5
CHAPTER II
THE STAFF AND THE LYRE
Neque semper arcum
Tendit Apollo. Horace.
According to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (ll. 496–499), the gifts which Apollo actually gave Hermes in exchange for the lyre were a shining whip and the tutelage of herdsmanship. But, according to the same hymn (ll. 513–532), Apollo later feared that Hermes might steal both the lyre and his bow from him and requested Hermes to swear not to do so. Hermes took the oath, whereupon Apollo promised various things to Hermes, of which however one only was a concrete object, namely the caduceus, saying:
αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα
ὄλβου καὶ πλούτου δώσω περικαλλέα ῥάβδον,
χρυσείην, τριπέτηλον, ἀκήριον ἥ σε φυλάξει,
πάντας ἐπικραίνουσ᾽ οἴμους ἐπέων τε καὶ ἔργων
τῶν ἀγαθῶν, ὅσα φημὶ δαήμεναι ἐκ Διὸς ὀμφῆς.
Although there is nothing in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes to indicate that this staff was the staff of a herald, or that Hermes became a herald, nevertheless, just after the passage quoted, Apollo (l. 539) addresses Hermes as κασίγνητε χρυσόῤῥαπι, which shows that in the mind of the writer the staff in question was at least distinctive of Hermes. Similarly in the Odyssey χρυσόῤῥαπις is twice used, each time as a distinctive epithet of Hermes; but, where the ῥάβδος itself is spoken of, it is not by any means described as a herald's staff. It is mentioned in three passages of Homer (Il. XXIV. 343, Od. V. 47, and Od. XXIV. 2), and in the first two the words are the same:—
εἵλετο δὲ ῥάβδον, τῇ τ᾽ ἀνδρῶν ὄμματα θέλγει
ὧν ἐθέλει, τοὺς δ᾽ αὖτε καὶ ὑπνώοντας ἐγείρει·
τὴν μετὰ χερσὶν ἔχων πέτετο κρατὺς ἀργειφόντης.
