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).