[71] The hymn-writer calls the cows indifferently the property of the gods (cf. the use of “ὑμέτερος” 276, 310), or of Apollo (18, 22 etc.). On the analogy of the Vedic hymns (see Introd. p. 130) it might appear probable that in the oldest form of the myth the cattle belonged to the Sun, and afterwards to Apollo as Sun-god. In Homer Apollo has no herds of his own; the oxen slaughtered by the comrades of Odysseus belong to Helios (Od. 12.127 f.). In Apollodorus the actual ownership is left vague (“κλέπτει βόας ἃς ἔνεμεν Ἀπόλλων”). The Sun is specified in schol. Dion. Thrac. (Bekker Anecd. i. p. 752). See on h. Apoll. 412 f.
ἄμβροτοι: often of property belonging to the gods, “divine,” not necessarily “immortal”; indeed Hermes kills two of them (though such inconsistency would not be serious in this hymn).This text is part of:
The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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