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Winged marble Eros bends forward while stringing his bow.
Eros Stringing His Bow, a Roman copy after Lysippos, 2nd century CE.Photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5. · Source · CC BY 2.5. Full image shown.

Orphic Hymns · Hymn 58

Eros

Ἔρωτος

Orphic tradition · 10 lines · Eros

LovePurificationCosmic order

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 Eros’s universal unifying power to be present with pure intention, and for unworthy impulses to depart.

Use the hymn as a standalone prayer for love governed by a pure mind. It may also supplement a rite of union, concord, or purification, carrying its concluding petition for the removal of base and misplaced impulses.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 58 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. I call upon great and pure and lovely, sweet Eros,
  2. mighty with the bow, winged, roaring in fire, swift in his onset,
  3. playing together with the gods and with mortal human beings,
  4. skillful, of double nature, holding the keys of all,
  5. of heavenly aether, sea, and earth, and of all the life-bearing
  6. breaths that green-fruited Rhea nourishes for mortals,
  7. and of all that wide Tartarus and the roaring sea contain:
  8. for you alone hold the rudder of all these things.
  9. But, blessed one, come to the initiates with pure intentions,
  10. and send base and misplaced impulses far away from them.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

10 Greek lines
  1. Κικλήσκω μέγαν, ἁγνόν, ἐράσμιον, ἡδὺν Ἔρωτα,kee-KLEE-skoh MEH-ghahn, ahgh-NOHN, eh-RAH-zmee-ohn, ee-DHEEN EH-roh-tah,
  2. τοξαλκῆ, πτερόεντα, πυρίβρομον, εὔδρομον ὁρμῇ,tohk-sahl-KEE, pteh-ROH-ehn-dah, pee-REE-vroh-mohn, EHV-dhroh-mohn ohr-MEE,
  3. συμπαίζοντα θεοῖς ἠδὲ θνητοῖς ἀνθρώποις,seem-BEH-zohn-dah theh-EES ee-DHEH thnee-TEES ahn-THROH-pees,
  4. εὐπάλαμον, διφυῆ, πάντων κληῖδας ἔχοντα,ehf-PAH-lah-mohn, dhee-fee-EE, PAHN-dohn klee-EE-dhahs EH-khohn-dah,
  5. αἰθέρος οὐρανίου, πόντου, χθονός, ἠδ’ ὅσα θνητοῖςeh-THEH-rohs oo-rah-NEE-oo, POHN-doo, khthoh-NOHS, eedh’ OH-sah thnee-TEES
  6. πνεύματα παντογένεθλα Ῥέα βόσκει χλοόκαρπος,PNEHV-mah-tah pahn-doh-YEH-nehth-lah REH-ah VOH-skee khloh-OH-kahr-pohs,
  7. ἠδ’ ὅσα Τάρταρος εὐρὺς ἔχει πόντος θ’ ἁλίδουπος·eedh’ OH-sah TAHR-tah-rohs eh-VREES EH-hyee POHN-dohs th’ ah-LEE-dhoo-pohs·
  8. μοῦνος γὰρ τούτων πάντων οἴηκα κρατύνεις.MOO-nohs GHAHR TOO-tohn PAHN-dohn EE-ee-kah krah-TEE-nees.
  9. ἀλλά, μάκαρ, καθαραῖς γνώμαις μύστῃσι συνέρχου,ah-LAH, MAH-kahr, kah-thah-REHS GHNOH-mehs MEE-stee-see see-NEHR-khoo,
  10. φαύλους δ’ ἐκτοπίους θ’ ὁρμὰς ἀπὸ τῶνδ’ ἀπόπεμπε.FAH-vloos dh’ ehk-toh-PEE-oos th’ ohr-MAHS ah-POH TOHNDH’ ah-POH-pehm-beh.
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

Eros holds the keys and steering power of the realms above, below, and within the living earth. His playful presence among gods and mortals is also sovereign cosmic power. The final petition directs that power toward purity of intention in the initiates.

Ancient offering rubric: Aromatic substances.

Textual note

Verse 6 follows Abel’s printed Ῥέα, Rhea, an editorial reading documented in his apparatus; the digital transcription instead gives θεά, “goddess.”

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 89. 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 124403; 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.