Cult hymns usually address the god(s) directly in the second person. Often they
begin with a subsidiary invocation to the Muses or a local divinity ‘‘hosting’’ the
presence of the god(s) addressed, or (in Euripides) by theological concepts such
as ‘‘Holiness’’ (hosia) called in to mediate the intended communication between
worshipers and gods. This preliminary bow to a secondary deity offsets the tripartite
form of invocation–argument/narrative–prayer so commonly described. Hymnic
address is usually more rhetorically and poetically finished than plain prayer. In
particular, it is ‘‘eulogistic,’’ weaving a web – the metaphor is common in Greek
texts – of laudatory words evoking the god(s) power and glory (Furley 1995). The
attributes chosen are often material: a beautiful throne for Aphrodite; a golden bow
or lyre for Apollo; a beautiful garment for Athena. Here there is aesthetic cross-
fertilization between word and visual art: cult statues of gods were no doubt modeled
on descriptions of gods in canonical texts such as Homer and Hesiod; once these
splendidagalmataof the gods existed and were on show they served in their turn as
models for poetic description (Gladigow 1990). A suggestive form of adulation is
also, as already described, narrative of past actions illustrating power or special gifts;
the narrative acts as charter for the divine power which the hymn-singers wish to
evoke on a specific occasion. Genealogical narratives such as we find in, for example,
hymns to Asclepius praise the god by highlighting his or her impressive ancestry.
Accounts of accession to a rightful place on Olympus such as we commonly find in
hymns to Apollo (Furley and Bremer 2001:1.77–138, 2.21–100), for example, or the
Epidaurian hymn to the Mother of the Gods (Furley and Bremer 2001: no. 6.2),
show how a god achieved greatness and fitted into the cosmic scheme chaired by
Zeus.
Most of the Greeks’ cult poetry is lost. Until the late archaic masters of choral lyric –
Simonides, Pindar, Bakchylides – raised the traditional forms of paean and dithyramb
to new artistic heights, the majority of cults songs were, presumably, anonymous,
traditional songs going back generations. A good example is perhaps the Cretan
Hymn of the Kouretes(Furley and Bremer 2001: no. 1.1) which celebrates the birth
of Zeus as the ‘‘Greatest Kouros.’’ Owing to papyrus finds we now possess a fair
amount of Pindar’s paeans and dithyrambs and Bakchylides’ dithyrambs, and can see
how in the hands of these authors cult poetry became ‘‘literary.’’ In particular, fifth-
century dithyramb became a competition event notably at Athens, stimulating poets
and choruses to ever higher poetic flights of fancy and ornament; plain, simple
religiosity is lost as a result. This is not entirely true of Pindar’s paeans, which
combine elaborate structure and mythical ornament with a genuine feeling for Apol-
line majesty (Rutherford 2001). Pindar enjoyed a position of honor at Delphi, a
position earned no doubt by the excellence of his compositions for festivals there.
Then in the fourth century the texts of cult hymns began to be written down on stone
at the major sanctuaries, Delphi and Epidaurus particularly, Athens to a lesser extent.
It is a common observation that the epigraphical texts from this period (fourth to first
centuries BC) are fairly primitive compositions without much poetic merit; whilst it is
true that Isyllos’ paean to Apollo and Asclepius (Furley and Bremer 2001: no. 6.4) is
a dismal piece of writing, the same does not hold true for the famous paeans to Apollo
with musical notation from Delphi, for example (Furley and Bremer 2001: nos 2.6.1,
2.6.2), one of which is datable to 128 BC. These show confident use of a meter
(cretic-paeonic) and language which draw on traditional elements of Apolline
130 William D. Furley