Afterwards comes the text with the apparatus and, finally, the detailed commentary on single passages. This is then followed by a section on the problem of the date and place of composition and one on the transmission of the text. The book begins with an introduction focusing on two important themes of the poem, reflection on music and poetry, and humor, which is followed by a section on the linguistic parallels between the Hymn and other works (Homer, Hesiod, and the other Homeric Hymns) it ends with a useful assessment of the relations between the Hymn and other versions of the same stories by coeval and later authors. 2 Vergados has undertaken this task with incomparable competence and produced a work that is due to become fundamental for students of archaic epic poetry. 1 After Faulkner’s publication of his commentary on the Hymn to Aphrodite (followed by another by Olson), the Hymn to Hermes was the only one among the four major Hymns still lacking a detailed analysis. This long and much-awaited commentary to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes is an excellent product of the revival of studies on the Homeric Hymns that has appeared in the last decade.
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