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Hymn to Zeus

Cleanthes of Assos

Hymn 1 | Primary edition: Greek source text

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Text

Position

Line 1 of 39

Line RefGreek source text | Ancient Greek
1

Primary

Κύδιστ᾽ ἀθανάτων, πολυώνυμε, παγκρατὲς ἀεὶ

2

Primary

Ζεῦ, φύσεως ἀρχηγέ, νόμου μέτα πάντα κυβερνῶν,

3

Primary

χαῖρε· σὲ γὰρ πάντεσσι θέμις θνητοῖσι προσαυδᾶν.

4

Primary

ἐκ σοῦ γὰρ γένος ἐσμέν, ἑνὸς

5

Primary

μίμημα λαχόντες

6

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μοῦνον, ὅσα ζώει τε καὶ ἕρπει θνήτ᾽ ἐπὶ γαῖαν.

7

Primary

τῷ σε καθυμνήσω, καὶ σὺν κράτος αἰὲν ἀείσω.

8

Primary

σοὶ δὴ πᾶς ὅδε κόσμος ἑλισσόμενος περὶ γαῖαν

9

Primary

πείθεται, ᾗ κεν ἄγῃς, καὶ ἑκὼν ὑπὸ σεῖο κρατεῖται·

10

Primary

τοῖον ἔχεις ὑποεργὸν ἀνικήτοις ἐνὶ χερσὶν

11

Primary

ἀμφήκη, πυρόεντα, ἀειζώοντα κεραυνόν.

12

Primary

τοῦ γὰρ ὑπὸ πληγῆς φύσεως πάντ᾽ ἐρρίγασιν,

13

Primary

ᾧ σὺ κατευθύνεις κοινὸν λόγον ὃς διὰ πάντων

14

Primary

φοιτᾷ, μιγνύμενος μεγάλους μικροῖς τε φάεσσιν,

15

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ὡς τόσσος γεγαὼς, ὕπατος βασιλεὺς διὰ παντός.

16

Primary

οὐδέ τι γίγνεται ἔργον ἐπὶ χθανὶ σοῦ δίχα, δαῖμον,

17

Primary

οὔτε κατ' αἰθέριον θεῖον πόλον οὔτ᾽ ἐνὶ πόντῳ,

18

Primary

πλὴν ὁπόσα ῥέζουσι κακοὶ σφετέρῃσιν ἀνοίαις.

19

Primary

ἀλλὰ σὺ καὶ τὰ περισσὰ ἐπίστασαι ἄρτια θεῖναι,

20

Primary

καὶ κοσμεῖν τὰ ἄκοσμα, καὶ οὐ φίλα σοὶ φίλα ἐστίν.

21

Primary

ὧδε γὰρ εἰς ἕν ἅπαντα συνήρμοκας ἐσθλὰ κακοῖσιν,

22

Primary

ὥσθ᾽ ἕνα γίγνεσθαι πάντων λόγον αἰὲν ἐόντα,

23

Primary

ὃν φεύγοντες ἐῶσιν ὅσοι θνητῶν κακοί εἰσι

24

Primary

δύσμοροι, οἵ τ᾽ ἀγαθῶν μὲν ἀεὶ κτῆσιν ποθέοντες

25

Primary

οὔτ᾽ ἐσορῶσι θεοῦ κοινὸν νόμον, οὔτε κλύουσιν,

26

Primary

ᾧ κεν πειθόμενοι σὺν νῷ βίον ἐσθλὸν ἔχοιεν,

27

Primary

αὐτοὶ δ᾽ αὖθ᾽ ὁρμῶσιν ἄνευ καλοῦ ἄλλος ἐπ᾽ ἄλλα.

28

Primary

οἱ μὲν ὑπὲρ δόξης σπουδὴν δυσέριστον ἔχοντες,

29

Primary

οἱ δ᾽ ἐπὶ κερδοσύνας τετραμμένοι οὐδενὶ κόσμῳ,

30

Primary

ἄλλοι δ᾽ εἰς ἄνεσιν καὶ σώματος ἡδέα ἔργα,

31

Primary

σπεύδοντες μάλα πάμπαν ἐναντία τῶνδε γενέσθαι,

32

Primary

ἀλλὰ Ζεῦ πάνδωρε, κελαινεφές, ἀρχικέραυνε,

33

Primary

ἀνθρώπους ῥύσιο ἀπειροσύνης ἀπὸ λυγρῆς,

34

Primary

ἣν σύ, πάτερ, σκέδασον ψυχῆς ἀπο, δὸς δὲ κυρῆσαι

35

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γνώμης, ᾗ πίσυνος σὺ δίκης μέτα πάντα κυβερνᾷς,

36

Primary

ὄφρ᾽ ἂν τιμηθέντες ἀμειβώμεσθά σε τιμῇ

37

Primary

ὑμνοῦντες τὰ σὰ ἔργα διηνεκές, ὡς ἐπέοικε

38

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θνητὸν ἐόντ᾽, ἐπεὶ οὔτε βροτοῖς γέρας ἄλλο τι μεῖζον,

39

Primary

οὔτε θεοῖς, ἢ κοινὸν ἀεὶ νόμον ἐν δίκῃ ὑμνεῖν.

Text notes and edition context

Work

Hymn to Zeus

Cleanthes' hymn is one of the clearest surviving acts of Stoic devotion: a prayer of praise, cosmic order, and moral reorientation under the rule of Zeus and universal law.

Hymn | Original language: Ancient Greek

Early Hellenistic Stoic poetry, 3rd century BCE

You are reading Hymn 1.

Primary Edition

Greek source text

Ancient Greek | Verse

Greek hymn witness collated against SVF I 537

This edition preserves the Greek text of Cleanthes' hymn from the Blakeney/Wikisource witness while collating it against von Arnim's printed SVF I 537.

Greek ritual witness for direct reading and high-confidence compare mode, now cited to a printed Stoic fragment witness.

Source family: Greek ritual source texts

Wikisource / Internet Archive | Public-domain source texts

Greek hymn and oracle witnesses staged where page-level provenance is clean enough to support direct reading.

Pinned source commit: archive.org:

Source path: stoicorumveterum01arniuoft_djvu.txt :: fragment 537

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Primary source: Greek ritual source texts | Wikisource / Internet Archive.

Canonical pilot note: this original-language edition is currently imported for Hymn 1 only and carries line-level CTS URNs in the runtime corpus.