Homeric Hymns: Strength and Trickery

Homeric Hymns: Strength and Trickery in the Lives of the Ancient Greek Gods and Heroes

Often it is said that the Greeks 'had a word for it,' in reference to Greek sexual, political, and social matters. Yet frequently 'it' for the Greeks, even when discussing heroism, is trickery, as noted by Peter Mazur in his 2005 analysis of the "Homeric Hymn to Hermes," published in the most recent addition of the Journal of the American Philological Association's Journal of Philology. In the Hesiod Homeric-style hymn that bears the name and sings the origin of Hermes, the god Apollo describes his half-brother Hermes as melain I nukti eoikos or like the "black night" (line 358) rather than the light represented by Apollo in the Homeric hymn to Apollo's creation. Where the baby Apollo, after his birth, (lines 131-32) claimed his two most prominent symbols as the lyre and the bow. Hermes steals his brother's lyre, and his first act as a young god after inventing fire is to inevitably start thinking about cooking and feeding his growling belly! (Lines 94-137) Hermes steals Apollo's cattle, rather than does upfront battle with a she-dragon, as did Apollo in his chronicled hymn of origins. (Lines 300-310)

Thus, Apollo rightly sees that beneath baby Hermes' innocent appearance lies something more sinister: although Hermes was born at dawn. (Line 17) Unlike his brother, Hermes is a companion and creature of the night. The two related gods, seen together, and when their hymns are paired together, are not polar opposites of good and bad, as they might be seen in a Christian context. Rather, the two gods are manifestations of two sides of the divine and heroic nature, in context of the larger catalogue of the hymns. Hermes uses deception, while Apollo uses strength. Apollo sings songs from his lyre. Hermes steals from his elder half-brother and uses music for devious purposes.

Thus the most famous Homeric hymns to the male Olympians Apollo and Hermes were each intended to give the original listeners of the texts not simply a sense of the young god's characteristic activities and natures through narrating the myths of their births and early lives, as noted by Robin Mitchell Boyask in his commentary on the hymns. Rather, in such hymns, the classicist Peter Mazur suggests that the contemporary reader must keep in mind the observation concerning the rise of Zeus in Hesiod's "Theogony" that the origin myths of the gods also attempt to give the Greek readers a sense of what it means to apprehend the full nature of the divine in his ideal, heroic form. The gods can demonstrate tricks in their own instances, with great bravado and show in a positive fashion, as well as show higher, elevated qualities as manifest in Apollo's killing of the dragon and his playing of the lyre.

Robin Mitchell Boyask, however, stresses that Homeric hymns tend to be patterned on human hero myths such as the Homeric "Iliad" and "Odyssey." The Hesiod use of divine myths helped prepare the original auditors for what to look for in a hero, both when apprehending the greatest Greek author of all, that of Homer, who authored the primary texts of every ancient Greek boy's education, as well as how to be heroic in one's own life. To be heroic, one could not be pure like Apollo alone -- one had to be strong like the god of the sun, but also be aware of trickery, and use trickery like Hermes. If Apollo was unaware of trickery and unable to do battle with it, he would have lost his cattle and his superior power to his younger brother. Also the nymph Telephusa would have been able to trick Apollo, much as the female influence of witchcraft occurs again and again in Homer's narrative of Odysseus. (Lines 244-276)

In fact, the Hesiod Hymns were originally called Homeric by scholars not simply because they were written in the narrative style of Homer, but their content also corresponded to important themes and patterns in Homeric epic poetry of heroic cunning. The two hymns, stressed Robin Mitchell-Boyask, thus were often read in consort to celebrate the qualities Zeus first needed in the heroic mythos of divine origins in order to acquire and maintain control. For Peter Mazur, the two creation myths of the origins of the individual gods Apollo and Hermes represented two polar forces in the universe of man, two necessary ways the gods were a presence in the fate of human creation, as a tricking and deceitful force but also as a force of indomitable strength.

For example, night may be either a kindly protection for a hero under attack, or a dangerous cloud leading one astray from a path to glory states Mazur, although Apollo sees Hermes as having the potential to embody both. Apollo also recognizes Hermes as his brother, for Apollo too understands and uses trickery, as well as strums upon his lyre. By showing Hermes through the eyes of Apollo, the author of the hymn has a greater perspicacity, that trickery and the light of the mind are both godly forces and trickery itself, when practiced by the gods has a positive and a negative component. Hesiod himself explains that there are two kinds of potentially untrustworthy but necessary forces in the world, both a good kind and a bad kind, the power of nightly cunning and the fear of nightly trickery by one's enemy. "Geras, described as oulomenon" of destructive in Hesiod but is called liparon of "sleek" in Homer when used to describe Odysseus, according to Mazur's analysis, of Odysseus's behavior during conflicts that repeat in his life -- the hero of Homer is not praised for purity and goodness, but of his warrior's prowess and his ability to use his mind as well as his body under duress, even while he is rebuked for occasionally resisting, in a negative fashion, the greater will, power, and intellect of the gods of Olympus.

Both Homeric Hymns to Hermes and Apollo thus introduce new components to Hesiod's "Theogony" as well as render the contrast between trickery and strength in more subtle ways through the character of the gods. In contrast to the Hesiod text that clearly establishes a heroic paradigm of a dragon combat of military victory achieved mainly through strength, the significance of cleverness in the reign of Zeus also becomes apparent as elements of the divine are added to -- the cleverness embodied in the trickery of Hermes and the cerebral, golden and divine authority of Apollo are paired against one another, as Hermes parodies the myth of origin of Apollo, while Apollo expands upon the themes manifest in Zeus' coming to power..