Indo-European Poetry and Myth

OCCASIONS AND GENRES

Hymns and praise poetry

The Homeric singer existed to tell forth ‘the doings of men and gods’ (Od.

1. 338). Having listened to the bard Lomahars
   ̇

an

̇

a, the chieftain S ́aunaka knew
‘the celestial tales, the tales of gods and Asuras, all the tales of men and snakes
and Gandharvas’ (MBh. 1. 4. 4). Whether or not these phrases represent
a Graeco-Aryan formula, the celebration of gods and men is not a bad
summary of the Indo-European poet’s principal obligations. The gods had
to be addressed and hymned in worthy style, and it was naturally for the
professional exponent of the verbal arts to compose the words. But it was not
the gods who gave him his daily bread and his gifts of horses and cows. It
was the mortal king or noble at whose court he performed, and he too
required the poet’s praises.
As this king or noble was usually the patron of the sacrifice as well as of the
poet, it often happened that he and the gods received their eulogies on the
same occasion. Many of the Vedic hymns include praise of the patron. At
the As ́vamedha, as described in the S ́atapatha Bra ̄hman
̇

a (13. 1. 5. 6, 4. 2–3),
priestly singers performed during the sacrifice and lauded the prince’s
sacrifices and liberality, and later in the evening the royal bard, accompanied
on a zither or lute, ‘sings three stanzas composed by himself (on such topics
as) “Such war he waged, –– Such battle he won” ’(13. 4. 3. 5, trs. J. Eggeling).
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, like the other hymns in the collection,
contains no explicit reference to living persons, but it is generally inferred,
from the narrative of the goddess’s seduction of Anchises and the prediction
of unending rule for his descendants in the Troad, that it was composed to
glorify and please these claimed descendants; it may have been performed at
an Aphrodite festival instituted by them.
The hymn to the god or gods was typically of an invocatory nature. The
poet invited him or them to come and participate in the ceremony,
and prayed for blessings. We shall consider the characteristic ingredients of
hymnic poetry in more detail in Chapter 8. For the moment let us note only
that it could contain a narrative element, a recital of the deity’s mythical
exploits or of some particular exploit. This is something found in the Rigveda,
especially in hymns to Indra and to the As ́vins, and in more extended form in
all the longer Homeric Hymns.
There is an intrinsic connection between praise poetry and narrative,
and this applies also to the eulogy of mortals. It is not enough just to list
the honorand’s virtues. He wants to be famed for specific achievements,

1. Poet and Poesy 63