Hope Ladd (Hillsdale University)
This paper analyzes and reevaluates both the grammatical interpretation and the conceptual significance of the adverb λάθρῃ (literally “secretly”) as it occurs in line 372 of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, a passage which describes Hades’ giving of the pomegranate seed to Persephone in the underworld. Many possible translations have been previously offered, such as “secretly,” (Sikes, 1904), “stealthily” (Foley, 1994), and “surreptitiously” (West, 2003), with the idea that Persephone was unaware that Hades was giving her the fruit. Further, there is debate over whether the word should be understood to describe Hades’ act of giving at all. John Myres (1938) argued that the adverb should be construed with the nebulous phrase ἀμφὶ ἓ νωμήσας (“passing/rubbing it secretly about himself”), in a secret ritualistic performance, rather than with the verb ἔδωκε, while Campbell Bonner (1939) responded with his own interpretation of construing λάθρῃ with both ἀμφὶ ἓ νωμήσας and ἔδωκε, concluding that Hades’ entire interaction with the pomegranate seed went unnoticed by Persephone.
Given the lack of consensus surrounding the understanding and interpretation of λάθρῃ in the Hymn to Demeter, this paper offers a reevaluation of the use and meaning of the term, arguing that it does in fact refer to Hades’ act of giving and should be grammatically construed with ἔδωκε, and that the meaning of λάθρῃ itself should be generally understood in its figurative sense as “treacherously” but that its meaning is slightly altered depending on the character through whom the word is focalized.
The argument proceeds by exploring other occurrences of the λάθρῃ in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Since the Homeric Hymns were self-consciously composed in the style of Homer (see Jenny Strauss Clay, Politics of Olympus), an exploration of λάθρῃ as it occurs in the Homeric epics brings a fuller and more nuanced understanding to its use in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. The Homeric uses of λάθρῃ fall generally into three contexts: descriptions of illicit sex, of treacherous murder, and of theft. Through discussions of each of these groups and readings of the relevant passages from the Iliad and the Odyssey, this paper contends that the use of λάθρῃ in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter contains all three of these connotations, as the giving of the pomegranate to Persephone foreshadows her sexual union with Hades, ensures her return to the land of the dead, and represents a “theft” of Persephone from her proper place with her mother. The paper concludes with the proposition of “treacherously” as a translation of λάθρῃ that reflects all three of these connotations, and with the suggestion that an understanding of Hades’ actions as treacherous casts a critical light on the plan of Zeus to unite his brother with Persephone.