User:UndercoverClassicist/Homeric Hymn to Demeter

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is an Ancient Greek hymn dating to the late seventh or early sixth century BCE. It tells the story of the abduction of Persephone, the daughter of the fertility goddess Demeter, by Hades, the god of the Underworld. In the narrative of the hymn, Demeter searches for Persephone, and forces the gods to return her for part of the year by causing mortals' crops to fail, threatening them with starvation. The hymn also tells the story of the origins of Demeter's cult at Eleusis in Attica, and serves as an aetiological myth for the seasons.

Date, form and function

The hymn probably dates to the late seventh or early sixth century BCE.

Bibliography

• Bodley, Lorraine Byrne (2016). "From Mythology to Social Politics: Goethe's Proserpina". In Vlastos, George; Levidou, Katerina; Romanou, Katy (eds.). Musical Receptions of Greek Antiquity: From the Romantic Era to Modernism. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 35–67. ISBN 9781443896566.
• Fletcher, Judith (2019). Myths of the Underworld in Contemporary Culture: The Backward Gaze. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198767091.001.0001. ISBN 9780191821288.
• Foley, Helene P., ed. (2013). The Homeric Hymn to Demeter: Translation, Commentary, and Interpretive Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400849086.
• Parker, Robert (1991). "The Hymn to Demeter and the Homeric Hymns". Greece & Rome. 38 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1017/S0017383500022932. JSTOR 643104.
• Schwab, Andreas (2016). "The Reception of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter in Romantic Heidelberg: J. H. Voss and 'the Eleusinian Document'". In Faulkner, Andrew; Vergados, Athanassios; Schwab, Andreas (eds.). The Reception of the Homeric Hymns. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 345–366. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198728788.003.0018. ISBN 9780191795510.
• Shapiro, H. Alan (2002). "Demeter and Persephone in Western Greece: Migrations of Myth and Cult". In Bennett, Michael; Paul, Aaron J.; Iozzo, Mario (eds.). Magna Graecia: Greek Art from South Italy and Sicily. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art. pp. 82–97. ISBN 9780940717718.