Poem 13
HYMN TO DEMETER
THIS cento, as Gemoll calls the short hymn, is formed from the longer hymn to Demeter (1 = h. Dem. 1, 2 = h. Dem. 493) except for the third line, which occurs in Callim., h. Dem. 134, as far as πόλιν. But, although obviously a patchwork, the hymn is not necessarily later than Callimachus. The Alexandrine poet might perhaps have disdained to borrow from such a source; but both he and the hymn-writer may have taken the sufficiently commonplace χαῖρε, θεά, καὶ τήνδε σάου πόλιν from an older hymn. Guttmann's view, that ἄρχε δ' ἀοιδῆς is a mark of late work, is rightly criticised by Gemoll; it is addressed to Demeter herself, who inspires, and so may be said to begin, the recitation; cf. Od. 8.499 ὁ δ' ὁρμηθεὶς θεοῦ ἤρχετο.
Commentary on line 2
*persefo/neian: the Homeric form; the aspirated Φερσεφόνεια (xp) may be due to the forms Φερσεφόνα (η), Φερσέφασσα, Φερ(ρ)έφαττα; so in Orph. h. xli. 5. On the various forms see Frster der Raub der Persephone p. 276 f.
