Thomas W. Allen, E. E. Sikes, Commentary on the Homeric Hymns

’”. = h. Dion. 1.8, 9.

4. Id. iii. 65. 3 “μαρτυρεῖ δὲ τοῖς ὑφ᾽ ἡμῶν λεγομένοις καὶ ὁ ποιητὴς ἐν τοῖς ὕμνοις ‘οἱ μὲν γὰρ Δρακάνῳ ς᾿ οἱ δ̓ Ἰκάρῳ ἠνεμοέσσῃ
φάς᾿, οἱ δ᾽ ἐν Νάξῳ, δῖον γένος, εἰραφιῶτα,
οἱ δέ σ᾽ ἐπ᾽ Ἀλφειᾷ ποταμῷ βαθυδινήεντι
κυσαμένην Σεμέλην τεκέειν Διὶ τερπικεραύνῳ,
ἄλλοι δ᾽ ἐν Θήβῃσιν, ἄναξ, σε λέγουσι γενέσθαι,
ψευδόμενοι: σὲ δ̓ ἔτικτε πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε
πολλὸν ἀπ᾽ ἀνθρώπων, κρύπτων λευκώλενον Ἥρην.
ἔστι δέ τις Νύση, ὕπατον ὄρος, ἀνθέον ὕλῃ,
τηλοῦ Φοινίκης, σχεδὸν Αἰγύπτοιο ῥοάων

’”. =h. Dion. 1.1-9; verses 4 and 8, which are strictly dispensable, are only found in three MSS.

5. Id. iv. 2. 4 “καὶ τὸν Ὅμηρον δὲ τούτοις μαρτυρῆσαι ἐν τοῖς ὕμνοις ἐν οἷς λέγει ‘ἔστι δέ κτλ.
’” =h. Dion. 1.8, 9, as above.

The fact that two out of Diodorus' quotations are in the indirect narrative (in long paragraphs introduced by “φασί”), and are of the identical two lines, which also are quoted by the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (below no. 12) in apparent connexion with the mythographer Herodorus, suggest that in both places Diodorus took the quotation from his sources. Of these he mentions by name only Dionysius (iii. 66 “Διονυσίῳ τῷ συνταξαμένῳ τὰς παλαιὰς μυθοποιίας, οὗτος γὰρ τά τε περὶ τὸν Διόνυσον καὶ τὰς Ἀμαζόνας ἔτι δὲ τοὺς Ἀργοναύτας καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὸν Ἰλιακὸν πόλεμον πραχθέντα καὶ πόλλ᾽ ἕτερα συντέτακται, παρατιθεὶς τὰ ποιήματα τῶν ἀρχαίων, τῶν τε μυθολόγων καὶ τῶν ποιητῶν”), who is apparently the same as the Dionysius of Mitylene, whose “Ἀργόναυται” are as frequently utilised as those of Herodorus in the scholia on Apollonius (cf. Suidas s.v., Müller F. H. G. ii. 6 f., Susemihl l.c. ii. 45 f.). Without denying Diodorus the credit of possible original quotation, especially at iii. 65, it seems likely that the Hymns were excerpted and utilised by both Herodorus and Dionysius, antiquaries.

6. Philodemus “περὶ εὐσεβείας” (ed. Gomperz Herkulanische Studien ii. 1866), p. 42, tab. 91, v. 12 f.

“κα[ὶ τ]ὴν ἑ[κάτην]
ὀπαδ[ὸν Ἀρ]τέ[μιδος]
εἶναι Δήμη[τρος]
δὲ λάτριν Εὐρι[πίδης]
Ὅμηρος δ̓ ἐν [τοῖς]
[ὕμ]νοις πρόπ[ολον]
καὶ [ὀπ]αονα” =h. Dem. 440.

There is perhaps another reference, p. 29, col. 57a.

“έν δὲ τοῖς ...
... ὁ]μηρος
]νθαιυ （̣ αθαν[ατοις）
ονεα[ρ καὶ
τσκειν （̣ ῀ τυκται）
κα]λλιμα[χος
ταραντι”

cf. perhaps Dem. 269 f.

SECOND CENTURY A.D.

=h. Dem. 154.

8. Id. i. 38. 3 “τὰ δὲ ἱερὰ τοῖν θεοῖν Εὔμολπος καὶ αἱ θυγατέρες δρῶσιν αἱ Κελεοῦ: καλοῦσι δὲ σφᾶς Πάμφως τε κατὰ ταὐτὰ καὶ Ὅμηρος Διογένειαν καὶ Παμμερόπην καὶ τρίτην Σαισάραν” (in the MSS. there are variants on the last word, “βαισάραν” and “σαιβάραν”).

There is no line in our Hymn to Demeter containing the names of the three daughters of Celeus, but on the strength of this precise statement it has been supposed that they were mentioned after 108 or 477.

9. Id. iv. 30. 4 “πρῶτος δὲ ὧν οἶδα ἐποιήσατο ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν Ὅμηρος Τύχης μνήμην. ἐποιήσατο δὲ ἐν ὕμνῳ τᾷ ἐς τὴν Δήμητρα, ἄλλας τε τῶν Ὠκεανοῦ θυγατέρας καταριθμούμενος, ὡς ὁμοῦ Κόρῃ τῇ Δήμητρος παίζοιεν, καὶ Τύχην ὡς Ὠκεανοῦ καὶ ταύτην παῖδα οὖσαν: καὶ οὕτως ἔχει τὰ ἔπη: ‘ἡμεῖς μὲν μάλα πᾶσαι ἀν̓ ἱμερτὸν λειμῶνα
Λευκίππη Φαινώ τε καὶ Ἠλέκτρη καὶ Ἰάνθη
Μηλόβοσίς τε Τύχη τε καὶ Ὠκυρόη καλυκῶπις

’”. =h. Dem. 417, 418, 420: Pausanias omits, intentionally or not, 419.

10. Id. x. 37. 5 “Ὅμηρος μέντοι Κρῖσαν ἔν τε Ἰλιάδι ὁμοίως καὶ ὕμνῳ τῷ ἐς Ἀπόλλωνα ὀνόματι τῷ ἐξ ἀρχῆς καλεῖ τὴν πόλιν”. =h. Apoll. 267 etc.

Pausanias, who, beside citing these lines, passes the judgment on the literary quality of the Homeric Hymns quoted in the next section (ix. 30. 12), and is our principal source for hymn-literature generally in antiquity, clearly recognises these hymns as Homeric; his attitude is in marked contrast to that of his fellow-geographer Strabo. Considering this, it is remarkable that he uses only the Hymns to Demeter and to Apollo, and the latter only in one place; he ignores the Hymn to Hermes which he might have quoted (viii. 17 or ix. 26), and in treating “Τύχη” (9 above) neglects h. xi.5. It is impossible to give an even plausible reason for this inconsistency: possibly the humorous character of the Hermes hymn detracted from its antiquarian authority; or Pausanias drew from Apollodorus and the other prose accounts of the story; or the Homeric hymn was overshadowed by Alcaeus (whom he quotes on the theft of Apollo's oxen, vii. 20).

11. Athenaeus 22B “οὕτως δ᾽ ἦν εὔδοξον καὶ σοφὸν ἡ ὄρχησις ὥστε Πίνδαρος τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα ὀρχηστὴν καλεῖ—καὶ Ὅμηρος ἢ τῶν Ὁμηριδῶν τις ἐν τῷ εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα ὕμνῳ φησιν”

“Ἀπόλλων φόρμιγγ᾽ ἐν χείρεσσιν ἔχων χαρίεν κιθάριζε καλὰ καὶ ὕψι βιβάς”.

=h. Apoll. 514-6, with the variant “χαρίεν” for “ἐρατὸν” or “χρυσῆν” of the MSS.

This is the first quotation in which Homer is not positively given as the author. Athenaeus' quotation is repeated with his name by Eustathius “ οδ.θ” 383, f. 1602. 24.

12. Aristides orat. κατὰ τῶν ἐξορχουμένων 409 = ed. Dindorf ii. p. 559. “τίς ἄριστος ἐπῶν ποιητής; Ὅμηρος. τίς δ᾽ ὡς πλείστους ἀνθρώπων ἀρέσκει καὶ τᾷ μάλιστα χαίρουσιν; ἢ τοῦτό γε καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπὲρ αὑτοῦ προείδετο; διαλεγόμενος γὰρ ταῖς Δηλιάσι καὶ καταλύων τὸ προοίμιον, εἴ τις ἔροιθ̓ ὑμᾶς φησὶν ‘ὦ κοῦραι τίς δ᾽ ὔμμιν ἀνὴρ ἥδιστος ἀοιδῶν
ἐνθάδε πωλεῖται καὶ τέῳ τέρπεσθε μάλιστα;
ὑμεῖς δ᾽ εὖ μάλα πᾶσαι ἀποκρίνασθαι ἀφ̓ ἡμῶν

’”.

The coincidence of the quotation with Thucydides iii. 104 is too marked for one to suppose Aristides to be making an original citation; the clause “διαλεγόμενος γὰρ ταῖς Δηλιάσι καὶ καταλύων τὸ προοίμιον” closely follows Thucydides' “τὸν γὰρ Δηλιακὸν χορὸν τῶν γυναικῶν ὑμνήσας ἐτελεύτα τοῦ ἐπαίνου”, and the rhetor, hastily excerpting from Thucydides, mistook the meaning of “ἐτελεύτα τοῦ ἐπαίνου”. This point is well made by Gemoll, p. 114⁶ in his edition; see Introd. to the Hymn p. 61. Aristides, therefore, is not to be used as evidence to prove that two hymns to Apollo existed in his day. He is the last author, to whom a certain date can be assigned, that quotes the Hymns.

The following testimonies are less easy to date:

13. Schol. Apoll. Rhod. ii. 1211 “περὶ δὲ τοῦ τὸν Τυφῶνα ἐν αὐτῇ κεῖσθαι καὶ Ἡρόδωρος ἱστορεῖ ἐν ᾧ καὶ τὴν Νύσαν ἱστορεῖ:”

“ἔστι δὲ τις Νύση ὕπατον κέρας ἀνθέον ὕλῃ τηλοῦ Φοινίκης σχεδὸν Αἰγύπτοιο ῥοάων”.

This important testimony is unfortunately vague in its bearing. Herodorus, who is largely quoted in the scholia to Apollonius, sometimes as “ἐν τοῖς Ἀργοναύταις” or “Ἀργοναυτικοῖς”, is considered by C. F. Müller (F. H. G. iii. 27 f.) to be the same as the father of “Βρύσων” the sophist, and therefore of about 400 B.C. The scholion is incomplete and there is no indication of what is missing; the construction of the second “ἱστορεῖ” seems to demand such an addition as “περὶ τὴν Αἴγυπτον γενέσθαι”, cl. Diodor. i. 15. There is nothing to show whether Herodorus' work on the Argonauts was in prose or verse (his other work, on Heracles, was in prose, as the quotation fr. 30, 39 shows); if Herodorus, like Ionof Chios in his own century, practised both prose and verse, the lines might well be a quotation from his poem, and the apparent variant “κέρας” (for “ὄρος”) would thus be explained, and the more naturally that “κέρας”, according to the Lexica, is a late usage for a part of a mountain; in this case Herodorus would have copied the hymn. On the other hand Herodorus' work may have been in prose (as we are explicitly told of the “Ἀργοναυτικά” of another source of the Apollonian scholia, Dionysius of Mitylene; see Suidas s.v., ante p. xlvi), in which case, as is usually supposed, the omission has taken place after the first “ἱστορεῖ”, and “καὶ Ὅμηρος” or “καὶ ὁ ποιητής” have fallen out. (But that Diodorus is nowhere quoted in these abundant scholia, it would be possible that the words were “καὶ ὁ Διόδωρος”, or again “Ἀπολλόδωρος”, as Guttmann l.c. p. 6 thought, where the identical ending “-ωρος” would explain the omission.)

If the quotation can be connected with Herodorus, a very ancient testimony—as good as that of Thucydides to the Hymn to Apollo—is gained to the Dionysus hymn, but the conclusion is far from certain. (Cf. Gemoll p. 361, 2.)

14. Stephanus of Byzantium; “Τευμησσός: ὄρος Βοιωτίας. Ὅμηρος ἐν τῷ εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα ὕμνῳ. ἄστυ, ὡς Δημοσθένης ἐν τρίτῳ Βιθυνιακῶν:”

“εἰς Μυκαλησσὸν ἰὼν καὶ Τευμησσὸν λεχεποίην. ἐκλήθη δ᾽ οὕτως ὡς Ἀντίμαχος πρώτῳ Θηβαίδος” (fr. 4). =h. Apoll. 224.

According to the wording of the passage, the line seems to be quoted from the “Βιθυνιακά” of Demosthenes, which, as we see from the lines quoted by Stephanus s.vv. “Ἀρτάκη, Ἡραία”, was a poem. Then Demosthenes would have appropriated the line of the hymn, and the case is somewhat parallel to that of Herodorus. Demosthenes' date is uncertain (Müller F. H. G. iv. 384-6), but Stephanus s.v. “Χαλκεῖα” (=fr. 15) quotes Polybius as disagreeing with him, and Susemihl (Gesch. d. gr. Lit. in d. Alex. i. 404) accepts him as of the Alexandrine age.

15. Schol. Genev. on Il. 21.319. “Ἀπολλόδωρος δέ φησι περισσὸν τὸ ς παρ᾽ αὐτῷ εἶναι, ὡς παρ᾽ Ὁμήρῳ τὴν φερέσβιον”.⁷

The word “φερέσβιος” does not occur in the Iliad or Odyssey, and the reference is presumably to the Hymns, in which it is frequent. On Apollodorus, who was a disciple of Aristarchus (and therefore of the second century B.C.), see La Roche Hom. Textkritik p. 73, 74, and Pauly-Wissowa s.v. If the note in these scholia is correct, it gives us the only instance of an Alexandrian noticing the Hymns.

16. Schol. in Nicandri Alexipharmaca 130 “ὅτι δὲ διὰ γλήχωνος ἔπιεν ἡ Δημήτηρ τὸν κυκεῶνα καὶ διὰ τὴν χλεύην τῆς Ἰάμβης ἐγέλασεν ἡ θεά, ἐν τοῖς εἰς Ὅμηρον ἀναφερομένοις ὕμνοις λέγεται”. =Dem. 192 f.

The cautious ascription is noticeable, as in Athenaeus (no. 11).

17. Schol. Pind. Pyth. iii. 14 “ἐν δὲ τοῖς εἰς Ἡσίοδον ἀναφερομένοις ἔπεσι φέρεται ταῦτα περὶ τῆς Κορωνίδος . . . ἐν δὲ τοῖς Ὁμηρικοῖς ὕμνοις ‘ἰητῆρα νόσων Ἀσκληπιὸν ἄρχομ᾽ ἀείδειν,
υἱὸν Ἀπόλλωνος, τὸν ἐγείνατο δῖα Κορωνὶς
Δωτίῳ ἐν πεδίῳ κούρη Φλεγύα βασιλῆος

’” = xvi. 1-3, with the variant v. 3 “Φλεγύα” for “Φλεγύου”.

The age of any particular portion of the Pindaric scholia can probably not be fixed, but in general they go back to good sources, and quotations perhaps would not have been added later than Herodian's age. The point is of importance, as the quotation (which is unique) of the minor hymns tends to disprove a very late origin for xvi. and its neighbour. ⁸ A classical grammarian of a good age would not have quoted Alexandrian literature as Homeric.

18. Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi 303 (Hesiod ed. Rzach 1902, p. 449) “ἐνδιατρίψας δὲ τῇ πόλει χρόνον τινα διέπλευσεν εἰς Δῆλον εἰς τὴν πανήγυριν, καὶ σταθεὶς ἐπὶ τὸν κερατινὸν βωμὸν λέγει ὕμνον εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα οὗ ἡ ἀρχή ‘μνήσομαι οὐδὲ λάθωμαι Ἀπόλλωνος ἑκάτοιο
’. ῀η. απολλ. 1. ῥηθέντος δὲ τοῦ ὕμνου οἱ μὲν Ἴωνες πολίτην αὐτὸν κοινὸν ἐποιήσαντο. Δήλιοι δὲ γράψαντες τὰ ἔπη εἰς λεύκωμα ἀνέθηκαν ἐν τῷ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερῷ”.

On the age of the Certamen and its connexion with Alcidamas see the articles in Pauly-Wissowa “Ἀγὼν Ὁμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου” by BotheE. , Alkidamas by BrzoskaJ. , and Flinders Petrie Papyri pt. i. no. 25. It is probably impossible to assign a date to a particular portion, and the Delian inventories do not contain an entry of a hymn to Apollo as among the furniture of the temple of Artemis. There is no reason, however, to question so much of the story; a temple at Delos possessed Eudoxus' and Alcaeus' works, the latter in a “θήκη τρίγωνος” (Homolle Monuments grecs, 1878, p. 49, Daremberg et Saglio Dict.p. 378, n. 181, cf. B. C. H. xxii. 268 f.), and a statue of Alcman ( de mus. 1136 A), and the “λευκώματα” at Delos are mentioned in several inscriptions (B. C. H. xiv. p. 399); while for literature given the consecration of engraving in temples, we have the Hesiod on lead at Helicon (Paus. ix. 31), Pindar's seventh Olympian in gold letters in the temple of Athena at Lindos (schol. Pind. Ol. vii. init. on the authority of Gorgon , a Rhodian antiquary, Susemihl l.c. ii. 399, F. H. G. iv. 410), and the recent discoveries of Archilochus on stone at Paros (Ath. Mitth. xxv. 1 f.) and the Delphian Hymns. It is to be regretted that the Homeric Hymn was not given a less perishable material than an album. (How ephemeral writing on a “λεύκωμα” was appears from the Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία c. 47, § 5, Plato Laws 785 A.)

These appear to be the quotations of the Hymns.⁹ Allusions to them are the following:

19. Menander (in Walz Rhet. graec. ix. 320, Spengel Rh. gr. iii. 331 f.)¹⁰ “Περὶ ἐπιδεικτικῶν” c. 17 (“Περὶ σμινθιακῶν”): “Ὅμηρος μὲν οὖν” “ὕμνους καὶ τῇ μεγάλῃ ποιήσει τοὺς πρὸς ἀξίαν ὕμνους εἴρηκε τοῦ θεοῦ” [sc. “Ἀπόλλωνος] καὶ παρέλιπε τοῖς μετ᾽ αὐτὸν ὑπερβολὴν οὐδεμίαν”.

20. Herodoti vit. Hom. c. 4 “τήν τε ποίησιν αὐτοῖς ἐπεδείκνυντο, Ἀμφιάρεώ τε τὴν ἐξηλασίαν τὴν ἐς Θήβας, καὶ τοὺς ὕμνους τοὺς ἐς τοὺς θεοὺς πεποιημένους αὐτῷ”.

21. Schol. Pind. Nem. ii. init. “Ὁμηρίδας ἔλεγον τὸ μὲν ἀρχαῖον τοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ Ὁμήρου γένους, οἳ καὶ τὴν ποίησιν αὐτοῦ ἐκ διαδοχῆς ᾖδον: μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα καὶ οἱ ῥαψῳδοὶ οὐκέτι τὸ γένος εἰς Ὅμηρον ἀνάγοντες, ἐπιφανεῖς δὲ ἐγένοντο οἱ περὶ Κύναιθον, οὕς φασι πολλὰ τῶν ἐπῶν ποιήσαντας ἐμβαλεῖν εἰς τὴν Ὁμήρου ποίησιν. ἦν δὲ ὁ Κύναιθος Χῖος. ὃς καὶ τῶν ἐπιγραφομένων Ὁμήρου ποιημάτων τὸν εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα γραφόμενον ὕμνον λέγεται πεποιηκέναι. οὗτος οὖν ὁ Κύναιθος πρῶτος ἐν Συρακούσαις ἐραψῴδησε τὰ Ὁμήρου ἔπη κατὰ τὴν ἑξακοστὴν ἐννάτην Ὀλυμπιάδα, ὡς Ἱππόστρατός φησιν”.

Hippostratus was a Sicilian chronicler, frequently cited in the Pindaric scholia ( Pyth.vi. 4, Ol.ii. 8 and 16, and schol. Theocr. vi. 46, Phlegon de mirab. 30, cf. Müller F. H. G. iv. 432 f., Susemihl l.c. ii. 390), and the tradition of Cynaethus, of the greatest value, seeing that it is the only account which professes to find a definite author of any hymn, comes to us as a piece of local history.

The date (ol. 69=B.C. 504) has long been recognised to be wrong, and must be so, since the hymn takes no account of the Pythian games, the burning of the first temple at Delphi, the temple of Apollo and the “τροχοειδὴς λίμνη” at Delos (see the introduction to the Hymn). In another fragment (no. 3) of Hippostratus the date has been altered. However, it seems idle to change “ξθ́” into one numeral more than another.¹¹ The detailed character of the notice, and its coincidence with other sources which ascribe the hymn to the Homeridae, entitle it to respect. Fick,¹² however, who has lately resuscitated the story, is clearly wrong in supposing the hymn Sicilian. Cynaethus, like the other great rhapsodes, travelled round the Greek world.¹³ The tradition evidently refers the hymn to Chios.

22. Schol. Aristoph. Birds574“ὅτι ψεύδεται παίζων. οὐ γὰρ ἐπὶ Ιριδος ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ Ἀθηνᾶς καὶ Ἥρας:”

“αἱ δὲ βάτην τρήρωσι πελειάσιν ἴθμαθ᾽ ὁμοῖαι” (E 778) “οἱ δὲ ἐν ἑτέροις ποιήμασιν Ὁμήρου φασιν τοῦτο γενέσθαι. εἰσὶ γὰρ αὐτοῦ καὶ ὕμνοι”.

23. Suidas s.v. “Ὅμηρος. . . . ἀναφέρεται δὲ ἐς αὐτὸν καὶ ἄλλα τινα ποιήματα . . . Κύκλος, Ὕμνοι, Κύπρια”.¹⁴

We have next one or two resemblances in literature which suggest quotation. Aristophanes Birds574 says.

“αὐτίκα Νίκη πέτεται πτερύγοιν χρυσαῖν καὶ νὴ Δἴ Ἔρως γε: Ἶριν δέ γ᾽ Ὅμηρος ἔφασκ᾽ ἰκέλην εἶναι τρήρωνι πελείῃ”.

But as the scholiast just quoted says, the comparison in Homer (E 778) is between Athena and Hera, not Iris, and a pigeon, and he implies that Aristophanes was by some taken to refer to h. Apoll. 114 “βὰν δὲ ποσὶ τρήρωσι πελειάσιν ἴθμαθ᾽ ὁμοῖαι” (Iris and Eilithyia). This is possible, and the alteration “Ἥραν” for “Ἶριν” in the text of Aristophanes is uncalled for.

Further Knights 1016 “ἴαχεν ἐξ ἀδύτοιο διὰ τριπόδων ἐριτίμων” resembles Apoll. 443 “ἐς δ᾽ ἄδυτον κατέδυσε διὰ τριπόδων ἐριτίμων”.¹⁵

This is all the testimony explicit and implicit, which can be gathered from ancient literature. Compared to the vast mass of quotation from the Iliad and Odyssey it is slight, and the impression of neglect which we gather from it is supported by another class of evidence—the omission to quote the Hymns in contexts where they would naturally have been appealed to. This is most strikingly the case in the scholia to the Iliad. Thus Il. 1.176 the scholl. quote Hesiod Theog. 94, 5 but not h. xxv.2, 3 where the same words occur; B 144 “ὅτι Ζηνόδοτος γράφει φὴ κύματα. οὐδέποτε δὲ Ὅμηρος τὸ φή ἀντὶ τοῦ ὡς τέταχεν, Ξ 499 . . . ὅτι ὁ ποιητὴς οὐδέποτε οἶδε τὸ φή ἀντὶ τοῦ ὡς, οἱ δὲ μετ᾽ αὐτόν, ὥσπερ Ἀντίμαχος καὶ οἱ περὶ Καλλίμαχον”; this ignores Herm.241 where “φή ῥα” for “θή ῥα” is almost certain. I 246 “σημειοῦνταί τινες ὅτι τὴν ὅλην Πελοπόννησον οὐκ οἶδεν ὁ ποιητής, Ἡσίοδος δέ”; but the author of the Hymn to Apollo has the word Peloponnesus 250 and 290. These passages might be increased, but they suffice to show that the learning of the Alexandrian school made no appeal to the Hymns on points where, if they were genuine, they would have affected Homeric usage; and therefore, however singular the absence of any reference to them in the whole body of extant scholia (except in the possible case of Apollodorus, above no. 15) may be, this silence is doubtless to be interpretated as Wolf formulated it (Prol. 266), that the Alexandrines considered the Hymns non-Homeric.

The same conclusion may be drawn from the usage of writers who follow the Alexandrian view of Homer—Strabo and Apollonius the Sophist. Strabo, whose orthodoxy is more than scholastic, and contrasts strongly with the other geographers and antiquarians, ignores the Hymns in more than one important passage. Europe is unknown to Homer (Strabo p. 531), but “Εὐρώπη” occurs Apoll. 251, 291; “ἄλφι” (560) is un-Homeric and found only in Antimachus; he ignores Dem.208; Il. 2.591 and Il. 11.711 are quoted for the town “Θρύον” p. 349, Herm.101 is passed over. The consequence is that when in two places Strabo cites as after Odyssey 15.294 a line which is not found in our Odyssey MSS., but which occurs (with a variant) Apoll. 423, we conclude not that Strabo is acknowledging the Hymn or even quoting it by a slip, but that his copy of the Odyssey contained this extra line. In Apollonius it is enough to mention that his article “κνώδαλον” takes no account of Herm.188 and that under “Φιλομηλείδης” he says “οὐ γὰρ Λητοίδην εἶπε τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα” (h. Herm. 505, 510, 521). Among later authors Lydus de mensibus iii. 18 and Macrobius v. 168 (the latter an extensive quoter of Homer) state roundly that Homer has not the word “τύχη”, notwithstanding Dem.420, h. xi.5.

It results from all this evidence positive and negative, that the Homeric Hymns were not included in the Homeric corpus by the grammarians of Alexandria nor wirters who took their tone from them; that they were considered Homeric and used as evidence of Homeric usage and history by historians and antiquarians from Thucydides downwards, in some cases with a qualification; and that by the public generally they were little read.¹⁶

The neglect of these poems, so abundantly attested, seems to account for the many uncorrected corruptions which have propagated themselves in one or other of the families of MSS., especially in M; for the unsupplied loss of two hymns in all but one MS., and of nearly the whole of one in M; and for that absence of ancient commentaries which makes the interpretation of the longer hymns so difficult. The presence of full scholia on the hymns to Demeter, Apollo, and Hermes would have given the geographer and the folklorist wealth that it is difficult to imagine.¹⁷