I sing of Artemis with shafts of gold, strong-voiced, the revered virgin, deer-shooting, delighter in arrows, own sister to Apollon of the golden sword. Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks she draws her golden bow, rejoicing in the chase, and sends out grievous shafts. The tops of the high mountains tremble and the tangled wood echoes awesomely with the outcry of beasts: earth quakes and the sea also where fishes shoal. But the goddess with a bold heart turns every way destroying the race of wild beasts: and when she is satisfied and has cheered her heart, then the huntress who delights in arrows slackens her supple bow and goes to the great house of her dear brother Phoibos Apollon, to the rich land of Delphoi, there to order the lovely dance of the Mousai and Kharites. There she hangs up her curved bow and her arrows, and heads and leads the dances, gracefully arrayed, while all they utter their heavenly voice, singing how neat-ankled Leto bare children supreme among the immortals both in thought and deed. Hail to you, children of Zeus and rich-haired Leto! And now I will remember you and another song also.
Commentarius · Commentary
The hymn turns on one hinge, and the hinge is in the middle, at the words autar epēn — "but when".
Before it, the hunt, and the hunt is rendered as sound. The peaks of the high mountains tremble, "the shadowy wood cries out terribly at the shrieking of beasts", earth and the fishy sea shudder. Nothing is seen: what is heard is animals dying, and the goddess's presence is identified by that noise. Thērōn olekousa genethlēn — destroying the race of wild things — is said of the one called mistress of wild things.
After the hinge she unstrings her bow and leads the dance of the Muses and Graces at Delphi. Slaughter and dancing are separated by a single conjunction, and no explanation is offered: both are her.
Here is the ancient understanding of divinity that a later reader finds hardest. Artemis is not "goddess of the hunt, and also patroness of the arts"; for a Greek the hunt and the dance are one and the same motion — deft, rapid, taking place in the mountains. The hymn does not reconcile two sides, it simply sets them one after the other.
Fons · Source
AuthorAnonymous (Homeric corpus)
WorkHomeric Hymns
Section27
Periodarchaic Greek (7th-4th c. BC)
OccasionHomeric Hymn to Artemis — extended praise of Artemis the huntress, ending with her leading the dance of the Muses and Graces at Delphi
