HOMER'S HYMN TO THE SUN.

OFFSPRING of Jove, Calliope, once more
To the bright Sun thy hymn of music pour;
Whom to the child of star-clad Heaven and
Earth

Euryphaessa, large-eyed nymph, brought forth;
Euryphaessa, the famed sister fair,

Of great Hyperion, who to him did bear
A race of loveliest children; the young Morn,
Whose arms are like twin roses newly born,
The fair-haired Moon, and the immortal Sun,
Who, borne by heavenly steeds his race doth run
Unconquerably, illuming the abodes

Of mortal men and the eternal gods.

II

Fiercely look forth his awe-inspiring eyes, Beneath his golden helmet, whence arise And are shot forth afar, clear beams of light; His countenance with radiant glory bright Beneath his graceful locks far shines around, And the light vest with which his limbs are bound,

Of woof ætherial delicately twined,

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Glows in the stream of the uplifting wind.
His rapid steeds soon bear him to the west,
Where their steep flight his hands divine arrest,
And the fleet car with yoke of gold, which he
Sends from bright heaven beneath the shadowy

sea.

HOMER'S HYMN TO THE EARTH,
MOTHER OF ALL.

O UNIVERSAL mother, who dost keep
From everlasting thy foundations deep,

Eldest of things, Great Earth, I sing of thee; All shapes that have their dwelling in the sea, All things that fly, or on the ground divine

Live, move, and there are nourished—these are thine;

These from thy wealth thou dost sustain; from thee

Fair babes are born, and fruits on every tree Hang ripe and large, revered Divinity!

The life of mortal men beneath thy sway
Is held; thy power both gives and takes away!
Happy are they whom thy mild favours nourish,
All things unstinted round them grow and
flourish.

For them endures the life-sustaining field
Its load of harvest, and their cattle yield
Large increase, and their house with wealth is
filled.

Such honoured dwell in cities fair and free,
The homes of lovely women, prosperously;
Their sons exult in youth's new budding

gladness,

And their fresh daughters free from care or sadness,

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With bloom-inwoven dance and happy song,
On the soft flowers the meadow-grass among,
Leap round them sporting-such delights by

thee

Are given, rich Power, revered Divinity.

Mother of gods, thou wife of starry Heaven,
Farewell! be thou propitious, and be given
A happy life for this brief melody,

Nor thou nor other songs shall unremembered
be.

HOMER'S HYMN TO MINERVA.

I SING the glorious Power with azure eyes, Athenian Pallas! tameless, chaste, and wise, Tritogenia, town-preserving maid,

Revered and mighty; from his awful head Whom Jove brought forth, in warlike armour dressed,

Golden, all radiant! Wonder strange possessed
The everlasting Gods that shape to see,
Shaking a javelin keen, impetuously

Rush from the crest of Ægis-bearing Jove;
Fearfully Heaven was shaken, and did move 10
Beneath the might of the Cerulean-eyed;
Earth dreadfully resounded, far and wide,
And, lifted from its depths, the sea swelled
high

In purple billows, the tide suddenly

Stood still, and great Hyperion's son long time Checked his swift steeds, till, where she stood sublime,

Pallas from her immortal shoulders threw
The arms divine; wise Jove rejoiced to view.
Child of the Ægis-bearer, hail to thee,

Nor thine nor others' praise shall unremembered be.

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HOMER'S HYMN TO VENUS.

[V. 1-55, with some omissions.]

MUSE, sing the deeds of golden Aphrodite, Who wakens with her smile the lulled delight Of sweet desire, taming the eternal kings

Of Heaven, and men, and all the living things
That fleet along the air, or whom the sea
Or earth with her maternal ministry

Nourish innumerable, thy delight

All seek

O crowned Aphrodite.

Three spirits canst thou not deceive or quell,—
Minerva, child of Jove, who loves too well
Fierce war and mingling combat, and the

fame

ΙΟ

Of glorious deeds to heed thy gentle flame :
Diana,
golden-shafted queen,
Is tamed not by thy smiles; the shadows green
Of the wild woods, the bow, the . . .

And piercing cries amid the swift pursuit

Of beasts among waste mountains, such delight
Is hers, and men who know and do the right;
Nor Saturn's first-born daughter, Vesta chaste,
Whom Neptune and Apollo wooed the last, 20.
Such was the will of Ægis-bearing Jove,
But sternly she refused the ills of Love,
And by her mighty father's head she swore
An oath not unperformed, that evermore
A virgin she would live 'mid deities
Divine: her father, for such gentle ties
Renounced, gave glorious gifts, thus in his hall
She sits and feeds luxuriously. O'er all
In every fane, her honours first arise
From men-the eldest of Divinities.

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These spirits she persuades not, nor deceives,
But none beside escape, so well she weaves
Her unseen toils; nor mortal men, nor gods
Who live secure in their unseen abodes.

She won the soul of him whose fierce delight
Is thunder-first in glory and in might.
And, as she willed. his mighty mind deceiving,

With mortal limbs his deathless limbs in

weaving,

Concealed him from his spouse and sister fair, Whom to wise Saturn ancient Rhea bare.

but in return,

In Venus Jove did soft desire awaken,

That by her own enchantments overtaken, She might, no more from human union free, Burn for a nursling of mortality.

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For once, amid the assembled Deities,
The laughter-loving Venus from her eyes
Shot forth the light of a soft starlight smile,
And boasting said that she, secure the while,
Could bring at will to the assembled gods
The mortal tenants of earth's dark abodes,
And mortal offspring from a deathless stem
She could produce in scorn and spite of them.
Therefore he poured desire into her breast
Of young Anchises,

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Feeding his herds among the mossy fountains Of the wide Ida's many-folded mountains, Whom Venus saw, and loved, and the love

clung

Like wasting fire her senses wild among.