Description:
<jats:p>Bacchylides 16 is a hybrid poem. It sets out to explore the relation of cognate types of choral song, the paean and the dithyramb, in one and the same narrative. To that end, it poses a ritual section, which deals with Apollo's stop by the banks of the river Hebrus on his way back from the Hyperboreans to Delphi (16.1–12), ahead of a mythic section whose thematic spine focusses on the aftermath of Oechalia's sack by Heracles and his marital crisis with Deianeira leading up to his death and deification (16.13–35). My concern, here, lies with the very beginning of the Apolline paeanic section, which lacks a gratifying supplement of the few words missing, so one can get a glimpse of how the poet's voice positions itself with respect to the god's (envisioned) upcoming arrival at Delphi. I understand the first line in the following way (Bacchyl. 16.1–4):<jats:verse-group><jats:verse-line>Λοξ]ίου [ἀ]ίο[μεν] ἐπεὶ</jats:verse-line><jats:verse-line>ὁλκ]άδ’ ἔπεμψεν ἐμοὶ χρυσέαν</jats:verse-line><jats:verse-line>Πιερ]ίαθεν ἐ[ΰθ]ρονος [Ο]ὐρανία,</jats:verse-line><jats:verse-line>πολυφ]άτων γέμουσαν ὕμνων</jats:verse-line></jats:verse-group><jats:verse-group><jats:verse-line>We sense Loxias (approaching) ever since</jats:verse-line><jats:verse-line>Ourania of the fair throne sent me</jats:verse-line><jats:verse-line>from Pieria a golden cargo</jats:verse-line><jats:verse-line>fraught with much-praised songs.</jats:verse-line></jats:verse-group>Relying on the way editors read the papyrus, the traces that precede the concluding ἐπεί of the first line (… ]ιου. ιο …) suggest that it is occupied by a glyconic.</jats:p>