E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3

Ὅμηρος—the blind bard “of Chios,” who wrote this prize poem, was, according to a scholiast on Pindar, Cynaethus of Chios.

ἐκ προοιμίου—the quotations are from the famous “Homeric hymn” to Apollo; it was actually sung at the festival, where it received a prize.

ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε. = Hymn to Apollo 146-150, with important variations from the version of the hymn as found in the extant MSS. ‘But when your heart rejoices most in Delos.’

ἑλκεχίτωνες—alluding to the long robes of the Ionians in early times, almost obsolete in the days of Thuc.

σὴν ἐς ἀγυιάν—meaning uncertain; the square before the temple of Apollo, where the ἀγών was held, is the suggestion of Sikes ad loc. The I. in the MSS. of the hymn stands αὐτοῖς σὺν παίδεσσι καὶ αἰδοίῃς ἀλόχοισιν.

καθέσωσιν ἀγῶνα—‘have made the assembly sit down,’ to start the contests. ἀγών is ‘an assembly at games’. see Leaf on Iliad XV. 428. The MSS. of the hymn have στήσωνται ἀγῶνα.