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HYMN TO HELIOS

THE resemblance of this and the following hymn is striking. If the two are not the work of a single author, as Gemoll and (less confidently) Baumeister suppose, the writer of one hymn must have taken the other as his model. The description of the bright Sun is closely parallel to that of the Moon, and the language is in several places identical; cf. 10, 13, and see further on 15 f. In both hymns there appears to be a search after recondite mythology (Euryphaessa 2, Pandia xxxii. 15). The concluding formulae of the hymn shew that they were preludes to recitation. There are no distinctive marks of date, except the mention of Selene as winged, in xxxii. 1. This literary conception seems to belong to the decadence of mythology, perhaps not before the Alexandrine period; cf. the winged Dioscuri in xxxiii. 13. The two hymns, though rather turgid in style, are written in the “Homeric” manner; Baumeister has no reason in attributing them to the Orphic school of Onomacritus, and they have nothing in common with the extant Orphic hymns (viii and ix) to the same deities.

The place of composition cannot be recovered; the cult of Helios was widespread, especially in the Peloponnese, and was of course famous at Rhodes; see Preller-Robert i.^{2} p. 429 f.

Ἥλιον: the later form, in Homer, only Od. 8.271. In the hymns also “Ἠέλιος” is regular. For the invocation to Calliope cf. Alcman fr. 45 (Smyth 18)Μῶσ᾽ ἄγε, Καλλιόπα, θύγατερ Διός”,

ἄρχ᾽ ἐρατῶν ἐπέων”, Bacchyl.v. 176 etc.
αὖτε, “now”; the word does not imply other hymns. Baumeister compares Terpander fr. 2ἀμφί μοι αὖτε ἄναχθ᾽ ἑκαταβόλον κτλ.

[2] Εὐρυφάεσσα: only here. In Hesiod Theog. 371, Theia is the mother of the Sun, Moon, and Dawn; cf. Pind. Isthm.iv. 1.See Roscher Lex. ii. 3160.

[7] The line is apparently borrowed from Il. 11.60 ἠΐθεόν τ᾽ ἀκάμαντ̓, ἐπιείκελον ἀθανάτοισιν”, which disposes of conjectures in place of “ἐπιείκελον” (Gemoll). Franke's explanation that the two last words refer to the sun's inferiority compared with the Olympians, requires some modification. The Sun, with Selene and Eos, is mentioned with the Olympian gods in Theog. 8; in any case he was certainly “ἀθάνατος”. The poet may have drawn a distinction between the visible gods of nature and the invisible “ἀθάνατοι”, such as Hermes or Athena. More probably he borrowed “ἐπιείκελον ἀθανάτοισιν” without troubling to consider its propriety; he knew “ἀκάμαντα” as an epithet of the Sun (Il. 18.239, 484).

[8] Cf. Od. 3.2.

[9] ἵπΠοις in its Homeric use of a “chariot and horses”; but the conception of the Sun as a driver is not Homeric (h. Dem. 63, 88, h. Herm. 69); see Rapp in Roscher Lex. i. 1998 and 2005. In Homer the Dawn has horses, Od. 23.224 f.

[10] χρυσέης: the MSS. have “χρυσῆς”; in the parallel passage xxxii. 6 “χρυσέου ἀπὸ στεφάνου”, all except p have the open form, which may be restored here.

ἀΠ᾽ αὐτοῦ: cf. xxxii. 3 “ἧς ἄπο”.

[11] Παρειαί: this must be corrupt unless it means “cheeks of a helmet” (Hermann), for which there is no authority; the sense would thus be “from his temples the bright cheekpieces enclose his beautiful, far-shining face, from the head (downwards).” There is no objection to “παρὰ κροτάφων” = “ἀπὸ κρατός”. Matthiae's “παρὰ κροτάφων δέ τ᾽ ἔθειραι” would give an easier sense, and is at least better than “περὶ κροτάφοισί τ᾽ ἔθειραι”.

[13] τηλαυγές: cf. xxxii. 8, where “εἵματα ἑσσαμένη” = “ἔσθος” here.

[14] The line, though undoubtedly difficult, is not of necessity corrupt. “λεπτουργές” is certainly sound, and “πνοιῇ ἀνέμων” may be taken (with Matthiae) as depending in sense on “λάμπεται”, “the fair fine-spun garment on his body shines in the wind.” To “ὑπὸ δ᾽ ἄρσενες ἵπποι” we may supply “λάμπονται” or merely “εἰσίν”, cf. Orac.ed. Hendess 54. 4 “Τυνδαρίδας δ᾽ ἐποπιζόμενοι Μενέλαν τε καὶ ἄλλους

ἀθάνατους ἥρωας οἳ ἐν Λακεδαίμονι δίῃ”, rather than assume a lacuna after this line, with Hermann. Valckenär's emendation (see crit. n.) is too far removed from the MSS.
15, 16, Here a lacuna seems necessary owing to the sense and to the mood of “πέμπῃσι”, which must be subjunctive; Gemoll objects that the body of the hymn should have 16 lines only, to match xxxii. But the correspondence between the two hymns is in any case imperfect, as the concluding verses are unequal in number. Although 16 is a favourite number (suggesting four quatrains; cf. hymns xxviii, xxx, xxxii), the hymn to the Dioscuri (xxxiii) has 17 verses. The lacuna can only be avoided by the assumption that “ἔνθ᾽ ἄῤ” is corrupt, as well as “στήσας”, which is inconsistent with “πέμπῃσι” in the present context. If a line has fallen out the sense may be, “then, having stopped his golden car and horses (he rests at the topmost point of heaven, until he again) sends them wondrously through heaven to ocean.” “στήσας” would refer to the sun's apparent halt at mid-day, before he begins his descent; cf. Shelley (Hymn of Apollo) “I stand at noon upon the peak of Heaven.” The description of the sun's brightness is most appropriate, if noon is meant; cf. the parallel hymn, where Selene is brightest as she comes to the full (xxxii. 11 f.).

[16] θεσπέσιος: for the adverb cf. h. Herm. 103ἀδμῆτες δ᾽ ἵκανον”. The more difficult nominative is not to be corrected into “θεσπεσίους”; nor is it likely that “ἑσπέριος” would have been corrupted (cf. xxxii. 11).

[18] κλῄσω: on the form cf. Schulze Q. E. p. 281 n. 3.

[19] Η῾μιθέων: sc. “ἡρώων”, as in Il. 12.23, Hes. Op.158.

θεοί: Gemoll adopts Matthiae's “θεαί” (Muses), to correspond with xxxii. 20. This is not impossible, although with “θεοί” the sense is satisfactory, “whose deeds the gods shewed to mortals,” i.e. the gods taught the heroes divine deeds.


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hide References (12 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (12):
    • Bacchylides, Epinicians, 5
    • Hesiod, Works and Days, 158
    • Homer, Iliad, 11.60
    • Homer, Iliad, 12.23
    • Homer, Iliad, 18.239
    • Homer, Odyssey, 23.224
    • Homer, Odyssey, 3.2
    • Homer, Odyssey, 8.271
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 2 to Demeter, 63
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 4 to Hermes, 103
    • Homeric Hymns, Hymn 4 to Hermes, 69
    • Pindar, Isthmean, 4
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