction dire.
Sprung from the head of Jove, of splendid mien,
Purger of evils, all-victorious queen.
Hear me, O Goddess, when to thee I pray,
With supplicating voice both night and day,
And in my latest hour, give peace and health,
Propitious times, and necessary wealth,
And, ever present, be thy votaries aid,
O, much implored, art's parent, blue-eyed maid.

Notes:

Only-begotten ... The term monogenes means only-born. The Goddess Athena has no mother, she sprang from the head of her father Zeus.

Ineffable and effable ... The Greek arrhete refers to a reverent, even fearful, silence. In the hymn it is followed immediately by rhete, its opposite.

And groves, and shady mountains thee delight ... The Greek word antrodiaitos literally means "to make one's home in a cavern" or "grotto." This is a chthonic attribution.

Dire Gorgon's bane ... An epithet of Athena, who aided Perseus to destroy the Gorgon monster. All Athena's statue depic the head of the Medusa (the only mortal of the three Gorgon sisters) on her breastplate, the aegis.

Female and male ... The androginous aspect of Athena is here well stated. Karl Kerenyi (1952) explains: In the case of the name Pallas, one has to associate with a masculine Pallas, with an extraction from androgynous unity; this would explain the androgyny of the Goddess. [Athene p.42]

... ever present... Otto, at The Homeric Gods, sought to grasp the essence of the Goddess this way: Only the 'bright-eyed intelligence' capable of discerning the decisive element at every juncture and of supplying the most effective instrumentality is an adequate characterization of her ideal . Consummation, the immediate present, action here and now - that is Athena. She is spirited immediacy, redeeming spiritual presence, swift action. She is the 'ever-near'.[p.43]

... blue-eyed maid ... The Goddess Athena was represented blue-eyed, Pausanias confirms this assertion: I saw that the statue of Athena had blue eyes [Paus. 14.6].

See also

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