The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University Divine childhood: A study of selected Homeric hymns in relation to ancient Greek societal practices. Paula de Castro (PNTPAU002) A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirementsTown for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Classics Cape of Faculty of Humanities UniversityUniversity of Cape Town 2009 Declaration: This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. ____________________________ ________________________ Signature Date Contents Abstract i Plagiarism declaration iii Declaration iv Introduction 1 Chapter One: Birth and the Homeric hymn to Apollo 9 Town Chapter Two: Maturation and the Homeric hymn to Hermes 39 Chapter Three: Cape The goddesses: parthenos, nymphē or gynē? 90 of Conclusion 120 Sources cited 125 Translations 125 Secondary sourcesUniversity 128 Abstract This dissertation broadly addresses divine childhood, with particular reference to the Homeric hymns. Included in the discussion is an overview of ancient Greek practices involving the subjects of birth, midwifery, timai, kyrioi, theft, parent-child relationships, maturation and the role of female children and women in society. In addition to the Homeric hymns a variety of other sources ranging from Homer to Apollodorus is drawn upon. The methodologies employed to analyse this diverse material are eclectic but a comparative approach has been particularly productive. The comparative nature of this dissertation has allowed special Townemphasis to be placed on the relation between the human and divine worlds. The anthropomorphic nature of the Greek gods clearly allowed the mortal poets to superimposeCape their own conventions onto the divine realm. In sum this dissertation considers ofthe way social practices shape myth and are themselves perpetuated and sustained by myth. The tendency exhibited by the ancient Greeks to write about mythological happenings clearly allows them to explore alternative ways of life. These alternatives allowed them to explore in turn the consequencesUniversity of subverting the norm (as seen in the figure of Pandora). Paradoxically, while playing with these alternative and subversive possibilities, the myths, which we assume were composed by men, succeed in reinforcing these norms (take for example the Odyssey’s Penelope who represents an idealised version of how a woman was supposed to conduct herself). i Particular points of interest arise when non-divine conventions are not followed in the mythological representations of the anthropomorphic gods. Take for example the swaddling of Apollo – superficially, the poet seems to conform to the standard practices of antiquity but upon closer inspection we find that where the account diverges from the norms it serves to emphasise the divinity of the subject. Significantly this project has determined that there was a great emphasis placed on young men earning their place in society, while no such emphasis was placed on young girls or women. When women reached the appropriate age of marriage, they were simply transferred from their natal oikos as a parthenos to their marital oikos as a nymphē and upon giving birth to their first child became a gynē. This is very different to the manyTown stages a young man (and some gods) had to pass through to be considered an adult and a full member of the adult community. This is best illustrated by the secondCape chapter concerning the maturation of Hermes. It should be emphasised here that inof antiquity, as in our ‘modern’ era, the constructs of society were formed and maintained by adults. University ii Plagiarism Declaration 1. I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and to pretend that it is one’s own. 2. I have used the footnote convention for referencing and citation. Each significant contribution to, and quote in, this dissertation from the work, or works of other people has been acknowledged through reference and citation. Town 3. This dissertation is my own work. Cape 4. I have not allowed, and will not allow, ofanyone to copy my work with the intention of passing it off as his or her own work. 5. I have done the word processing and formatting of this assignment myself. I understand that correcting the formatting is part of the mark for this assignment and therefore it is University wrong for another person to do it for me. _______________________ _____________________ Signature Date iii UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES DECLARATION BY CANDIDATE FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES I, (name of candidate) Paula de Castro (PNTPAU002) of (address of candidate) Town 7 Bosch-en-dal; Kirstenhof; Cape Town; 7945 Cape do hereby declare that I empower the Universityof of Cape Town to produce for the purpose of research either the whole or any portion of the contents of my dissertation entitled: Divine childhood: A study of selected Homeric hymns in relation to ancient Greek societal practices. University in any manner whatsoever. ___________________________________ _______________________ Signature Date iv Introduction My purpose in undertaking this project was to explore the dynamic and curious nature of the accounts of birth and childhood in the myths of the Greek gods. The initial motivation behind this project was to investigate the interesting nature of divine births. In general terms, I noticed that some male gods were afforded the opportunity of a birth and/or childhood narrative, whilst most female gods (hereafter goddesses) were not. The study grew out of this curiosity into an inquiry into narratives of divine childhoods and what sociological and anthropological information can be extracted from them.1 An inquiry like this is valuable in its undertaking, combining both mythology and the evidence for actual antique practices to come up with a clearer picture of ancient society. This enhancedTown view of antiquity (combining both mythology and societal practices) will add to our understanding and view of the ancient world, hence the necessity of this type of inquiry.2 A study like this must however be undertaken with the utmost caution. First and foremostCape we need to acknowledge a number of hurdles and we must try to overcome them.of Some hurdles will be easier to surmount than others and whilst some cannot be overcome, they must either be circumvented or compensated for with the desire to move forward. As such, our first hurdleUniversity is the remote nature of Greek myth. The myths were created millennia ago, by a different society from our own, and to the modern reader are often foreign and usually seem bizarre. This remoteness also leaves us with the problem of how to approach or treat any available comparative material. My aim throughout the project is to explore the effects that the myths had on ancient Greek society and the influence ancient 1 Interestingly and importantly, we should note that childhood, as we know and understand it today is a construct which is both created and maintained by adults. The same can be said for the ancient view of childhood – all of our evidence comes from the adult members of the community. 2 There did exist in antiquity the concept of life stages, see the stages of life found in Aristotle and Hippocrates discussed by Marrou (1956), 102, but I shall be adopting a less precise and more flexible typology of childhood. 1 society exerted on the formation and use of the myths.3 The remoteness (and often fragmentary nature) of both the sources for mythological material and the evidence of contemporary society are immense problems. We also run into the issue of the extent to which the accounts (specifically the Homeric Hymns) are in fact shaped by ancient practices. Being poetic narratives, the hymns themselves tend to be very selective in what they do portray and as such they do not provide us with a full picture of the actual practices. However, there is still much to be done with the material we do have, in spite of its selective and fragmentary nature. In order to work within the limits of the problem, it is informative to supplement the hymns and other mythological accounts with epigraphic and other available material from the ancient world. The most fruitful way forward is to try our best to interpret the mythological account in conjunction with the ancient materialTown which has come down to us. Cape Our next hurdle is the obvious, pervasive, andof unavoidable gendered bias of the sources. The texts I will examine were created, composed, written and recorded by males.4 They were created for consumption by a predominantly male audience in a period of time when many roles in society were reserved for or dominated by males. For us, women rarely have a voice in this world, their Universitypoint of view is lost, and sadly, the same can and must be said for children. Whilst bearing this gendered bias in mind, it is extremely interesting to observe that in spite of the fact that women are without a doubt more important at certain stages of a person‟s life (for example at birth and during infancy and early childhood), it is still only the male point of view which is conveyed to us. Despite this problem, the sources are still viable 3 Greek mythology and the societies which both produced and consumed the mythology are delicately intertwined.