The Sound of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter

What is it about?

The soundscape of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, can be divided into two layers: the soundscape within the narrative and the soundscape of the poem as it would have been performed and perceived by ancient audiences. Built upon the foundation of its creation and performance as an oral tradition that evolved into a written tradition, this paper examines how the Homeric Hymn to Demeter could reflect the sonic environment of its own performance. In turn, it argues that the prosodic structure of the poem, and in particular the patterns of intonation encoded within the text’s accentuation, when heard through the performance of the Hymn, could trigger specific memories/emotions/reactions from the audience and by reconstructing elements of these triggers it may be possible to access the cultural memory of the aural history of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter.

Featured Image