CHAPTER 1

COMMENTARY ON THE HOMERIC

HYMN TO DEMETER

Helene P. Foley

The homeric hymns were songs composed to honor andpraise deities and apparently served as preludes (prooimia) to therecitation of other epic poetry. Although we know nothingcertain about their audience and the circumstances of their performance,they were probably composed for recitation at feasts, at poetic contests, andat seasonally recurring festivals (the last two would often occur in combination).In a tradition where oral recitation is the primary mode of poeticcommunication, the context of performance (here uncertain) is probablythe determining feature of a poetic "genre". Yet the Homeric hymns are abody of poems with some shared characteristics. (The Hymn to Demeterincludes all the features described below unless otherwise noted.) To thedegree that they represent a genre from a formal perspective, the hymnsdescribe the acquisition of distinctive powers and honors (including majorcults and sanctuaries) by gods or goddesses. They tend to begin and closewith an address to the deity or deities celebrated and a description of or anallusion to their special prerogatives, haunts, and activities. Both the openingsand closings of the poems mark characteristics of the deity with traditionalepithets. The closing often brings events up to the present time andincludes a farewell and the promise of another song.

The hymns are sung prayers: the elements mentioned above secure theattention and favor of the divinity to the singer and his community. Thepoet's closing plea to the god generally follows a statement of credentialsthat justifies the god's granting of the present request on the basis of pastfavors (sacrifices and gifts to the god or prayers previously answered by thegod) or the god's special powers (e.g., the growth of grain is your specialty,and therefore you should grant this prayer). A hymn may include an accountof the god's birth (absent in the Hymn to Demeter), a conflict orchallenge faced by the deity, his or her acquisition of honors, a divineepiphany, an ascent to and/or scene on Olympus. The longer hymns like theHymn to Demeter all include a substantial mythological narrative—a sacrednarrative reflecting on the origin of things—that also contains recurringmotifs. As Jenny Clay has pointed out, these hymns deal with the events thatoccur after Zeus has consolidated his reign over the universe, but before theworld familiar to humankind has taken shape. The audience hears aboutevents that fulfill what it wants fulfilled. In the Hymn to Demeter, Rheiafinally persuades Demeter to make the crops grow after Persephone's return(469), and Demeter establishes the Mysteries (473–82).

The Hymn, composed in dactylic hexameter verse (the same meter that isused in the Homeric epics), follows the tradition of oral epic in its diction,style, and narrative technique. Hence its style is repetitive, if not as repetitive(for example, in the exact repetition of speeches) as Homer. Individual linesare composed in large part by combining in a creative fashion traditionalword and phrase patterns (or sometimes whole lines are repeated verbatim),which the poet has learned from the repertory of the oral tradition. Many ofits scenes also adapt a predictable narrative pattern (the elements in thesetype-scenes are noted later in this commentary). I have tried to preserve inmy translation much of the repetition of epithets (adjectives) used to describethe major characters (e.g., "fair-tressed Demeter," "Zeus heavy-thunderingand mighty-voiced") as well as other important repeated words,lines, and phrases, but eliminated some of the connectives, which are awkwardin English style. I have also tried to capture some of the Greek wordorder wherever it is possible and effective to do so in English. The Appendixto the interpretive essay discusses other features of the Hymn that place itwithin the tradition of Panhellenic poetry (poetry such as the Homeric epicsor Hesiod's Theogony that was composed for audiences in any Greek city-state,rather than for a local audience in one community).

The author or authors of the poem are unknown, but scholars argue for adate between 650–550 B.C.E. on stylistic and historical grounds. I havebeen careful not to make assumptions in my interpretation about the authorshipof the poem—in any case, the poet (or poets) who composed thistext are working in a tradition where individual contributions are impossibleto distinguish. Richard Janko has argued that its language assimilatesthe Hymn more closely to the Boeotian tradition of Hesiod, and that itsdialectical idiosyncracies are most easily explained by an Attic origin. Heprefers a late-seventh-or early-sixth-century date. If the temple of Demeterto which the Hymn refers is the early-sixth-century building constructed atthe time of the Attic statesman Solon, a date on the later side might bepreferable. The section on "Athens and Eleusis" in the Appendix to theinterpretive essay discusses the controversial issue of the poem's relation tothe historical context in which it was probably composed.

This commentary refers frequently both to the Eleusinian Mysteries thatare founded by the goddess Demeter at the conclusion of the poem and toother Greco-Roman versions of the Demeter/Persephone myth. The separatesection on the Mysteries gives what information we have about theserites, the final phases of which have remained largely a well-kept secret.These Mysteries, the most important of the mystery cults of antiquity,eventually attracted initiates from the entire Greco-Roman world; in theclassical period (480–323 B.C.E.—we are uncertain about who could participateat the time the Hymn was composed) most Athenians (includingwomen and slaves) and many other Greeks were initiated into them. Theypromised initiates happiness in this life and a different lot in the afterlife. Alist of other important Greco-Roman versions of the myth is given here.

Hesiod, Theogony 913–14

Pamphos, Hymn to Demeter (Pausanias 1.38.3,8.37.9,9.31.9. See also 1.39.1)

Orphic fragments (esp. 49–52 Kern)

Orphic Argonautika 1191–96

Orphic hymns 18, 29, 41, 43

Euripides, Helen 1301–68

Isokrates, Panegyrikos 28–29

Kallimachos, Hymn...