[111] The editors eject the line as a gloss, but it may be genuine as is, no doubt, the similar line 25. ἀνέδωκε, “gave forth,” cf. “ἀνέκαιε” 115; not “gave back,” for Baumeister is surely wrong in seeing an allusion to Hes. Op. 50 “τὸ μὲν αὖτις ἐῢς παῖς Ἰαπετοῖο” | “ἔκλεψ᾽ ἀνθρώποισιν”. According to the usual tradition it was, of course, Prometheus that gave men fire, or restored it when hidden by Zeus. The present line does not necessarily imply a different tradition: Hermes does not discover fire, but only invents one method of ignition by “fire-sticks,” and (so) “gave fire.” Fire was also produced by the flint (Sen. quaest. nat. ii. 22), and by the burning-glass or crystal (see Blaydes on Aristoph. Cl. 768); this was particularly used for sacred fire, Orph. Lith. 184 f.; and the myth of Prometheus is specially concerned with the preservation of fire in the fennel-stalk, although in one account ( Diod. v. 67) the invention of “πυρεῖα” is also attributed to Prometheus; Sikes and Willson on Aesch. P. V. xvi. f.
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The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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