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[488] ἢ σέ γε … Ἀπόλλων. Cp. Hes. Theog.94“ἐκ γὰρ Μουσάων καὶ ἑκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος”

“ἄνδρες ἀοιδοὶ ἔασιν ἐπὶ χθόνα καὶ κιθαρισταί”, and the same statement in the Hymns. In Il.1. 603Apollo is described as playing on the lyre and the Muses as singing; but here it is not the music we have to consider. The minstrel was par excellence the historian of early times; and thus he is indebted to Apollo, the god of prophecy (who would know the past as well as the present or the future), for his ability to tell about the wooden horse, “ὥς τέ που ἢ αὐτὸς παρεὼν ἢ ἄλλου ἀκούσας”. The Muses too, according to Hesiod and the Hymns, were the daughters of Mnemosyne; and the etymology of their very name seems to point in the same direction. See on Od. 1.1. Nägelsbach, taking the same view (Hom. Theol. p. 114), reminds us how Calchas, under the inspiration of Apollo, knew the past as well as the future, and how the same is said of the Aeschylean Cassandra, Ag.1196 foll.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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hide References (3 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (3):
    • Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1196
    • Hesiod, Theogony, 94
    • Homer, Iliad, 1.603
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