Kathryn Caliva (Hollins University)
Gods deceive mortals and each other throughout Greek literature, even in contexts that are meant to show them in the best light, such as the hymns composed to praise them. In this paper, I examine examples of divine lies in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, and I demonstrate that persuasion and deception illustrate a god’s power and essential nature, which are the focus of each hymn’s sequence of words and deeds (Clay). As I argue in this paper, the “words” portion of this narrative sequence is a sophisticated system of speech acts that are sometimes less than truthful but always demonstrative of a god’s ability to accomplish their goals through speech.
The fact that the gods lie in the Homeric Hymns has not gone unnoticed. Hermes’ half-truths (Heiden), disguises (Berglund), and near perjury (Fletcher) have been considered as part of the praise of a divine trickster who is eager to gain entry into the Olympian hierarchy (Clay, Greene, Vergados) and to skillfully manipulate speech (Knudsen). Although Aphrodite’s disguise and lies have received somewhat less attention, they too have been explicated as a demonstration of the goddess’ power (Cyrino), as well as her place in the pantheon and heroic lineages (Clay, Faulkner). This paper is in dialogue with these scholars and focuses on how divine deceptions further demonstrate the praiseworthy aspects of the gods through efficacious speech. In both of these hymns, the divine protagonists make false assertions that emphasize their particular skills, as well as their general power to accomplish great feats.
In the first part of this paper, I establish the methodology used for the analysis, which is rooted in speech act theory and epistemology (Searle, Fallis). Throughout the paper, I use this methodology to demonstrate that not all lies are speech acts that have deception as the primary objective. Rather, both Hermes and Aphrodite have goals beyond deception when they make false assertions, goals which they accomplish through the performance of their speech acts. In part two, I argue that Hermes exerts a perlocutionary force on the audiences of his speech acts that has very little to do with these audiences believing his lies. Specifically, when Hermes asserts his innocence in the presence of Zeus, he is engaging in a bonding strategy that is meant to demonstrate his skills at trickery and speech, and thereby obtain honors, rather than to convince Zeus that he is, in fact, innocent. In part three, I analyze Aphrodite’s lie to the mortal Anchises and argue that her verbal and non-verbal deceptions provide Anchises with a reasonable degree of credence that permits him to enter into a relationship with the goddess without fear, but do not actually persuade the mortal that the goddess’ false assertions are true.
Taken together, the lies uttered by Hermes and Aphrodite demonstrate how divine lies in the Homeric Hymns function as speech acts that exert a perlocutionary force beyond deception and highlight the praiseworthy aspects of each god.