Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

 Table of Contents

 Preface

 Introduction

 General

 The Boeotian School

 Life of Hesiod

 The Hesiodic Poems

 Date of the Hesiodic Poems

 Literary Value of Homer

 The Ionic School

 The Trojan Cycle

 The Homeric Hymns

 The Epigrams of Homer

 The Burlesque Poems

 The Contest of Homer and Hesiod

 The Works of Hesiod

 Works and Days (832 lines)

 The Divination by Birds (fragments)

 The Astronomy (fragments)

 The Precepts of Chiron (fragments)

 The Great Works (fragments)

 The Idaean Dactyls (fragments)

 The Theogony (1,041 lines)

 The Catalogues of Women and Eoiae (fragments)

 The Shield of Heracles (480 lines)

 The Marriage of Ceyx (fragments)

 The Great Eoiae (fragments)

 The Melampodia (fragments)

 Aegimius (fragments)

 Fragments of Unknown Position

 Doubtful Fragments

 Works Attributed to Homer The Homeric Hymns

 I. To Dionysus (21 lines)

 II. To Demeter (495 lines)

 III. To Apollo (546 lines)

 IV. To Hermes (582 lines)

 V. To Aphrodite (293 lines)

 VI. To Aphrodite (21 lines)

 VII. To Dionysus (59 lines)

 VIII. To Ares (17 lines)

 IX. To Artemis (9 lines)

 X. To Aphrodite (6 lines)

 XI. To Athena (5 lines)

 XII. To Hera (5 lines)

 XIII. To Demeter (3 lines)

 XIV. To the Mother of the Gods (6 lines)

 XV. To Heracles the Lion-Hearted (9 lines)

 XVI. To Asclepius (5 lines)

 XVII. To the Dioscuri (5 lines)

 XVIII. To Hermes (12 lines)

 XIX. To Pan (49 lines)

 XX. To Hephaestus (8 lines)

 XXI. To Apollo (5 lines)

 XXII. To Poseidon (7 lines)

 XXIII. To the Son of Cronos, Most High (4 lines)

 XXIV. To Hestia (5 lines)

 XXV. To the Muses and Apollo (7 lines)

 XXVI. To Dionysus (13 lines)

 XXVII. To Artemis (22 lines)

 XXVIII. To Athena (18 lines)

 XXIX. To Hestia (13 lines)

 XXX. To Earth the Mother of All (19 lines)

 XXXI. To Helios (20 lines)

 XXXII. To Selene (20 lines)

 XXXIII. To the Dioscuri (19 lines)

 Homer's Epigrams

 Fragments of the Epic Cycle

 The War of the Titans (fragments)

 The Story of Oedipus (fragments)

 The Thebaid (fragments)

 The Epigoni (fragments)

 The Cypria (fragments)

 The Aethiopis (fragments)

 The Little Iliad (fragments)

 The Sack of Ilium (fragments)

 The Returns (fragments)

 The Telegony (fragments)

 Non-Cyclic Poems Attributed to Homer

 The Expedition of Amphiaraus (fragments)

 The Taking of Oechalia (fragments)

 The Phocais (fragments)

 The Margites (fragments)

 The Cercopes (fragments)

 The Battle of Frogs and Mice (303 lines)

 Of the Origin of Homer and Hesiod, and of their Contest (aka The Contest of Homer and Hesiod)

XXXII. To Selene (20 lines)

(ll. 1-13) And next, sweet voiced Muses, daughters of Zeus, well-skilled in song, tell of the long-winged 1 Moon. From her immortal head a radiance is shown from heaven and embraces earth; and great is the beauty that ariseth from her shining light. The air, unlit before, glows with the light of her golden crown, and her rays beam clear, whensoever bright Selene having bathed her lovely body in the waters of Ocean, and donned her far-gleaming, shining team, drives on her long-maned horses at full speed, at eventime in the mid-month: then her great orbit is full and then her beams shine brightest as she increases. So she is a sure token and a sign to mortal men.

(ll. 14-16) Once the Son of Cronos was joined with her in love; and she conceived and bare a daughter Pandia, exceeding lovely amongst the deathless gods.

(ll. 17-20) Hail, white-armed goddess, bright Selene, mild, bright-tressed queen! And now I will leave you and sing the glories of men half-divine, whose deeds minstrels, the servants of the Muses, celebrate with lovely lips.

1 The epithet is a usual one for birds, cp. Hesiod, "Works and Days", l. 210; as applied to Selene it may merely indicate her passage, like a bird, through the air, or mean 'far flying'.