This paper aims to prove that Priam's journey to Achilles' quarters in Iliad 24 is depicted at several points as a journey to Hades. The catabatic coloring of the episode has been sometimes acknowledged, but never systematically studied. The assumption that Homer's audience recognized some clear allusions to the tales of heroic descents to Hades offers a number of possibilities for exploration. Not only are several passages shown to have deeper poetic meaning in this light, but Homer's use of traditional themes and his aesthetic and ideological competition with other epic traditions are also illuminated by this case study.
Los ataques contra los misterios griegos que lanza Clemente de Alejandría en Protr. II 12-22 son una fuente principal de conocimiento de los cultos mistéricos, especialmente de Dioniso y Deméter. La idea errónea de que Clemente los conocía por propia experiencia ha impedido hasta ahora el estudio en profundidad de sus fuentes librescas: un tratado sobre los misterios que a su vez toma como base un poema órfico. Este estudio trata de establecer el contenido mitográfico y ritual del tratado y del poema; fija su origen y datación aproximados; e indaga las relaciones del texto clementino con otros testimonios helenísticos y tardoantiguos. The accusations against Greek mysteries made by Clement of Alexandria in Protr. II 12-22 are a main source for our knowledge of ancient mystery cults, specially those of Dionysus and Demeter. The mistaken assumption that Clement knew them through his own experience has hitherto prevented a thorough study of his bookish sources: a treatise on mysteries which is itself based on an Orphic poem. This paper aims to establish the mythographical and ritual contents of the treatise and the poem; it fixes their approximate origin and date of composition; and it examines the relations of Clement's text with other evidence from Hellenistic Age and Late Antiquity.
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