Language Use and Iconicity in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (182–206): Meter and Poetics, Orality and Storytelling

Abstract

The beginning of the so-called Pythian movement of the Homeric Hymn to Apollo presents a song-and-dance scene of Apollo and certain deities on Mount Olympus. Thanks to some formal and poetic features, such as ring composition, verses 182–206 consist of a narrative core which exhibits the cognitive linguistic feature of iconicity, namely the circular shape. This epic passage (HHAp 182–206) is then investigated in the frame of oral literature, comparative Indo-European poetics and formal poetic analysis. The text presents awkwardness in meter and diction, which are argued as being a precise “intent” of the poet (Werner Knobl). Nevertheless, the passage exhibits a precise composition and aims to celebrate Apollo’s kleos through his Oracle at Delphi.