Thomas W. Allen, E. E. Sikes, Commentary on the Homeric Hymns

[410] ἀλιστέφανον: Matthiae's correction “Ἕλος τ᾽ ἔφαλον”, from Il. 2.584, is brilliant, and has been generally adopted; but it is hard to suppose a rare and poetical word, like “ἁλιστέφανον”, either the result of a corruption or the invention of a scribe. Moreover “Ἕλος” is at the head of the Laconian gulf, and it is difficult to see why the “Νότος” carried the ship first N. and then S. again to Taenarum instead of crossing the mouth of the gulf from point to point. This latter argument cannot, however, be pressed; for (1) the hymn-writer is careless on points of geographical accuracy (see 239 f., 419 f., 425), and (2) the ship might be said to pass Helos, even if it kept a fairly straight course from Malea to Taenarum.

With the manuscript reading, “πτολίεθρον” would refer to Taenarum: “first they went by Malea, and then past the Laconian land they arrived at the seagirt town and fields of the sun.” Paus.iii. 25. 9 mentions a town once called Taenarum, in his own day “Καινήπολις”, forty stades from the cape; so Byz. “στεπη. Ταίναρος . . . ἀφ᾽ οὖ καλεῖται ἡ πόλις καὶ ἡ ἄκρα καὶ ὁ λιμήν”. The hymn-writer may either have identified the cape and town, or may refer to the town only. The epithet “ἁλιστέφανος” is true of the Taenarian peninsula; cf. Pind. Pyth.i. 18“ἁλιερκέες ὄχθαι”, of Cumae, between two seas. The nearly identical “ἁλιστεφής” seems to have been common in hymnal literature; cf. Arg. 145, 186, 1208.

In favour of Matthiae's emendation, it should be noted that the hymn-writer is evidently familiar with the passage in B; cf. on 422, 423.