HYMN TO ARES

IT is evident that this hymn is quite removed from the style and tone of the other hymns in the collection. Ruhnken, Hermann, and a large majority of the older scholars assigned it a place among the Orphic poems. Matthiae, indeed, thought it to be nearer akin to the philosophic works of Cleanthes and Proclus; and parts of the hymn seem to shew the influence of the latter poet (see on 6, 10). Recent students of the Orphica refuse to class it in the Orphic category (Maass Orpheus p. 198, Abel Hom. Hymns p. 91, who dates it as in or after the age of Nonnus, Adami p. 223 f.). The accumulation of epithets is of course a marked characteristic of the Orphic school; but it is pointed out that this feature is not confined to the Orphica (Maass and Adami, l.c.; see on h. Dem. 18). There is, however, little or nothing in the hymn to distinguish it from the acknowledged works of the Orphics; as Gemoll remarks, the first half is exactly in their style, and the prayer that Ares may remove κακότης is really a prayer for peace, similar to that in Orph. h. lxv (see on 12, 16). The inference is that the writer, if not a genuine Orphic, was at least steeped in the literature of that sect.

The cause which led to the inclusion of this hymn among Homeric poems is by no means evident. According to one view, the compiler of the collection was ignorant of the very plain distinction between an Orphic and an Homeric hymn. In this case Gemoll argues that the present form of the collection must belong to a very late age; for the Alexandrines, who knew some of the short hymns, would have had more critical acumen than to confuse the two kinds of hymns, even if the hymn to Ares were not later than the Alexandrine period. According to another theory, the presence of the hymn is caused by the juxtaposition of Homeric and Orphic poems in a manuscript, which led to the misplacement of one hymn.

If the presence of the hymn is not due to this purely accidental cause, the compiler of the collection must have had some reason for the choice of this particular hymn. It may be suggested that he was influenced by mythological considerations. The cult of Ares was of so little importance, that it would not be surprising if no genuine Homeric prelude in honour of the god were ready to hand. The compiler, however, may have been anxious that his collection should not lack mythological completeness; he was therefore compelled to search further afield for recognition of Ares' claims. On this supposition, it is not necessary to argue that he was destitute of critical ability; he may have allowed a sense of religious obligation to outweigh literary fitness.

brisa/rmate: of Ares, Scut. 441.