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Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes

Thomas, O.

Authors



Contributors

F. Budelmann
Editor

T.R. Phillips
Editor

Abstract

The Hymn to Hermes offers a late archaic or early classical viewpoint on genre in lyric poetry. It compares hymns and theogonies to bantering songs at symposia, apparently in a paradox grounded in Hermes’ ability to control transfers across firm boundaries. However, the comparisons have a latent logic: the Hymn to Hermes is itself bantering intertextually with the Homeric Hymn to Apollo; it alludes to the fact that a komos can involve both praise-poetry and (post-)sympotic erotic songs. Moreover, Apollo’s first interaction with the lyre leads him to engage Hermes in a game of verbal banter, which suggests that this ability of the lyre to unite contrasting performance-types will continue under his patronage. In this sense, the Hymn implicitly reflects on its own power to reshape the audience’s attitudes towards music.

Citation

Thomas, O. (2018). Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. In F. Budelmann, & T. Phillips (Eds.), Textual events: performance and the lyric in early Greece. Oxford University Press

Acceptance Date Sep 1, 2016
Publication Date Mar 22, 2018
Deposit Date Apr 18, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Book Title Textual events: performance and the lyric in early Greece
ISBN 9780198805823
Keywords Homeric Hymns, Hermes, Apollo, music, genre, lyric poetry
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/921179
Related Public URLs https://global.oup.com/academic/product/textual-events-9780198805823

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