Science Fair Project Encyclopedia The anonymous Homeric Hymns
are a collection of ancient Greek hymns. The oldest of them were
written in the 7th century BCE, the days of Hesiod; somewhat
later than the date ordinarily ascribed to Homer. This does make
them among the oldest monuments of Greek literature. They vary
widely in length, some being as brief as three or four lines,
while others are in excess of five hundred lines. These hymns
celebrating individual gods are in dactylic hexameter, the meter
used in the Homeric epics. The thirty-three hymns praise most of
the major gods of Greek mythology; at least the shorter ones may
have served as preludes to the recitation of epic verse at
festivals by professional rhapsodes. Gods who have Homeric hymns
dedicated to them include: - Pythian Apollo - The Dioscuri,
Castor and Polydeuces - English etext of the Homeric Hymns at
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