The Homeric Hymn to Pan (Homeric Hymn 19)
May. 12th, 2016 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbTo Pan
For my sake, Muse, tell of Hermes’ beloved child,
Goat-footed, two-horned, loving noise, who roams in frenzy
Along wooded meadows with dance-accustomed Nymphs.
They tread goat-forsaken rock
Calling on Pan, the bright-haired unwashed shepherd-god
Who has as his domain every snow-clad ridge
And mountain height and rocky peak.
Here and there he stalks through close-grown undergrowth,
Now drawn to gentle streams
Now wandering afresh on sheer rock-peaks,
Going up to the farthest height of the shepherd’s watch.
And often he runs across the high white-gleaming mountain,
Often, rides across the mountains’ shoulders, slaying keen-perceiving prey.
But by evening he ceases from hunting, coming back alone
Playing the sweet music of a reed pipe:
A bird who in full-flowered spring,
Lets sound sweet-voiced song
- Pouring forth a lament among the leaves -
Would not surpass him in music.
In those hours, with him, the clear-singing mountain Nymphs
- Ever roaming in frenzy by foot - celebrate with song and dance
Upon black-watered springs,
And Echo sounds round the mountain peak.
The daimon of the chorus-dance, now here, now there
He sets his feet cunningly, entering their midst,
- And on his back he has a lynx’s blood-red skin -
Exalting the heart with clear dancing-songs,
In gentle grassy meadows where sweet-smelling saffron and hyacinth,
thrive and commingle ceaseless in the grass.
They celebrate the fortunate gods and blessed Olympos,
Telling primarily of Hermes the luckbringer:
How he's a fleet-footed herald to all the gods,
And how he arrived in fountain-rich Arkadia, mother of flocks,
Where the temenos of Kyllene belongs to him.
There, despite being a god, he grazed rough-coated sheep
And he flourished alongside death-doomed men,
And when raw yearning came upon him
He joined in sexual union with the lush-haired nymph, daughter of Dryops,
And from this he got for himself a stout marriage.
And in the megarons she bore
A beloved son to Hermes, wondrous to behold,
Goat-footed, two-horned, noise-loving, merry-laughing:
But the nurse fled, right then going swift away, and left the child behind,
For she feared to behold his ungentle thick-bearded countenance,
But luck-bringing Hermes, approving him on the instant,
Set him in his arms, and in his heart the god rejoiced beyond measure,
And covering the child in the thick skins of mountain-bred hares,
He went to the immortals’ thrones, and
In the abode of Zeus and the other deathless gods he placed [the child]
And he displayed his son – his own.
And then at heart all the deathless gods were glad –
Glad above all was Dionysos Bakcheios –
And they named him Pan, because he delighted everyone's heart.
So hail to you, Lord! I ask your grace in song:
And by song I will remember you and another god, too.
For my sake, Muse, tell of Hermes’ beloved child,
Goat-footed, two-horned, loving noise, who roams in frenzy
Along wooded meadows with dance-accustomed Nymphs.
They tread goat-forsaken rock
Calling on Pan, the bright-haired unwashed shepherd-god
Who has as his domain every snow-clad ridge
And mountain height and rocky peak.
Here and there he stalks through close-grown undergrowth,
Now drawn to gentle streams
Now wandering afresh on sheer rock-peaks,
Going up to the farthest height of the shepherd’s watch.
And often he runs across the high white-gleaming mountain,
Often, rides across the mountains’ shoulders, slaying keen-perceiving prey.
But by evening he ceases from hunting, coming back alone
Playing the sweet music of a reed pipe:
A bird who in full-flowered spring,
Lets sound sweet-voiced song
- Pouring forth a lament among the leaves -
Would not surpass him in music.
In those hours, with him, the clear-singing mountain Nymphs
- Ever roaming in frenzy by foot - celebrate with song and dance
Upon black-watered springs,
And Echo sounds round the mountain peak.
The daimon of the chorus-dance, now here, now there
He sets his feet cunningly, entering their midst,
- And on his back he has a lynx’s blood-red skin -
Exalting the heart with clear dancing-songs,
In gentle grassy meadows where sweet-smelling saffron and hyacinth,
thrive and commingle ceaseless in the grass.
They celebrate the fortunate gods and blessed Olympos,
Telling primarily of Hermes the luckbringer:
How he's a fleet-footed herald to all the gods,
And how he arrived in fountain-rich Arkadia, mother of flocks,
Where the temenos of Kyllene belongs to him.
There, despite being a god, he grazed rough-coated sheep
And he flourished alongside death-doomed men,
And when raw yearning came upon him
He joined in sexual union with the lush-haired nymph, daughter of Dryops,
And from this he got for himself a stout marriage.
And in the megarons she bore
A beloved son to Hermes, wondrous to behold,
Goat-footed, two-horned, noise-loving, merry-laughing:
But the nurse fled, right then going swift away, and left the child behind,
For she feared to behold his ungentle thick-bearded countenance,
But luck-bringing Hermes, approving him on the instant,
Set him in his arms, and in his heart the god rejoiced beyond measure,
And covering the child in the thick skins of mountain-bred hares,
He went to the immortals’ thrones, and
In the abode of Zeus and the other deathless gods he placed [the child]
And he displayed his son – his own.
And then at heart all the deathless gods were glad –
Glad above all was Dionysos Bakcheios –
And they named him Pan, because he delighted everyone's heart.
So hail to you, Lord! I ask your grace in song:
And by song I will remember you and another god, too.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-12 06:50 pm (UTC)Calling on Pan, the bright-haired unwashed shepherd-god
Who has as his domain every snow-clad ridge
And mountain height and rocky peak.
I like that.
(I'm sorry I have not been very reponsive lately! I think it is wonderful that you are translating the Homeric Hymns. My life involves a lot more appointments and insomnia than I would really prefer right now.)
no subject
Date: 2016-05-12 07:21 pm (UTC)(I hope things improve.)