Analyses of the Surviving Long Homeric Hymns

Introduction to the Homeric Hymns

In the ancient world, the Homeric Hymns were thought to have been composed by Homer, the poet of the Iliad and Odyssey. Exactly when this belief developed is difficult to speculate, but it’s safe to say it was the dominant perspective in the later periods of ancient Greece (Hellenistic and Roman). The surviving Homeric Hymns were collected sometime in the 1st century BCE[1] and modern scholars date their composition during a significant span of Greek history, predominately in the Archaic period, between 700-500 BCE, but as late as the Hellenistic period (323-150 BCE).[2] 

While we know little about when the hymns became associated with the poet of the Iliad and Odyssey, we know why they were so. The hymns are composed in the “Homeric Style” or meter, called dactylic hexameter.[3] A dactyl is a “note,” and there are a certain number of notes per line, hex- (hexameter) or six. Although all languages have a cadence or rhythm to them, these hymns are songs, which in the case of the Homeric epics would have been accompanied by musical instruments such as the lyre. Modern choral hymns are similarly accompanied by musical instruments, so the concept is not very foreign to modern sensibilities. 

The context of the hymns’ creation is somewhat murky. Some of the hymns appear to be introductory pieces culled from larger works, invocations and celebrations of a deity that a poet would sing before launching into the primary narrative of his work. These invocations are similar to prayers and supplications. Across cultures, prayers and supplications accomplish two functions: 1) They honor (praise, venerate) the subject of the invocation; and 2) They ask the subject for something (supplication). The “Invocation tothe Muses,” the introductory element of Hesiod’s Theogony, is an example of such an invocation. It glorifies the Muses by reminding listeners of who the Muses are, where they come from, and extolling their glory (kleos). As one would expect, the invocation also asks the Muses to help the poet remember the song that he is about to sing. In a less self-reflective context, prayers might simply ask the deity for his favor, such as the case of the Christian “Lord’s Prayer,”: “Our father, who art in Heaven, glory be thy name” (emphasis added). The prayer literally glorifies the deity. As the prayer continues, it asks for benevolence or mercy: “Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (emphasis added). In other words, give us something in the economic exchange for our piety; the supplicant prostrates himself before the deity and asks for mercy or benevolence in exchange for one’s piety. Prayer voices a contract between the suppliant and deity or person in power. The functional pattern of such prayers in the Greek world is similar. Other hymns appear to stand alone, not referring to, or suggesting that, any other content is to follow. Thus, scholars infer that some of the hymns were originally introductory elements of larger works while others were always intended as standalone dedications to their respective deities. Their functions as prayers or supplications is otherwise similar to those hymns that were culled from larger works.

 A more practical difference between the various hymns is that of length: there are longer narrative poems and shorter dedicatory poems. As the terms imply, the narrative poems tell a story with a discernable beginning, middle, and end. The shorter hymns, meanwhile, tend to simply venerate their subject deity and perhaps mention a few traits or accomplishments of said god. The Homeric Hymns provide our earliest complete textual versions of many popular myths from the Greek world.

Notes

[1] Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation. Stephen M. Trzaskoma, r. Scott Smith, and Stephen Brunet (eds., trans.). Hackett (2004).

[2] Diane Rayor. The Homeric Hymns: A Translation, with Introduction and Notes: A Joan Palevsky Book in Classical Literature. The University of California Press (2004). Link is to updated edition (2014).

[3] Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation. Stephen M. Trzaskoma, r. Scott Smith, and Stephen Brunet (eds., trans.). Hackett (2004).