Homeric Hymn to Apollo 451-501

hAp 451-501. Apollo, as a young man, jumps on the ship and asks why the sailors are just sitting there. Their leader praises Apollo as looking like the gods, asks what land this is, and explains they have come there unwillingly. Apollo says that they will not return home; he is Apollo, and here they will hold his temple. He orders them to get out, build an altar, and pray to him as Delphinios, since he first appeared to them as a dolphin; then eat and libate; and then sing the paean until they reach the spot for the altar.

1) The sailors say that they are longing to go home (νόστου ἱέμενοι); seems pretty uncool for Apollo to say that they will never go home, and really stick it to them by describing the city, homes, and wives they will never see again;

ξεῖνοι, τοὶ Κνωσὸν πολυδένδρεον ἀμφινέμεσθε 
τὸ πρίν, ἀτὰρ νῦν οὐκ ἔθ' ὑπότροποι αὖθις ἔσεσθε 
ἔς τε πόλιν ἐρατὴν καὶ δώματα καλὰ ἕκαστος 
ἔς τε φίλας ἀλόχους...

A nostos utterly denied

2) Weird that Apollo repeatedly uses the dual to refer to the sailors:

456: τίφθ' οὕτως ἧσθον τετιηότες, οὐδ' ἐπὶ γαῖαν
487: ἱστία μὲν πρῶτον κάθετον λύσαντε βοείας,
501: εἰς ὅ κε χῶρον ἵκησθον ἵν' ἕξετε πίονα νηόν. 

I feel like this passage should come up more in duals-in-Homer discussions (e.g. for Il. 9), since it seems pretty clear in the text that we're talking about many sailors (ἄνδρες... πολέες in 392).

3) Also seems uncool for Apollo to appear in the guise of a young man and reassure the sailors, but I suppose gods very rarely appear in their own appearance initially in epic; hence all the encounters between strangers like this one here where you praise the other person as akin to a god (Odysseus to Nausicaa, Anchises to Aphrodite, presumably others). Achilles' immediate recognition of Athena in Il. 1 stands out as exceptional. 

4) Along those lines, the initial conversation between Apollo and the sailors follows the conventions between strangers; Apollo opens with a standard four lines (ὦ ξεῖνοι τίνες ἐστέ..., where 452-5 = Od. 3.71-4), and the leader responds with similar conventional language (though slight variants from Homer, e.g. 468 τίς δῆμος; τίς γαῖα; τίνες βροτοὶ ἐγγεγάασιν; vs Od. 13.233 τίς γῆ, τίς δῆμος, τίνες ἀνέρες ἐγγεγάασιν;). Feels like a pretty by the books introduction of strangers until Apollo reveals himself.

5) Richardson compares the sacrifice and prayer to Apollo on the seashore to Il. 1 (where the Achaeans also sing a paean); in Il. 1 note that there is already an altar to Apollo (440: τὴν μὲν ἔπειτ' ἐπὶ βωμὸν ἄγων πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεὺς), whereas the sailors here need to build one. Apparently seashore altars to Apollo are a thing; the hymn at least says that this altar "will be forever conspicuous" (ἐπόψιος ἔσσεται αἰεί), so presumably it actually existed.

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