[244] ἐΠιτηρ́ησασα: she watched to see how the nurse made the child thrive, and thus broke the taboo. The magic could only be worked in secrecy, although the writer implies rather than expresses this (258 f.). In fact it is doubtful whether he understood the real nature of the taboo in the myth; he lays stress only upon Demeter's anger (251, 254), as if she renounced her design of her own will. In the Achilles legend, Apollodorus (l.c.) is more explicit: “Θέτις κωλυθεῖσα τὴν προαίρεσιν τελειῶσαι”. Apollonius vaguely states that Thetis left Peleus, as soon as she heard him cry, and rushed into the sea, “χωσαμένη” (Il. 4.877); the schol. on Nub. 1068 similarly says “ἡ δὲ λιτηθεῖσα ἐχωρίσθη”. Curiosity in seeing a forbidden sight is punished in the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche; for other examples of this world-wide motive see Hartland Science of Fairy Tales pp. 270 f.
The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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