[231] The story of Demeter nursing Demophon has a parallel in Paus.ii. 5. 5: the children of Plemnaeus, a legendary King of Aegialea, in Sicyon, died at birth, until Demeter took pity and under the guise of a strange woman reared up a child named Orthopolis. On the close connexion between the growth of children and vegetation see the interesting chapter in Mannhardt Myth. Forsch. p. 351 f. “Kind und Korn.” For Demeter as a goddess of healing see Rubensohn in Ath. Mitth. xx. p. 360 f. In the hymn, Demophon is in no present danger; Demeter only promises to keep him in good health. According to Nicand. Ther.485 a lizard (“ἀσκαλαβώτης”) had wounded Metanira's child; in Ovid Fast.iv. 446 f. the child (Triptolemus) is dying.
θυώδεϊ δέξατο κόλπῳ=Il. 6.483 (“κηώδεϊ”), of Andromache; hence “θυώδης” does not refer to the divinity of Demeter, who sheds a superhuman fragrance only when she appears as a goddess (see on 277).
The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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