Tuesday, February 12, 2013

 

A Hymn to Pan, from Epidaurus

Inscriptiones Graecae IV² 1 130 (Epidaurus), text from Marcus N. Tod, "Greek Inscriptions, VI. A Hymn to Pan," Greece & Rome 3.7 (October 1933) 49-52 (at 50):
               Πανί.

Πᾶνα τὸν νυμφαγέτα[ν]
[Ν]αΐδ[ω]ν μέλημ’ ἀείδω,
χρυσέων χορῶν ἄγα[λ̣]μ̣α,
κωτίλας ἄνακτ[α μ]οίσα<ς>.

Εὐθρόου σύριγγος εὖ[χος]        5
ἔνθεον σε[ι]ρῆνα χεύ(ει),
ἐς μέλος δὲ κοῦφα βαίνων
εὐσκίων πηδᾷ κατ’ ἄντρων

παμφυὲς νωμῶν δέμας,
εὐχόρευτος εὐπρόσωπος        10
ἐνπρέπων ξανθῶι γενείωι.

Ὲς δ’ Ὄλυνπον ἀστερωπὸν
ἔρχεται πανῳδὸς ἀχώ,
θεῶν Ὀλυμπίων ὅμιλον
ἀμβρόται ῥαίνοισα[[ι]] μοίσαι,        15

χθὼν δὲ πᾶσα καὶ θάλασσα
κίρναται τεὰν χάριν· σὺ
γὰρ πέλεις ἔρισμα πάντων.
Ὦ ἰὴ Πὰν Πάν.

5 εὖ[χος]
Hiller von Gaertringen, εὖ[χειρ] Theiler, εὖ[φρων] dubitanter Tod
18 ἔρισμα = ἔρεισμα
Robert S. Wagman, "Pan diletto delle Naiadi (IG IV² 1, 130, 1-2)," Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica 75.3 (2003) 145-150, has a bibliography (n. 1 on pp. 145-146), to which should be added William D. Furley and Jan Maarten Bremer, Greek Hymns, Vol. I: The Texts in Translation (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001 = Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum, 9). The English translation by Furley and Bremer is on p. 240, but it is only partially visible through "snippet view" on Google Books. I made my own line-by-line translation:
            To Pan.

Pan, leader of Nymphs,
darling of Naiads, I sing,
glory of golden dances,
lord of twittering song.

A loud-sounding pipe's boast,        5
an inspired seductive melody he pours forth;
moving nimbly to music,
he leaps down shadowy caves,

guiding his omnifarious body,
a good dancer, fair of face,        10
conspicuous with his yellow beard.

To starry-faced Olympus
goes all-tuneful Echo,
bedewing the company of the Olympian gods
with immortal song,        15

and all earth and sea
join in thanking you;
for you support all things.
O hail, Pan, Pan.
The hymn contains two new Greek words: παμφυής (line 9) and εὐχόρευτος (line 10). I find the former in online versions of Liddell-Scott-Jones, but not the latter.

In the opinion of Joan A. Haldane, "Pindar and Pan: frs. 95-100 Snell," Phoenix 22.1 (Spring 1968) 18-31 (at n. 15 on p. 22), the hymn was not "a genuine cult-song" but rather "an exhibition piece, designed in all probability for performance by an individual kitharode at a musical ἀγών and published in token of victory."

Thanks to Karl Maurer for comments.

Update: I found another translation, in Philippe Borgeaud, The Cult of Pan in Ancient Greece, tr. Kathleen Atlass and James Redfield (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. 149:
To Pan, leader of the naiad nymphs, I raise my song, pride of the golden choruses, lord of the frivolous music; from his far-sounding flute he pours an inspirited seductive melody; he steps lightly to the song, leaping through the shadowy grottoes, displaying his multiform body, beautiful dancer, beautiful face, resplendent with blond beard. As far as starry Olympus comes the panic echo, pervading the company of the Olympian gods with an immortal Muse. The whole earth and the sea are stirred by your grace; you are the prop of all, Ο Pan, Ah Pan.



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