Homeric Hymn 10: To Aphrodite
The briefest of three Homeric Hymns to Aphrodite — 6 lines invoking Cytherea born in Cyprus, queen of Salamis, asking for a cheerful song. A prooemial hymn in miniature.
About the Poem
The tenth Homeric Hymn is the shortest of the three hymns to Aphrodite and one of the briefest in the entire collection — just 6 lines. It is a pure prooemial invocation, invoking Aphrodite as “Cytherea born in Cyprus,” hailing her as queen of Salamis and Cyprus, and asking her to grant a cheerful song.
Its brevity is its function: this is a prelude, not a narrative. The poet names the goddess, establishes her cult geography (Cyprus — her primary sanctuary, Salamis — another Cypriot city with an Aphrodite temple), praises her beauty (her smiling face and lovely brightness), and closes with the standard formula “and now I will remember you and another song also.”
The hymn’s reference to the smiles of Aphrodite — “smiles are ever on her lovely face” — connects to one of her most persistent epithets in Homeric poetry: φιλομμειδής (philommedēs, “laughter-loving”), used frequently in the Iliad and Odyssey.
Complete Text
Greek (Homeric)
Κυθέρειαν ἀείσομαι ἠύκομον θεόν, ἥ Κύπρου μεδέουσα θαλασσαίης ἐπικρατεῖ· αἰεί οἱ μειδιόωσα πρόσωπα καλά, καλὸν δ’ ἐπιλάμπεται εἶδος ἀπ’ αὐτῆς. χαῖρε θεά, Σαλαμῖνος ἐϋκτιμένης βασίλεια καὶ Κύπρου· δός μοι τερπνόν ἀοιδήν.
(Full Greek text at Perseus Digital Library, link below.)
English (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 — public domain)
[1] Of Cytherea, born in Cyprus, I will sing. She gives kindly gifts to men: smiles are ever on her lovely face, and lovely is the brightness that plays over it.
Hail, goddess, queen of well-built Salamis and sea-girt Cyprus; grant me a cheerful song. And now I will remember you and another song also.
Cyprus and Aphrodite
The strong association between Aphrodite and Cyprus reflects her probable Near Eastern origins: Cyprus was a cultural crossroads between the Greek world and the Levant, and the Cypriot Aphrodite is closely related to the Phoenician goddess Astarte and the Mesopotamian Ishtar. The 8th-century BCE Cypriot sanctuary at Paphos (mentioned in Hymn 5) was one of the oldest and most celebrated in the Greek world.
Salamis (the main city of Cyprus in antiquity, not the Attic island) had its own Aphrodite cult, making her “queen of well-built Salamis” a historically accurate cultic address.
Citations
- Evelyn-White, H. G. (trans.). Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Loeb Classical Library 57. Harvard University Press, 1914. Public domain. https://www.theoi.com/Text/HomericHymns3.html
- Budin, Stephanie Lynn. The Origin of Aphrodite. Bethesda: CDL Press, 2003. (On Aphrodite’s Near Eastern connections.)
- Karageorghis, Vassos. Aphrodite of Cyprus: Ancient Art from the Nicosia Museum. Cyprus: A. G. Leventis Foundation, 2006.
- Perseus Digital Library, Homeric Hymns (Greek text): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0137:hymn=10