Homeric Hymn 2: To Demeter

About the Poem

The second Homeric Hymn is the foundational literary document of the Eleusinian Mysteries. In 495 dactylic hexameters it narrates: Hades’ abduction of Persephone with Zeus’ consent; Demeter’s wandering and disguise as an old woman in Eleusis; her service in the house of King Celeus; the failed attempt to immortalize the infant Demophon; Demeter’s withdrawal and the famine she inflicts on humanity; Zeus’ compromise that Persephone spend a third of the year below; and the hymn’s culmination — the establishment of the Mysteries at Eleusis.

Dated to the late 7th or 6th century BCE on linguistic grounds, the hymn predates the systematic literary mythography of later sources and preserves the cult’s central theological claim: that those initiated at Eleusis would receive a better lot in the afterlife.

Opening — The Abduction (lines 1–14)

Greek (Homeric)

Δήμητρ’ ἠΰκομον, σεμνὴν θεόν, ἄρχομ’ ἀείδειν, αὐτὴν ἠδὲ θύγατρα τανύσφυρον, ἣν Ἀϊδωνεὺς ἥρπαξεν, δῶκεν δὲ βαρύκτυπος εὐρύοπα Ζεύς, νόσφιν Δήμητρος χρυσαόρου ἀγλαοκάρπου παίζουσαν κούρῃσι σὺν Ὠκεανοῦ βαθυκόλποις ἄνθεά τ’ αἰνυμένην, ῥόδα καὶ κρόκον ἠδ’ ἴα καλὰ λειμῶν’ ἂμ μαλακὸν καὶ ἀγαλλίδας ἠδ’ ὑάκινθον νάρκισσόν θ’, ὃν φῦσε δόλον καλυκώπιδι κούρῃ Γαῖα Διὸς βουλῇσι χαριζομένη Πολυδέκτῃ…

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

I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess — of her and her trim-ankled daughter whom Aidoneus rapt away, given to him by all-seeing Zeus the loud-thunderer. Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, she was playing with the deep-bosomed daughters of Oceanus and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also and hyacinths and the narcissus, which Earth made to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the Host of Many, to be a snare for the bloom-like girl…

Persephone’s Cry (lines 17–22)

Greek

τῇ δ’ ἄρ’ ἅμα χρυσέοισιν ὄχοις ἤλασσεν ἄνακτι πολυδέγμων· ἡ δ’ οὐκ ἀέκουσα ἀνήρπαξεν δολίαις τέχναις… ἴαχε δ’ ἄρ’ ὀξέα φωνῇ, κεκλομένη πατέρα Κρονίδην ὕπατον καὶ ἄριστον.

English (Evelyn-White)

Then she was rapt away on his golden chariot by the Host of Many … and she cried out shrilly with her voice, calling upon her father, the Son of Cronos, who is most high and excellent.

Demeter’s Withdrawal and the Famine (lines 305–313)

Greek

αἰνότατον δ’ ἐνιαυτὸν ἐπὶ χθόνα πουλυβότειραν ποίησ’ ἀνθρώποις καὶ κύντατον· οὐδέ τι γαῖα σπέρμ’ ἀνίει, κρύπτεν γὰρ ἐϋστέφανος Δημήτηρ· πολλὰ δὲ καμπύλ’ ἄροτρα μάτην βόες εἷλκον ἀρούραις, πολλὸν δὲ κρῖ λευκὸν ἐτώσιον ἔμπεσε γαίῃ.

English (Evelyn-White)

Then she caused a most dreadful and cruel year for mankind over the all-nourishing earth: the ground would not make the seed sprout, for rich-crowned Demeter kept it hid. In the fields the oxen drew many a curved plough in vain, and much white barley was cast upon the land without avail.

The Foundation of the Mysteries (lines 480–482)

Greek

ὄλβιος ὃς τάδ’ ὄπωπεν ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων· ὃς δ’ ἀτελὴς ἱερῶν, ὅς τ’ ἄμμορος, οὔ ποθ’ ὁμοίων αἶσαν ἔχει φθίμενός περ ὑπὸ ζόφῳ εὐρώεντι.

English (Evelyn-White)

Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries; but he who is uninitiated and who has no part in them, never has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and gloom.

Sources & Citations

• Greek text: Perseus — Homeric Hymn to Demeter, ed. T. W. Allen (1912)
• English translation (PD): Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Loeb 1914 — sacred-texts.com / Perseus
• Scholarly commentary: N. J. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Oxford, 1974) — the standard critical edition
• Wikipedia: Homeric Hymn to Demeter