Homeric Hymns · Hymn 14
Mother of the Gods
Μήτηρ Θεῶν
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
Praise the Mother through the voices of instruments, wild creatures, mountains, and wooded places.
Offer this hymn independently as a prayer to the Mother of Gods and humans. It can accompany a rite honouring the living Earth or maternal abundance, with its sounds and landscapes serving as objects of attention rather than as additional prescribed actions.
English hieratic rendering
Hymn 14 · An English rendering aligned with the Greek lines.
- The Mother of all Gods and of all humankind
- hymn for me, clear voiced Muse, daughter of great Zeus:
- she delights in the cry of clappers and drums and the roar of flutes,
- in the cry of wolves and of lions with flashing eyes,
- in echoing mountains and wooded glens.
- And so hail to you, and with you all Goddesses, in this song.
Ancient Greek & pronunciation
Read the English pronunciation spelling directly below each Greek line.
- μητέρα μοι πάντων τε θεῶν πάντων τʼ ἀνθρώπωνmee-TEH-rah mee PAHN-dohn teh theh-OHN PAHN-dohn t’ ahn-THROH-pohn
- ὕμνει, Μοῦσα λίγεια, Διὸς θυγάτηρ μεγάλοιο,EEM-nee, MOO-sah LEE-yee-ah, dhee-OHS thee-GHAH-teer meh-GHAH-lee-oh,
- ᾗ κροτάλων τυπάνων τʼ ἰαχὴ σύν τε βρόμος αὐλῶνEE kroh-TAH-lohn tee-PAH-nohn t’ ee-ah-HYEE SEEN teh VROH-mohs ah-VLOHN
- εὔαδεν ἠδὲ λύκων κλαγγὴ χαροπῶν τε λεόντωνEH-vah-dhehn ee-DHEH LEE-kohn klahn-GEE khah-roh-POHN teh leh-OHN-dohn
- οὔρεά τʼ ἠχήεντα καὶ ὑλήεντες ἔναυλοι.OO-reh-AH t’ ee-HYEE-ehn-dah KEH ee-LEE-ehn-dehs EH-nah-vlee.
- καὶ σὺ μὲν οὕτω χαῖρε θεαί θʼ ἅμα πᾶσαι ἀοιδῇ.KEH SEE MEHN OO-toh HYEH-reh theh-EH th’ AH-mah PAH-seh ah-ee-DHEE.
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.
| 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
The hymn calls the Goddess Mother of both Gods and humankind, then describes the sounds in which she delights. Human instruments and the cries of wild animals belong within the same sacred field. Devotion may hear in this gathering of voices a maternal power present throughout cultivated and untamed life.
Textual note
The poem names the Mother without specifying an additional proper name. No identification with Rhea or Kybele is inserted into the verse.
Text and attribution
Greek text: Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hymn 14 to the Mother of the Gods (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.