---
title: "The Homeric Hymns · Ὁμηρικοὶ ὕμνοι"
author: "Homer"
translator: "Hugh G. Evelyn-White"
languages: [grc, en]
shelf: "Classical Greek"
section: 17 of 35
url: https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/17/
cite: "Homer, tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, The Homeric Hymns · Ὁμηρικοὶ ὕμνοι, section 17. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/17/"
---

# 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.

## 17. Hymn 15 · To Heracles

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/17/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/homeric-hymns/17/#p-N

[¶0] I will sing of Heracles, the son of Zeus and much the mightiest of men on earth. Alcmena bare him in Thebes, the city of lovely dances, when the dark-clouded Son of Cronos had lain with her. Once he used to wander over unmeasured tracts of land and sea at the bidding of King Eurystheus, and himself did many deeds of violence and endured many; but now he lives happily in the glorious home of snowy Olympus, and has neat-ankled Hebe for his wife.

> Greek: Ἡρακλέα, Διὸς υἱόν, ἀείσομαι, ὃν μέγʼ ἄριστον
γείνατʼ ἐπιχθονίων Θήβῃς ἔνι καλλιχόροισιν
Ἀλκμήνη μιχθεῖσα κελαινεφέι Κρονίωνι·
ὃς πρὶν μὲν κατὰ γαῖαν ἀθέσφατον ἠδὲ θάλασσαν πλαζόμενος πομπῇσιν ὕπʼ Εὐρυσθῆος ἄνακτος
πολλὰ μὲν αὐτὸς ἔρεξεν ἀτάσθαλα, πολλὰ δʼ ἀνέτλη·

[¶1] Hail, lord, son of Zeus' Give me success and prosperity.

> Greek: νῦν δʼ ἤδη κατὰ καλὸν ἕδος νιφόεντος Ὀλύμπου
ναίει τερπόμενος καὶ ἔχει καλλίσφυρον Ἥβην.
χαῖρε, ἄναξ, Διὸς υἱέ· δίδου δʼ ἀρετήν τε καὶ ὄλβον.