Hexametric Poetesses ante Homerum

Abstract

This paper discusses an issue relevant to the history of the Greek hexameter, that is, the female and oracular origins of the so-called heroic verse, which, according to Plutarch in De Pythiae oraculis (402d), was first heard in Delphi at the shrine of Earth. I am going to look at two hexametric poetesses ante Homerum, Phemonoe and Herophile. My analysis unfolds in three steps, and focuses on several passages in Pausanias’ book on Delphi and Phocis – our most important source for the oracular and female inception of hexameter. Firstly, in addressing the attribution of the invention of hexameter to Phemonoe, I dwell on the characterization of her hexametric oracular song as aeidein as well as on the notion of the hexameter as a product of technē (‘craft’). Secondly, I discuss why Phemonoe and Herophile can be deemed to have authored epos ante Homerum. Finally, I examine oracular silence as the very source of the oracle-myth surrounding the female invention of the hexametric verse.