In addition to two large epic poems, under the name of Homer, a collection of hymns to the gods has reached us in manuscripts, most of which (28) are small, from 3 to 22 verses each. All of them are written in hexameter, since they were not intended for choral singing, but were small introductions of προοίμια - prayers addressed to the gods, performed by rhapsodists at festivals in honor of a given god before starting to perform heroic epic. The final verses of many of these hymns also indicate this purpose: “having begun with you, I will move on to another song” (of course, praise, the story of an epic hero). All the hymns are written in hexameter, which subsequently remained the size of this type of poetry (cf. the hymns of Callimachus, Cleanthes, see below, vol. II).
The collection also contains several extensive hymns dedicated to different gods, several hundred verses each. They set out a complete mythical history of God (aretalogy), including his birth, his adventures and activities, the foundations of his cult in different areas Greece, etc. We will dwell on these hymns in more detail. In small hymns, the properties of the deity and allusions to myths about him are expressed in a heap of epithets. We will begin our review with the most important hymn - to Demeter, although in a number of manuscripts of the collection it is completely absent, and where it is present, it occupies fifth place.
Hymn to Demeter (495 verses). The plot of the hymn is the story of the abduction by the ruler of the underworld Hades from the goddess of fertility. Demeter, her daughter Persephone. Connected with this in the hymn is the mythical history of the founding of the cult of both goddesses in the Attic deme of Eleusis and the “mysteries” that took place there.
Assuming synoicism (the unification of urban communities) in Attica had already taken place, in particular the annexation of Eleusis to Athens, the hymn dates back to no earlier than the 6th century BC. e.
Demeter, in despair over the loss of her daughter, erased all signs from her face divine origin, retires from Olympus to earth and settles in Eleusis, with the royal couple Kelei and Metanira, taking on the role of nanny for their newborn son Demophoon. She immerses her pet in the fire at night to make him immortal.
Metanira, who accidentally noticed this, is horrified and forbids Demeter to do this. The latter, angry, reveals herself to the Eleusinians, orders a temple to be erected for herself, and sits down in it alone, immersed in melancholy. Meanwhile, drought begins on earth. Demeter's mother Rhea persuades Hades to agree that Persephone spend only a third of the year with him, and the rest of the time with her mother.
Zeus commands Hades to obey, and the fertility of the earth is restored as mother and daughter return to Olympus.
Rhea orders Demeter to restore fertility to the earth.
...And Demeter was not disobedient to her,
She immediately sent out ears of grain on the fertile fields,
Lush greenery, flowers wide land dressed
Generously. She herself, getting up, went to the sovereign lords, -
With a cunning mind, Triptolemus, the horse-breaker Diocles,
To the power of Eumolpus, and also to the ruler of the nations, Keleus, -
The sacrificial vat showed the sacred and dedicated everyone
In the sacraments. They are holy and great. No questions about them
No one should do or give an answer to questions:
In great reverence for the immortals, the lips fall silent.
Happy are those of earth-born people who have seen the sacraments,
The one who is not involved in them, after death, will never be
To have a similar share in the multi-dark underground kingdom.
(Translated by V.V. Veresaeva)
The hymn ends with the Aed appealing to both goddesses, asking them to send him happy life for a song. In this hymn we have the oldest evidence of the founding of a secret Eleusinian cult with the initiation into it of selected “mystes” (persons initiated into the mysteries). This cult had great value in the history of the development of Greek religion up to the most recent times. He played famous role and in the design of Christian worship.
The hymn, as we see, names the names of other kings of Eleusis, besides Kelei: Triptolemus, Diocles and Eumolpus. Of these, Triptolemus plays big role in the Attic Eleusinian cult as a deity sharing with the goddesses the veneration of the faithful.
Priests, allegedly descended from the Eumolpid family, were in charge of the Eleusinian mysteries until the 6th century AD. e. From Herodotus (VIII, 65) we know that already in 480 the number of adherents of the Eleusinian mysteries associated with the mysterious rites of the cult of Demeter and Kore in the city of Eleusis reached thirty thousand. Aristophanes, in his comedy “Frogs” (the very end of the 5th century BC), depicts a choir of mystics in the underworld. They sing: “We alone use the sun and light in the underworld of Hades, we who are dedicated and have spent our lives fearing God towards our own and strangers.” This is in direct connection with the above verses (vv. 480-482) from Homer's hymn to Demeter.
The hymn to Apollo of Delos and Delphi, which occupies the first place in the collection, tells about the birth of Apollo and his wanderings. This is followed by the usual conclusion of the singer, and then, after some omission, the struggle of Apollo with the dragon Python (cf. Pushkin’s poem: “The bow rings, the arrow trembles”) and the history of the founding of the Delphic temple with the oracle of this god are set out. Already Thucydides (III, 103) quotes verses from the hymn, the first part of which (178 verses) is usually considered as a separate, independent hymn to Apollo of Delos. In the verses quoted by Thucydides, the poet addresses young girls, informing himself that he is “blind, and lives on rocky Chios.” This first part of the hymn is in origin connected with the island of Delos, where the ancient cult of Apollo existed. The foundations of the temple, the giant statue of Apollo and the altar to him are still shown to tourists in Delos. The Athenians in 426 (Thucydides III, 103) restored here the ancient festival of Apollo, which had ceased under Peisistratus.
The Delphic hymn (the second part of the hymn to Apollo, 368 verses) was created, in any case, before 548, when a fire destroyed the first Delphic temple, which was later restored. The famous Delphic temple with the oracle had in the history of Greece not only ideological significance, like the Eleusinian cults, but through its priests it also played a great political role.
Hymn to Hermes (580 verses). The hymn says that Hermes was born early in the morning, at noon he had already invented the cithara, and by the evening he stole a herd of cows from his older brother, Apollo. The god of invention and trade, a master of theft and trickery, is perfectly described here. The author of the hymn captures extremely well the light, graceful tone that corresponds to the very nature of the god being sung. The nosy and playful nature of the restless god manifests itself from infancy. This is a swindling rogue who deftly leads his older brother by the nose. The invention of the seven-stringed cithara is attributed in the hymn to the Child God, and since we know that the latter was invented at the end of the 7th century BC. e. Terpandrom, then the anthem could not have been composed before this time. Here is an example of the style of the hymn (Hermes sees a turtle, from whose armor he makes a lyre):
Taking a glance, he laughed and immediately uttered the word:
"A glorious sign, of great benefit, I will not scold.
Hello, dear dancer of the cutest breed, companion at the feast.
You are after my heart, turtle, you live in the mountains.
Well, I’ll bring you into the house, you’ll be of great benefit to me.
You will be my protection from spells while you remain alive;
If you die, that's when you'll sing wonderful songs".
(Transl. S. P. Shestakova)
Hymn to Aphrodite (293 verses). This hymn depicts in vivid colors the episode of the visit of the shepherd Anchises on Mount Ida by the goddess Aphrodite, who shares his bed to give birth to Aeneas, the ancestor of the glorious family of the Aeneads. The poet knows how to maintain tact and a sublime tone in his sensitive topic. The divine nature and captivating beauty of the goddess are outlined with a fine brush. In terms of language, this is the most homeric (ὁμηρικωτατος) of hymns. It is the oldest of the great hymns that have come down to us, but it still dates back to before the 7th century BC. e. no reason.
Fragment of a large hymn to Dionysus. The fragments preserved in the manuscript (formerly Moscow, now Leiden) indicate that there once existed a great hymn to the god Dionysus. The establishment of the cult of God and the history of its birth were also described here.
Hymn to Pan (49 verses). Pan, the son of Hermes and the nymph Dryope, the cheerful goat-footed god of pastures, wandering through the mountain oak forests and playing the pipe in the evenings, is depicted in this hymn in lyrical tones against the backdrop of Greek nature. This image entered precisely this form into later art.
Homeric hymns undoubtedly belong to the era of still living epic creativity. This is a series of plastic images of the gods with their diverse characters: Demeter, the image of a sad mother in her inconsolable grief for her daughter; Apollo, the bright god, in the brilliance of beauty and power; Hermes, with his playful, subtle mind; Aphrodite, full of beauty and feminine modesty, conquering all living things with her charms.
The significance of the Homeric hymns, which received this name only due to the fact that they came from the same schools of Aeds from which the Homeric heroic epic came, is very great. For the student of ancient Greek mythology and religion, they provide the oldest form of aretalogy of the main deities. Further development images of these deities in poetry and fine arts It would be incomprehensible to us in many ways without Homeric hymns. For a literary historian, they are of interest in themselves, as remarkable works of art, available to our reader in the excellent Russian translation by V.V. Veresaev. Later poets (for example, Callimachus) tried to imitate these hymns, but could not rise to the level of the genuine poetry breathing in them.
Greek cults with very for a long time They also knew another type of hymns - lyrical chants. Oldest forms such hymns have not reached us. The evidence on which we judge them is discussed below in the Lyrics section.
1 Wed. Fourcart. Recherches sur l'origine et la nature des mystères d'Eleusis 1895, p. 26.
Ancient hymn
Homeric hymns
Homer is credited with 34 hymns addressed to the gods. According to the epic style, the so-called Homeric hymns close to the Iliad and the Odyssey. Some of them are very early origin(VII century BC), others later (IV century BC).
The hymns are poetic adaptations of ancient myths. They were performed at festivals held in honor of the deity who was glorified. Hymns preceded the performance of such heroic poems about gods and heroes as the Iliad and the Odyssey, and served as a kind of chorus to them.
Of the hymns, the first five are the most significant and interesting. These are, first of all, two hymns in honor of Apollo - Deloe and Pythian. The first tells of the birth of Artemis and Apollo, the children of Latona, on the island of Delos and the founding of a cult and festival there in honor of them; in the second - about the arrival of Apollo at the foot of Mount Parnassus, about his victory over the monstrous serpent Python (hence the place is called “Pytho”, and the priestess - “Pythia”), about the appearance of Apollo in the form of a dolphin (hence his nickname “Dolphinium”) , about the construction of a temple here with an oracle and about the founding of the city of Delphi. The hymn to Aphrodite (IV) speaks of her love for the Trojan Anchises.
In terms of volume, the largest are the hymns in honor of Hermes (III) with 580 verses and in honor of Demeter, the goddess of earthly fertility (V) with 495 verses. It is told about Hermes how, as soon as he was born, he stole wonderful cows from Apollo and how he made a lyre from a turtle. The hymn in honor of Demeter tells of the abduction of her daughter Persephone and the establishment of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Persephone was walking with her friends, picking flowers in the meadow, when suddenly the earth opened up and a god appeared on a chariot underworld Pluto-Hades and took her to his home. Demeter searched all over the earth for her missing daughter, until finally the sun god Helius revealed the kidnapper to her. The offended Demeter decided to leave the host of the gods and, under the guise of a simple old woman, came to Attica, to the town of Eleusis, where she was received as a nanny in the house of King Kelei. She fell in love with her pet, Prince Demophon, and, wanting to make him immortal, began to burn him in fire, but Queen Metanira foolishly prevented this. Then Demeter revealed herself to people, ordered the construction of a temple and established great sacraments. Meanwhile, the land, left without the care of Demeter, dried up and stopped bearing fruit. The gods, not receiving the usual sacrifices from people, agreed that Persephone should spend one third of the year with her husband in the underworld, and two thirds should remain with her mother.
The remaining hymns glorifying other gods are smaller in volume and inferior to the above in terms of artistic value. An interesting hymn in honor of Dionysus (VII), which tells how the god in the form of a beautiful youth was captured sea robbers, hoping to receive a rich ransom. But Dionysus showed them his divine power: Having hung bunches of grapes on the ship's yards and spilled the wine, he turned into a lion and sent a bear at them, so that in fear they threw themselves into the sea and turned into dolphins.
Most of these hymns end with the verse:
Having now remembered you, I begin another song.
This gives reason to assume that each “hymn” is only an “introduction”, a prelude before the ceremony in honor of God; it communicated information about the holiday to the worshipers, and thus it had the goal of preparing the worshipers for the performance of the cult.
In terms of the time of creation, these hymns are very different: the first five are close to Homeric poetry, the others undoubtedly date back to a later time - perhaps to the 7th-6th centuries. The Hymn to Pan (XIX) is no older than the beginning of the 5th century, and some perhaps even date back to the Hellenistic period. They were created in various places and were associated with local cults.
In terms of the time of creation, these hymns are very different: the first five are close to Homeric poetry, the others undoubtedly date back to a later time - perhaps to the 7th-6th centuries. The Hymn to Pan (XIX) is no older than the beginning of the 5th century, and some perhaps even date back to the Hellenistic period. They were created in various places and were associated with local cults. Thus, it is quite clear that they could not be the creation of Homer.
"HOMERIAN HYMNS"
This name is given to the collection of 33 hexametric works preserved under the name of Homer. different lengths addressed to the gods. They were composed by rhapsodes as so-called proemies (introductions), with which they preceded the reading of Homer's songs at poetic agons during cult festivities in various religious centers of Greece. These were invocations to the deity being honored. Short, sometimes only a few verses, gimps listed only the nicknames of the god and asked for protection, then expounded (often with great storytelling skill) sacred legend or any other story about this god. However, not all hymns were of a cult nature. They were created, apparently, in the 7th-5th centuries. BC, their authors are unknown. The collection contains 5 long hymns that represent a complete artistic whole and are not proemies. This is To Apollo of Delphi (I, Eis Apollona Delphion) - a hymn in 178 verses, a legend about the birth of a god on the island of Delos; To Apollo of Pythia (II, Eis Apollona Pythion) in 368 verses a narrative about the creation of the Delphic oracle. These two hymns appear in manuscripts as one work. Hymn to Hermes (III, Eis Hermen) in 580 verses is a story full of humor and charm about the antics of the newborn Hermes. Hymn to Aphrodite (IV, Eis Aphroditen) in 293 verses - a narrative about the union of Aphrodite with Anchises. The Hymn to Demeter (V, Eis Demetra), in 495 verses, is an Attic legend about the arrival of the goddess in Eleusis and the establishment of the Mysteries.
Homeric hymns
"HOMERIAN HYMNS"
This name is given to a collection of 33 hexametric works of varying lengths, preserved under the name of Homer, addressed to the gods. They were composed by rhapsodes as so-called proemies (introductions), with which they preceded the reading of Homer's songs at poetic agons during cult festivities in various religious centers of Greece. These were invocations to the deity being honored. Short, sometimes only a few verses, gimps listed only the nicknames of the god and asked for patronage, then they set out (often with great storytelling skill) a sacred legend or any other story about this god. However, not all hymns were of a cult nature. They were created, apparently, in the 7th-5th centuries. BC, their authors are unknown. The collection contains 5 long hymns that represent a complete artistic whole and are not proemies. This is To Apollo of Delphi (I, Eis Apollona Delphion) - a hymn in 178 verses, a legend about the birth of a god on the island of Delos; To Apollo of Pythia (II, Eis Apollona Pythion) in 368 verses a narrative about the creation of the Delphic oracle. These two hymns appear in manuscripts as one work. Hymn to Hermes (III, Eis Hermen) in 580 verses is a story full of humor and charm about the antics of the newborn Hermes. Hymn to Aphrodite (IV, Eis Aphroditen) in 293 verses - a narrative about the union of Aphrodite with Anchises. The Hymn to Demeter (V, Eis Demetra), in 495 verses, is an Attic legend about the arrival of the goddess in Eleusis and the establishment of the Mysteries.