Hipta

Hipta is the nurse. In the Orphic telling Dionysus is sewn into the thigh of Sabazios-Zeus and, when he comes out, is handed to her; she rears him on Mount Tmolus in Lydia and carries him in a liknon, the winnowing-basket that is itself an object of the mysteries. Proclus knew a poem attributed to Orpheus called On Hipta, now lost. Her name is not Greek — it is generally connected with the Anatolian Hepat — and for a long time she existed only inside the Hymns, until inscriptions turned up in western Asia Minor showing she had a real cult there. That is precisely the history of Melinoe, already in this registry, and of Mise.

Domains

• nursing and fosterage

Relations

• ally: Mise
• nurse of: Dionysos
• subordinate to: Sabazios

Sources

• Orphic Hymns 49, to Hipta.
• Reference treatment of Hipta, the Tmolus fosterage, the liknon, Proclus's On Hipta, and the Anatolian inscriptions.