THE HOMERIC HYMNS IN ANTIQUITY

The history of these documents during the classical period may be recovered by two methods, the linguistic and the historical. The former is treated below , the latter consists almost entirely in such evidence as is afforded by quotations.

The quotations of the Homeric Hymns are not abundant in antiquity.¹ We leave out allusions, clear or possible, and enumerate the actual citations, and first those of whose age there is no doubt.

FIFTH CENTURY B.C.

1. Thuc. iii. 104 δηλοῖ δὲ μάλιστα Ὅμηρος ὅτι τοιαῦτα ἦν ² ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσι τοῖσδε, ἅ ἐστιν ἐκ προοιμίου Ἀπόλλωνος:
ἀλλ̓ ὅτε Δήλῳ Φοῖβε μάλιστά γε θυμὸν ἐτέρφθης,
ἔνθα τοι ἑλκεχίτωνες Ἰάονες ἠγερέθονται
σὺν σφοῖσιν τεκέεσσι γυναιξί τε σὴν ἐς ἀγυιάν:
ἔνθα σε πυγμαχίῃ τε καὶ ὀρχηστυῖ καὶ ἀοιδῇ
μνησάμενοι τέρπουσιν ὅταν καθέσωσιν ἀγῶνα.
ὅτι δὲ καὶ μουσικῆς ἀγὼν ἦν καὶ ἀγωνιούμενοι ἐφοίτων, ἐν τοῖσδε αὐ δηλοῖ, ἅ ἐστιν ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ προοιμίου. τὸν γὰρ Δηλιακὸν χορὸν τῶν γυναικῶν ὑμνήσας ἐτελεύτα τοῦ ἐπαίνου ἐς τάδε τὰ ἔπη, ἐν οἷς καὶ ἑαυτοῦ ἐπεμνήσθη:
ἀλλ̓ ἄγεθ̓ ἱλήκοι μὲν Ἀπόλλων Ἀρτέμιδι ξύν,
χαίρετε δ̓ ὑμεῖς πᾶσαι: ἐμεῖο δὲ καὶ μετόπισθε
μνήσασθ' ὁππότε κέν τις ἐπιχθονίων ἀνθρώπων
ἐνθάδ̓ ἀνείρηται ταλαπείριος ἄλλος ἐπελθών:
ὦ κοῦραι τίς δ' ὔμμιν ἀνὴρ ἥδιστος ἀοιδῶν
ἐνθάδε πωλεῖται καὶ τέῳ τέρπεσθε μάλιστα;
ὑμεῖς δ' εὖ μάλα πᾶσαι ὑποκρίνασθαι ἀφήμως,
τυφλὸς ἀνήρ, οἰκεῖ δὲ Χίῳ ἔνι παιπαλοέσσῃ.
= Apoll. 146-150, 165-172 with variants.

This citation, which was possibly intended as a reply to Herodotus' appeal to Olen's hymn (also with regard to Delos) iv. 35 (see further p. lvi), evidently recognises the Hymn to Apollo as Homeric. Thucydides calls it προοίμιον, the designation used by Pindar, who (Nem. ii. 1) alludes to a hymn to Zeus as Διὸς ἐκ προοιμίου.³ Thucydides' words have been used ⁴ to support the view that the document as we have it contains two hymns, one of which ended at this point; but the natural interpretation of the passage is that the words ἐτελεύτα τοῦ ἐπαίνου mean he ended his compliment to the Delian women, after which he returned to his account of the God. (Cf. the introduction to the Hymn.) The variants (J. H. S. xv. 309, Gemoll ad loc.) seem independent, and not necessarily preferable one to the other. In a text which depends throughout on the MSS. we have not departed from them here. In two places the Thucydidean version seems to have preserved a reading which was common to the MSS. also, but has been corrupted in them; 165 ἀλλ' ἄγεθ' ἱλήκοι μὲν where the MSS. ἀλλ' ἄγε δὴ λητὼ μὲν gives no construction, and may easily be accounted for on graphical grounds (through λητοῖ); 171 ἀφήμως of the older MSS. of Thucydides appears to be the parent of the voces nihili of the younger Thucydides-MSS. and all the Hymn-MSS. ἀφ' ἡμέων, ἀφ' ὑμέων, ἀφ' ὑμῶν.