Publisher's Synopsis
The Homeric Hymns and Epigrams Works Attributed to Homer Homer The Homeric Hymns The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three anonymous Ancient Greek hymns celebrating individual gods. The hymns are "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter-dactylic hexameter-as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect. They were uncritically attributed to Homer himself in Antiquity-from the earliest written reference to them, Thucydides (iii.104)-and the label has stuck. "The whole collection, as a collection, is Homeric in the only useful sense that can be put upon the word;" A. W. Verrall noted in 1894, "that is to say, it has come down labeled as 'Homer' from the earliest times of Greek book-literature." Homers Epigrams Seventeen Epigrams were attributed to Homer in antiquity. They are preserved in a number of texts, including the Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus), the Contest of Homer and Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns. The Epigrams are thought to antedate the Pseudo-Herodotian Life of Homer which was apparently written around the epigrams to create appropriate context. Epigram III on Midas of Larissa has also been attributed to Cleobulus of Lindus, who was considered to be one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Epigram XIV was attributed to Hesiod by Julius Pollux and Epigram XI has been described as "purely Hesoidic." Epigram III is also partially quoted in Plato, Phaedrus 264d, though it is not ascribed to Homer. Epigrams III, XIII and XVII are included in the Contest of Homer and Hesiod and epigram I is included in some manuscripts of the Homeric Hymns. The Epigrams were included in the editio princeps of Homers works printed by Demetrius Chalchondyles in 1488.
