Hunt and dance
Homeric Hymn 27 follows Artemis through shadowed hills with her hounds. Her arrows and the cries of animals make the landscape resound. Once satisfied with the hunt, she puts aside her bow and travels to Apollo’s house at Delphi to lead the dance of Muses and Graces. The shift matters: the poem joins force in the wild with orderly performance rather than treating them as incompatible selves.
Its conclusion identifies Artemis and Apollo as children of Zeus and Leto. The familial link is repeated in other selected texts, but each poem chooses different aspects of their shared identity to emphasize.
Source: Short Homeric Hymns 9–33 · Homeric Hymn 27.1–22
Reading the sibling relationship carefully
Hesiod places Apollo and Artemis together among Leto’s children. The Delian opening of Hymn 3 locates Artemis’s birth in Ortygia and Apollo’s on Delos. That wording should not be silently changed into a single identical birth scene. The identification of places called Ortygia belongs to a wider historical question, not one this brief passage resolves.
The short Hymn 9 also pictures Artemis traveling toward Apollo in a landscape that names Smyrna and Claros. These places belong to the poem’s geography. They do not by themselves establish where the entire Artemis tradition began, nor do these short hymns provide an exhaustive account of her ancient worship.
Sources: Theogony, in Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica; Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo; Short Homeric Hymns 9–33 · Theogony 918–920; Homeric Hymn 3.14–18; Homeric Hymn 9.1–9
- Period / witness
- Archaic Greek epic and hymnic traditions; dates vary by text
- Recording context
- Preserved in Greek literary texts transmitted through later manuscripts; narrative places do not establish the origin of the tradition.
A recording location is not necessarily a story’s origin. Dates of texts, copies, and translations answer different questions.
Explore time & place →Read the sources
These references support the explanation above. Rights and edition notes are recorded individually.
Short Homeric Hymns 9–33 ↗
Anonymous ancient Greek poet(s); translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White · Individual ancient dates disputed; translation 1914; digital edition updated 2020
Edition & rights noteTheogony, in Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica ↗
Hesiod; translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White · Ancient poem conventionally dated around 700 BCE; translation 1914; digital edition updated 2020
Edition & rights noteHomeric Hymn 3 to Apollo ↗
Anonymous ancient Greek poet(s); translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White · Individual ancient dates disputed; translation 1914; digital edition updated 2020
Edition & rights note