The "homeric hymn to hermes" : introduction, text and commentary /

The Hymn to Hermes, while surely the most amusing of the so-called Homeric Hymns, also presents an array of challenging problems. In just 580 lines, the newborn god invents the lyre and sings a hymn to himself, travels from Cyllene to Pieria to steal Apollo s cattle, organizes a feast at the river A...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vergados, Athanassios
Corporate Authors: De Gruyter.
Published: De Gruyter,
Publisher Address: Berlin ;Boston :
Publication Dates: [2012]
©2013
Literature type: eBook
Language: English
Series: Texte und kommentare ; 41
Subjects:
Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110259704
http://www.degruyter.com/doc/cover/9783110259704.jpg
Summary: The Hymn to Hermes, while surely the most amusing of the so-called Homeric Hymns, also presents an array of challenging problems. In just 580 lines, the newborn god invents the lyre and sings a hymn to himself, travels from Cyllene to Pieria to steal Apollo s cattle, organizes a feast at the river Alpheios where he serves the meat of two of the stolen animals, cunningly defends his innocence, and is finally reconciled to Apollo, to whom he gives the lyre in exchange for the cattle. This book provides the first detailed commentary devoted specifically to this unusual poem since Radermacher s 1931 edition. The commentary pays special attention to linguistic, philological, and interpretive matters. It is preceded by a detailed introduction that addresses the Hymn s ideas on poetry and music, the poem s humour, the Hymn s relation to other archaic hexameter literature both in thematic and technical aspects, the poem s reception in later literature, its structure, the issue of its date and place of composition, and the question of its transmission. The critical text, based on F. C ssola s edition, is equipped with an apparatus of formulaic parallels in archaic hexameter poetry as well as possible verbal echoes in later literature.
Carrier Form: 1 online resource (732pages) : illustrations.
ISBN: 9783110259704(electronic bk.)
Index Number: PA4023
CLC: I545.072
Contents: Frontmatter --
Table of Contents --
Acknowledgments --
Abbreviations --
Introduction --
1. Summary of the poem --
2. Music, Poetry, and Language --
3. Humour in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes --
4. Relation to Archaic Literature --
5. Relation to Other Literature --
6. Structure and Arrangement --
7. Date and Place of Composition --
8. The Transmission of the Text --
--
Commentary --
Bibliography --
Illustrations --
Index Rerum