Composed roughly at the same time as the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Homeric Hymns are poems, generally attributed in antiquity to Homer, giving individual praise to a number of Greek gods in hexameter form. The composition date given by encyclopedias varies: according to the Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (accessible for OU students through the OU library in electronic form) it is 8th to 6th centuries BC, while the Columbian Electronic Encyclopedia (accessible via the same route) has "between 800 and 300 BC". Light is shed on this controversy by Wikipedia, of all things, explaining that "although most of [the poems] were composed in the seventh and sixth centuries, a few may be Hellenistic, and the Hymn to Ares might be a late pagan work, inserted when it was observed that a hymn to Ares was lacking". (I personally have found the Wikipedia entry the most informative, containing many bits of useful information, which the various Oxford Companions and Dictionaries did not choose to include.) I had an idea about what a hymn to a god may be like - a barrage of epithets and lavish, albeit formulaic, praise (a bit like those rather repetitive votive offerings found at sanctuary sites from the same period), but I was surprised to find extended narratives in some of the poems. After the invocation and praise, the narrative passage must have provided an opportunity for the rhapsode to shine and for the audience to be entertained. In antiquity, the hymns were sometimes called 'preludes' (prooimia), probably introductions to narratives that followed, says the Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition by Nicholas Richardson. Although in many cases the narratives seem to be already included, the explanation suggested by Richardson is that the hymn or series of hymns introduced an even 'more extensive epic song'. However, he concludes, it is impossible to be sure. The Homeric Hymns page on the website of Washington State University says: "Many of the hymns function as introductions, but it is not known to what".
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AuthorHave studied A219 Exploring the Classical World and A275 Reading Classical Greek at the Open University. Currently studying for a Psychology degree. ImagesPlease click on any image to be taken to its source.
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