4, “The Curetes in full armour,
guarding
the infant in the cave, beat their shields with their spears that Cronus might not hear the child’s voice.
Callimachus - Hymns
32 For they said that the lot assigned to the sons of Cronus their three several abodes.
33 But who would draw lots for Olympos and for Hades – save a very fool?
For equal chances should one cast lots; but these are the wide world apart.
When I speak fiction, be it such fiction as persuades the listener’s ear!
Thou wert made sovereign of the gods not by casting of lots by the deeds of thy hands, thy might and that strength34 which thou hast set beside thy throne.
And the most excellent of birds35 didst thou make the messenger of thy sings; favourable to my friends be the sings thou showest!
And thou didst choose that which is most excellent among men – not thou the skilled in ships, nor the wielder of the shield, nor the minstrel: these didst thou straightway renounce to lesser gods, other cares to others.
But thou didst choose the rulers of cities themselves, beneath whose hand is the lord of the soil, the skilled in spearmanship, the oarsman, yea, all things that are: what is there that is not under the ruler’s sway?
Thus, smith, we say, belong to Hephaestus; to Ares, warriors; to Artemis of the Tunic,36 huntsmen; to Phoebus they that know well the strains of the lyre.
But from Zeus come kings; for nothing is diviner than the kings of Zeus.
Wherefore thou didst choose them for thine own lot, and gavest them cities to guard.
And thou didst seat thyself in the high places of the cities, watching who rule their people with crooked judgements, and who rule otherwise.
And thou hast bestowed upon them wealth and prosperity abundantly; unto all, but not in equal measure.
One may well judge by our Ruler,37 for he hath clean outstripped all others.
At evening he accomplisheth what whereon he thinketh in the morning; yea, at evening the greatest things, but the lesser soon as he thinketh on them.
But the others accomplish some things in a year, and some things not in one; of others, again, thou thyself dost utterly frustrate the accomplishing and thwartest their desire.
[90] Hail! greatly hail! most high Son of Cronus, giver of good things, giver of safety. Thy works who could sing? There hath not been, there shall not be, who shall sing the works of Zeus. Hail! Father, hail again! And grant us goodness and prosperity. Without goodness wealth cannot bless men, nor goodness without prosperity. Give us goodness and weal.
1. Mountain in Crete.
2. Mountain in Arcadia.
3. This proverbial saying, attributed to Epimenides, is quoted by St. Paul. Ep. Tit. i. 12, “One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies” (kata thêria, gasteres argai), and seems to be alluded to by Aratus, Phaen. 30 ei eteon dê. The explanation given by Athenodorus of Eretria ap. Ptolem. Hephaest. In Photii Bibl. p. 150 Bekk. Is that Thetis and Medea, having a dispute as to which of them was the fairer, entrusted the decision to Idomeneus of Crete. He decided in favour of Thetis, whereon Medea said, “Cretans are always liars” and cursed them that they should never speak the truth. The schol. On the present passage says that Idomeneus divided the spoils of Troy unfairly.
4. The Cretan legend was that Zeus was a prince who was slain by a wild boar and buried in Crete. His tomb was variously localized and the tradition of “the tomb of Zeus” attaches to several places even in modern times, especially to Mount Iuktas. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, vol. i. p. 157 ff.
5. Arcadia.
6. Cf. Apoll. Rh. iv. 1240.
7. Goddess of birth.
8. The ancient Arcadians (schol. ).
9. River in Arcadia.
10. Melas: Dion. Per. 415 ff. Arkades Apidanêes hupo skopiên Erumanthou, entha Melas, othi Krathis, ina rheei hugros Idaôn, êchi kai ôgugios mêkunetai udasi Ladôn. Herodot. i. 145 has Ôlenos en tô Peiros potamos megas estia. Strabo 386 has Ôlenos, par’ on potramos megas Melas where it has been proposed to read par’ on <Peiros> and to omit Melas. M. T. Smiley, in Classical Qu. v. (1911) p. 89 f. , suggests that the Styx is meant, which supplies the waterfall near Nonacris in North Arcadia and later becomes a tributary of the Crathis (Paus. viii. 18. 4). When Leake discovered the waterfall in 1806 the natives did not know the name Styx for it but called it the Black Water (Mavro nero) or the Dragon Water. The name Peiros in any case suggests a connexion with the underworld.
11. Carnion or Carion, river in Arcadia, Paus. viii. 34.
12. Crathis, river in Arcadia (and Achaea), Paus. vii. 25. 11, viii. 15. 5, viii. 18. 4.
13. Metope, river in Arcadia.
14. Cf. Paus. iv. 33. 1, “The Messenians say that Zeus was reared among them and that his nurses were Ithome and Neda, after whom the river got its name. ” Cf. viii. 38 ff.
15. Styx, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, Hesiod, Th. 361.
16. Philyra, daughter of Oceanus, mother of Cheiron by Cronus.
17. Paus. iv. 20. 2. The river Neda rises in Mount Lycaeon, flows into Messenia and forms the boundary between Messenia and Elis. Cf. Strabo 348 who says it rises in Lycaeon from a spring which Rheia caused to flow in order to wash the infant Zeus.
18. A people of Triphylia, Hom. Od. iii. 366.
19. Herod. iv. 148 says that Lepreon in Triphylia was founded by the Minyae after driving out the Cauconians.
20. i. e. the sea.
21. Arcas, the ancestor of the Arcadians, was the son of Zeus and Lycaon’s daughter Callisto who was changed into a bear.
22. Town in Crete.
23. Cydonia, town in Crete.
24. Schol. Nicand. Alex. 7 Omphalos gar topos en Krêtê, hôs kai Kallimachos pege . . . Kudônes. Diodor. v. 70 tells the story (he says that Zeus was carried by the Curetes) and gives the name of the place as Omphalos and of the plain around as Omphaleion.
25. Corybantes.
26. The ash-tree nymphs, cf. Hesiod. Th. 187.
27. Cf. Apoll. Rh. iii. 132 ff. Dios perikalles athurma | keino, to oi poise philê trophos Adrêsteia | antrô en Idaiô eti nêpia kourixonti | sphairan eutrochalon; i. q. Nemesis, sister of the Curetes (schol. ).
28. The nymph of she-goat who suckled Zeus; Diodor. v. 70, Apollod. 1. 5, schol. Arat. 161. Ovid, Fast. i. 115 ff.
29. Mountains in Crete (Steph. Byz. s. v. Panakra). Zeus rewarded the bees by making them of a golden bronze colour and rendering them insensible to the rigours of the mountain climate (Diodor. v. 70).
30. Apollodor. i.
4, “The Curetes in full armour, guarding the infant in the cave, beat their shields with their spears that Cronus might not hear the child’s voice. ”
31. prulis, the Cyprian name for the purrhichê (Aristotle fr. 476, schol. Pind. P. ii. 127) or dance in armour (Pollux iv. 96 and 99); see Classical Qu. xxxii. p. 131.
32. This has been supposed to refer to the fact that Ptolemy Philadelphus was the youngest of the sons of Ptolemy Soter.
33. Homer, Il. xv. 187 ff. ; cf. Apollodor. i. 7, Pind O. vii. 54 ff.
34. Bia and Cratos appear as personification of the might and majesty of Zeus in Aeschylus, P. V. , Hesiod, Th. 385, etc.
35. The eagle.
36. Artemis Chitone (Chitonea, Athen. 629 c), so called from the tunic (chiton) in which as huntress she was represented; not, as the schol. Says, from the Attic deme Chitone.
37. Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, 285-247 B. C.
HYMN II. TO APOLLO
[1] How the laurel branch of Apollo trembles! How trembles all the shrine! Away, away, he that is sinful! Now surely Phoebus knocketh at the door with his beautiful foot. See’st thou not? The Delian palm1 nods pleasantly of a sudden and the swan2 in the air sings sweetly. Of yourselves now ye bolts be pushed back, pushed back of yourselves, ye bars! The god is no longer far away. And ye, young men, prepare ye for song and for the dance.
[9] Not unto everyone doth Apollo appear, but unto him that is good. Whoso hath seen Apollo, he is great; whoso hath not seen him, he is of low estate. We shall see thee, O Archer, and we shall never be lowly. Let no the youths keep silent lyre or noiseless step, when Apollo visits3 his shrine, if they think to accomplish marriage and to cut the locks of age,4 and if the wall is to stand upon its old foundations. Well done the youths, for that the shell5 is no longer idle.
[17] Be hushed, ye that hear, at the song to Apollo; yea, hushed is even the sea when the minstrels celebrate the lyre or the bow, the weapons of Lycoreian Phoebus. 6 Neither doth Thetis his mother wail her dirge for Achilles, when she hears Hië7 Paeëon, Hië Paeëon.
[22] Yea, the tearful rock defers its pain, the wet stone is set in Phrygia, a marble rock like a woman8 open-mouthed in some sorrowful utterance. Say ye Hië! Hië! an ill thing it is strive with the Blessed Ones. He who fights with the Blessed Ones would fight with my King9; he who fights with my King, would fight even with Apollo. Apollo will honour the choir, since it sings according to his heart; for Apollo hath power, for that he sitteth on the right hand of Zeus. Nor will the choir sing of Phoebus for one day only. He is a copious theme of song; who would not readily sing of Phoebus?
[32] Golden is the tunic of Apollo and golden his mantle, his lyre and his Lyctian10 bow and his quiver: golden too are his sandals; for rich in gold is Apollo, rich also in possessions: by Pytho mightst thou guess. And ever beautiful is he and ever young: never on the girl cheeks of Apollo hath come so much as the down of manhood. His locks distil fragrant oils upon the ground; not oil of fat do the locks of Apollo distil but he very Healing of All. 11 And in whatsoever city whose dews fall upon the ground, in that city all things are free from harm.
[42] None is so abundant in skill as Apollo. To him belongs the archer, to him the minstrel; for unto Apollo is given in keeping alike archery and song. His are the lots of the diviner and his the seers; and from Phoebus do leeches know the deferring of death.
[47] Phoebus and Nomius12 we call him, ever since that when by Amphrysus13 he tended the yokemares, fired with love of young Admetus. 14 Lightly would the herd of cattle wax larger, nor would the she-goats of the flock lack young, whereon as they feed Apollo casts his eye; nor without milk would the ewes be nor barren, but all would have lambs at foot; and she that bare one would soon be the mother of twins.
[55] And Phoebus it is that men follow when they map out cities. 15 For Phoebus himself doth weave their foundations. Four years of age was Phoebus when he framed his first foundations in fair Ortygia16 near the round lake. 17
[60] Artemis hunted and brought continually the heads of Cynthian goats and Phoebus plaited an altar. 18 With horns builded he the foundations, and of horns framed he the altar, and of horns were the walls he built around. Thus did Phoebus learn to raise his first foundations. Phoebus, too, it was told Battus19 of my own city of fertile soil, and in guise of a raven20 – auspicious to our founder – led his people as they entered Libya and sware that he would vouchsafe a walled city to our kings. 21 And the oath of Apollo is ever sure. O Apollo! Many there be that call thee Boëdromius,22 and many there be that call thee Clarius23: everywhere is thy name on the lips of many. But I call thee Carneius24; for such is the manner of my fathers. Sparta, O Carneius! was they first foundation; and next Thera; but third the city of Cyrene. From Sparta the sixth25 generation of the sons of Oedipus brought thee to their colony of Thera; and from Thera lusty Aristoteles26 set thee by the Asbystian27 land, and builded thee a shrine exceedingly beautiful, and in the city established a yearly festival wherein many a bull, O Lord, falls on his haunches for the last time. Hië, Hië, Carneius! Lord of many prayers, - thine altars wear flowers in spring, even all the pied flowers which the Hours lead forth when Zephyrus breathes dew, and in winter the sweet crocus. Undying evermore is thy fire, nor ever doth the ash feed about the coals of yester-even. Greatly, indeed, did Phoebus rejoice as the belted warriors of Enyo danced with the yellow-haired Libyan women, when the appointed season of the Carnean feast came round. But not yet could the Dorians approach the fountains of Cyre,28 but dwelt in Azilis29 thick with wooded dells. These did the Lord himself behold and showed them to his bride30 as he stood on horned Myrtussa31 where the daughter of Hypseus slew the lion that harried the kind of Eurypylus. 32 No other dance more divine hath Apollo beheld, nor to any city hath he given so many blessings as he hath given to Cyrene, remembering his rape of old. Nor, again, is there any other god whom the sons of Battus have honoured above Phoebus.
[97] Hië, Hië, Paeëon, we hear – since this refrain did the Delphian folk first invent, what time thou didst display the archery of they golden bow. As thou wert going down to Pytho, there met thee a beast unearthly, a dread snake. 33 And him thou didst slay, shooting swift arrows one upon the other; and the folk cried “Hië, Hië, Paeëon, shoot an arrow! ” A helper34 from the first thy mother bare thee, and ever since that is thy praise.
[105] Spare Envy privily in the ear of Apollo: “I admire not the poet who singeth not things for number as the sea. ”35 Apollon spurned Envy with his foot and spake thus: “Great is the stream of the Assyrian river,36 but much filth of earth and much refuse it carries on its waters. And not of every water do the Melissae carry to Deo,37 but of the trickling stream that springs from a holy fountain, pure and undefiled, the very crown of waters. ” Hail, O Lord, but Blame – let him go where Envy dwells!
1. The palm-tree by which Leto supported herself when she bare Apollo. Cf. H. Delos 210, Hom. H. Apoll. 117, Od. vi. 162 f. Theogn. 5 f. The laurel and the palm are coupled in Euripides, Hecuba, 458 ff.
2. For the association of the swan with Apollo cf. Hymn to Delos 249; Plato, Phaedo, 85; Manilius v. 381 "ipse Deum Cygnus condit. ”
3. The schol. on v. 12 remarks that Callimachus emphasizes the presence of the God because “it is said in the case of prophetic gods that the deities are sometimes present (epidêmein), sometimes absent (apodêmein), and when they are present the oracles are true, when absent false. ” Cf. Pind. P. iv. 5 ouk apodamou Apollônos tuchontos. The Delphians celebrated the seventh day of the month Bysios – the birthday of Apollo – when he was supposed to revisit his temple, and the seventh of the holy month (Attic Anthesterion) was celebrated by the Delians when Apollo was supposed to return to Delos from the land of the Hyperboreans. (W. Schmidt, Geburstag im Altertum, p. 86. ) Cf. Verg. A. iii. 91.
4. i. e. if they are to live to an old age.
5. i. e. the lyre, originally made by Hermes from the shell of a tortoise. êgasamên = Well done!
6. Lycoreus, by-name of Apollo, from Lycoreia, town on Parnassus above Delphi: Strabo 418. 3 hyperkeitai d’ autês hê Lukôreia eph’ topou proteron hidrunto hoi Delphoi hyper tou hierou. Legends of its foundation in Pausanias x. 6, 2-3. Ph. Lukôreioio Apoll. Rh. iv. 1490.
7. Though iê, not hiê, is the usual form, it is perhaps better here to write the aspirated form to suit the suggested etymology from hiei “shoot. ” See vv. 97-104 for the legend.
8. Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, had, according to Hom. Il. xxiv. 602 ff. six sons and six daughters, who were slain by Apollo and Artemis respectively, because she boasted over their mother Leto, who had but two children. Niobe was turned into a stone, and this was identified with a rude rock figure on Mount Sipylos near Smyrna which is still to be seen. The water running down the face of the rock was supposed to be Niobe’s tears – entha lithos per eousa theôn ek kêdea pessei, Hom. l. c. 617, cf. “Phrygium silicem,” Stat. S. v. 3. 87.
9. Ptolemy III. Euergetes, according to the schol.
10. Lyctos, town in Crete.
11. As a personification Panaceia appears frequently as the daughter of Asclepius. In the Hippocratean oath she is named after Apollo, Asclepius and Hygieie. Such “all-healing” virtue was in early times ascribed to various plants (Panakes Cheirônion, Aslêpieion, etc. ).
12. Cf. Pind. ix. 65.
13. River in Thessaly where Apollo tended the flocks of Admetus. Cf. Verg. G. iii. 2 “pastor ab Amphryso. ”
14. King of Pherae in Thessaly.
[90] Hail! greatly hail! most high Son of Cronus, giver of good things, giver of safety. Thy works who could sing? There hath not been, there shall not be, who shall sing the works of Zeus. Hail! Father, hail again! And grant us goodness and prosperity. Without goodness wealth cannot bless men, nor goodness without prosperity. Give us goodness and weal.
1. Mountain in Crete.
2. Mountain in Arcadia.
3. This proverbial saying, attributed to Epimenides, is quoted by St. Paul. Ep. Tit. i. 12, “One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies” (kata thêria, gasteres argai), and seems to be alluded to by Aratus, Phaen. 30 ei eteon dê. The explanation given by Athenodorus of Eretria ap. Ptolem. Hephaest. In Photii Bibl. p. 150 Bekk. Is that Thetis and Medea, having a dispute as to which of them was the fairer, entrusted the decision to Idomeneus of Crete. He decided in favour of Thetis, whereon Medea said, “Cretans are always liars” and cursed them that they should never speak the truth. The schol. On the present passage says that Idomeneus divided the spoils of Troy unfairly.
4. The Cretan legend was that Zeus was a prince who was slain by a wild boar and buried in Crete. His tomb was variously localized and the tradition of “the tomb of Zeus” attaches to several places even in modern times, especially to Mount Iuktas. See A. B. Cook, Zeus, vol. i. p. 157 ff.
5. Arcadia.
6. Cf. Apoll. Rh. iv. 1240.
7. Goddess of birth.
8. The ancient Arcadians (schol. ).
9. River in Arcadia.
10. Melas: Dion. Per. 415 ff. Arkades Apidanêes hupo skopiên Erumanthou, entha Melas, othi Krathis, ina rheei hugros Idaôn, êchi kai ôgugios mêkunetai udasi Ladôn. Herodot. i. 145 has Ôlenos en tô Peiros potamos megas estia. Strabo 386 has Ôlenos, par’ on potramos megas Melas where it has been proposed to read par’ on <Peiros> and to omit Melas. M. T. Smiley, in Classical Qu. v. (1911) p. 89 f. , suggests that the Styx is meant, which supplies the waterfall near Nonacris in North Arcadia and later becomes a tributary of the Crathis (Paus. viii. 18. 4). When Leake discovered the waterfall in 1806 the natives did not know the name Styx for it but called it the Black Water (Mavro nero) or the Dragon Water. The name Peiros in any case suggests a connexion with the underworld.
11. Carnion or Carion, river in Arcadia, Paus. viii. 34.
12. Crathis, river in Arcadia (and Achaea), Paus. vii. 25. 11, viii. 15. 5, viii. 18. 4.
13. Metope, river in Arcadia.
14. Cf. Paus. iv. 33. 1, “The Messenians say that Zeus was reared among them and that his nurses were Ithome and Neda, after whom the river got its name. ” Cf. viii. 38 ff.
15. Styx, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, Hesiod, Th. 361.
16. Philyra, daughter of Oceanus, mother of Cheiron by Cronus.
17. Paus. iv. 20. 2. The river Neda rises in Mount Lycaeon, flows into Messenia and forms the boundary between Messenia and Elis. Cf. Strabo 348 who says it rises in Lycaeon from a spring which Rheia caused to flow in order to wash the infant Zeus.
18. A people of Triphylia, Hom. Od. iii. 366.
19. Herod. iv. 148 says that Lepreon in Triphylia was founded by the Minyae after driving out the Cauconians.
20. i. e. the sea.
21. Arcas, the ancestor of the Arcadians, was the son of Zeus and Lycaon’s daughter Callisto who was changed into a bear.
22. Town in Crete.
23. Cydonia, town in Crete.
24. Schol. Nicand. Alex. 7 Omphalos gar topos en Krêtê, hôs kai Kallimachos pege . . . Kudônes. Diodor. v. 70 tells the story (he says that Zeus was carried by the Curetes) and gives the name of the place as Omphalos and of the plain around as Omphaleion.
25. Corybantes.
26. The ash-tree nymphs, cf. Hesiod. Th. 187.
27. Cf. Apoll. Rh. iii. 132 ff. Dios perikalles athurma | keino, to oi poise philê trophos Adrêsteia | antrô en Idaiô eti nêpia kourixonti | sphairan eutrochalon; i. q. Nemesis, sister of the Curetes (schol. ).
28. The nymph of she-goat who suckled Zeus; Diodor. v. 70, Apollod. 1. 5, schol. Arat. 161. Ovid, Fast. i. 115 ff.
29. Mountains in Crete (Steph. Byz. s. v. Panakra). Zeus rewarded the bees by making them of a golden bronze colour and rendering them insensible to the rigours of the mountain climate (Diodor. v. 70).
30. Apollodor. i.
4, “The Curetes in full armour, guarding the infant in the cave, beat their shields with their spears that Cronus might not hear the child’s voice. ”
31. prulis, the Cyprian name for the purrhichê (Aristotle fr. 476, schol. Pind. P. ii. 127) or dance in armour (Pollux iv. 96 and 99); see Classical Qu. xxxii. p. 131.
32. This has been supposed to refer to the fact that Ptolemy Philadelphus was the youngest of the sons of Ptolemy Soter.
33. Homer, Il. xv. 187 ff. ; cf. Apollodor. i. 7, Pind O. vii. 54 ff.
34. Bia and Cratos appear as personification of the might and majesty of Zeus in Aeschylus, P. V. , Hesiod, Th. 385, etc.
35. The eagle.
36. Artemis Chitone (Chitonea, Athen. 629 c), so called from the tunic (chiton) in which as huntress she was represented; not, as the schol. Says, from the Attic deme Chitone.
37. Ptolemy II. Philadelphus, 285-247 B. C.
HYMN II. TO APOLLO
[1] How the laurel branch of Apollo trembles! How trembles all the shrine! Away, away, he that is sinful! Now surely Phoebus knocketh at the door with his beautiful foot. See’st thou not? The Delian palm1 nods pleasantly of a sudden and the swan2 in the air sings sweetly. Of yourselves now ye bolts be pushed back, pushed back of yourselves, ye bars! The god is no longer far away. And ye, young men, prepare ye for song and for the dance.
[9] Not unto everyone doth Apollo appear, but unto him that is good. Whoso hath seen Apollo, he is great; whoso hath not seen him, he is of low estate. We shall see thee, O Archer, and we shall never be lowly. Let no the youths keep silent lyre or noiseless step, when Apollo visits3 his shrine, if they think to accomplish marriage and to cut the locks of age,4 and if the wall is to stand upon its old foundations. Well done the youths, for that the shell5 is no longer idle.
[17] Be hushed, ye that hear, at the song to Apollo; yea, hushed is even the sea when the minstrels celebrate the lyre or the bow, the weapons of Lycoreian Phoebus. 6 Neither doth Thetis his mother wail her dirge for Achilles, when she hears Hië7 Paeëon, Hië Paeëon.
[22] Yea, the tearful rock defers its pain, the wet stone is set in Phrygia, a marble rock like a woman8 open-mouthed in some sorrowful utterance. Say ye Hië! Hië! an ill thing it is strive with the Blessed Ones. He who fights with the Blessed Ones would fight with my King9; he who fights with my King, would fight even with Apollo. Apollo will honour the choir, since it sings according to his heart; for Apollo hath power, for that he sitteth on the right hand of Zeus. Nor will the choir sing of Phoebus for one day only. He is a copious theme of song; who would not readily sing of Phoebus?
[32] Golden is the tunic of Apollo and golden his mantle, his lyre and his Lyctian10 bow and his quiver: golden too are his sandals; for rich in gold is Apollo, rich also in possessions: by Pytho mightst thou guess. And ever beautiful is he and ever young: never on the girl cheeks of Apollo hath come so much as the down of manhood. His locks distil fragrant oils upon the ground; not oil of fat do the locks of Apollo distil but he very Healing of All. 11 And in whatsoever city whose dews fall upon the ground, in that city all things are free from harm.
[42] None is so abundant in skill as Apollo. To him belongs the archer, to him the minstrel; for unto Apollo is given in keeping alike archery and song. His are the lots of the diviner and his the seers; and from Phoebus do leeches know the deferring of death.
[47] Phoebus and Nomius12 we call him, ever since that when by Amphrysus13 he tended the yokemares, fired with love of young Admetus. 14 Lightly would the herd of cattle wax larger, nor would the she-goats of the flock lack young, whereon as they feed Apollo casts his eye; nor without milk would the ewes be nor barren, but all would have lambs at foot; and she that bare one would soon be the mother of twins.
[55] And Phoebus it is that men follow when they map out cities. 15 For Phoebus himself doth weave their foundations. Four years of age was Phoebus when he framed his first foundations in fair Ortygia16 near the round lake. 17
[60] Artemis hunted and brought continually the heads of Cynthian goats and Phoebus plaited an altar. 18 With horns builded he the foundations, and of horns framed he the altar, and of horns were the walls he built around. Thus did Phoebus learn to raise his first foundations. Phoebus, too, it was told Battus19 of my own city of fertile soil, and in guise of a raven20 – auspicious to our founder – led his people as they entered Libya and sware that he would vouchsafe a walled city to our kings. 21 And the oath of Apollo is ever sure. O Apollo! Many there be that call thee Boëdromius,22 and many there be that call thee Clarius23: everywhere is thy name on the lips of many. But I call thee Carneius24; for such is the manner of my fathers. Sparta, O Carneius! was they first foundation; and next Thera; but third the city of Cyrene. From Sparta the sixth25 generation of the sons of Oedipus brought thee to their colony of Thera; and from Thera lusty Aristoteles26 set thee by the Asbystian27 land, and builded thee a shrine exceedingly beautiful, and in the city established a yearly festival wherein many a bull, O Lord, falls on his haunches for the last time. Hië, Hië, Carneius! Lord of many prayers, - thine altars wear flowers in spring, even all the pied flowers which the Hours lead forth when Zephyrus breathes dew, and in winter the sweet crocus. Undying evermore is thy fire, nor ever doth the ash feed about the coals of yester-even. Greatly, indeed, did Phoebus rejoice as the belted warriors of Enyo danced with the yellow-haired Libyan women, when the appointed season of the Carnean feast came round. But not yet could the Dorians approach the fountains of Cyre,28 but dwelt in Azilis29 thick with wooded dells. These did the Lord himself behold and showed them to his bride30 as he stood on horned Myrtussa31 where the daughter of Hypseus slew the lion that harried the kind of Eurypylus. 32 No other dance more divine hath Apollo beheld, nor to any city hath he given so many blessings as he hath given to Cyrene, remembering his rape of old. Nor, again, is there any other god whom the sons of Battus have honoured above Phoebus.
[97] Hië, Hië, Paeëon, we hear – since this refrain did the Delphian folk first invent, what time thou didst display the archery of they golden bow. As thou wert going down to Pytho, there met thee a beast unearthly, a dread snake. 33 And him thou didst slay, shooting swift arrows one upon the other; and the folk cried “Hië, Hië, Paeëon, shoot an arrow! ” A helper34 from the first thy mother bare thee, and ever since that is thy praise.
[105] Spare Envy privily in the ear of Apollo: “I admire not the poet who singeth not things for number as the sea. ”35 Apollon spurned Envy with his foot and spake thus: “Great is the stream of the Assyrian river,36 but much filth of earth and much refuse it carries on its waters. And not of every water do the Melissae carry to Deo,37 but of the trickling stream that springs from a holy fountain, pure and undefiled, the very crown of waters. ” Hail, O Lord, but Blame – let him go where Envy dwells!
1. The palm-tree by which Leto supported herself when she bare Apollo. Cf. H. Delos 210, Hom. H. Apoll. 117, Od. vi. 162 f. Theogn. 5 f. The laurel and the palm are coupled in Euripides, Hecuba, 458 ff.
2. For the association of the swan with Apollo cf. Hymn to Delos 249; Plato, Phaedo, 85; Manilius v. 381 "ipse Deum Cygnus condit. ”
3. The schol. on v. 12 remarks that Callimachus emphasizes the presence of the God because “it is said in the case of prophetic gods that the deities are sometimes present (epidêmein), sometimes absent (apodêmein), and when they are present the oracles are true, when absent false. ” Cf. Pind. P. iv. 5 ouk apodamou Apollônos tuchontos. The Delphians celebrated the seventh day of the month Bysios – the birthday of Apollo – when he was supposed to revisit his temple, and the seventh of the holy month (Attic Anthesterion) was celebrated by the Delians when Apollo was supposed to return to Delos from the land of the Hyperboreans. (W. Schmidt, Geburstag im Altertum, p. 86. ) Cf. Verg. A. iii. 91.
4. i. e. if they are to live to an old age.
5. i. e. the lyre, originally made by Hermes from the shell of a tortoise. êgasamên = Well done!
6. Lycoreus, by-name of Apollo, from Lycoreia, town on Parnassus above Delphi: Strabo 418. 3 hyperkeitai d’ autês hê Lukôreia eph’ topou proteron hidrunto hoi Delphoi hyper tou hierou. Legends of its foundation in Pausanias x. 6, 2-3. Ph. Lukôreioio Apoll. Rh. iv. 1490.
7. Though iê, not hiê, is the usual form, it is perhaps better here to write the aspirated form to suit the suggested etymology from hiei “shoot. ” See vv. 97-104 for the legend.
8. Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, had, according to Hom. Il. xxiv. 602 ff. six sons and six daughters, who were slain by Apollo and Artemis respectively, because she boasted over their mother Leto, who had but two children. Niobe was turned into a stone, and this was identified with a rude rock figure on Mount Sipylos near Smyrna which is still to be seen. The water running down the face of the rock was supposed to be Niobe’s tears – entha lithos per eousa theôn ek kêdea pessei, Hom. l. c. 617, cf. “Phrygium silicem,” Stat. S. v. 3. 87.
9. Ptolemy III. Euergetes, according to the schol.
10. Lyctos, town in Crete.
11. As a personification Panaceia appears frequently as the daughter of Asclepius. In the Hippocratean oath she is named after Apollo, Asclepius and Hygieie. Such “all-healing” virtue was in early times ascribed to various plants (Panakes Cheirônion, Aslêpieion, etc. ).
12. Cf. Pind. ix. 65.
13. River in Thessaly where Apollo tended the flocks of Admetus. Cf. Verg. G. iii. 2 “pastor ab Amphryso. ”
14. King of Pherae in Thessaly.
