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Demeter reaches toward Persephone as Hermes guides her upward from the underworld.
Demeter and Persephone reunited in Frederic Leighton’s The Return of Persephone, 1891.Frederic Leighton; Leeds Art Gallery. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. · Source · Public domain. Full image shown.

Orphic Hymns · Hymn 41

The Mother Antaia

Μητρὸς Ἀνταίας

Orphic tradition · 10 lines · Demeter as the Mother Antaia

InitiationProtectionRemembrance

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 the Mother who searches, descends, and leads the initiate through sacred loss toward reunion.

This hymn may be recited alone as a prayer for the Mother’s gracious presence in a time of searching or sorrow. It may also accompany a Demeter or Persephone rite, or a rite of initiation, with its final appeal directed to her favorable encounter with the initiate.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 41 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. O queen Antaia, goddess, many-named Mother
  2. of immortal gods and of mortal human beings,
  3. you who once, searching in the grief of many wanderings,
  4. brought your fast to an end in the hollows of Eleusis,
  5. and went down into Hades toward glorious Persephone,
  6. receiving the sacred son of Dysaulos as your guide,
  7. revealer of the holy marriage-bed of pure Zeus beneath the earth,
  8. having borne Eubouleus, O goddess, under mortal necessity:
  9. but I beseech you, goddess, queen invoked in many prayers,
  10. come in gracious encounter to your sacred initiate.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

10 Greek lines
  1. Ἀνταίη βασίλεια, θεά, πολυώνυμε μῆτερahn-DEH-ee vah-SEE-lee-ah, theh-AH, poh-lee-OH-nee-meh MEE-tehr
  2. ἀθανάτων τε θεῶν ἠδὲ θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων,ah-thah-NAH-tohn teh theh-OHN ee-DHEH thnee-TOHN ahn-THROH-pohn,
  3. ἥ ποτε μαστεύουσα πολυπλάγκτῳ ἐν ἀνίῃEE poh-teh mah-STEH-voo-sah poh-lee-PLAHNG-toh ehn ah-NEE-ee
  4. νηστείην κατέπαυσας Ἐλευσῖνος γυάλοισινnee-STEE-een kah-TEH-pahf-sahs eh-lehf-SEE-nohs yee-AH-lee-seen
  5. ἦλθές τ’ εἰς Ἀίδην πρὸς ἀγαυὴν ΦερσεφόνειανEEL-THEHS t’ ees ah-EE-dheen PROHS ah-ghah-VEEN fehr-seh-FOH-nee-ahn
  6. ἁγνὸν παῖδα Δυσαύλου ὁδηγητῆρα λαχοῦσα,ahgh-NOHN PEH-dhah dhee-SAH-vloo oh-dhee-yee-TEE-rah lah-KHOO-sah,
  7. μηνυτῆρ’ ἁγίων λέκτρων χθονίου Διὸς ἁγνοῦ,mee-nee-TEER’ ah-YEE-ohn LEHK-trohn khthoh-NEE-oo dhee-OHS ahgh-NOO,
  8. Εὐβουλῆα τεκοῦσα θεὰ θνητῆς ὑπ’ ἀνάγκης.eh-voo-LEE-ah teh-KOO-sah theh-AH thnee-TEES eep’ ah-NAHN-gees.
  9. ἀλλά, θεά, λίτομαί σε, πολυλλίστη βασίλεια,ah-LAH, theh-AH, LEE-toh-MEH seh, poh-lee-LEE-stee vah-SEE-lee-ah,
  10. ἐλθεῖν εὐάντητον ἐπ’ εὐιέρῳ σέο μύστῃ.ehl-THEEN eh-VAHN-dee-tohn ehp’ eh-vee-EH-roh SEH-oh MEE-stee.
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

The Mother’s wandering grief, the end of her fast at Eleusis, and her descent toward Persephone form the hymn’s sacred movement. Its account preserves the guide from the house of Dysaulos and the mysterious birth of Eubouleus. The final prayer draws the Mother’s searching presence close to her initiate.

Ancient offering rubric: Aromatic substances.

Textual note

The unusual genealogy and “mortal necessity” of verse 8 are retained as printed. Zeus Chthonios is translated “Zeus beneath the earth” rather than silently replaced by another name.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 81. 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 124335; 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.