[488] ἢ σέ γε … Ἀπόλλων. Cp. Hes. Theog.94“ἐκ γὰρ Μουσάων καὶ ἑκηβόλου Ἀπόλλωνος”
“ἄνδρες ἀοιδοὶ ἔασιν ἐπὶ χθόνα καὶ
κιθαρισταί”, and the same statement in the Hymns. In Il.1. 603Apollo is described as playing on
the lyre and the Muses as singing; but here it is not the music we have to
consider. The minstrel was par excellence the
historian of early times; and thus he is indebted to Apollo, the god of
prophecy (who would know the past as well as the present or the future), for
his ability to tell about the wooden horse, “ὥς τέ που
ἢ αὐτὸς παρεὼν ἢ ἄλλου ἀκούσας”. The Muses too,
according to Hesiod and the Hymns, were the daughters of Mnemosyne; and the
etymology of their very name seems to point in the same direction. See on
Od. 1.1. Nägelsbach,
taking the same view (Hom. Theol. p. 114), reminds us how
Calchas, under the inspiration of Apollo, knew the past as well as the
future, and how the same is said of the Aeschylean Cassandra, Ag.1196 foll.
