Chapter XVII: HOMER: Hunters of deep sea prey, have we caught anything? (2)

(ll. 224-251) But Reedy took to flight when he saw Ham-nibbler, and fled, plunging into the lake and throwing away his shield. Then blameless Pot-visitor killed Brewer and Water-larked killed the lord Ham-nibbler, striking him on the head with a pebble, so that his brains flowed out at his nostrils and the earth was bespattered with blood. Faultless Muck-coucher sprang upon Lick-platter and killed him with his spear and brought darkness upon his eyes: and Leeky saw it, and dragged Lick-platter by the foot, though he was dead, and choked him in the lake. But Crumb-snatcher was fighting to avenge his dead comrades, and hit Leeky before he reached the land; and he fell forward at the blow and his soul went down to Hades. And seeing this, the Cabbage-climber took a clod of mud and hurled it at the Mouse, plastering all his forehead and nearly blinding him. Thereat Crumb-snatcher was enraged and caught up in his strong hand a huge stone that lay upon the ground, a heavy burden for the soil: with that he hit Cabbage-climber below the knee and splintered his whole right shin, hurling him on his back in the dust. But Croakperson kept him off, and rushing at the Mouse in turn, hit him in the middle of the belly and drove the whole reed-spear into him, and as he drew the spear back to him with his strong hand, all his foe’s bowels gushed out upon the ground. And when Troglodyte saw the deed, as he was limping away from the fight on the river bank, he shrank back sorely moved, and leaped into a trench to escape sheer death. Then Bread-nibbler hit Puff-jaw on the toes—he came up at the last from the lake and was greatly distressed....

((LACUNA))

(ll. 252-259) And when Leeky saw him fallen forward, but still half alive, he pressed through those who fought in front and hurled a sharp reed at him; but the point of the spear was stayed and did not break his shield. Then noble Rueful, like Ares himself, struck his flawless head-piece made of four pots—he only among the Frogs showed prowess in the throng. But when he saw the other rush at him, he did not stay to meet the stout-hearted hero but dived down to the depths of the lake.

(ll. 260-271) Now there was one among the Mice, Slice-snatcher, who excelled the rest, dear son of Gnawer the son of blameless Bread-stealer. He went to his house and bade his son take part in the war. This warrior threatened to destroy the race of Frogs utterly 3603, and splitting a chestnut-husk into two parts along the joint, put the two hollow pieces as armour on his paws: then straightway the Frogs were dismayed and all rushed down to the lake, and he would have made good his boast—for he had great strength—had not the Son of Cronos, the Father of men and gods, been quick to mark the thing and pitied the Frogs as they were perishing. He shook his head, and uttered this word:

(ll. 272-276) ‘Dear, dear, how fearful a deed do my eyes behold! Slice-snatcher makes no small panic rushing to and fro among the Frogs by the lake. Let us then make all haste and send warlike Pallas or even Ares, for they will stop his fighting, strong though he is.’

(ll. 277-284) So said the Son of Cronos; but Hera answered him: ‘Son of Cronos, neither the might of Athena nor of Ares can avail to deliver the Frogs from utter destruction. Rather, come and let us all go to help them, or else let loose your weapon, the great and formidable Titan-killer with which you killed Capaneus, that doughty man, and great Enceladus and the wild tribes of Giants; ay, let it loose, for so the most valiant will be slain.’

(ll. 285-293) So said Hera: and the Son of Cronos cast a lurid thunderbolt: first he thundered and made great Olympus shake, and the cast the thunderbolt, the awful weapon of Zeus, tossing it lightly forth. Thus he frightened them all, Frogs and Mice alike, hurling his bolt upon them. Yet even so the army of the Mice did not relax, but hoped still more to destroy the brood of warrior Frogs. Only, the Son of Cronos, on Olympus, pitied the Frogs and then straightway sent them helpers.

(ll. 294-303) So there came suddenly warriors with mailed backs and curving claws, crooked beasts that walked sideways, nut-cracker-jawed, shell-hided: bony they were, flat-backed, with glistening shoulders and bandy legs and stretching arms and eyes that looked behind them. They had also eight legs and two feelers—persistent creatures who are called crabs. These nipped off the tails and paws and feet of the Mice with their jaws, while spears only beat on them. Of these the Mice were all afraid and no longer stood up to them, but turned and fled. Already the sun was set, and so came the end of the one-day war.

OF THE ORIGIN OF HOMER AND HESIOD, AND OF THEIR CONTEST

Everyone boasts that the most divine of poets, Homer and Hesiod, are said to be his particular countrymen. Hesiod, indeed, has put a name to his native place and so prevented any rivalry, for he said that his father ‘settled near Helicon in a wretched hamlet, Ascra, which is miserable in winter, sultry in summer, and good at no season.’ But, as for Homer, you might almost say that every city with its inhabitants claims him as her son. Foremost are the men of Smyrna who say that he was the Son of Meles, the river of their town, by a nymph Cretheis, and that he was at first called Melesigenes. He was named Homer later, when he became blind, this being their usual epithet for such people. The Chians, on the other hand, bring forward evidence to show that he was their countryman, saying that there actually remain some of his descendants among them who are called Homeridae. The Colophonians even show the place where they declare that he began to compose when a schoolmaster, and say that his first work was the _Margites_.

As to his parents also, there is on all hands great disagreement.

Hellanicus and Cleanthes say his father was Maeon, but Eugaeon says Meles; Callicles is for Mnesagoras, Democritus of Troezen for Daemon, a merchant-trader. Some, again, say he was the son of Thamyras, but the Egyptians say of Menemachus, a priest-scribe, and there are even those who father him on Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. As for his mother, she is variously called Metis, Cretheis, Themista, and Eugnetho. Others say she was an Ithacan woman sold as a slave by the Phoenicians; other, Calliope the Muse; others again Polycasta, the daughter of Nestor.

Homer himself was called Meles or, according to different accounts, Melesigenes or Altes. Some authorities say he was called Homer, because his father was given as a hostage to the Persians by the men of Cyprus; others, because of his blindness; for amongst the Aeolians the blind are so called. We will set down, however, what we have heard to have been said by the Pythia concerning Homer in the time of the most sacred Emperor Hadrian. When the monarch inquired from what city Homer came, and whose son he was, the priestess delivered a response in hexameters after this fashion:

‘Do you ask me of the obscure race and country of the heavenly siren? Ithaca is his country, Telemachus his father, and Epicasta, Nestor’s daughter, the mother that bare him, a man by far the wisest of mortal kind.’ This we must most implicitly believe, the inquirer and the answerer being who they are—especially since the poet has so greatly glorified his grandfather in his works.

Now some say that he was earlier than Hesiod, others that he was younger and akin to him. They give his descent thus: Apollo and Aethusa, daughter of Poseidon, had a son Linus, to whom was born Pierus. From Pierus and the nymph Methone sprang Oeager; and from Oeager and Calliope Orpheus; from Orpheus, Dres; and from him, Eucles. The descent is continued through Iadmonides, Philoterpes, Euphemus, Epiphrades and Melanopus who had sons Dius and Apelles. Dius by Pycimede, the daughter of Apollo had two sons Hesiod and Perses; while Apelles begot Maeon who was the father of Homer by a daughter of the River Meles.

According to one account they flourished at the same time and even had a contest of skill at Chalcis in Euboea. For, they say, after Homer had composed the _Margites_, he went about from city to city as a minstrel, and coming to Delphi, inquired who he was and of what country? The Pythia answered:

‘The Isle of Ios is your mother’s country and it shall receive you dead; but beware of the riddle of the young children.’ 3701

Hearing this, it is said, he hesitated to go to Ios, and remained in the region where he was. Now about the same time Ganyctor was celebrating the funeral rites of his father Amphidamas, king of Euboea, and invited to the gathering not only all those who were famous for bodily strength and fleetness of foot, but also those who excelled in wit, promising them great rewards. And so, as the story goes, the two went to Chalcis and met by chance. The leading Chalcidians were judges together with Paneides, the brother of the dead king; and it is said that after a wonderful contest between the two poets, Hesiod won in the following manner: he came forward into the midst and put Homer one question after another, which Homer answered. Hesiod, then, began:

‘Homer, son of Meles, inspired with wisdom from heaven, come, tell me first what is best for mortal man?’

HOMER: ‘For men on earth ’tis best never to be born at all; or being born, to pass through the gates of Hades with all speed.’

Hesiod then asked again:

‘Come, tell me now this also, godlike Homer: what think you in your heart is most delightsome to men?’

Homer answered:

‘When mirth reigns throughout the town, and feasters about the house, sitting in order, listen to a minstrel; when the tables beside them are laden with bread and meat, and a wine-bearer draws sweet drink from the mixing-bowl and fills the cups: this I think in my heart to be most delightsome.’

It is said that when Homer had recited these verses, they were so admired by the Greeks as to be called golden by them, and that even now at public sacrifices all the guests solemnly recite them before feasts and libations. Hesiod, however, was annoyed by Homer’s felicity and hurried on to pose him with hard questions. He therefore began with the following lines:

‘Come, Muse; sing not to me of things that are, or that shall be, or that were of old; but think of another song.’

Then Homer, wishing to escape from the impasse by an apt answer, replied:—

‘Never shall horses with clattering hoofs break chariots, striving for victory about the tomb of Zeus.’

Here again Homer had fairly met Hesiod, and so the latter turned to sentences of doubtful meaning 3702: he recited many lines and required Homer to complete the sense of each appropriately. The first of the following verses is Hesiod’s and the next Homer’s: but sometimes Hesiod puts his question in two lines.

HESIOD: ‘Then they dined on the flesh of oxen and their horses’ necks—’

HOMER: ‘They unyoked dripping with sweat, when they had had enough of war.’

HESIOD: ‘And the Phrygians, who of all men are handiest at ships—’

HOMER: ‘To filch their dinner from pirates on the beach.’

HESIOD: ‘To shoot forth arrows against the tribes of cursed giants with his hands—’

HOMER: ‘Heracles unslung his curved bow from his shoulders.’

HESIOD: ‘This man is the son of a brave father and a weakling—’

HOMER: ‘Mother; for war is too stern for any woman.’

HESIOD: ‘But for you, your father and lady mother lay in love—’

HOMER: ‘When they begot you by the aid of golden Aphrodite.’

HESIOD: ‘But when she had been made subject in love, Artemis, who delights in arrows—’

HOMER: ‘Slew Callisto with a shot of her silver bow.’

HESIOD: ‘So they feasted all day long, taking nothing—’

HOMER: ‘From their own houses; for Agamemnon, king of men, supplied them.’

HESIOD: ‘When they had feasted, they gathered among the glowing ashes the bones of the dead Zeus—’

HOMER: ‘Born Sarpedon, that bold and godlike man.’

HESIOD: ‘Now we have lingered thus about the plain of Simois, forth from the ships let us go our way, upon our shoulders—’

HOMER: ‘Having our hilted swords and long-helved spears.’

HESIOD: ‘Then the young heroes with their hands from the sea—’

HOMER: ‘Gladly and swiftly hauled out their fleet ship.’

HESIOD: ‘Then they came to Colchis and king Aeetes—’

HOMER: ‘They avoided; for they knew he was inhospitable and lawless.’

HESIOD: ‘Now when they had poured libations and deeply drunk, the surging sea—’

HOMER: ‘They were minded to traverse on well-built ships.’

HESIOD: ‘The Son of Atreus prayed greatly for them that they all might perish—’

HOMER: ‘At no time in the sea: and he opened his mouth said:’

HESIOD: ‘Eat, my guests, and drink, and may no one of you return home to his dear country—’

HOMER: ‘Distressed; but may you all reach home again unscathed.’

When Homer had met him fairly on every point Hesiod said:

‘Only tell me this thing that I ask: How many Achaeans went to Ilium with the sons of Atreus?’

Homer answered in a mathematical problem, thus:

‘There were fifty hearths, and at each hearth were fifty spits, and on each spit were fifty carcases, and there were thrice three hundred Achaeans to each joint.’

This is found to be an incredible number; for as there were fifty hearths, the number of spits is two thousand five hundred; and of carcasses, one hundred and twenty thousand...

Homer, then, having the advantage on every point, Hesiod was jealous and began again:

‘Homer, son of Meles, if indeed the Muses, daughters of great Zeus the most high, honour you as it is said, tell me a standard that is both best and worst for mortal-men; for I long to know it.’ Homer replied: ‘Hesiod, son of Dius, I am willing to tell you what you command, and very readily will I answer you. For each man to be a standard will I answer you. For each man to be a standard to himself is most excellent for the good, but for the bad it is the worst of all things. And now ask me whatever else your heart desires.’

HESIOD: ‘How would men best dwell in cities, and with what observances?’

HOMER: ‘By scorning to get unclean gain and if the good were honoured, but justice fell upon the unjust.’

HESIOD: ‘What is the best thing of all for a man to ask of the gods in prayer?’

HOMER: ‘That he may be always at peace with himself continually.’

HESIOD: ‘Can you tell me in briefest space what is best of all?’

HOMER: ‘A sound mind in a manly body, as I believe.’

HESIOD: ‘Of what effect are righteousness and courage?’

HOMER: ‘To advance the common good by private pains.’

HESIOD: ‘What is the mark of wisdom among men?’

HOMER: ‘To read aright the present, and to march with the occasion.’

HESIOD: ‘In what kind of matter is it right to trust in men?’

HOMER: ‘Where danger itself follows the action close.’

HESIOD: ‘What do men mean by happiness?’

HOMER: ‘Death after a life of least pain and greatest pleasure.’

After these verses had been spoken, all the Hellenes called for Homer to be crowned. But King Paneides bade each of them recite the finest passage from his own poems. Hesiod, therefore, began as follows:

‘When the Pleiads, the daughters of Atlas, begin to rise begin the harvest, and begin ploughing ere they set. For forty nights and days they are hidden, but appear again as the year wears round, when first the sickle is sharpened. This is the law of the plains and for those who dwell near the sea or live in the rich-soiled valleys, far from the wave-tossed deep: strip to sow, and strip to plough, and strip to reap when all things are in season.’ 3703

Then Homer:

‘The ranks stood firm about the two Aiantes, such that not even Ares would have scorned them had he met them, nor yet Athena who saves armies. For there the chosen best awaited the charge of the Trojans and noble Hector, making a fence of spears and serried shields. Shield closed with shield, and helm with helm, and each man with his fellow, and the peaks of their head-pieces with crests of horse-hair touched as they bent their heads: so close they stood together. The murderous battle bristled with the long, flesh-rending spears they held, and the flash of bronze from polished helms and new-burnished breast-plates and gleaming shields blinded the eyes. Very hard of heart would he have been, who could then have seen that strife with joy and felt no pang.’ 3704

Here, again, the Hellenes applauded Homer admiringly, so far did the verses exceed the ordinary level; and demanded that he should be adjudged the winner. But the king gave the crown to Hesiod, declaring that it was right that he who called upon men to follow peace and husbandry should have the prize rather than one who dwelt on war and slaughter. In this way, then, we are told, Hesiod gained the victory and received a brazen tripod which he dedicated to the Muses with this inscription:

‘Hesiod dedicated this tripod to the Muses of Helicon after he had conquered divine Homer at Chalcis in a contest of song.’

After the gathering was dispersed, Hesiod crossed to the mainland and went to Delphi to consult the oracle and to dedicate the first fruits of his victory to the god. They say that as he was approaching the temple, the prophetess became inspired and said:

‘Blessed is this man who serves my house,—Hesiod, who is honoured by the deathless Muses: surely his renown shall be as wide as the light of dawn is spread. But beware of the pleasant grove of Nemean Zeus; for there death’s end is destined to befall you.’

When Hesiod heard this oracle, he kept away from the Peloponnesus, supposing that the god meant the Nemea there; and coming to Oenoe in Locris, he stayed with Amphiphanes and Ganyetor the sons of Phegeus, thus unconsciously fulfilling the oracle; for all that region was called the sacred place of Nemean Zeus. He continued to stay a somewhat long time at Oenoe, until the young men, suspecting Hesiod of seducing their sister, killed him and cast his body into the sea which separates Achaea and Locris. On the third day, however, his body was brought to land by dolphins while some local feast of Ariadne was being held. Thereupon, all the people hurried to the shore, and recognized the body, lamented over it and buried it, and then began to look for the assassins. But these, fearing the anger of their countrymen, launched a fishing boat, and put out to sea for Crete: they had finished half their voyage when Zeus sank them with a thunderbolt, as Alcidamas states in his “Museum”. Eratosthenes, however, says in his “Hesiod” that Ctimenus and Antiphus, sons of Ganyetor, killed him for the reason already stated, and were sacrificed by Eurycles the seer to the gods of hospitality. He adds that the girl, sister of the above-named, hanged herself after she had been seduced, and that she was seduced by some stranger, Demodes by name, who was travelling with Hesiod, and who was also killed by the brothers. At a later time the men of Orchomenus removed his body as they were directed by an oracle, and buried him in their own country where they placed this inscription on his tomb:

‘Ascra with its many cornfields was his native land; but in death the land of the horse-driving Minyans holds the bones of Hesiod, whose renown is greatest among men of all who are judged by the test of wit.’

So much for Hesiod. But Homer, after losing the victory, went from place to place reciting his poems, and first of all the _Thebais_ in seven thousand verses which begins: ‘Goddess, sing of parched Argos whence kings...’, and then the _Epigoni_ in seven thousand verses beginning: ‘And now, Muses, let us begin to sing of men of later days’; for some say that these poems also are by Homer. Now Xanthus and Gorgus, son of Midas the king, heard his epics and invited him to compose a epitaph for the tomb of their father on which was a bronze figure of a maiden bewailing the death of Midas. He wrote the following lines:—

‘I am a maiden of bronze and sit upon the tomb of Midas. While water flows, and tall trees put forth leaves, and rivers swell, and the sea breaks on the shore; while the sun rises and shines and the bright moon also, ever remaining on this mournful tomb I tell the passer-by that Midas here lies buried.’

For these verses they gave him a silver bowl which he dedicated to Apollo at Delphi with this inscription: ‘Lord Phoebus, I, Homer, have given you a noble gift for the wisdom I have of you: do you ever grant me renown.’

After this he composed the _Odyssey_ in twelve thousand verses, having previously written the _Iliad_ in fifteen thousand five hundred verses 3705. From Delphi, as we are told, he went to Athens and was entertained by Medon, king of the Athenians. And being one day in the council hall when it was cold and a fire was burning there, he drew off the following lines:

‘Children are a man’s crown, and towers of a city, horses are the ornament of a plain, and ships of the sea; and good it is to see a people seated in assembly. But with a blazing fire a house looks worthier upon a wintry day when the Son of Cronos sends down snow.’

From Athens he went on to Corinth, where he sang snatches of his poems and was received with distinction. Next he went to Argos and there recited these verses from the _Iliad_:

‘The sons of the Achaeans who held Argos and walled Tiryns, and Hermione and Asine which lie along a deep bay, and Troezen, and Eiones, and vine-clad Epidaurus, and the island of Aegina, and Mases,—these followed strong-voiced Diomedes, son of Tydeus, who had the spirit of his father the son of Oeneus, and Sthenelus, dear son of famous Capaneus. And with these two there went a third leader, Eurypylus, a godlike man, son of the lord Mecisteus, sprung of Talaus; but strong-voiced Diomedes was their chief leader. These men had eighty dark ships wherein were ranged men skilled in war, Argives with linen jerkins, very goads of war.’ 3706

This praise of their race by the most famous of all poets so exceedingly delighted the leading Argives, that they rewarded him with costly gifts and set up a brazen statue to him, decreeing that sacrifice should be offered to Homer daily, monthly, and yearly; and that another sacrifice should be sent to Chios every five years. This is the inscription they cut upon his statue:

‘This is divine Homer who by his sweet-voiced art honoured all proud Hellas, but especially the Argives who threw down the god-built walls of Troy to avenge rich-haired Helen. For this cause the people of a great city set his statue here and serve him with the honours of the deathless gods.’

After he had stayed for some time in Argos, he crossed over to Delos, to the great assembly, and there, standing on the altar of horns, he recited the _Hymn to Apollo_ 3707 which begins: ‘I will remember and not forget Apollo the far-shooter.’ When the hymn was ended, the Ionians made him a citizen of each one of their states, and the Delians wrote the poem on a whitened tablet and dedicated it in the temple of Artemis. The poet sailed to Ios, after the assembly was broken up, to join Creophylus, and stayed there some time, being now an old man. And, it is said, as he was sitting by the sea he asked some boys who were returning from fishing:

‘Sirs, hunters of deep-sea prey, have we caught anything?’

To this replied:

‘All that we caught, we left behind, and carry away all that we did not catch.’

Homer did not understand this reply and asked what they meant. They then explained that they had caught nothing in fishing, but had been catching their lice, and those of the lice which they caught, they left behind; but carried away in their clothes those which they did not catch. Hereupon Homer remembered the oracle and, perceiving that the end of his life had come composed his own epitaph. And while he was retiring from that place, he slipped in a clayey place and fell upon his side, and died, it is said, the third day after. He was buried in Ios, and this is his epitaph:

‘Here the earth covers the sacred head of divine Homer, the glorifier of hero-men.’

ENDNOTES

1101 (return) [ sc. in Boeotia, Locris and Thessaly: elsewhere the movement was forced and unfruitful.]

1102 (return) [ The extant collection of three poems, _Works and Days_, _Theogony_, and _Shield of Heracles_, which alone have come down to us complete, dates at least from the 4th century A.D.: the title of the Paris Papyrus (Bibl. Nat. Suppl. Gr. 1099) names only these three works.]

1103 (return) [ _Der Dialekt des Hesiodes_, p. 464: examples are AENEMI (W. and D. 683) and AROMENAI (_ib_. 22).]

1104 (return) [ T.W. Allen suggests that the conjured Delian and Pythian hymns to Apollo (_Homeric Hymns_ III) may have suggested this version of the story, the Pythian hymn showing strong continental influence.]

1105 (return) [ She is said to have given birth to the lyrist Stesichorus.]

1106 (return) [ See Kinkel _Epic. Graec. Frag._ i. 158 ff.]

1107 (return) [ See _Great Works_, frag. 2.]

1108 (return) [ _Hesiodi Fragmenta_, pp. 119 f.]

1109 (return) [ Possibly the division of this poem into two books is a division belonging solely to this ‘developed poem’, which may have included in its second part a summary of the Tale of Troy.]

1110 (return) [ Goettling’s explanation.]

1111 (return) [ x. 1. 52.]

1112 (return) [ Odysseus appears to have been mentioned once only—and that casually—in the _Returns_.]

1113 (return) [ M.M. Croiset note that the _Aethiopis_ and the _Sack_ were originally merely parts of one work containing lays (the Amazoneia, Aethiopis, Persis, etc.), just as the _Iliad_ contained various lays such as the Diomedeia.]

1114 (return) [ No date is assigned to him, but it seems likely that he was either contemporary or slightly earlier than Lesches.]

1115 (return) [ Cp. Allen and Sikes, _Homeric Hymns_ p. xv. In the text I have followed the arrangement of these scholars, numbering the Hymns to Dionysus and to Demeter, I and II respectively: to place _Demeter_ after _Hermes_, and the Hymn to Dionysus at the end of the collection seems to be merely perverse.]

1116 (return) [ _Greek Melic Poets_, p. 165.]

1117 (return) [ This monument was returned to Greece in the 1980’s.— DBK.]

1118 (return) [ Cp. Marckscheffel, _Hesiodi fragmenta_, p. 35. The papyrus fragment recovered by Petrie (_Petrie Papyri_, ed. Mahaffy, p. 70, No. xxv.) agrees essentially with the extant document, but differs in numerous minor textual points.]

1201 (return) [ See Schubert, _Berl. Klassikertexte_ v. 1.22 ff.; the other papyri may be found in the publications whose name they bear.]

1202 (return) [ Unless otherwise noted, all MSS. are of the 15th century.]

1203 (return) [ To this list I would also add the following: _Hesiod and Theognis_, translated by Dorothea Wender (Penguin Classics, London, 1973).—DBK.]

1301 (return) [ That is, the poor man’s fare, like ‘bread and cheese’.]

1302 (return) [ The All-endowed.]

1303 (return) [ The jar or casket contained the gifts of the gods mentioned in l.82.]

1304 (return) [ Eustathius refers to Hesiod as stating that men sprung “from oaks and stones and ashtrees”. Proclus believed that the Nymphs called Meliae (_Theogony_, 187) are intended. Goettling would render: “A race terrible because of their (ashen) spears.”]

1305 (return) [ Preserved only by Proclus, from whom some inferior MSS. have copied the verse. The four following lines occur only in Geneva Papyri No. 94. For the restoration of ll. 169b-c see “Class. Quart.” vii. 219-220. (NOTE: Mr. Evelyn-White means that the version quoted by Proclus stops at this point, then picks up at l. 170.—DBK).]

1306 (return) [ _i.e._ the race will so degenerate that at the last even a new-born child will show the marks of old age.]

1307 (return) [ Aidos, as a quality, is that feeling of reverence or shame which restrains men from wrong: Nemesis is the feeling of righteous indignation aroused especially by the sight of the wicked in undeserved prosperity (_cf. Psalms_, lxxii. 1-19).]

1308 (return) [ The alternative version is: ‘and, working, you will be much better loved both by gods and men; for they greatly dislike the idle.’]

1309 (return) [ _i.e._ neighbours come at once and without making preparations, but kinsmen by marriage (who live at a distance) have to prepare, and so are long in coming.]

1310 (return) [ Early in May.]

1311 (return) [ In November.]

1312 (return) [ In October.]

1313 (return) [ For pounding corn.]

1314 (return) [ A mallet for breaking clods after ploughing.]

1315 (return) [ The loaf is a flattish cake with two intersecting lines scored on its upper surface which divide it into four equal parts.]

1316 (return) [ The meaning is obscure. A scholiast renders ‘giving eight mouthfulls’; but the elder Philostratus uses the word in contrast to ‘leavened’.]

1317 (return) [ About the middle of November.]

1318 (return) [ Spring is so described because the buds have not yet cast their iron-grey husks.]

1319 (return) [ In December.]

1320 (return) [ In March.]

1321 (return) [ The latter part of January and earlier part of February.]

1322 (return) [ _i.e._ the octopus or cuttle.]

1323 (return) [ _i.e._ the darker-skinned people of Africa, the Egyptians or Aethiopians.]

1324 (return) [ _i.e._ an old man walking with a staff (the ‘third leg’— as in the riddle of the Sphinx).]

1325 (return) [ February to March.]

1326 (return) [ _i.e._ the snail. The season is the middle of May.]

1327 (return) [ In June.]

1328 (return) [ July.]

1329 (return) [ _i.e._ a robber.]

1330 (return) [ September.]

1331 (return) [ The end of October.]

1332 (return) [ That is, the succession of stars which make up the full year.]

1333 (return) [ The end of October or beginning of November.]

1334 (return) [ July-August.]

1335 (return) [ _i.e._ untimely, premature. Juvenal similarly speaks of ‘cruda senectus’ (caused by gluttony).]

1336 (return) [ The thought is parallel to that of ‘O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath.’]

1337 (return) [ The ‘common feast’ is one to which all present subscribe. Theognis (line 495) says that one of the chief pleasures of a banquet is the general conversation. Hence the present passage means that such a feast naturally costs little, while the many present will make pleasurable conversation.]

1338 (return) [ _i.e._ ‘do not cut your finger-nails’.]

1339 (return) [ _i.e._ things which it would be sacrilege to disturb, such as tombs.]

1340 (return) [ H.G. Evelyn-White prefers to switch ll. 768 and 769, reading l. 769 first then l. 768.—DBK]

1341 (return) [ The month is divided into three periods, the waxing, the mid-month, and the waning, which answer to the phases of the moon.]

1342 (return) [ _i.e._ the ant.]

1343 (return) [ Such seems to be the meaning here, though the epithet is otherwise rendered ‘well-rounded’. Corn was threshed by means of a sleigh with two runners having three or four rollers between them, like the modern Egyptian _nurag_.]

1401 (return) [ This halt verse is added by the Scholiast on Aratus, 172.]

1402 (return) [ The “Catasterismi” (“Placings among the Stars”) is a collection of legends relating to the various constellations.]

1403 (return) [ The Straits of Messina.]

1501 (return) [ Or perhaps ‘a Scythian’.]

1601 (return) [ The epithet probably indicates coquettishness.]

1602 (return) [ A proverbial saying meaning, ‘why enlarge on irrelevant topics?’]

1603 (return) [ ‘She of the noble voice’: Calliope is queen of Epic poetry.]

1604 (return) [ Earth, in the cosmology of Hesiod, is a disk surrounded by the river Oceanus and floating upon a waste of waters. It is called the foundation of all (the qualification ‘the deathless ones...’ etc. is an interpolation), because not only trees, men, and animals, but even the hills and seas (ll. 129, 131) are supported by it.]

1605 (return) [ Aether is the bright, untainted upper atmosphere, as distinguished from Aer, the lower atmosphere of the earth.]

1606 (return) [ Brontes is the Thunderer; Steropes, the Lightener; and Arges, the Vivid One.]

1607 (return) [ The myth accounts for the separation of Heaven and Earth. In Egyptian cosmology Nut (the Sky) is thrust and held apart from her brother Geb (the Earth) by their father Shu, who corresponds to the Greek Atlas.]

1608 (return) [ Nymphs of the ash-trees, as Dryads are nymphs of the oak-trees. Cp. note on _Works and Days_, l. 145.]

1609 (return) [ ‘Member-loving’: the title is perhaps only a perversion of the regular PHILOMEIDES (laughter-loving).]

1610 (return) [ Cletho (the Spinner) is she who spins the thread of man’s life; Lachesis (the Disposer of Lots) assigns to each man his destiny; Atropos (She who cannot be turned) is the ‘Fury with the abhorred shears.’]

1611 (return) [ Many of the names which follow express various qualities or aspects of the sea: thus Galene is ‘Calm’, Cymothoe is the ‘Wave-swift’, Pherusa and Dynamene are ‘She who speeds (ships)’ and ‘She who has power’.]

1612 (return) [ The ‘Wave-receiver’ and the ‘Wave-stiller’.]

1613 (return) [ ‘The Unerring’ or ‘Truthful’; cp. l. 235.]

1614 (return) [ _i.e._ Poseidon.]

1615 (return) [ Goettling notes that some of these nymphs derive their names from lands over which they preside, as Europa, Asia, Doris, Ianeira (‘Lady of the Ionians’), but that most are called after some quality which their streams possessed: thus Xanthe is the ‘Brown’ or ‘Turbid’, Amphirho is the ‘Surrounding’ river, Ianthe is ‘She who delights’, and Ocyrrhoe is the ‘Swift-flowing’.]

1616 (return) [ _i.e._ Eos, the ‘Early-born’.]

1617 (return) [ Van Lennep explains that Hecate, having no brothers to support her claim, might have been slighted.]

1618 (return) [ The goddess of the _hearth_ (the Roman _Vesta_), and so of the house. Cp. _Homeric Hymns_ v.22 ff.; xxxix.1 ff.]

1619 (return) [ The variant reading ‘of his father’ (sc. Heaven) rests on inferior MS. authority and is probably an alteration due to the difficulty stated by a Scholiast: ‘How could Zeus, being not yet begotten, plot against his father?’ The phrase is, however, part of the prophecy. The whole line may well be spurious, and is rejected by Heyne, Wolf, Gaisford and Guyet.]

1620 (return) [ Pausanias (x. 24.6) saw near the tomb of Neoptolemus ‘a stone of no great size’, which the Delphians anointed every day with oil, and which he says was supposed to be the stone given to Cronos.]

1621 (return) [ A Scholiast explains: ‘Either because they (men) sprang from the Melian nymphs (cp. l. 187); or because, when they were born (?), they cast themselves under the ash-trees, that is, the trees.’ The reference may be to the origin of men from ash-trees: cp. _Works and Days_, l. 145 and note.]

1622 (return) [ _sc_. Atlas, the Shu of Egyptian mythology: cp. note on line 177.]

1623 (return) [ Oceanus is here regarded as a continuous stream enclosing the earth and the seas, and so as flowing back upon himself.]

1624 (return) [ The conception of Oceanus is here different: he has nine streams which encircle the earth and then flow out into the ‘main’ which appears to be the waste of waters on which, according to early Greek and Hebrew cosmology, the disk-like earth floated.]

1625 (return) [ _i.e._ the threshold is of ‘native’ metal, and not artificial.]

1626 (return) [ According to Homer Typhoeus was overwhelmed by Zeus amongst the Arimi in Cilicia. Pindar represents him as buried under Aetna, and Tzetzes reads Aetna in this passage.]

1627 (return) [ The epithet (which means literally _well-bored_) seems to refer to the spout of the crucible.]

1628 (return) [ The fire god. There is no reference to volcanic action: iron was smelted on Mount Ida; cp. _Epigrams of Homer_, ix. 2-4.]

1629 (return) [ _i.e._ Athena, who was born ‘on the banks of the river Trito’ (cp. l. 929l)]

1630 (return) [ Restored by Peppmuller. The nineteen following lines from another recension of lines 889-900, 924-9 are quoted by Chrysippus (in Galen).]

1631 (return) [ _sc_. the aegis. Line 929s is probably spurious, since it disagrees with l. 929q and contains a suspicious reference to Athens.]

1701 (return) [ A catalogue of heroines each of whom was introduced with the words E OIE, ‘Or like her’.]

1702 (return) [ An antiquarian writer of Byzantium, c. 490-570 A.D.]

1703 (return) [ Constantine VII. ‘Born in the Porphyry Chamber’, 905-959 A.D.]

1704 (return) [ “Berlin Papyri”, 7497 (left-hand fragment) and “Oxyrhynchus Papyri”, 421 (right-hand fragment). For the restoration see “Class. Quart.” vii. 217-8.]

1705 (return) [ As the price to be given to her father for her: so in _Iliad_ xviii. 593 maidens are called ‘earners of oxen’. Possibly Glaucus, like Aias (fr. 68, ll. 55 ff.), raided the cattle of others.]

1706 (return) [ _i.e._ Glaucus should father the children of others. The curse of Aphrodite on the daughters of Tyndareus (fr. 67) may be compared.]

1707 (return) [ Porphyry, scholar, mathematician, philosopher and historian, lived 233-305 (?) A.D. He was a pupil of the neo-Platonist Plotinus.]

1708 (return) [ Author of a geographical lexicon, produced after 400 A.D., and abridged under Justinian.]

1709 (return) [ Archbishop of Thessalonica 1175-1192 (?) A.D., author of commentaries on Pindar and on the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_.]

1710 (return) [ In the earliest times a loin-cloth was worn by athletes, but was discarded after the 14th Olympiad.]

1711 (return) [ Slight remains of five lines precede line 1 in the original: after line 20 an unknown number of lines have been lost, and traces of a verse preceding line 21 are here omitted. Between lines 29 and 30 are fragments of six verses which do not suggest any definite restoration. (NOTE: Line enumeration is that according to Evelyn-White; a slightly different line numbering system is adopted in the original publication of this fragment.—DBK)]

1712 (return) [ The end of Schoeneus’ speech, the preparations and the beginning of the race are lost.]

1713 (return) [ Of the three which Aphrodite gave him to enable him to overcome Atalanta.]

1714 (return) [ The geographer; fl. c.24 B.C.]

1715 (return) [ Of Miletus, flourished about 520 B.C. His work, a mixture of history and geography, was used by Herodotus.]

1716 (return) [ The Hesiodic story of the daughters of Proetus can be reconstructed from these sources. They were sought in marriage by all the Greeks (Pauhellenes), but having offended Dionysus (or, according to Servius, Juno), were afflicted with a disease which destroyed their beauty (or were turned into cows). They were finally healed by Melampus.]

1717 (return) [ Fl. 56-88 A.D.: he is best known for his work on Vergil.]

1718 (return) [ This and the following fragment segment are meant to be read together.—DBK.]

1719 (return) [ This fragment as well as fragments #40A, #101, and #102 were added by Mr. Evelyn-White in an appendix to the second edition (1919). They are here moved to the _Catalogues_ proper for easier use by the reader.—DBK.]

1720 (return) [ For the restoration of ll. 1-16 see “Ox. Pap.” pt. xi. pp. 46-7: the supplements of ll. 17-31 are by the Translator (cp. “Class. Quart.” x. (1916), pp. 65-67).]

1721 (return) [ The crocus was to attract Europa, as in the very similar story of Persephone: cp. _Homeric Hymns_ ii. lines 8 ff.]

1722 (return) [ Apollodorus of Athens (fl. 144 B.C.) was a pupil of Aristarchus. He wrote a Handbook of Mythology, from which the extant work bearing his name is derived.]

1723 (return) [ Priest at Praeneste. He lived c. 170-230 A.D.]

1724 (return) [ Son of Apollonius Dyscolus, lived in Rome under Marcus Aurelius. His chief work was on accentuation.]

1725 (return) [ This and the next two fragment segments are meant to be read together.—DBK.]

1726 (return) [ Sacred to Poseidon. For the custom observed there, cp. _Homeric Hymns_ iii. 231 ff.]

1727 (return) [ The allusion is obscure.]

1728 (return) [ Apollonius ‘the Crabbed’ was a grammarian of Alexandria under Hadrian. He wrote largely on Grammar and Syntax.]

1729 (return) [ 275-195 (?) B.C., mathematician, astronomer, scholar, and head of the Library of Alexandria.]

1730 (return) [ Of Cyme. He wrote a universal history covering the period between the Dorian Migration and 340 B.C.]

1731 (return) [ _i.e._ the nomad Scythians, who are described by Herodotus as feeding on mares’ milk and living in caravans.]

1732 (return) [ The restorations are mainly those adopted or suggested in “Ox. Pap.” pt. xi. pp. 48 ff.: for those of ll. 8-14 see “Class. Quart.” x. (1916) pp. 67-69.]

1733 (return) [ _i.e._ those who seek to outwit the oracle, or to ask of it more than they ought, will be deceived by it and be led to ruin: cp. _Hymn to Hermes_, 541 ff.]

1734 (return) [ Zetes and Calais, sons of Boreas, who were amongst the Argonauts, delivered Phineus from the Harpies. The Strophades (‘Islands of Turning’) are here supposed to have been so called because the sons of Boreas were there turned back by Iris from pursuing the Harpies.]

1735 (return) [ An Epicurean philosopher, fl. 50 B.C.]

1736 (return) [ ‘Charming-with-her-voice’ (or ‘Charming-the-mind’), ‘Song’, and ‘Lovely-sounding’.]

1737 (return) [ Diodorus Siculus, fl. 8 B.C., author of an universal history ending with Caesar’s Gallic Wars.]

1738 (return) [ The first epic in the “Trojan Cycle”; like all ancient epics it was ascribed to Homer, but also, with more probability, to Stasinus of Cyprus.]

1739 (return) [ This fragment is placed by Spohn after _Works and Days_ l. 120.]

1740 (return) [ A Greek of Asia Minor, author of the “Description of Greece” (on which he was still engaged in 173 A.D.).]

1741 (return) [ Wilamowitz thinks one or other of these citations belongs to the Catalogue.]

1742 (return) [ Lines 1-51 are from Berlin Papyri, 9739; lines 52-106 with B. 1-50 (and following fragments) are from Berlin Papyri, 10560. A reference by Pausanias (iii. 24. 10) to ll. 100 ff. proves that the two fragments together come from the _Catalogue of Women_. The second book (the beginning of which is indicated after l. 106) can hardly be the second book of the _Catalogues_ proper: possibly it should be assigned to the EOIAI, which were sometimes treated as part of the _Catalogues_, and sometimes separated from it. The remains of thirty-seven lines following B. 50 in the Papyrus are too slight to admit of restoration.]

1743 (return) [ sc. the Suitor whose name is lost.]

1744 (return) [ Wooing was by proxy; so Agamemnon wooed Helen for his brother Menelaus (ll. 14-15), and Idomeneus, who came in person and sent no deputy, is specially mentioned as an exception, and the reasons for this—if the restoration printed in the text be right—is stated (ll. 69 ff.).]

1745 (return) [ The Papyrus here marks the beginning of a second book possibly of the _Eoiae_. The passage (ll. 2-50) probably led up to an account of the Trojan (and Theban?) war, in which, according to _Works and Days_ ll. 161-166, the Race of Heroes perished. The opening of the _Cypria_ is somewhat similar. Somewhere in the fragmentary lines 13-19 a son of Zeus—almost certainly Apollo—was introduced, though for what purpose is not clear. With l. 31 the destruction of man (cp. ll. 4-5) by storms which spoil his crops begins: the remaining verses are parenthetical, describing the snake “which bears its young in the spring season”.]

1746 (return) [ _i.e._ the snake; as in _Works and Days_ l. 524, the “Boneless One” is the cuttle-fish.]

1747 (return) [ c. 1110-1180 A.D. His chief work was a poem, “Chiliades”, in accentual verse of nearly 13,000 lines.]

1748 (return) [ According to this account Iphigeneia was carried by Artemis to the Taurie Chersonnese (the Crimea). The Tauri (Herodotus iv. 103) identified their maiden-goddess with Iphigeneia; but Euripides (_Iphigeneia in Tauris_) makes her merely priestess of the goddess.]

1749 (return) [ Of Alexandria. He lived in the 5th century, and compiled a Greek Lexicon.]

1750 (return) [ For his murder Minos exacted a yearly tribute of boys and girls, to be devoured by the Minotaur, from the Athenians.]

1751 (return) [ Of Naucratis. His “Deipnosophistae” (“Dons at Dinner”) is an encyclopaedia of miscellaneous topics in the form of a dialogue. His date is c. 230 A.D.]

1752 (return) [ There is a fancied connection between LAAS (‘stone’) and LAOS (‘people’). The reference is to the stones which Deucalion and Pyrrha transformed into men and women after the Flood.]

1753 (return) [ Eustathius identifies Ileus with Oileus, father of Aias. Here again is fanciful etymology, ILEUS being similar to ILEOS (complaisant, gracious).]

1754 (return) [ Imitated by Vergil, “Aeneid” vii. 808, describing Camilla.]

1755 (return) [ c. 600 A.D., a lecturer and grammarian of Constantinople.]

1756 (return) [ Priest of Apollo, and, according to Homer, discoverer of wine. Maronea in Thrace is said to have been called after him.]

1757 (return) [ The crow was originally white, but was turned black by Apollo in his anger at the news brought by the bird.]

1758 (return) [ A philosopher of Athens under Hadrian and Antonius. He became a Christian and wrote a defence of the Christians addressed to Antoninus Pius.]

1759 (return) [ Zeus slew Asclepus (fr. 90) because of his success as a healer, and Apollo in revenge killed the Cyclopes (fr. 64). In punishment Apollo was forced to serve Admetus as herdsman. (Cp. Euripides, _Alcestis_, 1-8)]

1760 (return) [ For Cyrene and Aristaeus, cp. Vergil, _Georgics_, iv. 315 ff.]

1761 (return) [ A writer on mythology of uncertain date.]

1762 (return) [ In Epirus. The oracle was first consulted by Deucalion and Pyrrha after the Flood. Later writers say that the god responded in the rustling of leaves in the oaks for which the place was famous.]

1763 (return) [ The fragment is part of a leaf from a papyrus book of the 4th century A.D.]

1764 (return) [ According to Homer and later writers Meleager wasted away when his mother Althea burned the brand on which his life depended, because he had slain her brothers in the dispute for the hide of the Calydonian boar. (Cp. Bacchylides, “Ode” v. 136 ff.)]

1765 (return) [ The fragment probably belongs to the _Catalogues_ proper rather than to the Eoiae; but, as its position is uncertain, it may conveniently be associated with Frags. 99A and the _Shield of Heracles_.]

1766 (return) [ Most of the smaller restorations appear in the original publication, but the larger are new: these last are highly conjectual, there being no definite clue to the general sense.]

1767 (return) [ Alcmaon (who took part in the second of the two heroic Theban expeditions) is perhaps mentioned only incidentally as the son of Amphiaraus, who seems to be clearly indicated in ll. 7-8, and whose story occupies ll. 5-10. At l. 11 the subject changes and Electryon is introduced as father of Alcmena.]

1768 (return) [ The association of ll. 1-16 with ll. 17-24 is presumed from the apparent mention of Erichthonius in l. 19. A new section must then begin at l. 21. See “Ox. Pap.” pt. xi. p. 55 (and for restoration of ll. 5-16, ib. p. 53). ll. 19-20 are restored by the Translator.]

1801 (return) [ A mountain peak near Thebes which took its name from the Sphinx (called in _Theogony_ l. 326 PHIX).]

1802 (return) [ Cyanus was a glass-paste of deep blue colour: the ‘zones’ were concentric bands in which were the scenes described by the poet. The figure of Fear (l. 44) occupied the centre of the shield, and Oceanus (l. 314) enclosed the whole.]

1803 (return) [ ‘She who drives herds,’ _i.e._ ‘The Victorious’, since herds were the chief spoil gained by the victor in ancient warfare.]

1804 (return) [ The cap of darkness which made its wearer invisible.]

1805 (return) [ The existing text of the vineyard scene is a compound of two different versions, clumsily adapted, and eked out with some makeshift additions.]

1806 (return) [ The conception is similar to that of the sculptured group at Athens of Two Lions devouring a Bull (Dickens, _Cat. of the Acropolis Museum_, No. 3).]

1901 (return) [ A Greek sophist who taught rhetoric at Rome in the time of Hadrian. He is the author of a collection of proverbs in three books.]

2001 (return) [ When Heracles prayed that a son might be born to Telamon and Eriboea, Zeus sent forth an eagle in token that the prayer would be granted. Heracles then bade the parents call their son Aias after the eagle (_aietos_).]

2002 (return) [ Oenomaus, king of Pisa in Elis, warned by an oracle that he should be killed by his son-in-law, offered his daughter Hippodamia to the man who could defeat him in a chariot race, on condition that the defeated suitors should be slain by him. Ultimately Pelops, through the treachery of the charioteer of Oenomaus, became victorious.]

2003 (return) [ sc. to Scythia.]

2004 (return) [ In the Homeric _Hymn to Hermes_ Battus almost disappears from the story, and a somewhat different account of the stealing of the cattle is given.]

2101 (return) [ sc. Colophon. Proclus in his abstract of the _Returns_ (sc. of the heroes from Troy) says Calchas and his party were present at the death of Teiresias at Colophon, perhaps indicating another version of this story.]

2102 (return) [ ll. 1-2 are quoted by Athenaeus, ii. p. 40; ll. 3-4 by Clement of Alexandria, _Stromateis_ vi. 2. 26. Buttman saw that the two fragments should be joined. (NOTE: These two fragments should be read together.—DBK)]

2201 (return) [ sc. the golden fleece of the ram which carried Phrixus and Helle away from Athamas and Ino. When he reached Colchis Phrixus sacrificed the ram to Zeus.]

2202 (return) [ Euboea properly means the ‘Island of fine Cattle (or Cows)’.]

2301 (return) [ This and the following fragment are meant to be read together.—DBK]

2302 (return) [ cp. Hesiod _Theogony_ 81 ff. But Theognis 169, ‘Whomso the god honour, even a man inclined to blame praiseth him’, is much nearer.]

2401 (return) [ Cf. Scholion on Clement, “Protrept.” i. p. 302.]

2402 (return) [ This line may once have been read in the text of _Works and Days_ after l. 771.]

2501 (return) [ ll. 1-9 are preserved by Diodorus Siculus iii. 66. 3; ll. 10-21 are extant only in M.]

2502 (return) [ Dionysus, after his untimely birth from Semele, was sewn into the thigh of Zeus.]

2503 (return) [ _sc_. Semele. Zeus is here speaking.]

2504 (return) [ The reference is apparently to something in the body of the hymn, now lost.]

2505 (return) [ The Greeks feared to name Pluto directly and mentioned him by one of many descriptive titles, such as ‘Host of Many’: compare the Christian use of O DIABOLOS or our ‘Evil One’.]

2506 (return) [ Demeter chooses the lowlier seat, supposedly as being more suitable to her assumed condition, but really because in her sorrow she refuses all comforts.]

2507 (return) [ An act of communion—the drinking of the potion here described—was one of the most important pieces of ritual in the Eleusinian mysteries, as commemorating the sorrows of the goddess.]

2508 (return) [ Undercutter and Woodcutter are probably popular names (after the style of Hesiod’s ‘Boneless One’) for the worm thought to be the cause of teething and toothache.]

2509 (return) [ The list of names is taken—with five additions—from Hesiod, _Theogony_ 349 ff.: for their general significance see note on that passage.]

2510 (return) [ Inscriptions show that there was a temple of Apollo Delphinius (cp. ii. 495-6) at Cnossus and a Cretan month bearing the same name.]

2511 (return) [ sc. that the dolphin was really Apollo.]

2512 (return) [ The epithets are transferred from the god to his altar ‘Overlooking’ is especially an epithet of Zeus, as in Apollonius Rhodius ii. 1124.]

2513 (return) [ Pliny notices the efficacy of the flesh of a tortoise against withcraft. In _Geoponica_ i. 14. 8 the living tortoise is prescribed as a charm to preserve vineyards from hail.]

2514 (return) [ Hermes makes the cattle walk backwards way, so that they seem to be going towards the meadow instead of leaving it (cp. l. 345); he himself walks in the normal manner, relying on his sandals as a disguise.]