num_pages: 313
description: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, composed in the late 7th or early 6th century BCE, reflects on the psychological &amp; religious world of ancient Greek women. It tells how Hades abducted Persephone &amp; how her mother, the grain goddess Demeter, forced the gods to allow Persephone to return to her part of each year. Foley presents the Greek text, an annotated translation &amp; selected essays on its historical context &amp; its religious, literary, social &amp; psychological meaning. The Hymn reflects both the crisis when marriage separates mother &amp; daughter as well as the bonds allowing them to survive this transition. Demeter &amp; Persephone, who suffered the pains of mortality, found the Eleusinian Mysteries that offered their initiates a "different lot once dead in the dreary darkness." A version of the same myth formed the basis of exclusively female religious cults. The essays, contributed by Foley, Mary Louise Lord, Jean Rudhardt &amp; Nancy Felson-Rubin, Harriet M. Deal, Marilyn Arthur Katz, &amp; Nancy Chodorow, give a rich understanding of the Hymn's structure &amp; artistry, its role in the religious life of the ancient world &amp; its meaning for moderns. The essays study the Hymn in the context of early Greek epic &amp; cosmology, examine its critical attitude to marriage &amp; analyze mother-daughter dynamics.Text &amp; Translation of the Homeric Hymn to DemeterCommentary on the Homeric Hymn to DemeterBackground: The Eleusinian Mysteries &amp; Women's Rites for DemeterInterpreting the Hymn to DemeterThe "Theology" of the MysteriesVariants of the Myth &amp; the Importance of the Version in the Hymn to DemeterFemale Experience in the Hymn to DemeterMarriageGender Conflict &amp; the Cosmological TraditionThe Mother/Daughter RomanceThe Psychology of the MysteriesThe Hymn to Demeter &amp; the PolisChristianity &amp; the Hymn to DemeterThe Influence of the Hymn to Demeter &amp; Its Myth
language: English
title: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary and Interpretive Essays
titlecomplete: The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary and Interpretive Essays
genres: Greek Mythology, Religion, Poetry, Nonfiction, School, Ancient, Literature, Classics, Mythology, History
ratings_count: 131
publisher: Princeton University Press (NJ)