The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three ancient Greek hymns and one epigram. They praise deities of the Greek pantheon and retell mythological stories, such as the abduction of Persephone and the seduction of Anchises by Aphrodite. In antiquity, the hymns were generally attributed to the poet Homer: modern scholarship has established that they vary widely in date. Performances of the hymns may have taken place at sympotic banquets, religious festivals and royal courts. They may originally have been performed by singers accompanying themselves on a lyre. The hymns influenced Alexandrian and Roman poets, and both pagan and early Christian literature. They were first published in print by Demetrios Chalkokondyles in 1488–1489, while George Chapman made the first English translation of them in 1624. They have since influenced, among others, Handel, Goethe, Shelley, Tennyson and Cavafy. Their influence has also been traced in the novels of James Joyce and Neil Gaiman, and in the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeric_Hymns

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

902:

Arab–Byzantine wars: Led by Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, Aghlabid forces captured the Byzantine stronghold of Taormina, concluding the Muslim conquest of Sicily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Sicily

1774:

British scientist Joseph Priestley liberated oxygen gas, corroborating the discovery of the element by the German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen

1892:

Jef Denyn hosted the world's first carillon concert at St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, Belgium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carillon

1911:

Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator certificate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

round robin: 1. (also attributive) Senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around. 2. (originally nautical) A document (usually containing a complaint or petition) originally with the signatures arranged in a circle, and later often alphabetically, to disguise the order of signing and to indicate that the signatories are collectively responsible for it. 3. A letter which is reproduced and sent to several people; specifically, one containing personal news sent at a particular time of year, often Christmas; a circular letter. 4. A letter or piece of writing which is circulated among members of a group, to which each person makes a contribution before sending it to another person; also, a packet of letters circulated regularly in a fixed order among a group (often family members), whereby each person replaces their previous contribution with a new letter, and then sends the packet to the next recipient. 5. A form of trading involving a packet of items which is circulated among members of a group, whereby each person take the items they want and replaces them with items of similar value, and then sends the packet to the next recipient. 6. (figurative) A long, often tedious, list or piece of writing; a laundry list, a litany. 7. (computing) A method of making use of several similar subsystems, assigning tasks to each of them in turn (for example, sending data to a destination down several communication links in turn to achieve greater combined speed). 8. (gambling) A form of bet on the full set of possible combinations from a group of events, racehorses, teams, etc., such as the outcomes A and B, B and C, and A and C from a group consisting of A, B, and C. 9. (music) The MIDI technique of using different sampled versions of the same sound for successive notes, to avoid an unnaturally repetitive effect. 10. (online gaming) A method of dividing loot among a party of players by having the game assign loot, or an enemy corpse to loot, to each player in turn. 11. (Devon, archaic) A small pancake. 12. (originally US) A group activity in which the members take turns to perform an action. 13. (originally US, sports, often attributive) The part of a tournament in which every player or team competes against each of the others in turn. 14. (obsolete except historical) 15. (Christianity, derogatory) The consecrated host used in the Eucharist. 16. (clothing) A small ruff worn around the neck. 17. (obsolete, road transport) A rim attached to the end of an axle of a horse carriage to prevent dirt from obstructing the axle's rotation; also, a loop from which a component of a horse carriage (such as a pole or spring) is suspended. [...] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/round_robin

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

O Nature, and O soul of man! how far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies; not the smallest atom stirs or lives on matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind.   --Moby-Dick https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick