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Pompeian fresco of veiled Saturn carrying a curved sickle against a red ground.
Saturn with a sickle, fresco from the House of the Dioscuri at Pompeii, before 79 CE.Photograph: Gary Todd (2019); Public domain. · Source · Public domain. Detail shown.Roman Saturn was identified with Greek Kronos; the caption preserves the fresco’s Roman subject.

Orphic Hymns · Hymn 13

Kronos

Κρόνου

Orphic tradition · 10 lines · Kronos

Cosmic orderProsperity

Prayer and ritual

These hymns may be spoken as complete prayers to the Gods. Within the Temple’s practice, a ritual is a direct theurgical act; hymnody gathers the mind and turns it toward the Divine, helping the initiate enter reverent communion with the Gods.

Use a hymn on its own in place of another prayer, or add it to the prayer portion of a suitable ritual. Choose according to the deity addressed and the petition expressed in the hymn. When combining them, preserve the ritual’s prescribed sequence and let the hymn give voice to its purpose.

The petition of this hymn

Prayer to Kronos who consumes and renews all things and holds the unbreakable bonds of the Cosmos. It seeks the blameless fulfilment of a blessed life.

Use independently in prayer concerning time, maturity, and the course of a whole life. It can accompany an established rite to Kronos, directing the petition toward the good completion expressly sought in the last line.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 13 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. Ever flourishing father of the blessed Gods and of mortals,
  2. of manifold counsel, undefiled, immensely strong, valiant Titan,
  3. you consume all things and yourself increase them once again;
  4. you hold unbreakable bonds throughout the boundless Cosmos,
  5. Kronos, begetter of all time, Kronos of manifold story,
  6. offspring of Earth and of the starry Heaven,
  7. birth and the diminishing of growth, husband of Rhea, venerable forethinker,
  8. who dwell in every part of the Cosmos, source of the race,
  9. of intricate counsel, most excellent: hear the suppliant voice
  10. and send a fulfilment of blessed life that is forever without reproach.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

10 Greek lines
  1. Ἀιθαλές, μακάρων τε θεῶν πάτερ ἠδὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν,ah-ee-thah-LEHS, mah-KAH-rohn teh theh-OHN PAH-tehr ee-DHEH KEH ahn-DHROHN,
  2. ποικιλόβουλ’, ἀμίαντε, μεγασθενές, ἄλκιμε Τιτάν·pee-kee-LOH-vool’, ah-MEE-ahn-deh, meh-ghahs-theh-NEHS, AHL-kee-meh tee-TAHN·
  3. ὃς δαπανᾷς μὲν ἅπαντα καὶ αὔξεις ἔμπαλιν αὐτός·OHS dhah-pah-NAHS MEHN AH-pahn-dah KEH AHFK-sees EHM-bah-leen ahf-TOHS·
  4. δεσμοὺς ἀρρήκτους ὃς ἔχεις κατ’ ἀπείρονα κόσμον,dheh-ZMOOS ah-REEK-toos OHS EH-hyees kaht’ ah-PEE-roh-nah KOH-zmohn,
  5. αἰῶνος Κρόνε παγγενέτορ, Κρόνε ποικιλόμυθε,eh-OH-nohs KROH-neh pahn-geh-NEH-tohr, KROH-neh pee-kee-LOH-mee-theh,
  6. γαίης τε βλάστημα καὶ οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος,YEH-ees teh VLAH-stee-mah KEH oo-rah-NOO ah-steh-ROH-ehn-dohs,
  7. γέννα, φυῆς μείωσι, Ῥέας πόσι, σεμνὲ προμηθεῦ,YEH-nah, fee-EES MEE-oh-see, REH-ahs POH-see, sehm-NEH proh-mee-THEHV,
  8. ὃς ναίεις κατὰ πάντα μέρη κόσμοιο, γενάρχα,OHS NEH-ees kah-TAH PAHN-dah MEH-ree KOH-zmee-oh, yeh-NAHR-khah,
  9. ἀγκυλομήτα, φέριστε· κλύων ἱκετηρίδα φωνὴνahn-gee-loh-MEE-tah, FEH-ree-steh· KLEE-ohn ee-keh-tee-REE-dhah foh-NEEN
  10. πέμποις εὐόλβου βιότου τέλος αἰὲν ἄμεμπτον.PEHM-bees eh-VOHL-voo vee-OH-too TEH-lohs eh-EHN AH-mehmb-tohn.
Short sound guide for English speakers

Every line beneath the Greek uses English pronunciation spellings. Say each hyphenated syllable in sequence and emphasize the syllable in CAPITALS. For example, οὐρανόθεν is oo-rah-NOH-thehn. Read adjacent vowels separately: theh-AH has two syllables; oo-rah-NEE-een has four. Hyphens guide the voice; they do not mark pauses.

SpellingSound to make
ah · eh · ee · oh · oofather · met · see · go without its final glide · moon. Keep these vowels clear in unstressed syllables too.
th · dhThe unvoiced th in thin · the voiced th in this. Thus DHEE begins with the sound in “thee.”
khThe ch in Scottish loch or German Bach: let air pass at the back of the mouth, without closing it into a k.
hyThe breathy beginning of a carefully spoken Hugh. Raise the middle of the tongue toward the roof of the mouth and let air pass without voice. In shy, sound s followed by hy; do not use the English sh sound or the English word “shy.”
ghMake the kh sound above, then add voice. Keep the passage open; this is a flowing sound, not a hard g.
y · gy as in yes, with gentle friction · always a hard g as in get.
rTap the tongue lightly behind the upper teeth, or use a light roll.
ks · psSound both consonants, even at the beginning of a word: ks as in backs, ps as in lips.
n-g · m-b · n-dSound the nasal and the following consonant. In AHN-geh-leh, the n-g group is like finger, with the g audible.

Always sound s as in hiss, even at the end of DHEE-kees; z is voiced, as in zero. All other consonants have their usual English sounds. Initial consonant groups may be unfamiliar: sound every written consonant, without inserting an extra vowel. A word without capitals carries no written stress in the Greek. Where two syllables have capitals, both written accents are retained. An apostrophe marks a vowel already elided in the Greek; do not add it back. A hyphen at the end of a Greek verse joins the unfinished word to the next verse.

These spellings follow the Modern Greek liturgical reading used throughout this library. Breathings and iota subscripts are silent; separately pronounced vowels remain separate. The few Greek consonants without an exact English equivalent use the sound cues above. Ancient vowel length, pitch accent and metre are not reconstructed.

Hymn notes

Sacred meaning

Consumption and increase belong to the same divine power, and Kronos inhabits every region of the Cosmos. His relation to time is therefore expressed through generation, limitation, renewal, and the bonds that hold existence together.

Ancient offering rubric: Storax.

Textual note

Kronos and Chronos are not silently equated as names. The hymn itself invokes Kronos as αἰῶνος παγγενέτορ, begetter of all time or duration. Line 7 connects φυῆς with μείωσι, the diminishing of growth.

At line 1, Ἀιθαλές follows Abel’s placement of the breathing on alpha; the pronunciation guide keeps the two opening vowels separate.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 65, 66. The text follows the printed main reading of this edition; source-specific variants are recorded where relevant. Read the digitised edition. Greek source. Wikisource transcription, revision 124097; checked and corrected against Abel’s print. The English hieratic rendering and suggested devotional use are new editorial work. The applications are guidance for this library, not additional lines of the ancient poem.