New Translation of the Orphic Hymn to Hermes/Mercury

For Pride AND Gemini season, it's everyone's favorite queer god!

Hermes with tortoiseshell lyre, frilly cloak, sunhat, and kerykion staff, prancing over the clouds/ocean/Milky Way, looking TURNED OUT! for Pride. As we’ll see below, Hermes gets my vote as the gay-est of all the gods. c. 495-490 BCE. British Museum.

So first off, Happy Pride!!! It’s Gemini season, and at least in the Northern hemisphere, the birds and bees are chatty AF. That means it’s time for Hermes—our most lovable, loquacious, and QUEERASS god—to make himself felt.

As many of you know, I’ve been struggling with the after-effects of a SECOND round of Covid, so this series of posts will trickle out slowly. Here’s my tentative schedule, pending health issues of course:

• This translation today (Friday, June 9th, 2023)

• Part One of the commentary notes on Sunday, June 11th

• Part Two of the commentary notes on Friday, June 30th

• Various audio files, etc. in and around those dates as I’m able.

My translation of this hymn looks and feels SO different to all those other translations floating around out there. Yes, I’m looking particularly at you, Thomas Taylor—who I have mad respect for as a practitioner and devotee, but really needs to be taken out of circulation as a translator. (I said what I said. What would a celebration of Hermes be if there weren’t a little shade thrown?) The forthcoming commentaries will make the logic for all of my translation choices clear. But I will just say here that the original Greek is full of double-meanings and entendres, as well as incredibly juicy astrological and esoteric material. So definitely read those commentaries as they become available.

I hope you love this Hymn as much as I do! It was the first one I ever translated, and the playful, “lovable rascal” tone of it is what first got me hooked. AND it was almost exactly two years ago (May 17, 2021) that I began the hymn, and thus, my whole journey into the wonderful world of Orphism. Not a day goes by that I don’t give thanks for this incredible silver lining that Covid brought me—without my chronic illness, I wouldn’t have the time and mental space to sit here and translate every day because I’d be out there in dese Brooklyn streets continuing to chase the bag. 💰💵

Which reminds me: I am also INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL to all of you who support my work however you do so. Whether through a paid subscription, promotion on your own feeds, or all those “likes” and “shares”—they all help me make ends meet to continue to do this work. I appreciate your support through times of abundant translations (when I’m feeling well) and times when it’s thinner on the ground (like this past month). Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Without further ado, here’s the translation. Part One of commentary to follow shortly!

Me celebrating Pride 2021 at a picnic in Prospect Park—I’m wearing my most colorful “coastal grandma” Boca-inspired wear, as you can see. This is just around the time I first began translating the Orphic Hymns.