The Homeric Hymn to Apollo

The Homeric Hymn to Apollo (Homeric Hymn 3) is one of 33 ancient Greek hymns that were traditionally attributed to Homer, the semi-legendary composer of the Iliad and Odyssey. Today, scholars no longer believe that the Homeric Hymns were composed by the composer or composers of the Iliad and Odysseus, though the hymns do have important stylistic, narrative, and thematic affinities with the epics, by which they were probably partly inspired. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo one of the longer Homeric Hymns. Many scholars have argued that this hymn was originally two separate hymns, namely, a hymn to Delian Apollo that describes the origins and birth of the god on the island of Delos, and a hymn to Pythian Apollo describing how the god took charge of the oracle at Delphi. Others, however, have argued that the hymn was a unified composition. The archaic language of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, particularly the first part of the hymn (the hymn to "Delian Apollo") has led scholars to argue for an early date of composition, perhaps as early as the middle of the seventh century BCE; the second part of the hymn (the hymn to "Pythian Apollo"), may have been composed later, in the early sixth century BCE. Walter Burkert has made the argument that the two parts of the hymn were first brought together in 523/22 BCE for a festival that the tyrant Polycrates of Samos celebrated on Delos (in accordance with instructions from an oracle, the festival would have honored both Delian and Pythian Apollo, and would have thus been an appropriate occasion for the unification of the two hymns if they were indeed originally separate).