Los himnos homéricos cortos y las plegarias cultuales

Abstract

Traditionally, the attempt to determine the function of the shorter Homeric hymns and to ascribe them to a precise literary genre was accomplished mostly through internal analysis and the examination of the secondary sources. In this paper I will try to argue for the need to compare these poems with other literary manifestations exhibiting comparable elements. This way, we are immediately led to noticing the similarities between the above and the genre of the cultual prayers and the archaic proemia. Once I have established: a) the relation between the short Hymns and the prayers, and b) the proemiatic character that can be assigned to at least some of these Hymns, I will try to determine the occasion on which they were performed and, in the case of the proemiatic Hymns, what kind of work or performance they would introduce. Finally, the theogonic nature of these Hymns will be briefly discussed.