[289] ἐλούεον: called an “impossible” form by Gemoll. It is a false formation, but is not to be ejected on that account. Cf. Schulze Quaest. Ep. p. 65 n. 1, Smyth Ionic Dialect p. 535, Solmsen l.c. p. 13, K. Z. 29, 98. Ludwich needlessly objects to the washing of the child. The women perform one of the duties of a nurse, in place of Demeter. It is perhaps unnecessary to press the phrase further, and to point out that the child would be covered with wood-ash. This motive, however, is expressly mentioned in a very similar passage (of the Nymphs and Bacchus), Anth. Pal. ix. 331 “αι<*> Νύμφαι τὸν Βάκχον, ὅτ̓ ἐκ πυρὸς ἥλατο κοῦρος”,
“νίψαν ὑπὲρ τέφρης ἄρτι κυλιόμενον”.
The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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