Table of Contents

List of IllustrationsPreface and AcknowledgmentsPt. 1The Text and Translation, Commentary, and Background1Text and Translation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter2Commentary on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter28Background: The Eleusinian Mysteries and Women's Rites for Demeter65Pt. 2Interpretive Essay on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter77Interpreting the Hymn to Demeter83The "Theology" Of the Mysteries84Variants of the Myth and the Importance of the Version in the Hymn to Demeter97Female Experience in the Hymn to Demeter103Marriage104Gender Conflict and the Cosmological Tradition112The Mother/Daughter Romance118The Psychology of the Mysteries137The Hymn to Demeter and the Polis142Christianity and the Hymn to Demeter150The Influence of the Hymn to Demeter and Its Myth151App. Eleusis and Athens169App. The Hymn to Demeter as a Panhellenic Poem175Pt. 3Further Interpretation: Contributed Articles179Withdrawal and Return: An Epic Story Pattern in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and in the Homeric Poems181Some Functions of the Demophoon Episode in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter190Concerning the Homeric Hymn to Demeter198Politics and Pomegranates: An Interpretation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter212Family Structure and Feminine Personality243Bibliography267Index Locorum283General Index289

About the Author

Helene P. Foley is Olin Professor of Classics at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is author of Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides, coauthor of Women in the
Classical World: Image and Text, and editor of Reflections of Women in Antiquity.

Reviews

"Foley synthesizes important insights of the articles she reprints and of much other scholarship besides, and builds on them to construct a comprehensive and persuasive reading of her own."--William G. Thalmann, Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Foley's book is the first full-length study in English of the Hymn... It is a welcome and much-needed work... Foley's analysis of the Hymn is an excellent demonstration of how it can be interpreted in the light of the [Eleusinian] Mysteries."--Ann C. Suter, New England Classical Newsletter and Journal "Foley's attempt to connect the psychological, cosmological, and theological themes in the Hymn is her greatest success."--Victoria Pedrick, The Classical Journal