HYMN TO DIONYSUS
THE occasion for this hymn was no doubt some festival of Dionysus; the singer hopes to be present for many successive years. It can hardly have been recited at the Brauronia, as Baumeister supposes, for this festival was held every four years, whereas “ἐς ὥρας” naturally implies an annual rite (see on 12).
κισσοκόμηΝ: of Dionysus inscr. gr. ined. (Ross) 135, of a Satyr Anth. Pal. vi. 56. 1. Cf. “κισσοχαίτης” Ecphant. fr. 3, Pratin. fr. 1. 42, Delphic paean (B. C. H. xix. 147). On the ivy in connexion with Dionysus see Roscher Lex. i. 1060.
Διόνυσον: the “Attic” form for the epic “Διώνυσος” (except Od. 11.325). For the various forms see Preller-Robert i.^{2} p. 664. In the hymns “Διώνυς᾿” occurs in h. i.20, while the author of h. vii is indifferent (“Διώνυσον 1, Διόνυσος ἐρίβρομος”, as here, 56).
ἐρίβρομον; as “Βρόμιος” (a title confined to poetry).
[3] For the nurses of Dionysus (“Διωνύσοιο τιθῆναι Ζ” 132) cf. Preller-Robert i.^{2} p. 663, and Roscher Lex. (s.v. “Mainaden”) ii. 2244.
[6] ἄντρῳ ἐΝ εὐώδει: see on h. Herm. 231.
[7] τόνδε: for “τόν γε” in Homer (Hermann).
[8] φοιτίζεσκε: only in late epic (Apoll. Arg. 3.54, Callim. fr. 148).
[10] ἄσπετον ὕληΝ = Il. 2.455; the emendation “ἄσπετος” is therefore to be rejected.
[11] Πολυστάφυλ̓: not elsewhere of Dionysus. For the order of the words see on h. Apoll. 14.
[12] δὸς δ᾽ Η῾μᾶς χαίροντας: so in the paean to Asclepius (Ziebarth Comm. Philol. Monach. 1891, p. 1, v. 15) “δὸς δ᾽ ἡμᾶς χαίροντας ὁρᾶν φάος ἠελίοιο”.
ἐς ὥρας: Baumeister tries to prove that this phrase does not necessarily imply “for a year.” In Od. 9.135 “ εἰς ὥρας” may be indefinite “as the seasons come,” but generally a definite year seems intended. Gemoll compares Plato Ep. vii. p. 346 “μένε . . . τὸν ἐνιαυτὸν τοῦτον, εἰς δὲ ὥρας ἄπιθι”. Add (for Attic) Thesm. 950 “ἐκ τῶν ὡρῶν εἰς τὰς ὥρας” “year in, year out,” Nub. 562, Ran. 381, and (for other dialects) Theocr. xv. 74 “εἰς ὤρας κἤπειτα”, “for next year and ever,” a passage similar to the present. For the idiom generally cf. Plutarch Lycurg. 6 “ὥρας ἐξ ὥρας”, Isyllus in C. I. Pel. et Ins. i. 950 B 25 “ὥραις ἐξ ὡρῶν νόμον ἀεὶ τόνδε σέβοντας”, Theocr. xviii. 15 “κεἰς ἔτος ἐξ ἔτεος”, Aeschines i. 63 “χρόνους ἐκ χρόνων”, Anth. Pal. xii. 107 “εἰς ὥρας αὖθις ἄγοιτε”.
[13] εἰς τοὺς Πολλοὺς ἐΝιαυτούς: so inscr. Dittenberger Sylloge 607 “εβοησεν ο δημος: πολλοις ετεσι τους νεωκορους”; ib. 737. This is the modern R. C. Latin “ad multos annos.”
