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The hero visits the dead during his adventures and otherwise undergoes
presumed death, so far as his loved ones on Ithaca are concerned,
and a symbolic one as well. That the Odyssey-poet was
mindful of Persephone's “death" an exchange where both Odysseus
and Anticleia mention Persephone (11.213—214 and 217), the
mother instructs and sends her son back to life and wife.
Slightly longer Hymn No. 30 attributes to Earth-Mother of All
universal power of life and death, of nourishment on land and sea,
to grant prosperity (or its opposite) and fertility of crops cattle and
human progeny, to household and polis. Therefore, festivity and
dances express the joy of mortals whom Earth favors and honor her
(13—16). Her favor, in fact, describes the blessings Odysseus receives
in two respects, his own survival and return, but also the
bounty of his herds and orchards during his long absence from his
island kingdom. Joyful dances of the Odyssey, however, at 8.250—
384 and 23.133—152 and 297—298 accompanied by the “bards"
(Èoidoå) Demodocus and Phemius, respectively, are rather inspired
by Apollo and the Muses, whom we consider below. All happens
under the general supervision of Athena, of course, who has arranged
Odysseus' cordial reception on rich and fertile Scheria, where
she appears to be the only goddess actually worshiped, and his victorious
homecoming and happy reunions on Ithaca, where she is
often at work.
APOLLO (Hymns 3 and 21; also 25 to the Muses and Apollo,
9 and 27 to his sister Artemis, 16 to his son Asclepius,
and 24 to Hestia)
The compendious narration of No. 3 takes the god from his
birth on Delos to his conquest of Delphi and his oracular cult's
establishment there, his proud mother Leto's son, his father Zeus'
ally, and counselor to mortal men. This long text, whose unity,
duality, or multiplicity does not concern us here, introduces him as
divine archer, lyre-playing musician, and prophet. In all three of
these capacities he is an important collaborator of Odysseus in the
Odyssey, where he himself wields a deadly bow (what he does
nowhere in the Iliad), tells the stories of the Trojan War and his
subsequent adventures like an accomplished bard (no trace of this,
either, in the other epic), and even plays the prophet: solemn prognosticator
(14.151—164 and 19.303—307), warner of divine retribution
(18.130—150), and dream interpreter (19.555—558). 15 Moreover,
Apollo's trip on a hijacked Cretan ship, which passes near
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