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Fortuna scatters coins from a purse as a winged child grasps her hair.
Fortuna with a Purse. Guido Reni, c. 1636.Guido Reni, Fortuna with a Purse, private collection. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. · Source · Public domain. Detail shown.

Orphic Hymns · Hymn 72

Tyche, Fortune

Τύχης

Orphic tradition · 10 lines · Tyche

ProsperityProtection

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 gracious fortune, sufficient possessions, and a favourable course of life.

Use this hymn as a prayer when asking Tyche to regard a household or undertaking kindly. It may supplement a rite for prosperity, with the final petition focused on a life made fruitful through her favourable presence.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 72 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. Come here, Tyche: in prayer I call you, kindly sovereign,
  2. gentle one of the ways, present with fortunate possessions,
  3. guiding Artemis of mighty name, born
  4. from the blood of Eubouleus, bearing an unconquerable form,
  5. one of the tombs, far-wandering, celebrated among humankind.
  6. For in you the life of mortals takes its countless forms:
  7. for some you fashion a richly blessed abundance of possessions,
  8. for others bitter poverty, stirring anger in your heart.
  9. But, O Goddess, I entreat you to come with favour toward our life,
  10. full of blessings among fortunate possessions.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

10 Greek lines
  1. Δεῦρο, Τύχη· καλέω σ’, ἀγαθὴν κράντειραν, ἐπ’ εὐχαῖς,DHEH-vroh, TEE-hyee· kah-LEH-oh s’, ah-ghah-THEEN KRAHN-dee-rahn, ehp’ ehf-HYEHS,
  2. μειλιχίην, ἐνοδῖτιν, ἐπ’ εὐόλβοις κτεάτεσσιν,mee-lee-HYEE-een, eh-noh-DHEE-teen, ehp’ eh-VOHL-vees kteh-AH-teh-seen,
  3. Ἄρτεμιν ἡγεμόνην, μεγαλώνυμον, ΕὐβουλῆοςAHR-teh-meen ee-yeh-MOH-neen, meh-ghah-LOH-nee-mohn, eh-voo-LEE-ohs
  4. αἵματος ἐκγεγαῶσαν, ἀπρόσμαχον εἶδος ἔχουσαν,EH-mah-tohs ehk-yeh-ghah-OH-sahn, ah-PROH-zmah-khohn EE-dhohs EH-khoo-sahn,
  5. τυμβιδίην, πολύπλαγκτον, ἀοίδιμον ἀνθρώποισιν.teem-vee-DHEE-een, poh-LEE-plahng-tohn, ah-EE-dhee-mohn ahn-THROH-pee-seen.
  6. ἐν σοὶ γὰρ βίοτος θνητῶν παμποίκιλός ἐστιν·ehn SEE GHAHR VEE-oh-tohs thnee-TOHN pahm-BEE-kee-LOHS eh-steen·
  7. οἷς μὲν γὰρ τεύχεις κτεάνων πλῆθος πολύολβον,EES MEHN GHAHR TEHF-hyees kteh-AH-nohn PLEE-thohs poh-LEE-ohl-vohn,
  8. οἷς δὲ κακὴν πενίην θυμῷ χόλον ὁρμαίνουσα.EES DHEH kah-KEEN peh-NEE-een thee-MOH KHOH-lohn ohr-MEH-noo-sah.
  9. ἀλλά, θεά, λίτομαί σε μολεῖν βίῳ εὐμενέουσαν,ah-LAH, theh-AH, LEE-toh-MEH seh moh-LEEN VEE-oh ehv-meh-NEH-oo-sahn,
  10. ὄλβοισι πλήθουσαν ἐπ’ εὐόλβοις κτεάτεσσιν.OHL-vee-see PLEE-thoo-sahn ehp’ eh-VOHL-vees kteh-AH-teh-seen.
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

Tyche is praised through the hymn’s own identifications with guiding Artemis and the blood of Eubouleus. Her power reaches both prosperity and poverty, so the prayer honours the fullness of her dominion before asking for favour. The sacred request is for her kindly presence within the changing circumstances of life.

Ancient offering rubric: Frankincense.

Textual note

The identifications with Artemis and Eubouleus belong to this hymn and are preserved without substituting a single genealogy from elsewhere.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 95, 96. 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 124476; 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.