greek · hymn

Homeric Hymns

c. 700–400 BCE · Archaic to Classical Greek · Greece; Asia Minor

Hymn to Demeter (Excerpt)

1I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess —

2Of her and her trim-ankled daughter

3Whom Aidoneus rapt away,

4Given to him by all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer.

5Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits,

6She was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus

7And gathering flowers over a soft meadow,

8Roses and crocuses and beautiful violets,

9Irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus,

10Which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus

11And to please the Host of Many,

12A marvellous, radiant flower.

13It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see.

14From its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly,

15So that all wide heaven above and the whole earth

16And the brine of the sea laughed for joy.

17And the girl was amazed and reached out with both hands

18To take the lovely toy.

19But wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nysa,

20And the lord, Host of Many, with his immortal horses sprang out upon her —

21The Son of Cronos, He who has many names.

22He seized her against her will, put her on his golden car,

23And bore her away lamenting.

24Then she cried out shrilly with her voice, calling upon her father,

25The Son of Cronos, who is most high and excellent.

26But no one, either of the deathless gods or of mortal men,

27Heard her voice.

28For nine days queenly Demeter wandered over the earth

29With flaming torches in her hands,

30So grieved in her dear heart that she tasted not ambrosia

31And the sweet draught of nectar, nor sprinkled her body with water.

32But when the tenth enlightening dawn had come,

33Hecate, with a torch in her hands, met her,

34And spoke to her and told her news:

35"Queen Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of good gifts,

36What god of heaven or what mortal man has rapt away Persephone

37And pierced with sorrow your dear heart?"

38Then Zeus the loud-thunderer sent golden-winged Iris

39To call rich-haired Demeter, lovely in form.

40So he bade her call the dark-cloaked Demeter to come among the families of the gods.

41But grief yet more terrible and savage came into the heart of Demeter,

42And thereafter she was so angered with the dark-clouded Son of Cronos

43That she avoided the gathering of the gods and high Olympus,

44And went to the towns and rich fields of men,

45Disfiguring her form a long while.

46And she made that most terrible, most cruel year for men upon the all-nourishing earth:

47The ground would not make the seed sprout,

48For rich-crowned Demeter kept it hid.

Hymn to Apollo (Pythian, Excerpt)

49How shall I sing of you who in all ways are a worthy theme of song?

50For everywhere, O Phoebus, the whole range of your song is set,

51Both in the mainland that rears heifers

52And in the isles.

53All mountain-peaks and high headlands of lofty hills

54And rivers flowing out to the deep

55And beaches sloping to the sea

56And havens of the sea are your delight.

57Shall I sing how at the first Leto bare you to be the joy of men,

58As she rested against the great mass of the Cynthian hill

59Hard by a palm-tree beside the streams of Inopus in sacred Delos —

60That rocky isle?

61And on one side black death would have taken you,

62O far-shooting Apollo, and stinted famine;

63For she had no rest or stay for her feet on any countryside.

64But when Eilithyia goddess of sore travail came to Delos,

65Then the power of labour seized Leto, and she longed to bring forth;

66So she cast her arms about a palm-tree

67And kneeled on the soft meadow while the earth laughed for joy beneath.

68Then the child leaped forth to the light, and all the goddesses raised a cry.

69Straightway, great Phoebus, the goddesses washed you purely and cleanly

70With sweet water,

71And swathed you in a white garment of fine texture,

72New-woven, and fastened a golden band about you.

73Now when Phoebus Apollo had drunk the divine nectar at the hands of Themis,

74His mortal bonds no longer held him:

75Straight away all bonds became undone,

76And Leto was glad.

Hymn to Hermes (Excerpt)

77Sing of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia,

78Lord of Cyllene and Arcadia rich in flocks,

79The luck-bringing messenger of the immortals

80Whom Maia bare, the rich-tressed nymph, when she was mated with Zeus —

81A shy goddess, for she avoided the company of the blessed gods,

82Living within a deep, shady cave.

83But when the will of Zeus was fulfilled and the tenth month was come,

84She gave birth to a son of many shifts, blandly cunning,

85A robber, a cattle-driver, a bringer of dreams,

86A watcher in the night, a thief at the gates,

87One who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods.

88Born with the dawning, at mid-day he played on the lyre,

89And in the evening he stole the cattle of far-shooting Apollo.

90He sprang quickly out of the heavenly womb of his mother

91And lay not long in the sacred cradle,

92But he leaped up and sought the oxen of Apollo.

93He found a tortoise and got himself endless delight.

94He stretched the skin of the tortoise over the hollow shell

95And fitted a bridge of seven strings of sheep-gut.

96He tried each string in turn with the plectrum,

97And under his hands the lyre rang marvellously.

98Then Hermes played a sweet tune upon it,

99Improvising, as young men do at feasts.

Hymn to Aphrodite (Excerpt)

100Muse, tell me the deeds of golden Aphrodite the Cyprian,

101Who stirs up sweet passion in the gods

102And subdues the tribes of mortal men

103And birds that fly in air and all the many creatures

104That the dry land rears, and all that the sea:

105All these love the deeds of rich-crowned Cytherea.

106Yet there are three hearts that she cannot bend nor yet ensnare.

107The first is the daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis,

108Bright-eyed Athena; for she has no pleasure in the deeds of golden Aphrodite.

109The second is Artemis of the golden shafts, lover of archery;

110And thirdly, the pure maiden Hestia,

111Who was the earliest born child of wily Cronos.

112These three Aphrodite cannot influence.

113But of all others there is nothing among the blessed gods or among mortal men

114That has escaped Aphrodite.

115Even the heart of Zeus, who delights in thunder,

116Is led astray by her;

117And even he, the greatest and the most honoured,

118When she wills it, is beguiled and mated with mortal women.

notes

The Homeric Hymns are a collection of 33 Greek religious hymns addressed to individual Olympian gods. Despite the name, they are not by Homer; scholars date most of them between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, with some possibly earlier. They were composed for performance at festivals and games in honour of particular gods and as preludes to recitations of epic poetry. The Hymn to Demeter is among the most important surviving Greek religious texts, as it provides the fullest account of the Eleusinian myth: Persephone's abduction by Hades, Demeter's grief and withdrawal of fertility from the earth, and the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The latter were the most celebrated secret religious rites of the ancient world, practiced at Eleusis for over two thousand years. The Hymn to Hermes is remarkable for its portrait of the infant trickster god: born, inventing the lyre, stealing Apollo's cattle, and negotiating his place among the Olympians all in a single day. This playful tone is unusual in hymnic literature. Translation after H.G. Evelyn-White (1914). Public domain.

currently held: Manuscript tradition

Hymn of PraiseFertilityDeath and RebirthGreek Myth

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