Organizing the 'Homeric Hymns'

In this paper there is an attempt to show (against the communis opinio) that the Homeric Hymns are an organized collection. The first structuring principle is variation in the length of the texts (large, short and middle hymns). More surprising, the texts also seem to be arranged according to the nature of their middle section (narrative, not narrative, not entirely narrative). This second principle is so consistently employed that the possibility of a mere coincidence seems to be excluded. The evidence of Menander Rhetor (333,2-334, 14) leads the author of this paper to think that the ancient critics may have been in a position to classify the hymns according to the principles being discussed.