Orphic Hymns · Hymn 30
Dionysus
Διονύσου
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
For a gracious encounter with Dionysus, whose hidden birth and manifold forms awaken sacred life and inspired praise.
Recite this hymn as a prayer inviting the gracious presence of Dionysus. It may also accompany a Dionysian rite of initiation, renewal, or sacred inspiration, carrying its petition for his kindly breath into the existing rite.
English hieratic rendering
Hymn 30 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.
- I call upon Dionysus, loud in thunder, lord of the sacred cry,
- firstborn, of twofold nature, thrice-born, Bacchic sovereign,
- wild, unutterable, hidden, two-horned, of twofold form,
- clad in ivy, bull-faced, martial, hailed with joy, pure,
- eater of raw flesh, lord of the third-year feast, bearer of grape clusters, robed in shoots.
- O Eubouleus, rich in counsel, of Zeus and Persephone
- begotten in their unutterable union, immortal divine power:
- hear my voice, O blessed one, and breathe upon us gently, blameless one,
- with a kindly heart, together with your fair-girdled nurses.
Ancient Greek & pronunciation
Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.
- Κικλήσκω Διόνυσον ἐρίβρομον, εὐαστῆρα,kee-KLEE-skoh dhee-OH-nee-sohn eh-REE-vroh-mohn, eh-vah-STEE-rah,
- πρωτόγονον, διφυῆ, τρίγονον, Βακχεῖον ἄνακτα,proh-TOH-ghoh-nohn, dhee-fee-EE, TREE-ghoh-nohn, vahk-HYEE-ohn AH-nahk-tah,
- ἄγριον, ἄρρητον, κρύφιον, δικέρωτα, δίμορφον,AH-ghree-ohn, AH-ree-tohn, KREE-fee-ohn, dhee-KEH-roh-tah, DHEE-mohr-fohn,
- κισσόβρυον, ταυρωπόν, ἀρήιον, εὔιον, ἁγνόν,kee-SOH-vree-ohn, tah-vroh-POHN, ah-REE-ee-ohn, EH-vee-ohn, ahgh-NOHN,
- ὠμάδιον, τριετῆ, βοτρυηφόρον, ἐρνεσίπεπλον.oh-MAH-dhee-ohn, tree-eh-TEE, voh-tree-ee-FOH-rohn, ehr-neh-SEE-peh-plohn.
- Εὐβουλεῦ, πολύβουλε, Διὸς καὶ Φερσεφονείηςeh-voo-LEHV, poh-LEE-voo-leh, dhee-OHS KEH fehr-seh-foh-NEE-ees
- ἀρρήτοις λέκτροισι τεκνωθείς, ἄμβροτε δαῖμον·ah-REE-tees LEHK-tree-see tehk-noh-THEES, AHM-vroh-teh DHEH-mohn·
- κλῦθι, μάκαρ φωνῆς, ἡδὺς δ’ ἐπίπνευσον ἀμεμφής,KLEE-thee, MAH-kahr foh-NEES, ee-DHEES dh’ eh-PEEP-nehf-sohn ah-mehm-FEES,
- εὐμενὲς ἦτορ ἔχων, σὺν εὐζώνοισι τιθήναις.ehv-meh-NEHS EE-tohr EH-khohn, SEEN ehv-ZOH-nee-see tee-THEE-nehs.
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.
| Spelling | Sound to make |
|---|---|
| ah · eh · ee · oh · oo | father · met · see · go without its final glide · moon. Keep these vowels clear in unstressed syllables too. |
| th · dh | The unvoiced th in thin · the voiced th in this. Thus DHEE begins with the sound in “thee.” |
| kh | The ch in Scottish loch or German Bach: let air pass at the back of the mouth, without closing it into a k. |
| hy | The 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.” |
| gh | Make the kh sound above, then add voice. Keep the passage open; this is a flowing sound, not a hard g. |
| y · g | y as in yes, with gentle friction · always a hard g as in get. |
| r | Tap the tongue lightly behind the upper teeth, or use a light roll. |
| ks · ps | Sound both consonants, even at the beginning of a word: ks as in backs, ps as in lips. |
| n-g · m-b · n-d | Sound 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
The hymn gathers first birth, double nature, and threefold birth into one divine presence. The wild and hidden lord is also the nurturer of the vine; its final petition seeks his gentle breath and the company of his nurses. His parentage from Zeus and Persephone belongs to the genealogy expressly given here.
Ancient offering rubric: Storax.
Textual note
The third-year designation follows ancient inclusive counting: the recurring festival was biennial. The translation preserves the hymn’s threefold birth and its explicit raw-flesh epithet.
Text and attribution
Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 74. 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 124300; 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.