r, and Hermes by
the gift of the lyre wins Apollo's friendship and purchases various
prerogatives, a share in divination, the lordship of herds and animals,
and the office of messenger from the gods to Hades.

The Hymn is hard to date. Hermes' lyre has seven strings and the
invention of the seven-stringed lyre is ascribed to Terpander (flor.
676 B.C.). The hymn must therefore be later than that date, though
Terpander, according to Weir Smyth [1116], may have only modified the
scale of the lyre; yet while the burlesque character precludes an early
date, this feature is far removed, as Allen and Sikes remark, from the
silliness of the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice", so that a date in the
earlier part of the sixth century is most probable.

The "Hymn to Aphrodite" is not the least remarkable, from a literary
point of view, of the whole collection, exhibiting as it does in
a masterly manner a divine being as the unwilling victim of an
irresistible force. It tells how all creatures, and even the gods
themselves, are subject to the will of Aphrodite, saving only Artemis,
Athena, and Hestia; how Zeus to humble her pride of power caused her to
love a mortal, Anchises; and how the goddess visited the hero upon Mt.
Ida. A comparison of this work with the Lay of Demodocus ("Odyssey"
viii, 266 ff.), which is superficially similar, will show how far
superior is the former in which the goddess is but a victim to forces
stronger than herself. The lines (247-255) in which Aphrodite tells of
her humiliation and grief are specially noteworthy.

There are only general indications of date. The influence of Hesiod is
clear, and the hymn has almost certainly been used by the author of the
"Hymn to Demeter", so that the date must lie between these two periods,
and the seventh century seems to be the latest date possible.

The "Hymn to Dionysus" relates how the god was seized by pirates and how
with many manifestations of power he avenged himself on them by turning
them into dolphins. The date is widely disputed, for while Ludwich
believes it to be a work of the fourth or third century, Allen and Sikes
consider a sixth or seventh century date to be possible. The story is
figured in a different form on the reliefs from the choragic monument of
Lysicrates, now in the British Museum [1117].

Very different in character is the "Hymn to Ares", which is Orphic
in character. The writer, after lauding the god by detailing his
attributes, prays to