The hymns present an intermediate divine order, in which the gods still vie for supremacy but largely accept Zeus’ hegemony. The Theogony narrates his rise the epics portray the stable Olympian order with Zeus at its head. The most important difference is the role of Zeus. Faulkner cites Strauss Clay’s argument that the hymns can only be fully understood against the background of the Theogony. In sum, while the Homeric epics are about mortals the Homeric hymns are about gods.įaulkner notes the links between the hymns and Hesiod’s Theogony. Their narratives recount important episodes in the gods’ lives. Each poem names a specific god as its object and addresses the god directly. In contrast, the Homeric hymns focus directly on the divine. Faulkner notes that, after all, both the Iliad and the Odyssey begin with “an invocation to the Muse to sing of mortal characters and their agency” (32). In Homer’s epics, the gods are “essential cogs in the narrative machinery” (32) but are nonetheless not the primary focus. In this chapter, Faulkner examines the role of the gods in the Homeric hymns. “The Gods in the Narratives of the Homeric Hymns.” In The Gods of Greek Hexameter Poetry: From the Archaic Age to Late Antiquity and Beyond, edited by James Joseph Clauss, Martine Cuypers, and Ahuvia Kahane, 32–42.
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