Nursling of Mortality

This most Homeric of the Homeric Hymns, a product of the final stage of the Greek oral epic tradition, tells the story of Aphrodite's seduction of Anchises. The poem has received increasing attention in recent years; but much about the character of the myth it presents, about the structure and technique of its narrative, and about its poet's intentions remains disputed or unclear. In this study Smith argues, in a detailed explication of the poem, that its guiding concern is with the limits of mortality and that it uses Anchises' story as a myth of evaluation, one which is centered on the opposition of gods and mortals and which, after presenting mythical alterations of our normal lifetime (in the persons of Ganymede and Tithonos), ends by implicitly recommending the continuity of the family as the best means of extending our life.