Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

When King Demetrios Poliorketes returned to Athens from Kerkyra in 291, the Athenians welcomed him with a processional song, the text of which has long been recognized as one of the most interesting sources for Hellenistic ruler cult:How the greatest and dearest of the gods have come to the city! For the hour has brought together Demeter and Demetrios; she comes to celebrate the solemn mysteries of the Kore, while he is here full of joy, as befits the god, fair and laughing. His appearance is majestic, his friends all around him and he in their midst, as though they were stars and he the sun. Hail son of the most powerful god Poseidon and Aphrodite.(Douris FGrH 76 F13, cf. Demochares FGrH 75 F2, both at Athen. 6.253b-f; trans. as Austin 35)Had only the first lines of this ritual song survived, the modern reader would notice the assimilation of the adventus of a mortal king with that of a divinity, the etymological association of his name with that of Demeter, the parentage of mighty gods, and the external features of a divine ruler (joy, beauty, majesty). Very often scholars reach their conclusions about aspects of ancient mentality on the basis of a fragment; and very often – unavoidably – they conceive only a fragment of reality. Fortunately, in this case the rest of the hymn is preserved:For the other gods are either far away, or they do not have ears, or they do not exist, or ... log in or subscribe to read full text