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The personifications of Sleep and Death recline beside one another in a dim interior.
Sleep and his Half-brother Death. John William Waterhouse, 1874.John William Waterhouse, Sleep and his Half-brother Death, 1874. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain. · Source · Public domain. Detail shown.

Orphic Hymns · Hymn 85

Hypnos, Sleep

Ὕπνου

Orphic tradition · 10 lines · Hypnos

Rest and dreamsProtection

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 sweet, well-measured sleep and the preservation of the initiate through sacred work.

Recite the hymn as a prayer before sleep or after the completion of a rite. It may supplement devotional work concerned with restoration and repose, preserving the request for sleep that is sweet, measured, and protective.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 85 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. Hypnos, Lord of all the Blessed and of mortal humankind,
  2. and of every living creature nourished by the broad earth,
  3. you alone have power over all and come to every being,
  4. binding bodies in fetters wrought of no bronze.
  5. Releaser of care, bearing sweet repose from labour,
  6. you bestow a sacred consolation for every sorrow;
  7. you turn aside the practice of death, preserving souls,
  8. for you were born the full brother of Lethe and Thanatos.
  9. But, blessed one, I beseech you to come sweet and well-tempered,
  10. graciously preserving the initiates in their divine works.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

10 Greek lines
  1. Ὕπνε, ἄναξ μακάρων πάντων θνητῶν τ’ ἀνθρώπωνEEP-neh, AH-nahks mah-KAH-rohn PAHN-dohn thnee-TOHN t’ ahn-THROH-pohn
  2. καὶ πάντων ζῴων, ὁπόσα τρέφει εὐρεῖα χθών·KEH PAHN-dohn ZOH-ohn, oh-POH-sah TREH-fee eh-VREE-ah KHTHOHN·
  3. πάντων γὰρ κρατέεις μοῦνος καὶ πᾶσι προσέρχῃPAHN-dohn GHAHR krah-TEH-ees MOO-nohs KEH PAH-see proh-SEHR-hyee
  4. σώματα δεσμεύων ἐν ἀχαλκεύτοισι πέδῃσι,SOH-mah-tah dheh-ZMEH-vohn ehn ah-khahl-KEHF-tee-see PEH-dhee-see,
  5. λυσιμέριμνε, κόπων ἡδεῖαν ἔχων ἀνάπαυσινlee-see-MEH-reem-neh, KOH-pohn ee-DHEE-ahn EH-khohn ah-NAH-pahf-seen
  6. καὶ πάσης λύπης ἱερὸν παραμύθιον ἔρδων·KEH PAH-sees LEE-pees ee-eh-ROHN pah-rah-MEE-thee-ohn EHR-dhohn·
  7. καὶ θανάτου μελέτην ἀπάγεις ψυχὰς διασώζων·KEH thah-NAH-too meh-LEH-teen ah-PAH-yees psee-KHAHS dhee-ah-SOH-zohn·
  8. αὐτοκασίγνητος γὰρ ἔφυς Λήθης Θανάτου τε.ahf-toh-kah-SEEGH-nee-tohs GHAHR EH-fees LEE-thees thah-NAH-too teh.
  9. ἀλλά, μάκαρ, λίτομαί σε κεκραμένον ἡδὺν ἱκάνεινah-LAH, MAH-kahr, LEE-toh-MEH seh keh-krah-MEH-nohn ee-DHEEN ee-KAH-neen
  10. σώζοντ’ εὐμενέως μύστας θείοισιν ἐπ’ ἔργοις.SOH-zohnd’ ehv-meh-NEH-ohs MEE-stahs THEE-ee-seen ehp’ EHR-yees.
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

Hypnos binds the body without metal fetters while releasing care, labour, and sorrow. His kinship with Lethe and Thanatos places sleep beside forgetfulness and death, yet the hymn asks him to preserve souls. Its final movement seeks a tempered sweetness that safeguards the initiates in their divine works.

Ancient offering rubric: Incense with poppy.

Textual note

Abel’s main text reads ἀπάγεις in verse 7, “turn away”, where the digital transcription has ἐπάγεις, “bring on”. The translation follows Abel; his apparatus records ἐπάγεις as the alternative. “Incense with poppy” translates the ancient heading without expanding it into a preparation.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 100, 101. 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 124518; 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.