HYMN TO ARTEMIS
THE hymn to Artemis, which gives a pleasing picture of the youthful goddess returning from the chase to take part in the dance at Delphi, seems to belong to a good period. The writer was almost certainly influenced by the hymn to Apollo; Gemoll compares lines 5 f. with the opening scene of that hymn, and 15 f. with h. Apoll. 189 f. It does not, however, follow as a matter of course that the writer knew the hymn to Apollo as an undivided document, for he might have borrowed from two separate hymns. The prelude may have been used at Delphi, where portions of ancient poetry, bearing on Delphi and the god, were recited (Dittenberger Sylloge 663); but it is very possible that the scene at that place (13 f.) is simply introduced for literary effect.χρυσηλάκατον κελαδειν́ην: see on h. Aphr. 16.
[2] Παρθένον: the common Greek conception of Artemis (as “Queen and Huntress, chaste and fair”) is here brought out, bnt “παρθένον” probably also suggests the youth of Artemis; it need not refer to her cult-name “Παρθένος”, as in xxviii. 2 of Athena.
ἐλαφηβόλον: not Homeric as a title of Artemis; on the epithet see Farnell Cults ii. p. 433; cf. Anacr.i. 1, Soph. Trach.214.[4] ὄρη: for the late form cf. “Μουσῶν” 15.
[5] ἄγρῃ τερπομένΗ: as “ἀγροτέρα”; cf. Il. 21.470 “ πότνια θηρῶν”,
“Ἄρτεμις ἀγροτέρη, ζ 105 τερπομένη κάπροισι καὶ ὠκείῃς ἐλάφοισιν”. On the title “ἀγροτέρα” see references in Farnell Cults p. 562 f., and add to his list Bacchyl.v. 123.Παγχρύσεα: of the chariot of Artemis, ix. 4. τόξα τιταίνει: cf. h. Apoll. 4.
[7] ἰαχεῖ: for the form see on h. Dem. 20.
[8] κλαγΓῆς θηρῶν: cf. xiv. 4.
[11] θηροσκόπος: of Artemis, Bacchyl.xi. 107.
[13] The lines do not prove that the writer had any idea of a common cult of Apollo and Artemis at Delphi. The goddess simply visits her brother to take part in the chorus of Muses and Graces (see ix Introd. and ib. note 5). Artemis, however, has some connexion with Delphi, although she is not mentioned in the earliest myths of the oracle and temple. This connexion gave her the cult-names “Δελφινία” (Attica, Thessaly) and, in imperial times, “Πυθίη” (Miletus). At Delphi itself, as Farnell (Cults ii. p. 467) remarks, we have few traces of her cult; an inscr. (379 B.C.) records an Amphictyonic oath to Apollo, Leto, and Artemis (C. I. G. 1688), and slaves (? female) were sometimes emancipated in the name of Apollo and Artemis (Collitz Dial. Inschr. 1810). The eastern pediment of the Delphian temple represented Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and the Muses, but no trace of this sculpture has been discovered.
In extant art, the most familiar representation of Artemis at Delphi is the archaistic relief in the Villa Albani. In this Artemis stands by Leto, while Nike pours a libation to Apollo as Citharoedus. The Delphian temple in the background gives a setting to the scene. In the majority of representations of the two deities the connexion is simply mythological, with no bearing on the Delphian cult.[15] The Muses and Graces take the place, at Delphi, of the nymphs who usually accompany Artemis (Od. 6.105). The passage may have been suggested by h. Apoll. 189-206, where the scene is on Olympus.
[16] Cf. h. Apoll. 8.
[20] ἔργμασιν: first in Hes. Op.801Hes. Op., xxix. 12Hes. Op., xxxii. 19.
