Homeric Hymn 11: To Athena
A short 5-line hymn to Athena as guardian of cities and companion of Ares in battle — an invocation capturing the goddess's dual nature as warrior and protector of civilization.
About the Poem
The eleventh Homeric Hymn is one of the shortest in the collection at just 5 lines, a prooemial invocation to Athena that captures her paradoxical nature as both war-goddess and protector of cities.
The hymn is striking for its opening epithet: “guardian of the city” (πολιοῦχος), emphasizing Athena’s most celebrated civic role — as patron of Athens (where she was worshipped as Polias, guardian of the polis), and as the goddess who protects citizens as they march to war and return. The phrase that she “saves the people as they go out to war and come back” encapsulates the full arc of martial life under her protection.
Complete Text
Greek (Homeric)
Παλλάδ’ Ἀθηναίην, ἐρυσίπτολιν, ἄρχομ’ ἀείδειν, δεινήν, ᾗ σὺν Ἄρηϊ μέλει πολεμήϊα ἔργα, περθομέναι τε πόλεις, ἀλαλητός τε καὶ ἄλγη· ἥ τε σόει λαούς, ὁπόταν συμφέρῃ πόλεμόνδε καὶ ὁπόταν ἀπολήγηι. χαῖρε θεά, δὸς δ’ ἄμμι τύχην εὐδαιμονίην τε.
(Full Greek text at Perseus Digital Library, link below.)
English (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 — public domain)
[1] Of Pallas Athene, guardian of the city, I begin to sing. Dread is she, and with Ares she loves deeds of war, the sack of cities and the shouting and the battle. It is she who saves the people as they go out to war and come back.
Hail, goddess, and give us good fortune with happiness!
Athena and Ares: The Two Faces of War
The pairing of Athena with Ares in this hymn reflects a fundamental distinction in Greek theology: Ares as irrational, bloodthirsty violence vs. Athena as strategic, purposeful warfare in defense of civilization. While Ares in the Iliad is explicitly despised by his own father Zeus (Iliad V.890: “most hateful of the gods”), Athena is beloved precisely because she fights with human civilization rather than against it.
The image here — Athena loving “the sack of cities and the shouting and the battle” — might seem to conflict with her civilizing role, but in archaic Greek understanding, the controlled, ritual destruction of an enemy city in legitimate warfare was part of the proper order. Athena’s protection extends through both the going and the returning — she is a guardian of the whole military life of a city.
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
- Parker, Robert. Athenian Religion: A History. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
- Deacy, Susan. Athena. London: Routledge, 2008. (Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World series.)
- Perseus Digital Library, Homeric Hymns (Greek text): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0137:hymn=11