Hymni Homerici
The preludes to epic performance
The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three anonymous poems in dactylic hexameter, composed in the Homeric dialect and attributed in antiquity to Homer, though they are certainly the work of many different poets spanning several centuries — from the seventh to the fifth century BC, approximately.
The collection includes four major hymns of substantial length — to Demeter, Apollo, Hermes, and Aphrodite — and twenty-nine shorter pieces ranging from a few lines to about fifty. The major hymns are narrative poems of considerable literary merit: the Hymn to Demeter tells the story of Persephone's abduction and the establishment of the Eleusinian Mysteries with genuine emotional power; the Hymn to Hermes is a delightful comic narrative of the infant god stealing Apollo's cattle; the Hymn to Aphrodite explores the goddess's vulnerability with surprising psychological depth.
The shorter hymns are preludes (prooimia) — formal invocations to the gods that bards sang before performing longer epic poems at festivals. They give us a glimpse of the living performance culture from which the Iliad and Odyssey emerged. The collection as a whole is one of our richest sources for early Greek religion and mythology.
A collection of thirty-three hymns composed in the epic tradition of Homer, addressed to the gods of Olympus. The longer hymns — to Demeter, Apollo, H...
A brief invocation of Aphrodite — golden, beautiful, protector of sea-girt Cyprus.
A brief hymn to Athena, the bright-eyed protector of cities, born in full armour from the head of Zeus.
A brief hymn to Hera, greatest of the goddesses, sister and wife of Zeus, honoured on Olympus by all the immortals.
A brief hymn to Demeter — not the long narrative hymn, but a short invocation of the goddess of grain and her daughter Persephone.
A hymn to Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, who delights in the sound of rattles, drums, and flutes echoing through the mountain forests.
A brief hymn to Heracles the lion-hearted, greatest of mortals, who wanders the earth and endures all things before taking his place among the gods.
A brief hymn to Asclepius, son of Apollo, the healer who learned to cure every disease — the founding figure of Greek medicine.
A brief hymn to the Dioscuri — Castor and Polydeuces, the twin horsemen, saviours of sailors in storms.
A brief hymn to Hermes, the friendly god — cattle-herder, messenger, guide of the dead, and trickster.
A hymn to Pan, the goat-footed god of Arcadia, born in the mountains, beloved of the nymphs, whose piping echoes through the valleys at evening.
Fragments of a hymn to Dionysus — the oldest in the collection and mostly lost. What survives tells of the god's birth and his early life among the ny...
A brief hymn to Hephaestus, the craftsman god who taught mortals to build houses and work metal — bringing civilisation to those who once lived in cav...
A brief hymn to Apollo — not the great narrative hymn, but a short invocation celebrating the god of music, prophecy, and the lyre.
A brief hymn to Poseidon, shaker of the earth and lord of the sea, who tames horses and saves ships.
A brief hymn to Zeus, greatest of the gods, who sits on Olympus and thunders from the sky.
A brief hymn to Hestia, goddess of the hearth, who has her place in every temple and every home.
A brief hymn to the Muses and Apollo — the gods of song, who give mortals the gift of poetry and music.
A brief hymn to Dionysus, the ivy-crowned god who drives women to ecstasy in the mountains.
A brief hymn to Artemis, the archer goddess who ranges through forests and mountains with her golden bow.
A brief hymn to Athena, born fully armed from the head of Zeus while Olympus trembled and the earth groaned.
A brief hymn to Hestia — guardian of the hearth, honoured first and last at every feast.
Demeter searches the earth for her stolen daughter. The longest Homeric Hymn — a complete narrative of Persephone's abduction, Demeter's grief, the fa...
A hymn to Earth, mother of all, who feeds everything that lives on her surface.
A hymn to Helios, the sun god who drives his golden chariot across the sky each day, seeing all things from above.
A hymn to Selene, the moon goddess — radiant, long-winged, driving her chariot through the night sky.
A second brief hymn to the Dioscuri — Castor the horseman and Polydeuces the boxer, saviours of men in danger.
The birth and rise of Apollo, from Delos to Delphi. The longest of the Hymns to Apollo, combining two originally separate poems — one about his birth...
The baby Hermes invents the lyre, steals Apollo's cattle, and talks his way out of punishment — all before his first sunset. The funniest poem in the...
Aphrodite seduces the mortal Anchises on Mount Ida — and immediately regrets it. A hymn about the vulnerability of desire and the unbridgeable gap bet...
A brief hymn to Aphrodite, celebrating the goddess who rose from the sea-foam and was carried by the winds to Cyprus.
Dionysus is captured by pirates who do not know he is a god. Vines erupt from the mast, the god becomes a lion, and the terrified sailors leap overboa...
A hymn to Ares, god of war — unusually, asking him to restrain his violence and grant courage rather than bloodlust. Possibly a late addition to the c...
A brief hymn to Artemis the huntress, running through the mountains with her bow before joining the Muses at Delphi.