[ { "key": "E9RUUDRB", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/E9RUUDRB", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/E9RUUDRB", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Martin", "parsedDate": "1992", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "E9RUUDRB", "version": 1, "itemType": "journalArticle", "title": "'Hesiod's Metanastic Poetics' in Essays on Hesiod I", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Richard", "lastName": "Martin" } ], "abstractNote": "", "publicationTitle": "Ramus", "publisher": "", "place": "", "date": "1992", "volume": "21", "issue": "1", "section": "", "partNumber": "", "partTitle": "", "pages": "11-33", "series": "", "seriesTitle": "", "seriesText": "", "journalAbbreviation": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "PMID": "", "PMCID": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-15T21:05:44Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-15T21:10:50Z" } }, { "key": "4XAQHBSD", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/4XAQHBSD", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/4XAQHBSD", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Ready and Shapiro", "parsedDate": "2007", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "4XAQHBSD", "version": 1, "itemType": "bookSection", "title": "Homer, Hesiod, and the Epic Tradition", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Jonathan", "lastName": "Ready" }, { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "H.A.", "lastName": "Shapiro" } ], "abstractNote": "", "bookTitle": "The Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "2007", "publisher": "Cambridge University Press", "place": "Cambridge ; New York", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "pages": "111-140", "ISBN": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "Felicia J. Ruff, CIC’s Homer and Hesiod Seminar, July 13-17 review of\n\nReady, Jonathan L. “Homer, Hesiod, and the Epic Tradition,” Chapter 5 of Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece, Edited by H. Alan Shapiro. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.\n\nJonathan Ready’s book chapter titled “Homer, Hesiod, and the Epic Tradition” is found in the Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece. The larger work includes the following chapters:\n\n1. Tyrants and Lawgivers\n\n2. Polis, Community, and Ethnic Identity\n\n3. Warfare and Hoplites\n\n4. The Life Cycle in Archaic Greece\n\n5. Homer, Hesiod, and the Epic Tradition\n\n6. Archaic Greek Poetry\n\n7. The Philosophers in Archaic Greek Culture\n\n8. Colonization: Greece on the Move 900-480\n\n9. Delphi, Olympia, and the Art of Politics\n\n10. The Human Figure in Early Greek Sculpture and Vase Painting\n\nReady’s chapter fits with the book’s overall goal “to encourage more studious study of Archaic Greece by undergraduate students in the English speaking world;” based on my reading of this chapter, I suspect the entire book would be ideal for our students.\n\nReady provides an excellent summary of the conversation that we been having over the past several days and provides an introduction to the various scholarly arguments regarding oral composition, the evidence used to support various positions, and the overviews of the major epics and their characteristics.\n\nThis lengthy chapter is broken into the following sections: Introduction; Homeric Performance and Homeric Questions; Interpreting Traditional Oral Poetry: The Traditional Component and The Oral Component; The Iliad; The Odyssey; Hesiod; The Theogony; The Works and Days; Homer and Hesiod.\n\nI thought it might be best, since our discussions have been more in depth than Ready’s summation, would be to identify the questions he articulates as they may be useful to us in a study guide for students:\n\n1. Were these poets living and breathing individuals?\n\n2. How can Homeric and Hesiodic poetry’s traditional components, passed down over countless generations, be seen to produce meaning in special ways?\n\n3. How do the trained oral poet’s language and compositional techniques compare with those used by speakers in everyday situations?\n\n4. How estranged or distinct from their communities are Homer’s Achilles and Odysseus?\n\n5. How does Hesiod’s Zeus emerge as an all-powerful king by suppressing divine and cosmic forces that threaten him?\n\n6. How does Hesiod’s Works and Days examine the communal value of justice by focusing on the personal matter of feeding oneself?\n\n7. Who or what produced the Iliad and Odyssey?\n\n8. Just how individual are these two protagonists –Achilles and Odysseus?\n\n9. 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C.) Center for Hellenic Studies", "lastName": "(Washington" } ], "abstractNote": "", "series": "Hellenic studies ;; 12;", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "2005", "publisher": "Washington, D.C. : Center for Hellenic Studies, Trustees for Harvard University ; Cambridge, Mass. : Distributed by Harvard University Press", "place": "", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "numPages": "", "ISBN": "0674019555", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "Pointing at the Past", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-15T17:26:58Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-15T17:26:58Z" } }, { "key": "M92I8M2F", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/M92I8M2F", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/M92I8M2F", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Nagy", "parsedDate": "2009-08-01", "numChildren": 1 }, "data": { "key": "M92I8M2F", "version": 1, "itemType": "book", "title": "Homer the Classic", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Gregory", "lastName": "Nagy" } ], "abstractNote": "", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "2009-08-01", "publisher": "Center for Hellenic Studies", "place": "", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "numPages": "", "ISBN": "0674033264", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "Amazon.com", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "Chapter: \"Homer the Classic in the Age of Callimachus\" (154-205). \n\nIn this chapter of his newest book, Gregory Nagy first minutely examines the word humnos (hymn), which he says “captures perfectly the idea of a perfect beginning for narration” (156). Nagy’s study of the Hymns of Callimachus reveals that “fluency” is the “mark of the humnos” (157), a conclusion made explicit in the Hesiodic Theogony, which “defines itself as one single gigantic humnos that ‘flows’ perfectly” (158). The opening of the Theogony is a humnos to Zeus performed by the Muses who then teach it to Hesiod who must perform it himself, but his subject is the genesis of the gods. Before he starts all over again with the Muses, he (the performer) has a “rhetorical moment of hesitation” which signals that “he is about to make a decision in the midst of performance” (158). That question is how he should proceed, a moment which Nagy calls an aporetic crisis. (Later Nagy studies a similar crisis in the Homeric Hymn ( 3) to Apollo.) For the Muses and Hesiod himself, a humnos results because their sections of the poem depict a performance of singing and dancing.\n\nSimilarly, Homer, the main speaker of the Homeric Hymn (3) to Apollo, gives “an element of theatrical spectacle” in his responses, implied by the use of “respond” at verse 171. This verb, Nagy says, has a performative connotation, not simply an interpersonal one. Furthermore, in response to Homer’s response, the Delian Maidens “in effect offer to make a mimesis of Homer, that is, to ‘re-enact’ him, and Homer responds by making a mimesis of them” (167). The explication that follows leads to Nagy’s argument that the performative nature of the humnos became the catalyst for the epic, a narrative hymn to a human hero, a transition of subject clearly marked in the Theogony.\n\nAs Nagy shows, Homer’s dramatized encounter with the Delian Maidens is comparable to Hesiod’s likewise dramatized encounter with the Muses of Mount Helicon. Furthermore, both works suggest that these encounters transform Hesiod and Homer. The Homeric Hymn (3) to Apollo includes “a self-representation of a performer in the act of taking the lead in the performance of a humnos by a choral ensemble and thereby becoming a soloist. The performer is Homer, and the divine model for his individuation out of a khoros is Apollo himself” (175), a situation that leads Nagy to agree with Aristotle’s theory that the humnos was a choral prototype not only for the epic but also the tragedy. This chapter, though it provides translations for all the Greek quoted, remains at the graduate level due to the mass of details employed to reach its conclusions. Nagy eventually makes statements to the effect that the humnos employs the same meter and has similar diction as the epic and like tragedy is theatrical, but such conclusions develop slowly.\n\nBeth VanRheenen Lourdes College July 8, 2009", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-15T14:16:56Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-15T14:23:59Z" } }, { "key": "INA2IPB9", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/INA2IPB9", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/INA2IPB9", "type": "text/html" }, "up": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/M92I8M2F", "type": "application/json" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } } }, "data": { "key": "INA2IPB9", "version": 1, "parentItem": "M92I8M2F", "itemType": "attachment", "linkMode": "linked_url", "title": "Amazon.com Link", "accessDate": "2009-07-15T14:16:57Z", "url": "http://www.amazon.com/dp/0674033264", "note": "", "contentType": "text/html", "charset": "", "tags": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-15T14:16:57Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-15T14:16:57Z" } }, { "key": "U8I6J6NJ", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/U8I6J6NJ", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/U8I6J6NJ", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Foley", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "U8I6J6NJ", "version": 1, "itemType": "bookSection", "title": "'The Psychology of the Mysteries,' 'The Hymn to Demeter and the Polis,' and 'Christianity and the Hymn to Demeter'", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Helene", "lastName": "Foley" } ], "abstractNote": "", "bookTitle": "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essay", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "", "publisher": "Princeton University Press", "place": "Princeton, NJ", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "pages": "137-151", "ISBN": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "While it is sometimes suggested (in writings on feminist theology, religious and cultural studies, environmental studies, etc.) that ancient societies with goddess cults and associations of women with nature may have given women more liberties that were later taken away by male- and hierarchically-dominated empires, the Hymn to Demeter and Foley’s commentary in this section suggests that the old stereotypes were firmly in place at the hymn’s composition and that it functioned to further reinforce the traditional roles of women. It is also possible that allowing men to influence and possibly dominate the initiation rites into the Eleusian mysteries gave them even more control over all things feminine, and that this aspect of ancient Greek religion further reinforced ideas about women’s separate and inferior status in society. On the other hand, the movement toward endogamy that is present in the text and discussed by Foley would have been somewhat more favorable to young brides, removing the necessity of leaving their families and the symbolic “death” and renewal of life that followed.\n\nChristianity shares some of the themes of the Hymn to Demeter, although mother-daughter relationships are not prevalent as such. Early Christians viewed Christ as the mediator between God the Father (often a wrathful, vindictive figure in Scripture) and all people (rather than just the Jewish people). Then there is the “Harrowing of Hell,” in which Christ descends to hell during his death, frees the patriarchs, and brings back the keys to death, hell, and the grave, signifying his victory over death. Christ thus becomes a Persephone-like figure who brings life from death, as well as a mother-like figure who intercedes on behalf of the male deity. At the same time, the mother of Christ features in the gospels and becomes very important in Christian practice and mysticism in the Middle Ages, showing a common identification with a suffering mother figure who understands all the troubles of women (and men, to a certain extent). The themes of democratization are also significant for early Christianity, as writers like St. Paul emphasized the meaning of Christ’s life as applicable to “Gentiles” as well as Jews. However, like St. Paul’s writings, the Hymn to Demeter seems to categorize women and reinforce their compliance with social, male-dominated hierarchies, rather than use the idea of universalism to advocate for their liberty and independence.\n\nOther parallels with Christianity include Persephone and Demeter’s grappling with very human problems, much like Christians’ understanding of Jesus, rather than being above the realm of human concerns. Additionally, there is the parallel with the way the gospel narratives explain the meaning of Christ’s teachings, miracles performed, death, and resurrection, rather than attempting to convey a biographical or strictly historical account of his life. This reflects the interests of the gospel-writers in a similar way as the Hymn to Demeter reflects the interests of the ancient Greek poets responsible for it, in that both groups seek to explain the origins of current practices. Then also, there are the ‘mysteries’ of early Christian and medieval Christianity, i.e., all the practices that became the seven Sacraments: baptism, eucharist, confession, confirmation, ordination, marriage, and extreme unction. A striking difference, however, is that despite the democratic elements of early Christianity, not all these sacraments or mysteries were for everyone—someone who has become ordained, for instance, would generally not also get married! Also, a philological point: 1 Tim. 3:39 speaks of the musterion tes pisteos; Eph. 5:32, to musterion touto estin (on marriage). About 16 other instances of the word musterion in the NT, most of them in the Letters of Paul and in the book of Revelation. (Also a number in the Greek translation of Daniel, which is a late addition to the Hebrew Bible, probably from the 2nd century BC, although set in the time of the Babylonian exile).\n\nTo turn, then, to the Hebrew Bible, other relevant connections with the Hymn to Demeter include the idea of feminine curiosity as the root of all human suffering and disfavor with the gods (the story of Eve, the Fall, and the idea of original sin). The most significant Mother-daughter story of the Hebrew Bible is probably that of Naomi and Ruth, the latter of whom is a daughter-in-law, rather than a birth daughter, but whose devotion to Naomi and her resulting acceptance as a true daughter symbolizes Yahweh’s acceptance of the Israelite people as his own. There’s also the theme of gathering grain, the scene where Ruth appeals to Boaz to be her husband while on the threshing floor, and Ruth’s fertility as becoming the grandmother of David and hence a great-great, etc.-grandmother of Jesus Christ, in the Christian account of his genealogy.\n\nI conclude with a return to Adrienne Rich’s lament for the loss of significant examples of the mother-daughter relationship in recent western literature and religion. The Judeo-Christian tradition is indeed weak in this regard, but in my opinion, this does not account for its persistent undermining of women’s role in society, which I take it is part of Rich’s concern for its loss. For, as we see, the Hymn to Demeter was also used to help women essentially accept their lot in life, making untenable claims that goddess-worshipping societies are more favorable to upholding the rights of women. Here, it seems that religion (both its practices and accompanying oral literature) primarily serves to help people accept social norms, rather than challenge them. That’s not to say that there are not important empowering elements in the hymn, but to respond to the overly-optimist assumptions about the social nature of the power women gained from the prominence of goddess/mother-daughter myths like this in ancient cultures. \n\nsummary by Ellie Bagley", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-14T20:37:46Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T20:40:09Z" } }, { "key": "XH5SZST3", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/XH5SZST3", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/XH5SZST3", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Nagy", "parsedDate": "2005", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "XH5SZST3", "version": 1, "itemType": "bookSection", "title": "The Epic Hero", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Greg", "lastName": "Nagy" } ], "abstractNote": "", "bookTitle": "A Companion to Ancient Epic", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "2005", "publisher": "Blackwell", "place": "Oxford", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "pages": "", "ISBN": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "Gregory Nagy, “The Epic Hero.” A Companion to Ancient Epic, ed. J.M. Foley (2006)\n\nTrue to its placement in a Companion volume, this essay sorts through definitions (“epic,” “hero,” “epic hero”) and approaches (literary, cultural, synchronic, diachronic). It doesn’t focus on a particular reading, though it should spark those. The analysis ranges to non-Greek as well as Greek epic traditions, extending to cultural institutions and cult heroes outside of literary epic, and to the early analyses of literature by Plato and Aristotle. It tries to find an approach that both honors differences across time and space and appropriately describes similarities. Professor Nagy also gives a genealogy and critical perspective for his work. The perspective is Structuralist, especially its early empirical work applied to the study of pre-literature (P-10). The genealogy begins with Ferdinand Saussure and moves from his student Antoine Meillet to the American in Paris Milman Parry to Albert Lord to Professor Nagy. Professor Nagy finds that two approaches dominate present efforts to explain similarities between epic heroes: some critics detect “vestiges of a prehistoric? poetic system” while others emphasize “patterns of cultural exchange among linguistically unrelated traditions” (P-2). Nagy’s goal is to work for integration of perspectives rather than continue a pattern of mutual exclusion (P-3). Instead of staying with two categories (linguistic source or cultural exchange), he describes three comparative methods he will try to integrate: 1) the typological, 2) the genealogical, and 3) the historical. The first is a synchronic approach. The second two are more diachronic but depend upon the synchronic as well, thus providing more subtle categories to work with than the too strict division between system and history that characterizes much of the field today. Once Nagy lays out the methods, he also surveys the possible subjects or comparanda each approach could analyze (P 7-30).\n\nAfter this groundwork has been laid, Nagy focuses on the “epic hero” in the Iliad and Odyssey, not because they are superior epics but because the concepts of “epic” and of “hero” begun in them converge in 4th-Century BCE Athens, as seen in the works of Plato and Aristotle. Nagy is especially interested in how these philosophers, unlike their 6th-Century countrymen, saw only Homeric epic as cognate to tragedy. Aristotle thought that the Iliad and Odyssey, like tragedy, “showed? a comprehensive and unified structure” whereas the epic Cycle, a non-Homeric ensemble of texts, did not. The distinction was made in 4th-Century BCE practice as well. By then, the repertoire for the Panathenaia only featured Homeric texts, not the epic Cycle.\n\nNagy next turns his attention from form (epic) to content (hero), from plot to character, comparing the story of Achilles to that of Odysseus, and then of Aeneas, and finally of Achilles in the epic Cycle (Aithiopis). In the latter, heroic immortalization is an explicit theme. Recognition of this theme leads to a discussion of the hero in cosmogonic and anthropogonic traditions. Nagy surveys Near Eastern and biblical and Indic, in addition to Greek, traditions and concludes that the epic hero was influenced by the cult hero or hemitheosliterally, half-godwhose two halves are equally important. Describing the different case in Homeric epic, where heroic immortalization is only implied, Nagy writes that “the theme of immortalization is expressed metaphorically through the theme of nostos ‘return, homecoming’, in the transcendent sense of ‘return to life and light’” (P-73).\n\nAfter looking at Herakles, outside the epic tradition, as a model hemitheos, Nagy writes that “the hero can be immortalized, but the fundamental pain remains: the hero is not by nature immortal” (P-75). This same doubleness characterizes Achilles, i.e., it characterizes both the epic hero and the cult heroes on which he or she is based. They both have these three characteristics: 1. He or she is unseasonal, experiences a kind of disequilibrium. 2. He or she is extreme, mostly in a positive but sometimes also in a negative sense (as with Achille’s moments of martial fury). 3. He or she is antagonistic toward the god who seems to be most like him or her, who nevertheless offers reconciliation or glory in death or after death. In Homeric epic that glory comes from the story or song that carries the character’s name eternally forward, that provides the hero a return or homecoming.\n\nby Michael Vander Weele", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-13T20:24:41Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T20:20:30Z" } }, { "key": "IHZBIHAR", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/IHZBIHAR", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/IHZBIHAR", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": 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"numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "4CR479ZZ", "version": 1, "itemType": "bookSection", "title": "Withdrawal and Return: An Epic Story Pattern in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and in the Homeric Poems", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Mary Louise", "lastName": "Lord" } ], "abstractNote": "", "bookTitle": "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essay", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "", "publisher": "Princeton University Press", "place": "Princeton, NJ", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "pages": "181-189", "ISBN": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "Mary Louise Lord’s “Withdrawal and Return” analyzes, as its subtitle says, “an epic story pattern in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and in the Homeric Poems.” As every child knows, certain patterns repeat in stories—there are always three bears and three chairs, and the hero of the fairy tale will be the youngest son. (Note 1)\n\nLord (M.L.) notes in particular 6 themes evident in the Demeter story: 1) the withdrawal or absence of the hero, perhaps due to a quarrel over their beloved, 2) return of the hero in disguise, 3) hospitality for the wanderer (that is our hero from point 2), 4) recognition or revelation, 5) disaster caused by the hero’s absence, 6) reconciliation and return. Each theme is mirrored in the canonical Iliad and Odyssey. Reference to the epics enriches our understanding of these themes. Lord emphasizes in her analysis Demeter’s agency in removing herself from Olympus and so coercing Zeus into (partially) returning her daughter Persephone.\n\n1) Withdrawal in pique, of course, drives the Iliad. As Lord notes, this theme is repeated even within that epic with the story of Meleager, and recurs in the Hymn when Demeter leaves Olympus to search for her daughter among humans. Lord notes further the interesting sub-theme of the death of the substitute, with Petroculus dying for Achilles and Persephone (symbolically) for her mother. The Odyssey, one must notice, is one long withdrawal!\n\n2) Demeter, like Odysseus, makes a significant use of disguise, in her case while slumming in Eleusis. She even tells part of one of his five lying stories (kidnapping by pirates) and…\n\n3) is treated hospitably by maidens who are wished (or perhaps promised?) good husbands as a reward. The maidens find her a job and she is even offered a chair and a drink when she visits their mother, which suggests rather more hospitality than we might expect for a strange old woman wandering in the wild.\n\n4) The epiphany is quite striking for Demeter, as it was of course for Odysseus. Lord mentions as a further parallel the sudden appearance of Achilles at the trench in Book 18 of the Iliad, where his mere appearance shocks some Trojans to death.\n\n5) In all three poems the absence of the hero is damaging: even after Demeter has her temple built she broods in deep anger over the absence of her beloved child. The absence of Achilles from battle, and Odysseus from home, cause similar havoc. Strikingly, for an agricultural community, a year without spring is far worse than an army without its paladin or a country without its king.\n\n6) Even the rage of Achilles can be bought off—twice. Demeter can only be satisfied when her beloved is returned to her, at least for most of the year.\n\nLord notes that the Hymn was obviously written long after the Homeric stories and for different purposes, but also shows just how many ways it shadows their patterns, and how revealing that imitation is.\nNotes\n\n1) Perhaps there is also a pattern where the husband becomes a famous Harvard professor and the wife writes derivative essays about his famous book; or perhaps not.\n\nsummary by Nicholas Hunt-Bull", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-14T15:49:17Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T15:52:40Z" } }, { "key": "854ECVP9", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/854ECVP9", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/854ECVP9", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Rudhardt", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "854ECVP9", "version": 1, "itemType": "bookSection", "title": "Concerning the Homeric Hymn to Demeter", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Jean", "lastName": "Rudhardt" } ], "abstractNote": "", "bookTitle": "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essay", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "", "publisher": "Princeton University Press", "place": "Princeton, NJ", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "pages": "198-211", "ISBN": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "Rudhardt's central thesis holds that the giving out of honors (timai) by Zeus to the other divinities, or at times to mortals or the semi-divine, is \"an essential expression of Greek mythical thought\" (198). Like other such sweeping statements within this sometimes-rich paper, this assertion remains unsupported by subsequent literary or even logical evidence. Still, he remains tightly focused throughout the work on the significance of timai to the character of mythological beings and to their actions.\n\nVariation in the actual timai distributed to gods and goddesses, and in the timing of such distribution, is the ground of this article. The timai given to Demeter by Zeus, and then reapportioned after Demeter's fearsome response to Persephone's abduction, form the backbone of meaning in the story.\n\nRudhardt contends that Hesiod's account of the Olympian creation rests upon the value of timai. He explores the origin of timai; its pre-Olympian \"history,\" and the almost uncreated nature of these powers and honors. However, his \"exploration\" is cursory and, like the narrative overall, it shifts and jumps quickly from point-to-point without a sense of analytical contemplation. For instance, his beginning is a plunge into the main thesis statement without any preparation for the reader, or introduction of assumptions, definitions, etc. This flaw makes the piece fairly useless for the undergraduate reader.\n\nOne searches in vain for definition of levels and types of timai-the kinds of analytical complexities that can support such a brave thesis. What is the meaning of this kind of divine gift? What responsibilities are attached to it? How do the revisioned timai of Demeter function to control her future behavior? What is the connection between the revisioned timai and the goddesses' (Demeter and Persephone) establishment of the Eleusinian Mysteries? These and many similar questions surface as a result of reading this article, but more often than not remain unanswered or, worse, unacknowledged. \n\nsummary by Corinne Benedetto", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-14T15:45:32Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T15:48:48Z" } }, { "key": "W7VDKGKE", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/W7VDKGKE", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/W7VDKGKE", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Foley", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "W7VDKGKE", "version": 1, "itemType": "bookSection", "title": "Introduction, Interpreting the Hymn to Demeter, The 'Theology' of the Mysteries, and Variants of the Myth and the Importance of the Version in the Hymn Demeter", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Helene", "lastName": "Foley" } ], "abstractNote": "", "bookTitle": "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essay", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "", "publisher": "Princeton University Press", "place": "Princeton, NJ", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "pages": "79-103", "ISBN": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "Foley argues that the Hymn to Demeter (ca. 650-550 B.C.E.) is the first work of literary importance to record “the essential female tragedy” of the mother-daughter loss. In contrast, for instance, to the Homeric epics, the Hymn privileges female experience over male, particularly that of Zeus and Hades, both of whom are at the periphery of the narrative. Structurally, the Hymn has a framing divine story, a long middle section where divine and mortal intermix, and a concluding section that announces the result of this divine-human intersection in the foundation of the Eleusinian Mysteries.\n\nFoley’s interpretation is particularly receptive to feminist approaches to the Hymn, and offers a good discussion on how the Hymn addresses what has been described as the “traffic in women.” She points out, for instance, the relevance of the Hymn’s yoking together of marriage and death rituals: in marrying Hades, Korê (“maiden”), or Persephone, descends to the underworld; Greek girls, in turn, often were married in their mid-teens and would not see their families often (or at all) if their husbands lived far away.\n\nWhat makes the Hymn unique is its un-Homeric representation of happiness conferred on mortals both in this life and in the afterlife; the myth also democratizes these goods: initiands could be anyone (including slaves) who had not committed murder. Demeter and Persephone are also humanized to an unusual extent in the Hymn and have an unusually sustained encounter with mortals: they eat human food (pomegranate seed as opposed to ambrosia); they experience suffering and separation (thus approximating the human tragedy of death insofar as divinities can); and the goddess Demeter acts as nurse to the mortal Demophoön.\n\nFoley notes that the early Greeks had no systematic theology and instead “experienced religion through ritual and myth” (84); the Hymn is the earliest extant version of a myth that was constantly retold and reshaped by its transmission through oral poetry. In this variant, Persephone’s descent and ascent are not explicitly linked to the seasons, nor to the founding of agriculture. Also, in other versions Demeter gives the Mysteries as a reward; here, though, the cult seems “at first to have been founded only to propitiate the angry goddess” (100). If the Hymn downplays hospitality and the origin of seasons, it emphasizes instead that the Mysteries “are a product of divine suffering and of the convergence of divine and human experience” (102). The poem was apparently composed, thus, to relate the founding of the Mysteries, “the most famous of the mystery cults of antiquity,” in honor of Demeter and Persephone.\n\nSummary by Sean Benson", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-14T15:40:45Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T15:46:28Z" } }, { "key": "CKIQZB2J", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/CKIQZB2J", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/CKIQZB2J", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Foley", "parsedDate": "1993-11-29", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "CKIQZB2J", "version": 1, "itemType": "book", "title": "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essay", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Helene P.", "lastName": "Foley" } ], "abstractNote": "", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "annotated edition", "date": "1993-11-29", "publisher": "Princeton University Press", "place": "Princeton, NJ", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "numPages": "", "ISBN": "0691014795", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "Amazon.com", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-14T13:15:21Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T15:46:23Z" } }, { "key": "QK2WTURT", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/QK2WTURT", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/QK2WTURT", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Clay", "parsedDate": "1989", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "QK2WTURT", "version": 1, "itemType": "bookSection", "title": "Hymn to Aphrodite", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "Jenny Strauss", "lastName": "Clay" } ], "abstractNote": "13", "bookTitle": "The Politics of Olympus: Form and Meaning in the Major Homeric Hymns", "series": "", "seriesNumber": "", "volume": "", "numberOfVolumes": "", "edition": "", "date": "1989", "publisher": "Princeton University Press", "place": "Princeton", "originalDate": "", "originalPublisher": "", "originalPlace": "", "format": "", "pages": "152-201", "ISBN": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "Clay provides a structuralist/anthropological perspective to locate the “Hymn to Aphrodite” among sources and analogs that deal with the story of Aphrodite and Anchises. The hymnist reveals his time period by allusions to Homer and Hesiod (Theogony, Works and Days). Clay argues that the hymn is related to other major hymns insofar as it celebrates the powers and attributes of a goddess, but that it significantly differs from the others in emphasizing the cosmic implications of the narrative. The distinguishing features of this version of Aphrodite and Anchises are the agency of Zeus and the story’s importance as heralding the end of the heroic age, which culminates in the battle of Troy; thus, “Hymn to Aphrodite” is a liminal poem that marks the end of one epoch and the beginning of another, while it blends elements of epic and hymn.\n\nIn the tradition of the longer Homeric Hymns that celebrate the gods, this to Aphrodite dramatizes her power over eros and her skillfulness of seduction. Her chief attributes are cunning and wile, weak (feminine) attributes, as opposed to strength and force (male attributes). Through her wiles, she has disposed the gods, including Zeus, to passionate relations with mortals, resulting in the mixing of the two, to neither’s lasting benefit. Zeus, rather than stay Aphrodite’s destructive power by direct force, cunningly uses her own seductive enchantments to enamor her of Anchises. Her seduction of Anchises exemplifies the skills of seduction, which require that the goddess deceive Anchises into believing she is a desirable, innocent, and powerless maiden, lest he be overwhelmed by her Olympian grandeur. As she humiliated the gods by making them erotic prey to mortals, she is humiliated in the face of Olympus by Zeus’ manipulations, and she discontinues her matchmaking between gods and mortals. Aphrodite’s and Anchises’ is the final liaison and results in the birth of Aeneas, a hero of Troy and the last of his kind. This hymn, therefore, marks the beginning of the Iron Age, an age in which mortals and gods live in separate spheres, though the gods, while distant, remain part of mortals’ lives.\n\nThough Clay sometimes strains (and strays) to make her argument, the essay would usefully provide undergraduates perspectives on poetic genres and how ancient poets imaginatively interpret stock stories. Additionally, Clay's exposition of the variant accounts of Aphrodite is worthwhile.\n\nJohn Jacobs Shenandoah University", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-14T13:08:40Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T15:37:40Z" } }, { "key": "EXARTI53", "version": 1, "library": { "type": "group", "id": 2862, "name": "Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns", "type": "text/html" } } }, "links": { "self": { "href": "https://api.zotero.org/groups/2862/items/EXARTI53", "type": "application/json" }, "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/groups/hesiod_and_the_homeric_hymns/items/EXARTI53", "type": "text/html" } }, "meta": { "createdByUser": { "id": 3804, "username": "Lycimnius", "name": "Ian MacInnes", "links": { "alternate": { "href": "https://www.zotero.org/lycimnius", "type": "text/html" } } }, "creatorSummary": "Beall", "parsedDate": "2004", "numChildren": 0 }, "data": { "key": "EXARTI53", "version": 1, "itemType": "journalArticle", "title": "The Plow that Broke the Plain Epic Tradition: Hesiod Works and Days vv. 414-503", "creators": [ { "creatorType": "author", "firstName": "E.F.", "lastName": "Beall" } ], "abstractNote": "", "publicationTitle": "Classical Antiquity", "publisher": "", "place": "", "date": "2004", "volume": "23", "issue": "", "section": "", "partNumber": "", "partTitle": "", "pages": "1-32", "series": "", "seriesTitle": "", "seriesText": "", "journalAbbreviation": "", "DOI": "", "citationKey": "", "url": "", "accessDate": "", "PMID": "", "PMCID": "", "ISSN": "", "archive": "", "archiveLocation": "", "shortTitle": "", "language": "", "libraryCatalog": "", "callNumber": "", "rights": "", "extra": "This field for extra material (Test)", "tags": [], "collections": [], "relations": {}, "dateAdded": "2009-07-13T20:24:41Z", "dateModified": "2009-07-14T02:14:56Z" } } ]