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

[425] Strabo in two places (350, 447), speaking of the return journey of Telemachus from Pylos, quotes a line “βὰν δὲ παρὰ Κρουνοὺς καὶ Χαλκίδα καλλιρέεθρον” (in 447 “πετρήεσσαν”). This line is not in any MS. of the Odyssey, where it should naturally come before Od. 15.296 or (see Monro ad loc.) after 297. Strabo throughout ignores the hymns, and says that “Δύμη” is not in Homer (Strabo 341). There is therefore the less reason to suppose that he is quoting this hymn; in view of the recent additions in papyri, he probably read the line in a copy of the Odyssey. Cf. Preface p. liv.

For “Κρουνούς” and “Χαλκίδα” see Strabo 343, 351, where he calls them “ὀχετοί” rather than rivers (like the Iardanus of Il. 7.135 which he styles a “ποτάμιον” 342). They were small streams (Chalcis was also a “κατοικία”) in the district of Macistia S. of the mouth of the Alpheus, and seem to have been obliterated by the lagoon which now stretches from the Alpheus past Macistus, part of which (that formed by the Anigrus at Arene) is mentioned by Strabo 347, Frazer Paus.vol. iii. p. 478.

ΔύμηΝ: the Achaean Dyme is mentioned out of its proper place. The ship would of course pass it after Elis. The author again disregards the proper sequence of landmarks; cf. on 239 f.

426, 427. In the Odyssey these lines stand in the reverse order; in 427 the Homeric MSS. have “ἡ δὲ” instead of “εὖτε”, and “ἐπειγομένη” for “ἀγαλλομένη”.