The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice/Hymns/Hymn 33
FRAGMENT OF THE HYMN TO BACCHUS.[1]
"And they shall raise up many images to him in temples, and as[2] men thrice always offer to thee perfect hecatombs at the three-year periods." The son of Saturn spoke,[3] and nodded with his dark-blue brows, and the ambrosial curls shook down from the immortal head of the king, and he made great Olympus tremble. Thus speaking, counselling Jove nodded[4] with his head. Be propitious, O thou sewn [formerly in the thigh of Jove],[5] woman-mad. But we bards sing thee both commencing and ending,[6] nor is it possible to be mindful of sacred song, forgetting thee. And do thou thus hail, O thigh-sewn Bacchus, with thy mother Semele, whom they call Thyone.
- ↑ This is apparently a cento made up from different passages, but is partly preserved by Diodorus Siculus. See Ruhnken's note.
- ↑ I cannot understand this line.
- ↑ These three lines are from Il. i. 528, sqq.
- ↑ Read ἐπένευσε, with Ruhnken.
- ↑ Cf. Porphyr. de Abst. iii. p. 287 and Hesych. t. i. p. 1112.
- ↑ See Ruhnken.