Footnotes
*001 sc. in Boeotia, Locris and Thessaly: elsewhere the movement
was forced and unfruitful.
*002 The extant collection of three poems, "Works and Days",
"Theogony", and "Shield of Heracles", which alone have come
down to us complete, dates at least from the 4th century
A.D.: the title of the Paris Papyrus (Bibl. Nat. Suppl. Gr.
1099) names only these three works.
*003 "Der Dialekt des Hesiodes", p. 464: examples are AENEMI (W.
and D. 683) and AROMENAI (ib. 22).
*004 T. W. Allen suggests that the conjured Delian and Pythian
hymns to Apollo ("Homeric Hymns" III) may have suggested
this version of the story, the Pythian hymn showing strong
continental influence.
*005 She is said to have given birth to the lyrist Stesichorus.
*006 See Kinkel "Epic. Graec. Frag." i. 158 ff.
*007 See "Great Works", frag. 2.
*008 "Hesiodi Fragmenta", pp. 119 f.
*009 Possibly the division of this poem into two books is a
division belonging solely to this `developed poem’, which
may have included in its second part a summary of the Tale
of Troy.
*010 Goettling’s explanation.
*011 x. 1. 52
*012 Odysseus appears to have been mentioned once only- and
that casually- in the "Returns".
*013 M.M. Croiset note that the "Aethiopis" and the "Sack" were
originally merely parts of one work containing lays (the
Amazoneia, Aethiopis, Persis, etc.), just as the "Iliad"
contained various lays such as the Diomedeia.
*014 No date is assigned to him, but it seems likely that he was
either contemporary or slightly earlier than Lesches.
*015 Cp. Allen and Sikes, "Homeric Hymns" p. xv. In the text I
have followed the arrangement of these scholars, numbering
the Hymns to Dionysus and to Demeter, I and II respectively:
to place "Demeter" after "Hermes", and the Hymn to Dionysus
at the end of the collection seems to be merely perverse.
*016 "Greek Melic Poets", p. 165.
*017 Cp. Marckscheffel, "Hesiodi fragmenta", p. 35. The papyrus
fragment recovered by Petrie ("Petrie Papyri", ed. Mahaffy,
p. 70, No. xxv.) agrees essentially with the extant
document, but differs in numerous minor textual points.
*018 See Schubert, "Berl. Klassikertexte" v. 1.22 ff.; the other
papyri may be found in the publications whose name they bear.
*019 Unless otherwise noted, all MSS. are of the 15th century.
*020 That is, the poor man’s fare, like `bread and cheese’.
*021 The All-endowed.
*022 The jar or casket contained the gifts of the gods mentioned
in l.82.
*023 Eustathius refers to Hesiod as stating that men sprung `from
oaks and stones and ashtrees’. Proclus believed that the
Nymphs called Meliae ("Theogony", 187) are intended.
Goettling would render: `A race terrible because of their
(ashen) spears.’
*024 Preserved only by Proclus, from whom some inferior MSS. have
copied the verse. The four following lines occur only in
Geneva Papyri No. 94. For the restoration of ll. 169b-c see
"Class. Quart." vii. 219-220.
*025 i.e. the race will so degenerate that at the last even a
new-born child will show the marks of old age.
*026 Aidos, as a quality, is that feeling of reverence or shame
which restrains men from wrong: Nemesis is the feeling of
righteous indignation aroused especially by the sight of the
wicked in undeserved prosperity (cf. "Psalms", lxxii. 1-19).
*027 The alternative version is: `and, working, you will be much
better loved both by gods and men; for they greatly dislike
the idle.’
*028 i.e. neighbours come at once and without making
preparations, but kinsmen by marriage (who live at a
distance) have to prepare, and so are long in coming.
*029 Early in May.
*030 In November.
*031 In October.
*032 For pounding corn.
*033 A mallet for breaking clods after ploughing.
*034 The loaf is a flattish cake with two intersecting lines
scored on its upper surface which divide it into four equal
parts.
*035 The meaning is obscure. A scholiast renders `giving eight
mouthfulls’; but the elder Philostratus uses the word in
contrast to `leavened’.
*036 About the middle of November.
*037 Spring is so described because the buds have not yet cast
their iron-grey husks.
*038 In December.
*039 In March.
*040 The latter part of January and earlier part of February.
*041 i.e. the octopus or cuttle.
*042 i.e. the darker-skinned people of Africa, the Egyptians or
Aethiopians.
*043 i.e. an old man walking with a staff (the `third leg’- as
in the riddle of the Sphinx).
*044 February to March.
*045 i.e. the snail. The season is the middle of May.
*046 In June.
*047 July.
*048 i.e. a robber.
*049 September.
*050 The end of October.
*051 That is, the succession of stars which make up the full
year.
*052 The end of October or beginning of November.
*053 July-August.
*054 i.e. untimely, premature. Juvenal similarly speaks of
`cruda senectus’ (caused by gluttony).
*055 The thought is parallel to that of `O, what a goodly outside
falsehood hath.’
*056 The `common feast’ is one to which all present subscribe.
Theognis (line 495) says that one of the chief pleasures of
a banquet is the general conversation. Hence the present
passage means that such a feast naturally costs little,
while the many present will make pleasurable conversation.
*057 i.e. `do not cut your finger-nails’.
*058 i.e. things which it would be sacrilege to disturb, such as
tombs.
*059 The month is divided into three periods, the waxing, the
mid-month, and the waning, which answer to the phases of the
moon.
*060 i.e. the ant.
*061 Such seems to be the meaning here, though the epithet is
otherwise rendered `well-rounded’. Corn was threshed by
means of a sleigh with two runners having three or four
rollers between them, like the modern Egyptian "nurag".
*062 This halt verse is added by the Scholiast on Aratus, 172.
*063 The "Catasterismi" ("Placings among the Stars") is a
collection of legends relating to the various
constellations.
*064 The Straits of Messina.
*065 Or perhaps `a Scythian’.
*066 The epithet probably indicates coquettishness.
*067 A proverbial saying meaning, `why enlarge on irrelevant
topics?’
*068 `She of the noble voice’: Calliope is queen of Epic poetry.
*069 Earth, in the cosmology of Hesiod, is a disk surrounded by
the river Oceanus and floating upon a waste of waters. It
is called the foundation of all (the qualification `the
deathless ones...’ etc. is an interpolation), because not
only trees, men, and animals, but even the hills and seas
(ll. 129, 131) are supported by it.
*070 Aether is the bright, untainted upper atmosphere, as
distinguished from Aer, the lower atmosphere of the earth.
*071 Brontes is the Thunderer; Steropes, the Lightener; and
Arges, the Vivid One.
*072 The myth accounts for the separation of Heaven and Earth.
In Egyptian cosmology Nut (the Sky) is thrust and held apart
from her brother Geb (the Earth) by their father Shu, who
corresponds to the Greek Atlas.
*073 Nymphs of the ash-trees, as Dryads are nymphs of the oak-
trees. Cp. note on "Works and Days", l. 145.
*074 `Member-loving’: the title is perhaps only a perversion of
the regular PHILOMEIDES (laughter-loving).
*075 Cletho (the Spinner) is she who spins the thread of man’s
life; Lachesis (the Disposer of Lots) assigns to each man
his destiny; Atropos (She who cannot be turned) is the `Fury
with the abhorred shears.’
*076 Many of the names which follow express various qualities or
aspects of the sea: thus Galene is `Calm’, Cymothoe is the
`Wave-swift’, Pherusa and Dynamene are `She who speeds
(ships)’ and `She who has power’.
*077 The `Wave-receiver’ and the `Wave-stiller’.
*078 `The Unerring’ or `Truthful’; cp. l. 235.
*079 i.e. Poseidon.
*080 Goettling notes that some of these nymphs derive their names
from lands over which they preside, as Europa, Asia, Doris,
Ianeira (`Lady of the Ionians’), but that most are called
after some quality which their streams possessed: thus
Xanthe is the `Brown’ or `Turbid’, Amphirho is the
`Surrounding’ river, Ianthe is `She who delights’, and
Ocyrrhoe is the `Swift-flowing’.
*081 i.e. Eos, the `Early-born’.
*082 Van Lennep explains that Hecate, having no brothers to
support her claim, might have been slighted.
*083 The goddess of the hearth (the Roman "Vesta"), and so of the
house. Cp. "Homeric Hymns" v.22 ff.; xxxix.1 ff.
*084 The variant reading `of his father’ (sc. Heaven) rests on
inferior MS. authority and is probably an alteration due to
the difficulty stated by a Scholiast: `How could Zeus, being
not yet begotten, plot against his father?’ The phrase is,
however, part of the prophecy. The whole line may well be
spurious, and is rejected by Heyne, Wolf, Gaisford and
Guyet.
*085 Pausanias (x. 24.6) saw near the tomb of Neoptolemus `a
stone of no great size’, which the Delphians anointed every
day with oil, and which he says was supposed to be the stone
given to Cronos.
*086 A Scholiast explains: `Either because they (men) sprang from
the Melian nymphs (cp. l. 187); or because, when they were
born (?), they cast themselves under the ash-trees, that is,
the trees.’ The reference may be to the origin of men from
ash-trees: cp. "Works and Days", l. 145 and note.
*087 sc. Atlas, the Shu of Egyptian mythology: cp. note on line
177.
*088 Oceanus is here regarded as a continuous stream enclosing
the earth and the seas, and so as flowing back upon himself.
*089 The conception of Oceanus is here different: he has nine
streams which encircle the earth and the flow out into the
`main’ which appears to be the waste of waters on which,
according to early Greek and Hebrew cosmology, the disk-like
earth floated.
*090 i.e. the threshold is of `native’ metal, and not artificial.
*091 According to Homer Typhoeus was overwhelmed by Zeus amongst
the Arimi in Cilicia. Pindar represents him as buried under
Aetna, and Tzetzes reads Aetna in this passage.
*092 The epithet (which means literally `well-bored’) seems to
refer to the spout of the crucible.
*093 The fire god. There is no reference to volcanic action:
iron was smelted on Mount Ida; cp. "Epigrams of Homer", ix.
2-4.
*094 i.e. Athena, who was born `on the banks of the river Trito’
(cp. l. 929l)
*095 Restored by Peppmuller. The nineteen following lines from
another recension of lines 889-900, 924-9 are quoted by
Chrysippus (in Galen).
*096 sc. the aegis. Line 929s is probably spurious, since it
disagrees with l. 929q and contains a suspicious reference
to Athens.
*097 A catalogue of heroines each of whom was introduced with the
words E OIE, `Or like her’.
*098 An antiquarian writer of Byzantium, c. 490-570 A.D.
*099 Constantine VII. `Born in the Porphyry Chamber’, 905-959
A.D.
*100 "Berlin Papyri", 7497 (left-hand fragment) and "Oxyrhynchus
Papyri", 421 (right-hand fragment). For the restoration see
"Class. Quart." vii. 217-8.
*101 As the price to be given to her father for her: so in
"Iliad" xviii. 593 maidens are called `earners of oxen’.
Possibly Glaucus, like Aias (fr. 68, ll. 55 ff.), raided the
cattle of others.
*102 i.e. Glaucus should father the children of others. The
curse of Aphrodite on the daughters of Tyndareus (fr. 67)
may be compared.
*103 Porphyry, scholar, mathematician, philosopher and historian,
lived 233-305 (?) A.D. He was a pupil of the neo-Platonist
Plotinus.
*104 Author of a geographical lexicon, produced after 400 A.D.,
and abridged under Justinian.
*105 Archbishop of Thessalonica 1175-1192 (?) A.D., author of
commentaries on Pindar and on the "Iliad" and "Odyssey".
*106 In the earliest times a loin-cloth was worn by athletes, but
was discarded after the 14th Olympiad.
*107 Slight remains of five lines precede line 1 in the original:
after line 20 an unknown number of lines have been lost, and
traces of a verse preceding line 21 are here omitted.
Between lines 29 and 30 are fragments of six verses which do
not suggest any definite restoration.
*108 The end of Schoeneus’ speech, the preparations and the
beginning of the race are lost.
*109 Of the three which Aphrodite gave him to enable him to
overcome Atalanta.
*110 The geographer; fl. c. 24 B.C.
*111 Of Miletus, flourished about 520 B.C. His work, a mixture
of history and geography, was used by Herodotus.
*112 The Hesiodic story of the daughters of Proetus can be
reconstructed from these sources. They were sought in
marriage by all the Greeks (Pauhellenes), but having
offended Dionysus (or, according to Servius, Juno), were
afflicted with a disease which destroyed their beauty (or
were turned into cows). They were finally healed by
Melampus.
*113 Fl. 56-88 A.D.: he is best known for his work on Vergil.
*114 For the restoration of ll. 1-16 see "Ox. Pap." pt. xi. pp.
46-7: the supplements of ll. 17-31 are by the Translator
(cp. "Class. Quart." x. (1916), pp. 65-67).
*115 The crocus was to attract Europa, as in the very similar
story of Persephone: cp. "Homeric Hymns" ii. lines 8 ff.
*116 Apollodorus of Athens (fl. 144 B.C.) was a pupil of
Aristarchus. He wrote a Handbook of Mythology, from which
the extant work bearing his name is derived.
*117 Priest at Praeneste. He lived c. 170-230 A.D.
*118 Son of Apollonius Dyscolus, lived in Rome under Marcus
Aurelius. His chief work was on accentuation.
*119 Sacred to Poseidon. For the custom observed there, cp.
"Homeric Hymns" iii. 231 ff.
*120 The allusion is obscure.
*121 Apollonius `the Crabbed’ was a grammarian of Alexandria
under Hadrian. He wrote largely on Grammar and Syntax.
*122 275-195 (?) B.C., mathematician, astronomer, scholar, and
head of the Library of Alexandria.
*123 Of Cyme. He wrote a universal history covering the period
between the Dorian Migration and 340 B.C.
*124 i.e. the nomad Scythians, who are described by Herodotus as
feeding on mares’ milk and living in caravans.
*125 The restorations are mainly those adopted or suggested in
"Ox. Pap." pt. xi. pp. 48 ff.: for those of ll. 8-14 see
"Class. Quart." x. (1916) pp. 67-69.
*126 i.e. those who seek to outwit the oracle, or to ask of it
more than they ought, will be deceived by it and be led to
ruin: cp. "Hymn to Hermes", 541 ff.
*127 Zetes and Calais, sons of Boreas, who were amongst the
Argonauts, delivered Phineus from the Harpies. The
Strophades (`Islands of Turning’) are here supposed to have
been so called because the sons of Boreas were there turned
back by Iris from pursuing the Harpies.
*128 An Epicurean philosopher, fl. 50 B.C.
*129 `Charming-with-her-voice’ (or `Charming-the-mind’), `Song’,
and `Lovely-sounding’.
*130 Diodorus Siculus, fl. 8 B.C., author of an universal history
ending with Caesar’s Gallic Wars.
*131 The first epic in the "Trojan Cycle"; like all ancient epics
it was ascribed to Homer, but also, with more probability,
to Stasinus of Cyprus.
*132 This fragment is placed by Spohn after "Works and Days" l.
120.
*133 A Greek of Asia Minor, author of the "Description of Greece"
(on which he was still engaged in 173 A.D.).
*134 Wilamowitz thinks one or other of these citations belongs to
the Catalogue.
*135 Lines 1-51 are from Berlin Papyri, 9739; lines 52-106 with
B. 1-50 (and following fragments) are from Berlin Papyri,
10560. A reference by Pausanias (iii. 24. 10) to ll. 100
ff. proves that the two fragments together come from the
"Catalogue of Women". The second book (the beginning of
which is indicated after l. 106) can hardly be the second
book of the "Catalogues" proper: possibly it should be
assigned to the EOIAI, which were sometimes treated as part
of the "Catalogues", and sometimes separated from it. The
remains of thirty-seven lines following B. 50 in the Papyrus
are too slight to admit of restoration.
*136 sc. the Suitor whose name is lost.
*137 Wooing was by proxy; so Agamemnon wooed Helen for his
brother Menelaus (ll. 14-15), and Idomeneus, who came in
person and sent no deputy, is specially mentioned as an
exception, and the reasons for this- if the restoration
printed in the text be right- is stated (ll. 69 ff.).
*138 The Papyrus here marks the beginning of a second book ("B"),
possibly of the EOIAE. The passage (ll. 2-50) probably led
up to an account of the Trojan (and Theban?) war, in which,
according to "Works and Days" ll. 161-166, the Race of
Heroes perished. The opening of the "Cypria" is somewhat
similar. Somewhere in the fragmentary lines 13-19 a son of
Zeus- almost certainly Apollo- was introduced, though
for what purpose is not clear. With l. 31 the destruction
of man (cp. ll. 4-5) by storms which spoil his crops begins:
the remaining verses are parenthetical, describing the snake
`which bears its young in the spring season’.
*139 i.e. the snake; as in "Works and Days" l. 524, the "Boneless
One" is the cuttle-fish.
*140 c. 1110-1180 A.D. His chief work was a poem, "Chiliades",
in accentual verse of nearly 13,000 lines.
*141 According to this account Iphigeneia was carried by Artemis
to the Taurie Chersonnese (the Crimea). The Tauri
(Herodotus iv. 103) identified their maiden-goddess with
Iphigeneia; but Euripides ("Iphigeneia in Tauris") makes her
merely priestess of the goddess.
*142 Of Alexandria. He lived in the 5th century, and compiled a
Greek Lexicon.
*143 For his murder Minos exacted a yearly tribute of boys and
girls, to be devoured by the Minotaur, from the Athenians.
*144 Of Naucratis. His "Deipnosophistae" ("Dons at Dinner") is
an encyclopaedia of miscellaneous topics in the form of a
dialogue. His date is c. 230 A.D.
*145 There is a fancied connection between LAAS (`stone’) and
LAOS (`people’). The reference is to the stones which
Deucalion and Pyrrha transformed into men and women after
the Flood.
*146 Eustathius identifies Ileus with Oileus, father of Aias.
Here again is fanciful etymology, ILEUS being similar to
ILEOS (complaisant, gracious).
*147 Imitated by Vergil, "Aeneid" vii. 808, describing Camilla.
*148 c. 600 A.D., a lecturer and grammarian of Constantinople.
*149 Priest of Apollo, and, according to Homer, discoverer of
wine. Maronea in Thrace is said to have been called after
him.
*150 The crow was originally white, but was turned black by
Apollo in his anger at the news brought by the bird.
*151 A philosopher of Athens under Hadrian and Antonius. He
became a Christian and wrote a defence of the Christians
addressed to Antoninus Pius.
*152 Zeus slew Asclepus (fr. 90) because of his success as a
healer, and Apollo in revenge killed the Cyclopes (fr. 64).
In punishment Apollo was forced to serve Admetus as
herdsman. (Cp. Euripides, "Alcestis", 1-8)
*153 For Cyrene and Aristaeus, cp. Vergil, "Georgics", iv. 315
ff.
*154 A writer on mythology of uncertain date.
*155 In Epirus. The oracle was first consulted by Deucalion and
Pyrrha after the Flood. Later writers say that the god
responded in the rustling of leaves in the oaks for which
the place was famous.
*156 The fragment is part of a leaf from a papyrus book of the
4th century A.D.
*157 According to Homer and later writers Meleager wasted away
when his mother Althea burned the brand on which his life
depended, because he had slain her brothers in the dispute
for the hide of the Calydonian boar. (Cp. Bacchylides,
"Ode" v. 136 ff.)
*158 The fragment probably belongs to the "Catalogues" proper
rather than to the Eoiae; but, as its position is uncertain,
it may conveniently be associated with Frags. 99A and the
"Shield of Heracles".
*159 Most of the smaller restorations appear in the original
publication, but the larger are new: these last are highly
conjectual, there being no definite clue to the general
sense.
*160 Alcmaon (who took part in the second of the two heroic
Theban expeditions) is perhaps mentioned only incidentally
as the son of Amphiaraus, who seems to be clearly indicated
in ll. 7-8, and whose story occupies ll. 5-10. At l. 11 the
subject changes and Electryon is introduced as father of
Alcmena.
*161 The association of ll. 1-16 with ll. 17-24 is presumed from
the apparent mention of Erichthonius in l. 19. A new
section must then begin at l. 21. See "Ox. Pap." pt. xi. p.
55 (and for restoration of ll. 5-16, ib. p. 53). ll. 19-20
are restored by the Translator.
*162 A mountain peak near Thebes which took its name from the
Sphinx (called in "Theogony" l. 326 PHIX).
*163 Cyanus was a glass-paste of deep blue colour: the `zones’
were concentric bands in which were the scenes described by
the poet. The figure of Fear (l. 44) occupied the centre of
the shield, and Oceanus (l. 314) enclosed the whole.
*164 `She who drives herds,’ i.e. `The Victorious’, since herds
were the chief spoil gained by the victor in ancient
warfare.
*165 The cap of darkness which made its wearer invisible.
*166 The existing text of the vineyard scene is a compound of two
different versions, clumsily adapted, and eked out with some
makeshift additions.
*167 The conception is similar to that of the sculptured group at
Athens of Two Lions devouring a Bull (Dickens, "Cat. of the
Acropolis Museaum", No. 3).
*168 A Greek sophist who taught rhetoric at Rome in the time of
Hadrian. He is the author of a collection of proverbs in
three books.
*169 When Heracles prayed that a son might be born to Telamon and
Eriboea, Zeus sent forth an eagle in token that the prayer
would be granted. Heracles then bade the parents call their
son Aias after the eagle (`aietos’).
*170 Oenomaus, king of Pisa in Elis, warned by an oracle that he
should be killed by his son-in-law, offered his daughter
Hippodamia to the man who could defeat him in a chariot
race, on condition that the defeated suitors should be slain
by him. Ultimately Pelops, through the treachery of the
charioteer of Oenomaus, became victorious.
*171 sc. to Scythia.
*172 In the Homeric "Hymn to Hermes" Battus almost disappears
from the story, and a somewhat different account of the
stealing of the cattle is given.
*173 sc. Colophon. Proclus in his abstract of the "Returns" (sc.
of the heroes from Troy) says Calchas and his party were
present at the death of Teiresias at Colophon, perhaps
indicating another version of this story.
*174 ll. 1-2 are quoted by Athenaeus, ii. p. 40; ll. 3-4 by
Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis vi. 2. 26. Buttman saw
that the two fragments should be joined.
*175 sc. the golden fleece of the ram which carried Phrixus and
Helle away from Athamas and Ino. When he reached Colchis
Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus.
*176 Euboea properly means the `Island of fine Cattle (or Cows)’.
*177 cp. Hesiod "Theogony" 81 ff. But Theognis 169, `Whomso the
god honour, even a man inclined to blame praiseth him’, is
much nearer.
*178 Cf. Scholion on Clement, "Protrept." i. p. 302.
*179 This line may once have been read in the text of "Works and
Days" after l. 771.
*180 ll. 1-9 are preserved by Diodorus Siculus iii. 66. 3; ll.
10-21 are extant only in M.
*181 Dionysus, after his untimely birth from Semele, was sewn
into the thigh of Zeus.
*182 sc. Semele. Zeus is here speaking.
*183 The reference is apparently to something in the body of the
hymn, now lost.
*184 The Greeks feared to name Pluto directly and mentioned him
by one of many descriptive titles, such as `Host of Many’:
compare the Christian use of O DIABOLOS or our `Evil One’.
*185 Demeter chooses the lowlier seat, supposedly as being more
suitable to her assumed condition, but really because in her
sorrow she refuses all comforts.
*186 An act of communion- the drinking of the potion here
described- was one of the most important pieces of ritual
in the Eleusinian mysteries, as commemorating the sorrows of
the goddess.
*187 Undercutter and Woodcutter are probably popular names (after
the style of Hesiod’s `Boneless One’) for the worm thought
to be the cause of teething and toothache.
*188 The list of names is taken- with five additions- from
Hesiod, "Theogony" 349 ff.: for their general significance
see note on that passage.
*189 Inscriptions show that there was a temple of Apollo
Delphinius (cp. ii. 495-6) at Cnossus and a Cretan month
bearing the same name.
*190 sc. that the dolphin was really Apollo.
*191 The epithets are transferred from the god to his altar
`Overlooking’ is especially an epithet of Zeus, as in
Apollonius Rhodius ii. 1124.
*192 Pliny notices the efficacy of the flesh of a tortoise
against withcraft. In "Geoponica" i. 14. 8 the living
tortoise is prescribed as a charm to preserve vineyards from
hail.
*193 Hermes makes the cattle walk backwards way, so that they
seem to be going towards the meadow instead of leaving it
(cp. l. 345); he himself walks in the normal manner, relying
on his sandals as a disguise.
*194 Such seems to be the meaning indicated by the context,
though the verb is taken by Allen and Sikes to mean, `to be
like oneself’, and so `to be original’.
*195 Kuhn points out that there is a lacuna here. In l. 109 the
borer is described, but the friction of this upon the
fireblock (to which the phrase `held firmly’ clearly
belongs) must also have been mentioned.
*196 The cows being on their sides on the ground, Hermes bends
their heads back towards their flanks and so can reach their
backbones.
*197 O. Muller thinks the `hides’ were a stalactite formation in
the `Cave of Nestor’ near Messenian Pylos,- though the
cave of Hermes is near the Alpheus (l. 139). Others suggest
that actual skins were shown as relics before some cave near
Triphylian Pylos.
*198 Gemoll explains that Hermes, having offered all the meat as
sacrifice to the Twelve Gods, remembers that he himself as
one of them must be content with the savour instead of the
substance of the sacrifice. Can it be that by eating he
would have forfeited the position he claimed as one of the
Twelve Gods?
*199 Lit. `thorn-plucker’.
*200 Hermes is ambitious (l. 175), but if he is cast into Hades
he will have to be content with the leadership of mere
babies like himself, since those in Hades retain the state
of growth- whether childhood or manhood- in which they
are at the moment of leaving the upper world.
*201 Literally, `you have made him sit on the floor’, i.e. `you
have stolen everything down to his last chair.’
*202 The Thriae, who practised divination by means of pebbles
(also called THRIAE). In this hymn they are represented as
aged maidens (ll. 553-4), but are closely associated with
bees (ll. 559-563) and possibly are here conceived as having
human heads and breasts with the bodies and wings of bees.
See the edition of Allen and Sikes, Appendix III.
*203 Cronos swallowed each of his children the moment that they
were born, but ultimately was forced to disgorge them.
Hestia, being the first to be swallowed, was the last to be
disgorged, and so was at once the first and latest born of
the children of Cronos. Cp. Hesiod "Theogony", ll. 495-7.
*204 `Cattle-earning’, because an accepted suitor paid for his
bride in cattle.
*205 The name Aeneas is here connected with the epithet AIEOS
(awful): similarly the name Odysseus is derived (in
"Odyssey" i.62) from ODYSSMAI (I grieve).
*206 Aphrodite extenuates her disgrace by claiming that the race
of Anchises is almost divine, as is shown in the persons of
Ganymedes and Tithonus.
*207 So Christ connecting the word with OMOS. L. and S. give =
OMOIOS, `common to all’.
*208 Probably not Etruscans, but the non-Hellenic peoples of
Thrace and (according to Thucydides) of Lemnos and Athens.
Cp. Herodotus i. 57; Thucydides iv. 109.
*209 This line appears to be an alternative to ll. 10-11.
*210 The name Pan is here derived from PANTES, `all’. Cp.
Hesiod, "Works and Days" ll. 80-82, "Hymn to Aphrodite" (v)
l. 198. for the significance of personal names.
*211 The epithet is a usual one for birds, cp. Hesiod, "Works and
Days", l. 210; as applied to Selene it may merely indicate
her passage, like a bird, through the air, or mean `far
flying’.
*212 "The Epigrams" are preserved in the pseudo-Herodotean "Life
of Homer". Nos. III, XIII, and XVII are also found in the
"Contest of Homer and Hesiod", and No. I is also extant at
the end of some MSS. of the "Homeric Hymns".
*213 sc. from Smyrna, Homer’s reputed birth-place.
*214 The councillors at Cyme who refused to support Homer at the
public expense.
*215 The `better fruit’ is apparently the iron smelted out in
fires of pine-wood.
*216 Hecate: cp. Hesiod, "Theogony", l. 450.
*217 i.e. in protection.
*218 This song is called by pseudo-Herodotus EIRESIONE. The word
properly indicates a garland wound with wool which was worn
at harvest-festivals, but came to be applied first to the
harvest song and then to any begging song. The present is
akin the Swallow-Song (XELIDONISMA), sung at the beginning
of spring, and answered to the still surviving English May-
Day songs. Cp. Athenaeus, viii. 360 B.
*219 The lice which they caught in their clothes they left
behind, but carried home in their clothes those which they
could not catch.
*220 See the cylix reproduced by Gerhard, Abhandlungen, taf. 5,4.
Cp. Stesichorus, Frag. 3 (Smyth).
*221 The haunch was regarded as a dishonourable portion.
*222 The horse of Adrastus, offspring of Poseidon and Demeter,
who had charged herself into a mare to escape Poseidon.
*223 Restored from Pindar Ol. vi. 15 who, according to
Asclepiades, derives the passage from the "Thebais".
*224 So called from Teumessus, a hill in Boeotia. For the
derivation of Teumessus cp. Antimachus "Thebais" fr. 3
(Kinkel).
*225 The preceding part of the Epic Cycle (?).
*226 While the Greeks were sacrificing at Aulis, a serpent
appeared and devoured eight young birds from their nest and
lastly the mother of the brood. This was interpreted by
Calchas to mean that the war would swallow up nine full
years. Cp. "Iliad" ii, 299 ff.
*227 i.e. Stasinus (or Hegesias: cp. fr. 6): the phrase `Cyprian
histories’ is equivalent to "The Cypria".
*228 Cp. Allen "C.R." xxvii. 190.
*229 These two lines possibly belong to the account of the feast
given by Agamemnon at Lemnos.
*230 sc. the Asiatic Thebes at the foot of Mt. Placius.
*231 sc. after cremation.
*232 This fragment comes from a version of the "Contest of Homer
and Hesiod" widely different from that now extant. The
words `as Lesches gives them (says)’ seem to indicate that
the verse and a half assigned to Homer came from the "Little
Iliad". It is possible they may have introduced some
unusually striking incident, such as the actual Fall of
Troy.
*233 i.e. in the paintings by Polygnotus at Delphi.
*234 i.e. the dead bodies in the picture.
*235 According to this version Aeneas was taken to Pharsalia.
Better known are the Homeric account (according to which
Aeneas founded a new dynasty at Troy), and the legends which
make him seek a new home in Italy.
*236 sc. knowledge of both surgery and of drugs.
*237 Clement attributes this line to Augias: probably Agias is
intended.
*238 Identical with the "Returns", in which the Sons of Atreus
occupy the most prominent parts.
*239 This Artemisia, who distinguished herself at the battle of
Salamis (Herodotus, vii. 99) is here confused with the later
Artemisia, the wife of Mausolus, who died 350 B.C.
*240 i.e. the fox knows many ways to baffle its foes, while the
hedge-hog knows one only which is far more effectual.
*241 Attributed to Homer by Zenobius, and by Bergk to the
"Margites".
*242 i.e. `monkey-men’.
*243 Lines 42-52 are intrusive; the list of vegetables which the
Mouse cannot eat must follow immediately after the various
dishes of which he does eat.
*244 lit. `those unable to swim’.
*245 This may be a parody of Orion’s threat in Hesiod,
"Astronomy", frag. 4.
*246 sc. the riddle of the fisher-boys which comes at the end of
this work.
*247 The verses of Hesiod are called doubtful in meaning because
they are, if taken alone, either incomplete or absurd.
*248 "Works and Days", ll. 383-392.
*249 "Iliad" xiii, ll. 126-133, 339-344.
*250 The accepted text of the "Iliad" contains 15,693 verses;
that of the "Odyssey", 12,110.
*251 "Iliad" ii, ll. 559-568 (with two additional verses).