Tag Archives: Homer

Hymn to Mother of the Gods

This is from a translation of the Homeric hymns that I just got today:

Sing to me, Muse, clear-voiced daughter of great Zeus,
about the Mother of all gods and all people.
Clash of castanets and kettledrums, the trill of reed pipes
please her, as do the howl of wolves, roar of fierce lions,
echoing mountains and wooded valleys.
You and all the goddesses, rejoice in my song.

Now that’s what I call a hymn: vivid images and sounds, excitement, and the sense that you’re invoking something that’s really out of human control.

Good translation, too. Trans. Diane J. Raynor, Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2004.