2 The Hymn to Apollo

The second hymn in this collection is mimetic. as the poem opens, the anonymous speaker recreates the moment of the god’s epiphany, describing a series of events for the chorus and reader: the god’s approach marked by the shaking of the Delphic laurel, the shaking of the sanctuary itself, the nodding of the Delian palm, and the door bolts opening of their own volition. The speaker admonishes the sinful (2: ἀλιτρός) to be gone from the rite.

The initial section concludes with an instruction to the chorus of youths to make ready the song and dance in honor of the god. Lines 9–31 recap and expand the opening and provide examples of the power of Apollo’s song as it quells the lamentations of two mothers (Thetis and Niobe); song even quells the sounds of the sea. Lines 25–31 link “my king” and Apollo, not in the context of kingship, as “our king” and Zeus are linked in hZeus, but in song. Next follows a physical description of the god (32–41), his areas of oversight, a number of his cult titles, and selected moments that trace his life from a child to a married adult (see Calame 1993: 40–43). In narrative order we learn of his apprenticeship to Admetus as a young god (47–54), his building of the horned altar on Delos shortly after his birth with the help of his sister (55–64), his role in the colonization of Cyrene (65–90), his marriage to Cyrene (90–96), and finally his slaying of Pytho at Delphi as a young boy (97–106). Lines 65–96 of the hymn describe the leading out of colonists at Apollo’s instruction, the foundation of Cyrene, and the first celebration of the Carneia at Cyrene, as observed by Apollo and his “bride” the eponymous nymph Cyrene.

The hymn concludes with an exchange between Apollo and Phthonos (“Envy”) about the kind of poetry the god prefers, couched as an evaluation of various types of waters: the sea, the Assyrian river, and drops from pure springs. This famous sphragis has been understood, like the Aetia prologue, as a literary manifesto—pure drops of water equate to small, perfect poems, which are better than the sea or the Assyrian river. The river seems to equate with longer poems that necessarily have flaws because of their vastness, just as the river carries impurities upon its surface. The third body of water in the comparisons is the sea, which Phthonos proposes as his preferred poetic model, even though the sea had previously silenced itself before hymns to Apollo (18). Williams (pp. 87–89) makes the case that the sea must be understood as Homer, and this identification makes sense since Apollo does not directly reject the sea, but alters the terms of comparison to pure springs and the Assyrian river. But to what the Assyrian river refers and who Phthonos and Momos (113) might be has led to considerable debate. The scholium maintains that the latter are Callimachus’ contemporaries who mock him for not writing a long poem, but Phthonos might also represent Apollo’s own potential ill-will, so that the concluding lines of the hymn function appropriately as a prayer that the god receive the rite favorably. No definitive answer is possible, but it is important to note that the opposition of the sea versus pure fountains also has parallels in cultic language and that models of pollution and purity return us to the poem’s opening where those who are not “without sin” are banished from Apollo’s presence (Petrovic 2011: 273–75). Cheshire 2008: 354–55n2 reviews the scholarship on this passage.

A central question in this hymn, as in the other mimetic hymns, is “who speaks?” Is the unidentified narrator the “singer” of the whole hymn, or are we to imagine the chorus of youths singing the middle section as a paean to Apollo (see Bing 2009: 33–48, Cheshire 2008)? The paean was a class of hymns usually addressed to Apollo or Asclepius for the well-being of a city or some constituent group and characterized by the ritual cry ἱή, ἱή, παιῆον (21, 97, 103); normally it was sung and danced by a young male chorus (Furley and Bremmer 2001: 1.90–91). The hymn’s narrative includes both the foundation of the city and the celebration of Apollo’s festival, and among his aretai there is a stress on healing (41–42, 45–46). Even the sphragis, which is an unusual feature of hymns in general, has parallels in Hellenistic and later paeans (Petrovic 2011: 279–81).

The Deity and His Relevant Cults

Apollo is among the most widely worshipped deities of the Greek pantheon, and in this hymn Callimachus focuses on three of his cult-sites—Delos and Delphi, which are the most important and already linked in the Homeric hymn to Apollo, and Cyrene, Callimachus’ native city. He devotes the longest narrative unit to Cyrene and Apollo Carneius (65–95). The narrator’s stress on “my king” and his statement in 71 that “I call you Carneius; thus is my ancestral custom” suggests prima facie that the hymn is for Cyrene and the opening address to the chorus is in reference to a contemporary celebration of the Carneia, also in Cyrene. Apollo was the patron deity of the city, with a large, central temple. His sister Artemis had a nearby temple, and on its altar was a relief depicting the slaying of Niobe’s children (Bonacasa and Ensoli 2000: 189). Thus the reference to the punishment of Niobe could recall the local monument, just as Mt. Myrtussa and the pure springs of Deo recall local geography.

However, the presence of Delphic laurel (1) and the nodding Delian palm (4) as the hymn opens have made commentators reluctant to identify the mise en scène as Cyrene, although explanations for both have often been suggested (e.g., Maass 1890: 403, on which cf. Williams ad loc.). The practice of transplanting shoots from the supposedly original Delphic laurel was widespread, and one might easily have been planted in Cyrene (an analogue for this occurs in the Branchus [fr. 229 Pf.], where Apollo himself transplants a laurel shoot from Delphi at his shrine in Mitylene). The Delian palm actually had a specific local presence: apparently a bronze replica stood in an exhedra before the temple of Apollo and the nearby Letoion at Cyrene (Bonacasa and Ensoli 2000: 107). Further, Callimachus’ description of Apollo (32–34) coincides with features of a colossal cult statue of Apollo that actually belonged to his temple in Cyrene. That statue, now housed in the British Museum, is thought to be a Roman copy of an earlier Hellenistic work belonging probably to the late second century bce. Obviously even this earlier Hellenistic statue would not have been known to Callimachus, but the coincidence of this statue’s details with the description of Apollo in this poem suggests that this Hellenistic work had preserved elements of an even earlier statue. Apollo is androgynous with long curls, wearing a full cloak-like garment draped just below his genitals but fastened at the shoulder, very elaborate sandals, and leaning on a lyre. His quiver is next to the lyre and around it is entwined the Delphic snake, which has a ready hymnic parallel in Callimachus’ final excursus on the slaying of the Pytho. The type is known from elsewhere as well (Higgs 1994); the Apollo Belvedere, for example, which is thought to have been a marble copy of a bronze by Leochares c.325 bce, possesses the same features, though the style is more classical.

Delos is featured in lines 55–64, where Apollo builds a horned altar. The altar was a central tourist attraction on the island, mentioned in the Odyssey (6.162–65) and occasionally listed among the seven wonders of the ancient world (Plutarch, De soll. anim. 983e). It was said to have been constructed with horns taken from the right side of goats’ heads and held together entirely without glue or mortar. In Callimachus the vignette gives us Apollo’s first effort in building as a prelude to the foundation of Cyrene. Delphi is the location of the final vignette, where Apollo as a child slew the Pytho. This provides an aition for the paean cry and, like the story of Niobe, is another mythological example of Apollo’s swift punishment of his enemies. The poem comes full circle in the final lines with their verbal echoes of the opening.

Sources and Intertexts

The Homeric hymn to Apollo provides a model of sorts for this hymn as well as for hArt and hDelos. The Homeric hymn fell into a Delian and a Pythian section, which Callimachus reprises in two brief vignettes (respectively, 55–64, 97–104): the lengthy narrative of the slaying of the Pytho in the earlier hymn (300–74) is condensed to eight lines, while the sailors at the end of the Pythian section who sing a paean at Apollo’s behest (514–19) may have influenced the choice of paean for this hymn. Also, Bing (2009: 41–43) has argued that the ventriloquism of the Delian maidens in the Homeric hymn (162–64) influenced Callimachus’ experimentation with narrative voices in hAp. Williams (on 61: βωμόν) makes the attractive suggestion that Callimachus may have included the description of the horned altar of Delos because in the Certamen it was the location where “Homer” recited his hymn to Apollo.¹ Other important influences were Pindar’s Cyrenean odes, particularly Py. 5.54–93, with its description of the foundation of the city (on which see Morrison 2007: 131–33), and Py. 9, with its narrative of Apollo’s courtship of Cyrene. Finally, the closest parallel to the sphragis is the end of Timotheus’ Persae (202-40), in which Timotheus appeals to Apollo to protect him against the Spartans’ accusation that he offended the older Muse (παλαιοτέραν … Μοῦσαν: 211–12) with his innovative poetry. Ancient anecdotes related that the Spartan ephors objected to Timotheus’ use of a lyre with more than the usual number of strings during his performance at the Spartan Carneia (see Hordern 2002: 7–9 and notes on 202–36), which may also have been relevant for Callimachus, whose own paean seems to be an innovation putatively for the Cyrenean Carneia.

The Ptolemaic Connections

See the discussion above, pp. 18–19.

ΕΙΣ ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΑ

	Οἷον ὁ τὠπόλλωνος ἐσείσατο δάφνινος ὅρπηξ,
	οἷα δ’ ὅλον τὸ μέλαθρον· ἑκὰς ἑκὰς ὅστις ἀλιτρός.
	καὶ δή που τὰ θύρετρα καλῷ ποδὶ Φοῖβος ἀράσσει·
	οὐχ ὁράᾳς; ἐπένευσεν ὁ Δήλιος ἡδύ τι φοῖνιξ
5	ἐξαπίνης, ὁ δὲ κύκνος ἐν ἠέρι καλὸν ἀείδει.
	αὐτοὶ νῦν κατοχῆες ἀνακλίνασθε πυλάων,
	αὐταὶ δὲ κληῖδες· ὁ γὰρ θεὸς οὐκέτι μακρήν·
	οἱ δὲ νέοι μολπήν τε καὶ ἐς χορὸν ἐντύνασθε.
	ὡπόλλων οὐ παντὶ φαείνεται, ἀλλ’ ὅτις ἐσθλός·
10	ὅς μιν ἴδῃ, μέγας οὗτος, ὃς οὐκ ἴδε, λιτὸς ἐκεῖνος.
	ὀψόμεθ’, ὦ Ἑκάεργε, καὶ ἐσσόμεθ’ οὔποτε λιτοί.
	μήτε σιωπηλὴν κίθαριν μήτ’ ἄψοφον ἵχνος
	τοῦ Φοίβου τοὺς παῖδας ἔχειν ἐπιδημήσαντος,
	εἰ τελέειν μέλλουσι γάμον πολιήν τε κερεῖσθαι,
15	ἑστήξειν δὲ τὸ τεῖχος ἐπ’ ἀρχαίοισι θεμέθλοις.
	ἠγασάμην τοὺς παῖδας, ἐπεὶ χέλυς οὐκέτ’ ἀεργός.
	εὐφημεῖτ’ ἀΐοντες ἐπ’ Ἀπόλλωνος ἀοιδῇ.
	εὐφημεῖ καὶ πόντος, ὅτε κλείουσιν ἀοιδοί
	ἢ κίθαριν ἢ τόξα, Λυκωρέος ἔντεα Φοίβου.
20	οὐδὲ Θέτις Ἀχιλῆα κινύρεται αἴλινα μήτηρ,
	ὁππόθ’ ἱὴ παιῆον ἱὴ παιῆον ἀκούσῃ.
	καὶ μὲν ὁ δακρυόεις ἀναβάλλεται ἄλγεα πέτρος,
	ὅστις ἐνὶ Φρυγίῃ διερὸς λίθος ἐστήρικται,
	μάρμαρον ἀντὶ γυναικὸς ὀϊζυρόν τι χανούσης.
25	ἱὴ ἱὴ φθέγγεσθε· κακὸν μακάρεσσιν ἐρίζειν.
	ὃς μάχεται μακάρεσσιν, ἐμῷ βασιλῆι μάχοιτο·
	ὅστις ἐμῷ βασιλῆι, καὶ Ἀπόλλωνι μάχοιτο.
	τὸν χορὸν ὡπόλλων, ὅ τι οἱ κατὰ θυμὸν ἀείδει,
	τιμήσει· δύναται γάρ, ἐπεὶ Διὶ δεξιὸς ἧσται.
30	οὐδ’ ὁ χορὸς τὸν Φοῖβον ἐφ’ ἓν μόνον ἦμαρ ἀείσει,
	ἔστι γὰρ εὔυμνος· τίς ἂν οὐ ῥέα Φοῖβον ἀείδοι;
	χρύσεα τὠπόλλωνι τό τ’ ἐνδυτὸν ἥ τ’ ἐπιπορπίς
	ἥ τε λύρη τό τ’ ἄεμμα τὸ Λύκτιον ἥ τε φαρέτρη,
	χρύσεα καὶ τὰ πέδιλα· πολύχρυσος γὰρ Ἀπόλλων
35	καὶ πουλυκτέανος· Πυθῶνί κε τεκμήραιο.
	καὶ μὲν ἀεὶ καλὸς καὶ ἀεὶ νέος· οὔποτε Φοίβου
	θηλείαις οὐδ’ ὅσσον ἐπὶ χνόος ἦλθε παρειαῖς,
	αἱ δὲ κόμαι θυόεντα πέδῳ λείβουσιν ἔλαια·
	οὐ λίπος Ἀπόλλωνος ἀποστάζουσιν ἔθειραι,
40	ἀλλ’ αὐτὴν πανάκειαν· ἐν ἄστεϊ δ’ ᾧ κεν ἐκεῖναι
	πρῶκες ἔραζε πέσωσιν, ἀκήρια πάντ’ ἐγένοντο.
	τέχνῃ δ’ ἀμφιλαφὴς οὔτις τόσον ὅσσον Ἀπόλλων·
	κεῖνος ὀϊστευτὴν ἔλαχ’ ἀνέρα, κεῖνος ἀοιδόν
	(Φοίβῳ γὰρ καὶ τόξον ἐπιτρέπεται καὶ ἀοιδή),
45	κείνου δὲ θριαὶ καὶ μάντιες· ἐκ δέ νυ Φοίβου
	ἰητροὶ δεδάασιν ἀνάβλησιν θανάτοιο.
	Φοῖβον καὶ Νόμιον κικλήσκομεν ἐξέτι κείνου,
	ἐξότ’ ἐπ’ Ἀμφρυσσῷ ζευγίτιδας ἔτρεφεν ἵππους
	ἠιθέου ὑπ’ ἔρωτι κεκαυμένος Ἀδμήτοιο.
50	ῥεῖά κε βουβόσιον τελέθοι πλέον, οὐδέ κεν αἶγες
	δεύοιντο βρεφέων ἐπιμηλάδες, ᾗσιν Ἀπόλλων
	βοσκομένῃσ’ ὀφθαλμὸν ἐπήγαγεν· οὐδ’ ἀγάλακτες
	οἴιες οὐδ’ ἄκυθοι, πᾶσαι δέ κεν εἶεν ὕπαρνοι,
	ἡ δέ κε μουνοτόκος διδυμητόκος αἶψα γένοιτο.
55	Φοίβῳ δ’ ἑσπόμενοι πόλιας διεμετρήσαντο
	ἄνθρωποι· Φοῖβος γὰρ ἀεὶ πολίεσσι φιληδεῖ
	κτιζομένῃσ’, αὐτὸς δὲ θεμείλια Φοῖβος ὑφαίνει.
	τετραέτης τὰ πρῶτα θεμείλια Φοῖβος ἔπηξε
	καλῇ ἐν Ὀρτυγίῃ περιηγέος ἐγγύθι λίμνης.
60	Ἄρτεμις ἀγρώσσουσα καρήατα συνεχὲς αἰγῶν
	Κυνθιάδων φορέεσκεν, ὁ δ’ ἔπλεκε βωμὸν Ἀπόλλων,
	δείματο μὲν κεράεσσιν ἐδέθλια, πῆξε δὲ βωμόν
	ἐκ κεράων, κεραοὺς δὲ πέριξ ὑπεβάλλετο τοίχους.
	ὧδ’ ἔμαθεν τὰ πρῶτα θεμείλια Φοῖβος ἐγείρειν.
65	Φοῖβος καὶ βαθύγειον ἐμὴν πόλιν ἔφρασε Βάττῳ
	καὶ Λιβύην ἐσιόντι κόραξ ἡγήσατο λαῷ,
	δεξιὸς οἰκιστῆρι, καὶ ὤμοσε τείχεα δώσειν
	ἡμετέροις βασιλεῦσιν· ἀεὶ δ’ εὔορκος Ἀπόλλων.
	ὤπολλον, πολλοί σε Βοηδρόμιον καλέουσι,
70	πολλοὶ δὲ Κλάριον, πάντη δέ τοι οὔνομα πουλύ·
	αὐτὰρ ἐγὼ Καρνεῖον· ἐμοὶ πατρώϊον οὕτω.
	Σπάρτη τοι, Καρνεῖε, τόδε πρώτιστον ἔδεθλον,
	δεύτερον αὖ Θήρη, τρίτατόν γε μὲν ἄστυ Κυρήνης.
	ἐκ μέν σε Σπάρτης ἕκτον γένος Οἰδιπόδαο
75	ἤγαγε Θηραίην ἐς ἀπόκτισιν· ἐκ δέ σε Θήρης
	οὖλος Ἀριστοτέλης Ἀσβυστίδι πάρθετο γαίῃ,
	δεῖμε δέ τοι μάλα καλὸν ἀνάκτορον, ἐν δὲ πόληι
	θῆκε τελεσφορίην ἐπετήσιον, ᾗ ἔνι πολλοί
	ὑστάτιον πίπτουσιν ἐπ’ ἰσχίον, ὦ ἄνα, ταῦροι.
80	ἱὴ ἱὴ Καρνεῖε πολύλλιτε, σεῖο δὲ βωμοί
	ἄνθεα μὲν φορέουσιν ἐν εἴαρι τόσσα περ Ὧραι
	ποικίλ’ ἀγινεῦσι ζεφύρου πνείοντος ἐέρσην,
	χείματι δὲ κρόκον ἡδύν· ἀεὶ δέ τοι ἀέναον πῦρ,
	οὐδέ ποτε χθιζὸν περιβόσκεται ἄνθρακα τέφρη.
85	ἦ ῥ’ ἐχάρη μέγα Φοῖβος, ὅτε ζωστῆρες Ἐνυοῦς
	ἀνέρες ὠρχήσαντο μετὰ ξανθῇσι Λιβύσσῃς,
	τέθμιαι εὖτέ σφιν Καρνειάδες ἤλυθον ὧραι.
	οἱ δ’ οὔπω πηγῇσι Κύρης ἐδύναντο πελάσσαι
	Δωριέες, πυκινὴν δὲ νάπῃσ’ Ἄζιλιν ἔναιον.
90	τοὺς μὲν ἄναξ ἴδεν αὐτός, ἑῇ δ’ ἐπεδείξατο νύμφῃ
	στὰς ἐπὶ Μυρτούσσης κερατώδεος, ἧχι λέοντα
	Ὑψηὶς κατέπεφνε βοῶν σίνιν Εὐρυπύλοιο.
	οὐ κείνου χορὸν εἶδε θεώτερον ἄλλον Ἀπόλλων,
	οὐδὲ πόλει τόσ’ ἔνειμεν ὀφέλσιμα, τόσσα Κυρήνῃ,
95	μνωόμενος προτέρης ἁρπακτύος. οὐδὲ μὲν αὐτοί
	Βαττιάδαι Φοίβοιο πλέον θεὸν ἄλλον ἔτισαν.
	ἱὴ ἱὴ παιῆον ἀκούομεν, οὕνεκα τοῦτο
	Δελφός τοι πρώτιστον ἐφύμνιον εὕρετο λαός,
	ἦμος ἑκηβολίην χρυσέων ἐπεδείκνυσο τόξων.
100	Πυθώ τοι κατιόντι συνήντετο δαιμόνιος θήρ,
	αἰνὸς ὄφις. τὸν μὲν σὺ κατήναρες ἄλλον ἐπ’ ἄλλῳ
	βάλλων ὠκὺν ὀϊστόν, ἐπηΰτησε δὲ λαός·
	‘ἱὴ ἱὴ παιῆον, ἵει βέλος, εὐθύ σε μήτηρ
	γείνατ’ ἀοσσητῆρα’· τὸ δ’ ἐξέτι κεῖθεν ἀείδῃ.
105	ὁ Φθόνος Ἀπόλλωνος ἐπ’ οὔατα λάθριος εἶπεν·
	‘οὐκ ἄγαμαι τὸν ἀοιδὸν ὃς οὐδ’ ὅσα πόντος ἀείδει.’
	τὸν Φθόνον ὡπόλλων ποδί τ’ ἤλασεν ὧδέ τ’ ἔειπεν·
	‘Ἀσσυρίου ποταμοῖο μέγας ῥόος, ἀλλὰ τὰ πολλά
	λύματα γῆς καὶ πολλὸν ἐφ’ ὕδατι συρφετὸν ἕλκει.
110	Δηοῖ δ’ οὐκ ἀπὸ παντὸς ὕδωρ φορέουσι μέλισσαι,
	ἀλλ’ ἥτις καθαρή τε καὶ ἀχράαντος ἀνέρπει
	πίδακος ἐξ ἱερῆς ὀλίγη λιβὰς ἄκρον ἄωτον.’
	χαῖρε, ἄναξ· ὁ δὲ Μῶμος, ἵν’ ὁ Φθόνος, ἔνθα νέοιτο.

1 δάφνινος Ψ: δαφνικος Diegesis 2 οἷα δ’ Lasc.: ]ον^αδολον POxy 2258: οἷο δ’ Ψ: οἷον Valckenaer 5 ὁ δὲ Ψ: οτε POxy 2258 6 ἀνακλίνασθε sch. Theoc.: ἀνακλίνεσθε Ψ πυλάων Ψ: θυράων POxy 2258, sch. Theoc. 7 ὁ γὰρ Ψ: επει POxy 2258 8 ]ντυνασθε POxy 2258: ἐντύνεσθε Ψ 10 ἴδη Ψ: ]δεν POxy 2258, ἴδεν Blomfield 31 ]ισαν, ουρεα divisit POxy 2258: ἀν’ οὔρεα Ψ (οὐ ῥέα divisit T in marg.) 35 καιπ̣ο̣υ̣[ POxy 2258: καί τε πολυκτέανος Ψ 36 καιμεν̣ POxy 2258: καί κεν Ψ 54 διδυμητόκος anon. ap. L. van Santen: διδυμοτόκος Ψ: διδυματόκος H. Stephanus, Asper 60 καρήατα Ψ: κεράατα PAnt 67 οἰκιστῆρι Bentley: οἰκιστὴρ Ψ 72 τόδε Ψ: τό γε Ernesti: πολύ Meineke: τίθει vel δέμε Kuiper: πόρε Williams 80 πολύλ(λ)ιτε Lasc. η: πολύλλιστε Ψ 88 πηγῇσι Κύρης Schneider: πηγῆς κυρῆς Ψ: πηγαῖσι Κυρήνης sch. Pi. 91 ἧχι Ψ: ἔνθα sch. Pi. 94 ἔνειμεν Lasc.: ἔδειμεν Ψ, Williams 113 φθόνος I, ed. Aldina, sch. Greg. Naz.: φθόρος Ψ

To Apollo

How Apollo’s laurel branch shakes! How the whole edifice shakes! Begone, begone, whoever is sinful! It surely must be Apollo kicking at the doors with his fair foot. Do you not see? The Delian palm gently nodded its head, (5) of a sudden, and the swan sings beautifully in the air. Now you door-fastenings open of your own accord, and you bolts! The god is no longer far away. Young men, make ready for the song and the dance.

Apollo does not shine upon everyone, but upon whoever is good. (10) Whoever sees him, this man is great; whoever does not see him, he is of no account. We shall see you, O One Who Acts From Afar, and we shall never be of no account. The young men should not keep the cithara silent or the dance step noiseless when Apollo is present, if they are going to celebrate a marriage, or live long enough to dedicate a lock of gray hair, (15) and if the city is to remain firm upon its ancestral foundations. I do admire the boys, seeing as the tortoise shell is no longer idle.

Be silent while you listen to the song for Apollo. The sea too is silent when the singers celebrate either the cithara or the bow, the implements of Lycoreian Apollo. (20) Nor does Thetis, his mother, mourn for Achilles, whenever she hears the paean cry. And the weeping rock postpones its grief, the moist stone that is fixed in Phrygia, a marble rock in place of a woman uttering some lament. (25) Give the ritual cry (hie, hie). It is a bad thing to quarrel with the Blessed Ones. Whoever quarrels with the Blessed Ones, let him quarrel with my king. Whoever quarrels with my king let him quarrel with Apollo. The chorus that sings what is pleasing to his heart, Apollo will honor. He is able to do this because he sits at the right hand of Zeus. (30) Nor will the chorus hymn Phoebus for one day only, since he is a copious subject for song. Who would not readily sing of Apollo?

Apollo’s garment is golden, and his cloak fastening, and his lyre, and his Lyctian bow and quiver. His sandals too are golden; Apollo is rich in gold (35) and rich in flocks. You would find proof of this in Pytho [i.e., Delphi]. And indeed he is ever fair and ever young. Never so much as a beard has come to Phoebus’ tender cheeks. His hair drips fragrant oils upon the ground. Apollo’s hair does not drip the oils of fat, (40) but the essence of healing. And in whatever town those drops might fall to the ground, everything is free from harm.

No one has as many skills as Apollo. That one has received the archer as his lot, and the singer (45) (for to Apollo is entrusted the bow and song), and his are diviners and prophets. And from Phoebus doctors have learned the postponement of death. Phoebus we also call Nomios from the time when, by the Amphryssus, he tended the yoked mares, burning with passion for the youth Admetus. (50) Effortlessly would the herd increase, and the nanny goats pastured with the sheep would not lack young, if Apollo cast his eyes upon them while they were grazing. The ewes would not lack milk, nor were they barren, but all would have lambs beneath them. And whoever was the mother of one offspring would soon produce twins.

(55) Men lay out the foundations of cities following Phoebus. For Phoebus always takes pleasure in cities being built, and Phoebus himself weaves together foundations. Phoebus was four years old when he first fitted together foundations in fair Ortygia near the round lake. (60) Hunting continually, Artemis brought him the heads of Cynthian goats, and Apollo wove an altar; he constructed the foundations with horns, and fitted the altar from horns, and he built up walls of horn around it. In this way Phoebus first learned to raise foundations.

(65) Phoebus also instructed Battus about my city with its fertile soil, and as a raven—an auspicious omen for the founder—he led the people entering Libya and swore to give walls to our kings. Apollo always honors his oaths. O Apollo, many call you Boedromios, (70) many Clarius, and indeed everywhere many a name is yours. But I call you Carneius, for thus is my ancestral custom. Sparta, indeed, this was your first shrine, Carneian, then Thera was second, and third was the city of Cyrene; from Sparta the sixth generation from Oedipus (75) led you to their colony at Thera; from Thera baneful Aristoteles established you in the Asbystian land, built you a very beautiful shrine, and established a yearly festival in the city, at which many bulls fall upon their haunches for the last time, O Lord. (80) Hie, hie, Carneian, you of many prayers, your altars wear as many colorful flowers in the spring as the Hours gather when Zephyr breathes out his dew, but in winter the sweet saffron. Always your fire is everlasting, and never do ashes feed around yesterday’s coal. (85) Indeed Phoebus greatly rejoiced when the men girt for War danced with the fair-haired Libyan women, when the appointed time for the Carneia came for them. But the Dorians were as yet unable to draw near to the streams of Cyre, but lived in thickly wooded Azilis. (90) These did the god himself see, and he showed his bride, standing upon horned Myrtussa, where the daughter of Hypseus killed the lion that was the plunderer of Eurypylus’ cattle. Apollo has seen no other dance more divine, nor to a city has he allotted so much good fortune as he allotted Cyrene, (95) mindful of his earlier carrying off of the nymph. And the descendants of Battus do not worship another god more than Phoebus.

We hear hie, hie, paiêon, because the people of Delphi first devised this refrain, when you demonstrated the launching of your golden weapons. (100) When you were going down to Pytho a demonic beast met you, a dire serpent. You slew him, shooting one swift arrow after another, and the people cried: “hie, hie paiêon, shoot your arrow, a savior from the time when your mother gave birth to you.” And from that point you are hymned in this way.

(105) Envy spoke secretly into Phoebus’ ear: “I do not admire the singer who does not sing even as much as the sea.” Phoebus pushed Envy off with his foot and spoke the following: “The flow of the Assyrian river is vast, but it draws along much refuse from the land and much garbage on its waters. (110) Not from any sources do bees carry water to Demeter, but from what comes up pure and undefiled from a holy fountain, a small drop, the choicest of waters.”

Hail, Lord. But Blame, let him go where Envy is.

Commentary

1. The scene is outside of Apollo’s temple; the narrator is addressing a chorus of young men in breathless anticipation of the god’s epiphany. Probably the epiphany is that of the cult statue, though described as if the divinity himself were arriving. Artemidorus 2.35 remarks that “whether the gods appear in the flesh (σάρκινοι) or as a statue made of wood, they have the same force.” Callimachus also collapses the actual goddess and the cult statue at the opening of hAth.

οἷον: The neuter is exclamatory; it is varied in 2 as οἷα (and see 3n).

τὠπόλλωνος = τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος. Crasis with the god’s name occurs three other times in the hymn (lines 9, 28, 107: ὡπόλλων).

ἐσείσατο: this aorist middle of σείω occurs once only in Homer (Il. 8.199, of Hera, shuddering at Hector’s boasts). By shifting the subject from a person to a sapling Callimachus conveys the spontaneous action of nature in response to the god. A parallel shift occurs with ἐπένευσεν (4): normally used of a god “nodding assent,” its subject here is the Delian palm.

δάφνινος: the adjective (“made of bay,” i.e., laurel) is not found elsewhere in poetry, but frequent in medical writing, where laurel is mentioned for its therapeutic properties; here it anticipates Apollo’s healing powers (see 40). The laurel was Apollo’s sacred tree at Delphi, as was the palm at Delos (4).

ὅρπηξ: a “sapling” or “offshoot” suggests a living tree, not a cut branch. For a discussion of the presence of these trees at the opening of the hymn see p. 74.

2. The speaker commands that those marked by sin or stain (ἀλιτρός) be gone from the rite. Purity regulations banning those who were unholy in some way are common in Greek temples, see Petrovic 2011 and Petrovic 2007: 154–61 for parallels to this language in other Greek sources on divine epiphany. Throughout, the hymn exploits both the punitive and the beneficent aspects of Apollo (Bassi 1989).

ἑκὰς ἑκάς: sc. ἔστω. Imitated by Virg. Aen. 6.258: procul, o procul este, profani. For the ritual repetition see hAth 1–2: ἔξιτε, 4: σοῦσθε.

ἀλιτρός: familiar from Homer and archaic poetry. Callimachus uses the word in the Aetia (fr. 75.68 Pf.) for the hubris of the Telchines, and at fr. 85.14 Pf. a god with the cult title of Epopsios cannot look upon the sinful (ἀλιτρούς). At the end of the poem, Phthonos and Momos, because of their preference for waters that are impure, become examples of ἀλιτροί banished by the god himself.

3. καὶ δή που: this associated string of particles is very rare (Denniston 268). The speech of Justice in Aratus 123–26 opens with οἵην (123) and 125 begins with καὶ δή που, thus parallel to the opening of lines 1 and 3 of this hymn. In Aratus Justice berates men for their wickedness and leaves their presence, claiming that they will not see her again; similarly in Callimachus the wicked will not see Apollo. Callimachus praises Aratus in ep. 24 Pf., which suggests that Callimachus is imitating Aratus rather than the reverse. See also hZeus nn18–32, 41, 48–49, 94.

τὰ θύρετρα: only once in Homer with the definite article (Od. 18.385), in a passage that also suggests sudden arrival combined with punishment for malefactors: Odysseus in disguise tells Eurymachus that if Odysseus were suddenly to return, the doors would be too narrow for their flight.

καλῷ ποδί: the image returns in the sphragis where Apollo spurns Phthonos with his foot (107). The reference to Apollo’s “fair foot” is likely to have both poetological and metrical implications (see Bassi 1989: 228–31). καλῷ ποδί may also refer to Apollo and dance; he dances in HhAp 514–16, and the chorus of youths is exhorted to dance below (12–13; Cheshire 2008: 363). For the scansion (κᾰλῷ) see hZeus 55n.

4. ἐπένευσεν: see 1n.

ὁ Δήλιος … φοῖνιξ: the Delian palm plays a role in Apollo’s birth (e.g., HhAp 117, hDelos 210). As Williams observes ad loc., the shape of the line creates an expectation that it is the divinity who nods, and the first syllable (φοῖ) maintains the fiction; only -νιξ makes it clear that it is in fact the palm tree.

5. Swans are always connected to song in Callimachus, and specifically with the moment of Apollo’s birth in hDelos 249–54 and in the opening of the shorter Homeric hymn to Apollo (21.1): Φοῖβε, σὲ μὲν καὶ κύκνος ὑπὸ πτερύγων λίγ’ ἀείδει (“Phoebus, you even the swan hymns clearly from its wings”).

ἠέρι: Homeric form of the dative (from ἀήρ).

καλὸν ἀείδει: similar phrases occur five times in Homer, each heavily weighted (Il. 1.473: καλὸν ἀείδοντες παιήονα κοῦροι Ἀχαιῶν; 18.570: λίνον δ’ ὑπὸ καλὸν ἄειδε; Od. 1.155 of Phemius; 8.266 of Demodocus; 19.519 of the nightingale).

6. αὐτοί = αὐτόματοι. Repetition of the intensive pronouns αὐτοί, αὐταί emphasizes the spontaneity of the door opening as the divinity approaches and contributes a heightened sense of expectation. The standard study of this phenomenon is Weinreich 1929.

κατοχῆες: probably a Callimachean coinage on the model of Homeric ὀχεύς (see Schmitt 52n13), and with a similar meaning, “door bolts.”

ἀνακλίνασθε: the nature of the action would seem to require the aorist middle imperative rather than the present of the mss. (also with ἐντύνασθε below).

πυλάων: the reading of the medieval mss. The variant θυράων is earlier, found in POxy 2258 and a scholium to Theocritus. The choice is ostensibly between “gates” or “doors” of the temple, though Williams ad loc. provides good evidence that πυλάων might refer to the more substantial doors of a temple as well.

7. κληῖδες: in Homer the singular of κλείς is usual to describe this mechanism: the hooks that pass through the door to catch the strap holding the bolts (LSJ I 2). Cf. hDem 44.

8. οἱ δὲ νέοι μολπήν τε καὶ ἐς χορὸν ἐντύνασθε: direct address to the young men of the chorus. The preposition should be taken in common with both μολπήν and χορόν.

μολπήν: in epic and tragedy, a “lyric song,” thus appropriate to designate a paean. Cf. Il. 1.472–74: οἳ δὲ πανημέριοι μολπῇ θεὸν ἱλάσκοντο | καλὸν ἀείδοντες παιήονα κοῦροι Ἀχαιῶν | μέλποντες ἑκάεργον (“During the whole day the sons of the Achaeans appeased the god with song, singing a fair paean, hymning the far-working god [sc. Apollo]”).

9–11. These lines, arranged chiastically, repeat and condense the thought of the opening eight lines. The sequence οὐχ ὁράᾳς (4), ὅς μιν ἴδῃ (10) culminates in ὀψόμεθ(α) (11). The speaker and the chorus will see the god, since they are without sin. This statement prepares for Apollo’s epiphany at the end of the poem, where he spurns Envy in support of Callimachus. Whom the god loves—cities, kings, poets—prosper. Others do not.

9. φαείνεται: a poetic variant of φαίνω; Homer uses the active of φαείνω for the sun shining (e.g., Od. 3.2), and for the middle used actively see, e.g., Aratus 619, 713 (so Williams ad loc.). “Shine” is appropriate for Apollo, but the following ἴδῃ also requires that “appear” be implicit.

10. ὅς μιν ἴδῃ: the conditional relative in a generalizing clause occurs without ἄν in Homer and occasionally in lyric (see Smyth §2567b).

λιτός “insignificant”; a prose word, meaning “simple,” “frugal,” and of persons, “poor.”

11. Ancient commentators derive Apollo’s epithet, Ἑκάεργε (“Far-worker”), either from his prowess as an archer, shooting arrows from afar (ἑκάς), or to the fact that as the sun god his life-giving rays work from afar. Callimachus exploits both meanings as the hymn continues: Apollo is the god of abundant nature (47–54) and the slayer of the Delphic Pytho with his arrows (97–104).

12–16. The choral performance by young boys, whom the unnamed narrator enjoins to sing and dance, is appropriately on behalf of the city’s well-being. The presence and benefaction of Apollo, encouraged by the choral song, will lead to their accomplishment of marriage and a long life, as well as the continued prosperity of the city.

12–13. The infinitive with accusative subject, μήτε … | … τοὺς παῖδας ἔχειν, expresses a wish for the future, a construction confined to poetry (Goodwin, MT §785). The word order surrounds the chorus (τοὺς παῖδας) with the god’s presence (τοῦ Φοίβου … ἐπιδημήσαντος).

12. σιωπηλήν: also at hDelos 302. The adjective occurs in earlier poetry only at Eur. Med. 320, though common in later prose.

ἄψοφον ἵχνος: both words occur in tragedy, though ἄψοφος is rare. Eur. Troad. 887–88 provides a particularly interesting parallel: Hecuba claims that Zeus, whether he is Necessity or a projection of the human mind, directs all mortal affairs towards justice “on a silent path” (δι’ ἀψόφου … κελεύθου), a phrase that later comes to be quoted in philosophical writings. Although the meaning is different—ἄψοφον ἵχνος must mean “silent footstep”—the intertext, if it is one, would fitly link song and dance with just behavior and divine punishment, which is the theme of the hymn’s opening.

13. ἐπιδημήσαντος: the aorist describes an act prior to the boys’ singing. According to the scholiast, when the god is within his shrine (ἐπιδημεῖν), the prophecies are true, when he is away (ἀποδημεῖν), the prophecies are false.

14. πολιήν (sc. κόμην): the grey hair of old age.

κερεῖσθαι: the future of κείρω is frequent in poetry for cutting hair as either a dedication or in mourning. The latter is a common theme in epigram (see Williams ad loc. for examples). Here the trope reverses expectation: instead of mourning, dedicating one’s grey hair indicates that one has led a long life.

15. ἑστήξειν: the intransitive future perfect infinitive of ἵστημι with a simple future sense.

τὸ τεῖχος (sc. μέλλει): either the city wall, or more likely synecdoche for the city itself.

ἐπ’ ἀρχαίοισι θεμέθλοις: an allusion to Pi. Py. 4.14–16, where the foundation of Cyrene is described as Ἐπάφοιο κόραν | ἀστέων ῥίζαν φυτεύσεσθαι μελησιμβρότων | Διὸς ἐν Ἄμμωνος θεμέθλοις (“the daughter of Epaphus [= Libya] will be planted with a root of famous cities on the foundations of Zeus Ammon”).

θεμέθλοις: see also 57n.

16. ἠγασάμην: the speaker interjects his own voice, expressing his admiration for the chorus. The verb returns in 106 (in the same sedes), where Phthonos says οὐκ ἄγαμαι, “I do not admire”.

The aorist indicative is used as here for a sudden event that is just happening (see Goodwin MT §60) and above ἐσείσατο (1), ἐπένευσεν (4).

χέλυς: Hermes invented the “lyre” by stretching strings over a χέλυς, a “tortoise shell” (see HhHerm 47–51). The poet exploits both meanings.

ἀεργός: the shell was “idle” (i.e., did not make sounds) when it housed the tortoise; as the instrument, it is no longer silent when it is played to accompany the chorus. Note also σιωπηλὴν κίθαριν (12) = χέλυς.

17–31. This section opens by calling for ritual silence before the song begins, a common feature of hymns. It then describes the effect of songs in praise of Apollo, so potent that they not only quiet the sea but also two famous mourners: Thetis, who weeps for Achilles, and Niobe, who weeps for her children. The sea as a metaphor for poetry that is boundless occurs again at the conclusion of the hymn (106). Pindar in Paean 6.79–80 and the Aethiopis, according to Proclus’ epitome, make Apollo, in the guise of Paris, the slayer of Achilles. Thetis, then, is aptly paired with Niobe. Apollo has slain the sons of both. Niobe bragged that she was better than Leto because she had seven times as many sons and daughters; Leto’s divine children avenged the insult to their mother by slaughtering all of Niobe’s children. The gods took pity on her insatiable mourning by turning her into a rock (essentially a cliff-face), which was variously located in the ancient world. The story occurs again in hDelos 95–99, though there she is located in Thessaly.

17. εὐφημεῖτ(ε): the primary meaning of the verb is to refrain from inauspicious utterance, hence “be silent.” The mourning mothers would distract from the ritual, and their silence testifies to the potency of songs for Apollo. As a paean, it appropriately heals their grief, at least for the duration of the song.

18. ὅτε κλείουσιν: ὅτε with the present indicative in the causal sense (see LSJ s.v. B).

19. Λυκωρέος … Φοίβου: Lycoreia (either the nearby town or mountain) is a metonymy for Delphi. The town was said to have been founded by Lycoreus, a son of Apollo.

ἔντεα: used of military equipment in Homer, but of musical instruments in Pindar (Ol. 4.22, Py. 12.21). Both are appropriate for Apollo at Delphi, where his slaying of the Pytho with his arrows was celebrated with accompanied song.

20. οὐδὲ Θέτις: the final syllable of Thetis is, unusually, long; probably in imitation of Homer’s practice (e.g., at Il. 18.385: τίπτε, Θέτι τανύπεπλε). According to the scholiast on the Homeric passage, Zenodotus objected to the lengthening and emended to Θέτις.

κινύρεται: first in Ar. Eq. 11 with the sense of “lament”; it is rare before the Hellenistic period.

αἴ λινα: the plural is adverbial, “mournfully.” The ancients derived the word from the cry for Linus: αἶ Λίνον (cf. Aesch. Ag. 121); for Linus and mourning see Paus. 9.29.6–9. The αἶ Λίνον cry is silenced by another cry—ἱὴ παιῆον in the following line, the origins of which will be etymologized in 103 (I am indebted to M. Fantuzzi for this observation). Note that μήτηρ ends both 20 and 103.

21. ἱὴ παιῆον: the first indication of the type of ritual song. A scholium on a poem of Bacchylides (POxy 23.2368 = SH 293) seems to claim that Callimachus regarded that poem as a paean because it included this cry. By introducing it, Callimachus thus marks his own hymn as a paean.

22. δακρυόεις: even when transformed, Niobe continues to grieve, or so the moisture on the rock is interpreted. The nominative masculine occurs once in Homer, Il. 22.499 in Andromache’s proleptic lamentation for her son Astyanax, who will come weeping to his widowed mother. As an intertext, this passage adds pathos and contrast: unlike Niobe, Andromache (and her son) were blameless victims of war.

23–25. Niobe is not named, her human identity erased: she is first a weeping rock (δακρυόεις … πέτρος), then a διερὸς λίθος, where the sense of διερός is both “wet” and “living” (see hZeus 24), and finally a μάρμαρον ἀντὶ γυναικός. The apparent phrase, μάρμαρον … ὀϊζυρόν, is a deception: ὀϊζυρόν modifies not μάρμαρον, but τι. Cf. Il. 24.596–614, where Achilles consoles Priam on the loss of his son with the example of the mourning Niobe.

23. ὅστις = ὅς: for this form of the relative following a definite antecedent see LSJ s.v. II, Chantraine 2.241, and hDelos 8, 229; hDem 46. λίθος is in apposition to the relative.

ἐστήρικται: perfect passive of στηρίζω, “to be fixed immovably.”

24. μάρμαρον: the neuter noun first occurs here; in apposition to πέτρος.

χανούσης: from χάσκω, “open one’s mouth wide”; with an object meaning to “utter.”

25–31. In this section the speaker exhorts the chorus to the ritual paean cry before the hymn proper begins. Just as earlier the chorus was tightly linked with Apollo (13), here it is “my king.”

26–27. Note the careful word order—the blessed, my king, my king, Apollo are arranged chiastically and the four clauses are 8-9-8-8 syllables respectively.

26. ὃς μάχεται: for the use of the indicative in a general statement see Goodwin, MT §534.

ἐμῷ βασιλῆι: the reigning king of Cyrene. There are three potential candidates: Ptolemy II, Magas, the half-brother of Ptolemy II who declared himself king and broke off relations with Egypt in 275 bce, or Ptolemy III, who married Magas’ daughter, Berenice II, and assumed the kingship of Cyrene in 246. See pp. 19–20.

μάχοιτο: a wish (Smyth §1814). Cf. hArt 136–37 for a similar expression.

28–29 and 30–31 show balances similar to 26–27. τὸν χορὸν ὡπόλλων is reversed in οὐδ’ ὁ χορὸς τὸν Φοῖβον, while the dependent clause (28) and question (31) both end with song (ἀείδει /ἀείσει).

28. τι οἱ: the memory of the digamma (ϝοι) makes its presence felt in this line.

29. ἐπεὶ Διὶ δεξιὸς ἧσται: the right hand side is the favored position. A number of scholars have argued that, if the first hymn identified Zeus with the Ptolemies, this line alludes to the younger partner in the co-regency either of Ptolemy I and II (ending in 283/282) or of Ptolemy II and III (ending in 246). Fantuzzi suggests that the line refers not just to Apollo’s place in the Olympian hierarchy, or a Ptolemy with respect to his royal father, but more concretely to the position of this hymn in a book roll since it would immediately follow (sit to the right) of the previous hymn to Zeus (2011: 450–51).

30–31. Apollo as a copious subject for song sets the stage for the narration of the god’s biography. In addition, Callimachus includes a number of cult names of the god and experiments with a number of etymologies for his names (see 43–45 below).

31. This line recalls HhAp 19: πῶς τ’ ἄρ σ’ ὑμνήσω, πάντως εὔυμνον ἐόντα; (“how shall I hymn you seeing you are abounding in hymns?”).

32–34. Callimachus often described statues in his poems, and there is a strong likelihood that his description of Apollo reflects a real cult statue (see p. 74).

Gold (πολύχρυσος) marks Apollo as the sun god, which in turn accounts for his beneficence to flocks in the following lines, but the statues were often painted with gold, and here the drape, pin, bow, quiver, lyre, and sandals are all objects that might easily have been gilded.

2. Cyrene Apollo

32. τὸ … ἐνδυτόν: a loose garment or wrap (related to ἐνδύω, “put on clothes”); POxy 2258 glosses as χιτών.

ἡ … ἐπιπορπίς: a hapax; according to the scholiast, it means “clasp” (περόνη, πόρπη). Danielsson 1901: 78n4 takes it as the equivalent of ἐπιπόρπαμα, a cloak worn by musicians.

33. τὸ … ἄεμμα: an epic form of prose ἅμμα = anything tied or knotted. ἄεμμα occurred previously in Philitas’ Demeter (fr. 16b Spanoudakis: γυμνὸν ἄεμμα), then only in Callimachus, here and again in hArt 10 (εὐκαμπὲς ἄεμμα). According to the scholiast it means “bowstring”, probably as a synecdoche for “bow.”

τὸ Λύκτιον: probably a metonym for Cretan, since Cretan archers were well known (e.g., Arrian 2.9.3, Curtius 3.9.9), but Pausanias (4.19.4) mentions archers specifically from Lyctus and a Lyctian archer dedicates his bow in ep. 37.1 Pf.

35. πουλυκτέανος “with many possessions”; πολυκτέανος first occurs at Pi. Ol. 10.36. Callimachus often juxtaposed πολυ- and πουλυ- compounds; see πολύχρυσος above and

hArt 225, hDem 2, 119.

Πυθῶνι: Pytho (= Delphi) can substantiate the poet’s statement because the location was famous for the richness of its treasuries.

τεκμήραιο: τεκμαίρομαι + dative, “judge from the evidence,” is found in lyric and tragedy.

36–38. The description of Apollo as beardless, and with youthful locks that drip healing balm, concludes his distinctive physical characteristics and forms a bridge to his role as a healer.

37. θηλείαις “soft” or “tender,” i.e., his beard has not yet coarsened (cf. Theoc. 16.49). The adjective also suggests the androgynous quality of many representations of Apollo.

ἐπὶ … ἦλθε: for ἐπέρχομαι + dative see LSJ I 2.

χνόος “down,” or the first growth of a beard on the cheeks.

38. πέδῳ: dative used in a locative sense, found at HhDem 455 and in tragedy.

39. λίπος “oil.” Apollo’s hair does not drip the usual oil that was customary in grooming, but a healing balm.

ἀποστάζουσιν “drip drop by drop.” The word occurs first in Aesch. Supp. 578–79; Callimachus uses it in Hecale fr. 74.5 Hollis and in hArt 118. Cf. the Homeric hymn to Hestia (24.3): αἰεὶ σῶν πλοκάμων ἀπολείβεται ὑγρὸν ἔλαιον (“always from your locks drips liquid oil”), where Hestia is addressed as one who tends Apollo’s shrine at Delphi (1–2).

ἔθειραι: in Homer always plural, for “horsehair,” but used of human hair in lyric and tragedy (as here).

40. πανάκειαν “cure-all” was a common term in the medical writers, and personified as the goddess Panacea, a daughter of Apollo.

41. πρῶκες: a rare word for “dew drops”; elsewhere only at Theoc. 4.16. The form is said to be Doric.

ἔραζε: synonym for πέδῳ.

ἀκήρια “unharmed,” as at, e.g., Od. 12.98, HhHerm 530.

ἀκήρια πάντ’ ἐγένοντο: an etymological gloss on πανάκειαν (40), see Cheshire 2008: 364. For a neuter plural as subject of a plural verb, see Chantraine 2.17–18 (and hArt 182, hDelos 142).

42–46. These five lines state the spheres of Apollo’s patronage: archery and song are entwined and first expressed as objects (ὀϊστευτὴν … ἀοιδόν), then repeated as subjects (τόξον … ἀοιδή). The next two are separated, each one to a line: θριαὶ καὶ μάντιες, ἰητροί. The whole framed by τέχνῃ δ’ ἀμφιλαφής and ἀνάβλησιν θανάτοιο.

Plato in the Cratylus lists Apollo’s spheres of oversight as μουσική, μαντική, ἰατρική, and τοξική (405a1–3). Socrates goes on to derive versions of Apollo’s name from each of these. Because he is a healer he is called Ἀπολούων (purifier); because prophets seek truth, which is “one,” he is called Ἅπλουν; as an archer he is Ἀειβάλλων; as a musician he is Ὁμοπολῶν, because he brings everything into harmony (405b9–406a2). Callimachus adds a fifth sphere: care of flocks as a subset of healing. Callimachus also experiments with etymologies of Apollo’s name: the opening lines οἷον ὁ τὠπόλλωνος | οἷα δ’ ὅλον produce a sound effect that links Apollo and “whole,” while at 101–2 ἐπ’ ἄλλῷ | βάλλων is said of Apollo the archer. Elsewhere Callimachus seems to connect Apollo to πολύς, both in the positive sense (as in 69–70) and in the privative sense, as not (ἀ-) for the many (πολλῶν) in the sphragis. Cf. hZeus 10, 15–20nn for etymologies of Rhea and Zeus. See also Pi. Py. 5.60–69 for Apollo’s powers particularly in respect to Cyrene.

42. ἀμφιλαφής: Apollo is “abundant” or “copious” in his techne; cf. Pi. Ol. 9. 80–83: εἴην εὑρησιεπὴς ἀναγεῖσθαι | πρόσφορος ἐν Μοισᾶν δίφρῳ· | τόλμα δὲ καὶ ἀμφιλαφὴς δύναμις | ἕσποιτο, where its occurrence is connected to the skill of the poet: “May I be creative in speech and drive forth fittingly in the chariot of the Muses; may boldness and abundant power accompany me.” ἀμφιλαφής occurs also at hArt 3 and hDem 26.

43. ὀϊστευτήν: a Callimachean coinage, imitated by Nonnus. The double noun formation ὀϊστευτὴν… ἀνέρα is common when the second element is ἀνήρ, see below 86 and hDem 51. On the form see Schmitt 162 (12.5.4).

ἔλαχ(ε): λαγχάνω is the verb of choice for the allotment of the spheres of divine authority (e.g., Il. 15.190–92), and see hArt 22–23n.

ἀοιδόν: cf. hZeus 71.

45. θριαί: the common noun refers to pebbles used in divination; also, according to Philochorus, the Thriai were nymphs on Mt. Parnassus who nursed Apollo (see Jacoby’s very detailed discussion of Philochorus, FGrH 328 F 195 in 3b2 Suppl. 449–51). HhHerm 552–66 may refer to these nymphs (see Richardson 2010: 219–20).

μάντιες: the prophets who uttered sacred oracles. Apollo’s temples at Delphi and Delos regularly used both pebbles and oral communications to respond to petitioners.

46. δεδάασιν: from *δάω (“learn”); first here as present indicative; Homer uses the reduplicated form only in aorist. See Williams’ very full discussion.

ἀνάβλησιν “delay”; the noun occurs previously only in Homer (Il. 2.380, 24.655), then in later prose.

47. Νόμιον: One of Apollo’s cult titles was Nomios, or god of the flocks. Nomios was also a title of Aristaeus, the son of Apollo and Cyrene, and thus closely connected to Cyrene (Pi. Py. 9.64–65). Callimachus links this epithet with Apollo’s homoerotic servitude to Admetus, a version of the story previously unattested. Like the cities that prosper because he drips healing balm, the flocks prosper under his watchful gaze.

ἐξέτι: this preposition with the genitive is Homeric: “from the time that” (cf. 104). Note that this line begins with Φοῖβον and ends with κείνου, while line 45 begins with κείνου and ends with Φοίβου. After the earlier anaphora of κεῖνος (= Φοῖβος), the change in meaning to an expression of time is unexpected.

48. Ἀμφρυσσῷ: a river in Thessaly (Str. 9.5.14); it is near Itone (hDem 74) and Othrys (hDem 86).

ζευγίτιδας: ζευγῖτις (feminine equivalent of ζευγίτης) seems to be a Callimachean coinage, here describing a yoked pair of mares.

49. ἠιθέου: an unmarried youth. The noun is probably a play on Admetus’ name: ἄδμητος means “unbroken” with respect to horses and “virgin” when used of women.

Ἀδμήτοιο: objective genitive. Admetus was a king of Thessaly, whom Apollo was required to serve. In the earliest versions of the myth his servitude was a punishment for killing the Cyclopes (or their children) after they, at the order of Zeus, had killed Apollo’s son, Asclepius, because he returned the dead to life. A later version, said to be from Anaxandrides of Delphi (FGrH 404 F3–5), has Apollo punished for killing the Delphic Python. The relationship between Admetus and Apollo does not seem to have been erotic before the poetry of Callimachus and his contemporary, Rhianus (fr. 10 Powell). The young Apollo seems to be the erastes (so Fantuzzi 2011: 436).

50. βουβόσιον: in Aratus 1120 the word means “cattle pasture” (see Kidd ad loc.), but in Callimachus the sense is closer to “herd of cows.” Williams ad loc. posits the influence of Il. 11.679: συβόσιον, “herd of swine.” (For Apollo as a cowherd see Eur. Alc. 8.)

τελέθοι: the verb occurs in Homer, though the optative is first found here; with πλέον, “increases”; cf. HhDem 241.

51. ἐπιμηλάδες: in apposition to αἶγες. This coinage is found only here, and its meaning is contested: the scholia (and Griffiths 1981: 160) understand as goats “pastured with sheep,” while Williams ad loc. understands as “protectresses of their own offspring,” pointing out that the variant, ἐπιμηλίδες, was a title for nymphs as “guardians of the flocks” (see also Schmitt 74n10). Griffiths further observes that Callimachus tends to place a “recherché” adjective of the shape ⏑⏑‒⏑⏑, followed by a relative clause, at this point in the line (so hAp 78, 91, hArt 94, 179, and hDelos 308), an observation that militates against emendation.

52. βοσκομένῃσ(ι): the passive participle of βόσκω, with the sense found, e.g., at Od. 11.108, of cattle “grazing.”

ἀγάλακτες “giving no milk”; a variant, unique to Callimachus, of the adjective ἀγάλακτος.

53. ἄκυθοι “unfruitful”; unique to Callimachus and much discussed in the ancient lexicographers (see Williams ad loc.).

ὕπαρνοι “with lambs under them” (i.e., those ewes who have just given birth and are suckling lambs). The word is rare, but does occur in documentary papyri.

54. While tending Admetus’ flocks, all the cows dropped twins (Apollod. 3.10.4). Frazer suggests that Apollo may have been able to bring about twin births in cattle because he was a twin himself (1921: 2.376–82).

55–64. Apollo was born on Delos and is presented at the precocious age of four building the island’s famous horned altar. The imposition of the structures of civilization on Delos prefigures Apollo’s role in the foundation of Cyrene and contrasts with Apollo’s laying out of the foundations for his temple at Delphi in HhAp (254–55 repeated at 294–95). Callimachus characterizes Apollo’s act as weaving (ὑφαίνει, ἔπλεκε), a familiar metaphor for composing poetry (e.g., Pi. Py. 4.275, Nem. 4.44, 94, Sappho fr. 188 V). This has prompted some scholars (e.g., Wimmel 1960: 65–70) to consider Apollo’s building activities at Delos, in tandem with the choice of waters at the end of the hymn, as a statement of poetic values. In HhAp 255 Apollo builds foundations that are εὐρέα καὶ μάλα μακρὰ διηνεκές; in Callimachus Apollo painstakingly weaves together animal horns into a seamless construction, allusively likened to fitting strings to the lyre (see below 58n).

55. διεμετρήσαντο: διαμετρέω is the normal word for measuring out the area of a new foundation; here the middle is used in an active sense, a common stylistic feature in Hellenistic poets (see hArt 36n).

56. φιληδεῖ “take pleasure in”; first attested in Ar. Pax 1130 and found in prose.

57. κτιζομένῃσ(ι): with πολίεσσι, cities “as they are being founded.”

θεμείλια: variant of θέμεθλα (15); it occurs at HhAp 254 ≈ 294, where Apollo lays the foundations for his temple at Delphi. In hArt 248 he coins θέμειλον, probably for metrical reasons (see Schmitt 166).

58. τὰ πρῶτα: in Homer often adverbial (e.g., Il. 1.6, 17.612), and editors so take it here and at 64, but implicit also is that these are Phoebus’ first foundations.

ἔπηξε: used at HhHerm 47 of Hermes constructing the lyre. Apollo’s precocity and, by extension, that of his twin, Artemis, may have been inspired by the feats of the newborn Hermes.

59. καλῇ … λίμνης: a variation of HhAp 280.

Ὀρτυγίῃ: a name for Delos, see p. 102.

περιηγέος … λίμνης: the round lake near the sanctuary of Apollo, see hDelos 261 (and map 7).

60. The theme of Artemis as a hunter is expanded in hArt 80–109.

ἀγρώσσουσα: epic for ἀγρεύω, “catch.” Once in Homer (Od. 5.53), then Callimachus and Lycophron.

καρήατα: Homeric plural of κάρα, “heads.”

61–63. Horns are mentioned three times in these lines (κεράεσσιν, ἐκ κεράων, κεραούς) in connection with ἐδέθλια, βωμόν, and τοίχους. It is not clear if Apollo constructs a separate horned shrine, altar, and walls, or whether the ἐδέθλια and τοίχους are parts of the altar (i.e., ἐδέθλια = base and τοίχους = its sides). The latter makes better sense in view of what is known of the site: no evidence for a shrine or walls constructed of horns exists. (For further details see Williams ad loc.)

61. Κυνθιάδων: Cynthus was a mountain on Delos, often identified as the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. The term “Cynthian” is here applied to the goats grazing on that mountainside. Adjectives, particularly of place, formed in -άς, -άδος are frequent in Callimachus (see Schmitt 73–74 and below 87, 96).

φορέεσκεν: Homeric iterative imperfect of φορέω.

ἔπλεκε: Plutarch (De soll. anim. 983c-e), in describing the way in which the halcyon builds her nest, likens it to weaving and draws a parallel with the interlacing of the horns of the Delian altar. Williams ad loc. suggests that the resemblance of the halcyon’s nest and the altar may have belonged to pre-Callimachean paradoxology of which the poet availed himself. See also Selden 1998: 399–402, who finds an analogy in Egyptian cosmology, and above 55–64.

62. δείματο: Homeric aorist middle of δέμω, with an active sense; the active form occurs at 77 and see below 94.

ἐδέθλια: a variant of ἔδεθλον (72), first attested in Callimachus. Both forms occur in A.R., at 4.331 (ἔδεθλον) and 4.630 (ἐδέθλια); see Schmitt 35–36n18, 71n1. For a similar variation see 57n.

63. ἐκ κεράων, κεραούς: Callimachus shifts from the noun (κέρας) to the adjective (κεραός), the latter with the sense “made of horns.”

65–96. The longest sequence in the poem, it rehearses the history of the colonization of Cyrene, which is also told in Pi. Py. 4 and 9 (written respectively for Arcesilas and Telesicrates of Cyrene) and in Herodotus (4.145–205), but here the focus is the festival of the Carneia. The colonization myth was unusual because Apollo not only provided the oracle (which is normal), he also seems to have taken direct action in the colony’s establishment.

65. βαθύγειον “fertile”; previously only in Theophrastus, though βαθύγαιος occurs at Hdt. 4.23.

Βάττῳ: Battus (“Stutterer”) was the founder of the colony. His formal name is given later as Aristoteles (76), though his descendants called themselves the Battiadae (on Battus’ speech see Pi. Py. 5.57–59).

66. κόραξ: Apollo in the guise of a raven led the colonists to the new foundation. The story is already told in Hesiod (fr. 60 M-W), and a late sixth-century inscription from Cyrene indicates that Apollo was honored there with the epithet Κόραξ (Gasperini 1995: 5–8).

67. οἰκιστῆρι “founder”; the form is known from Cyrenean texts (see Dobias-Lalou 2000: 94, 235); Hdt. 4.153.3 and Pi. Py 4.6 apply it to Battus as the founder of Cyrene.

68. ἡμετέροις βασιλεῦσιν: i.e., the Battiad line; “my king” in line 27 refers to a specific, and current, king, for whose identity see pp. 18–19.

69. Βοηδρόμιον: a cult title of Apollo found in a number of places; the Athenians held a festival in honor of Apollo βοηδρόμιος and even named a month Βοηδρομίων (see Deubner 1932: 202). According to the Etymologicum magnum s.v., the title is accounted for as the shout of the army running to the city after a victory (ἀπὸ οὖν τῆς τοῦ στρατεύματος βόης τῆς ἐπὶ τῷ ἄστει δραμούσης).

70. Κλάριον: Claros was the location of a very well-known oracular shrine of Apollo near Colophon and Ephesus; it existed from at least the Archaic period, but came to particular prominence in the Hellenistic period (see Parke 1967: 122, 138).

71. Καρνεῖον: Apollo Carneius was worshipped in Sparta, where the festival of the Carneia was long celebrated (see Pettersson 1992: 57–72). Cyrene, as a Spartan-Theran colony, venerated him as city patron. The temple precinct of Apollo Carneius was the largest in Cyrene.

72–74. The movement from Sparta (the first foundation) to Thera to Cyrene retraces the trajectory of colonization for this portion of North Africa. The story goes that one of the Argonauts was given a clod of Libyan earth (or a tripod) by the god Triton as a promise that the land belonged to Greeks. In Pindar (Py. 4) the clod of earth is washed into the sea and only after seventeen generations do the Greek colonizers return to claim their heritage (see also the prophecy at A.R. 4.1749–54). Battus, one of the Spartans who had settled on Thera, consulted Delphi about his stutter and was told to emigrate to Libya (Hdt. 4.155). In fact, Laconian and Arcadian settlers were the largest group in Cyrene, and the city spoke a Doric dialect (see pp. 26–27).

72. τόδε: Williams and others before him have taken exception to the deictic pronoun, but if it is spoken by the poet in the context of πατρώϊον “this ancestral one I just mentioned,” the usage seems acceptable (see Smyth §1242).

ἔδεθλον: Hellenistic; also at A.R. 4.331, of the temple of Artemis in the land of the Brugi.

73. γε μέν: see Denniston 386–89; the combination usually has an adversative or a progressive sense; either can apply to this passage, where the third iteration is emphatic. “but third is the city of Cyrene.”

74. ἕκτον γένος: the sixth generation from Oedipus refers to the settlement of Thera by a descendant of Polyneices (see Hdt. 4.147 and Pi. Py. 5.72–75).

75. ἀπόκτισιν: the “founding of a colony”; probably a Callimachean coinage (see Schmitt 72n7).

76. οὖλος: Homer uses this adjective in several senses (“destructive” of heroes, “curly” of hair, “compact” of wool), and the various meanings were much discussed in antiquity. Callimachus’ usage at various places in the hymns reflects this Homeric variety (see Rengakos 1992: 24). As an attribute of Aristoteles οὖλος is best taken as “baneful” to follow Homeric usage with heroes (e.g., Il. 21.536). However, Williams ad loc. raises the intriguing possibility that since Callimachus calls Aristoteles by his real name, instead of the usual Battus (“stutterer”), here οὖλος has the non-Homeric sense “concise in his speech” (according to Plut. De garr. 510e-f, a characteristic of Spartans).

Ἀσβυστίδι … γαίῃ: the Asbystians were one of the indigenous tribes in the Cyrenaica; thus Callimachus regularly named the region the “Asbystian land.”

πάρθετο (= παρέθετο): in the middle, “place beside” or “entrust,” with accusative of thing/person entrusted. “Aristoteles entrusted you [i.e., set up Apollo’s temple] to the Asbystian land.”

77. ἀνάκτορον: dwelling for a king or a god; used, e.g., of Apollo’s temple at Delphi (Eur. Ion 55).

78. τελεσφορίην: according to the scholia, the meaning here is “festival” (cf. hDem 129). First here and in A.R. 1.917 (of the Samothracian mysteries); for the word in its Cyrenean context see Dobias-Lalou 2000: 209–10. In Cyrene the τελεσφόροι were apparently responsible for the ritual slaughter of bulls (Fraser 1972: 2.918n304), which occurs in the next two lines.

ἐπετήσιον: with τελεσφορίην the meaning will be “annual” or “yearly”; it occurs first at Od. 7.118 with a different meaning (and see below 81–84).

78–79. πολλοὶ … ταῦροι: apparently not an exaggeration; a fourth-century Cyrenean inscription commemorates the sacrifice of 120 oxen to Artemis (see Gallavotti 1963: 454–55).

79. ὑστάτιον (= ὕστατον): the adjective modifies ἰσχίον (“haunch”), “fallen on its last haunch,” i.e., fallen on its haunches for the last time.

80. πολύλλιτε “much prayed for”; a correction for the unmetrical πολύλλιστε found in a number of mss. The line seems to have been imitated in a very fragmentary papyrus of Euphorion (SH 428.12); also at hDelos 316.

81–84. Cyrene was known for its flowers, and this passage, like the description of the health of cities and of flocks, links Cyrene’s fruitfulness to Apollo’s favor; based on the description of Alcinous’ gardens at Od. 7.118–21.

81. τόσσα: here = ὅσσα; also at 94, probably to avoid hiatus; the antecedent is ἄνθεα … ποικίλ(α).

Ὧραι: the personified Seasons; a shrine of the Horae was located next to the temple of Apollo in Cyrene (Chamoux 1953: 268, 364).

82. ἀγινεῦσι: epic form of ἄγω, “bring”; also in Iamb. fr. 194.55 Pf. and Herodas 4.87.

ζεφύρου πνείοντος: a variation of Od. 7.119: ζεφυρίη πνείουσα.

83. κρόκον ἡδύν: Cyrene was noted for the fragrance of its saffron (e.g., Theophr. HP 6.6.5).

84. περιβόσκεται “graze around”; the image from the flocks is carried over into the description of eternal hearth fires. The word is first found in Callimachus and imitated by Nicander.

τέφρη: epic, used in the plural for “ashes.”

85–87. The “men girt for War” are the Spartan (Theran) colonists—they are called Dorian in 89—whose dancing (ὠρχήσαντο) with the native women enacts the first Carneia on Cyrenean soil. Coupling in the dance is equally a reference to standard colonial behavior—marrying native women. In fact, the passage may be of contemporary relevance because in his constitution for Cyrene (c.325 bce), Ptolemy I allowed children of men who were Cyrenean citizens and local Libyan women to be entered into the citizen rolls for the first time (see Bagnall 1976: 28).

85. ζωστῆρες: in Homer ζωστήρ usually describes a warrior’s belt, but the primary meaning of the noun seems simply to be a “belt” or “cincture”; it could be worn by either men or women. Here the addition of Ἐνυοῦς makes the context of war clear. ζωστήρ itself is either an agent noun (“men wearing belts”) or synecdoche, where “belts” equals “men wearing belts.” Theoc. 15.6 provides a parallel for the latter: παντᾷ κρηπῖδες, παντᾷ χλαμυδηφόροι ἄνδρες, in which κρηπῖδες is synecdoche for “men wearing soldier’s boots,” though the subsequent phrase “cloak-wearing men” clarifies the earlier usage. For the addition of ἀνέρες (86), see above 43n.

Callimachus’ phrase highlights two elements: ζωστήρ and war. There was an ancient sanctuary at Zoster in Attica (see Steph. Byz. s.v. Ζωστήρ) with a cult temple dedicated to Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and Athena, where Leto is said to have loosened her ζωστήρ, in preparation for delivering her twins, though she did not give birth there (Paus. 1.31.1). During the Chremonidean war (267–261), in which the Ptolemies were supporters of Athens against Macedon, the location was fortified. Possibly the word was chosen to allude to both the myth of Leto and the historical context.

Ἐνυοῦς: Ἐνυώ is the goddess of war (Il. 5.333, 592 and hDelos 276); metonymy for “war” or “battle.”

87. τέθμιαι “appointed”; Doric forms of θέσμιος are frequent in Callimachus: in the hymns, here, hArt 174, and hDem 18 (all are in Doric-speaking contexts). See Buck §164.4, Schmitt 31n10, and Harder on Aetia fr. 43.20.

Καρνειάδες “for the Carneian festival”; on the form see 61n.

ἤλυθον: epic form of ἦλθον. Like Homer, Callimachus uses both ἦλθ- and ἤλυθ-, varying for metrical reasons.

88. πηγῇσι Κύρης: Cyre is a local spring, from which some ancient writers derived the name of the city, Cyrene (see map 4). The other derivation was from the eponymous nymph, who is not named in this poem, but referred to as the daughter of Hypseus (92).

89. Ἄζιλιν: Azilis was the region near Cyrene where tradition placed the original settlement (see Hdt. 4.157.3, who spells it Ἄζιρις).

90–92. Cyrene caught the eye of Apollo when he was an indentured servant of Admetus in Thessaly. He then carried her from Thessaly to Cyrene. She is figured as his “bride” in this poem. At least one frieze from Cyrene survives in late Roman copy, depicting the nymph conquering a lion (Bonacasa and Ensoli 2000: 186–87). Other versions of the myth have her slaying the lion in Thessaly.

91. ἐπὶ Μυρτούσσης: Bonacasa and Ensoli (2000: 53) have identified “Myrtussa” with the acropolis (cf. A.R. 2.505: Μυρτώσιον αἶπος).

κερατώδεος “horned,” before Callimachus only in Arist. HA 595a13 and Theophr. HP 5.1.6. The choice of this word to describe the contours of the hill recalls the “horned” altar and the close relationship of Apollo the builder with both.

92. Ὑψηίς: the “daughter of Hypseus.” Hypseus was the son of the river god, Peneius, and king of the Lapiths.

κατέπεφνε: Homeric, lyric, and tragic second aorist, with no present form in use, “slew.”

σίνιν: the lion as σίνις, “ravager” or “plunderer,” first occurs in the mss. of Aesch. Ag. 717–18, where Conington’s emendation, ἶνιν, is widely accepted. However, the fact that σίνιν occurs again in Lycophron 539 (describing Paris) suggests that it was an accepted reading in the third century bce (so Williams ad loc.).

Εὐρυπύλοιο: Eurypylus was a son of Poseidon and a legendary native king of Libya; he occurs in Pi. Py. 4.33, and A.R. 4.1561. His particulars are given in a scholium on the A.R. passage, attributed to Acesander, On Cyrene (FGrH 469 F 1, 3–4).

93. θεώτερον: previously this comparative form occurred only in Homer (Od. 13.111), where it refers to a portal in a cave of the nymphs used only by gods. On the form see Chantraine 1.257–58 and Williams ad loc. It occurs again at hArt 249 (of Dawn looking down on the temple of Artemis at Ephesus). The more common θειότερος occurs at hZeus 80.

94. τόσ(α) … τόσσα: for repeated τοσ- forms as correlatives, Williams ad loc. compares Pi. N. 4.4–5.

ἔνειμεν: the mss. read ἔδειμεν, or “built,” which Lascaris emended to ἔνειμεν, “allotted” or “bestowed”; the latter is the preferred reading of most editors. Williams ad loc. strongly defends the mss., pointing to the other moments in the poem where Apollo is a builder (and citing the original reading of Hes. fr. 273.1 M-W). The comparison with other cities, though, would seem to preclude ἔδειμεν; Apollo may have built the Delian horned altar for himself (62), but he does not build cities; at 77 it is Aristoteles who does so.

ὀφέλσιμα: probably a Callimachean coinage for ὠφέλιμος, “beneficial” (see Schmitt 100n5).95. ἁρπακτύος: Ionic for ἁρπαγή; only here in Callimachus (cf. hDem 9).

96. Βαττιάδαι: the Battiads were the founding and ruling house of Cyrene in the sixth-fifth centuries bce. They had been superseded by an oligarchy in the fourth century.

97–104. The paean was traditionally a poem for Apollo, though in the Hellenistic period other gods and even humans could be so honored. The inclusion of the paean cry marks this poem as a paean (see 21n). Various explanations for the cry were given in antiquity (see Ath. 15.701c-e), though Callimachus’ version is a variant of that attributed to Clearchus of Soli (fr. 64 Wehrli). He derived it from ἵε, παῖ (“go on, son”), uttered by Leto to encourage her son to attack the Pytho. In Callimachus’ version, it is the bystanders who cry out: ἱὴ παιῆον. Callimachus emphasizes the point with a virtual gloss: ἵει βέλος in 103, as if the cry were: ἵει, παῖ, ἰόν.

98. ἐφύμνιον “refrain of a hymn”; Hellenistic (cf. fr. 384.39 Pf., A.R. 2.713) and in later prose.

99. ἑκηβολίην: hapax at Il. 5.54, “skilled at hitting the mark” (see Rengakos 1992: 35) and see 11n.

100–1. The story of Apollo slaying Pytho is the subject of the second half of HhAp. Apollo kills the serpent that inhabits the area around Mt. Parnassus in order to establish his sanctuary there. The place where the serpent died and rotted in the sun was called Pytho (from the verb πύθω = “rot”), HhAp 372.

101. κατήναρες: second aorist active of κατεναίρομαι. The verb occurs once in Homer (Od. 11.519), where Neoptolemus kills Telephus’ son, Eurypylus (the homonymous Eurypylus at 92 may be the reason for the imitation, if it is one).

102. ἐπηΰτησε: from ἐπαϋτέω; “called out besides”; previously in Hes. Sc. 309 and Theoc. 22.91 (see Sens 1997 ad loc.).

104. ἀοσσητῆρα: cf. Aetia fr. 18.4 (also of Apollo) and A.R. 1.471, 4.146, 785. The rare noun may be intended as play on the epithet Παιήων that was applied to many gods. Παιήων means “healer” or “helper,” and ἀοσσητήρ, according to the scholiast on Od. 4.165, means one who is ready to heed a cry (ὄσσα) for help.

ἐξέτι κεῖθεν “ever since then,” “from that point”; cf. 47n.

105–113. For a discussion of this famous sphragis see p. 73.

105–7. Compare lines 1–3, where the impure are banished as Apollo kicks the doors with his “fair foot.” See also Pl. Phdr. 247a, where Socrates describes the heavenly processions of the gods; those with the greatest affinity for the divine may follow: ἕπεται δὲ ὁ ἀεὶ ἐθέλων τε καὶ δυνάμενος· φθόνος γὰρ ἔξω θείου χοροῦ ἵσταται (“he follows who is willing and able, for Envy stands apart from the divine chorus”).

105. λάθριος “secret”; a variant of λαθραῖος, found first in tragedy and comedy.

106. The interpretation of this line continues to be disputed. (1) Williams (pp. 87–89) made the case for understanding the sea (πόντος) as Homer, though just how the identification should work poetically is unclear. Griffiths 1981: 161 has set out the basic problems with Williams’ argument. (2) Traill 1998, following Williams on the syntax of οὐδ’ ὅσα (namely, that it does not mean “not as much as,” but “not even as much as”) shifts the comparison from the Homer of the Iliad and Odyssey, to the Homer of the Hymn to Apollo. He takes the sense to be “I do not admire the poet who, when praising Apollo, does not sing even as much as Homer in his Hymn to Apollo did.”

108–12. Apollo’s reply introduces a new element for comparison—the large flow of the Assyrian river in contrast to pure waters carried by bees from the springs of Demeter. The Assyrian river is most likely the Euphrates, which flowed through the heart of the Seleucid Empire.

108. τὰ πολλά: adverbial, cf. τὰ πρῶτα above 58, 64.

109–10. The opening letters of lines 109–10 read λυ-Δη, and the opening letter of 108 is Α. The Lyde of Antimachus of Colophon was an epic poem much admired by Plato, but generally denigrated by Callimachus and his contemporaries (cf. fr. 398 Pf.: Λύδη καὶ παχὺ γράμμα καὶ οὐ τορόν). If Antimachus’ Lyde was embedded in an acrostic, then the poetic style that Apollo (as opposed to Phthonos) rejects is the overly grand epic style of Antimachus (so K. Cheshire in a paper presented at the American Philological Association in 2010). See also Morrison 2007: 135–37, who discusses the passage in terms of a traditional “break-off formula” (Abbruchformel).

109. λύματα: the refuse from ritual washing, or from a sacrifice (see hDem 115, Aetia fr. 75.25 Pf.).

συρφετόν: anything swept away, “refuse”; but in Plato, it is the equivalent of οἱ πολλοί, “the mob”; see Acosta-Hughes and Stephens 2012: 80–83.

110. Bees carrying water to Deo have a local reference. There was a sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone in Cyrene, not far from the temple to Apollo that included a spring. It may also be an allusion to Philitas’ poem the Demeter (see Williams ad loc.) as well as a cultic reference; priestesses of Demeter were called Melissae. See further Petrovic 2011: 275–76.

111. ἀχράαντος (= ἄχραντος): the form is a hapax in Callimachus; “undefiled,” but the combination καθαρὸν καὶ ἄχραντον occurs earlier in Plato, Alcibiades I 113e9. Williams ad loc. suggests that the phrase might have belonged to a ceremonial formula.

112. πίδακος ἐξ ἱερῆς: a variation of Il. 16.825: πίδακος ἀμφ’ ὀλίγης. The passage is a simile of a boar and a lion fighting over a slender spring.

ὀλίγη λιβάς and ἄκρον ἄωτον are in apposition to ἥτις καθαρή (111).

ἄωτον “the choicest” or “the flower of”; the word is frequent in Pindar; ἄκρον ἄωτον occurs in Is. 7.18–19: ὅ τι μὴ σοφίας ἄωτον ἄκρον | κλυταῖς ἐπέων ῥοαῖσιν ἐξίκηται ζυγέν (“[Mortals forget] what does not reach the steep pinnacle of wisdom, yoked in famous streams of verse”).

113. Μῶμος: the personification of criticism. Cf. Pi. Ol. 6.74–76: μῶμος ἐξ ἄλ|λων κρέμαται φθονεόντων | τοῖς, οἷς ποτε πρώτοις περὶ δωδέκατον δρόμον | ἐλαυνόντεσσιν αἰδοία ποτιστά|ξῃ Χάρις εὐκλέα μορφάν (“Blame from others who are envious hangs over those who drive first over the twelve-lap track, on them revered Charis sheds a glorious appearance”).

Φθόνος: most mss. read φθόρος, “a destructive man”; Φθόνος is preserved in I, the Aldine, and a scholium on Gregory of Nazianzus (quoted by Pfeiffer, testimonia ad loc.). Most editors print Φθόνος, who is already personified in 105, 107, rather than introduce a third term, which lacks the specificity and force of the other two.

1. On the Certamen see West 2003: 297–300 and 350–51, and cf. fr. 357 M-W.