Embodied Divinities and Divine Kings: Callimachus’ Subversive Portrayal of Zeus in the Hymn to Zeus and Hymn to Delos

Embodied Divinities and Divine Kings: Callimachus’ Subversive Portrayal of Zeus in the Hymn to Zeus and Hymn to Delos

     In depicting mothers giving birth to gods, Callimachus’ Hymn to Zeus (1) and Hymn to Delos (4) hint at problems arising from embodied divinity. Previous scholarship discusses Callimachus’ attention to corporality (Ambühl, Feeney), but sees these hymns as testimonies to divine concord (Petrovic): Brumbaugh reads the Hymns as drawing favorable comparisons with Ptolemaic kingship. I argue that Callimachus uses depictions of divine corporality to problematize both an anthropomorphized Zeus and Ptolemaic divine kingship, through references to Zeus’ birth, death, and sexual appetites. Hymn 1 elides Zeus’ birth, displacing it onto Gaia’s ‘birth’ of Arcadia’s rivers, yet repeatedly brings up the natural consequence of his earthly origin: death. Hymn 4 alludes to Asteria’s flight from Zeus’ attempted rape and portrays Leto’s wandering body as a stand-in for Asteria’s equally exhausted body: it thus hints at Zeus’ predilection for rape and the lack of self-control that often accompanies absolute power. These pointed omissions and additions create a problematic model for Ptolemaic divine kingship.

     Hymn 1 compresses Zeus’ birth into a euphemism (σ᾽ἐπεὶ μήτηρ μεγάλων ἀπεθήκατο κόλπων, 14), while describing the pregnant earth and her ‘birth’ of Arcadia’s rivers at lenth (17–32). Rhea tells Gaia to give birth and casts her effort as labor pangs before striking her open (“Γαῖα φίλη, τέκε καὶ σύ: τεαὶ δ᾽ὠδῖνες ἐλαφραί.” 29): Callimachus displaces Rhea’s pains onto the earth while alluding to her suffering. At the same time, he hints at Zeus’ death: he calls the Cretans liars because they built him a tomb (8–9), and Rhea’s speech (29) echoes Achilles’ address to Lycaon as he deals the fatal blow (Il. 21.106). By inserting allusions to death in a birth depicted as violent, Callimachus portrays Zeus paradoxically as an immortal being with an earthly birth.

     Hymn 4 draws parallels between pregnant Leto and the wandering island Asteria through Pindaric intertexts (Paean VIIb, XII): both women, fleeing Zeus’ attentions, wander unceasingly, exhausted (Schmiel). Inheriting this portrayal of Zeus from his sources, Callimachus glosses over the attempted rape of Asteria, saying she fled ‘marriage’ (φεύγουσα Διὸς γάμον, 38) and portraying her wanderings like an extended vacation (35–36, 46–50). Unlike his predecessors, he erases Zeus from the text and blames Leto’s plight on Hera (55–58). Yet he dwells on Leto’s tired body, which represents Asteria’s exhaustion (117–18, 209–11), and uses Pindar to connect Zeus’ rape victims, prompting the reader to fill in the gaps of Asteria’s backstory. By obliquely drawing attention to the violence caused by Zeus’ lack of self-control, Callimachus points to problems with the Ptolemaic model of divine authority.

     At the end of Hymn 1, Callimachus links Zeus with Ptolemy (85–88). However, just as he never describes Zeus’ attributes or deeds, he never praises Ptolemy directly, calling it impossible (92). Thus, he connects Ptolemy to a god whose deeds are unsung, whose embodiment he problematizes. Callimachus’ portrayal of Zeus in these hymns is not a simple bid for royal favor but a subversive and coded political commentary on divine kingship.