I’ve been doing a LOT of research for my upcoming Hymn of Hypnos commentary, and I’ve found myself revising how I think about the word “Zōoi” (and all its variants).
In short, I’m coming to believe that the Orphic Hymns preserve a very early form of the Greek understanding of the word that would eventually come to mean “Zodiacal signs” or “Zodiacal animals”—one that is much more encompassing than the 12-sign codification that arises (in ancient Mediterranean writings) not too long after the writer(s) of the Orphic Hymns were flourishing.
This snippet is a great example of my research in action (and scholarly research in general), because:
a) I’m changing my mind about things based on what I encounter in the primary material. I try whenever I can to not impose what I THINK I know onto the material, but rather, to let the meanings of the words reveal themselves to me by paying attention to both what the text IS saying, and what it is LEAVING OUT.
b) This means I am open to being wrong. Or at least needing to refine my own understanding and possibly even my translations. This is one of the main reasons why I prefer to write on Substack while I’m doing research rather than rush to publish a book that codifies what might wind up being mistaken (or perhaps less nuanced) assumptions about the texts.
c) It’s taking me months to research what will probably wind up looking like a relatively simple and easily “digestible” blog post once I’m finished. In the vast majority of cases it takes YEARS to establish even basic facts about ancient history or language, which runs counter to our “I took a course on this subject so now I’m ready to teach it” contemporary attitude. Good scholarship needs to be supported by institutions (or dedicated readers!❤️), because it does not operate on the time-scale of the capitalist marketplace.
All of which is to say thank you for doing your bit to support me and my research.
Finally, a caveat: This Snippet is a little more rambly than usual because… Long Covid brain. But thank the Muses that even when my brain is more long-winded than usual it always has room to contemplate Earth and Starry Sky.
Much love,
✨✨Kristin
Snippet #6: The Orphics and the Zodiac