ALCAEUS
3

Motainler Je ντην εν fon cenealowic hymns]... . But
sinve this liserary form is found among the ancients. and some
ere this hawe sum of the birth of Diouysus and others of Ure
hirth of Apollo. and Aleweus of that of Hephaestus also and
again of that of Hermes. 1 have made ita separate class,

The form is useful only te the poet, never to the prose-
writer: for the one deals with the midwifery of the Graces
aud the nursing of the Seasons and the like. whereas the
other will of neeessity express himeclf as brie¢tly as possille.t

Pausanias Je seription of Greeee : Apollo’s delight in oxen is
shown by Aleaeus in the ἔμεν to Hermes, where he says that
Hermes stole oxen from Apollo.

Porphyrio on Horave Ode 1. 10 [᾿ Mercury, thou eloquent
son of Atlas’ daughter]: A hymn to Mercury by the lyri
poet Alcaeus.

The Same (‘Thee it was, at whom once Apollo smiled
when as ἃ babe thou tookest his quiver while he sought to
terrify thee with threats because of thy theft of his oxen’]:
This stery ‘the theft of the quiver) originated with Alvaeus,
aul thus for the second time Mercury is mare the discoverer
of thieving because of the deception wrought by oratory,
the art he invented. ἣν

Scholiast ou 7 ὑπ] [᾿ Apollo wielder of σόϊ 7: Hermes, the
son of Zeus and Maia daughter of Atlas, diseovered the lyre.
and having stolen the oxen of Apollo was found out by the
(rads power of divination. But when Apollo threatened
him, he stole the very bow and arrows that were upon his
shoulder.  Whereat the God smiled, and gave him the
divining-staff ftom which Hermes came to be called * Gol of
the golden wand,’ and reveived from him the lyre which has
eiven him the naine of ‘the wielder of gold’ trom the strap
to which the lyre is fastened.*

' Men. seems to imply that A. did not write a hymn to
Dionysus, but ef. 174 * see next paye footnute