GGC History Geography and the Greek Gods and Goddesses Essay
Composed orally sometime in the 7th-6th centuries BCE, the Homeric Hymns are anonymous worship poems. Each poem celebrates a different god or goddess, and often tells the story of how that divinity came to be associated with a particular cult site and/or function. As a result, these hymns are an excellent primary source for Greek religion.
Resources:
- Homeric Hymn to Hermes: http://go.owu.edu/~rlelias/hermes.htm
- Homeric Hymn to Apollo: https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6294.8-the-homeric-hymn-to-apollo-translated-by-rodney-merrill
- Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite: https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5293
- Homeric Hymn to Demeter: https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/5292
- Homeric Hymn to Dionysus: https://chs.harvard.edu/CHS/article/display/6467
Regardless of the option that you select, please make sure that your essay has a clear introduction with a thesis statement/argument, body paragraphs that use specific examples to prove aspects of your thesis statement, and a conclusion that considers the big-picture implications of your argument for the study of history and geography of ancient civilizations.
Instructions
Based on your reading of TWO of the Homeric Hymns, please write a paper addressing ONE of the following questions:
Do the Homeric Hymns about male gods seem different from those about female goddesses? If so, what are the differences that you have noticed? What do you think that we can deduce from these differences as historians of Greek religion?
What is the role of Zeus in the lives of his divine sons? What can we learn from this about the general nature of the gods’ relationships with each other?
What is the connection between the gods and specific geographical locations in the Greek world?
