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Two Curetes dance with swords and shields while Amalthea nurses the infant Zeus below.
The Curetes on a Roman relief of Zeus’s infancy: related iconography for Corybas, called a nocturnal Curete in the hymn.Photograph by Mark Landon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. · Source · CC BY 4.0. Full image shown.The Curetes’ sacred dance provides related imagery for Corybas.

Orphic Hymns · Hymn 39

Corybas

Κορύβαντος

Orphic tradition · 10 lines · Corybas

ProtectionPurificationRest and dreams

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 release from terrifying visions and the pacification of a troubled, unpurified soul.

Recite this hymn as a prayer to Corybas for protection from dread and disturbing visions. It may also supplement a purification or protective rite, carrying the hymn’s own request that harsh wrath and terrifying apparitions cease.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 39 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. I call upon the greatest king of the ever-enduring earth,
  2. Kyrbas, blessed in his portion, martial, beyond the reach of sight,
  3. nocturnal Curete, who brings dreadful fears to their end,
  4. helper against apparitions, Corybas who wanders the lonely places,
  5. sovereign of shifting form, god of double nature and many shapes,
  6. blood-red, bloodied by your two brothers,
  7. you changed your sacred body by the counsels of Deo,
  8. taking the beastlike shape of a dark serpent.
  9. Hear these voices, O blessed one, and send grievous wrath away,
  10. ending the apparitions of a soul struck with terror and unpurified.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

10 Greek lines
  1. Κικλήσκω χθονὸς ἀενάου βασιλῆα μέγιστον,kee-KLEE-skoh khthoh-NOHS ah-eh-NAH-oo vah-see-LEE-ah MEH-yee-stohn,
  2. Κύρβαντ’ ὀλβιόμοιρον, Ἀρήιον, ἀπροσόρατον,KEER-vahnd’ ohl-vee-OH-mee-rohn, ah-REE-ee-ohn, ah-proh-SOH-rah-tohn,
  3. νυκτερινὸν Κουρῆτα, φόβων ἀποπαύστορα δεινῶν,neek-teh-ree-NOHN koo-REE-tah, FOH-vohn ah-poh-PAHF-stoh-rah dhee-NOHN,
  4. φαντασιῶν ἐπαρωγόν, ἐρημοπλάνον Κορύβαντα,fahn-dah-see-OHN eh-pah-roh-GHOHN, eh-ree-moh-PLAH-nohn koh-REE-vahn-dah,
  5. αἰολόμορφον ἄνακτα, θεὸν διφυῆ, πολύμορφον,eh-oh-LOH-mohr-fohn AH-nahk-tah, theh-OHN dhee-fee-EE, poh-LEE-mohr-fohn,
  6. φοίνιον, αἱμαχθέντα κασιγνήτων ὑπὸ δισσῶν,FEE-nee-ohn, eh-mahkh-THEHN-dah kah-seegh-NEE-tohn ee-POH dhee-SOHN,
  7. Δηοῦς δὲ γνώμῃσιν ἐνήλλαξας δέμας ἁγνόν,dhee-OOS DHEH GHNOH-mee-seen eh-NEE-lahk-sahs DHEH-mahs ahgh-NOHN,
  8. θηρότυπον θέμενος μορφὴν δνοφεροῖο δράκοντος·thee-ROH-tee-pohn THEH-meh-nohs mohr-FEEN dhnoh-feh-REE-oh DHRAH-kohn-dohs·
  9. κλῦθι, μάκαρ, φωνῶν, χαλεπὴν δ’ ἀποπέμπεο μῆνιν,KLEE-thee, MAH-kahr, foh-NOHN, khah-leh-PEEN dh’ ah-poh-PEHM-beh-oh MEE-neen,
  10. παύων φαντασίας, ψυχῆς ἐκπλήκτου ἀνάγνου.PAH-vohn fahn-dah-SEE-ahs, psee-HYEES ehk-PLEEK-too ah-NAHGH-noo.
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

Corybas appears as a hidden nocturnal guardian with changing forms. His bloodshed and serpentine transformation under Deo’s counsel belong to the divine story invoked by the prayer. The petition seeks the calming of a shaken soul through his power over fearful appearances.

Ancient offering rubric: Frankincense.

Textual note

Deo is Demeter. The reading “unpurified” follows Abel’s printed ἀνάγνου; the apparatus records a different reading, ἀνάγκης.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 79, 80. 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 124327; 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.