Why did Paul love this book?
‘Homer’ in the subtitle is slightly cheeky: yes, there is a snatch – a most amusing snatch – from Book 8 of Homer’s Odyssey (the tale of war god Ares being literally ensnared by craftsman god Hephaistus having adulterous sex with his sex-goddess wife Aphrodite), but the unifying theme of the beautifully produced book’s 14 sections, divided according to deity or divinities, is provided by what are called Homeric Hymns, none of which has been believed since ancient times to be actually by Homer (whoever he might have been…).
Besides the 27 (almost all the extant) Homeric Hymns, included here also are the Hymns of Callimachus (3rd century BCE), the Orphic Hymns, and the Hymns of Proclus (5th CE). Greek humnoi were generically sacred songs, more specifically metrical poems composed and performed publicly and communally in praise of gods or heroes, sometimes if rarely mortals.
By Proclus’ day…
1 author picked Greek Poems to the Gods as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
- Coming soon!