, the poet declares he will next sing of the 'race of
mortal men, the demi-gods'. But it may fairly be doubted whether
such Hymns as those to "Demeter" (ii), "Apollo" (iii), "Hermes" (iv),
"Aphrodite" (v), can have been real preludes, in spite of the closing
formula 'and now I will pass on to another hymn'. The view taken by
Allen and Sikes, amongst other scholars, is doubtless right, that
these longer hymns are only technically preludes and show to what
disproportionate lengths a simple literacy form can be developed.

The Hymns to "Pan" (xix), to "Dionysus" (xxvi), to "Hestia and Hermes"
(xxix), seem to have been designed for use at definite religious
festivals, apart from recitations. With the exception perhaps of the
"Hymn to Ares" (viii), no item in the collection can be regarded as
either devotional or liturgical.

The Hymn is doubtless a very ancient form; but if no example of extreme
antiquity survive this must be put down to the fact that until the age
of literary consciousness, such things are not preserved.

First, apparently, in the collection stood the "Hymn to Dionysus", of
which only two fragments now survive. While it appears to have been a
hymn of the longer type [1115], we have no evidence to show either its
scope or date.

The "Hymn to Demeter", extant only in the MS. discovered by Matthiae
at Moscow, describes the seizure of Persephone by Hades, the grief
of Demeter, her stay at Eleusis, and her vengeance on gods and men by
causing famine. In the end Zeus is forced to bring Persephone back from
the lower world; but the goddess, by the contriving of Hades, still
remains partly a deity of the lower world. In memory of her sorrows
Demeter establishes the Eleusinian mysteries (which, however, were
purely agrarian in origin).

This hymn, as a literary work, is one of the finest in the collection.
It is surely Attic or Eleusinian in origin. Can we in any way fix its
date? Firstly, it is certainly not later than the beginning of the sixth
century, for it makes no mention of Iacchus, and the Dionysiac
element was introduced at Eleusis at about that period. Further,
the insignificance of Triptolemus and Eumolpus point to considerable
antiquity, and the digamma is still active. All these considerations
point to the seventh century as the probable date of the hymn.

The "Hymn to Apollo" consists of two parts, which beyond any doubt were
originally distinct, a Delian hymn and a Pythian hymn.

The Delian