Samuel Woodforde, Apollo and the Muses on Parnassus, after Raphael, 1804. Detail shown.Samuel Woodforde, after Raphael; National Trust, Stourhead. Image via Art UK and Wikimedia Commons, public domain. · Source · Public domain.
Hymns of Callimachus · Hymn 02
Apollo
εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα
Callimachus · 113 lines · Apollo
HealingArt and inspirationProtection
Prayer and ritual
These hymns may be spoken as complete prayers to the Gods. Within the Temple’s practice, a ritual is a direct theurgical act; hymnody gathers the mind and turns it toward the Divine, helping the initiate enter reverent communion with the Gods.
Use a hymn on its own in place of another prayer, or add it to the prayer portion of a suitable ritual. Choose according to the deity addressed and the petition expressed in the hymn. When combining them, preserve the ritual’s prescribed sequence and let the hymn give voice to its purpose.
The petition of this hymn
For Apollo’s radiant presence, the purification of sacred song, healing, and the protection of a flourishing community.
The complete hymn may be offered as a prayer of welcome and praise to Apollo. It may also accompany an established rite of healing, purification, sacred music, or civic blessing, while its accounts of Delos and Cyrene remain the ancient poet’s particular narrative.
English hieratic rendering
Hymn 02 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.
1How Apollo’s branch of laurel has trembled,
2and how the whole sanctuary shakes! Away, away, whoever is impure.
3Surely Phoebus now strikes the doors with his beautiful foot.
4Do you not see? The Delian palm has suddenly nodded
5sweetly, and the swan sings beautifully in the air.
6Now draw back of yourselves, bars of the gates,
7and bolts of yourselves: the god is no longer far away.
8Young men, make ready for song and for the dance.
9Apollo reveals himself to no one save the worthy;
10great is the one who sees him, lowly the one who has not seen.
11We shall see you, Far-worker, and shall never be lowly.
12Let the boys have neither a silent lyre nor a noiseless step
13when Phoebus comes among us,
14if they are to celebrate marriage and shear their gray hair,
15and if the wall is to stand upon its ancient foundations.
16Well done, boys: the tortoise-shell lyre is idle no longer.
17Keep sacred silence as you listen to the song of Apollo.
18Even the sea keeps silence when singers celebrate
19the lyre or the bow, the instruments of Lycoreian Phoebus.
20Nor does mother Thetis lament Achilles with mournful cries
21when she hears “Ie Paieon, Ie Paieon.”
22Even the tearful rock sets aside its grief,
23the wet stone that stands fixed in Phrygia,
24marble in place of a woman whose mouth opens in sorrow.
25Cry “Ie, Ie”: it is grievous to contend with the blessed gods.
26Whoever wars against the blessed gods, let him war against my king;
27whoever wars against my king, let him war against Apollo also.
28Apollo will honor the chorus that sings according to his heart;
29he has that power, for he sits at the right hand of Zeus.
30Nor shall the chorus sing Phoebus for one day alone,
31for he is rich in themes of praise: who could not readily sing Phoebus?
32Golden are Apollo’s garment and its clasp,
33his lyre, his Lyctian bow, and his quiver;
34golden also his sandals, for Apollo is rich in gold.
35Rich too in possessions: Pytho may bear witness.
36Ever beautiful, ever young: never has even down
37come upon the tender cheeks of Phoebus.
38His hair pours fragrant oils upon the ground;
39yet no mere oil drips from Apollo’s locks,
40but the very power that heals all things. In whatever city those
41drops fall to earth, all things become free from harm.
42No one abounds in art so greatly as Apollo:
43the archer falls to his charge, and the singer,
44for both bow and song are entrusted to Phoebus;
45his are the prophetic pebbles and the seers, and from Phoebus
46physicians have learned how death may be delayed.
47We have also called Phoebus the Shepherd ever since
48he tended the horses of the yoke beside Amphrysus,
49burning with love for the young Admetus.
50Readily would the cattle herd increase, nor would the goats
51among the flocks lack young, when Apollo cast his eye
52upon their grazing; nor would the sheep lack milk,
53nor be barren: all would have lambs,
54and a mother of one would soon become a mother of twins.
55Following Phoebus, human beings laid out their cities;
56for Phoebus ever takes delight in cities
57being founded, and Phoebus himself weaves their foundations.
58At four years old Phoebus set his first foundations
59in beautiful Ortygia, beside the circling lake.
60Artemis, hunting, continually brought the heads of goats
61from Cynthus, and Apollo built an altar.
62He made its base of horns, raised the altar
63from horns, and set walls of horns around it.
64Thus Phoebus first learned to raise foundations.
65Phoebus also showed Battus my own deep-soiled city,
66and a raven guided the people as they entered Libya,
67auspicious to their founder; he vowed to give fortified cities
68to our kings, and Apollo is ever faithful to his oath.
69O Apollo, many call you Boedromios,
70and many Clarios, and everywhere your names are many;
71but I call you Carneios, for such is my ancestral custom.
72Sparta, Carneios, was your first dwelling,
73Thera your second, and the city of Cyrene your third.
74From Sparta the sixth generation of Oedipus
75brought you to the colony of Thera; and from Thera
76blessed Aristoteles established you in the land of Asbystis.
77He built you a most beautiful sanctuary, and in the city
78established your yearly festival, at which many
79bulls, O sovereign, fall upon their haunches for the last time.
80Ie, Ie, Carneios, invoked in many prayers! Your altars
81bear in spring as many flowers as the Horae
82bring in varied colors when Zephyr breathes the dew,
83and sweet saffron in winter. Your fire is ever unceasing,
84and ash never feeds around yesterday’s coal.
85Greatly did Phoebus rejoice when the men girded for Enyo’s war
86danced together with the golden-haired women of Libya,
87when the appointed seasons of the Carneian feast arrived.
88The Dorians could not yet draw near the springs of Cyre,
89but dwelt in Azilis, thick with wooded glens.
90The sovereign himself beheld them and showed them to his bride,
91standing upon horned Myrtussa, where the daughter of Hypseus
92slew the lion that ravaged the cattle of Eurypylus.
93Apollo saw no other dance more divine than that,
94and to no city gave as many blessings as to Cyrene,
95remembering his earlier carrying-away of the maiden. Nor did
96the sons of Battus honor any other god above Phoebus.
97We hear “Ie, Ie, Paieon,” for this
98refrain your Delphic people first devised for you
99when you displayed the far-reaching power of your golden bow.
100As you descended to Pytho, a monstrous beast confronted you,
101a terrible serpent. You slew it, sending one after another
102of your swift arrows, and the people cried aloud:
103“Ie, Ie, Paieon! Send forth the shaft!” From the first your mother
104bore you as a helper, and since then you have been sung as such.
105Envy secretly spoke into Apollo’s ear:
106“I do not admire the singer whose song is not as vast as the sea.”
107Apollo drove Envy away with his foot and answered thus:
108“The Assyrian river has a mighty stream, but much
109filth from the earth and much rubbish it carries upon its water.
110Deo’s Bees do not bring water from every stream,
111but only the little drop that rises pure and undefiled
112from a sacred spring, the very flower of its finest water.”
113Hail, sovereign; and let Blame go where Envy has gone.
✦
Ancient Greek & pronunciation
Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.
Every line beneath the Greek uses English pronunciation spellings. Say each hyphenated syllable in sequence and emphasize the syllable in CAPITALS. For example, οὐρανόθεν is oo-rah-NOH-thehn. Read adjacent vowels separately: theh-AH has two syllables; oo-rah-NEE-een has four. Hyphens guide the voice; they do not mark pauses.
Spelling
Sound to make
ah · eh · ee · oh · oo
father · met · see · go without its final glide · moon. Keep these vowels clear in unstressed syllables too.
th · dh
The unvoiced th in thin · the voiced th in this. Thus DHEE begins with the sound in “thee.”
kh
The ch in Scottish loch or German Bach: let air pass at the back of the mouth, without closing it into a k.
hy
The breathy beginning of a carefully spoken Hugh. Raise the middle of the tongue toward the roof of the mouth and let air pass without voice. In shy, sound s followed by hy; do not use the English sh sound or the English word “shy.”
gh
Make the kh sound above, then add voice. Keep the passage open; this is a flowing sound, not a hard g.
y · g
y as in yes, with gentle friction · always a hard g as in get.
r
Tap the tongue lightly behind the upper teeth, or use a light roll.
ks · ps
Sound both consonants, even at the beginning of a word: ks as in backs, ps as in lips.
n-g · m-b · n-d
Sound the nasal and the following consonant. In AHN-geh-leh, the n-g group is like finger, with the g audible.
Always sound s as in hiss, even at the end of DHEE-kees; z is voiced, as in zero. All other consonants have their usual English sounds. Initial consonant groups may be unfamiliar: sound every written consonant, without inserting an extra vowel. A word without capitals carries no written stress in the Greek. Where two syllables have capitals, both written accents are retained. An apostrophe marks a vowel already elided in the Greek; do not add it back. A hyphen at the end of a Greek verse joins the unfinished word to the next verse.
These spellings follow the Modern Greek liturgical reading used throughout this library. Breathings and iota subscripts are silent; separately pronounced vowels remain separate. The few Greek consonants without an exact English equivalent use the sound cues above. Ancient vowel length, pitch accent and metre are not reconstructed.
Hymn notes
Sacred meaning
Apollo’s arrival awakens the sanctuary, the chorus, and the natural world. His powers embrace music, prophecy, medicine, fruitful herds, and the founding of cities. The final image of pure water makes the quality and purity of praise, rather than its sheer volume, a fitting offering to the god.
Textual note
The ancient chorus speaks from the historical and religious setting of Cyrene; its kings, founders, local festivals, and sacrificial references remain unabridged. The new devotional-use note does not prescribe reenacting those narrative details. Verse88 in the Perseus XML contains a duplicated phrase from verse87 and is restored from Mair’s printed Greek. The Bees in verse110 are the sacred attendants of Deo, Demeter.
Text and attribution
Greek text: A. W. Mair, εἰς Απόλλωνα (1921), Perseus Digital Library. Greek source. The English hieratic rendering and suggested devotional use are new editorial work. The applications are guidance for this library, not additional lines of the ancient poem.
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