Homeric Hymns

The Homeric Hymns (Ancient Greek: Ὁμηρικοὶ Ὕμνοι, romanized: Homērikoì Húmnoi) are a collection of thirty-three anonymous ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter—dactylic hexameter—as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect. They were uncritically attributed to Homer himself in antiquity—from the earliest written reference to them, Thucydides (iii.104)—and the label has stuck. "The whole collection, as a collection, is Homeric in the only useful sense that can be put upon the word," A. W. Verrall noted in 1894,[1] "that is to say, it has come down labeled as 'Homer' from the earliest times of Greek book-literature."

History

The oldest of the hymns were probably written in the seventh century BC, somewhat later than Hesiod and the usually accepted date for the writing down of the Homeric epics. This still places the older Homeric Hymns among the oldest monuments of Greek literature; but although most of them were composed in the seventh and sixth centuries, a few may be Hellenistic, and the Hymn to Ares might be a late pagan work, inserted when it was observed that a hymn to Ares was lacking. Walter Burkert has suggested that the Hymn to Apollo, attributed by an ancient source to Cynaethus of Chios (a member of the Homeridae), was composed in 522 BC for performance at the unusual double festival held by Polycrates of Samos to honor Apollo of Delos and of Delphi.[2]

The hymns, which must be the remains of a once more strongly represented genre, vary widely in length, some being as brief as three or four lines, while others are in excess of five hundred lines. The long ones comprise an invocation, praise, and narrative, sometimes quite extended. In the briefest ones, the narrative element is lacking. The longer ones show signs of having been assembled from pre-existing disparate materials.

Most surviving Byzantine manuscripts begin with the third Hymn. A chance discovery in Moscow in 1777 recovered the two hymns that open the collection, the fragmentary To Dionysus and To Demeter (complete save some lacunose lines), in a single fifteenth-century manuscript. Some at least of the shorter ones may be excerpts that have omitted the narrative central section, preserving only the useful invocation and introduction,[3] which a rhapsode could employ in the manner of a prelude.

The thirty-three hymns praise most of the major gods of Greek mythology; at least the shorter ones may have served as preludes to the recitation of epic verse at festivals by professional rhapsodes: often the singer concludes by saying that now he will pass to another song. A thirty-fourth, To Hosts is not a hymn, but a reminder that hospitality is a sacred duty enjoined by the gods, a pointed reminder when coming from a professional rhapsode.

List of the Homeric Hymns
  1. "To Dionysus", 21 lines
  2. "To Demeter", 495 lines
  3. "To Apollo", 546 lines
  4. "To Hermes", 580 lines
  5. "To Aphrodite", 293 lines
  6. "To Aphrodite", 21 lines
  7. "To Dionysus", 59 lines
  8. "To Ares", 17 lines
  9. "To Artemis", 9 lines
  10. "To Aphrodite", 6 lines
  11. "To Athena", 5 lines
  12. "To Hera", 5 lines
  13. "To Demeter", 3 lines
  14. "To the mother of the gods", 6 lines
  15. "To Heracles with the heart of a lion", 9 lines
  16. "To Asclepius", 5 lines
  17. "To the Dioscuri", 5 lines
  18. "To Hermes", 12 lines
  19. "To Pan", 49 lines
  20. "To Hephaestus", 8 lines
  21. "To Apollo", 5 lines
  22. "To Poseidon", 7 lines
  23. "To Zeus", 4 lines
  24. "To Hestia", 5 lines
  25. "To the Muses and Apollo", 7 lines
  26. "To Dionysus", 13 lines
  27. "To Artemis", 22 lines
  28. "To Athena", 18 lines
  29. "To Hestia", 13 lines
  30. "To Gaia, mother of all", 19 lines
  31. "To Helios", 20 lines
  32. "To Selene", 20 lines
  33. "To the Dioscuri", 19 lines

Notes
  1. A. W. Verrall. "The Hymn to Apollo: An Essay in the Homeric Question". The Journal of Hellenic Studies 14 (1894:1–29) p. 2.
  2. Walter Burkert. 'Kynaithos, Polycrates and the Homeric Hymn to Apollo' in Arktouros: Hellenic studies presented to B. M. W. Knox ed. G. W. Bowersock, W. Burkert, M. C. J. Putnam (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1979) pp. 53–62.
  3. "husks, introductions and conclusions from which the narrative core has been removed" as Robert Parker calls them, "The 'Hymn to Demeter' and the 'Homeric Hymns'" Greece & Rome 2nd Series 38.1 (April 1991, pp. 1–17) p. 1. Parker notes that, for instance, Hymn 18 preserves a version of the beginning and end of the Hymn to Hermes.

Select translations
  • The Homeric Hymns, Apostolos N. Athanassakis (translation, introduction and notes) Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. (Updated in 2004.) ISBN 0-8018-7983-3
  • The Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes, Diane Rayor (2004, updated 2014). This translation sets the hymns in their context of Greek folklore, culture and geography, and offers parallels with Near Eastern texts.
  • Homeric Hymns, Sarah Ruden, trans. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2005)
  • The Homeric Hymns, Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, Daryl Hine, trans. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008)
  • To Demeter (Εἲς Δημήτραν):

Further reading
  • Allen, Thomas W., William R. Halliday, and Edward E. Sikes, eds. 1936. The Homeric Hymns. 2d ed. Oxford: Clarendon.
  • Clay, Jenny Strauss. 2006. The Politics of Olympus: Form and Meaning in the Major Homeric Hymns. London: Duckworth.
  • De Jong, Irene J. F. 2012. "The Homeric Hymns." In Space in Ancient Greek Literature: Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative. Edited by Irene J. F. De Jong, 39-53 Leiden; Boston: Brill.
  • Depew, Mary. 2001. "Enacted and Represented Dedications: Genre and Greek Hymn." In Matrices of Genre: Authors, Canons, and Society. Edited by Mary Depew and Dirk Obbink, 59–79.
  • Faulkner, Andrew. 2011. "Modern Scholarship on the Homeric Hymns: Foundational Issues." In The Homeric Hymns: Interpretative Essays. Edited by Andrew Faulkner. 1–25. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  • García, J. 2002. "Symbolic Action in the Homeric Hymns: The Theme of Recognition." Classical Antiquity 21.1: 5-39.
  • Hoekstra, Arie. 1969. The Sub-Epic Stage of the Formulaic Tradition: Studies in the Homeric Hymns to Apollo, to Aphrodite and to Demeter. Amsterdam: Hakkert.
  • Janko, Richard. 1981. "The Structure of the Homeric Hymns: A Study in Genre." Hermes 109:9–24.
  • Nagy, Gregory. 2009. "Perfecting the Hymn in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo." In Apolline Politics and Poetics. Edited by Lucia Athanassaki, 17-42. Athens: Hellenic Ministry of Culture: European Cultural Centre of Delphi.
  • Richardson, Nicholas, ed. 2010. Three Homeric hymns: To Apollo, Hermes, and Aphrodite. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  • Sowa, Cora A. 1984. Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns. Chicago: Blochazy-Carducci.
  • Webster, T. B. L. 1975. "Homeric Hymns and Society." In Le Monde Grec. Pensée, Littérature, Histoire, Documents. Hommages à Claire Préaux. Edited by Jean Bingen, 86-93. Bruxelles: Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles
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Homeric Hymns
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