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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 87

Thanatos, Death

Θανάτου

Orphic tradition · 12 lines · Thanatos

ProtectionCosmic 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 the fulfilment of a long life and the good honour of old age.

Recite the hymn as a prayer that Thanatos approach only after long years of life. It may supplement a rite for the preservation of life or a solemn contemplation of mortal destiny, keeping its final petition for a good old age.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 87 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. Hear me, you who hold the rudder of all mortals,
  2. granting a sacred span to all from whom you remain far away.
  3. For your sleep breaks the soul and the body's hold,
  4. when you loosen the bonds fastened by Nature,
  5. bringing to living beings the long, everlasting sleep.
  6. Common to all, yet unjust to some,
  7. you cut short the newly ripening flower in the swiftness of life.
  8. In you alone the appointed judgment of all is fulfilled;
  9. you alone are persuaded neither by prayers nor by entreaties.
  10. Yet, blessed one, I ask that you approach after long years of life,
  11. imploring you with offerings and prayers,
  12. so that old age may be a noble honour among humankind.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

12 Greek lines
  1. Κλῦθί μευ, ὃς πάντων θνητῶν οἴηκα κρατύνειςKLEE-THEE mehv, OHS PAHN-dohn thnee-TOHN EE-ee-kah krah-TEE-nees
  2. πᾶσι διδοὺς χρόνον ἁγνόν, ὅσων πόρρωθεν ὑπάρχεις·PAH-see dhee-DHOOS KHROH-nohn ahgh-NOHN, OH-sohn POH-roh-thehn ee-PAHR-hyees·
  3. σὸς γὰρ ὕπνος ψυχὴν θραύει καὶ σώματος ὁλκόν,SOHS GHAHR EEP-nohs psee-HYEEN THRAH-vee KEH SOH-mah-tohs ohl-KOHN,
  4. ἡνίκ’ ἂν ἐκλύῃς φύσεως κεκρατημένα δεσμὰee-NEEK’ AHN eh-KLEE-ees FEE-seh-ohs keh-krah-tee-MEH-nah dheh-ZMAH
  5. τὸν μακρὸν ζῴοισι φέρων αἰώνιον ὕπνον,TOHN mah-KROHN ZOH-ee-see FEH-rohn eh-OH-nee-ohn EEP-nohn,
  6. κοινὸς μὲν πάντων, ἄδικος δ’ ἐνίοισιν ὑπάρχων,kee-NOHS MEHN PAHN-dohn, AH-dhee-kohs dh’ eh-NEE-ee-seen ee-PAHR-khohn,
  7. ἐν ταχυτῆτι βίου παύων νεοήλικας ἀκμάς·ehn tah-hyee-TEE-tee VEE-oo PAH-vohn neh-oh-EE-lee-kahs ahk-MAHS·
  8. ἐν σοὶ γὰρ μούνῳ πάντων τὸ κριθὲν τελεοῦται·ehn SEE GHAHR MOO-noh PAHN-dohn TOH kree-THEHN teh-leh-OO-teh·
  9. οὔτε γὰρ εὐχῇσιν πείθῃ μόνος οὔτε λιτῇσιν.OO-teh GHAHR ehf-HYEE-seen PEE-thee MOH-nohs OO-teh lee-TEE-seen.
  10. ἀλλά, μάκαρ, μακροῖσι χρόνοις ζωῆς σε πελάζεινah-LAH, MAH-kahr, mah-KREE-see KHROH-nees zoh-EES seh peh-LAH-zeen
  11. αἰτοῦμαι, θυσίῃσι καὶ εὐχωλαῖς λιτανεύων,eh-TOO-meh, thee-SEE-ee-see KEH ehf-khoh-LEHS lee-tah-NEH-vohn,
  12. ὡς ἂν ἔῃ γέρας ἐσθλὸν ἐν ἀνθρώποισι τὸ γῆρας.ohs AHN EH-ee YEH-rahs ehsth-LOHN ehn ahn-THROH-pee-see TOH YEE-rahs.
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

Thanatos holds the rudder of mortal life and releases the bonds by which nature holds the living body together. The hymn acknowledges both his universality and the grief of death before the ripening of life. Its closing appeal asks that the common destiny arrive after long years, so that old age may stand as a noble honour among humankind.

Ancient offering rubric: Manna incense.

Textual note

The hymn’s assertion that Death cannot be persuaded and its concluding prayer are both retained. This solemn tension belongs to the transmitted poem and has not been harmonised away.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Eugenius Abel, Orphica (1885), printed pages 101, 102. 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 124524; 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.