καλλίσφυρος appears in the Hymn to Heracles the Lion-Hearted, where it has the same connotations and even refers to the same character it describes once in the Odyssey, to Hebe. The hymn begins with a summary of Heracles’ mortal career, his labors and sufferings, and then compares these with his translation to Olympos. The contrast is explicitly presented. The reference to his wanderings begins with ὃς πρὶν μὲν and is juxtaposed to the νῦν δ’ ἤδη which introduces the fact of his immortality:

This line is almost identical to Odyssey xi 603. And as in this passage in the Odyssey, Heracles’ union with Hebe is the symbol of his new state of existence. Hebe appears elsewhere in the Homeric Hymns, but only here does she bear this epithet. She is καλλίσφυρος only because she reflects Heracles’ entrance into the Olympian community.

The context and the connotations of the epithet are therefore identical to those in the Odyssey. It is the miraculous transformation from mortality to immortality that both passages deal with and that is in this case the central narrative and entire point of the hymn. It is only because Heracles became immortal that he is the object of the hymn at all. All of the Homeric Hymns address immortals; this is, in fact, the only hymn where the figure praised is acknowledged to have once been mortal. Heracles’ inclusion in this group emphasizes his hieratic importance.

There are other details which associate this appearance of the epithet with its other uses. Leda is a mortal consort of Zeus, seduced by him, and this fact recalls the stories of Marpessa and of Danae in the Iliad. And she, like Danae, gives birth to semi-divine children, a fact that creates a tension between the mortal and the immortal spheres. There are many resonances in this story with themes of the other passages discussed.

Leto is another consort of Zeus and mother of glorious offspring who bears the epithet καλλίσφυρος in the Homeric Hymns. In Hymn to Artemis (XXVII), the goddess travels to Delphi and together with the Muses and Graces sings about Leto:

In her union with an Olympian god she is like other recipients of the epithet. Unlike Leda, Danae or Marpessa, however, Leto is not a mortal, but a Titaness. There is no mingling of mortal and immortal, no tension between these two realms of existence. In this respect Leto does not fit into the pattern of the earlier examples.

If the opening lines of the Hymn to Artemis do allude to these circumstances, then some familiar macabre themes are implied in the use of the epithet. But in any case, Leto only appears as καλλίσφυρος in immediate connection with her giving birth; and it seems that the epithet usually appears in connection with sexual union or procreation.

There is only one character described as τανίσφυρος in the Homeric Hymns, and that is Persephone. This epithet is rarer than καλλίσφυρος and it appears not at all in Homer. But if it is true that σφυρόν has symbolic importance in the Iliad and that καλλίσφυρος has significance that is directly related to its root noun, it would make sense that τανίσφυρος, deriving from the same noun, have a similar symbolic importance for the context in which it appears. καλλίσφυρος and τανίσφυρος are not metrically equivalent epithets—the former begins with a short syllable, the latter with a long one—and this is an important fact. For if the two epithets do seem to have comparable connotations, this connection would indicate that the uses of the word are primarily motivated by thematic and not by metrical concerns.

The one hymn in which τανίσφυρος does appear makes this connection clear. For the story of Persephone seems to combine and emphasize all the thematic strands of the preceding examples, both in the Hymns and in the Iliad and Odyssey—themes of rape, sexuality, reproduction and death. Certainly Persephone’s plight and Demeter’s subsequent sufferings are archetypal embodiments of sexual and eschatological themes. Persephone is raped by an Olympian god, the infernal variant of Zeus, the god of death itself. And she is forced to live half her life in an alien realm, in the very kingdom of death. She is not naturally an infernal deity, but has the constant vision and experience of death before her. τανίσφυρος describes Persephone twice in the single work, and this recurrence suggests that the epithet is not used incidentally and that it is emblematic of the broad themes of the poem.

It is clear why her story is the most explicit illustration of all the themes evoked in the passages discussed above and why the suggested symbolism of τανίσφυρος is appropriate to her. Yet it is not only the general themes but also the specific contexts in which the epithet appears in the Hymn to Demeter that support this view, for it appears in significant points in the narrative.

It first occurs in the opening lines of the hymn, where the poet establishes the basic story and identifies the chief figures of the poem:

The crucial facts are all stated, and one of them is that Persephone is τανίσφυρος.

The other appearance of τανίσφυρος is in Helios’ report to Demeter about her daughter’s fate:

τανίσφυρος refers to the same character as it did earlier, but it appears here with another noun. In line 2 it qualifies θύγατρα, while here it qualifies παιδὶ, a word of different metrical value from the first. This discrepancy suggests that it is the character and her situation, and not metrical exigencies, that prompt the use of the epithet.

This second appearance of the epithet is, moreover, in a particularly significant passage. Helios’ report is a turning point in the story, finally informing Demeter of her daughter’s mysterious fate. It is also important because it is the only eyewitness account of events. The poet has narrated what happened to Persephone, but Helios is the only one who actually saw it all, the only good authority. The importance of the difference between hearing and seeing, the significance of witnessing an event, is repeatedly emphasized in the lines preceding Helios’ speech. Hecate, for example, tells Demeter that she heard Persephone’s cries but did not see her rape (57–58). Similarly, ten lines later, Demeter explains to Helios that she too heard the cries, but saw nothing. She contrasts her situation with Helios’ power of sight (67–73). He is the best source of knowledge because he can see everything. Consequently he begins his account with the ponderous εἰδήσεις (76).

Additional evidence of the importance of τανίσφυρος is Demeter’s appearance as καλλίσφυρος toward the end of the same poem. If its use is similar to the use of τανίσφυρος, a blatant parallel would emerge, confirming the connection between the two epithets that the use of τανίσφυρος in the passages about Persephone imply.

In these lines καλλίσφυρος appears once again in a morbid context, in an image of barrenness and lifelessness. For the deathlike pall that Demeter casts on the land is but a reaction to and parallel of Persephone’s descent into Hades. Demeter identifies herself with her daughter’s experience of death.

This description appears, however, in a context of resurrection, in the passage where Zeus decides that Persephone be freed partially from Hades, that she need live there only a third of each year. Consequently, Demeter reacts by resurrecting the land, further mirroring and identifying with her daughter’s fate. The τότε γ’ of the barrenness is contrasted with αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα and with an anticipatory description of the earth’s renewed vigor. This description immediately follows καλλίσφυρος, beginning a new sentence and new idea in the same line. This style is unusual in the hymns and seems to emphasize the contrast and the dramatic, abrupt change from lifelessness to fruitfulness. καλλίσφυρος stands in between the two images and seems associated with both ideas. It once again implies a tension between death and life and the possibility of rebirth. The vivid contrast presented is reminiscent of the passages about Ino and Heracles.

The myth of Persephone as presented in the Hymn to Demeter is the most explicit expression of the themes that are implied, in various ways, in the passages both in the other Hymns and in Homer where the epithets appear. And the use of the two epithets in this hymn confirms that there is between them a thematic connection regardless of their metrical difference, one their common root suggests and the similar connotations of their uses elsewhere imply.