HYMN 8
HYMN TO APOLLO: VI 6–45
(SECOND/THIRD CENTURY)
This long prayer for an ‘encounter with Helios’ occupies almost
the entire PGM VI; the beginning of the spell (VI 1–47) in which
it was included is missing, but from the last two lines it is
possible to infer that this was a dream oracle: ‘. . . give . . .
oracles at night since you tell the truth through dream oracles’.
After a few directions about the best time to perform the rite,
the hymn, to be said to the rising sun, begins with an address
to Daphne-laurel; from line 16 (23), Apollo himself is invoked to
come and give oracles; the final section addresses Daphne
again.
Dactylic hexameters. Guide edition: Pr (also reconstructed
hymn 10, 13, 14).
5
10
15
δάφνη, μαντοσύνης] ἱερὸν φυτὸν Ἀπόλλω[νο]ς,
Φ]οῖβος στεφθείς τε κλάδοισι
] κεφαλὴν κομόωσαν ἐθείραις
]ον ἑαῖς παλάμαισι τινάσσων
]ησι πολυπτύχου, ὑψηλοῖο
]ε ̣ο ̣ις, θέσπιζε βροτοῖσιν
μεγα]λόστονος αὐτὸς Ἀπόλ[λ]ων
]. .η παρθένε δ[ε]ινὴ
]μενῳ ἱεροῖσι π[εδί]λοις
[
θαλ]λὸν ἐμαῖς μετὰ [χε]ρσὶν ἔχοντι
[
π]έμψον μάντευμ[ά τ]ε σεμνὸν
[
]. σαφηνέσι φοιβή[σα]σ ̣α
[
]ν ̣ τε καὶ ὣς τετελε[σμ]ένον ἔσται,
[
] ἵν’ ἔχω[ν] περὶ [παντὸς ἐ]τάζω
[
δα]μασά[ν]δρα μ[̣ -ca.6- ]ανδρα
(10)
(15)
(20)
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HYMN 8
Lines 21–4 are too fragmentary and also broken by voces
magicae. Certainly recognisable in 23 Παιάν, 24 πολυώνυμε
and Φοῖβε.
20
25
30
35
[μ]αντοσύναισιν ̣ [ἐπ]ίρροθε, Φοῖβε Ἀπόλλ[ον],
(25)
[Λ]ητοΐδη ἑκάεργε, [θε]οπρόπε, δεῦρ’ ἄγε, δε[ῦρο],
δεῦρ’ ἄγε, θεσπίζω[ν], μαντεύεο νυκτὸς ἐ[ν ὥ]ρῃ.
εἶτα λέγε μελετῶν [τοῦ]το εηϊεϊεηϊϊω[ . . ]ϊαωιηϊυη
ϊα ϊαω ϊαω η [. . . ]ο ̣υω. εἶτα πρὸς κατά[δυσ]ιν ἡλίου ἐξαιτοῦ πάλιν
κλῦθί μευ, ἀργυρό[τοξ]ε, ὃς Χρύσην ἀμφιβέ[βηκ]ας
(30)
Κίλλαν τε ζαθέην [Τε]νέδοιό τε ἶφι ἀνάσσεις,
χρυσοφαῆ, λαῖλ[α]ψ καὶ Πυθολέτα μεσεγκριφι,
Λατῶε σιαωθ Σ[αβ]αώθ, Μελιοῦχε, τύραννε,
πευχρη, νυκτε[ρόφ]οιτε σεσεγγενβαρφαραγ⟨γ⟩ης
καὶ αρβεθω πολύμορφε, φιλαίματε, ἀρβαθιάω,
(35)
Σμινθεῦ, εἴ ποτ[έ τ]οι χαρίεντ’ ἐπὶ βωμὸν ἔρεψα,
̣
ἢ εἰ δή ποτέ τοι κ[ατ]ὰ πίονα μηρί’ ἔκηα
ταύρων ἠδ’ α[ἰγ]ῶν, τόδε μοι κρήηνον ἐέλδωρ.
ὁμοίως καὶ πρὸς Σελήνην ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ σύστασις ἥδε
δάφνη, μαντο[σ]ύνης ἱερὸν φυτὸν Ἀπόλλωνος,
(40)
Δάφνη παρθε[νι]κή, Δάφνη, Φοίβοιο ἑταίρη, Σαβαώθ, ϊαωαωο
ϊαγχωθιπυλα μουσιάρχα
οτονυπον,
̣
δεῦρό μοι, ἔρχε[ο θ]ᾶσσον, ἐπείγομαι ἀείσασθαι
θεσμοὺς θεσπ[εσί]ους, νυκτὶ δ’ ἐνὶ δνοφερῇ.
1 Ἀπόλλωνος, Pr
4 σκῆπτρ]ον ἑαῖς, Pr
5 ἐν κορυφ]ῇσι
πολυπτύχου, Pr
6 ἑοῖς, Pr
7 μεγα]λόστονος, Pr (hymns)
9
ἱε]μένῳ, Pr
10 δάφνης θαλ]λὸν ἐμαῖς, Pr
12 σαφηνισι, P;
α ̣]ι ̣ σαφηνέσι, Pr
14 ἐτ]άζω, Pr
15 δ]αμασά[ν]δρα,
Pr
16 [ἐπί]ρροθε, Pr
20 παλῑ, P
26 αρβεθ ωπολλ ̣ορφε,
Pr; αρβεθωπολλ ̣ο ̣ορφε, Bortolani; ῶ πολύμορφε, Eitrem; αρβεθω
πολύμορφε, Pr (hymns); φιλαιμαγε, P; φιλαίματε, Eitrem, Pr;
φιλάρματε, Pr (hymns)
27 After the τοι the line continues with
the second half of the following verse (κατὰ πίονα μηρί’ ἔκηα); the
scribe, realizing the mistake, did not delete it, but wrote above the line
the correction χαρίεντ’ ἐπὶ βωμὸν ἔρεψα; ἔρεψα, Pr
29 κρήηνο[ν], Pr
30 for Σελήνην, P
33 οψονυπον, Bortolani
34
επειγομαι, P; ἔπειγέ μοι, Pr
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HYMN TO APOLLO
Translation
5
10
15
Daphne-laurel, sacred plant of Apollo’s divination,
. . . (with whose) branches Phoebus wreathed
. . . (his) head with beautiful long hair
. . . shaking in his hands
. . . of the . . . with many valleys, lofty
. . . prophesy to mortals
. . . grievous . . . Apollo himself
. . . O wondrous maiden
. . . with sacred rhythms
. . . with a branch in my hands
. . . send me a solemn oracle
. . . prophesying with clear [words]
. . . and so it will be fulfilled
. . . so that I can unveil everything with it
. . . mankind’s subduer . . .
[Lines 21–4]
20
25
30
O helper through divinations, Phoibos Apollo,
Leto’s son, who dart afar, prophet, come here, here,
come here, prophesying, give oracles in the night’s hour.
[Then speak, declaiming this:] eēieieēiiō . . . iaōiēiyē
ia iaō iaō ē . . . ouō. [Then at sunset ask again:]
listen to me, you with the silver bow, who protect Chryses
and holy Cilla and are the mighty ruler of Tenedos,
gold-shining, storm and Python slayer, mesegkriphi,
Leto’s son, siaōth sabaōth meliouche, absolute ruler,
peuchrē, night-wanderer, seseggenbarpharaggēs
and arbethō, with many forms, fond of blood, arbathiaō,
Smintheus, if I ever roofed a pleasing altar for you,
or if I ever burnt for you fat thighs
of bulls or goats, fulfil this desire for me.
[In the same way, there is his (the magician) contact with Selene, as
follows:]
Daphne-laurel, sacred plant of Apollo’s divination,
maiden Daphne, Daphne, Phoibos’ mistress, sabaōth iaōaōo
iagchōthipyla mousiarcha otonypon,
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HYMN 8
35
come here to me, come quickly, I urge you to sing
divine laws in the dark night.
COMMENTARY
1 See 7.1. Also at 31.
2–3 See 7.1–2. The reference to the long hair of the god reflects
the traditional iconography of Apollo.501
5 As Preisendanz suggested, probably κορυφῇσι πολυπτύχου,
from Il. 22.171: here the ‘peaks’ would be those of Mount
Parnassus.
7 μεγα]λόστονος: A rare adjective found only in Aeschylus,502
which probably refers to Apollo’s heartache for Daphne.
8 δ[ε]ινή: In 30–2 Daphne is identified with Selene and δεινός
is frequently found in the hymns to the female lunar/chthonic
goddess, where it generally means ‘dreadful’ (see 10.5). However, it could be used here in its meaning ‘wondrous’, alluding
to Daphne’s metamorphosis.
9 The ‘sacred rhythms’ are likely to refer to the hymn itself (cf.
1.4, 22, 27, 2.17, 7.4).
10 Laurel branches were standard implements in oracular
procedures involving Apollo (see 6.6–8, 7.1–2).
11–12 The feminine participle makes it clear that Daphnelaurel is expected to prophesy instead of Apollo.
13 Homeric hexameter ending, appearing also in the
Homeromanteion of VII within two Iliadic verses.503
15 δα]μασά[ν]δρα: In VII 696–7 the term appears in
the sequence βιασάνδρα δαμασάνδρα καλεσάνδρα
κατανικάνδρα (‘man-attacker, man-subduer, man-summoner,
man-conqueror’) among the epithets of Artemis-Selene, and in
501
502
Lambrinudakis (et al.), LIMC ‘Apollon’.
Pr. 413.
E.g. Hom. Il. 1.212, 2.257, 9.31, Od. 2.187, 16.440; VII 62*, 141. Cf.
Intro. n.74.
503
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C O M M EN T A R Y
IV 2848 (15.42) it is used for Hecate-Selene-PersephoneArtemis: as in lines 30–2, Daphne is identified with the female
lunar goddess of the PGM.
16–18 See 6.1–3: in spite of the difference in date, the passages
are practically identical. Even in this case the night-time fits the
dream oracle spell.
19–20 Sequence of vowels in which the magical name Iao and
the Apollonian cry ἰή can be recognized (see 3.33, 1.5, 7.3).
20–9 Here starts the second section of the hymn, to be recited
at sunset as is typical of dream oracles. The passage is basically
Homer, Iliad 1.37–41 with the insertion of four lines of epithets
(lines 23–6) between the first two (lines 21–2) and the last three
(lines 27–9) Homeric verses. Chryses, Cilla and Tenedos –
centres of the Apollonian cult in the Troad – are not otherwise
attested in the PGM, while the epithet Smintheus504 appears
only in III 249.505 For κλῦθί μευ, see 1.20.
23 χρυσοφαῆ: See 2.23A.
λαῖλ[α]ψ: Since Apollo is not usually connected with storms
(see 2.1), λαῖλαψ could be a mistake for the vox magica λαιλαμ
(see 2.22B) – sometimes appearing in the form λαιλαμψ506 –
generally used in solar contexts. On the other hand, an epithet
such as ‘storm’, ‘hurricane’, could easily belong to Seth, whose
image as a god of storms507 is still alive in the PGM as testified
by his identification with Typhon, the monstrous god of devastating storm winds, and by attributes such as λαιλαπετός/
λαιλαφέτης, ‘storm, hurricane/-sender’.508 Here the epithet
504
For possible etymologies Graf 2009, 19–21.
In the hymn to Apollo that will not be analysed in this study owing to its
fragmentary condition: see Intro. p. 54.
506
II 117, XV 15.
507
Atmospheric phenomena, as disruptions of the natural order, had
always been connected with this god, whose area of competence became in
time even more circumscribed to bad weather owing to the intensification of
his bellicose nature and to the increasing importance of Amun as god of the
sky: Te Velde, LdÄ ‘Seth’, 910; Te Velde 1967, especially 23–5, 66–7, 102–6,
109–10, 118, 128–9; Zandee 1963; Meeks 1971, 35–6.
508
IV 182, XIII 332.
505
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HYMN 8
could have been inserted only as a vox magica, and possibly
the writer knew the hymn to Seth-Typhon in IV 179–201,
where λαιλαπετός and νυκταστράπτης, ‘producing nocturnal
lightning’, appear together (cf. νυκτερόφοιτε at line 25).
Alternatively, the epithet could refer specifically to Typhon
and, considering its proximity to Πυθολέτα, could recall the
Homeric Hymn to Apollo where the guardian of the Delphic
oracle is not Python, but a female dragon described as the
nurse of Typhon (possibly identified with Python himself).509
Πυθολέτα: A hapax in line with the Apollonian myth
according to which the god killed Python, the monstrous serpent guarding the Delphi oracle.510
μεσεγκριφι: Sometimes in the form μεσενκριφι, or
μεσιντριφι, this vox magica comes from the Egyptian, and
certainly starts with ms-m/n, ‘child in/of ’, while for its second
part different interpretations have been suggested.511
24 Λατῶε: See 6.2.
σιαωθ: Unexplained vox magica formed either with the feminine plural ending of Hebrew and other Semitic languages
(–ōth), or with the Egyptian ending of nisbe formations of
feminine nouns.512
Σ[αβ]αώθ: Also at 41, see 3.22.
Μελιοῦχε: Various interpretations have been suggested for
this magical name but none is totally satisfying. III 45–6 invokes
the ‘mother of all men, you who have brought together the
limbs of Meliouchos’, which could allude to the myth of Isis
reassembling the scattered limbs of Osiris and suggested an
509
HH 3.300–60; see Fontenrose 1959, especially 77–93.
Fontenrose 1978, 201–3; Fontenrose 1959. Cf. III 235 for a similar
epithet in the fragmentary hymn to Apollo (cf. Intro. p. 54).
511
BG; Quack 2004, 443; cf. III 561, IV 2200–1, XXXVI 220.
512
Frequently attested in e.g. Osing 1998, e.g. 281, cf. 194. On nisbes,
adjectives derived from a noun or a preposition, see e.g. Allen 2000, 6.1,
8.6.
510
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C O M M EN T A R Y
etymology from μέλος, ‘limb, corpse’/μελίζω, ‘dismember’ +
ἔχω instead of μέλι + ἔχω, ‘honeyed’.513
τύραννε: Though more often used for human rulers, it can
also be found as a divine epithet of various gods: e.g. Ares,
Zeus, Apollo, Eros.514 As it can be used both for a general
(Zeus) and a specialized (Eros) hegemony, it does not seem to
imply any specific religious conception.515
25 νυκτε[ρόφ]οιτε: Though the epithet could hint at the
Egyptian nocturnal journey of the sun, it is a rare compound
always attested as an epithet of female deities (Artemis,
Hecate-Selene) which alludes to their lunar nature.516 It resembles other epithets of Hecate in the PGM such as νυκτοφάνεια,
‘who shines in the night’, νυκταιροδύτειρα, ‘who rises and sets
at night’, and νυκτιβόη, ‘who screams at night’.517 Like
λαῖλαψ and σιαωθ, it seems to have been inserted here only
as a vox magica with possible reference to the night-time in which
the dream oracle is supposed to take place.
σεσεγγενβαρφαραγ⟨γ⟩ης: See 3.20, 26.
26 αρβεθω: Possibly deriving, like ἀρβαθιάω, from the
- meaning ‘four letters’ (plus Iao): ‘Yahweh
Hebrew arba‛ oth,
whose name is written with four letters’. Alternatively, it has
been suggested it might come from the Egyptian Ḥr bỉk, like
ιαρβαθ = αρβαιηθ, meaning ‘Horus the falcon’.518
πολύμορφε: The papyrus has πολλ ̣ο ̣ορφε which, if read
together with the final ω of αρβεθω, could contain traces of
Ὡπόλλων, crasis for ὁ Ἀπόλλων. It seems the scribe was
confused by the sequence ωπολ and thought the name of
Apollo was mentioned again but, considering the following
513
BG; cf. III 99, V 5.
E.g. HH 8.5; Aesch. Pr. 222, 736; Soph. Tr. 217; Eur. Hipp. 538;
Aristoph. Nu. 564; Bernabé 2004–7, fr. 691.1; cf. IV 2602, 2664 (13.21).
515
Cf. Müller 1961, 19–21 for various Egyptian equivalents.
516
OH 36.6; Hippol. Refut. 4.35.5.2.
517
IV 2525, 2819–20 (12.2, 15.23), 2546 (12.21), 2808 (15.16).
518
Perdrizet 1928, 77–8; Fauth 1983; Mastrocinque 2003, 108. Cf. LGG
II.758–61 (bỉk).
514
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HYMN 8
ορφε, an original πολύμορφε seems almost certain. Again, the
epithet πολύμορφος is typical of female lunar deities, as it
describes their ability to manifest themselves in the different
phases of the moon.519 It is rarely found in connection with
male deities, either referring to a specific attribute520 or used as
a synonym of πολυώνυμος, ‘with many names’.521 Here the
epithet could have been drawn from a lunar context together
with νυκτερόφοιτε, and added only as vox magica. On the other
hand, a connection with a male solar god can be found in the
Egyptian tradition since every god can have different manifestations, especially solar-creator gods: the different stages of the
sun’s journey were conceived as different aspects of a single
deity and the cosmic god was ‘the one who made himself into
millions’ in the creative process.522 Not surprisingly, one of the
commonest epithets of Egyptian supreme deities is ‘šȝ-ḫ prw,
‘many of forms’, ‘with many forms’.523
φιλαίματε: If we do not accept the correction φιλάρματε,
‘lover of chariots’, φιλαίματος is a rare epithet of Ares or
Phobus, his son, in clear connection with warfare.524 In the
PGM the bloodthirsty goddess is generally Hecate-Selene: we
find accusations such as ‘you killed a man and drank his
blood . . . you drank sea-falcon’s blood’, or she is described as
519
E.g. IV 2726 (14.9), 2799 (15.9), VII 784; Luc. Philops. 14.25; Hippol.
Refut. 4.35.5.7.
520
E.g. Luc. DDeor. 20.1.4 (Eros made Zeus πολύμορφος as the god
underwent many metamorphoses to fulfil his love designs); Maxim. Dialex.
1.1.c3 (Proteus has a πολύμορφος nature as he can change into many forms);
OH 14.1 (the three-headed, hermaphrodite Protogonus), 29.8, 56.3 (Eubuleus/Dionysus as capable of various metamorphoses in Orphic literature). Cf.
Rudhardt 1991, 272–4.
521
E.g. Hippol. Refut. 5.9.9.1 (different people call Attis by different names);
cf. Merkelbach and Stauber 1996, no. 25.2 in an oracle of Apollo Clarius (cf.
Intro. p. 34). A possible exception to these rules is to be found e.g. in Vita et
sententiae Secundi 3.1, where the supreme god is πολύμορφος (and πολυώνυμος) without any reference to a specific attribute; similarly, IGUR I 176.
522
See Intro. pp. 41–4, 46, 51–2, and n.119, n.151; also 4.1, 3.
523
LGG II.220; cf. 4.2, 5, Intro. n.119, I n.332.
524
Anacr. Epigr. 7.226.3; Aesch. Sept. 45.
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C O M M EN T A R Y
‘blood drinker (αἱμοπότι)’.525 In the hymn to Hecate quoted by
Hippolytus, the goddess ‘rejoices at the lethal blood’.526 Even
this epithet would thus seem to belong to a lunar context and to
have been inserted here only as a vox magica.
- (see 6.6–8) in line with the traditional
27–9 A second hypomnesis
structure of Greek hymns. The passage is Homer, Iliad 39–41,
with the only difference that βωμόν appears here instead of
νηόν, ‘if I ever roofed a temple’. Possibly the redactor felt the
necessity of substituting ‘a temple’ with ‘an altar’ because he
wanted to refer to something he could have actually built for the
god considering the private setting of the spells: a small altar
could be a ‘domestic’ replacement for a ‘public’ temple. Of
course, changing the object, the verb ἐπερέφω, ‘to roof’, ‘to
put a cover upon’, hardly makes sense. Alternatively, ἔρεψα
̣
could be a mistake for ἔρεξα (mistake because, even if ψ is
unclear, ξ does not seem to be possible according to the traces of
the letter on the papyrus),527 ‘offer in sacrifice’, and the phrase
could thus mean ‘if I ever offered to you a pleasing altar’.
30 Here starts the third section of the hymn, to be addressed to
the moon identified with Daphne.
32 Σαβαώθ, ϊαωαωο: See 3.22, 1.5.
33 Voces magicae, among which can be recognized μούσαρχος,
‘leader of the Muses’, attested as an epithet of Apollo,528 and
possibly Ἴακχος, ‘Iacchus’, epithet of Dionysus.
34 δεῦρό μοι: See 4.1, 6.2–3.
ἔρχεο θᾷσσον: The same combination is found in Homer,
Odyssey 16.130.529
34–5 Preisendanz emended ἔπειγέ μοι ἀείσασθαι θεσμοὺς
θεσπ[εσί]ους, ‘hasten to sing divine precepts to me’, but the
correction is not strictly necessary since ἐπείγομαι can be
525
IV 2594–8, 2656–60 (13.15–18), 2864 (15.53).
Hippol. Refut. 4.35.5.4.
527
This reading was suggested to me by W. D. Furley.
528
Lyrica adesp. PMG fr. 23.1.2; equivalent to μουσηγέτης: see 7.28.
529
Cf. AP 9.474.5.
526
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HYMN 8
translated as ‘I urge’ (LSJ III.2) and the object ‘you’ can be
implied considering the presence of δεῦρό μοι, ἔρχεο θᾶσσον
at the beginning of the line. More interestingly the goddess is
supposed to ‘sing’, ἀείσασθαι, the ‘laws, precepts’ which may
imply that she is expected to speak in verses, traditional feature
of Apollonian oracles.530
δνοφερῇ: Rare adjective found to describe the night in
Homer, Odyssey 13.269, 15.50 and Hesiod, Theogony 107.
CONCLUSIONS
The structure is very similar to 7: the hymn opens (lines 1–7) by
addressing Daphne and – as far as we can tell – recounting part
- first
of her myth in narrative style; then there is the euche,
addressed to Daphne (lines 8–15) and then to Apollo (lines
16–18=6.1–3); a first rubric breaks the text introducing a new
- (lines 21–6) and followed by a
section consisting of an epicl esis
- (lines 27–9); a second rubric introduces the final
hypomn esis
section addressing Daphne-Selene and urging the nymph to
come to the magician (lines 31–6). The presence of the rubrics
(lines 20 and 30) suggests that we are dealing with at least three
different compositions or pieces of compositions.
The hymn, compared with 6 and 7, is earlier in date and
could have been the source of the parallel lines 6.1–3, 7.1.
However, it looks already like the result of re-elaboration of
previous material, even considered in its three single sections.
For example, the first ‘hymn’ to Daphne, which somehow
- as in 7, apart from probably containing
serves as a hypomn esis
a line of epithets identifying the nymph with Hecate-Selene
(line 15), is attached to a ‘hymn’ to Apollo (lines 16–18). The
second section is a Homeric passage into which four lines of
epithets (often belonging to Hecate-Selene’s descriptions) have
530
E.g. Fontenrose 1978, 166–95; Amandry 1950, 166–8; Parke 1967, 84;
Parke 1985, e.g. 149–70, 221; Johnston 2008, 50–1, 77.
200
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CONC LUS IONS
been pasted. Similarly, some voces magicae have been interpolated
in the final ‘hymn’ to Daphne-Selene.
Nevertheless, as far as the nature of the deities invoked is
concerned, there are no attributes that can surely be ascribed
to an Egyptian background. In fact, the only two epithets that
might point in this direction (lines 25–6 νυκτερόφοιτε,
πολύμορφε) are typical of Hecate-Selene and seem to have
been inserted only as voces magicae. At the same time, the
identification of Daphne with Selene as counterpart of the
sun god Apollo can be said to be late, but certainly not
influenced by Egyptian religious thought, given the Greek
specificity of Daphne and the fact that lunar deities in Egypt
are male. The hymn does not even show any distinctive solar
feature: χρυσοφαής (at line 23, the only possible solar epithet)
is found within a sequence of voces magicae of mixed origin and
could have been chosen as a synonym of Φοῖβος owing to the
ambiguity of its etymology (see 6.1). Therefore, as a whole, the
hymn addresses the traditional Apollo and Daphne with a
special stress on their prophetic role.
201
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