Homeric Hymns
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Difference between revisions)
| Revision as of 22:51, 20 November 2009 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Revision as of 22:51, 20 November 2009 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) Next diff → |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | In [[Greek mythology]], '''Persephone''' ('''Kore''' or '''Cora''') was the [[embodiment]] of the Earth's [[fertility]] at the same time that she was the Queen of the [[Greek Underworld|Underworld]], the ''korē'' (or young [[maiden]]), and the [[parthenogenesis|parthenogenic]] daughter of [[Demeter]]—and, in later Classical myths, a daughter of Demeter and [[Zeus]]. In the Olympian version she also becomes the consort of [[Hades]] when he becomes the deity that governs the underworld. | + | The thirty-three anonymous '''Homeric Hymns''' celebrating individual gods are a collection of ancient [[Greek language|Greek]] [[hymn]]s, "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter— [[dactylic hexameter]]— as the ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'', use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect. |
| - | + | ||
| - | The figure of Persephone is well-known today. Her story has great emotional power: an innocent [[maiden]], a mother's [[grief]] over her [[abduction]], and subsequent [[joy]] after the return of her daughter. It is also cited frequently as a [[paradigm]] of [[myth]]s that explain [[nature|natural processes]], with the descent and return of the [[goddess]] bringing about the change of [[seasons]]. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In [[Greek art]], Persephone is invariably portrayed [[clothing|robed]]. She may be carrying a sheaf of grain and smiling [[demure]]ly with the "[[Archaic smile]]" of the Kore of Antenor. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | ==The Abduction Myth==<!-- This section is linked from [[The High Priestess]] --> | + | |
| - | The story of her abduction is traditionally referred to as the [[Rape of Persephone]]. In the later Olympian pantheon of Classical Greece, Persephone is given a father: according to [[Hesiod]]'s ''Theogony'', Persephone was the daughter produced by the union of [[Demeter]] and [[Zeus]]: "And he [Zeus] came to the bed of bountiful Demeter, who bore white-armed Persephone, stolen by Hades from her mother's side" | + | |
| - | Unlike every other offspring of an Olympian pairing of deities, Persephone has no stable position at Olympus. Persephone used to live far away from the other deities, a goddess within Nature herself before the days of planting seeds and nurturing plants. In the Olympian telling,<ref>[http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HermesLoves.html LOVES OF HERMES : Greek mythology<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> the gods [[Hermes]], [[Ares]], [[Apollo]], and [[Hephaestus]], had all wooed Persephone; but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the Olympian deities. Thus, Persephone lived a peaceful life before she became the [[goddess]] of the underworld, which, according to Olympian mythographers, did not occur until [[Hades]] abducted her and brought her into it. She was innocently picking flowers with some [[nymph]]s—, [[Athena]], and [[Artemis]], the [[Homeric Hymns|Homeric hymn]] says—, or [[Leucippe]], or [[Oceanids]]— in a field in [[Enna]] when Hades came to abduct her, bursting through a cleft in the earth. Later, the nymphs were changed by Demeter into the [[Siren]]s for not having interfered. Life came to a standstill as the devastated [[Demeter]], goddess of the [[Earth]], searched everywhere for her lost daughter. [[Helios]], the sun, who sees everything, eventually told Demeter what had happened. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Finally, Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to [[Hermes]], who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating [[pomegranate]] seeds, (seven, eight, or perhaps four according to the telling) <!--this has been more succinctly stated above:The number of pomegranate seeds varies in different versions of the story, corresponding with the number of months considered as ''winter months''.--> which forced her to return to the underworld for a season each year. In some versions, [[Ascalaphus]] informed the other deities that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were united, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for some months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm. This is an [[origin myth|origin story]] to explain the seasons. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In an earlier version, [[Hecate]] rescued Persephone. On an Attic [[Red-figure pottery|red-figured]] [[Krater|bell krater]] of ca 440 BCE in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], Persephone is rising as if up stairs from a cleft in the earth, while Hermes stands aside; Hecate, holding two torches, looks back as she leads her to the enthroned Demeter. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | + | ||
| - | In the earliest known version the ''dreaded goddess'', Persephone, was herself Queen of the Underworld (Burkert or Kerenyi). | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In some versions, Demeter forbids the earth to produce; in others she is so busy looking for Persephone that she neglects the earth, or her duties as the Earth which she represents, and in the depth of her despair causes nothing to grow. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | This myth also can be interpreted as an allegory of ancient Greek marriage rituals. The Classical Greeks felt that [[marriage]] was a sort of abduction of the bride by the groom from the bride's family, and this myth may have explained the origins of the marriage ritual. The more popular [[etiology|etiological]] explanation of the seasons may have been a later interpretation. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | The tenth-century [[Byzantine]] encyclopedia ''[[Suda]]'', ''s.v.'' "[[Macaria]]", introduces a goddess of a blessed [[afterlife]] assured to [[Orphism|Orphic mystery]] initiates. This Macaria is asserted to be the daughter of [[Hades]] and Persephone, though there is no previous mention of her. | + | |
| - | [[Image:Persephone Kruse1.JPG|thumb|left|upright|''Persephone'', by Carl Max Kruse]] | + | |
| - | + | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Revision as of 22:51, 20 November 2009
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The thirty-three anonymous Homeric Hymns celebrating individual gods are a collection of ancient Greek hymns, "Homeric" in the sense that they employ the same epic meter— dactylic hexameter— as the Iliad and Odyssey, use many similar formulas and are couched in the same dialect.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Homeric Hymns" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
