slug: "hymns/physis"
lang: en
title: "Orphic Hymn to Nature"
pageCreated: "2026-04-17"
extends ../../../views/hymns/hymnsheet.pug
block navbar
ul
li.nav-arrow.nav-arrow-left: a(href="/hymns/selene") #[span.dingbat ☙] #[b(lang="grc") Σεληνης] #[i To Selene]
li.nav-current Ιʹ · X
li.nav-arrow.nav-arrow-right: a(href="/hymns/pan") #[i To Pan] #[b(lang="grc") Πανός] #[span.dingbat ❧]
block ancient-pic
img(src="/hymns/thumbnails/physis-ancient.jpg" alt="Old engraving of Nature")
block modern-pic
img(src="/hymns/thumbnails/physis-modern.jpg" alt="Modern painting of Nature")
block greek
h1 Φύσεως
div.offering Θυμίαμα ἀρώματα
p.hymn-greek
:format-hymn
Ὦ Φύσι, παμμήτειρα Θεά, πολυμήχανε μῆτερ,
οὐρανίη, πρέσβειρα, πολύκτιτε Δαῖμον, ἄνασσα,
πανδαμάτωρ, ἀδάμαστε, κυβερνήτειρα, παναυγές,
παντοκράτειρα, τετιμέν’ ἀεί, πανυπέρτατε Δαῖμον,
ἄφθιτε, πρωτογένεια, παλαίφατε, κυδιάνειρα,
ἐννυχίη, πολύπειρε, σελασφόρε, δεινοκαθέκτε,
ἄψοφον ἀστραγάλοισι ποδῶν ἴχνος εἱλίσσουσα,
ἁγνή, κοσμήτειρα Θεῶν ἀτελής τε τελευτή,
κοινὴ μὲν πάντεσσιν, ἀκοινώνητε δὲ μούνη,
αὐτοπάτωρ, ἀπάτωρ, ἀργής, πολύγηθε, μεγίστη,
εὐαντές, πλοκίη, φιλίη, πολύμικτε, δαῆμον,
ἡγεμόνη, κράντειρα, φερέσβιε, παντρόφε κούρη,
αὐτάρκεια, Δίκη, Χαρίτων πολυώνυμε πειθώ,
αἰθερίη χθονίη καὶ εἰναλίη μεδέουσα,
πικρὰ μέν φαύλοισι, γλυκεῖα δὲ πειθομένοισι,
πάνσοφε, πανδώτειρα, κομίστρια, παμβασίλεια,
αὐξιτρόφος, πίειρα πεπαινομένων τε λύτειρα.
πάντων μὲν σὺ πατήρ, μήτηρ, τροφὸς ἠδὲ τιθήνη,
ὠκυλόχεια, μάκαιρα, πολύσπορος, ὡριὰς ὁρμή,
παντοτεχνές, πλάστειρα, πολύκτιτε, πότνιε Δαῖμον,
ἀιδίη, κινησιφόρος, πολύπειρε, περίφρων,
ἀενάῳ στροφάλιγγι θοὸν ῥύμα δινεύουσα,
πάνρυτε, κυκλοτερής, ἀλλοτριομορφοδίαιτε,
εὔθρονε, τιμήεσσα, μόνη τὸ κριθὲν τελέουσα,
σκηπτούχων ἐφύπερθε, βαρυβρεμέτειρα, κρατίστη,
ἄτρομε, πανδαμάτειρα, πεπρωμένη, αἶσα, πυρίπνους,
ἀίδιος ζωὴ ἠδ’ ἀθανάτη τε πρόνοια·
πάντα σὺ ἔσσι· ἄνασσα, σὺ γὰρ μούνη τάδε τεύχεις.
ἀλλά, Θεά, λίτομαί Σε σὺν εὐόλβοισιν ἐν ὥραις
εἰρήνην ὑγίειαν ἄγειν, αὔξησιν ἁπάντων.
block english
h1 To Nature#[+sn(1)]
div.offering The fumigation from aromatics
p.hymn-english Nature, all-parent, ancient, and divine,#[br]O much-mechanic mother, art is Thine;#[br]heav’nly, abundant, venerable queen,#[br]in ev’ry part of Thy dominions seen.#[br]Untam’d, all-taming, ever splendid light,#[br]all-ruling, honor’d, and supremely bright.#[br]Immortal, first-born, ever still the same,#[br]nocturnal, starry, shining, glorious dame.#[br]Thy feet’s still traces in a circling course,#[br]by Thee are turn’d, with unremitting force.#[br]Pure ornament of all the pow’rs divine,#[br]finite and infinite alike You shine;#[+sn(2)]#[br]to all things common and in all things known,#[br]yet incommunicable and alone.#[br]Without a father of Thy wond’rous frame,#[br]thyself the father whence Thy essence came.#[br]All-flourishing, connecting, mingling soul,#[br]leader and ruler of this mighty whole.#[br]Life-bearer, all-sustaining, various nam’d,#[br]and for commanding grace and beauty fam’d.#[br]Justice, supreme in might, whose general sway#[br]the waters of the restless deep obey.#[br]Ætherial, earthly, for the pious glad,#[br]sweet to the good, but bitter to the bad.#[br]All-wife, all bounteous, provident, divine,#[br]a rich increase of nutriment is Thine;#[br]father of all, great nurse, and mother kind,#[br]abundant, blessed, all-spermatic mind:#[br]mature, impetuous, from whose fertile seeds#[br]and plastic hand, this changing scene proceeds.#[br]All-parent pow’r, to mortal eyes unseen,#[br]eternal, moving, all-sagacious queen.#[br]By Thee the world, whose parts in rapid flow,#[+sn(3)]#[br]like swift descending streams, no respite know,#[br]on an eternal hinge, with steady course#[br]is whirl’d, with matchless, unremitting force.#[br]Thron’d on a circling car, Thy mighty hand#[br]holds and directs, the reins of wide command.#[br]Various Thy essence, honor’d, and the best,#[br]of judgement too, the general end and test.#[br]Intrepid, fatal, all-subduing dame,#[br]life-everlasting, Parca, breathing flame.#[br]Immortal, Providence, the world is Thine,#[br]and Thou art all things, architect divine.#[br]O blessed Goddess, hear Thy suppliant’s pray’r,#[br]and make my future life, Thy constant care;#[br]give plenteous seasons, and sufficient wealth,#[br]and crown my days with lasting, peace and health.
+sn(1)
p Nature, according to the theologists, as related by Proclus #[abbr.cite(title="In Platonis Timæum commentarii") in Tim. p. iv.] is the last of the demiurgic causes of this sensible world, and the boundary of the latitude of incorporeal essences: and is full of reasons and powers, by which She governs the universe, every where connecting parts with their wholes. Hence Nature is represented in this Hymn as turning the still traces of Her feet with a swift whirling. For since She is the last of the demiurgic causes, Her operations aptly symbolize with the traces of feet. Now the reason why the epithets of much-mechanic, all-artist, connecting, all-wife, providence, #[i &c.] are given to nature, which evince Her agreement with #[span.theonym(greek="Athena") Minerva], is because that Goddess, according to the Orphic theology, fabricated the variegated veil of nature, from that wisdom and virtue of which She is the presiding divinity. And Proclus informs us, that She connects all the parts of the universe together: containing in herself intellectual life, by which She illuminates the whole, and unifying powers by which She superintends all the opposing natures of the world. Nature, therefore, from Her connecting, and unifying power, and from Her plenitude of seminal reasons, has an evident agreement with #[span.theonym(greek="Athena") Minerva], whose divine arts according to the Orphic theology, reduce whatever in the universe is discordant and different, into union and consent.
p Again, agreeable to this theology, primary natures impart their gifts to such as are secondary by an abundant illumination, and effects are established in the causes from which they proceed: so that in the obscure language of Heraclitus, all things are one, and one all things. Hence Nature though the last of the demiurgic causes, is with perfect conformity to this symbolical Theology, said to be both communicable and incommunicable; without a father and at the same time the father of Her own being. For considered as full of operative reasons, She is communicable to every sensible nature: but considered as the representative of divine unity, She is incommunicable. And in like manner as symbolising with the first cause, She is both without any origin, and at the same time the source of Her own essence.
+sn(2)
p Philolaus according to Demetrius (in #[a.cite(href="https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0004.tlg001.perseus-grc2:8.7.85/" title="Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers") Laert.]) published a discourse concerning Nature, of which this is the beginning: #[i(lang="grc") Φύσις δʼ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἁρμόχθη ἐξ ἀπείρων τε καὶ περαινόντων καὶ ὅλος ὁ κόσμος καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ πάντα.] #[i i.e.] “Nature, and the whole world, and whatever it contains, are aptly connected together from infinites and finites.”
+sn(3)
p Since the world has an extended and composite essence, and is on this account continually separated from itself, it can alone be connected by a certain indivisible virtue infused from the divine unity. Again, since from a natural appetite, it is ever orderly moved towards good, the nature of such an appetite and motion must originate from a divine intellect and goodness. But since, from its material imperfection, it cannot receive the whole of divine infinity at once, but in a manner accommodated to its temporal nature: it can only derive it gradually and partially, as it were by drops, in a momentary succession. So that the corporeal world is in a continual state of flowing and formation, but never possesses real being; and is like the image of a lofty tree seen in a rapid torrent, which has the appearance of a tree without the reality; and which seems to endure perpetually the same, yet is continually renewed by the continual renovation of the stream.