36
Why is it that the women of the Eleans, when they sing hymns to Dionysus, call upon him to come to them with the foot of a bull For Dionysus as a bull cf. e.g. Athenaeus 35 e, 38 e.? The hymnThe text is uncertain; Hartman has attempted a reconstruction in Mnemosyne, xli. 217; cf. also the other references in E. Diehl, Anthologia Lyrica Graeca, ii. p. 206. cf. also Moralia, 364 f; Pausanias, vi. 26. 1; Bergk, Poet. Lyr. Graec. iii. p. 656, or Edmonds, Lyra Graeca (L.C.L. iii. 510). runs as follows: Come, O hero Dionysus, To thy Elean holy Temple, with the Graces, To thy temple With thy bull’s foot hasting. Then they chant twice the refrain: O worthy bull.
36
Is it because some address the god as kine-born or as bull? Or by ox-foot do they mean with thy mighty foot even as the Poet used ox-eyed Homer, Il. i. 551 and often. to signify large-eyed, and bully βουγαίος, Il. xiii. 824: Od. xviii. 79. for loudmouthed?
36
Or is it rather because the foot of the bull is harmless, but the part that bears horns is harmful, and thus they call upon the god to come in a gentle and painless manner?
36
Or is it because many believe that the god was the pioneer in both ploughing and sowing?
37
Why do the people of Tanagra have before their city an Achilleum, that is, a place bearing this name? For it is related that Achilles actually had more enmity than friendship for the city, since he carried off Stratonicê, the mother of Poemander, and slew Acestor, the son of Ephippus.A grandson of Poemander.