"The Homeric Hymns ... are among the most important primary documents we have of Greek mythology, for they offer a first-hand view of the Greek [mytho-narrative] experience at a crucial, if late, period in the development of that experience." Introduction, p. 1

"There is no constant theme throughout these Hymns, except perhaps the conception they maintain of a dynamic relationship between man and the gods they sing of." Ibid, p. 2

"The poet in praise of the divine: it is an old subject, the oldest perhaps ... the charm of [the Greeks'] verse, their enchantment, in an age void of hymns as it is of any purposeful gods, is that we too become enthralled by their art, we too sense, even if we cannot participate in, these mythical relationships. Their attempts, as poets, to articulate the life of such spirit, are that endurable." Ibid, p.3.

"Farewell, [Dionysus], who had such a beautiful...