Hymns by Callimachus

First published:Hymni, third century b.c.e. (English translation, 1755)

Type of work: Poetry

The Work:

Callimachus’s collected hymns are an important contribution to the body of literature produced in the Egyptian city of Alexandria during the period following the death of Alexander the Great. The classical era of Athens had long passed, and under Ptolemy I Soter, Alexander’s general who established Egypt as an independent kingdom in 305 b.c.e., literary and intellectual influence had shifted to Alexandria and its famous library.

Callimachus was born in Cyrene, a Greek city (modern Shahat) in Libya. He was trained in Athens, taught at Eleusis, and was eventually invited to Alexandria by King Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the youngest son of Ptolemy I Soter. Under the patronage of the Ptolemies, Callimachus served as librarian for about twenty years, during which he composed the catalog (Pinakes) of the library. This opportunity provided Callimachus a solid educational foundation and fostered the erudition for which his poetry is known.

Callimachus’s hymns are difficult to date. Although it is likely that they were written for religious occasions, it is not known for which ceremonies each was composed, nor whether they were for public or private celebrations. Their style—and in some cases, their content—display Callimachus’s assertion that the age of the epic had long passed and that short and polished poems were best. It was this attitude that led to a dispute between Callimachus and his pupil Apollonius of Rhodes, who challenged Alexandrian standards and continued the Homeric epic tradition in his Argonautica (third century b.c.e.; English translation, 1780). The argument is reflected within the hymns themselves.

The first hymn, the shortest of the six with its ninety-five lines, addresses the birth and youth of Zeus, the most important of the Greek gods, and his subsequent rise to supremacy. This hymn exemplifies Callimachus’s erudition, his delight in witty play with local geography and customs, and, finally, his interest in competing traditions. Callimachus immediately introduces the contention between the island of Crete and the Peloponnesian region of Arcadia as the location of Zeus’s birthplace. According to most traditions, Zeus’s father, Cronus, fearing his children would one day overthrow him, threatened to devour them. Cronus’s wife Rhea therefore fled from him when she was pregnant with Zeus. Tradition tends to favor Crete as the place where Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus. Callimachus, however, elects Arcadia and cites a proverb of the Cretan poet Epimenides, “Cretans are liars, always,” to justify his reasoning. He further accuses the Cretans of mere foolishness for having constructed a tomb for Zeus, who as a divinity is obviously immortal. To support Arcadia’s claim, Callimachus notes a region there called “Rhea’s primal childbed.”

After he was born in Arcadia, Zeus was turned over to the nymph Neda and brought to Crete; en route to Knossos the navel falls at the town Thenae, nearby which was a place the locals called the Plain of the Navel. Callimachus decides another argument, that between Mount Dicte and Mount Ida as the Cretan mountain where Zeus was reared, in support of the former. On Mount Dicte, Zeus is protected by the Curetes, fostered by the nymph Adrasteia, and nourished by the milk of the she-goat Amaltheia and the honeycombs of the mountain’s bees. Callimachus also addresses an alternative explanation of Zeus’s ascent to superiority. Whereas many previous poets had attributed Zeus’s rule to his luck when drawing lots with his brothers Poseidon and Hades, Callimachus ascribes Zeus’s power rather to his ability to devise and execute perfect plans while young. Here the poet is likely alluding to Ptolemy II Philadelphus’s rise to power over his elder brothers.

By all the means at his disposal, Callimachus removes Zeus’s right to supremacy from mere acts of chance to his meritable power and might. The poet also addresses the symbols of Zeus, notably the eagle and mortal kings who rule all aspects of life (for which he cites the poet Hesiod), and connects Zeus’s selection and favor of them as proof of his all-encompassing supremacy. The hymn closes on a prayer that petitions Zeus for prosperity.

The second hymn presents the joyful worship at Cyrene and the expectations of Apollo’s epiphany on the Carneia, one of his feast days. Apollo, the multifaceted and beneficent god, will appear only to the good, among whom the poet numbers himself. Certain natural phenomena signal Apollo’s approach to his followers. All the world is subsumed by Apollo’s enchanting music, for he sits to the right of his father Zeus. Callimachus systematically celebrates the plethora of images connected to Apollo: his golden dress (symbolizing his wealth), his lyre, his bow, his beauty. He hails Apollo as the lord of archery, music, and prophecy and as the founder of cities (Apollo was four years old when he founded his first) and of altars.

Callimachus describes Apollo’s visit to Battus, the founder of Cyrene, but he is not satisfied to end with a discussion of his hometown. He recalls that the celebratory cry “Hie! Hie! Paieon!” was invented at Delphi when Apollo slew the Pythian serpent. Earlier, Callimachus notes a palm from Delos, the island where Apollo’s mother Leto gave birth to him. Callimachus thus brings together the global aspects of the god and in so doing emphasizes the majestic power he may bestow on his followers.

The second hymn closes with a story regarding Apollo and the goddess Envy, which seems to mask the tension between Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes. Callimachus’s Apollo argues that whereas the sea may be vast (as is Apollonius’s poem) it often carries much trash and worthless bunk. In this way, the hymn responds to its own beginning: Apollo not only visits the worthy but ruins the unworthy and inane. Callimachus concludes his hymn by imploring Apollo to relieve all places where the goddess Envy abides.

The third hymn, which is quite long, continues Callimachus’s retelling of the origin of divine beings, a typical subject for hymns. Addressed to Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and moon and sister of Apollo, the hymn celebrates her decision to remain a virgin and turn to a life that stays away from the domestic affairs typical to women of ancient Greek society. This hymn, which shows Callimachus at his most playful and witty, commences by recanting Artemis’s petition of her father, Zeus. This affords Callimachus the opportunity humorously to imagine a sibling rivalry between Artemis and Apollo. With Zeus’s consent, Artemis assembles her entourage of nymphs and journeys with them to the smith of the cyclops. Callimachus’s wit shines in this comic episode, contrasting the concern of the maidenly nymphs with the brutishness of the cyclops, and heightens Artemis’s pivotal role between these two extremes. Callimachus further cites the interesting tradition of Hermes playing the bogeyman to anxious children.

Furnished with a bow and arrows and provided with hunting dogs by the god Pan, Artemis then turns to her first hunt. As with the hymn to Apollo, Callimachus provides a list of Artemis’s attributes and symbols, ranging from her ability to ease the pains of childbirth to her deliverance of prosperity to her favorites. The poet reverently offers his own talents to Artemis and pledges to compose a song for her and her mother, Leto. In the remainder of the hymn, the poet discusses Artemis’s attributes, highlights localities sacred to her, and names her favorites. This often humorous hymn closes with a more serious admonition to avoid her scorn.

The fourth hymn is the longest, extending to 326 lines, and celebrates the island Delos, where Leto gave birth to Apollo. Skillfully, Callimachus recounts the boldness of the island (originally called Asteria) that offered asylum to Leto from Hera’s anger when no other location on earth dared do so, and he decorates Delos’s bravery with the well-polished story of the river god Peneius and his conversion to aid Leto. Callimachus thereby paints an interesting image of the internal tensions between Hera and the children of Zeus by another consort. The pace of the action before Apollo’s birth allows him to tell an entertaining story, but the hymn is more than that, and it concludes with a discussion of the victorious perseverance of Apollo, Leto, and Delos itself. The hymn draws a direct correlation between Apollo and Ptolemy II Philadelphus.

The fifth hymn celebrates the ritual washing of a statue of Pallas Athene in the sea, as happened during the Plynteria festival in Athens. This ceremony, located in the town of Argos, provides the opportunity for the poet to tell the story of Athene’s bath in the spring Hippocrene on Mount Helicon and to offer an alternative version of the blinding of Teiresias, the sage who was of fundamental importance to Oedipus and Odysseus in the revelation of their destinies. The hymn’s speaker seems to be a priest of the goddess, who tells the story and delivers admonitions to the followers while they wait in the procession.

Teiresias’s mother is the nymph Chariclo, who is favored by Athene. One day, the unfortunate youth Teiresias sought to quench his thirst and found his way up Mount Helicon to the very spring where Athene had stopped to bathe. Having become a witness to the goddess naked, Teiresias was punished and his sight stolen from him. In response to the complaints of his mother, however, Athene consented to give Teiresias second sight (the gift of prophecy), the ability to understand the language of birds, long life, a useful walking staff, and a unique consciousness among the shades in the Underworld, the region of the dead. This story differs greatly from the other popular version, which is represented in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (c. 8 c.e.; English translation, 1567).

The sixth hymn celebrates the earth mother Demeter. It was apparently composed for a feast (that of the Thesmophoria, most likely) at Alexandria. Although he cites the well-known story of Demeter’s search and seasonal grief for her daughter Persephone, the poet decides to put aside the sorrowful story and celebrate Demeter’s attributes and gifts. He offers a myth about the indigenous inhabitants of Greece and of Demeter’s curse on the impious Erysichthon, who is driven mad with hunger for having offended the goddess who makes the earth abundant with food. Callimachus does not mention the traditionally gruesome ending of the tale in self-cannibalism but returns rather to an aspect of the feast, the procession of the Basket. He concludes the hymn with a prayer proper and a petition for prosperity.

The six hymns and other poems of Callimachus played an important role in the literary life of Alexandria and influenced later writers, among them the Roman poets Ovid, Catullus, and Propertius, who all recognized their debt to him.

Bibliography

Cameron, Alan. Callimachus and His Critics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995. Cameron presents a revisionist view of Callimachus’s work and the world in which he lived. He refutes earlier accounts depicting Callimachus as an erudite, “ivory-tower” poet, providing evidence to show his participation in civic festivals and other public activities; Cameron also furnishes new information about the lives, dates, works, and interrelationships of many other poets who lived in Callimachus’s time. Chapter 15 is devoted to a discussion of “The Hymn to Apollo.”

Ferguson, John. Callimachus. Boston: Twayne, 1980. An extremely useful and accessible overview of Callimachus’s life and works. Chapter 7 offers a superior examination of important themes in the Hymns and a detailed discussion of the literary style, political ramifications, historical context, and composition of each hymn. Includes a concise bibliography on all aspects of Callimachus’s work, notes, a chronology, and an index. An excellent source to begin a study of Callimachus.

Hunter, Richard. The Shadow of Callimachus: Studies in the Reception of Hellenistic Poetry at Rome. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Describes how Roman poets of the Late Republic and Augustan eras sought to establish their own poetic identity amid the works of Callimachus and other Greek poets. Includes analysis of some of Callimachus’s hymns and other works.

McKay, K. J. Erysichthon: A Callimachean Comedy (Mnemosyne Supplementum 7). Leiden, the Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1962. Examines the style and meaning of the sixth hymn and its reflection of Callimachus’s wit.

Pfeiffer, Rudolfus, ed. Callimachus. 2 vols. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1949-1953. The standard commentary on the structure and meaning of Callimachus’s texts. Technical and advanced.

Tress, Heather van. Poetic Memory: Allusion in the Poetry of Callimachus and the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid. Boston: Brill, 2004. Examines the use of allusion in the “Hymn to Delos” and two other hymns and the prelude to Aitiōn by Callimachus and in Metamorphoses of Ovid.

Webster, T. B. L. Hellenistic Poetry and Art. London: Methuen, 1964. The chapter on Callimachus provides a solid and rewarding discussion of the poet in relation to the literary and historical context of his time.