Homeric Hymn to the Mother of the Gods (14)

Catalogue ID: 02-olympian-gods/111-homeric-hymn-mother-of-gods-14

Cycle: Olympian gods / Phrygian reception — Mother of the Gods / short Homeric Hymn

Version line: Homeric Hymn XIV — praise of the Mother with castanets, tympana, and wolves

Sources: Homeric Hymn to the Mother of the Gods (14); cf. Homeric allusions to Rhea; Euripides, *Helen* / *Bacchae* (Mother)

Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/02-olympian-gods/111-homeric-hymn-mother-of-gods-14.md

Characters

Mother of the Gods — mountain goddess of percussion and wild beasts
Singer — asks a lovely song in return
Wolves and lions — her favored escorts in the hymn

Places

Mountains and wooded glens — her echoing domain

Themes

Castration

Narrative

The short Homeric Hymn to the Mother of the Gods sings her as well-pleased with the sound of rattles and tympana, with the shrill of flutes, and with the cry of wolves and gleaming-eyed lions, echoing mountains, and wooded glens. The singer hails her and asks in return a lovely song. The hymn does not name Attis or narrate castration; it gives the sonic and wild landscape of the Mountain Mother as received in the Homeric Hymn corpus. Catalogue it apart from the Attis notices and from Hesiodic Rhea’s Cretan nursing of Zeus.