The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice/Hymns/Hymn 7

by Homer

VII. TO DIANA.

Sing, Muse, Diana, the foster-sister of far-darting Apollo, the shaft-rejoicing virgin, who, having washed her steeds in deep-rushed Meles,^[1] swiftly drives^[2] on her all-golden chariot through Smyrna into vine-bearing Clarus, where silver-bowed Apollo sits awaiting the far-darting [maid] who rejoices in arrows. And do thou thus hail—and with thee all the goddesses—in song! But I indeed will both first begin from thee^[3] to sing, and, having began from thee will pass on to another hymn.

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1. A river near Smyrna, whence Homer took his surname of Melesigenes.
2. Cf. Æsch. Pers. 84, Σύριόν θ' ἅρμα διώκων.
3. See my note on the Battle of the Frogs and Mice, vs. 1.