Homeric Hymns

Books

• To Dionysus

  Hymn to Dionysus. The god's birth and early adventures. Fragmentary in the surviving text.

  21 lines
• To Demeter

  Hymn to Demeter. Persephone is abducted by Hades. Demeter searches the earth in grief, and famine threatens humanity until Zeus brokers the compromise: six months above, six below.

  498 lines
• To Delian and Pythian Apollo

  Hymn to Apollo (Delian section). Apollo's birth on Delos. Leto wanders the Aegean, rejected by every island, until tiny Delos accepts the honour.

  552 lines
• To Hermes

  Hymn to Hermes. Born at dawn, Hermes invents the lyre by noon, steals Apollo's cattle by evening, and talks his way out of trouble by morning. The most entertaining of the hymns.

  586 lines
• To Aphrodite

  Hymn to Aphrodite. The goddess of love falls in love herself — with the mortal Anchises on Mount Ida. She seduces him and conceives Aeneas.

  293 lines
• To Aphrodite (Short)

  Short hymn to Aphrodite. A brief invocation of the goddess born from sea-foam off Cyprus.

  21 lines
• To Dionysus (The Pirates)

  Hymn to Dionysus. Tyrrhenian pirates capture a beautiful youth who turns out to be a god. Vines grow from the mast, a lion appears, and the pirates leap overboard as dolphins.

  59 lines
• To Ares

  Short hymn to Ares. An invocation of the god of war — unusually Orphic in tone for this collection.

  17 lines
• To Artemis

  Short hymn to Artemis. The virgin huntress, dancing with her nymphs and rejoicing in the mountains.

  9 lines
• To Aphrodite (Shorter)

  Short hymn to Aphrodite. Another brief invocation of the goddess of Cyprus and Cythera.

  6 lines
• To Athena

  Short hymn to Athena. The grey-eyed goddess, protector of cities and champion of heroes.

  5 lines
• To Hera

  Short hymn to Hera. Queen of the gods, sister and wife of Zeus, honoured on Olympus.

  5 lines
• To Demeter (Short)

  Short hymn to Demeter. A brief invocation of the goddess of grain and harvest.

  3 lines
• To the Mother of the Gods

  Short hymn to the Mother of the Gods. An invocation of Cybele, with her drums and cymbals and wild mountain worship.

  6 lines
• To Heracles

  Short hymn to Heracles the Lion-Hearted. The hero who laboured and was received among the gods.

  9 lines
• To Asclepius

  Short hymn to Asclepius. The god of healing, son of Apollo, born at Epidaurus.

  5 lines
• To the Dioscuri

  Short hymn to the Dioscuri. Castor and Pollux, saviours of sailors, stars in the sky.

  5 lines
• To Hermes (Short)

  Short hymn to Hermes. A brief invocation of the messenger god, guide of souls, patron of travellers and thieves.

  12 lines
• To Pan

  Short hymn to Pan. The goat-footed god of shepherds and wild places, dancing with the nymphs on Arcadian mountains.

  49 lines
• To Hephaestus

  Short hymn to Hephaestus. The craftsman god who taught mortals to build houses and work metal.

  8 lines
• To Apollo (Short)

  Short hymn to Apollo. A brief invocation of the god of music, prophecy, and light.

  5 lines
• To Poseidon

  Short hymn to Poseidon. God of the sea and of earthquakes, shaker of the earth, tamer of horses.

  7 lines
• To Zeus

  Short hymn to Zeus. The father of gods and men, greatest of the Olympians.

  4 lines
• To Hestia

  Short hymn to Hestia. Goddess of the hearth, first and last to receive offerings at every feast.

  5 lines
• To the Muses and Apollo

  Short hymn to the Muses and Apollo. The gods who inspire song and govern the art of poetry.

  7 lines
• To Dionysus (Short)

  Short hymn to Dionysus. The god of wine, ecstasy, and the theatre, twice-born son of Zeus.

  13 lines
• To Artemis (Long)

  Short hymn to Artemis. The huntress goddess, twin of Apollo, protector of the young.

  22 lines
• To Athena (Birth)

  Short hymn to Athena. Born fully armed from the head of Zeus, she shook Olympus with her war-cry.

  18 lines
• To Hestia (With Hermes)

  Short hymn to Hestia. Another invocation of the goddess of the hearth and its sacred flame.

  14 lines
• To Earth, Mother of All

  Short hymn to Earth, Mother of All. She feeds everything that lives, and everything returns to her.

  19 lines
• To Helios

  Short hymn to Helios. The sun god, driving his chariot across the sky, all-seeing, tireless.

  20 lines
• To Selene

  Short hymn to Selene. The moon goddess, lighting the darkness, beautiful and radiant.

  20 lines
• To the Dioscuri (Short)

  Short hymn to the Dioscuri. A closing invocation of Castor and Pollux, the heavenly twins.

  19 lines