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Ancient mosaic of a Nereid riding a blue hippocamp beside a Triton with a trident.
A Nereid riding a hippocamp with Triton, Roman mosaic, late 1st or 2nd century CE, Ephesus.Photograph: Carole Raddato (2011); CC BY-SA 2.0. · Source · CC BY-SA 2.0. Full image shown.A Nereid, one of the daughters of Nereus, supplies related imagery for his marine family and domain.

Orphic Hymns · Hymn 23

Nereus

Νηρέως

Orphic tradition · 8 lines · Nereus

ProtectionSea and journeysHealing

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 Nereus to avert earthquakes and grant prosperity, peace, and gentle health. It honours the foundation of the Sea and the divine father of fifty dancing daughters.

Recite independently in prayer for the stability and wellbeing of a community or household. It may supplement an established rite to Nereus or an appropriate protective rite, centring on the explicit petition to turn aside earthquakes.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 23 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. O you who hold the roots of the Sea, your seat of dark blue radiance,
  2. glorying throughout the waves in your fifty maidens,
  3. in the dances of your beautiful children, Nereus, Daimon of glorious name,
  4. foundation of the Sea, boundary of Earth, beginning of all,
  5. who shake the sacred base of Deo whenever the winds
  6. you shut within the hidden recesses where they are driven;
  7. but, blessed one, turn aside earthquakes, and send to the initiates
  8. prosperity and peace, and Health with her gentle hand.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

8 Greek lines
  1. Ὦ κατέχων πόντου ῥίζας, κυαναυγέτιν ἕδρην,OH kah-TEH-khohn POHN-doo REE-zahs, kee-ah-nahv-YEH-teen EH-dhreen,
  2. πεντήκοντα κόρῃσιν ἀγαλλόμενος κατὰ κῦμαpehn-DEE-kohn-dah KOH-ree-seen ah-ghah-LOH-meh-nohs kah-TAH KEE-mah
  3. καλλιτέκνοισι χοροῖς, Νηρεῦ, μεγαλώνυμε δαῖμον,kah-lee-TEHK-nee-see khoh-REES, nee-REHV, meh-ghah-LOH-nee-meh DHEH-mohn,
  4. πυθμὴν μὲν πόντου, γαίης πέρας, ἀρχὴ ἁπάντων,peeth-MEEN MEHN POHN-doo, YEH-ees PEH-rahs, ahr-HYEE ah-PAHN-dohn,
  5. ὃς κλονέεις Δηοῦς ἱερὸν βάθρον, ἡνίκα πνοιὰςOHS kloh-NEH-ees dhee-OOS ee-eh-ROHN VAH-throhn, ee-NEE-kah pnee-AHS
  6. ἐν μυχίοις κευθμῶσιν ἐλαυνομένας ἀποκλείεις·ehn mee-HYEE-ees kehfth-MOH-seen eh-lahv-noh-MEH-nahs ah-poh-KLEE-ees·
  7. ἀλλά, μάκαρ, σεισμοὺς μὲν ἀπότρεπε, πέμπε δὲ μύσταιςah-LAH, MAH-kahr, see-ZMOOS MEHN ah-POH-treh-peh, PEHM-beh DHEH MEE-stehs
  8. ὄλβον τ’ εἰρήνην τε καὶ ἠπιόχειρ’ ὑγίειαν.OHL-vohn t’ ee-REE-neen teh KEH ee-pee-OH-hyeer’ ee-YEE-ee-ahn.
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

Nereus holds the Sea's roots at the boundary of Earth and delights in the dance of his fifty daughters. The account of winds confined within deep recesses belongs to the hymn's image of his power to shake or preserve the sacred ground.

Ancient offering rubric: Myrrh.

Textual note

Deo in line 5 is a divine name of Demeter and is retained in the verse. The explanation of subterranean winds is the ancient hymn's account, presented as part of its wording.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 71. 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 124296; 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.