HYMN TO ARTEMIS
THE hymn is no doubt Ionic, and it is obvious to suggest that the composer was a rhapsodist at Claros. The marks of locality (the Meles, Smyrna, and Claros) are not of sufficiently PanHellenic importance to be merely “literary,” as would be, for example, the mention of Cyprus and Cythera in connexion with Aphrodite (see h. Aphr. Introd.). Nor is it impossible that the prelude was recited at a common festival of Apollo and Artemis (Baumeister); but we have no proof that such a festival existed, although there are Colophonian coins of Apollo “Κλάριος” and Artemis “Κλαρία”, dating from imperial times (Head Hist. Num. p. 494). The two deities, however, are not represented together on this coinage (see also Farnell Cults ii. p. 532); and the reference to the Clarian Apollo may have a mythological rather than a ritualistic significance (see on 5 and xxvii. 13 f.). 2=h. Apoll. 199.[3] ἵπΠους: Artemis was called “εὑρίππα” at Pheneos in Arcadia, Paus.viii. 14. 5.Cf. Pind. Ol.iii. 26“Λατοῦς ἱπποσόα θυγάτηρ”, id. fr. 89 “ἵππων ἐλάτειραν”. More often, in art, she drives stags or deer (e.g. on the frieze of the temple of Apollo at Bassae).
ἄρσασα: for the verb (“ἄρδω”) and construction the editors quote Euphor. fr. 75 (Mein.) “οἳ δ᾽ οὔπω Σιμόεντος Ἀχαιίδας ἤρσαμεν ἵππους”. Μέλητος: preserved by M alone. The river Meles flowed by Smyrna, and is to be identified with a stream at Bournoubat, near Old Smyrna (Frazer on Paus.vii. 5. 12). Homer was said to have composed his poems in a grotto on its banks ( Paus. ib.).[5] Κλάρον: see on h. Apoll. 40. Artemis visits her brother in his famous sanctuary at Claros, just as she visits Delphi, xxvii. 13 f. (where see note).
[6] ἑκατηβόλον: apparently only here of Artemis, who however is “ἑκηβόλος”, Soph. fr. 357, and on a Naxian inscription at Delos, B. C. H. iii. (1879) p. 3 f.; and “ἑκαέργη” (Farnell Cults ii. p. 465).
7 = xiv. 6, where, as here, only M preserves the correct reading “θ̓” for “δ̓”.