Homeric Hymn 23: To Zeus
A brief 4-line hymn to Zeus as the greatest and most excellent of gods — all-seeing, lord of all, the fulfiller who whispers counsel to Themis. The shortest invocation to the king of Olympus.
About the Poem
The twenty-third Homeric Hymn is a complete 4-line invocation to Zeus, king of the gods. At just four lines, it is one of the shortest in the collection, yet it packs in Zeus’s most essential attributes: greatest and most excellent, all-seeing, lord of all, fulfiller (τελεσφόρον — one who brings things to completion), and his intimate relationship with Themis (divine Justice/Order), to whom he whispers counsel as she sits leaning toward him.
The image of Zeus and Themis in conference — the king of heaven consulting with the goddess of divine law — reflects a theology of Zeus as not a mere tyrant of force but as the upholder of cosmic order. Themis (literally “what is established, what is right”) was one of the Titanesses and the second wife of Zeus (after Metis); she personifies divine law, custom, and proper order.
Complete Text
Greek (Homeric)
Δία θεῶν τόν τ’ ἄριστον ἀείσομαι ἠδὲ μέγιστον, εὐρύοπα κρείοντα, τελεσφόρον, ὅς τε Θέμιτι ἑζομένῃ πάρα πύλαις ἐπιπεύθεται ἄρα μῆτιν ἵλαθι πολύολβε, μέγιστε, τελεσφορίοις πανύπερτε.
(Full Greek text at Perseus Digital Library, link below.)
English (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 — public domain)
[1] I will sing of Zeus, chiefest among the gods and greatest, all-seeing, the lord of all, the fulfiller who whispers words of wisdom to Themis as she sits leaning towards him.
Be gracious, all-seeing Son of Cronos, most excellent and great!
Zeus and Themis
The intimate scene of Zeus and Themis in close consultation is known from other sources. In Hesiod’s Theogony (901–906), Themis is the second wife of Zeus and the mother of the Horae (Hours/Seasons: Eunomia, Dike, Eirene) and the Fates (Moirai). Their union produces the very structures of cosmic order — lawfulness, justice, peace, and fate itself.
The title εὐρύοπα (euryopa, “far-seeing, loud-thundering”) is one of Zeus’s most characteristic epithets in Homer — appearing dozens of times in the Iliad and Odyssey. It combines his divine surveillance (all-seeing) with his manifestation as thunderstorm (loud-thundering), the physical vehicle of his will.
τελεσφόρον (telesphoros, “fulfiller, bringer of completion”) marks Zeus as the deity who ensures that things come to their proper end — oaths are fulfilled, fates accomplished, prayers answered or denied according to his cosmic plan.
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
- Hesiod, Theogony 886–906 (Zeus’s marriages and the birth of divine Order). Perseus Digital Library. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+886
- Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical. Trans. Raffan. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985. Chapter on Zeus.
- Perseus Digital Library, Homeric Hymns (Greek text): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0137:hymn=23