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Demeter reaches toward Persephone as Hermes guides her upward from the underworld.
Frederic Leighton, The Return of Persephone, 1891. Demeter receives her daughter as Hermes guides her upward.Frederic Leighton; Leeds Art Gallery. Public-domain reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. · Source · Public domain. Full image shown.

Homeric Hymns · Hymn 13

Demeter and Persephone

Δημήτηρ καὶ Περσεφόνη

Homeric tradition · 3 lines · Demeter and Persephone

ProtectionFertilityArt and inspiration

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

Honour Demeter together with Persephone and ask the Goddess to preserve the city and lead the song.

The three lines form a complete short prayer suitable for beginning a devotional gathering. They may also supplement a rite for the community’s sustenance and protection, maintaining the hymn’s joined remembrance of Mother and Daughter.

English hieratic rendering

Hymn 13 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.

  1. I begin to sing Demeter of lovely hair, the revered Goddess,
  2. herself and her Maiden, Persephone of exceeding beauty.
  3. Hail, Goddess; preserve this city, and lead the song.

Ancient Greek & pronunciation

Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.

3 Greek lines
  1. Δημήτρ’ ἠύκομον, σεμνὴν θεάν, ἄρχομ’ ἀείδειν,dhee-MEETR’ ee-EE-koh-mohn, sehm-NEEN theh-AHN, AHR-khohm’ ah-EE-dheen,
  2. αὐτὴν καὶ κούρην, περικαλλέα Περσεφόνειαν.ahf-TEEN KEH KOO-reen, peh-ree-kah-LEH-ah pehr-seh-FOH-nee-ahn.
  3. χαῖρε, θεά, καὶ τήνδε σάου πόλιν· ἄρχε δ’ ἀοιδῆς.HYEH-reh, theh-AH, KEH TEEN-dheh SAH-oo POH-leen· AHR-hyeh dh’ ah-ee-DHEES.
Short sound guide for English speakers

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.

SpellingSound to make
ah · eh · ee · oh · oofather · met · see · go without its final glide · moon. Keep these vowels clear in unstressed syllables too.
th · dhThe unvoiced th in thin · the voiced th in this. Thus DHEE begins with the sound in “thee.”
khThe ch in Scottish loch or German Bach: let air pass at the back of the mouth, without closing it into a k.
hyThe 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.”
ghMake the kh sound above, then add voice. Keep the passage open; this is a flowing sound, not a hard g.
y · gy as in yes, with gentle friction · always a hard g as in get.
rTap the tongue lightly behind the upper teeth, or use a light roll.
ks · psSound both consonants, even at the beginning of a word: ks as in backs, ps as in lips.
n-g · m-b · n-dSound 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

Demeter is invoked together with the exceedingly beautiful Persephone, so that the Mother’s praise includes the Maiden. The petition moves directly from divine remembrance to the city’s preservation. Asking the Goddess to lead the song places the act of praise itself under her care.

Textual note

The XML contains a choice between printed Δημήτηρ’ and corrected Δημήτρ’. The corrected elided accusative Δημήτρ’ is adopted once; the extraction’s concatenation of both readings has been removed. The 1914 print, p.436, has Δημήτηρ’.

Text and attribution

Greek text: Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hymn 13 To Demeter (1914), 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.