The Homeric Hymns | Page 9

the Odyssey. Myths contained all
conceivable elements, among others that of humour, to which the poet
here abandons himself. The statues and symbols of Hermes were
inviolably sacred; as Guide of Souls he played the part of comforter
and friend: he brought men all things lucky and fortunate: he made the
cattle bring forth abundantly: he had the golden wand of wealth. But he
was also tricksy as a Brownie or as Puck; and that fairy aspect of his
character and legend, he being the midnight thief whose maraudings
account for the unexplained disappearances of things, is the chief topic
of the gay and reckless hymn. Even the Gods, even angry Apollo, are
moved to laughter, for over sport and playfulness, too, Greek religion
throws her sanction. At the dishonesties of commerce (clearly regarded
as a form of theft) Hermes winks his laughing eyes (line 516). This is
not an early Socialistic protest against "Commercialism." The early
traders, like the Vikings, were alternately pirates and hucksters, as
opportunity served. Every occupation must have its heavenly patron, its
departmental deity, and Hermes protects thieves and raiders, "minions
of the moon," "clerks of St. Nicholas." His very birth is a stolen thing,
the darkling fruit of a divine amour in a dusky cavern. Il chasse de race.
{39}

THE HYMN TO APHRODITE
The Hymn to Aphrodite is, in a literary sense, one of the most beautiful
and quite the most Homeric in the collection. By "Homeric" I mean that
if we found the adventure of Anchises occurring at length in the Iliad,
by way of an episode, perhaps in a speech of AEneas, it would not
strike us as inconsistent in tone, though occasionally in phrase. Indeed
the germ of the Hymn occurs in Iliad, B. 820: "AEneas, whom holy
Aphrodite bore to the embraces of Anchises on the knowes of Ida, a

Goddess couching with a mortal." Again, in E. 313, AEneas is spoken
of as the son of Aphrodite and the neat-herd, Anchises. The celebrated
prophecy of the future rule of the children of AEneas over the Trojans
(Y. 307), probably made, like many prophecies, after the event, appears
to indicate the claim of a Royal House at Ilios, and is regarded as of
later date than the general context of the epic. The AEneid is
constructed on this hint; the Romans claiming to be of Trojan descent
through AEneas. The date of the composition cannot be fixed from
considerations of the Homeric tone; thus lines 238-239 may be a
reminiscence of Odyssey, [Greek text]. 394, and other like suggestions
are offered. {41} The conjectures as to date vary from the time of
Homer to that of the Cypria, of Mimnermus (the references to the
bitterness of loveless old age are in his vein) of Anacreon, or even of
Herodotus and the Tragedians. The words [Greek text], [Greek text],
and other indications are relied on for a late date: and there are obvious
coincidences with the Hymn to Demeter, as in line 174, Demeter 109, f.
Gemoll, however, takes this hymn to be the earlier.
About the place of composition, Cyprus or Asia Minor, the learned are
no less divided than about the date. Many of the grounds on which their
opinions rest appear unstable. The relations of Aphrodite to the wild
beasts under her wondrous spell, for instance, need not be borrowed
from Circe with her attendant beasts. If not of Homer's age, the Hymn
is markedly successful as a continuation of the Homeric tone and
manner.
Modern Puritanism naturally "condemns" Aphrodite, as it "condemns"
Helen. But Homer is lenient; Helen is under the spell of the Gods, an
unwilling and repentant tool of Destiny; and Aphrodite, too, is driven
by Zeus into the arms of a mortal. She is [Greek text], shamefast; and
her adventure is to her a bitter sorrow (199, 200). The dread of
Anchises--a man is not long of life who lies with a Goddess--refers to a
belief found from Glenfinlas to Samoa and New Caledonia, that the
embraces of the spiritual ladies of the woodlands are fatal to men. The
legend has been told to me in the Highlands, and to Mr. Stevenson in
Samoa, while my cousin, Mr. J. J. Atkinson, actually knew a Kaneka
who died in three days after an amour like that of Anchises. The Breton

ballad, Le Sieur Nan, turns on the same opinion. The amour of Thomas
the Rhymer is a mediaeval analogue of the Idaean legend.
Aphrodite has better claims than most Greek Gods to Oriental elements.
Herodotus and Pausanias (i. xiv. 6, iii. 23, I) look on her as a being first
worshipped by the Assyrians, then by the Paphians of Cyprus, and
Phoenicians at Askelon, who communicated the cult to the Cythereans.
Cyprus is one of