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https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5051&context=etd

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite: A Structuralist Approach

The philosophy of desire in Theocritus' Idylls

"The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite": Tradition and Rhetoric, Praise and Blame

I read Greek for two reasons, firstly for professional purposes and secondly for personal pleasure. When it comes to pleasure, I constantly turn to the ‘old’ favourites, to Homer, Herodotus, tragedy and, more surprisingly perhaps, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns. A continuing interest in Hesiod is easily explained: it so happened that when I went up to University College London in the Fall of 1949, I commenced my studies by attending a course of lectures on Hesiod's Works and Days and these were delivered by the most exciting teacher in the Classics Department, T.B.L. – Tom – Webster. The impression made by the lectures was so great that I found myself, and still find myself, enthralled by the poet from Boeotia. An enthusiasm for the Homeric Hymns came later; it is not the fact that I enjoy the hymns that others seem to regard as a little eccentric but my strong preference for the Hymn to Aphrodite . Is this, I can feel colleagues wondering, a consequence of the contemporary craze for ‘Women's Studies’ even among – or is it especially among – classicists? Let me hastily assure you that it is not: I enjoy the Hymn to Aphrodite because of what I believe to be its outstanding literary qualities, and these are qualities that have been increasingly acknowledged in the last dozen or so years.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0017383500023536

The Homeric Hymn To Aphrodite A Literary Appraisal

For the Bacchae Levi-Strauss' view of myth as concerned with the mediation of fundamental polarities is both fruitful and fruitfully inadequate. The conflicts between Pentheus and Dionysus clearly involve an opposition of city and wild, culture and nature, rationality and emotion, male and female. Further in the background stands another series of antitheses: mortal and immortal, man and beast, Greek and barbarian, heavens and earth, fire and water. Like much of Greek literature, the Bacchae is founded on the proportion, mortal: immortal :: beast : man. That proportion, in turn, is part of an encompassing cosmic order which distinguishes the three basic categories of animate beings: god, man, and beast. What is unique and disturbing about this play is the thoroughness and violence of the reversals which take place in a situation in which god fuses with beast and beast with man.

Euripides' Bacchae: Conflict and Mediation

Η ΔΟΜΗ του Ομηρικού Ύμνου στη Δήμητρα eίναι προβληματική, σύμφωνα μe μeλeτητές, κυρίως λόγω της απρόκλητης eπίσκeψης της Δήμητρας στην Eλeυσίνα, η οποία δeν συμβάλλeι στην eύρeση της κόρης της, καθώς eν αντιθέσeι μe άλλeς eκδοχές του μύθου η Δήμητρα δeν συλλέγeι eκeί πληροφορίeς για την απαγωγή της Πeρσeφόνης αλλά προσπαθeί ανeπιτυχώς να κάνeι τον Δημοφώντα αθάνατο. Eφαρμόζοντας τις αρχές της δομικής συμμeτρίας και του παραλληλισμού δeίχνω ότι η σκηνή μe τον Δημοφώντα αποτeλeί τμήμα της αφηγηματικής eξέλιξης από σκηνές σύγκρουσης σe σκηνές συμφιλίωσης, που ανταποκρίνονται στη μeτάβαση από σκηνές αρνητικής ανταπόδοσης (δηλ. αρπαγή χωρίς ανταλλαγή) σe σκηνές eξισορροπημένης ανταπόδοσης (δηλ. συναλλαγή τύπου quid pro quo). Αυτή η αφηγηματική eξέλιξη διέπeι την αλληλουχία των σκηνών και παρατηρeίται σe αυτόνομα eπeισόδια αλλά και στη γeνικότeρη δομή του Ύμνου. Tο θέμα της ανταλλαγής eίναι ιδιαίτeρα προσφιλές, καθώς και ο Ύμνος αποτeλeί προσφορά του υμνωδού που αναμένeι θeτική ανταπόδοση από τη Δήμητρα και την Πeρσeφόνη.

/pdf/structural-symmetry-and-parallelism-in-the-homeric-hymn-to-2ubokls9sb.pdf

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite: A Structuralist Approach

Citations

The philosophy of desire in Theocritus' Idylls

"The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite": Tradition and Rhetoric, Praise and Blame

The Homeric Hymn To Aphrodite A Literary Appraisal

Euripides' Bacchae: Conflict and Mediation

Structural Symmetry and Parallelism in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter