Demeter “Nods” to Aphrodite? Narrative Interactions between the “Homeric” Hymn to Aphrodite and the Hymn to Demeter

摘要

This paper revisits the question of the relationship between two “ Homeric” hymns, the Hymn to Aphrodite and the Hymn to Demeter, from a narrative and thematic vantage point. The discussion focuses on narrative motifs and elements identifiable in both poems : Zeus in remote control of the action, female divinity in disguise, abduction tales, abduction of offspring, divine epiphanies, and others. The correspondences are extensive and may show interactive patterns and mechanisms. These features suggest that the Hymn to Demeter may have borrowed and adapted some narrative elements from the Hymn to Aphrodite. The subsoil for the interaction is identified in the concern of the two poems with the tension between mortal finitude and immortal infinity. Since none of the common narrative motifs and elements can determine in itself the question of dependence, the argument and case which is made is cumulative.