The Homeric Hymn to Pan in its entirety. This one is always overlooked in favor of the major hymns but is a small masterpiece of the atmosphere and perfect simplicity of early Greek literature.
About Hermes’ dear child tell me, Muse, the goat-footed, two-horned rowdy, who roams about the wooded fields together with the dance-merry nymphs: along the precipitous crag they tread the summits, calling on Pan, god of the pastures with splendor of rough hair, who has been assigned every snowy hill, the mountain peaks, and the rocky tracks. This way and that he roams through the thick brush, sometimes drawn to the gentle streams, sometimes again passing among the towering crags as he climbs up to the highest peak to survey the flocks; often he runs through the long white mountains, and often he drives the wild creatures through the glens, killing them, keen-sighted. Towards evening his solitary sound is heard as he returns from the hunt, playing sweet music from his reed pipes; his melodies would not be surpassed by that bird that in flowery spring among the leaves pours forth her lament in honey-voiced song.
With him then the clear-singing mountain nymphs, tripping nimbly by a dark spring, dance and sing; the echo moans round the mountaintop, while the god, moving from side to side of the dance rings, or again in the middle, cuts a nimble caper, a brown lynx hide over his back, delighting in the silvery singing—all in a soft meadow, where crocus and fragrant hyacinth spring up inextricably mingled with the grass. They celebrate the blessed gods and long Olympus; and they tell of one god above all, Hermes the courser, how he is the swift messenger for all the gods, and how he came to Arcadia with its many springs, the mother of flocks; it is there that he has his precinct as Cyllenian Hermes. There, though a god, he pastured dirt-crusted flocks beside a mortal man, because a surging desire had come upon him to unite in love with Dryops’ lovely-tressed girl. He accomplished the fruitful coupling; and she bore Hermes a dear son in the house, at once a prodigy to behold, goat-footed, two-horned rowdy, merry laugher. She jumped up and ran away, nurse abandoning child, for she was frightened when she saw his unprepossessing face with its full beard. But Hermes the courser quickly took him and laid him in his arm, and the god’s mind was exceedingly glad. He went rapidly to the abodes of the immortals, wrapping the child closely in skins of mountain hare, and sat down beside Zeus and the other gods and displayed his son. All the immortals were delighted, especially Bacchic Dionysus; and they took to calling him Pan, because he delighted them all (pantes).
So I salute you, lord; I seek your favor with my song. And I will take heed both for you and for other singing.
Ἀμφί μοι Ἑρμείαο φίλον γόνον ἔννεπε, Μοῦσα,
αἰγοπόδην δικέρωτα φιλόκροτον, ὅς τ᾿ ἀνὰ πίση
δενδρήεντ᾿ ἄμυδις φοιτᾶι χορο<γ>ηθέσι νύμφαις,
αἵ τε κατ᾿ αἰγίλιπος πέτρης στείβουσι κάρηνα
Πᾶν᾿ ἀνακεκλόμεναι, νόμιον θεὸν ἀγλαέθειρον
αὐχμήενθ᾿, ὃς πάντα λόφον νιφόεντα λέλογχεν
καὶ κορυφὰς ὀρέων καὶ πετρήεντα κέλευθα.
φοιτᾶι δ᾿ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα διὰ ῥωπήϊα πυκνά,
ἄλλοτε μὲν ῥείθροισιν ἐφελκόμενος μαλακοῖσιν,
ἄλλοτε δ᾿ αὖ πέτρηισιν ἐν ἠλιβάτοισι διοιχνεῖ,
ἀκροτάτην κορυφὴν μηλοσκόπον εἰσαναβαίνων.
πολλάκι δ᾿ ἀργινόεντα διέδραμεν οὔρεα μακρά,
πολλάκι δ᾿ ἐν κνημοῖσι διήλασε θῆρας ἐναίρων,
ὀξέα δερκόμενος· ποτὶ δ᾿ ἕσπερον ἔκλαγεν οἶος
ἄγρης ἐξανιών, δονάκων ὕπο μοῦσαν ἀθύρων
νήδυμον· οὐκ ἂν τόν γε παραδράμοι ἐν μελέεσσιν
ὄρνις, ἥ τ᾿ ἔαρος πολυανθέος ἐν πετάλοισιν
θρῆνον ἐπιπροχέουσα χέει μελίγηρυν ἀοιδήν.
σὺν δέ σφιν τότε νύμφαι ὀρεστιάδες λιγύμολποι
φοιτῶσαι πύκα ποσσὶν ἐπὶ κρήνηι μελανύδρωι
μέλπονται—κορυφὴν δὲ περιστένει οὔρεος ἠχώ·
δαίμων δ᾿ ἔνθα καὶ ἔνθα χορῶν, τοτὲ <δ᾿> ἐς μέσον ἕρπων
πυκνὰ ποσὶν διέπει, λαῖφος δ᾿ ἐπὶ νῶτα δαφοινόν
λυγκὸς ἔχει, λιγυρῆισιν ἀγαλλόμενος φρένα μολπαῖς—
ἐν μαλακῶι λειμῶνι, τόθι κρόκος ἠδ᾿ ὑάκινθος
εὐώδης θαλέθων καταμίσγεται ἄκριτα ποίηι.
ὑμνέουσιν δὲ θεοὺς μάκαρας καὶ μακρὸν Ὄλυμπον·
οἶόν θ᾿ Ἑρμείην ἐριούνιον ἔξοχον ἄλλων
ἔννεπον, ὡς ὅ γ᾿ ἅπασι θεοῖς θοὸς ἄγγελός ἐστιν,
καί ῥ᾿ ὅ γ᾿ ἐς Ἀρκαδίην πολυπίδακα, μητέρα μήλων,
ἐξίκετ᾿· ἔνθα δέ οἱ τέμενος Κυλληνίου ἐστίν.
ἔνθ᾿ ὅ γε καὶ θεὸς ὢν ψαφαρότριχα μῆλ᾿ ἐνόμευεν
ἀνδρὶ πάρα θνητῶι· θάλε γὰρ πόθος ὑγρὸς ἐπελθών
νύμφηι ἐϋπλοκάμωι Δρύοπος φιλότητι μιγῆναι.
ἐκ δ᾿ ἐτέλεσσε γάμον θαλερόν, τέκε δ᾿ ἐν μεγάροισιν
Ἑρμείηι φίλον υἱὸν ἄφαρ τερατωπὸν ἰδέσθαι,
αἰγοπόδην δικέρωτα πολύκροτον ἡδυγέλωτα.
φεῦγε δ᾿ ἀναΐξασα, λίπεν δ᾿ ἄρα παῖδα τιθήνη·
δεῖσε γάρ, ὡς ἴδεν ὄψιν ἀμείλιχον ἠϋγένειον.
τὸν δ᾿ αἶψ᾿ Ἑρμείας ἐριούνιος ἐς χέρα θῆκεν
δεξάμενος, χαῖρεν δὲ νόωι περιώσια δαίμων·
ῥίμφα δ᾿ ἐς ἀθανάτων ἕδρας κίε παῖδα καλύψας
δέρμασιν ἐν πυκινοῖσιν ὀρεσκώιοιο λαγωοῦ·
πὰρ δὲ Ζηνὶ καθῖζε καὶ ἄλλοις ἀθανάτοισιν,
δεῖξε δὲ κοῦρον ἑόν· πάντες δ᾿ ἄρα θυμὸν ἔτερφθεν
ἀθάνατοι, περίαλλα δ᾿ ὁ Βάκχειος Διόνυσος·
Πᾶνα δέ μιν καλέεσκον, ὅτι φρένα πᾶσιν ἔτερψεν.
καὶ σὺ μὲν οὕτω χαῖρε, ἄναξ, ἵλαμαι δέ σ᾿ ἀοιδῆι·
αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ καὶ σεῖο καὶ ἄλλης μνήσομ᾿ ἀοιδῆς.
Extracts 