HYMN TO ATHENA

THE style of this hymn is so similar to that of the preceding, that Gemoll confidently attributes both to the same composer. For coincidences of language he points to 3, 10 in this hymn (see notes). More striking is the fact that the influence of the hymn to Apollo is probably to be seen here, as in the hymn to Artemis. Gemoll compares 15 with h. Apoll. 7, and 16 with h. Apoll. 12.

According to the earliest detailed version of the myth ( Theog. 886-900), Zeus swallowed Metis, who was already pregnant with Athena. The goddess then sprang from the head of Zeus (ib. 924-926). Hesiod says nothing of the agency of Hephaestus (or other god who assisted Zeus⁹¹ ) nor of an armed Athena. The schol. on Apoll. Arg. 4.1310 remarks that Stesichorus (whose poem is lost) first mentioned the panoply of the goddess at her birth. The scholiast passes over the hymn, of whose existence he was probably unaware, as he could hardly have had enough critical acumen to place a Homeric hymn later than the time of Stesichorus. The myth next appears in Pindar ( Ol.vii. 38), who describes the agency of Hephaestus, and the terror of Heaven and Earth at the loud cry of Athena.

For later accounts of the birth see Pauly-Wissowa s.v. Athena 1895 f.; Farnell Cults i. p. 280 f., and (from the anthropo-logical standpoint) Lang Myth Ritual and Religion ii. p. 242 f. It seems clear that the mention of the panoply, which is elaborated in the hymn (5, 6, and 15), is not part of the primitive myth; but this early became prominent in literature and art (cf. dial. deor. 8: imag. ii. 27). On archaic vases, down to the time of Pheidias, the usual type represents Zeus as sitting in the midst of gods, while Athena, a small armed figure, issues from his head (see vases in Brit. μυς.Β 147 μυς., 218 μυς., 244 μυς., 421, Ε 15 Mus., 410). Pheidias probably represented Athena as already born, either standing by the side of Zeus, or moving away from him, as in the well-known relief at Madrid (reproduced by Baumeister Denkm. fig. 172, and Frazer on Paus.i. 24. 5, where references to the recent literature on the subject are given). See Gardner Handbook Gk. Sculpture ii. p. 279 f.

a)mei/lixon *)=htor e)/xousan = Il. 9.572 (of Erinnys).