Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes
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 log...
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| Format: | Book Section |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51233/ |
| _version_ | 1848798447248867328 |
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| author | Thomas, O. |
| author2 | Budelmann, F. |
| author_facet | Budelmann, F. Thomas, O. |
| author_sort | Thomas, O. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:19:55Z |
| format | Book Section |
| id | nottingham-51233 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:19:55Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-512332020-03-22T04:30:11Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51233/ Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes Thomas, O. 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. Oxford University Press Budelmann, F. Phillips, T.R. 2018-03-22 Book Section PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51233/1/Hermetically%20unsealed%20for%20eprints.pdf Thomas, O. (2018) Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. In: Textual events: performance and the lyric in early Greece. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 173-188. ISBN 9780198805823 Homeric Hymns Hermes Apollo music genre lyric poetry |
| spellingShingle | Homeric Hymns Hermes Apollo music genre lyric poetry Thomas, O. Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |
| title | Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |
| title_full | Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |
| title_fullStr | Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |
| title_short | Hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes |
| title_sort | hermetically unsealed: lyric genres in the homeric hymn to hermes |
| topic | Homeric Hymns Hermes Apollo music genre lyric poetry |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51233/ |