Singing Demeter : theHomeric Hymn (1)

TheHymn " Homeric " to Demeter has been preserved as part of a collection of thirty-three hymnal pieces in honor of a whole series of divinities, whose hexametric form has associated them with Homer's name. Both the date and length of these poems vary. The longest of the two hymns to Demeter, dated to around 600 B.C., is in the same vein as the hymns to Apollo, Hermes and Aphrodite, which also feature an extended pars epica between the preliminary evocation and the final prayer. In each case, the tribute to the divinity sung is set against the backdrop of Zeus' stabilization of the cosmos and the accompanying definition or redefinition of divine honors. In the poem for Demeter, the abduction of her daughter by Hades, with the complicity of Zeus, and the resulting cosmic crisis are at the heart of the plot. Once the stages of the story have been recalled, two points are analyzed : the determination of the honors allotted respectively to Hades and Persephone through their status as the sovereign couple of the underworld, and the redefinition of Demeter's honors, who had gone on strike from her cereal prerogatives, threatening both the survival of humanity and the divinity of the gods deprived of their offerings. Demeter's anger and its effects on the cosmos organized by Zeus are compared to Hera's anger towards her husband, as evoked in a digression from theHomeric Hymn to Apollo on the goddess's begetting of Typhon.