Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 51-101

hAp 51-101. Leto asks Delos to be the seat of Apollo, and in return Delos will have sacrifices. Delos is interested but is worried that Apollo will go to some better place and thrust her into the sea; she wants Leto to swear an oath. Leto agrees and swears by the river Styx that Delos will always have Apollo's alter and sanctuary, and that he will honor her. Leto then is in labor for nine days surrounded by all the best goddesses (short catalogue), except Eileithyia, whom Hera restrained on Olympus.

1) Initially I thought that the use of articles in the oaths was more like Attic than Homer, but I was totally wrong about that. All that oath language has a lot of shared formulas with Homer. E.g. 

ἴστω νῦν τάδε γαῖα καὶ οὐρανὸς εὐρὺς ὕπερθεν 
καὶ τὸ κατειβόμενον Στυγὸς ὕδωρ, ὅς τε μέγιστος 
ὅρκος δεινότατός τε πέλει μακάρεσσι θεοῖσιν· 

occurs here, 1x Iliad, and 1x Odyssey, including what first caught my eye, τὸ κατειβόμενον Στυγὸς ὕδωρ.

2) Other bits of language do seem more like later Greek though. E.g. πρυτανευσέμεν (68). This verb first appears here and its related noun (πρύτανις) first in Pindar. Possibly related to political conceptions quite different from Homer?

3) Interesting that Delos is worried that Apollo will found his temple and groves elsewhere, νηόν τε καὶ ἄλσεα δενδρήεντα. Apollo does have groves elsewhere, e.g. Maron's grove from Od. 9:

ὅν μοι δῶκε Μάρων, Εὐάνθεος υἱός, 
ἱρεὺς Ἀπόλλωνος, ὃς Ἴσμαρον ἀμφιβεβήκει, 
οὕνεκά μιν σὺν παιδὶ περισχόμεθ' ἠδὲ γυναικὶ 
ἁζόμενοι· ᾤκει γὰρ ἐν ἄλσεϊ δενδρήεντι 
Φοίβου Ἀπόλλωνος. ὁ δέ μοι πόρεν ἀγλαὰ δῶρα· 

Pretty technical set of stuff today, but I also enjoyed the image of Apollo thrusting Delos into the sea with the octopuses and seals. A little comical.

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