Homeric Hymns

The anonymous Homeric Hymns are a collection of ancient Greek hymns. The oldest of them were written in the 7th century BCE, the days of Hesiod; somewhat later than the date ordinarily ascribed to Homer. This does make them among the oldest monuments of Greek literature. They vary widely in length, some being as brief as three or four lines, while others are in excess of five hundred lines. These hymns celebrating individual gods are in dactylic hexameter, the meter used in the Homeric epics.

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. Gods who have Homeric hymns dedicated to them include:

• Dionysus
• Demeter
• Apollo
• Pythian Apollo
• Hermes
• Aphrodite
• Ares
• Artemis
• Athena
• Hera
• Cybele
• Heracles
• Asclepius
• The Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces
• Pan
• Hephaestus
• Poseidon
• Zeus
• Hestia
• Gaia
• Helios
• Selene

External link

• English etext of the Homeric Hymns at the Berkeley Sunsite