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[39] Σμινθεῦ, lit. ‘Mouse-god’; Apollo was worshipped under this title in the Troad, as at Smyrna as ‘Locust-god,’ “Παρνόπιος”. Strabo (p. 606) knows of several places named Sminthia, as far as Rhodes. The Sminthian temple near Cape Lekton existed to historical times; and even on late coins of Alexandria Troas Apollo appears with a mouse at his feet. Mr. Lang argues that this indicates the amalgamation of the Greek Apollo with a local mouse-god, originally a tribal totem. The common explanation is that the word is a familiar abbreviation of “Σμινθοφθόρος”, destroying the field-mice or voles which ravaged the vineyards: “οἱ γὰρ Κρῆτες τοὺς μύας σμίνθους καλοῦσιν” Schol. A (see Frazer's note on Paus.x. 12. 5). Only a few years ago Thessaly was seriously injured by an invasion of these little pests. Others see in the mouse the symbol of plague, which would be especially suitable here. In Herodotos the destruction of the army of Sennacherib is attributed not to a plague but to a host of field-mice which gnawed the Assyrian bow-strings in the night. A somewhat similar story connected with the colonization of the Troad is told by Strabo (p. 604). In 1 Sam. vi. 4 golden mice are offered as a propitiation when visited by a plague (W. Robertson Smith Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia p. 302, where further evidence is given for a Semitic mouse-god). ἔρεψα seems to indicate the most primitive form of temple — a mere roof to protect the image of a god standing in a grove; for it was to groves, not to buildings, that sanctity originally belonged. Temples are rarely mentioned in H.; we hear only of those of Apollo and Athene in Troy, and of Athene at Athens. See note on 5.446. χαρίεντα seems to be proleptic, for thy pleasure. For the construction of the prayer cf. E 115.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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hide References (3 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (3):
    • Homer, Iliad, 5.115
    • Old Testament, 1 Samuel, 6.4
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10.12.5
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