Homeric Hymn 5: To Aphrodite
The longest Homeric Hymn (293 lines), narrating Aphrodite's seduction of the Trojan prince Anchises and the birth of Aeneas — composed in epic hexameters c. 7th century BCE.
About the Poem
The fifth and longest of the Homeric Hymns (293 hexameters) is a narrative hymn in epic style, almost certainly older than the other long hymns (likely composed in the late 7th century BCE). It tells how Zeus, weary of Aphrodite mocking the gods for falling in love with mortals, causes her to fall in love with the Trojan herdsman-prince Anchises on Mount Ida. From their union comes Aeneas, ancestor of Rome.
The hymn is one of our earliest sources on the cult of Aphrodite, her birth in Cyprus (the Paphos passage below is a key witness to her Cypriot cult), and her foreign — likely Near Eastern — origins.
Opening Invocation (lines 1–6)
Greek (Homeric)
Μοῦσά μοι ἔννεπε ἔργα πολυχρύσου Ἀφροδίτης, Κύπριδος, ἥ τε θεοῖσιν ἐπὶ γλυκὺν ἵμερον ὦρσε καί τ’ ἐδαμάσσατο φῦλα καταθνητῶν ἀνθρώπων οἰωνούς τε διιπετέας καὶ θηρία πάντα, ἠμὲν ὅσ’ ἤπειρος πολλὰ τρέφει ἠδ’ ὅσα πόντος· πᾶσιν δ’ ἔργα μέμηλεν ἐυστεφάνου Κυθερείης.
English (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 — public domain)
Muse, tell me the deeds of golden Aphrodite, the Cyprian, who stirs up sweet passion in the gods and subdues the tribes of mortal men and birds that fly in air and all the many creatures that the dry land rears, and all that the sea: all these love the deeds of rich-crowned Cytherea.
The Bath at Paphos (lines 58–67)
A celebrated description of Aphrodite’s Cypriot sanctuary, evidence for the antiquity of her cult on the island and its likely Phoenician/Near Eastern roots.
Greek
ἐς Κύπρον δ’ ἐλθοῦσα θυώδεα νηὸν ἔδυνεν, ἐς Πάφον· ἔνθα δέ οἱ τέμενος βωμός τε θυώδης. ἔνθ’ ἥ γ’ εἰσελθοῦσα θύρας ἐπέθηκε φαεινάς· ἔνθα δέ μιν Χάριτες λοῦσαν καὶ χρῖσαν ἐλαίῳ ἀμβρότῳ, οἷα θεοὺς ἐπενήνοθεν αἰὲν ἐόντας, ἀμβροσίῳ ἑδανῷ, τό ῥά οἱ τεθυωμένον ἦεν.
English (Evelyn-White)
And she went to Cyprus, to Paphos, where her precinct is and fragrant altar. There she went in and put to the glittering doors, and there the Graces bathed her with heavenly oil such as blooms upon the bodies of the eternal gods — oil divinely sweet, which she had by her, filled with fragrance.
Anchises Wakes (lines 168–183, abridged)
After their union, Anchises wakes to discover his lover is a goddess and is terrified, knowing the doom that befalls mortals who lie with the immortals.
Greek (selected)
τὸν δ’ ὕπνος ἔμαρπτε διαπρὺς λυσιμελής… “γίγνωσκον μὲν ἐγώ γε κατὰ φρένα, εὖτε σὲ τὸ πρῶτον εἶδον, θεά, ἀλλ’ οὐ σύ γε νημερτὲς ἔειπες…”
English (Evelyn-White)
…sleep, that loosens the limbs, took hold of him. … “I knew it in my heart from the moment I first saw you, goddess, but you spoke not truly to me…”
Closing Formula (lines 292–293)
Greek
χαῖρε, θεά, Κύπρου ἐυκτιμένης μεδέουσα· σεῦ δ’ ἐγὼ ἀρξάμενος μεταβήσομαι ἄλλον ἐς ὕμνον.
English (Evelyn-White)
Hail, goddess, queen of well-builded Cyprus! With you have I begun; now I will turn me to another hymn.
Sources & Citations
- Greek text (TLG / Perseus): Homeric Hymns, ed. T. W. Allen, Oxford 1912 — Hymn 5
- English translation (public domain): Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Loeb Classical Library, 1914), at sacred-texts.com and Perseus Digital Library
- Scholarly edition: Andrew Faulkner, The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite: Introduction, Text, and Commentary (Oxford, 2008)
- Wikipedia overview: Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite