Homeric Hymn #11 to Athena
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I celebrate the powers of Pallas Athena, the protectress of the city: Dread, as Ares, She busies herself with the works of war, With the sack of cities, with the battle-cry and with the combats. It is She also who saves the fighters that go to war and come back alive. Hail, Goddess, give us good fortune and happiness!
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Notes:
I celebrate the powers... (archom) is the lot atributed to each God.
...the protectress of the city... (erusiptolin) is a common epithet of Athena, also used by Homer at Il. 6.360 and by Pausanias at Paus. 3.17.2.
Dread... (deinên) is a common epithet of Athena. But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to the bright-eyed Tritogeneia (i.e. Athena, who was born 'on the banks of the river Trio'(cp.1.9291)), the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the Queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles. (Hesiod, The Theogony II. 924-929)
...the works of war... (polemêia erga) is a common epithet of Athena.
...the sack of cities... (perthomenai) is a common epithet of Athena.
...the combats... (ptolemoi) is a common epithet of Athena.
...saves... (errusato) is a common epithet of Athena.
...good fortune... (tuchên) Fortune, Luck, Tyche. Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79 C.E.), tells us: Through all the world, every where, at every moment, in every language, Fortune is invoked, and only She is invoked by its name; She is the only one accused, the only one at the tribunal bar, the only subject, the only heroine, the only responsible, honored and censured, at the same time.
At a fragment of a lyrical invocation we can find this piece:
Hail Fortune, alpha and omega of men,
of sapience You seat at the august throne;
more then punishments, to the human actions
You give glories and blessings - like the grace
that shines at your golden wings.
Long happiness announces your fate.
You found the good way, between mishap, Your light has swept the darkness,
Goddess of grace.
Pausanias saw at Elys a sanctuary to Tyche with a colossal statue of the Goddess.
...happiness... (eudaimoniên) is the highest of all goods achievable by men. Happiness then is at once the best, the noblest, and the most pleasant thing in the world, and theses attributes are not separated as in the inscription at Delos: Most noble is that which is justest, and best is health;
But pleasantest is it to win what we love. For all these properties belong to the best activities; and these, or one -the best- of these, we identify with happiness. (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.viii.14)
See also
- Wikipedia: Homeric Hymns
- Theoi Greek Mythology: Homeric Hymns 1-3
- Perseus Project: Perseus Collection Homeric Hymns, Hugh G. Evelyn-White
- Project Gutenberg: The Homeric Hymns, Andrew Lang
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