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Citation: S/HE: An International Journal of Goddess Studies Volume 2 Number 2 (2023)
The Homeric Hymn to Demeter
Susan Hawthorne
Abstract “The Homeric Hymn to Demeter” is one of a number of oral traditions to come down to us from Ancient Greek. Because the poem was written down it is possible to read it and unpack the ways in which it points to a much older goddess tradition in which Demeter, the mother, and Persephone, the daughter – but also the Queen of the Dead – play a central part. The Homeric hymn recounts the rape and abduction of Persephone by one of a triad of powerful gods, Hades whose realm is the underworld. My take on the hymn shares much with that of Charlene Spretnak, whose 1978 book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece[1] I read prior to this research. Because it was not deemed an academic book, I failed to reference it in the original essay. Even so, I was punished for writing a feminist analysis of the hymn.
Keywords Oral literature, Myth, Ancient Greece, Pre-Hellenic Greece, Homeric hymns, Demeter, Persephone, Hecate, Hekate, Goddesses, Power
Preface “The Homeric Hymn to Demeter” is one of a number of hymns attributed to Homer around the eighth century BCE. At 495 lines, it is the second longest of the thirty-three Homeric hymns which are written in dactylic hexameter, the same epic meter used…
[1] Charlene Spretnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Mythology (Berkeley, CA: Moon Books, 1978). Thanks to Glenys Livingstone for mentioning Charlene’s book in a recent conversation. My apologies to Charlene.
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