(Back to Essays)

On the Many Names of Orphic God, Part II

or,

On the Multifaceted Nature of Divinity in the Orphic Hymns

In our previous essay, we examined the Derveni Papyrus and what it could tell us about the nature of divinity from an Orphic perspective. We learned that while Orphism is a religion of many Gods, it is best to think of Them as different ‘masks worn’ or ‘tasks performed’ by the single, all-encompassing and ever-present divine force which permeates all of existence. To the Derveni author, who was a pre-Socratic philosopher, existence itself was composed of relationships between two primary elements, both divine: Mind and Matter.

In this essay, we will survey the Orphic Hymns^[1] with a similar goal to guide us: We will be looking for evidence of Gods being equated with each other. If we take Helios, for example, called ‘the eyes of Zeus’ in the Rhapsodic Hymn from part one, we find that, throughout antiquity, He is often equated with Apollo. In the Orphic Hymn to Helios (OH8), we are given the following:

kosmokrator, piper, fire-coursing circler,
Lucifer, vari-showing, life-bearing, fruitful Paian,
ever-blooming, undefiled, time’s father, undying Zeus,
bright-sky, shine-for-all, round-running eye of the cosmos,^[2]

The Orphic Hymns are largely composed of epithets, and that's what these are: various titles, names, or surnames depicting the functions, domains, or qualities of Helios. He is called Paian, which is a major epithet of Apollo, appearing in the first line of Apollo’s own Hymn^[3]. Helios is also called “undying Zeus” and “eye of the cosmos”, which both echo the Rhapsodic Hymn to Zeus. So, Helios is all at once Zeus himself, the eyes of Zeus, and Apollo.

‘Fruitful Paian’ is not only shared by Helios and Apollo, however. In the Hymn to Pan (OH11), the God is called:

all-nature, parent of all, many-named daimon,
kosmokrator, grower, lucifer, fruitful Paian,
cave-haunting, heavy-wrath, true Zeus the horned.^[4]

Here, Pan is equated with Helios and Apollo, with whom he shares the epithet “Paian.” “Kosmokrator” is also shared here between Helios and Pan, and means “Ruler of the Cosmos.” This is a title one would expect to be reserved for Zeus if the pantheon had a strict hierarchy, but it is the unique multifaceted nature of Orphic Zeus that allows His rule to be shared without being diminished. Indeed, Pan is very clearly equated with Zeus, being called “true Zeus.” “All-nature” and “parent of all” echo the first line in the Hymn, which suggests that Pan is the “whole of the cosmos,” also resembling the Rhapsodic Hymn to Zeus.

“Paian” as an epithet appears again later, in the second Hymn to Trieterikos^[5] (OH52):

earth-burster, fire-blazing, Epaphios, two-mothered youth,
hill-dweller, horned one, fawn-robed, biennial,
gold-speared Paian, in-the-lap, grape-decked,^[6]

Earlier in this same Hymn, Dionysus is called:

nocturnal Eubouleus, turbaned, thrysos-shaker,
unspoken rite, three-natured, Zeus’ hidden shoot,
Protogonos, Erikepaios, father and son of the Gods,^[7]

Along with Paian, this Hymn to Dionysus also gives us the names Protogonos and Erikepaios, which are both epithets already given in this collection with the Hymn to Protogonos (OH6):

Protogonos I call, twin-sexed, great, roaming the ether,
…
bullroarer, birth of the blessed and of mortals,
seed much-minded, of many rites, Erikepaios,
unspoken, hidden rusher, all-radiant shoot;
…
bringing light, bright, pure: whence I call you Phanes^[8]

Phanes is also called “all-radiant shoot” here, which at first glance resembles “Zeus’ hidden shoot” from Hymn 52. Looking closer, however, a distinction is made between Dionysus as ‘hidden’ and Phanes as ‘radiant.’ This is an excellent opportunity to remind ourselves that we are not just looking for similarities, and it is not always as simple as ‘X=Z.’ We are also on the lookout for things like this, and this shows that while the Gods are all One single divine force, They each remain unique and independent from one another. On this, Daniel Malamis says in the introduction to his edition of the Orphic Hymns: “Shared attributes are presented as reflections of common themes, but viewed through the lens of each God’s idiosyncratic and composite nature; phrasal repetition in the hymns is simultaneously a means of highlighting connections between divinities and of individuating them”^[9].

Cycling back to the first hymn we examined, the Hymn to Helios (OH8); He is called “ever-blooming, undefiled, time’s father, undying Zeus”^[10]. These ideas, and ‘time’s father’ specifically, show up again in the Hymn to Herakles (OH12):

strong-hand, untamed, brimming with mighty labours,
variform, time’s father, eternal and kind,
unspoken, wild-heart, much prayed-to, omnipotent,
almighty heart, great strength, archer, seer,
all-eating, all-parent, all-highest, all’s help,
…
self-grown, untiring, earth’s bravest shoot,
flashing with first-born scales, great-named Aion,
who wears around his head dawn and black night,
snaking through the twelve tasks, from east to the west;
undying, many-trialled, boundless, unshaken.^[11]

In this Hymn, Herakles is called “undying,” “untamed,” “eternal,” “all-parent, all-highest,” “time’s father,” and “earth’s bravest shoot,” all of which call back to things we have already examined. “Earth’s bravest shoot” is interesting. It could be a coincidence that the last few Hymns have all contained reference to the deity as a ‘shoot,’ but perhaps it could be evidence of a specific belief or teaching.

The word translated as ‘shoot’ is βλάστημα, and it literally means ‘sprout’ or ‘bud’ when referring to plants, but it can also mean ‘offspring’ or ‘child’ metaphorically. This dual nature of the word lends itself perfectly to this application; we can read from this line that Herakles is both the bravest person to sprout from the earth, and the bravest divine offspring on the earth. If, as we have repeatedly seen, divinity in Orphism is thought of as a single, permeating ‘force,’ then it would likely have been natural for an ancient Orphic to allegorize that the individual Gods ‘sprout’ from that force, or that divinity is a plant and the Gods are its ‘buds.’

In lines 11 and 12 of Hymn 12, Herakles is also painted as our sun, “who wears around his head dawn and black night, snaking through the twelve tasks, from east to the west”^[12]. Herakles, as the sun, crowns night and day, travels east to west, and snakes through the twelve signs of the zodiac throughout the year. This is more evidence that links Herakles to Apollo, Helios, Dionysus, Phanes, and Zeus.

βλάστημα is used again in the next Hymn, to Kronos (OH13):

Kronos, time’s all-father, Kronos of the varied word,
offshoot of Gaia and starry Ouranos,
birth, growing, waning, Rhea’s spouse, holy Prometheus,
who dwells in all parts of the cosmos, ancestor,^[13]

Kronos is also said to be “time’s all-father,” “who dwells in all parts of the cosmos,” which is similar to Helios, Herakles, Pan, and Phanes. In line 7, Kronos is specifically called Prometheus. This link connects Prometheus, through Kronos, to the rest of these Gods. Prometheus is famous for being the one who brought fire to mankind, and it is interesting that a handful of these Gods are addressed as light-bringing or presented as variations of the sun.

Switching gears, we will now take cue again from the Derveni Papyrus and move to the other ἀρχή^[14]. In the Hymn to Ge (OH26), She is called:

all-nursing, all-giving, fulfiller, destroyer of all,
growth-blooming, fruit-bearing, full of fair seasons,
seat of the undying cosmos, variegate maiden;
…
rain-happy, about whom the richly wrought cosmos of stars
rolls with ever-flowing nature, in terrible streams.^[15]

In the very next Hymn, to the Mother of the Gods (OH27), the Goddess is addressed similarly:

Immortal Gods’ God-honoured mother, nurse of all,
…
who holds the middle throne of the cosmos, and so
holds the earth, providing kind nourishment for mortals;
the races of immortals and mortals are born of you,
the rivers and all seas are ever ruled by you,
Hestia by name: they call you the giver of happiness,
since you grant mortals gifts of all that is good.
…
all-tamer, savior of Phrygia, bed-mate of Kronos,
Sky’s child, elder god, life-rearer, lover of frenzy:^[16]

And again a few hymns later, in the Hymn to Persephone (OH29), She is honored with similar titles as well:

Pluto’s much-honoured wife, noble, life-giving,
who keeps Hades’ gates in the vaults of the earth,
Praxidike, love-locked, pure shoot of Deo,
…
mother of loud-roaring, many-formed Eubouleus,
fellow-weaver of the Hours, light-bearer, bright-form,
holy one, all-ruler, maiden swelling with fruit,
brilliant, horned one, sole longing of mortals;^[17]

It is worth noting that, beginning with Ge as the launch-point for the same inquiry on the other ἀρχή, we are immediately met with these three Hymns. They all are addressed to Goddesses, and they each respectively refer to Her as being the seat of the cosmos, the throne of the cosmos, or in Persephone’s case, “in the vaults of the earth,” which can be inferred from the other two to be in the center of the cosmos.

Perhaps these three Hymns are a clue as to why the Derveni author felt the need to have a dual ἀρχή Mind and Matter system at all. In the geocentric view of the ancients, there were no “other earths.” Our word Planet comes from the Greek for “wandering star,” and this alone is enough insight into how they were perceived. It stands to reason, then, in this viewpoint, that the kind of matter the Earth is made of is exclusive to Earth, and it must be that way either because that is how the divine Mind made things, or because the Matter itself is divine.

In the second of these three Hymns (OH27), the Mother of the Gods is called “Hestia by name,” but also “savior of Phrygia,” referring to Kybele, and “bed-mate of Kronos,” referring to Rhea. Indeed, Rhea is called “bed-mate of Kronos” in her own Hymn (OH14):

all-honoured, bright-form, blessed bed-mate of Kronos,
rejoicing in mountains and shrill ululations of mortals,
all-queen Rhea, of the war-din, strong heart,
deceiver, saviour, releaser, primal-born,
mother of Gods and mother of mortals:
from you come the earth and the wide sky above
and the sea and the breezes; course-loving, air-formed.^[18]

In the Orphic Hymn to Hera a few hymns later (OH16), She is addressed with epithets similar to Rhea:

Seated in folds of blue, air-formed goddess,
Hera all-queen, blessed bed-mate of Zeus,
furnishing mortals with soft, soul-feeding breezes,
mother of rains, nurse of the winds, birth of all:
for without you nothing knows wholly the nature of life;
for you share in all, mingled with the holy air;
for you alone rule and reign over all,
shaking over the stream in rushes of air.
But, blessed Goddess, many-named, all-queen,
come kindly, with countenance joyful and fair.^[19]

Rhea and Hera are both called “all-queen” and “bed-mate” of their respective Spouse. Rhea at the end of Her hymn is called “air-formed,” and this is applied to Hera at the beginning of Her hymn. All of these “Matter” Goddesses so far are called “mother” or “nurse.”

It is important to remember that even in the Derveni author’s dual ἀρχή system, divine Mind and Matter are not separately-but-somehow-both the ἀρχή, but rather the ἀρχή is some sort of mixture of the two. We should not get too bogged-down in trying to separate one from the other, as divinity exists within and works through them both. This last hymn provides evidence of this and acts as a bridge between them. While so far it has been shown that Hera shares similarities to the Goddesses in Derveni’s Matter category, She also shares similarities in Her hymn with Derveni’s Mind; She of course is called “air-formed,” but also it is explicit that She feeds mortal souls with the breeze, and this is a function reserved in the Derveni Papyrus for Zeus-as-air, or the cosmic Mind.

To wrap up Part Two, let us recap thus far: In Part One, we looked at the Orphic Rhapsodic Hymn to Zeus and found that Orphic Zeus isn’t just a God among Gods, but rather He is the whole cosmos. We then combed the Derveni Papyrus for its author’s interpretation of this, and we found that the Derveni author seems to present a pre-Socratic system in which there are two sides of the same ἀρχή; he interprets the Gods of Orphism either as functions of the divine cosmic Mind which shapes Matter, or as divine forms which Matter has been or could be shaped into by Mind. We left Part One on the note that even with this system, it is clear that Mind and Matter are referred to in relation to each other and that this points toward a sort of philosophical monism.

In Part Two, we began looking through the Orphic Hymns with a similar goal: to find commonalities between deities that extend beyond coincidence. The commonalities that we found, even though we only viewed a fraction of the Orphic Hymns, are significant and sufficiently support the ideas presented in Part One. It is especially important to recognize that, while the Derveni author’s dual ἀρχή system is a useful tool, the Orphic Hymns themselves, as we have seen with OH16, present a viewpoint where Mind and Matter are not so easily separated.

(Back to Essays)

Works Cited

Malamis, Daniel. The Orphic Hymns: Poetry and Genre, with a Critical Text and Translation. Brill, 2025.

(Back to Essays)

Footnotes