AR201 Study Guide - Sicyon, Greek Mythology, Homeric Hymns
22 Mar 2013
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Document Summary
The role of the trickster god in greek mythology. Example of trickery in the homeric hymn to demeter. Hades abducts persephone by tricking her with the help of zeus and gaea who produces a narcissus flower. Persephone"s mother demeter goes on a long search to find her daughter and eventually discovers what has happened. Zeus sends hermes to retrieve persephone from hades but hades tricks her into eating a pomegranate seed, forcing her to return to the underworld every year. Pomegranates symbolize fertility/marriage so by eating the seed, she becomes symbolically committed to hades. The underlying motive of this trick is to capture persephone as a bride for. Hades in order to unite the world with the underworld. Transformation was zeus"s favourite device for tricking and seducing women. Zeus transformed into the image of alcmene"s husband to seduce her and they produced herakles. Zeus appears as a golden shower to seduce danae and they produce perseus.
