The Orphic Hymns: Poetry and Genre, With a Critical Text and Translation

The Orphic Hymns, a collection of invocations to the complete Greek pantheon, have reached us without explicit information about the contexts of their composition and performance. Combining a new critical edition and translation of the hymns with an in-depth study of the poetic strategies they employ and the forms of Greek poetry they draw upon, this book explores what the hymns can tell us about themselves. Through the use of allusion and figures that look to the earliest Greek poetry, the hymns present themselves as a text to be heard and meditated upon in performance, and as Orpheus’ summative revelation on the nature and unity of the divine realm. Front Cover ‎Half-Title Page ‎Series Title Page ‎Title Page ‎Copyright Page ‎Contents ‎Preface ‎Introduction ‎Text and Translation ‎Introduction to the Text ‎Sigla ‎Notes on the Text ‎Synopsis of Variant Readings ‎Study ‎Chapter 1. Scholarship and Reception ‎1.1. The Occult Tradition ‎1.2. The Question of Authorship from the Fifteenth to Seventeenth Centuries ‎1.3. Criticism of the Eighteenth Century, the Göttingen School ‎1.4. The Question of Function ‎1.5. Nineteenth-Century Criticism: Scepticism and Reaction ‎1.6. Inscriptional Evidence and the Ritual Function of the Hymns ‎1.7. Otto Kern and the Location of the OH Community ‎1.8. Theories of Authorship ‎1.9. Recent Scholarship ‎Chapter 2. The Collection and the Hymns ‎2.1. The Collection ‎2.1.1. The Proem and the Hymn to Hekate ‎2.1.2. The Titles ‎2.1.3. The Sequence ‎2.2. Formal Features of the Hymns: Epiclesis, Eulogia and Euche ‎2.2.1. Invocation ‎2.2.2. Prayers ‎2.2.3. The Body of the Hymn ‎2.3. Conclusion: The Structure of the Collection and the Hymns ‎Chapter 3. Sound and Patterning ‎3.1. Phonic Repetition ‎3.1.1. Repetition of Sounds and Letters ‎3.1.2. Repetition of Words, Stems and Prefixes ‎3.1.3. Names and Etymologies ‎3.1.4. Conclusion: Phonic Repetition ‎3.2. Antithetical Predication ‎3.2.1. Unity and Multiplicity ‎3.2.2. Beginning and End ‎3.2.3. Above and Below ‎3.2.4. Gender and Generation: Male–Female, Virgin–Mother, Son–Father ‎3.2.5. Hidden and Manifest ‎3.2.6. Creation and Destruction ‎3.2.7. Favour and Disfavour ‎3.2.8. Pure Antitheses ‎3.2.9. Conclusion: Antithetical Predication ‎3.3. Formal Antithesis, Structural Symmetry ‎3.3.1. Verse-Level Symmetry: Full Chiasmus ‎3.3.2. Framing ‎3.3.3. Central Element ‎3.3.4. Tricoloi and Tetracoloi ‎3.3.5. Parallelism ‎3.3.6. Formal Antithesis and Symmetry: Distribution in the Collection ‎3.4. Conclusion: Sound and Patterning ‎Chapter 4. Formulae in the Orphic Hymns ‎4.1. Formulae within the Collection ‎4.1.1. Invocation and Prayer ‎4.1.2. Predications ‎4.1.3. Connecting Divinities ‎4.1.4. Adaptation ‎4.1.5. Conclusion: Formulae within the Collection ‎4.2. Formulae as Intertexts ‎4.2.1. Homer, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, Early Hexameter and Elegy ‎4.2.2. Lyric Poets and Dramatists ‎4.2.3. Hellenistic and Imperial Hexameter Poetry ‎4.2.4. Orphic Poetry ‎4.2.5. Oracles and the Hymns of the Magical Papyri ‎4.2.6. Prose Authors ‎4.3. Conclusion: Formulae ‎Chapter 5. The Generic and Poetic Contexts of the Orphic Hymns ‎5.1. Greek Hymns and Catalogues of Predications ‎5.2. Sound, Patterning, Harmony ‎5.3. Orphic Hymns ‎5.4. Generic Contexts ‎5.5. Function ‎5.6. Composition ‎Conclusion ‎Appendix 1. Manuscripts and Works Cited in the Critical Apparatus ‎Appendix 2.1. Prayer Structures ‎Appendix 2.2. Invocations ‎Appendix 2.3. Eulogia: Verse Types and Longer Predications ‎Appendix 3.1. Phonic Repetition ‎Appendix 3.2. Antithetical Predication ‎Appendix 3.3. Formal Antithesis and Structural Symmetry ‎Appendix 4.1. Formulae and Parallel Phrases ‎Appendix 4.2. Formulae: Index of Authors ‎Appendix 4.3. Formulae: Quantitative Analysis ‎Bibliography ‎Index Locorum: Ancient Authors ‎Index locorum: Orphic Hymns ‎General Index Back Cover The first major study of the Orphic Hymns as a poetic text to appear in English, this book combines a new critical edition and translation of the hymns with an in-depth analysis of their poetic strategies and generic contexts.