6 The Hymn to Demeter

Like hAth, this hymn is mimetic and was composed in literary Doric (see pp. 26–27). It also has a similar narrative frame with an inserted cautionary tale, and while Tiresias’ story has strong tragic contours in hAth, the story of Erysichthon in this hymn has elements of social comedy. The temporal frame is the return of a sacred procession to the temple at the approach of evening; the celebrants, who have been fasting, are accompanying a κάλαθος conveyed by four white mares (120). The unidentified female narrator (see 124) recreates the atmosphere of a festival for Demeter that in detail seems somewhere between the Athenian Thesmophoria and the Mysteries at Eleusis. The narrator exhorts the female celebrants and warns observers not to look at the contents of the sacred basket as it passes by. After the story of Demeter’s search for her abducted daughter is rehearsed and then abandoned, the narrator launches into the apotropaic tale of Erysichthon, an event that takes place in Thessaly (25–117). The young man was cutting down trees sacred to the goddess, when Demeter assumed the guise of her own priestess to deter him from the sacrilege. In his insolence he refused to heed her, claiming that the felled trees would make an appropriate space for continual banqueting (54–5). The punishment suits the crime: he is visited with a gargantuan hunger and insatiable thirst. Boundaries of propriety and measure are transgressed as his appetite demands twenty slaves to prepare enough food for his banquet, twelve more to pour sufficient drink. Of course, he cannot be allowed to attend common banquets (72) since he would disgrace his family by eating everything in sight. When he has literally eaten them out of house and home, having consumed all their stores, oxen and horses, and even a small domestic animal, he is last seen wasting away at a crossroads begging for crusts (110–15). Lines 118–38 return to the ritual frame, with further cautions before the final salutation and prayer for prosperity.

The embedded tale has features in common with fourth-century comedy. The excesses of kings and aristocrats were easy comic targets because of their conspicuous consumption in symposia as well as other forms of luxury. Athenaeus, for example, in a section on gluttony, quotes from Sositheus’ satyr play, Lityersis (a bastard son of Midas and the king of the Celaenians in Phrygia): “He eats three loaves and three pack mules in one short day; and he drinks down a ten-amphora jar, calling it one measure” (10.415b-c = TrGF 1, 99 Sositheus F 2.6–8 Snell). It is possible to read Callimachus’ hymnic insert in the context of this topos, and with a similarly serious purpose: to be a mirror held up to those in power that reflects their own egregious behavior, executed in a mode that is closer to comedy than the kind of earnest philosophical instruction to kings found in, for example, Plato’s Seventh Letter.

In topic and detail Erysichthon’s story is a humorous inversion of the serious cult frame: fasting and abstinence pay service to the goddess, in return for which she provides humankind with her bounty. Erysichthon abuses Demeter’s bounty in service of his own excess: a suitable space for his indulgence requires no less than an act of sacrilege. But his punishment takes on a kind of narrative excess as he consumes everything in sight including the “white tail.” Callimachus’ narrative itself is a boundary transgression that incorporates elements of iambic and comic lampoon into the framework of the Homeric hymn. After all, it was Iambe (a feminine embodiment of iambic) telling rude tales who finally made Demeter laugh, break her fast, and restore her gifts to mankind. A now fragmentary hymn to Demeter (in choriambic hexameters) written by Callimachus’ Alexandrian contemporary Philicus mentions the arrival of Iambe, who proclaims: for the solemn ([τοῖσι δὲ] σεμνοῖς) a humorous tale is not without advantage (ἀκερδή[ς).¹ Callimachus’ hymn both recreates the solemnity of the festival and incorporates elements of the comic revival of the goddess, and via the comic elements provides a potent criticism of aristocratic excess in a form calculated to amuse as well as instruct.

The Deity and Her Relevant Cults

Demeter was worshipped throughout the Greek-speaking world in two translocal rituals: the Thesmophoria, which was a civic festival performed by citizen women to guarantee the city’s agricultural and human fertility; and the Mysteries, which involved personal devotion without regard to social status or gender and held out the promise of benefits for eternity. The same myth subtended both—Demeter’s loss of her daughter, Demeter’s wandering, followed by the girl’s return—and was closely connected to the cycle of the seasons: Demeter’s bountiful gifts of agriculture ceased while she searched for and mourned her daughter, thus bringing on winter. The girl’s return led to the rebirth of vegetation in the spring. The best known examples of these festivals were at Athens, but similar festivals were celebrated throughout the Greek-speaking world, and Demeter herself was assimilated to other local divinities, particularly Isis in Egypt. The ritual elements that Callimachus mentions seem to divide between these two known cult types: in being exclusively female, with the fasting, and night procession, the festival described by Callimachus resembles the Nesteia, the second day of the Thesmophoria, but the mention of initiates (128–29) and the procession of the κάλαθος with sacred objects resembles the Eleusinian Mysteries. In the mysteries at Andania in the southern Peloponnese both men and women participated, with specific dress codes, but in separate groups, while “sacred virgins” chosen by lot accompanied the cart with the sacred implements (see Connelly 2007: 86, 106–7, 314n3). It is possible, therefore, to imagine that Callimachus was addressing only women in a mixed-gender mystery rite. But since the κάλαθος, λίκνα, and the language of initiation and exclusion would suit either festival (see 3n, 129n), it is more likely that his ritual is a civic Thesmophoria.

Unlike the middle four hymns, hDem mentions no particular cult-site, but it is the only one for which the scholiast records an Alexandrian context:

Ptolemy Philadelphus in imitation instituted Athenian customs in Alexandria, in which there was a procession of the basket (καλάθου). For it was the habit in Athens on a designated day for the basket to be borne on a vehicle in honor of Demeter.

There is also excellent evidence for Demeter cult in Alexandria. Papyrus evidence seems to indicate that a Demetria and a Thesmophoria were being celebrated in the city as early as 258 bce (Perpillou-Thomas 1993: 78–81). Polybius (15.29.8) mentions a Thesmophorion, in the vicinity of the Inner Palace of the city, in connection with the events of 203/202, but not when it was built. Alexandria had a suburb named Eleusis, which Satyrus, writing on the Demes of Alexandria in the second century bce, claims was named for Athens’ Eleusis and that a festival was celebrated there with contests. Fraser (1972: 1.201 and 2.338n82) doubts that these were true Mysteries but “recitations, perhaps even dramatic scenes, concerning the Eleusinian story.” Recitations and dramatic scenes would well suit Callimachus’ hymn. Finally, an image of a large basket mounted on a quadriga appears on Alexandrian coins from the time of Trajan, which looks very like what Callimachus describes at 120 (see 1n).

In addition to Alexandria, the hymn has often been claimed for Cyrene. That city had a well-established Demeter sanctuary within the walls and an extramural sanctuary, at which, from the archaeological remains of pig bones, it is clear that a Thesmophoria was celebrated (see Kane 1998). Archaeologists have attempted to use Callimachus’ hymn to trace a processional route between the two, though with inconclusive results.² Fraser 1972: 2.916–17n290 and Sherwin-White 1978: 306–11 also make a case for Cos. The inability of scholars to agree on a location combined with the confusing ritual details led Hopkinson (pp. 32–39) to argue against any real performance context or known rite, and his views have largely been accepted. In this regard a few points seem worth making: (1) HZeus and this hymn flank the collection, and they are the only ones that do not identify a specific cultic location. For reasons outlined above p. 51 hZeus is surely for Alexandria—and probably for a festival of Zeus Basileus. It is worth considering, therefore, if the final hymn is also to be assigned to Alexandria, since it had a region (Eleusis) where some kinds of rites for Demeter were being celebrated. Finally, the hymn ends with the deictic τάνδε σάω πόλιν, the same prayer closing the three-line Homeric Hymn to Demeter (13), about which Calame 2011: 335–36 remarks:

The request for safeguarding the city is accompanied by an act of verbal deixis, which consists of τάνδε σάου πόλιν ‘save this city’. The self-referential act of singing (aedic-rhapsodic) is located in both time and space: it takes place hic et nunc. Whatever its length, the Homeric Hymn, in its role as a hymnic song addressed to a divinity as a musical offering, has the function of introducing the rhapsodic recitation into the series of ritual acts honouring this divinity. The hymn therefore makes the performance of the rhapsodic song itself a ritual act and an activity of cult.³

(2) All of the elements that Callimachus alludes to in hDem have known correlations in cultic activities throughout Greece and the Greek East, and since we know very little about real cultic activities outside of Athens, there is no inherent reason to assume that these details were a fictional admixture. (3) Finally, whether or not these hymns were performed on the occasion of a specific ritual event, in the context of ancient ritual behaviors (and poetic coherence) it seems highly unlikely that a poet would write a hymn that contaminated ritual behaviors. It is much more likely that a specific festival stood behind Callimachus’ hymn even if its location and cultic particulars now elude the modern critic. Given the fact that Demeter was well represented with cults in early Alexandria, even if the hymn was not written to reflect a specific Alexandrian festival, it would have had considerable resonance for local audiences (as it did for the scholiast).

The Sources and Intertexts

Callimachus obviously drew on HhDem, which was probably the most popular of the Homeric hymns and well attested in the Hellenistic period. That hymn begins by narrating Demeter’s futile search for her daughter, then turns to the origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The goddess in disguise as an old woman comes to be the nurse for a male infant in an elite Athenian household. She begins a process to make the child (Demophoön) immortal by placing him in the fire by night to burn away his mortality; when she is detected by the not unreasonably hysterical mother, Metaneira, she assumes her full divine aspect and both exacts a punishment and bestows a favor. Demophoön remains mortal, but the goddess gives the city the Mysteries that promise a better life after death, and the hereditary priests of the cult are to be Demophoön’s descendants. The story of Demeter’s wrath in HhDem has obvious parallels with the Erysichthon episode: Demeter disguises herself as an old priestess of her own cult; the domestic space is a central feature; and Erysichthon himself, while not a newborn, seems to be no more than an adolescent. Erysichthon’s transgressions, however, are of a different order from Metaneira’s. Further, Callimachus deliberately rejects the narrative of Demeter’s wandering (17: μὴ μὴ ταῦτα λέγωμες), and the aition of the Eleusinian Mysteries has no parallel in his hymn.

The story of Erysichthon, the son of Triopas, who in turn is the son of Poseidon and Canace, has tantalizing antecedents that do not quite dovetail with Callimachus’ version. Hesiod’s Catalogue (fr. 43 M-W) records the story of Mestra, who can change her form. She is the daughter of Erysichthon (called Aethon, for his “flaming” hunger). To support her father’s needs she is married off to various suitors for a bride-price. Once married, she changes into animal form, abandons her spouse, and returns to her father to repeat the sequence. Callimachus clearly maintains the feature of all-consuming hunger and alludes to the name Aethon at 66–67, but other elements of Hesiod’s tale (e.g., Mestra) are missing. Ovid’s version of the story in Met. 8.738–878 fuses elements of Hesiod (Mestra) and Callimachus (Erysichthon felling the oak in a sacred grove and being punished by all-consuming hunger). The story of Mestra and Aethon appears in Lycophron (1391–96), and Diodorus (5.61) recounts a version that makes Triopas, not Erysichthon, the transgressor. Since he is writing after Callimachus, it is reasonable to assume that he knows a version that differs from both Hesiod and Callimachus. Then there is the Coan Tale, a nineteenth-century folktale recorded from Cos and published by R. M. Dawkins in 1950; it includes a king’s son who cuts down trees, one of which is inhabited by a female spirit. She curses him with eternal hunger. Scholars continue to debate the nature and importance of this folktale: is it an artifact of the ancient tale that both Callimachus and Ovid drew on, or is it a relatively recent popular tale that resulted from contact with literary sources such as Ovid? See Hopkinson pp. 26–29 for a discussion of the topic and Robertson 1984 on the various versions of the Erysichthon story.

The Ptolemaic Connections

The introduction of the Demeter cult in Alexandria was attributed to the first Ptolemies (variously Soter or Philadelphus). Fraser (1972: 1.201) thinks that they were capitalizing on the link already made in Herodotus between Isis and Demeter and the historian’s claim that the Mysteries were imported to the Greek world by the daughters of Danaus. Philotera, the sister of Ptolemy II, seems to have been associated with Demeter in cult; see pp. 15, 21.

	ΕΙΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΑ
	Τῶ καλάθω κατιόντος ἐπιφθέγξασθε, γυναῖκες·
	‘Δάματερ, μέγα χαῖρε, πολυτρόφε πουλυμέδιμνε.’
	τὸν κάλαθον κατιόντα χαμαὶ θασεῖσθε, βέβαλοι,
	μηδ’ ἀπὸ τῶ τέγεος μηδ’ ὑψόθεν αὐγάσσησθε
5	μὴ παῖς μηδὲ γυνὰ μηδ’ ἃ κατεχεύατο χαίταν,
	μηδ’ ὅκ’ ἀφ’ αὑαλέων στομάτων πτύωμες ἄπαστοι.
	Ἕσπερος ἐκ νεφέων ἐσκέψατο—πανίκα νεῖται; —
	Ἕσπερος, ὅς τε πιεῖν Δαμάτερα μῶνος ἔπεισεν,
	ἁρπαγίμας ὅκ’ ἄπυστα μετέστιχεν ἴχνια κώρας.
10	πότνια, πῶς σε δύναντο πόδες φέρεν ἔστ’ ἐπὶ δυθμάς,
	ἔστ’ ἐπὶ τὼς Μέλανας καὶ ὅπα τὰ χρύσεα μᾶλα;
	οὐ πίες οὔτ’ ἄρ’ ἔδες τῆνον χρόνον οὐδὲ λοέσσα.
	τρὶς μὲν δὴ διέβας Ἀχελώϊον ἀργυροδίναν,
	τοσσάκι δ’ ἀενάων ποταμῶν ἐπέρασας ἕκαστον,
15	τρὶς δ’ ἐπὶ Καλλιχόρῳ χαμάδις ἐκαθίσσαο φρητί
	αὐσταλέα ἄποτός τε καὶ οὐ φάγες οὐδὲ λοέσσα.
	μὴ μὴ ταῦτα λέγωμες ἃ δάκρυον ἄγαγε Δηοῖ·
	κάλλιον, ὡς πολίεσσιν ἑαδότα τέθμια δῶκε·
	κάλλιον, ὡς καλάμαν τε καὶ ἱερὰ δράγματα πράτα
20	ἀσταχύων ἀπέκοψε καὶ ἐν βόας ἧκε πατῆσαι,
	ἁνίκα Τριπτόλεμος ἀγαθὰν ἐδιδάσκετο τέχναν·
	κάλλιον, ὡς (ἵνα καί τις ὑπερβασίας ἀλέηται)
	π – ⏔ – ⏔ – ⏔ – ⏔ –⏑ ἰδέσθαι
	οὔπω τὰν Κνιδίαν, ἔτι Δώτιον ἱρὸν ἔναιον,
25	†τὶν δ’ αὐτᾷ† καλὸν ἄλσος ἐποιήσαντο Πελασγοί
	δένδρεσιν ἀμφιλαφές· διά κεν μόλις ἦνθεν ὀϊστός·
	ἐν πίτυς, ἐν μεγάλαι πτελέαι ἔσαν, ἐν δὲ καὶ ὄχναι,
	ἐν δὲ καλὰ γλυκύμαλα· τὸ δ’ ὥστ’ ἀλέκτρινον ὕδωρ
	ἐξ ἀμαρᾶν ἀνέθυε. θεὰ δ’ ἐπεμαίνετο χώρῳ
30	ὅσσον Ἐλευσῖνι, Τριόπᾳ θ’ ὅσον ὁκκόσον Ἔννᾳ.
	ἀλλ’ ὅκα Τριοπίδαισιν ὁ δεξιὸς ἄχθετο δαίμων,
	τουτάκις ἁ χείρων Ἐρυσίχθονος ἅψατο βωλά·
	σεύατ’ ἔχων θεράποντας ἐείκοσι, πάντας ἐν ἀκμᾷ,
	πάντας δ’ ἀνδρογίγαντας ὅλαν πόλιν ἀρκίος ἆραι,
35	ἀμφότερον πελέκεσσι καὶ ἀξίναισιν ὁπλίσσας,
	ἐς δὲ τὸ τᾶς Δάματρος ἀναιδέες ἔδραμον ἄλσος.
	ἦς δέ τις αἴγειρος, μέγα δένδρεον αἰθέρι κῦρον,
	τῷ ἔπι ταὶ νύμφαι ποτὶ τὤνδιον ἑψιόωντο·
	ἃ πράτα πλαγεῖσα κακὸν μέλος ἴαχεν ἄλλαις.
40	ᾄσθετο Δαμάτηρ, ὅτι οἱ ξύλον ἱερὸν ἄλγει,
	εἶπε δὲ χωσαμένα· ‘τίς μοι καλὰ δένδρεα κόπτει;’
	αὐτίκα Νικίππᾳ, τάν οἱ πόλις ἀράτειραν
	δαμοσίαν ἔστασαν, ἐείσατο, γέντο δὲ χειρί
	στέμματα καὶ μάκωνα, κατωμαδίαν δ’ ἔχε κλᾷδα.
45	φᾶ δὲ παραψύχοισα κακὸν καὶ ἀναιδέα φῶτα·
	‘τέκνον, ὅτις τὰ θεοῖσιν ἀνειμένα δένδρεα κόπτεις,
	τέκνον ἐλίνυσον, τέκνον πολύθεστε τοκεῦσι,
	παύεο καὶ θεράποντας ἀπότρεπε, μή τι χαλεφθῇ
	πότνια Δαμάτηρ, τᾶς ἱερὸν ἐκκεραΐζεις.’
50	τὰν δ’ ἄρ’ ὑποβλέψας χαλεπώτερον ἠὲ κυναγόν
	ὤρεσιν ἐν Τμαρίοισιν ὑποβλέπει ἄνδρα λέαινα
	ὠμοτόκος, τᾶς φαντὶ πέλειν βλοσυρώτατον ὄμμα,
	‘χάζευ’, ἔφα, ‘μή τοι πέλεκυν μέγαν ἐν χροῒ πάξω.
	ταῦτα δ’ ἐμὸν θησεῖ στεγανὸν δόμον, ᾧ ἔνι δαῖτας
55	αἰὲν ἐμοῖς ἑτάροισιν ἄδην θυμαρέας ἀξῶ.’
	εἶπεν ὁ παῖς, Νέμεσις δὲ κακὰν ἐγράψατο φωνάν.
	Δαμάτηρ δ’ ἄφατόν τι κοτέσσατο, γείνατο δ’ ἁ θεύς·
	ἴθματα μὲν χέρσω, κεφαλὰ δέ οἱ ἅψατ’ Ὀλύμπω.
	οἱ μὲν ἄρ’ ἡμιθνῆτες, ἐπεὶ τὰν πότνιαν εἶδον,
60	ἐξαπίνας ἀπόρουσαν ἐνὶ δρυσὶ χαλκὸν ἀφέντες.
	ἁ δ’ ἄλλως μὲν ἔασεν, ἀναγκαίᾳ γὰρ ἕποντο
	δεσποτικὰν ὑπὸ χεῖρα, βαρὺν δ’ ἀπαμείψατ’ ἄνακτα·
	‘ναὶ ναί, τεύχεο δῶμα, κύον κύον, ᾧ ἔνι δαῖτας
	ποιησεῖς· θαμιναὶ γὰρ ἐς ὕστερον εἰλαπίναι τοι.’
65	ἁ μὲν τόσσ’ εἰποῖσ’ Ἐρυσίχθονι τεῦχε πονηρά.
	αὐτίκα οἱ χαλεπόν τε καὶ ἄγριον ἔμβαλε λιμόν
	αἴθωνα κρατερόν, μεγάλᾳ δ’ ἐστρεύγετο νούσῳ.
	σχέτλιος, ὅσσα πάσαιτο τόσων ἔχεν ἵμερος αὖτις.
	εἴκατι δαῖτα πένοντο, δυώδεκα δ’ οἶνον ἄφυσσον.
71	καὶ γὰρ τᾷ Δάματρι συνωργίσθη Διόνυσος·
70	τόσσα Διώνυσον γὰρ ἃ καὶ Δάματρα χαλέπτει.
	οὔτε νιν εἰς ἐράνως οὔτε ξυνδείπνια πέμπον
	αἰδόμενοι γονέες, προχάνα δ’ εὑρίσκετο πᾶσα.
	ἦνθον Ἰτωνιάδος νιν Ἀθαναίας ἐπ’ ἄεθλα
75	Ὀρμενίδαι καλέοντες· ἀπ’ ὦν ἀρνήσατο μάτηρ·
	‘οὐκ ἔνδοι, χθιζὸς γὰρ ἐπὶ Κραννῶνα βέβακε
	τέλθος ἀπαιτησῶν ἑκατὸν βόας.’ ἦνθε Πολυξώ,
	μάτηρ Ἀκτορίωνος, ἐπεὶ γάμον ἄρτυε παιδί,
	ἀμφότερον Τριόπαν τε καὶ υἱέα κικλήσκοισα.
80	τὰν δὲ γυνὰ βαρύθυμος ἀμείβετο δακρύοισα·
	‘νεῖταί τοι Τριόπας, Ἐρυσίχθονα δ’ ἤλασε κάπρος
	Πίνδον ἀν’ εὐάγκειαν, ὁ δ’ ἐννέα φάεα κεῖται.’
	δειλαία φιλότεκνε, τί δ’ οὐκ ἐψεύσαο, μᾶτερ;
	δαίνυεν εἰλαπίναν τις· ‘ἐν ἀλλοτρίᾳ Ἐρυσίχθων.’
85	ἄγετό τις νύμφαν· ‘Ἐρυσίχθονα δίσκος ἔτυψεν’,
	ἢ ‘ἔπεσ’ ἐξ ἵππων’, ἢ ‘ἐν Ὄθρυϊ ποίμνι’ ἀμιθρεῖ.’
	ἐνδόμυχος δἤπειτα πανάμερος εἰλαπιναστάς
	ἤσθιε μυρία πάντα· κακὰ δ’ ἐξάλλετο γαστήρ
	αἰεὶ μᾶλλον ἔδοντι, τὰ δ’ ἐς βυθὸν οἷα θαλάσσας
90	ἀλεμάτως ἀχάριστα κατέρρεεν εἴδατα πάντα.
	ὡς δὲ Μίμαντι χιών, ὡς ἀελίῳ ἔνι πλαγγών,
	καὶ τούτων ἔτι μέζον ἐτάκετο, μέστ’ ἐπὶ νεύρας
	δειλαίῳ ῥινός τε καὶ ὀστέα μῶνον ἐλείφθη.
	κλαῖε μὲν ἁ μάτηρ, βαρὺ δ’ ἔστενον αἱ δύ’ ἀδελφαί
95	χὠ μαστὸς τὸν ἔπωνε καὶ αἱ δέκα πολλάκι δῶλαι.
	καὶ δ’ αὐτὸς Τριόπας πολιαῖς ἐπὶ χεῖρας ἔβαλλε,
	τοῖα τὸν οὐκ ἀίοντα Ποτειδάωνα καλιστρέων·
	‘ψευδοπάτωρ, ἴδε τόνδε τεοῦ τρίτον, εἴπερ ἐγὼ μέν
	σεῦ τε καὶ Αἰολίδος Κανάκας γένος, αὐτὰρ ἐμεῖο
100	τοῦτο τὸ δείλαιον γένετο βρέφος· αἴθε γὰρ αὐτόν
	βλητὸν ὑπ’ Ἀπόλλωνος ἐμαὶ χέρες ἐκτερέϊξαν·
	νῦν δὲ κακὰ βούβρωστις ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσι κάθηται.
	ἤ οἱ ἀπόστασον χαλεπὰν νόσον ἠέ νιν αὐτός
	βόσκε λαβών· ἁμαὶ γὰρ ἀπειρήκαντι τράπεζαι.
105	χῆραι μὲν μάνδραι, κενεαὶ δέ μοι αὔλιες ἤδη
	τετραπόδων· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀπαρνήσαντο μάγειροι.
	ἀλλὰ καὶ οὐρῆας μεγαλᾶν ὑπέλυσαν ἁμαξᾶν,
	καὶ τὰν βῶν ἔφαγεν, τὰν Ἑστίᾳ ἔτρεφε μάτηρ,
	καὶ τὸν ἀεθλοφόρον καὶ τὸν πολεμήϊον ἵππον,
110	καὶ τὰν μάλουριν, τὰν ἔτρεμε θηρία μικκά.’
	μέστα μὲν ἐν Τριόπαο δόμοις ἔτι χρήματα κεῖτο,
	μῶνον ἄρ’ οἰκεῖοι θάλαμοι κακὸν ἠπίσταντο.
	ἀλλ’ ὅκα τὸν βαθὺν οἶκον ἀνεξήραναν ὀδόντες,
	καὶ τόχ’ ὁ τῶ βασιλῆος ἐνὶ τριόδοισι καθῆστο
115	αἰτίζων ἀκόλως τε καὶ ἔκβολα λύματα δαιτός.
	Δάματερ, μὴ τῆνος ἐμὶν φίλος, ὅς τοι ἀπεχθής,
	εἴη μηδ’ ὁμότοιχος· ἐμοὶ κακογείτονες ἐχθροί.
	–⏔ παρθενικαί, καὶ ἐπιφθέγξασθε, τεκοῖσαι·
	‘Δάματερ, μέγα χαῖρε, πολυτρόφε πουλυμέδιμνε.’
120	χὠς αἱ τὸν κάλαθον λευκότριχες ἵπποι ἄγοντι
	τέσσαρες, ὣς ἁμὶν μεγάλα θεὸς εὐρυάνασσα
	λευκὸν ἔαρ, λευκὸν δὲ θέρος καὶ χεῖμα φέροισα
	ἡξεῖ καὶ φθινόπωρον, ἔτος δ’ εἰς ἄλλο φυλαξεῖ.
	ὡς δ’ ἀπεδίλωτοι καὶ ἀνάμπυκες ἄστυ πατεῦμες,
125	ὣς πόδας, ὣς κεφαλὰς παναπηρέας ἕξομες αἰεί.
	ὡς δ’ αἱ λικνοφόροι χρυσῶ πλέα λίκνα φέροντι,
	ὣς ἁμὲς τὸν χρυσὸν ἀφειδέα πασεύμεσθα.
	μέστα τὰ τᾶς πόλιος πρυτανήια τὰς ἀτελέστως,
	†τὰς δὲ τελεσφορίας† ποτὶ τὰν θεὸν ἄχρις ὁμαρτεῖν,
130	αἵτινες ἑξήκοντα κατώτεραι· αἱ δὲ βαρεῖαι,
	χἄτις Ἐλειθυίᾳ τείνει χέρα χἄτις ἐν ἄλγει,
	ὣς ἅλις, ὡς αὐταῖς ἰθαρὸν γόνυ· ταῖσι δὲ Δηώ
	δωσεῖ πάντ’ ἐπίμεστα καὶ †ὡς ποτὶ ναὸν ἵκωνται.
	χαῖρε, θεά, καὶ τάνδε σάω πόλιν ἔν θ’ ὁμονοίᾳ
135	ἔν τ’ εὐηπελίᾳ, φέρε δ’ ἀγρόθι νόστιμα πάντα·
	φέρβε βόας, φέρε μᾶλα, φέρε στάχυν, οἶσε θερισμόν,
	φέρβε καὶ εἰράναν, ἵν’ ὃς ἄροσε τῆνος ἀμάσῃ.
	ἵλαθί μοι, τρίλλιστε, μέγα κρείοισα θεάων.

10 πόδες φέρεν Ψ: φερεν]π̣οδ[ες PAnt, ut vid. 15 τρὶς δ’ Ψ: πρίν γ’ coni. West 23 init. π[ et fin. ] ἰδέσθαι Ψ: π[αῖδα κακὸν Τριόπα σκιοειδέα θῆκεν] ἰδέσθαι tempt. Wilamowitz 25 τὶν δ’ αὐτᾷ Ψ: τῆ δ’ αὐτᾷ Wilamowitz: τὶν δ’, Ἁγνά Barber (ἁγνᾷ Schadewaldt): τᾷ δ’ αὐτεῖ Hopkinson 34 ἀρκίος Reiske: ἄρκιος Ψ 37 ἦς Lasc.: ἦν Ψ 38 τῶ δ’ Ψ, PAnt, ut vid. : δ’ del. Schneider ἔπι E Lasc.: ἐπὶ Ψ 55 ἄδην Ψ: ἅδαν Hopkinson 57 ἁ POxy 2226 Ψ : αὖ Bergk, Hopkinson 70–71 ordinem correxit Reiske 79 ἀμφότερον Ψ: ἀμφοτέρως Maas 80 ]ρυοισα POxy 2226: δακρυχέουσα Ψ 84 αλλοτ[..]αι POxy 2226: ἀλλοτρίοις Ψ 86 αμιθρει POxy 2226: ἀμιθρεῖ coni. Ruhnken et Valckenaer: codd. om. vel suppl. ἀμέλγει 90 πάντα Ψ: πολλα POxy 2226 92 μεζ[ POxy 2226: μείζον Ψ μεστεπι POxy 2226: μέσφ’ ἐπὶ Ψ 93 ρινος POxy 2226: ἶνες Ψ ελειφθη POxy 2226: ἐλείφθεν Ψ, Hopkinson 94 ἀδελφαί Ψ: ἀδελφεαί Meineke, Hopkinson 97 ποτ̣[ POxy 2226: ποσειδάωνα Ψ 106 ουδεν POxy 2226: ἤδη Ψ 107 μεγαλᾶν Ernesti: μεγάλαν Ψ 108 βῶν Ψ: βουν POxy 2226 110 μαλουριν POxy 2226: αἴ λουρον Ψ 111 μεσταμενεν POxy 2226: μέσφ’ ὅτε μὲν Ψ ἔτι Lobel: ἔνι Ψ 112 μωνον POxy 2226: μῶνοι Ψ 113 ἀλλ’ ὅκα Schneider: αλλοκο POxy 2226: ἀλλ’ ὅτε Ψ ἀνεξήραναν Ernesti: ἀνεξήραινον Ψ 114 τόχ’ ὁ coni. Brunck: τοχο POxy 2226: τότ’ ὁ Ψ 117 κακογείτονες Ψ: κακοδαίμονες Meineke 118–37 om. POxy 2226 118 init. lacuna in Ψ 120 χὠς αἱ divisit H. Stephanus: χ’ ὧσαι Ψ 126 ὡς δ’ αἱ Meineke: ὡς αἱ Ψ 127 πασεύμεσθα Meineke: πασσαίμεσθα Ψ 128 μέστα Pfeiffer: μέσφα Ψ POxy 2258 129 τὰς Ψ: ]ᾶ̣ι̣ς POxy 2258: ταῖς coni. Pfeiffer τελεσφορίας Ψ: τελεσφοριαῖς coni. Pfeiffer: τελεσφορέας anon. Bern., Th. Bentley, Hopkinson θεὸν CB: θεῦν Ψ (cf. v. 57) 130 αἱ δὲ Ernesti: αἵ τε Ψ 132 ]ι̣σ̣ϊθαρον POxy 2258: αὐτὰν ἱκανὸν Ψ 133 ἐπίμεστα καὶ ὡς Ψ (αἷς sch. Call., ut vid.): καὶ αἷς Barber: καὶ αἳ Danielsson: ἐπίμεσθ’ ἃ καὶ αἷς Hermann ποτὶ Ψ: ποκα Meineke 134 ἔν θ’ ed. Vascos. (1549): ἐν δ’ Ψ 135 ἔν τ’ Ψ: ἐν δ’ Et. gen. 137 ἄροσε τῆνος Brunck: ἄροσε κεῖνος Lasc.: ἄρ … κεῖνος vel ἔκεινος Ψ, ut vid. 138 init. conservatur in POxy 2226. Infra 138 init. δ̣ω̣[..]ασιδ[ legit Lobel.

To Demeter

As the basket returns, speak out, women: “a great welcome, Demeter, the nurturer of many, the provider of much corn.” You will watch the returning basket from the ground, uninitiated, (5) not from the roof, nor from above let any child or woman gaze, not even one who has let her hair down, not even when we spit from parched mouths in our fasting. Hesperus has watched from the clouds—When will it arrive? Hesperus, who alone persuaded Demeter to drink, when she followed the undetectable tracks of the girl who was carried off. (10) Mistress, how could your feet carry you as far as the sun’s setting, as far as the Black Men, and where the golden apples are? You did not drink, you did not eat during that time, you did not even bathe. Three times indeed you crossed the silver eddy of the Acheloüs, as many times you crossed each of the ever-flowing rivers; (15) three times you sank to the ground by the well of Callichoron, parched and thirsty, and you did not eat or bathe. Do not, do not speak things that bring a tear to Deo. Better, say how she gave fair laws to cities; better, how she first (20) cut sheaves and holy corn ears and placed them for oxen to tread upon, when Triptolemus was instructed in the beneficial art; better, how (so that one may avoid going too far) … to see.

They still lived in holy Dotium, not yet the Cnidian land, (25) and to you yourself? the Pelasgians there made a fair grove, abundant with trees. An arrow scarcely penetrated it. In it were pines, great elms; in it were pears; in it were beautiful sweet apples. The water like amber boiled up from the watercourses. The goddess was mad for the place as (30) much as she was for Eleusis; and as much as she was mad for Triopas, as much as she was for Enna. But when their good daimon grew angry with the Triopidae, then a bad plan took hold of Erysichthon. He rushed out with twenty attendants, all in the prime of life, men like Giants fit to lift a whole city, (35) having armed them with both double-axes and hand-axes; and shameless, they ran into Demeter’s grove. There was a poplar, a great tree reaching to the sky; near it the nymphs used to play about noontime. The tree when first struck cried out a dire note to the rest. (40) Demeter sensed that her sacred wood was in pain, and spoke in her anger: “Who is cutting my beautiful trees?” Immediately, she assumed the likeness of Nicippe, whom the city had appointed as her public priestess, and she took a garland and a poppy in her hand, and held a key against her shoulder. (45) She spoke soothingly to the base and shameless man: “Child, you who are chopping down trees dedicated to the gods, child, cease, child much prayed for by your parents, stop, and dismiss your attendants, so that Mistress Demeter does not at all grow angry; you are devastating her sacred place.” (50) Glaring at her more fiercely than the lioness who has given birth gazes at a hunter in the Tmarian mountains (they say her eyes are then the fiercest), “go away,” he said, “lest I stick my great axe in your flesh! These will make my hall securely roofed, in which I shall provide savory banquets (55) for my companions in abundance.” The boy spoke, and Nemesis kept the account of his evil speech. Demeter was unspeakably angry, and she became the goddess. Her feet were on the ground, but her head touched Olympus. The attendants, half-dead when they saw the lady, (60) suddenly fled and left their bronze in the trees. And she let the rest go, for they followed by necessity under a despotic hand, but she replied to their overbearing master: “yes, yes, build your chamber, dog, dog; and in it you will make feasts. In the future your banquets will crowd upon each other.” (65) When she had spoken these words she contrived evil for Erysichthon. Immediately she cast a cruel and fierce hunger upon him, a mighty burning, and he was afflicted with a great sickness. Wretched one, as much as he ate, the desire for as much immediately took him. Twenty labored for his feasting, twelve drew his wine. (70) What angered Demeter also angered Dionysus. For Dionysus grew angry along with Demeter. His parents, in their shame, did not send him to feasts or common banquets; every excuse was found. The Ormenidae came, inviting him to the games in honor of Itonian Athena. (75) His mother put them off. “He is not in; yesterday he went to Crannon, collecting a hundred oxen in payment of a debt.” Polyxo came, the mother of Actorion, for she was arranging a marriage for her child, inviting both, Triopas and his son. (80) The woman answered her weeping and with a heavy heart: “Triopas will attend, but a boar has wounded Erysichthon in the fair dales of the Pindus, and he has been lying sick for nine days.” Wretched mother, who loves her son, what lies did you not tell? Someone invited him to a feast: “Erysichthon is out of town.” (85) Someone was getting married: “A discus struck Erysichthon,” or “He fell from his chariot,” or “He is counting the flocks on Othrys.” In the inmost part of the house, then, an all-day banqueter, he consumed a myriad of things. His evil belly leapt up as he always ate more, and everything he ate flowed down as into the depths of the sea, (90) vainly and without appreciation. Like the snow on Mt. Mimas or a wax doll in the sun, even more than these he wasted away down to the sinews. Only skin and bone was left to the wretched one. His mother wept, his two sisters groaned deeply, (95) as did the breast that was accustomed to nurse him, and often the ten slave women. Triopas himself threw his hands on his gray hairs and cried out to Poseidon (who wasn’t listening) such things as this: “False father, behold this one here, third in descent from you, if I am by birth from you and Canace, the daughter of Aeolus, (100) and this wretched offspring is mine. If only, struck down by Apollo, my hands had buried him. But now evil ox-hunger sits in his eyes. Either remove this dire sickness from him, or take him and feed him yourself. For my tables refuse. (105) My sheepfolds are widowed, my pens are empty of four-footed beasts, for the cooks have refused him nothing. But they even unhitched the mules from the great wagons, and he ate the heifer that his mother was rearing for Hestia; he ate the racehorse and the warhorse, (110) and the white tail at which small beasts were accustomed to tremble.” As long as there was money in Triopas’ halls, only his private chambers knew of the evil, but when his teeth had drained the house’s deep pockets, then the son of the king sat in the crossroads, (115) begging for morsels and refuse cast out from the feast. Demeter, do not let that one be a friend to me who is hateful to you nor be a neighbor. Bad neighbors are hateful to me

. … maidens and mothers repeat the cry: “Demeter, a great welcome, the nurturer of many, the provider of many bushels of grain.” (120) And when four white-haired mares lead forth the basket, then the great, wide-ruling goddess will come to us bringing a propitious spring, a propitious summer, winter, and autumn, and will protect us for another year. When we walk barefooted and bareheaded in the city, (125) so shall our feet and our heads be always free from harm. As the basket-bearers bring the baskets full of gold, so shall we get gold without limit. The uninitiated should follow [sc. the procession] as far as the city’s prytaneion, but for the rites [i.e., those attending the rites?] all the way to the shrine of the goddess, (130) whoever is under sixty. But those who are burdened, whoever reaches out her hand to Eileithyia or who is in pain, as far as her knee is able. For these Deo shall give all good things … they come to her temple.

Farewell goddess, and protect this city in concord (135) and prosperity, provide every return in the fields. Nourish the cattle, bring forth fruit, bring forth corn, bring forth the harvest; also nourish peace, so that who sows may reap. Be gracious to me, thrice called upon, most powerful of the divinities.

Commentary

1–7. The hymn opens with the vivid recreation of a religious ritual in honor of Demeter. Τhe narrator initially addresses two groups: urging the female participants to sing the hymnic refrain and those excluded to look only from the ground. Those on the rooftops are instructed to look away as the procession with the open basket carrying sacred objects reaches the temple at the approach of evening. The participants have been fasting throughout the day.

1. καλάθω: an open basket that contained the ritual implements. Knowledge of the contents was restricted to specific hierophants, and for others to see the contents was forbidden. Clement mentions the κάλαθος as part of the Eleusinian Mysteries (Prot. 2.21.2), but such containers are attested for other cults as well. From the end of the hymn (120–21) it seems that the basket was mounted on a chariot pulled by four white mares. An image of a large basket mounted on a quadriga and driven by an Egyptian priest appears on Alexandrian coins from the time of Trajan. Burkert 1985: 99 and 387n9 connects the scene with this passage, aligning it with the Mysteries, though Cahen 1930: 249–50 takes the image as symbolic and not connected to a real ceremony.

3. Coin image of chariot carrying kalathos

ἐπιφθέγξασθε “give the ritual refrain”; the compound is common in prose; in poetry only at Aesch. Ch. 457 and here.

γυναῖκες: the address specifically to women participants suggests that only females were allowed to participate, but unlike hAth, men are nowhere specifically excluded. See p. 265.

2. μέγα χαῖρε: the phrase occurs at Od. 24.402 (Dolius to Odysseus) and HhAp 466 (of the Cretan leader to Apollo) as part of a greeting: οὖλέ τε καὶ μέγα χαῖρε. μέγα χαῖρε is repeated at the close of the hymn (119).

πολυτρόφε: the adjective first occurs in Matro of Pitane (fr. 1.1 Olson-Sens). They observe that it is “a witty adaptation of the Homeric πολύτροπον” and active (“much-nourishing”), rather than passive (“well-fed”), hence the accent is paroxytone.

πουλυμέδιμνε “provider of much corn” (the μέδιμνος was a corn measure), unique to Callimachus. Both epithets underscore the province of the goddess. πολυ- compounds are particularly relevant to Demeter as the provider of abundance. (On the variation πολυ-/πουλυ-, see p. 33.)

3. χαμαί: those spectators “on the ground”; sitting or lying on the ground was a central feature of the second day of the Thesmophoria (the Nesteia, see Burkert 1985: 243–44), but it is difficult to find a connection here.

θασεῖσθε: Doric contract future of θεάομαι. The verb is frequent in Homer, with the meaning of “gaze at,” often with a sense of wonder, but in later prose and poetry “view as a spectator”; both are appropriate for bystanders at the procession. The future indicative has an imperative cast.

βέβαλοι: either “uninitiated,” which is appropriate for the Mysteries, or, as in the Cyrenean cathartic regulation, “unclean” or “profane,” i.e., those who are ineligible to participate in the ritual (SEG ix.72.1, 9, and 21, and see Dobias-Lalou 2005: 205). The etymology of the form is uncertain (see Schmitt 92n1), but it seems to be connected to βαίνω: “permissible to walk upon.” (The addition of χαμαί may hint at this derivation.) Since the adjective has only two terminations, it is unclear whether it refers to men, men and women, or women who are distinct from those in 4–6. Certainly men would normally be outside and (if present) watching from the ground, while women would be inside, either on the rooftops or within buildings looking out from above.

4. μηδ’ ἀπὸ τῶ τέγεος μηδ’ ὑψόθεν: viewing from the rooftops (which were flat) is common, especially for women whose quarters seem to have been located above the ground floor (for women on the rooftops during female festivals, see Ar. Lys. 395, Men. Sam. 45–46).

ὑψόθεν: apparently a third group, which must be those viewing from upper chambers.

αὐγάσσησθε: cf. the Homeric hapax at Il. 23.458. Idomeneus, who first spots the returning horses in the horse race, says: οἶος ἐγὼν ἵππους αὐγάζομαι ἦε καὶ ὑμεῖς; (“do I alone see the horses or do you as well?”). If deliberate, this is a nice reminder that horses were conveying the κάλαθος (120–21), thus the first thing the participants would see. The aorist subjunctive is usual in prohibitions: “you should not glimpse” (cf. hArt 129).

5–6. Editors divide between (1) two groups, children and women—the latter qualified by μηδ(ὲ) … χαίταν—or (2) three groups, girls, married women, and those who have either cut their hair or let their hair down, i.e., young women who have left childhood but are as yet unmarried. Hopkinson is surely right that there are only two, with 5–6 describing women who have followed the ritual practice—loosening their hair (as if in mourning) and fasting.

6–9. Callimachus alludes to the following passage from HhDem 200–3 while providing an alternative version: “But [Demeter] not laughing, not tasting food or drink [ἄπαστος ἐδητύος ἠδὲ ποτῆτος], sat keening in sorrow for her deep-bosomed daughter, until cherished Iambe diverted her.”

6. αὑαλέων “parched” from the ritual fast; the aspiration of this word was disputed, but it is guaranteed by the preceding ἀφ’ of the mss. (See Hopkinson ad loc. for details.)

πτύωμες: spitting from a dry mouth would be an irrelevant detail unless it belonged to a ritual connected with fasting or breaking fast. Ritual spitting was normally apotropaic (cf. Theoc. 6.39, where Polyphemus spits thrice into the water reflecting his image to avert the evil eye).

ἄπαστοι “untasted.” Many Greek rituals demanded fasting, and in those dedicated to Demeter, ritual fasting supposedly mimicked Demeter’s own refusal to eat or drink while she searched for her daughter. The Nesteia, the second day of the Thesmophoria, was a day of fasting, though fasting was also required in the Eleusinian Mysteries (as at Aet. fr. 21.10 Pf., and see the full discussion of Richardson 1974 on HhDem 47).

7. Ἕσπερος ἐκ νεφέων ἐσκέψατο: Hesperus looking out from the clouds marks the beginning of evening, the normal time for breaking the fast. As in hAth the narrator interweaves “real” time and the mythic time of Demeter’s wanderings (see 10–16n). For this kind of ritual mimicry, see Connelly 2007: 104–15.

πανίκα: πηνίκα is common in prose and the comic poets to introduce either a direct or an indirect question. Hopkinson, following Schneider, takes it to be a direct question contributing to the enargeia of the passage. Mair (also Pfeiffer) understands as indirect: “Hesperus from the clouds marked the time of its coming.”

8. ὅς τε: see hZeus 51n.

πιεῖν: epic aorist infinitive of πίνω, see also πίες (12).

μῶνος: by making Hesperus “alone” the one to persuade Demeter to break her fast, Callimachus seems to reject the version in HhDem 202–4 that it was Iambe (see 6–9n).

9. ἁρπαγίμας: the adjective is rare; its sense seems to be “carried off” in death or to the underworld (e.g., AP 7.186.6, 11.290.4), thus it is appropriate for Kore. For its use in fr. 228 Pf. see pp. 21–22.

ὅκ(α): see hZeus 21n.

ἄπυστα: here in a passive sense: ἴχνια, about which “nothing is known” (see also hDelos 215n).

10–16. Callimachus compresses Demeter’s wandering in search of Kore into seven lines. The clauses are broken into three groups: (1) the temporal conjunction ἔστ’ ἐπί in combination with the local adverb ὅπα indicates the distance the goddess travelled (as far as the setting sun, the Black men, the golden apples); (2) the triple negatives (the mythological rationale for ritual prohibitions), οὐ, οὔτ’, οὐδέ (“you did not drink, you did not eat, you did not even bathe”); and (3) the three numbers that open lines 13–15: τρὶς μέν, τοσσάκι δ’, τρὶς δ’. The outer elements, 13–15, contrast the large river (Acheloüs) and a small water source, the spring at which Demeter sits; between are “each of the ever-flowing rivers.” As the lines unfold, they bear a similarity to the sphragis of hAp, where Apollo preferred the pure drops from Demeter’s spring to the Assyrian river. Line 12 is repeated at 16 with variation: οὐ πίες = ἄποτος; οὔτ’ ἔδες = οὐ φάγες; the final element is the same.

10–11. Demeter travels to the west (ἐπὶ δυθμάς) to the Melanes and on to the golden apples. Hopkinson ad loc. takes τὼς Μέλανας as Ethiopians, whom Greeks divided into two groups—those in the east and those in the west near Libya (see Hdt. 7.69–70); he also assumes that the golden apples are in the west, understanding the lines as three different designations for the same direction. West 1986: 30 rather argues that the Melanes are Hesiod’s κυάνεοι ἄνδρες (Op. 527 and note ad loc.) located in the south and that Callimachus is placing τὰ χρύσεα μᾶλα in the far north, in the land of the Hyperboreans (see Apollod. 2.5.11). Thus Demeter’s wandering would have taken her west, south, and north, more or less traversing the known world.

10. πότνια: in contrast to Artemis, who is not addressed as πότνια until hArt 136, Demeter is always marked as a potent divinity.

φέρεν: unmarked Doric equivalent of φέρειν.

δυθμάς “sunset”; this Doric form occurs first in Pi. Is. 3/4.83: ἐν δυθμαῖσιν αὐγᾶν; Callimachus uses it also at Aet. fr. 54c.6 Harder (see Schmitt 98n15).

11. ἔστ(ε) ἐπί: the conjunction + preposition function adverbially to mark time or (as here) space: “as far as”; previously only at Xen. Anab. 4.5.6, it occurs at A.R. 2.789, 4.1611 (on which see Livrea ad loc.), and Theoc. 7.67.

12. ἔδες: epic imperfect of ἔδω, “eat.” The form occurs only here.

λοέσσα: second person singular aorist middle indicative of λοέω (see hZeus 17n).

13. Ἀχελώϊον: the Acheloüs in Aetolia was the largest river in Greece and was often identified with Ocean, the source of all waters (see D’Alessio 2004).

ἀργυροδίναν “with silver eddies,” an epithet of Acheloüs first at Hes. Th. 340 (see West ad loc.). That passage lists the rivers that Tethys bore to Ocean, which is appropriate to Callimachus’ context of ποταμῶν … ἕκαστον (14).

14. ἀενάων ποταμῶν: the phrase appears formulaic; first at Hes. Op. 737, then Aesch. Suppl. 553.

15. τρὶς δ’: thrice crossing the rivers suggests some kind of ritual, but West 1986: 30 makes the attractive suggestion that τρὶς δ’ might have been an early corruption of πρίν γ’ (cf. HhDem 202).

Καλλιχόρῳ … φρητί: in HhDem 270–72 the well of Callichoron was the site over which Demeter commanded her Eleusinian temple to be built (see Richardson 1974: 326–30).

16. αὐσταλέα: rare variant of more common αὑαλέος (6). Renehan 1987: 252 points out that it refers to skin that has not been lubricated (see Od. 19.327 of Odysseus in disguise), and that the sentence is arranged chiastically—“αὐσταλέα responds to οὐδὲ λοέσσα, ἄποτος to οὐ φάγες.”

17. μὴ μή: emphatic repetition of the negative is reinforced by the anaphora of κάλλιον, ὡς (18, 19, 22).

Δηοῖ: Deo, a variant name for Demeter. Callimachus deploys the two in contexts that hint at their derivation: Demeter (2) as the all-nourishing provider of cereal crops suggests Γῆ Μήτηρ, while Deo, in the context of the rape of her daughter, suggests the etymology of the Derveni papyrus (col. 22.13 Betegh): Δῃὼ ὅτι ἐδῃ[ώθ]ει ἐν τῇ μείξει (“Deo, because she was ravaged in sexual intercourse”). See West 1986: 30.

18–20. These lines celebrate Demeter’s most important gifts to humankind—as Thesmophoros, or Lawgiver, and as the teacher of agriculture to men. They have been understood to point to the Thesmophoria as the cult model for the hymn. Demeter as Lawgiver may have owed something to her connection in Egypt with Isis, who was also a goddess of justice (so Fraser 1972: 1.199). Justice and just behavior is a central theme in what follows.

18. κάλλιον (sc. ἐστὶ λέγειν): repeated in 19 and 22.

ἑαδότα: perfect active participle of ἁνδάνω; hapax at Il. 9.173 ≈ Od. 18.422: ἑαδότα μῦθον (“a pleasing word”).

τέθμια: here “laws” (see hAp 87n).

19–20. An adaptation of HhDem 455–56: ἦρος ἀεξομένοιο, πέδῳ δ’ ἄρα πίονες ὄγμοι | βρισέμεν ἀσταχύων, τὰ δ’ ἐν ἐλλεδανοῖσι δεδέσθαι (“As spring progressed, on the ground the rich furrows would be laden with ears of corn, while others were being bound into sheaves”). Callimachus makes Demeter the first to harvest grain, and ἱερὰ δράγματα imply the first fruits that were dedicated to a divinity; see also hDelos 283–84n.

19. πράτα: Demeter was often praised as the first to give agriculture to men, see, e.g., Isoc. Pan. 28–29.

20. ἐν…ἧκε: from ἐνίημι.

πατῆσαι: an infinitive of purpose, “for treading” (see Smyth §2008).

21. Τριπτόλεμος: an ancient king of Eleusis, connected with Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries at Athens; she taught him agriculture so that he could teach the rest of the Greeks; see Richardson 1974: 194–96 for a detailed discussion of his myth.

22. ὑπερβασίας: a variation of the last line (828) of Hes. Op.: that man is happy who knows how to do his work, not offending the deathless gods, and … “avoiding transgressions” (ὑπερβασίας ἀλεείνων).

23. This line, which fell at the bottom of a verso in the archetype, was damaged irreparably; hAth 136, the corresponding line of the recto, was also damaged. The single word ἰδέσθαι in some mss. has not been successfully explained; Smiley 1921b: 120–22 even suggests that it has crept in from another source. When the text resumes, the inserted tale of Erysichthon has begun.

24. Κνιδίαν (sc. γῆν): Cnidos was located at the tip of a southern peninsula on the Ionian coast, slightly south of Cos. It was part of the Dorian hexapolis (later pentapolis), the six cities supposedly founded by the Dorians (along with Halicarnassus, Cos, and three Rhodian cities). The sanctuary of Apollo established by Triopas was located there (Hdt. 1.144). According to Diodorus (5.61), Triopas came to Thessaly, where he expelled the earlier population of Pelasgians and settled on the plain of Dotium. Later he was expelled after he cut down Demeter’s sacred grove; afterwards he settled in Cnidos. Callimachus tells a different story: it is not Triopas but his son who commits the sacrilege, but he may be alluding to the alternative version with the information provided in 24: “not yet in the Cnidian land, but they still lived in holy Dotium.” The Ptolemies had interests in this region (see Bagnall 1976: 98), and it is mentioned in Theocritus’ Encomium of Ptolemy (17.68, and see below 30n).

Δώτιον: Dotium was a region in Thessaly, through which the Peneius river flowed (see hDelos 105). It is “holy” because it was an ancient center of Demeter cult.

25–29. Demeter’s sacred grove is essentially a bucolic locus amoenus and, as Hopkinson observes on 27–29, reminiscent of Alcinous’ gardens (Od. 7.114–32). It is populated with a thick growth of trees and a spring. But the trees named in 27–28 are unlikely to have grown together in nature: two are fruit-bearing and two are tall shade trees.

25. †τὶν δ’ αὐτᾷ†: the objection to this phrase (“to you yourself”) is that the last address to Demeter (16) is too far away to sustain the dative pronoun without an intervening vocative. Hopkinson ad loc. discusses the attempts to emend, though none has been sufficiently persuasive for editors to adopt it.

ἄλσος: usually a sacred grove; cf. Il. 20.8 and HhAphr 97: ἄλσεα καλά, where nymphs dwell.

Πελασγοί: the Pelasgians were the pre-Dorian peoples of mainland Greece, thought to have been autochthonous. The Greek myth has them being displaced by the Dorians. Triopas is a Dorian.

26. ἀμφιλαφές “abundant”; see hAp 42n. A πλάτανος … ἀμφιλαφής also opens the locus amoenus adopted as ideal setting of the philosophical discussion in Plato's Phaedrus (230b3).

διά … ἦνθεν = διῆλθεν: for the form see hAth 8n.

27. πίτυς … πτελέαι … ὄχναι: pine, elm, and pear trees. See above 25–29n.

28. γλυκύμαλα: before Callimachus “the sweet-apple” is known only from Sappho (fr. 105a V) and Theoc. 11.39 (which is based on the Sappho). The tree was said to be an apple grafted onto a quince.

ὥστ(ε): Ruijgh 1971: 970 explains the force of ὥστε as not so much a comparison as an expression of quality.

ἀλέκτρινον “like amber.” Electron had two different meanings: (1) the fossilized resin, amber, and (2) an alloy of gold and silver. Callimachus uses it to describe the color of the water in the filtered light of the grove. The scholiast glosses with the adjectives διαυγές, “translucent” or “shining,” that would suit either meaning of electron (cf. hAth 21 used of a bronze mirror). Adjectives formed in -ινος denote the material from which something is made or which it resembles (cf. hAp 1: δάφνινος, hArt 202: μύρσινος).

29. ἀμαρᾶν: Doric genitive plural; ἀμάρης (“irrigation channel”) is a hapax at Il. 21.259.

ἀνέθυε: imperfect from ἀναθύω; this compound of θύω, “rage,” appears to have the sense of “bubble up with force.”

ἐπεμαίνετο “was mad with love for,” a hapax in Il. 6.160, then found in the epigrammatists and late Greek.

29–30. Either there are four places: the grove in Dotium (= χώρῳ), Eleusis, the Demeter sanctuary in Cnidos established by Triopas, and Enna in Sicily; or two places (Dotium, Eleusis) and two people (Triopas, Enna). The difficulty is Τριόπᾳ, which should be the personal name, not the place; if it is to stand, then Ἔννᾳ is also likely to be the name of the eponymous (though unattested) nymph, with the sense that Demeter loved this grove as much as Eleusis, and as much as she loved the individuals Triopas and Enna. There have been a number of attempts to emend Τριόπᾳ to a place name, though without a satisfactory result (for details see Hopkinson ad loc.)

30. ὅσσον … ὅσον ὁκκόσον: the repetition of “as much as” is colloquial, cf. Theoc. 4.39. The spelling ὁκκόσον occurs only in Callimachus (also at Aet. fr. 64.1, Hec. fr. 109.1 Hollis); cf. Euphorion fr. 84.2 Powell.

Ἐλευσῖνι: Eleusis was the site of Demeter’s sanctuary outside of Athens where the Mysteries were celebrated. HhDem is associated with that site (see Richardson 1974: 326–30).

Τριόπᾳ: Callimachus must be compressing time since Triopas only established the Cnidian sanctuary after leaving Dotium. The place is mentioned at Theoc. 17.68 in a similar statement: the island of Cos speaking to Ptolemy II asks “may you honor me as much Phoebus Apollo honored dark-circled Delos. In equal honor may you hold the hill of Triops [Τρίοπος … κολώναν] … equally did lord Apollo love Rheneia.”

Ἔννᾳ: the location of a temple of Demeter in Sicily, sometimes identified with the scene of Kore’s abduction by Hades. In fr. 228.43–45 Pf., the dead Philotera has been visiting the place just before she learns of the death of her sister Arsinoe II.

31–32. The lines are parallel in structure to reinforce the cause-effect relationship of divine favor and good judgment. ὁ δεξιὸς … δαίμων parallels ἁ χείρων … βωλά; ἄχθετο, ἅψατο; two names; and two temporal adverbs.

31. ὁ δεξιὸς … δαίμων: Fraser 1972: 2.355–56 suggests the phrase was modeled on ἀγαθὸς δαίμων, the cult of which was popular in early Alexandria.

32. τουτάκις: see hZeus 44n.

Ἐρυσίχθονος: the first mention of the subject of the story.

34. The line contains three anomalies that have led editors to suspect its authenticity: the hapax ἀνδρογίγαντας, ἀρκίος, and ἆραι. Hopkinson ad loc. defends the line.

ἀνδρογίγαντας: only here in Greek; the sense is probably “men with the strength of Giants.” It seems to have been modeled on Eur. Phoen. 1131–32, describing the device on Capaneus’ shield as γίγας ἐπ’ ὤμοις γηγενὴς ὅλην πόλιν | φέρων (“an earthborn Giant bearing a whole city on his shoulders”); this comes from a passage that has been thought to be an interpolation in the text of Euripides, though Mastronarde (1994: 456–58 and 468n2) seems inclined to accept it as authentic. Since the Giants were the offspring of Ge, “man-Giants” attacking Demeter (= Ge Meter) is doubly sacrilegious.

ἀρκίος “sufficient to” or “capable of” + infinitive; an emendation of Reiske for ἄρκιος of the mss. Masculine accusative plural in -ος was a feature of Thessalian, Arcadian, and Cyrenean Doric, and is also found in Theocritus (for the morphology see Buck §78). ἄρκιος is nominative at Hec., fr. 10.2 Hollis, “when the boy Theseus is capable of lifting [ἀγκάσσασθαι ἄρκιος] the hollow stone.”

ἆραι: aorist active infinitive of αἴρω, “to raise,” though elsewhere Callimachus prefers forms of ἀείρω. This has contributed to editorial suspicions about the line, but morphological variation is common in Callimachus.

35. ἀμφότερον: neuter singular used adverbially: “both together” (cf. 79n).

πελέκεσσι καὶ ἀξίναισιν: cf. Il. 13.612 and 15.711; the distinction between the two types of axes is not clear (see Janko 1992 on Il. 13.612).

37. αἴγειρος “black poplar.” Hopkinson points out ad loc. that the phrase ἦν δέ τις always introduces a person in Homer (cf. Il. 5.9, 10.314) and is thus appropriate here since the tree is alive (39).

κῦρον: neuter participle from κύρω (variant of κυρέω), “reach to”; cf. HhDem 188–89 of Demeter herself (μελάθρου | κῦρε κάρη); for κυρέω + dative in this sense Renehan 1987: 250 cites Aesch. Tantalus (οὐρανῷ κυρῶν, TrGF 3 fr. 159 Radt). It is also found with the dative at A.R. 2.363, 4.945, though probably imitating this passage.

38. τῷ ἔπι: anastrophe, “near which.”

τὤνδιον: Tiresias’ encounter with Athena also happens at midday (see hAth 73).

ἑψιόωντο: see hArt 3n and for the form see hArt 65n.

39. μέλος: the basic meaning is “member,” thus a body part, but also a phrase of song (e.g., hDelos 257). With ἴαχεν, the sense is “cry out a cry,” but with “struck” (πλαγεῖσα), Callimachus may be exploiting the first meaning as well.

ἴαχεν “cry out”; used twice in HhDem (20, 81) of Kore’s cry as she is being carried off by Hades; and cf. the Homeric Hymn to Artemis (27.7).

40–41. These lines are constructed in parallel like 31–32 above. Finite verbs begin and end each line, with a contrast between aorist (Demeter’s actions) and the continuing force of the pain and the chopping (ἄλγει, κόπτει). Demeter opens both lines, first perceiving (ᾄσθετο) then acting (εἶπε); οἱ ξύλον ἱερὸν equates with μοι καλὰ δένδρεα; the indirect (ὅτι) with direct (τίς).

40. ᾄσθετο: the mss. read ᾔσθετο; editors consistently emend on the grounds that Doric did not augment verbs that began with a diphthong. αἰσθάνομαι creates a psychic link between the goddess and her nymphs (she senses their pain).

οἱ = Demeter, and again in 42.

41. χωσαμένα: aorist middle participle of χώομαι, “angered”; imitated at Euphorion fr. 9.14 Powell, where Demeter punishes Ascalaphus for knowing about the pomegranate seed that Kore ate.

42. Νικίππᾳ: the publicly appointed priestess of Demeter, whose aspect Demeter initially assumes to reason with Erysichthon. Nicippe is not known from other extant versions of the myth. Clayman 2014: 87 makes the intriguing suggestion that the elements of the name, nike and hippe (“she who is victorious with horses”), are similar to those of Berenice: phere- and nike (“she who brings victory”).

ἀράτειραν “priestess.” ἀράτειρα is the feminine equivalent of Homeric ἀρητήρ, probably coined by Callimachus and then imitated at A.R. 1.312, 3.252.

42–43. πόλις … ἔστασαν: for the syntax see hAth 45–46n.

43. ἐείσατο: from εἴδομαι; form and meaning are Homeric, “seem,” “be like.”

γέντο “she took”; see hZeus 50n.

43–44. χειρί | στέμματα: for the phrase cf. the description of Chryses, the priest of Apollo, at Il. 1.14. Bulloch 1977: 102–3 discusses the similarities between Chryses’ encounter with Agamemnon and Nicippe’s with Erysichthon.

44. μάκωνα: Doric form of μήκων, “poppy”; it was an emblem of Demeter, cf. Theoc. 7.157.

κατωμαδίαν: before Callimachus, it occurs only in Homer (Il. 23.431), to describe the placement of a discus before the throw. Hesychius s.v. understands the Homeric word to mean being cast “from the shoulder”; here it makes better sense as “against the shoulder” (see below).

κλᾷδα: Doric for κλεῖδα; a temple key was a standard mark of the priestess’s office, many of which were quite large; illustrations often show them resting on the priestess’s shoulder (for a discussion with illustrations, see Connelly 2007: 92–104).

45. παραψύχοισα “console” or “soothe”; first here or Theoc. 13.54, of the nymphs soothing Hylas. At first the goddess speaks mildly to Erysichthon; τέκνον (“child”) occurs three times in 46–47, emphasizing his youth and Demeter’s motherly concern.

46–47. The syntax reflects Demeter’s agitation as the second element in the apparent tricolon introduced by τέκνον … τέκνον … τέκνον is broken by a command.

46. ὅτις = ὅστις: for the indefinite used of a definite subject, see LSJ s.v. ὅστις II. The relative is masculine by attraction to the gender of the subject (Erysichthon), as with the vocative in 47 and at hAth 87.

ἀνειμένα: from ἀνίημι, “dedicated to.”

47. ἐλίνυσον “cease,” aorist imperative from ἐλινύω; before Callimachus the verb is found in Ionic prose and in tragedy.

πολύθεστε “much prayed for”; a hapax; the word is thought to be Callimachus’ interpretation of the contested Homeric hapax ἀπόθεστος (“despised”: Od. 17.296); Callimachus apparently derived it from ἀπό + θέσσασθαι (“prayed against”) instead of ἀ + ποθεῖν (“not desired”). (See Rengakos 1992: 38–39.)

48. χαλεφθῇ: from χαλέπτω, “provoke”; Homeric hapax at Od. 4.423: θεῶν ὅς τίς σε χαλέπτει (“who of the gods is angry with you”).

49. ἐκκεραΐζεις: ἐκκεραΐζω, “plunder”; first in Callimachus, possibly as a variation of Homeric κεραΐζω (see Hopkinson ad loc). Cf. AP 9.312.2 (echoing Callimachus).

50–52. Epic similes are very rare in the hymns; this passage is modeled on Il. 17.133–36, where Ajax, standing guard over a fallen comrade, is likened to a male lion with his young. Callimachus transposes this to the more common example of the lioness, and in so doing ironizes the simile. Erysichthon is no Ajax, and the angered lioness protecting her young is more appropriate for Demeter, whose wrath erupts a few lines later, and with dire results.

50. ὑποβλέψας: the lion’s fierce glare was one of its most noted characteristics (see Ael. NA 4.34).

51. ὤρεσιν ἐν Τμαρίοισιν: the Tmarian mountains were located in Epirus near the shrine of Zeus at Dodona. They occur again in Aet. fr. 23.3 Pf. as an example of a remote place.

ἄνδρα: in apposition to κυναγόν. The attachment of a form of ἀνήρ to a noun occurs also at hAp 43.

λέαινα “lioness.” The feminine form is first found in prose, then Hellenistic poetry.

52. ὠμοτόκος: Callimachus may have coined this form. The cognate words (ὠμός, τόκος) refer to bringing forth immature offspring, which might make sense here, since lion cubs are weak at birth, but it is problematic in hDelos 120 (see ad loc.). The existence of cubs makes the lioness more protective and thus more dangerous, as in Eur. Med. 187–89.

βλοσυρώτατον “dire,” “fearful,” of lions at Hes. Scut. 175. Renehan 1987: 252 suggests that with ὄμμα it is an allusion to Il. 11.36–37: βλοσυρῶπις, the gaze of the Gorgon. For Callimachus’ understanding of Homeric βλοσυρός, see Rengakos 1992: 34.

53. ἔφα: the use of parenthetic ἔφη to introduce direct speech is common in Plato, but not found in poetry before the Hellenistic period. It is a feature of everyday speech patterns

(which Plato affects) inserted into a more elevated hymnic context. It is in keeping with the mundane details of Erysichthon’s punishment.

πάξω: from πήγνυμι, “stick.” μή + future indicative produces an expression amounting to a threat.

54. ᾧ ἔνι: anastrophe, “in which.”

55. ἄδην “in abundance” (see Renehan 1987: 250).

56. Νέμεσις: Nemesis was the daughter of Night (Hes. Th. 223) and assigned the role of punishing mortals for lack of piety. She had an important sanctuary at Rhamnus in northeastern Attica (see hArt 232n).

ἐγράψατο “make a note of,” “cause to be written down” for the purposes of judgment. The middle is often used for “indict.”

57. γείνατο … ἁ θεύς (= θεός): the sense should be “Demeter … became the goddess,” i.e., returned to her normal divine aspect, but there are two difficulties: (1) the aorist γείνατο seems always to be transitive in epic usage, and (2) there are no good parallels for the definite article used in this way. On the options for resolving (1) see Hopkinson’s full but inconclusive discussion. For (2) most editors let the transmitted text stand, though Hopkinson accepts Bergk’s emendation to αὖ, “she became a goddess again”.

θεύς (= θεός): the form is unique to Callimachus, here and again at fr. 731 Pf. (on which see Pfeiffer ad loc.). For the contraction of εο > ευ, see Buck §42.5.

58. The line clearly echoes the language of divine epiphany at HhDem 188–89 and HhAphr 173–74. Bornmann 1992 argues that Eur. Phoen. 1184 (κόμαι μὲν εἰς Ὄλυμπον, αἷμα δ’ ἐς χθόνα) also underpins the line (see 34n). Because Phoen. 1184 is now considered spurious, he considers this evidence that the interpolation must have antedated Callimachus. Mastronarde (1994: 478n2) is not convinced that Callimachus does imitate Euripides, but all other adduced parallels lack the specificity of the head reaching to Olympus. However, both Callimachus and the interpolator (if there was one) may have imitated a now lost source.

ἴθματα: a hapax in Homer, Il. 5.778 (a variant of which appears at HhAp 114), of Athena and Hera, who went “with steps like timorous doves.” The meaning of the word was discussed in antiquity (see Rengakos 1992: 36).

59. ἡμιθνῆτες “half-dead,” i.e., the men nearly fainted when the goddess manifested herself.

62. βαρύν “overbearing,” rather than “angry” (pace Hopkinson).

63. Demeter’s fury is conveyed by the repetition of ναί and κύον (cf. the narrator’s μὴ μή at 17).

τεύχεο: the abrupt command is echoed in 65, where Demeter “prepares” evils for Erysichthon.

64. θαμιναί: before Callimachus only in HhHerm 44 for “frequent” thoughts.

εἰλαπίναι: formal feasts or banquets, often conflated with symposia.

67. αἴθωνα “fiery,” “burning”; an allusion to Aethon, an alternative name for Erysichthon (see p. 267).

ἐστρεύγετο: from στρεύγω, “to be distressed.” The word occurs in Homer, Il. 15.512 and Od. 12.351. See Bulloch 1977: 104–7 for parallels to the story of the cattle of the Sun.

68. σχέτλιος: at hArt 124, of the unjust who have come to Artemis’ attention, and at hAth 78, of Tiresias, just before he sees Athena.

πάσαιτο: optative, from πατέομαι, Homeric for “eat.”

69. εἴκατι: Doric for εἴκοσι; the number of the servants.

71–70. Functionally these two lines display the complete accord between Demeter and Dionysus as the deities responsible for corn (food) and wine (drink). However, their order in the mss. introduces Dionysus first without a clear transition from 69. Proposed solutions are to reverse the order (as in this text) or to delete one or the other line. Given the elegance of the chiasmus Δάματρι, Διόνυσος, Διώνυσον, Δάματρα, and the number of duplicated thoughts elsewhere in the poem, the simple reversal seems the best solution, especially since they act as a close for the section. Renehan 1987: 250 provides a simple explanation for the transposition: in an ancestor to the archetype one line (now 71) was omitted, then later added in the margin; a subsequent copyist inserted it, but in the wrong place.

71. Διόνυσος: cf. 70, Διώνυσον. Both forms occur in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Homeric hymns, varied for metrical reasons.

70. τόσσα Διώνυσον γάρ: the postponement of γάρ is not easily paralleled in epic, but it is a feature of comedy (see Denniston 96–98), and what follows is clearly comedic in style.

72–110 comprise a narrative of increasing parental embarrassment as the family makes a series of inventive excuses for why Erysichthon cannot attend any social occasion. The section begins with two specific invitations, from the sons of Ormenus and from Polyxo, followed by generic requests (83–86) that illustrate the increasing frustration and despair of his parents. His mother and other females are foregrounded in 74–95, his father in 97-110.

72. ξυνδείπνια: the word first occurs here, where it seems to mean “common meals”; in PCairZenon 59764.45 (third century bce), the meaning is “dining-room.”

73. προχάνα: only found in Callimachus; here the Doric form, in contrast to Aet. fr. 72 Pf. προχάνῃσιν. According to the scholion the meaning is “pretext,” but the derivation is unclear. The mss. accent προχανά, though modern editors follow Heschyius and others in accenting προχάνα.

74–76. The festival of the Itonia and Crannon are associated not with Demeter but Athena (see Graninger 2011: 50–51), and in fact Demeter is not prominent in Thessalian civic cult.

74. Ἰτωνιάδος: Itone was a city in Thessaly, and Athena Itonia an important Thessalian divinity. This patronymic (-ιάς) is previously unattested, but it follows the pattern for Callimachean innovation (see Schmitt §5.12).

75. Ὀρμενίδαι “sons of Ormenus”; Ormenium was a town near Mt. Pelion, the eponymous king of which was Ormenus. He was the grandfather of Phoenix (Str. 9.5.18).

ὦν: Doric for οὖν; the insertion of this particle between a preposition and the verb compounded with it (here ἀπ᾽… ἀρνήσατο) is a feature of Ionic prose and of popular speech (see Denniston 429–30).

76. ἔνδοι: this variant of ἔνδοθι is not generically Doric but localized in Syracusan and Cyrenean and a few other dialects (see Buck §133.4, Dobias-Lalou 2000: 119).

Κραννῶνα: a city in Thessaly (Str. 9.5.20); also at hDelos 138; an Itonia was celebrated there (Graninger 2011: 54–55).

77. τέλθος: see hAth 106n. Here in apposition to ἑκατὸν βόας.

77–78. Πολυξώ, | μάτηρ Ἀκτορίωνος: Polyxo is otherwise unknown, as is the identity of her son, Actorion. West 1986: 30 points out that one of Ormenus’ sons was Tlepolemus, who was married to a Polyxo (Paus. 3.19.9–10), which might have inspired the name here.

79. ἀμφότερον: Hopkinson takes as the adverb, but Renehan (1987: 253), citing the parallel of Pl. Soph. 248d4–5 (τὸ γιγνώσκειν ἢ τὸ γιγνώσκεσθαί φατε ποίημα ἢ πάθος ἢ ἀμφότερον; [“Do you say that knowing and being known is doing or experiencing, or both?”]), takes as a masculine accusative substantive with Τριόπαν τε καὶ υἱέα in apposition.

Τριόπαν: Triopas, Erysichthon’s father, is named here for the first time.

80. τάν: Polyxo.

βαρύθυμος: see hDelos 215 (of Hera) with note.

82. εὐάγκειαν: a hapax; on the analogy of other -άγκεια compounds (e.g., Il. 4.453, μισγάγκεια = συνάγκεια in later writers), this should be a noun (so Hopkinson: “fair valleys”). However, the masculine ἐν εὐαγκεῖ λόφῳ (a hapax at Pi. Nem. 5.46) suggests that it could also be a feminine form of the adjective εὐαγκής, “with sweet glades” (so Schmitt 2n7). For a double noun construction see hArt 239 and hDelos 63 and Renehan 1987: 250.

φάεα: here, “days”; accusative of duration of time.

83. φιλότεκνε: common in prose; also in Euripides in aphorisms: cf. HF 636, Phoen. 356, 965, expressing the sentiment that all parents love their children, and TrGF 5.2 adespota fr. 1015 Kannicht: “mothers love their children more than fathers.”

84–86. The excuses are made so often that they become routinized: 84 corresponds to the specific event of 74–77; 85 corresponds to 77–81. The two mentioned—feasts and weddings—are linked at Il. 18.491 (the shield) and Od. 1.226 as standard and recurring events in ancient social life.

84. δαίνυεν: imperfect, a variant of Homeric δαίνυμι. The line seems modeled on Il. 23.201: εἰλαπίνην δαίνυντο.

ἐν ἀλλοτρίᾳ (sc. γῇ): “out of town.” The following hiatus is unusual, but may be intended to reflect his mother’s anguish at telling another lie.

86. Ὄθρυϊ: Mt. Othrys is in Phthiotis in north central Greece; Hes. Th. 632 places the Titanomachy nearby (cf. hAth 8).

ἀμιθρεῖ: Ionic form of ἀριθμέω, “count”; see Buck §88 on this type of consonant transposition.

87. Four-word lines are rare in Callimachus, and normally the thought is complete with the line, but here it spills over, like Erysichthon’s hunger, to consume part of the following line.

ἐνδόμυχος “inmost part of the house”; first in Soph. Phil. 1457 (of Philoctetes’ cave), here, then very popular with Nonnus (cf. hDelos 65: ἑπτάμυχον).

δἤπειτα: see hDelos 160n.

εἰλαπιναστάς: an ironic use of a Homeric hapax (Il. 17. 577, where it is used of a good “companion at the feast”).

88. ἤσθιε: imperfect for Erysichthon’s constantly recurring need to eat.

μυρία πάντα: the phrase is rare; first at Alcaeus fr. 121.1 V, which seems to contrast the poor with the wealthy. Note also Aratus 113: μυρία πάντα παρεῖχε Δίκη; in the Golden Age “Justice provided all their countless needs,” on which Kidd ad loc. states that μυρία expresses the number and πάντα the variety.

ἐξάλλετο: the sense is probably “was leaping up,” sc. in eagerness for food (so Wilamowitz HD 2.32–33), despite the scholiast’s gloss as ἠυξάνετο ἐπὶ τῷ ἐσθίειν (“it increased from eating,” i.e., his stomach was swollen or bloated), which is the meaning recorded in LSJ s.v. II 2. Callimachus seems to allude to Melanthius’ insult to Odysseus at Od. 17.228: βούλεται αἰτίζων βόσκειν ἣν γαστέρ’ ἄναλτον (“He wishes by begging to feed his insatiable belly”). For a more detailed discussion see Hopkinson ad loc.

90. ἀλεμάτως: first in Sappho (fr. 26.5 V) and Alcaeus (fr. 70.4 V), then in the Hellenistic poets (Theoc. 15.4, A.R. 4.1206); “in vain.”

91–92. Two further similes describe Erysichthon’s wasting away from hunger: snow and a wax doll that melts in the sun. The passage has features in common with Theoc. 7.76–77, where Daphnis “was wasting away like a snow [χιὼν ὥς τις κατετάκετο] under Haemus or Athos or Rhodope.”

91. The line has been suspected because it has two metrical anomalies: (1) Callimachus normally does not allow a word break after the second foot trochee in a word that begins in the first foot as Μίμαντι does (i.e., ‒⏑−⏑−|−‒⏑−⏑); (2) he tends to avoid iambic words before a masculine caesura (as χιών here). Given the elegance of its shape otherwise and the sentiment, the anomalies are likely to be deliberate (e.g., M. Fantuzzi notes that ὡς δὲ Μίμαντι χιών gives the impression of a hemistich). Could it be intended to simulate melting?

Μίμαντι: Two mountains bear this name. Probably Callimachus refers to the more famous Mt. Mimas in Ionia (opposite Chios, called “snowy” at Ar. Nub. 273) rather than the homonymous mountain in Thessaly (Alexander of Myndus, FGrH 25 F 4).

ἀελίῳ: see hAth 89n.

πλαγγών: according to the scholiast, a wax doll. Melting dolls in the context of Demeter’s punishment suggest ritual magic: such a doll could be used for inflicting harm. The context was often erotic, which might recall the circumstances of Theocritus’ Delphis (Id. 2.28–29, if Callimachus is the imitator), but wax images also occur in the Cyrene Foundation Decree for cursing those who do not abide by oaths (Faraone 1993: 60–61).

92. μέζον: POxy 2226 has μέζον for μεῖζον of the mss., a form common to Ionic and Arcadian.

μέστ(α) = μέχρι; the adverb is often followed by a preposition, as here. Callimachus uses it in this hymn again at 111, 128. See also hAth 55n.

93. ῥινός τε καὶ ὀστέα “skin and bone,” a colloquial expression that can be paralleled in many cultures; the phrase also occurs at A.R. 2.201 of Phineus.

ἐλείφθη: medieval mss. have ἔλ(ε)ιφθεν, epic third plural; POxy 2226 has ἐλείφθη, third singular from its closer subject, neuter ὀστέα. Hopkinson prints ἔλειφθεν on the grounds that it occurs at HhHerm 195 and A.R. 1.1325. I have preferred the papyrus reading.

94–95. Callimachus portrays the females of the household in a crescendo of weeping, employing the language of tragic mourning. However, the rapid piling up of weeping women—mother, two sisters, wetnurse, and ten servants—has elements of comedy, especially when Callimachus describes the wetnurse as “the breast from which he was accustomed to drink.” It is an incongruous reminder that women typically bared their breasts in mourning and at the same time of Erysichthon’s consuming need for food.

95. ἔπωνε: πώνω is an Aeolic present of πίνω, found first in Alcaeus fr. 376 V; the imperfect emphasizes the continuous action of the past as a defining characteristic of the present (so Renehan 1987: 251).

πολλάκι: most likely the adverb should be construed with the verb (cf. Theoc. 2.88), though Hopkinson ad loc. prefers as intensifying the number, “many tens.”

96–110. After the women, Erysichthon’s father appears tearing his hair out and supplicating his father Poseidon for aid. The funeral imagery reaches a climax as Triopas expresses the wish that his son had been struck dead by Apollo before such a fate as he now endures. But the tragic tone is undercut by the bathos of the speech’s conclusion—Erysichthon has consumed all the stores, the warhorse, and even the “white tail.” Callimachus alludes to two sets of fathers and sons, which also point, as does this whole narrative, to the opposite directions of tragedy/epic and comedy: Priam plucking out his hair in frustration that he cannot deter Hector from fighting (Il. 22.77–78) and the Cyclops’ prayer to his father Poseidon (Od. 9.528–30). There are a number of indications of the speaker’s agitation: his bitter address to Poseidon as “false father”; the command to “look at this one here”; εἴπερ ἐγὼ μέν, with the unusual line ending of the monosyllable μέν; the μέν-clause with no answering δέ.

96. πολιαῖς: the gray hair of age, cf. hAp 14.

97. Ποτειδάωνα: medieval mss. read Ποσειδάωνα, the papyrus has ποτ̣[ (a high trace after the omicron rules out Ποσ[). The form is probably a Doricization of epic Ποσειδάων (see Buck §41.4, §61.4).

καλιστρέων: see hArt 67n.

98–100. Compare the Cyclops’ prayer to his father, Poseidon (Od. 9.528–29): κλῦθι, Ποσείδαον, … | εἰ ἐτεόν γε σός εἰμι (“Hear me, Poseidon, … if I am truly yours”). Poseidon does answer his son by attempting to destroy Odysseus, though the ultimate fate of Erysichthon is not revealed in the hymn. These three lines adumbrate the familial relationship with the three subjects: ψευδοπάτωρ … ἐγὼ … βρέφος. τόνδε τεοῦ τρίτον and τοῦτο τὸ δείλαιον … βρέφος surround Triopas’ two enjambed lines.

98. This line has a rare monosyllabic ending and is the only one in the hymns to end in μέν; surely an allusion to HhAp 233: οἳ δὲ τέως μέν, from a description of Poseidon’s sacred grove at Onchestus in Boeotia (the only line in the Homeric hymns to end with μέν).

ψευδοπάτωρ: the compound is found only here in Greek literature. Hopkinson ad loc. suggests the Homeric hapax ψευδάγγελος (Il. 15.159) may have served as a model, but ψευδ- compounds are not restricted to Homer, e.g., ψευδόμαντις, Soph. OC 1097, Eur. Or. 1667, or ψευδομάρτυς, Pl. Gorg. 472b4–5.

τόνδε: the deictic pronoun implies the presence of Erysichthon as Triopas addesses his divine father (cf. τῷδε of Tiresias at hAth 119).

τεοῦ: Doric and Aeolic = σοῦ (cf. Antimachus fr. 191 Matthews); this form is found only here in Callimachus and was possibly chosen for its alliteration. A genitive of origin: “third from you” (cf. Pl. Rep. 391c1–2).

98–99. εἴπερ ἐγὼ μέν … γένος (sc. εἰμί).

99. Αἰολίδος Κανάκας: Triopas was the son of Poseidon and Canace, the daughter of Thessalian Aeolus in some versions (cf. Apollod. 1.7.4).

100. βρέφος: normally, an infant, though Erysichthon was at least an adolescent. It fits with the description of the nurse in 95, and what may stand behind both is the Homeric hymn, in which Demeter served as the nurse for the infant Demophoön.

αἴθε = εἴθε: with aorist indicative for an unattainable wish (cf. LSJ s.v. εἰ B I3b).

101. βλητόν: the sudden death of women was attributed to Artemis (cf. hArt 127), of men to Apollo. Triopas wishes his son had died quickly before his ravening appetite led to the slow wasting of his body.

ἐκτερέϊξαν “bury with due honors.” Cf. Il. 24.657, where Achilles agrees to stay the fighting so that Priam may bury Hector.

102. βούβρωστις: a hapax at Il. 24.532, where it seems to mean grinding poverty, though its etymology is disputed (see Richardson 1993: 331). Callimachus’ choice of word inserts the plight of Triopas and his son into a moment of great epic pathos that is shared between Priam and Achilles, but Triopas is grieving for a son who has not died, and the pervasive sadness of the Iliad sequence is undercut by Callimachus using βούβρωστις as if derived from βοῦς and βιβρώσκω, since at 108 Erysichthon will have even eaten the βοῦς that was destined for sacrifice. For the relationship of Callimachus’ hymn to Socrates’ objection to this Homeric passage, see Acosta-Hughes and Stephens 2012: 19–20. See also hAth 104–5n, where Chariclo’s lament takes on contours of Hecuba’s grief.

ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσι “in his eyes” (sc. Erysichthon’s); so Renehan 1987: 251.

104. βόσκε “feed” or “tend flocks”; when applied to feeding persons, it is pejorative; with βῶν below, a pun on βούβρωστις.

ἁμαί = ἡμέτεραι.

ἀπειρήκαντι = ἀπειρήκασι. Doric -καντι for -κασι occurs only here in Callimachus.

105. χῆραι: the adjective means “widowed” and by extension, “bereft of.”

μάνδραι: enclosed spaces for cattle.

αὔλιες: from αὖλις, a shelter, here for herd animals (cf. HhHerm 71, where the cattle of the Sun are stabled, and hArt 87).

106–110. Scholars debate whether Triopas’ speech ends after 106 or 110. The list breaks into two parts: animals destined for slaughter (through 106) followed by those domesticated for other purposes (107–10), which could support ending Triopas’ speech with μάγειροι (106). But since μάγειροι is also the subject of ὑπέλυσαν in 107, the direct speech probably continues. Together 104–10 chronicle the economic demise of the house—all of the stores, the service animals, the horse that marks status for competitors in games, the warhorse for fulfilling a civic obligation, and finally even the lowly “white tail,” whose task is to keep vermin under control. Finally, the tight organization of 108–10 acts as a coda to the speech. The outer two lines have καί + noun followed by a relative, the inner line two nouns linked by καί.

106. μάγειροι “cooks,” who also functioned as butchers; here they unhitch and serve up even the cart animals for Erysichthon.

108. Ἑστίᾳ: Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, to whom families routinely made sacrifices, though the cow (τὰν βῶν) is not known to have been a usual offering.

110. μάλουριν: a hapax, the reading of POxy 2226, where the medieval mss. have αἴλουρον (“cat”). According to Hesychius, μάλουριν means “with a white tail”; apparently a compound of the rare μαλός = “white” and οὐρά = an animal’s “tail” (especially that of the lion in Homer). If μάλουριν is correct, then αἴλουρον would have crept into the archetype as a gloss. Gow 1967 argues that “white tail” must indicate generic features, and since not all Egyptian cats had white tails, he considers other known domesticated species, settling on the mongoose. One species was characteristically white-tailed (though they are no longer found in Egypt). He further suggests that the γαλέαι at Theoc. 15.28 are not ferrets, as he originally thought, but also mongooses.

ἔτρεμε “were accustomed to tremble,” but no longer since the “white tail” is gone.

μικκά: Doric for μικρά.

111–15. As long as stores held out, only Erysichthon’s family were aware of his all-consuming needs, but when they were exhausted, his only recourse is begging at a public crossroads.

111. μέστα μὲν ἐν: the papyrus reading for μεσφ’ ὅτε μέν of the medieval mss.

ἔτι: ἕνι, the reading of the medieval mss., had long troubled scholars since it was difficult to construe. Pfeiffer (and subsequent editors) have accepted the papyrus reading μέστα μὲν ἐν and Lobel’s conjecture of ἔτι for ἕνι.

113. βαθύν: the house with its deep pockets of wealth.

ἀνεξήραναν: from ἀναξηραίνω; the scholiast glosses as ἔρημον ἐποίουν (“empty”). Previously once each in Hom. Il. 21.347 (ἀγξηράνῃ, a form disputed in antiquity) and Hdt. 7.109, which offers a parallel for excess: the pack animals in Xerxes’ advancing army dry up (ἀνεξήρηνε) a whole lake when they drink from it.

114. ὁ τῶ βασιλῆος (sc. υἱός): Erysichthon.

ἐνὶ τριόδοισι: from τρίοδος; the meeting of three roads was dedicated to Hecate; it was a place where refuse and purificatory offscourings were deposited as “meals for Hecate,” hence a place where beggars would gather (Parker 1983: 30n65).

καθῆστο: the line end is parallel to 102 (ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖσι κάθηται); the first encapulates a private anguish, in the second Erysichthon is exposed to eyes of the world at large.

115. αἰτίζων: an imitation of Od. 17.228; see above 88n.

ἔκβολα: previously in Euripides, at Phoen. 804 (βρέφος ἔκβολον) and Ion 555, of a child who has been exposed at birth. The choice of adjective suggests the practice of exposing unwanted children in public places—an ironic comment on Erysichthon’s fate.

λύματα: cf. hZeus 17 (of Rhea’s afterbirth) and hAp 109 (of the detritus carried by large rivers).

116–17. These lines are either based on Aesch. Ag. 1003–4: νόσος γὰρ | γείτων ὁμότοιχος ἐρείδει (“For sickness, its [sc. health’s] common-wall neighbor, presses in”) or more probably on a proverb common to both. Callimachus expresses two thoughts: “may I not have a common wall with someone who is Demeter’s enemy” and “bad neighbors are hateful to me.” The second phrase is clearly a proverb (see Lelli 2011: 386). Triopas describes his son’s plight as a “sickness” at 103.

117. ὁμότοιχος “sharing a common wall.” Apart from Aeschylus and Antiphanes (PCG 2 fr. 287 K-A) the word occurs elsewhere only in prose.

κακογείτονες: the compound occurs previously only at Soph. Phil. 692.

118. The opening metron of this line was damaged in the medieval mss. and falls within a section omitted in the papyrus. What remains repeats ἐπιφθέγξασθε from the opening line and now divides γυναῖκες into παρθενικαί (virgins) and τεκοῖσαι (women who have borne a child). Schneider’s εἰ δ᾽ ἄγε (“come”) or Wilamowitz’s ἄρχετε (“begin”) will be close to the mark.

120–28. The hymn concludes with a series of correlations, introduced by ὡς, expressing a symbiotic relationship between ritual behaviors at the conclusion of the procession (124, 126) and the desired favor of the goddess (125, 127). For this motif in sympathetic magic, see Theoc. 2.26–57 (cf. hDelos 84–85n).

120. The extreme hyperbaton of this line (τὸν κάλαθον between the article-noun group, αἱ … ἵπποι) has the effect of locating the κάλαθον upon the chariot, with the four mares leading them both (ἄγοντι | τέσσαρες).

λευκότριχες: rituals often stipulated the color of garments (Connelly 2007: 90–92) or skin (on animals) and sex of the participants (both humans and animals). Proper execution of the ritual led, in principle, to a propitious outcome, as at 122, where white becomes a marker of divine favor and bounty. (Cf. Pi. Ol. 6.95–96 for “the festival of [Demeter’s] daughter with the white horses.”)

121. εὐρυάνασσα: for the epithet see Pi. Ol. 13.24: εὐρὺ ἀνάσσων, of Zeus. It is appropriate for Demeter, whose domain of agriculture affects the whole human order.

123. φθινόπωρον “autumn,” previously in Ionic prose.

ἔτος δ’ εἰς ἄλλο φυλαξεῖ: for similar ritual requests for a propitious outcome for harvest or another year, see, e.g., Homeric Hymn 26.11–13 (Dionysus); Ar. Thesm. 950–52 and Ran. 382–83 (Demeter).

124. ἀπεδίλωτοι: a variant of ἀπέδιλος, “unshod”; only in Callimachus. For stipulations about footwear in ritual, see Connelly 2007: 92.

ἀνάμπυκες “without a headband,” i.e., with unbound hair; first in Callimachus, then imitated by Nonnus.

πατεῦμες: the use of the first person plural indicates that Callimachus’ narrator is female in this hymn. For πατέω with a direct object, cf. Soph. Phil. 1060, Theoc. 18.20.

125. παναπηρέας “completely unharmed”; only in Callimachus; the scholiast glosses as ἀβλαβεῖς (see Schmitt 122.65n).

126. λικνοφόροι: those who carry the λίκνον or winnowing fan in procession (see Connelly 2007: 66, 171–72). This was a type of shallow scoop or basket used for separating wheat from chaff. It seems also to have been used as a cradle (see hZeus 48). For λίκνα in worship of Demeter see Brumfield 1997. In Theoc. 7.156 Simichidas plants another type of winnowing fan (πτύον) in a heap of grain in celebration of a harvest festival of Demeter.

χρυσῶ πλέα λίκνα: various implements were carried in these baskets as well as dedicatory cakes. According to the scholiast, the λίκνα are “filled with gold,” i.e., with implements made of gold, or the λίκνα themselves were “gilded.” Alternatively “gold” refers to the color of either the harvested grains or the cakes. For golden implements McKay (1962a: 129–30) points to the description of the (Dionysiac) Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus (Ath. 5.197c –203b, especially 198c-d, where the implements accompanying the tableau of Dionysus are of gold). And see below.

127. πασεύμεσθα: the mss. read πασσαίμεσθα (aorist optative of πατέομαι, “may we eat”); the scholiast glossed the verb as κτησόμεθα (“we shall get”), which has led to the emendations of πασαίμεσθα (from πάομαι, “may we get”) or πασεύμεσθα (Doric future of πάομαι), though neither form is independently attested (see Hopkinson ad loc. for further details). McKay (1962a: 131–35) links the fruitful Nile (described as “flowing with gold”) to this passage, arguing that the equivalence of corn and gold would allow the ms. reading to stand as a pun: πασσαίμεσθα, “may we eat gold = corn,” or πασαίμεσθα, “may we get gold.” Given the evidence for cakes carried in winnowing fans as offerings for Demeter (see Brumfeld 1997), his observation has merit. Against it is the scholiast’s gloss, which requires a future tense, not an optative, and the fact that other verbs in the section are futures.

128. τὰ … πρυτανήια: the prytaneion was a civic structure in the agora that contained the city’s hearth, or shrine to Hestia, and was used for the conduct of official business, including banquets. This Ionic plural for singular occurs elsewhere only in a Delphic oracle quoted at Hdt. 3.57.

129. †τὰς δὲ τελεσφορίας†: this reading of the medieval mss. has been questioned because (1) sense seems to require a noun to contrast with ἀτελέστως (the “uninitiated”); (2) at hAp 78 τελεσφορίην means festival (glossed as ἑορτήν, θυσίαν) and at A.R. 1.917, τελεσφορίῃσι refers specifically to the Samothracian Mysteries. Anon. Bernensis and Th. Bentley conjectured the unattested τελεσφορέας, taking it to be the equivalent of τελεσφόρας (“initiates”). This has been accepted by most editors, but (3) West 1986: 31 maintains that “-φορέας is anomalous; preferable would be -φερέας,” and (4) POxy 2226 seems to have the dative article: τ]αῖς, based on which Pfeiffer conjectures τ]αῖς δὲ τελεσφορίαις, which requires an ellipse of the subject of ὁμαρτεῖν in this line. The sense would then be: “as far as the city’s prytaneion let the uninitiated follow, but for the rites [sc. let those who are initiated follow] all the way to the shrine of the goddess.” The picture is complicated by the fact that τελεσφορ- compounds used in Cyrenean inscriptions for cults of Apollo and Artemis do not seem to be connected to mysteries (see Dobias-Lalou 2000: 209–10).

ὁμαρτεῖν: use of an infinitive for the third person imperative is not common outside of legal contexts (see Smyth §2013b); its use here conveys the impression that the speaker is quoting regulatory laws for the rites.

130. κατώτεραι: comparative adjective from κάτω, “lower than,” i.e., those under sixty years of age.

αἱ δὲ βαρεῖαι: the adjective βαρύς (“heavy”) is in regular use for those burdened by age, or ill health, or pregnant, and is here qualified to make the condition clear. Repeated χἄτις (= καὶ ἥτις) then separates them into those who are pregnant and those “in pain,” while the final qualification (ὥς … ὡς) stipulates that if they are unable to walk the full distance they should go as far as their limbs allow.

131. Ἐλειθυίᾳ: the goddess whom women supplicate to help them in childbirth. For the spelling see hDelos 257n.

132. ἰθαρόν: the medieval mss. have ἱκανόν; POxy 2226 has ἰθαρόν, which occurs also at Aet. fr. 85.15 (on which see Harder ad loc.). The rare adjective occurred previously in Alcaeus (fr. 58.18 V, with the meaning “more cheerful”) and Simmias, fr. 25.6 Powell. Hesychius glosses variously as “fair,” “pure,” “light,” “swift.” The sense must be as far as their knees permit, cf. Hopkinson’s “as far as their knees bear up lightly.”

132–33. ταῖσι δὲ Δηώ | … †ὡς ποτὶ ναὸν ἵκωνται: scholars have taken two lines in emending the offending ὡς (or ὡς ποτί): (1) Demeter will grant everything to those who cannot complete the route to the sanctuary so that one day they may do so (Meineke: ὥς ποκα or Diggle: ὥς ποκα … ἱκέσθαι) or (2) she will give them the same benefits as those who reach the sanctuary (Barber: καὶ αἷς or Danielsson: καὶ αἵ). The scholiast’s paraphrase takes the lines as (2), and he must have had a slightly different text. For details see Hopkinson ad loc.

133. ἐπίμεστα: adverb, previously only as a conjecture at Pherecrates (PCG 7 fr. 203 K-A); if correct, a nice parallel: βριθομένης ἀγαθῶν ἐπίμεστα τραπέζης (“of a table laden with a full measure of good things”).

134. χαῖρε, θεά, καὶ τάνδε σάω πόλιν (see p. 266).

σάω = σάου: second person middle imperative from σάω/σάωμι, “preserve.” The etymology of the form is complex; see Chantraine 1.364–65.

135. εὐηπελίᾳ: only in Callimachus; Hesychius glosses as εὐθηνία (“prosperity”), εὐεξία (“good health”).

ἀγρόθι “in the country,” only here.

νόστιμα: of plants, “yielding a high return,” hence “abundant.”

136. φέρβε “feed” or “nourish”; cf. Homeric Hymn 30.2 to Gaia: φέρβει ἐπὶ χθονὶ πάνθ’ ὁπόσ’ ἐστίν (“[Gaia] nourishes everything that is upon the land”).

μᾶλα: either Doric for “apples” or, generically, “fruit,” or a hyperdoricism for μῆλα = “sheep,” possibly with an intentional ambiguity. Malephoros was an epithet of Demeter at Megara and at Selinus; in terracottas found in the latter sanctuary, she seems to be carrying a piece of fruit.

θερισμόν “reaping time,” “harvest”; found in documentary papyri and prose.

137. εἰράναν: the relationship of peace to agricultural bounty is a familiar theme; see, e.g., Theoc. 16 and 17.

ἵν’ ὃς ἄροσε τῆνος ἀμάσῃ: a proverbial expression, see Diogenianus 2.62.

138. ἵλαθι (= Homeric ἵληθι) “be gracious.” The form and etymology have generated considerable discussion (see Chantraine DE s.v. ἱλάσκομαι). In general ἵληθι appears in Homer and the Homeric hymns, while ἵλαθι, dialect considerations aside, is found in Hellenistic and later Greek.

τρίλλιστε: a Homeric hapax (Il. 8.488). That passage describes the coming of night over gift-giving earth (ζείδωρον ἄρουραν) and concludes: ἀσπασίη τρίλλιστος ἐπήλυθε νὺξ ἐρεβεννή (“Thrice prayed for came black night”). HDem opened at the coming of evening and now concludes, via the borrowing, with full nightfall. Cf. the end of the procession in honor of Ptolemy I as described by Athenaeus (5.197d): “the last group [sc. in the procession] happened to be of Hesperus, since the season brought the time [sc. consumed in the procession] to that point [sc. evening].” If Callimachus ordered the hymns himself, the fall of night at their conclusion is a fitting closure.

μέγα κρείοισα θεάων: cf. hArt 268.

Lines 118–37 are omitted from POxy 2226, which in other respects presents a text that is as good as or superior to Ψ. Because the Erysichthon narrative ends at 117, and 118–137 return us to the events of the festival procession with which the hymn began, the omission of these lines is almost certainly deliberate. The papyrus then continues with what seems to be letters from the last line of the received hymn (138) immediately followed by another line that Lobel, the original editor, read as: . . [ … ]ασιδ[, tentatively suggesting δω[μ]ασι, but with no mark to indicate that a new poem is beginning. Another very small fragment that does not coincide with lines from any extant text of Callimachus is in the same hand. This led Lobel and Pfeiffer, and Hopkinson following them (pp. 188-89), to conclude that this papyrus text may have recorded an alternative ending to the hymn. Unfortunately, without further evidence it is impossible to draw firm conclusions.

1. GLP 90.8 = SH 680.55. For the role of iambic within Demeter festivals, see Rosen 2007: 47–56.

2. The case for Cyrene is made by Chamoux 1953: 265–68 and Laronde 1987: 362–66; White 1984: 47–48 thinks the evidence is inconclusive.

3. Cf. Calame’s discussion of the ending of hDem (2004: 440–41).