Homeric Hymn 3: To Apollo

About the Poem

The longest of the Homeric Hymns after the Hymn to Aphrodite, this composite text contains two originally distinct compositions:

1. The Delian Hymn (lines 1–178): Leto’s wandering, Apollo’s birth on the floating island of Delos, and the great Ionian festival held there.
2. The Pythian Hymn (lines 179–546): Apollo’s journey through Greece, his slaying of the Python at Delphi, and his founding of the Delphic oracle.

The Delian portion contains the famous “signature” passage in which the poet identifies himself as “a blind man who dwells in rocky Chios” — one of the few ancient self-references that the Greeks themselves connected with Homer.

Opening — The Gods Tremble (lines 1–13)

Greek (Homeric)

Μνήσομαι οὐδὲ λάθωμαι Ἀπόλλωνος ἑκάτοιο, ὅν τε θεοὶ κατὰ δῶμα Διὸς τρομέουσιν ἰόντα· καί ῥά τ’ ἀναΐσσουσιν ἐπὶ σχεδὸν ἐρχομένοιο πάντες ἀφ’ ἑδράων, ὅτε φαίδιμα τόξα τιταίνει. Λητὼ δ’ οἴη μίμνε παραὶ Διὶ τερπικεραύνῳ, ἥ ῥα βιόν τ’ ἐχάλασσε καὶ ἐκλήισσε φαρέτρην, καί οἱ ἀπ’ ἰφθίμων ὤμων χείρεσσιν ἑλοῦσα τόξα κατεκρέμασε πρὸς κίονα πατρὸς ἑοῖο πασσάλου ἐκ χρυσέου…

English (Hugh G. Evelyn-White, 1914 — public domain)

I will remember and not forget Apollo who shoots afar. As he goes through the house of Zeus, the gods tremble before him and all spring up from their seats when he draws near, as he bends his bright bow. But Leto alone stays by the side of Zeus who delights in thunder; and then she unstrings his bow, and closes his quiver, and takes his archery from his strong shoulders in her hands and hangs them on a golden peg against a pillar of his father’s house…

The Birth on Delos (lines 115–125)

Greek

ὣς εἰπὼν παῖδ’ εἰς ἁλὸς ἔμβαλεν εὐρυκόλποιο Λητὼ δ’ ἐνναῖος καὶ δέκα μῆνας τέτυκτο… αὐτίκα δ’ ἐξέθορε πρὸ φόως δέ, θεαὶ δ’ ὀλόλυξαν ἅπασαι. ἔνθα σέ, ἤϊε Φοῖβε, θεαὶ λόον ὕδατι καλῷ ἁγνῶς καὶ καθαρῶς, σπάρξαν δ’ ἐν φάρει λευκῷ λεπτῷ, νηγατέῳ· περὶ δὲ χρύσεον στρόφον ἧκαν.

English (Evelyn-White)

…and at once the goddesses uttered a glad cry. Then, Phoebus, the goddesses washed you fairly and purely with sweet water, and swathed you in a white garment of fine texture, new-woven, and fastened a golden band about you.

The Poet’s Self-Portrait (lines 165–172)

A famous and much-debated passage in which the singer asks future audiences to remember him.

Greek

ἀλλ’ ἄγεθ’, ἱλήκοι μὲν Ἀπόλλων Ἀρτέμιδι ξύν, χαίρετε δ’ ὑμεῖς πᾶσαι. ἐμεῖο δὲ καὶ μετόπισθε μνήσασθ’, ὁππότε κέν τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων ἐνθάδ’ ἀνείρηται ξεῖνος ταλαπείριος ἐλθών· “ὦ κοῦραι, τίς δ’ ὔμμιν ἀνὴρ ἥδιστος ἀοιδῶν ἐνθάδε πωλεῖται, καὶ τέῳ τέρπεσθε μάλιστα;” ὑμεῖς δ’ εὖ μάλα πᾶσαι ὑποκρίνασθ’ ἀμφ’ ἡμέων· “τυφλὸς ἀνήρ, οἰκεῖ δὲ Χίῳ ἔνι παιπαλοέσσῃ…”

English (Evelyn-White)

And now may Apollo be favourable and Artemis; and farewell all you maidens. Remember me in after time whenever any one of men on earth, a stranger who has seen and suffered much, comes here and asks: “Whom think ye, girls, is the sweetest singer that comes here, and in whom do you most delight?” Then answer, each and all, with one voice: “He is a blind man, and dwells in rocky Chios: his lays are evermore supreme.”

The Slaying of the Python (lines 300–304, 357–362)

Greek (excerpt)

ἀγχοῦ δὲ κρήνη καλλίρροος, ἔνθα δράκαιναν κτεῖνεν ἄναξ, Διὸς υἱός, ἀπὸ κρατεροῖο βιοῖο, ζατρεφέα, μεγάλην, τέρας ἄγριον, ἣ κακὰ πολλά ἀνθρώπους ἔρδεσκεν ἐπὶ χθονί…

English (Evelyn-White)

Hard by is a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth…

Sources & Citations

• Greek text: Perseus — Homeric Hymn to Apollo
• English translation (PD): Evelyn-White, Loeb 1914 — sacred-texts.com / Perseus
• Scholarly edition: Andrew Faulkner & A. Vergados (eds.), The Reception of the Homeric Hymns (Oxford, 2016); A. Athanassakis, The Homeric Hymns (Johns Hopkins, 2nd ed. 2004)
• Wikipedia: Homeric Hymn to Apollo