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INFORMATION to USERS This Manuscript Has INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from aity type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the qnali^ of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and in^roper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections withsmall overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photogr^hs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for aiy photographs or illusnations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor, fvll 48106-1346 USA 313.'761-4700 800/521-0600 THE HOMERIC HYMN TO DEMETER AND THE ART OF RAPE: TRANSFORMING VIOLENCE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Dianna Kay Rhyan, B. Mus., M. A. ***** The Ohio State University 1995 Dissertation Conmittee: Approved by J. M. Snyder v J. R. Tebben M. -- S. I. Johnston T Adviser Department of Classics UMI Number: 9612264 Copyright 1995 by Rhyanf Dianna Kay All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9612264 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Dianna K. Rhyan 1995 Famous for beauty was Flatus' daughter, Caenis, her name was, loveliest of girls In Thessaly... Caenis would not consent to any marriage. She used to walk the lonely shore, and Neptune (Or so they say) got hold of her one day, Took her by force, and liked what he had taken And told the girl: 'Ask me for anything, And you shall have it. What do you want the most?' (That was what people said, at least.) And Caenis Replied: "The wrong you have done me makes me ask For something most important, that I may never Again be able to suffer so. I ask you Ihat I may not be woman; that would be best. ' Ovid Metcmorphoses 12.189 ÊF., trans. Rolfe Humphries. To Andrew and for my Grandmother Wade 11 AO<NOWLEDGEMENTS I express sincere appreciation to the members of ny committee, Professors Joseph R. Tebben and Sarah lies Johnston, for generous conments, queries, and sources that shaped every page. Had I acknowledged each of their suggestions, the footnotes would have been full of nothing else. My advisor. Professor Emeritus Jane McIntosh Snyder, helped to shape this project with questions, plied me continually with new sources, and shared with me her balanced sense of play and precision which is familiar to anyone who has the privilege of knowing her. She kept me sailing ahead when I otherwise would have listened to the sirens, crashed into the rocks or found a whirlpool--all of which I did, though she gently and firmly steered me back each time. I owe the completion of this study to her example and to her steadfast belief and encouragement. I gratefully acknowledge the comraderie, stimulating discussions, and forebearance of my colleagues, especially Denise Riley, Dona Reaser, Patrice Ross, Doug Montanaro, and Judy Dann at Columbus State Comnunity College. Talks with Professors Don Lateiner and Bruce Heiden always opened new avenues of inquiry; talks with Professor Stephen Tracy led me to Classics in the first place. Special thanks go to iii Laura, for making me see that it was necessary; and to Tuck, for helping me clear the way. Andrew knows every word, argument and footnote here; his keen questions, faith, endurance, and humor made this possible. IV VITA June 25, 1962.........................B o m - - Columbus, Ohio 1984.................................. B.Mus., The Ohio State University 198 4 .................................. Aegean Institute, Galetas, Troizen, Greece 198 5 .................................. Research Associate, University of Notre Dame 1986-1992............................. Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 1988 ............ ...................... American Academy at Rome, Summer Program 198 9 .................................. M.A., The Ohio State University 1991.................................. Staff Member, The Ohio State University Excavations at Isthmia, Greece 1993-present.......................... Instructor, Columbus State Community College PUBLICATIONS 1996. Review of Helene Foley, ed.. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter; Translation, Ccmnentary, and Interpretive Essays (Princeton University Press, 1994) , forthcoming in Classical World. 1996. Primary Source selections/adaptations for World History: The Human Experience. Forthcoming from Macmillan. V 1995, Frcm the Source: Readings in World Civilization (ed,, with Patrice Ross and Richard Freed) , Harper Collins, 1989, Ten artist biographies and discographies for The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. MAJOR FIELD OF STUDY Classical Languages and Literature SPECIAL FIELDS OF STUDY Archaic Greek Epic and Hymns Professors Joseph Tebben and Stephen Tracy Women in Antiquity Professors Jane Snyder and Sarah lies Johnston Greek Religion and Mythology Professor Sarah lies Johnston Archaeology Professors Stephen Tracy and Charles Babcock VI TABLE OF CDNTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................... iii VITA........................................ V CHAPTER I. TRANSFORMING VIOLENCE: RETHINKING THE ART OF RAPE........................... 1 General Methodology..................................1 Survey of Scholarship on the Hymn................... 12 Ancient Portrayals of Rape: Statement of the Problem............................ 21 i. Elision and Mystification................. 21 ii. Hesiod and the Ifymn....................... 27 iii. Displacement and Periphrasis.............. 32 Focussing on the Rape Survivor...................... 39 II. DEMETER AND METANEIRA: THE LIMITS OF POWER AND EMPATHY..................... 44 Metaneira and Demeter...............................44 Tracing Fractures.................................. 46 A Woman's Place.................................... 55 Foolish Metaneira.................................. 65 The Limits of Eirpathy...............................71 The Limits of the Body.............................. 84 Toward an Old Psychology of Women................... 88 The Master's Tools................................. 98 III. PERSEPHONE AND KALLIDIKE: WRITING AND REWRITING THE VICTIM................... 103 Kallidike and Persephone........................... 107 Safety in Numbers................................. 109 Un-Deflowered. Untamed Kallidike................... 126 Persephone and the Narrator........................ 145 The Lacuna........................................ 180 EPILOGUE: TEXTUAL/SEXUAL VIOLENCE...................... 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................... 207 V I 1 CHAPTER GNE TRANSFORMING VIOLENCE: RETHIMŒNG THE ART OF RAPE GENERAL METHODOLOGY; TRANSFORMING VIOIiSNCE The Homeric Hyrm to Demeter is a violent text. Words for anger (e.g., XpXoq, Mfjvic;, KOtOTCtCRX), grief and distress (oçxpg, Tsnriiievri), constraint (a^oim, pvr], auxyicri), isolation (vcx3(|)iv) , screaming and weeping (oXocjjupopEvrj, y6oq), and silence (o«))0Cfyyoç) contribute to the work's lasting inpression and unique character. Abduction, disguise, and deceit constitute important features of its plot. Even to speak of the poem's representations of idyllic beauty is to mention places like meadows, which are safe for some but hazardous for others ; to speak of the poem's representation of greatest joy is to mention a moment of reunion which is overcast with the pain of past and future separations. The Hymn is also an enigmatic text containing vexed passages, both on the level of text, and on the level of interpretation, the latter especially concerning those lines that allude to aspects of the Eleusinian mysteries that are still not fully understood. ^ What this has meant for ^On the religious puzzles, many of which arise from lines 192-211, see below. Textual enigmas arise from the manuscript tradition: there is only one medieval (fifteenth 2 scholarship on the poem is that while one interpretive approach might work for a certain section (or sections) of the poem, it will not necessarily cast light on others. For example, examination of the minor role assigned to Triptolemos in the Hyim, or of Demeter's drinking kykeon, will further understanding of the work's religious context but may not be particularly enlightening about the rest of the poem; conversely, a study of the poem's political or cosmological structure will not necessarily illuminate passages with ritual significance.^ This tendency has not, as with the Iliad, led to questions about the poem's unity; it has led to studies which take its lack of coherence for granted and proceed from there.^
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