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yorweth 's review for:
Homeric Hymns
by Peter McDonald
The Homeric Hymns are required reading for anybody studying Ancient Greece. Period. Doesn't matter if it's for religious, academic, or personal interest. Read the Homeric Hymns. Especially the very long Homeric Hymn 3, to Apollo. I've had entire courses just about Homeric Hymn 3 because its that important.
Most of the hymns however, are very short, some are only a few lines. It's likely that most of them were written for contests or in praise set to music. All of these would have been memorized and recited, and the really long ones were a hell of a flex on the poet's rivals. Demeter's Hymn 4, hymn 21 to Apollo, and Hymn 6 to Aphrodite are probably my 3 favorites.
Despite claims these were written by Homer, the hymns were composed at different times. The eldest of these are 700BC while the youngest is about 300-200BC! Aphrodite's Hymn 6 is most likely the eldest of these. I read certain Homeric Hymns over and over, all the time. If I marked this book as read every time I picked it up, it'd be in the 100s.
Most of the hymns however, are very short, some are only a few lines. It's likely that most of them were written for contests or in praise set to music. All of these would have been memorized and recited, and the really long ones were a hell of a flex on the poet's rivals. Demeter's Hymn 4, hymn 21 to Apollo, and Hymn 6 to Aphrodite are probably my 3 favorites.
Despite claims these were written by Homer, the hymns were composed at different times. The eldest of these are 700BC while the youngest is about 300-200BC! Aphrodite's Hymn 6 is most likely the eldest of these. I read certain Homeric Hymns over and over, all the time. If I marked this book as read every time I picked it up, it'd be in the 100s.