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

[465] Cf. Od. 7.210 “. οὐ δέμας οὐδὲ φύην”: perhaps “neither in form (general appearance) nor in stature,” but the distinction between “δέμας” and “φυή” is not very evident; see Leaf on Il. 1.115.

After this line several editors assume a lacuna; A. Matthiae supplies “ἵληθ̓: εἰ δέ τις ἐσσὶ καταθνητῶν ἀνθρώπων”, objecting to the words “θεοὶ δέ τοι ὄλβια δοῖεν” in their present context, as the Cretans took the stranger for a god. If the speaker really believed that he was addressing a god, it would be a sufficient defence of the text to point out, with Gemoll, that the Homeric phrase “θεοὶ δέ τοι κτλ.” has been transferred from its appropriate context to a less suitable place. But lines 464, 465 are merely complimentary; Apollo is now disguised as a young man of noble appearance (449), and the Cretans do not know that he is a god, or that he has any connexion with the previous miracles. For the nobility of the gods, even in their disguises, see h. Dem. 159, h. Aphr. 81 f.

466-472. This passage is almost a cento from the Odyssey: 466, 467=Od. 24.402, 403; 468=Od. 13.233 “ τίς γῆ, τίς δῆμος, τίνες ἀνέρες ἐγγεγάασιν”; preceded by “καί μοι τοῦτ᾽ κτλ.”; 471=Od. 1.182 (“κατήλυθον ἠδ᾽ ἑτάροισι”); 472=Od. 9.261 (“οἴκαδε”). Baumeister objects to 472, which, however, seems quite in place. Their “νόστος” should have been “by another way and other paths.” They had already passed Pylos, their destination (cf. 398, 424), and were now going away from, instead of towards, their home.