Homeric Hymn 4: To Hermes

About the Poem

The fourth Homeric Hymn is the most lighthearted of the longer hymns — a comic narrative in which the newborn god Hermes, within hours of his birth in a cave on Mount Cyllene, invents the lyre from a tortoise shell, steals Apollo’s cattle, and through cunning and charm wins his elder brother’s friendship and his own place in the Olympian order.

It is the principal mythological source for Hermes as trickster, herald, and god of boundaries, and the earliest extended account of the lyre’s invention.

Opening (lines 1–9)

Greek (Homeric)

Ἑρμῆν ὕμνει Μοῦσα, Διὸς καὶ Μαιάδος υἱόν, Κυλλήνης μεδέοντα καὶ Ἀρκαδίης πολυμήλου, ἄγγελον ἀθανάτων ἐριούνιον, ὃν τέκε Μαῖα, νύμφη ἐϋπλόκαμος, Διὶ ἐν φιλότητι μιγεῖσα, αἰδοίη· μακάρων δὲ θεῶν ἠλεύαθ’ ὅμιλον, ἄντρον ἔσω ναίουσα παλίσκιον, ἔνθα Κρονίων νύμφῃ ἐϋπλοκάμῳ μισγέσκετο νυκτὸς ἀμολγῷ… τέκε παῖδα πολύτροπον, αἱμυλομήτην, λῃστῆρ’, ἐλατῆρα βοῶν, ἡγήτορ’ ὀνείρων, νυκτὸς ὀπωπητῆρα, πυληδόκον…

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

Muse, sing of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, lord of Cyllene and Arcadia rich in flocks, the luck-bringing messenger of the immortals whom Maia bare, the rich-tressed nymph, when she was joined in love with Zeus, — a shy goddess, for she avoided the company of the blessed gods, and lived within a deep, shady cave. … And she bare a son of many shifts, blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle-driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates…

The Tortoise and the Invention of the Lyre (lines 24–54, abridged)

Greek (selected)

ἔνθα χέλυν εὑρὼν ἐκτήσατο μυρίον ὄλβον· Ἑρμῆς τοι πρώτιστα χέλυν τεκτήνατ’ ἀοιδόν… “χαῖρε, φυὴν ἐρόεσσα, χοροιτύπε, δαιτὸς ἑταίρη, ἀσπασίη προφανεῖσα· πόθεν τόδε καλὸν ἄθυρμα… οἴκαδε βέλτερόν ἐστι φέρειν· ἐπεὶ οὐδὲ θύραζε.”

English (Evelyn-White)

There he found a tortoise and won endless delight. … He was the first to make of the tortoise a singer. … “Hail, comely darling, lover of the dance, companion of the feast, lovely in your shape! Where did you get that pretty toy, that gay shell, you, a tortoise living in the mountains? Better to take you home: you shall do me service.”

He scoops out the tortoise, fixes reeds and a hide, and stretches seven strings of sheep-gut — the first lyre.

The Cattle-Raid (lines 73–86)

Greek

δαίμονα κύδιμον υἱὸν ὁμοῦ τέκε ποικιλομήτην… ἀντία βήματ’ ἔχων, τὰ δ’ ὄπισθεν πρόσθεν ἔχεσκε, τὰ δὲ πρόσθεν ὄπισθεν· ἑὸν δ’ ἀπενόσφισεν ἴχνος.

English (Evelyn-White)

He drove off fifty loud-lowing kine … by reversing their tracks. Mindful of his cunning art, he led them backwards, with their feet turned the wrong way, so that the front prints seemed to go behind, and the back prints in front; while he himself walked the contrary way.

Hermes’ Defense Before Zeus (lines 366–386, abridged)

Greek

Ζεῦ πάτερ, ἤτοι ἐγώ σοι ἀληθείην καταλέξω· νημερτής τε γάρ εἰμι καὶ οὐκ οἶδα ψεύδεσθαι.

English (Evelyn-White)

“Father Zeus, I will indeed tell you the truth, for I am truthful and cannot lie.”

(He is, of course, lying. The hymn’s humor depends entirely on this irony.)

Sources & Citations

• Greek text: Perseus — Homeric Hymn to Hermes
• English translation (PD): Evelyn-White, Loeb 1914 — sacred-texts.com / Perseus
• Scholarly edition: Athanassios Vergados, The Homeric Hymn to Hermes: Introduction, Text, and Commentary (De Gruyter, 2013)
• Wikipedia: Homeric Hymn to Hermes