arrival of Apollo. Prophet, musician, archer, he comes with attributes lent by Lycia, Ephesus, and the Troad. The Greek legend of his birth is preserved in two hymns which represent, on the whole, an older and a later version,—the Homeric hymn to the Delian Apollo, and the hymn "To Delos" by the Alexandrian Callimachus (circ. 260 B.C.). Setting minor discrepancies aside, we may say that the salient points of difference between the two versions are these:—(i) In the Alexandrian hymn, Delos is a floating isle, which becomes fixed when Leto touches it. The Homeric hymn knows nothing of this; it merely describes Delos as fearing lest it should be sunk in the depths by the spurning foot of the new-born god. The legend of a floating isle is, however, at least as old in Greece as Pindar, and is implied in the apparently ancient belief that Delos could no longer be shaken by earthquake[1]. (2) In the Homeric hymn, Hera is resolved to prolong the pangs of Leto even after she has reached Delos, and it is only by a ruse that the aid of Eileithyia is obtained. In the Alexandrian hymn, Hera relents as soon as Leto touches the sacred
- ↑ Πόντου θύγατερ, χθονὸς εὐρείας ἀκίνητον τέρας: Pind. frag. 58 (from a παιὰν προσοδιακός, a paean to be sung during the procession to Apollo's Delian temple). Herodotus (vi. 98) had been told at Delos of an earthquake said to have occurred there in 490 B.C. Thuc. (ii. 8) mentions another "shortly before" 431 B.C. Each is the first and only earthquake. The statements cannot, and need not, be reconciled. By ascribing their own tremors to their island the Delians maintained its divine prestige, and marked their recurring sense of a crisis.
