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[156] ἑορτή, viz. the “νουμηνία”, ‘day of new moon’: see on 14. 162. ‘It is a high-day for them all’ may be intended to bear a double significance.

According to the Herodotean life of Homer the “νουμηνία” was kept as a festival of Apollo in the island of Samos. This is implied in the story that Homer went about there on the day of new moon to the richest houses, led by children and singing the short poem called “εἰρεσιώνη”: ‘whence (adds the writer) these verses were sung for a long time afterwards by the children in Samos when they went round begging at the festival of Apollo’ (“ὅτ᾽ ἀγείροιεν ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος”). See Meyer E. in Hermes, xxvi. 376.

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