'Hymn' in Ancient Greece - an Overview

HYMN: A term of unknown origin but first used in ancient Greece and Rome to designate a poem in honor of a god. In the early Christian period the word was often, though not always, used to refer to praises sung to God, as distinct from 'psalm'. The Western and Eastern (Byzantine) Churches developed widely differing hymn traditions.

From: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians [Permission requested.] (Personal online subscription: $30.00 month.; $295.00 year.) This excellent general resource has several articles containing information on Music of the Early Christian Church. Music Ref ML100.N48

Greek word for "hymn" : humnos (humnos).

What did "hymn" mean for ancient Greek writers and poets?

1. a bard narrative (tells a story of heroic deeds)
2. a terrifying incantation
3. a marriage song
4. a lament
5. a specific type of liturgical song
6. a type of song offered to a god, such as:

- paeon (a song of apeasement or thanksgiving to Apollo)
- dithyramb (a song honoring Dionysus)
- processional

Proclus (5th century C.E.) defined "hymn" (ho kuris humnos, as he called it) as a composition, sung by a stationary chorus to kithara accompaniment.

Hymns were associated with libation (the act of pouring or drinking a liquid to a diety) and sacrifice.

Dances were often associated with the use of a hymn.

Hymns were often associated with a liturgy (a ritual associated with public worship) .

One of the oldest surviving Greek hymns is a processional ascribed to the Corinthian poet Eumelus (8th century B.C.E.).

The only other examples of hymns that survive from the early period (5th century B.C.E) are a number of HOMERIC HYMNS. These were composed later than the actual poems of Homer and were often used as preludes to the performance of lengthy excerpts taken from [Homer's poems.]

Later writers wrote hymns, for example, the Hymn to Zeus by the Stoic, Cleanthes (3rd century B.C.E.).

A few hymns with musical notation have survived from the Greco-Roman period and from late antiquity.The two Delphic hymns, engraved in stone, are essentially paeans in sectional form.

From: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (personal online subscription: $30.00 month.; $295.00 year.) This excellent general resource has several articles containing information on Music of the Early Christian Church. Music Ref ML100.N48

An early surviving Christian hymn is the Oxyrhynchus Hymn.

See Hymns in Ancient Greece for more detailed information.