The Odyssey of Homer, with the Hymns, Epigrams, and Battle of the Frogs and Mice/Hymns/Hymn 33

by Homer

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.

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1. This is apparently a cento made up from different passages, but is partly preserved by Diodorus Siculus. See Ruhnken's note.
2. I cannot understand this line.
3. These three lines are from Il. i. 528, sqq.
4. Read ἐπένευσε, with Ruhnken.
5. Cf. Porphyr. de Abst. iii. p. 287 and Hesych. t. i. p. 1112.
6. See Ruhnken.