17 & 33 Hymns to the DIOSCURI

XVII. TO THE DIOSCURI

[1] Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Castor and Polydeuces, the Tyndaridae, who sprang from Olympian Zeus. Beneath the heights of Taygetus stately Leda bare them, when the dark-clouded Son of Cronos had privily bent her to his will. Hail, children of Tyndareus, riders upon swift horses!

XXXIII. TO THE DIOSCURI

[1] Bright-eyed Muses, tell of the Tyndaridae, the Sons of Zeus, glorious children of neat-ankled Leda, Castor the tamer of horses, and blameless Polydeuces. When Leda had lain with the dark-clouded Son of Cronos, she bare them beneath the peak of the great hill Taygetus, -- children who are delivers of men on earth and of swift-going ships when stormy gales rage over the ruthless sea. Then the shipmen call upon the sons of great Zeus with vows of white lambs, going to the forepart of the prow; but the strong wind and the waves of the sea lay the ship under water, until suddenly these two are seen darting through the air on tawny wings. Forthwith they allay the blasts of the cruel winds and still the waves upon the surface of the white sea: fair signs are they and deliverance from toil. And when the shipmen see them they are glad and have rest from their pain and labour. Hail, Tyndaridae, riders upon swift horses! Now I will remember you and another song also.

33 Homeric Hymns

THE HOMERIC HYMNS are a collection of thirty-three poems composed in the old Epic style. They range in length from 3 to 500 lines. The shortest of these are brief invocations which served as preludes to longer festival recitations of epic. The largest four are complete epic narrative poems in themselves.
The dating and authorship of the Hymns is complex. Greek writers assigned several authors including Homer, Pamphos (the Hymn to Demeter), and Cynaethus of Chios (the Hymn to Apollo). However they are now regarded as a largely anonymous collection of works.
The majority of the collection, including the longer hymns, dates from the C7th - C6th BC. A few of the shorter poems are clearly Hellenistic, and the Hymn to Ares was probably not composed till Roman times.

Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914.