CL 222 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Iambe, Homeric Hymns, Kykeon
Document Summary
Demeter attributes on coin: wheat stalks and poppy: torch symbolizes mystery. Homeric hymn to demeter: girls gathering flowers. Sees flower (narcissus flower) on very edge of the meadow and picks it. Ground splits open and hades comes out of ground (death) and grabs persephone; she screams: liminal places. Edge between one kind of place and another kind of place. Uncultivated vs. cultivated: flower-gathering festivals = girls soon to be married. Metaphor for what is happening to the young girl at that moment (blooming flowers themselves; becoming deflowered: europa (phoenicia, crete) Europa in liminal place (by seashore) and is picking flowers. Bull comes to grab her and take her away to crete: narcissus flower. She picks the flower and when she picks the flower hades appears and death swallows her after he takes the flower from her. Catullus (roman poet) 1st century bc: tell her not to expect my love anymore.