Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Inscriptions : Hymn to Dictaean Zeus or "Hymn of the Curetes" [Ε102]

Writing in Ancient Crete
The “Cretan Polis” ➔ Hymn to Dictaean Zeus or "Hymn of the Curetes"

Ε102

Stone (Local white-veined blue marble)

The stele is preserved in 5 fragments of unequal size. Although much is missing, the text is restored to a satisfactory degree. Weathering in places.

Width: 49.3 cm. Est. Height: 107 cm. (min.). Thickness: 5.5 cm. Height of letters: 1-1.8 cm.

Palaikastro

Temple of Dictaean Zeus

Roman period:

text of 4th-3rd c. BC, inscribed 3rd c. AD:

Gallery:

Exhibition thematic unit:

Geometric - Archaic - Classical period (10th-4th c. BC). Cities and Sanctuaries

Sanctuaries

Description

Rectangular stele with inscription of more than 27 verses incised with the aid of a guideline. The height of the letters is reduced after the 7th verse, while the writing is more condensed. From the preserved 22nd verse onwards, the text becomes larger and more widely spaced again. This poor workmanship, combined with the fact that scattered pieces of the same text with many errors were originally incised on the back of the stele, indicate that the inexperienced artisan had to re-carve the corrected hymn in its final form. The language of the text is Late Classical Koine with Doric and deliberately Archaic features. The text is uniquely important for the study of Cretan poetry of the Historical era and the distinctive religious beliefs of the island. Opinions differ as to how far the hymn expresses survivals of the cult of the Minoan Young God of vegetation, known in Historical times as the Cretan-born Zeus, who dies and is reborn each year, syncretically merged with the Greek Zeus of the Twelve Gods of Olympus. This is even more difficult to determine because the inscription was carved five to six centuries after the hymn was originally composed, in the context of the renewal of a sanctuary dating back to prehistoric times, in the twilight of the old religion. Combining the preserved sections on both sides of the stele, the text is reconstructed in six strophes (stanzas) and a refrain repeated seven times in all, at the beginning and the end of the hymn and between each strophe. The text is divided into three parts: the invocatio (refrain and first strophe), the argumentum (strophes 2, 3 and 4), and the petitio (strophes 5 and 6). The hymn is probably associated with rites of passage into adulthood, and runs as follows: ἰὼ μέγιστε Κοῦρε, χαῖρέ μοι, Κρόνειε, ἰὼ μέγιστε Κοῦρε, χαῖρέ μοι, Κρόνειε, πανκρατὲς γάνους, βέβακες δαιμόνων ἁγώμενος. Δίκταν ἐς ἐνιαυτὸν ἕρπε καὶ γέγαθι μολπᾶ<ι>, τάν τοι κρέκομεν πακτίσι μείξαντες ἅμ’ αὐλοῖσιν 5 καὶ στάντες ἀείδομεν τεὸν ἀμφὶ βωμὸν εὐερκῆ. ἰὼ μέγι[στε] Κοῦρε, ........ ἔνθα γάρ σε παῖδ’ ἄμβροτον ἀσπί[δεσσι Κούρητες] 10 πὰρ Ῥέας λαβόντες πόδα κ[υκλῶντες ἀπέκρυψαν]. [ἰὼ μέγιστε Κοῦρε, ... [_υῡυ_υῡυ_υῡυ__υ] 15 [_υῡυ_υῡυ_υ τᾶ]ς καλᾶς Ἀο͂ς. ἰὼ μέγιστε Κοῦρε, ... [Ὦραι δὲ? β]ρύον κατῆτος καὶ βροτὸς Δίκα κατῆχε 20 [καὶ πάντα δι]ῆ̣πε ζώ<ι>’ ἁ φίλολβος Εἰρήνα. [ἰὼ μέγιστε Κοῦρε, ... ἀ[μῶν δέ θόρ’ ἐς ποί]μνια καὶ θόρ’ εὔποκ’ ἐ[ς πώεα] 25 [κἐς λάϊ]α καρπῶν θόρε κἐς τελεσ[φόρος οἴκος]. ἰὼ μέγιστε Κοῦρε, ... [θόρε κἐς] πόληας ἁμῶν, θόρε κἐς ποντο<π>όρος νᾶας, 30 θόρε κἐς ν[έος πο]λείτας, θόρε κἐς Θέμιν κλη[νάν]. [ἰὼ μέγιστε] Κοῦρε, ... Translation: Hail, great son of Cronus, Most brilliant, all powerful. You come leading the Curetes to Dicte each year and delight in song. We address hymns to you with harps and pipes And chant standing around your altar. Hail, great son, etc. For in this place, divine infant, the shield-bearing Curetes who raised you Received you from Rhea and hid you, stamping their feet, Hail, great son, etc. ………………… And you created the beautiful Day. Hail, great son, etc. Your daughters the Seasons bring abundance each year. And among mortals Justice reigns and wealth-bearing peace governs all creation. Hail, great son, etc. Preserve our family hearths, protect our fleecy flocks and send temperate breezes to our crops and trees. Hail, great son, etc. Cover our cities and our seafaring ships with your aegis Watch over our youths and protect our glorious Authorities. Hail, great son, etc.

Bibliography:

R. C. Bosanquet, “The Palaikastro hymn of the Kouretes.” Annual of the British School at Athens 15(1910), 339–356. G. Murray, “The Hymn of the Kouretes”, Annual of the British School at Athens 15 (1910), 357–365. J.E. Harrison, “The Kouretes and Zeus Kouros: a study in pre-historic sociology”, Annual of the British School at Athens 15(1910), 308–338. S. Xanthoudides, "Ύμνος εις Δία Δικταίον", Κρητική Στοά 3 (1911), 10-16. Inscriptiones Creticae III, ii, 2. Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 28:751. M. L. West, “The Dictaean Hymn to the Kouros,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 85 (1965), 149–159. C. M. Bowra, “A Cretan hymn” in On Greek Margins, Oxford 1970, 182–198. Η. Verbruggen, Le Zeus Crétois, Paris 1981, 101-111. P. Perlman, “Invocatio and Imprecatio: the hymn of the Greatest Kouros from Palaikastro and the oath in ancient Crete,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 115 (1995), 161–167. A. Chaniotis, Die Verträge zwischen kretischen Poleis in der hellenistischen Zeit, Stuttgart 1996, 124ff. St. Thorne, “Diktaian Zeus in later Greek tradition,” in J.A. MacGillivray, J.M. Driessen and L.H.Sackett (eds), The Palaikastro Kouros, A Minoan Chryselephantine Statuette and its Aegean Bronze Age Context, London 2000, 149–162. W.D. Furley, J. M. Bremer, Greek hymns: Selected cult songs from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period, Tubingen 2001, vol. 2, 67-76 and 1-20. K. Sporn, Heiligtümer und Kulte Kretas in klassischer und hellenistischer Zeit, Heidelberg 2002, 47 and 320. M. Alonge, "The Palaikastro Hymn and the modern myth of the Cretan Zeus", Version 1.0, December, Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/papers/authorAL/alonge/alonge.html, Stanford University 2005, 1-24. Á. Martínez Fernández, Epigramas helenísticos de Creta, Madrid 2006, 43-44. Á. Martínez Fernández, "Ο Κρητικός Ύμνος στον Δικταίο Δία", Πεπραγμένα ΙΑ΄Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου(Ρέθυμνο, 21-27 Οκτωβρίου 2011), Rethymno 2018, vol. Α2.3, 7-26.

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