---
title: "The Homeric Hymns · Ὁμηρικοὶ ὕμνοι"
author: "Homer"
translator: "Hugh G. Evelyn-White"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Classical Greek"
section: 1 of 35
url: https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/1/
cite: "Homer, tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, The Homeric Hymns · Ὁμηρικοὶ ὕμνοι, section 1. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/1/"
---

# The Homeric Hymns · Ὁμηρικοὶ ὕμνοι

*Homer, tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White*

Thirty-three hymns to the gods in Homer’s metre: Demeter searching for Persephone, the birth of Apollo on Delos, the infant Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle and inventing the lyre, Aphrodite and Anchises, and short preludes to many more.

> Greek: ed. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit, tlg0013.tlg001–tlg033, CC BY-SA 4.0).

> English: Hugh G. Evelyn-White, from the Perseus Digital Library (tlg0013.tlg001–tlg033, perseus-eng2). Notes are not included.

> Rows follow the references the two texts share (line numbers), cut where both reach the end of a sentence.

## 1. Hymn 1 · To Dionysus

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/1/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/1/#p-N

[¶0] … For some say, at Dracanum; and some, on windy Icarus; and some, in Naxos, O Heaven-born, Insewn; and others by the deep-eddying river Alpheus that pregnant Semele bare you to Zeus the thunder-lover.

> Greek: … οἳ μὲν γὰρ Δρακάνῳ σʼ, οἳ δʼ Ἰκάρῳ ἠνεμοέσσῃ
φάσʼ, οἳ δʼ ἐν Νάξῳ, δῖον γένος, εἰραφιῶτα,
οἳ δέ σʼ ἐπʼ Ἀλφειῷ ποταμῷ βαθυδινήεντι
κυσαμένην Σεμέλην τεκέειν Διὶ τερπικεραύνῳ·

[¶1] And others yet, lord, say you were born in Thebes; but all these lie. The Father of men and gods gave you birth remote from men and secretly from white-armed Hera. There is a certain Nysa, a mountain most high and richly grown with woods, far off in Phoenice, near the streams of Aegyptus … “and men will lay up for her many offerings in her shrines.

> Greek: ἄλλοι δʼ ἐν Θήβῃσιν, ἄναξ, σε λέγουσι γενέσθαι,
ψευδόμενοι· σὲ δʼ ἔτικτε πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε
πολλὸν ἀπʼ ἀνθρώπων, κρύπτων λευκώλενον Ἥρην.
ἔστι δέ τις Νύση, ὕπατον ὄρος, ἀνθέον ὕλῃ,
τηλοῦ Φοινίκης, σχεδὸν Αἰγύπτοιο ῥοάων, … καί οἱ ἀναστήσουσιν ἀγάλματα πόλλʼ ἐνὶ νηοῖς.

[¶2] And as these things are three, so shall mortals ever sacrifice perfect hecatombs to you at your feasts each three years.” The Son of Cronos spoke and nodded with his dark brows. And the divine locks of the king flowed forward from his immortal head, and he made great Olympus reel.

> Greek: ὣς δὲ τὰ μὲν τρία, σοὶ πάντως τριετηρίσιν αἰεὶ
ἄνθρωποι ῥέξουσι τεληέσσας ἑκατόμβας.
ἦ καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπʼ ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων·
ἀμβρόσιαι δʼ ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτος κρατὸς ἀπʼ ἀθανάτοιο·

[¶3] So spake wise Zeus and ordained it with a nod. Be favorable, O Insewn, Inspirer of frenzied women! we singers sing of you as we begin and as we end a strain, and none forgetting you may call holy song to mind.

> Greek: μέγαν δʼ ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον.
ὣς εἰπὼν ἐπένευσε καρήατι μητίετα Ζεύς.
ἵληθʼ, εἰραφιῶτα, γυναιμανές· οἱ δέ σʼ ἀοιδοὶ
ᾄδομεν ἀρχόμενοι λήγοντές τʼ· οὐδέ πῃ ἔστι
σεῖʼ ἐπιληθομένῳ ἱερῆς μεμνῆσθαι ἀοιδῆς.

[¶4] And so, farewell, Dionysus, Insewn, with your mother Semele whom men call Thyone.

> Greek: καὶ σὺ μὲν οὕτω χαῖρε, Διώνυσʼ εἰραφιῶτα,
σὺν μητρὶ Σεμέλῃ, ἥν περ καλέουσι Θυώνην.