¹ The comments of Lesky, A. on this story (Tludatta, Der Weg der Gricchen zum Meer [Vienna, 1947], pp. 104 ff.)Google Scholar have not been available to me.

² The title Διόνυσος fi λησταί is not found in all MSS. and may be relatively late.

³ It is syntactically awkward to take ν δ' ίστη (47) both with άρκτος understood and with the following λέων δ' and its dependent participial phrase. This together with a lesser awkwardness at 44-5, "δοθι νηός followed by ™' άκροτάτης, which requires a repetition of νη°ς. is taken by Sparshott, F.E. (CR 13 [1963], 1–2)Google Scholar as evidence that lines 45-7 are an interpolation. He may well be correct, but the syntactical considerations are somewhat short of compelling. His only other substantial point is that ‘the combination of metamorphosis and phantasmogenesis’, i.e. respectively of the lion and the bear, is ‘impossible for anyone who has imagined the scene as a whole’. This judgement is likely to be anachronistic, and since he is unable to offer any likely explanation of the alleged interpolation, I have preferred to interpret the text as it stands.

⁴ It is generally agreed that the cylix of Execias, which shows Dionysus on a vine-covered ship and surrounded by dolphins, and other vases with similar scenes reflect the ritual of carrying Dionysus in a model ship and do not necessarily refer to the story of the pirates, although that ritual could itself have influenced the story. Cf. the introduction of A.H.S. to Hom.hy. vii and, for full discussion of the ritual, Lesky, A., Zum Schiffskarren des Dionysos (now in Gesammelte Schriften [Berne and Munich, 1966], pp. 297–309).Google Scholar

⁵ It is a matter of dispute whether this Hyginus is the same as the author of the Poetica Astronomica, from which a different summary of this story has been considered above. Rose, H.J. (Hygini Fabulae [Leiden, 1934], proleg. pp. 4–6)Google Scholar argues in favour of the identity and calls attention to another story which appears in differing versions in the two works, that of Icarius and Erigone( Poet. Astron. ii 4 and Fab. 130), although in this case the difference is only slight.

⁶ This has been proved by Rose, loc. cit.

⁷ This is the conclusion reached by Crusius (p. 221) and also, with some hesitation, by Rose (loc. cit.).

⁸ On these cf. Rose, op. cit., prolegomena.

⁹ Crusius, however, regards this as no more than possible (p. 225 n. 65).

¹⁰ This fact is noted by Crusius on p. 224.

¹¹ Schönberger, O. (Philostratos, Die Bilder [Munich, 1968],Google Scholar ad loc.) comments: ‘Was über die Formenverwandlung der Seeraüber gesagt ist, stimmt weitgehend mit Ovid, Mel. 3.671 ff. zusammen.’ But in fact there is only one similarity of detail, and that not very close: cf. τμέν τά πλευρά κυάνεα with Ovid’s primusque Medon nigrescere coepit \ corpore (ibid. 671–2). A much more likely influence is that of earlier pictorial representations, such as the one that survives on the Lysicrates monument.

¹² Mair’s, A.W. translation (Oppian, Colluthus, Tryphiodorus [London and Cambridge, Mass., 1928]).Google Scholar

¹³ It must, however, be noted that the crucial words πέτρα μοι διείκασται have generally been regarded as corrupt, and although such drastic changes as Kalinka’s πυραμίδι είκασται, adopted by Schònberger (op. cit.), are not convincing, it is possible that the corruption extends to πέτρα.

¹⁴ Gnomon 11 (1935), 603.

¹⁵ Nonnos und Ovid (Greifswald, 1935). This was reviewed with general approval by Keydell (ibid., 597–605).

¹⁶ Nonnos, Dionysiaca, 3 vols. (London and Cambridge, Mass., 1940).

¹⁶ a Cf. Dodds ad Eur. Bacch. 453–9.

¹⁷ Cf. Braune’s comments on the repetition of the story of Actaeon (op. cit. pp. 35–6).

¹⁸ A.H.S., on Hom.hy. vii 44, note that according to a story recorded by Aelian (V.H. iii 42) Dionysus frightened the Minyades by becoming a bull, a lion and a panther. Thus it is very probable that Nonnus had a literary model in mind for his combination of bulls and a lion.

¹⁹ This is noted as a prominent feature of Nonnus’ rendering of the stories of Phaethon and Actaeon by Braune (op. cit.pp. 18 and 35).

²⁰ The similarity of μέλς αυλών (163) to the mention of αύλων among the miracles in Apollodorus’ summary is probably fortuitous, if my supposition is correct that Apollodorus alludes to Bacchic music and singing, such as is mentioned by Hyginus (Poet. Astron. ii 17) and Philostratus. But the possibility cannot be altogether ruled out that he reflects a version in which there was some anticipation of Nonnus’ description. Be that as it may, Crusius is at least entirely wrong in his observation on p. 225: ‘Die sinnverwirrenden, herzbeth örenden Klánge der bakchischen Musik dienen demselben Zwecke bei Apollodor-Aglaosthenes.’ By Aglaosthenes he means Hyginus’ summary, which unequivocally mentions ‘Bacchic music’ in the form of singing on the part of Dionysus’ followers, but there is no ground for calling the music in Nonnus’ description ‘Bacchic’.

²¹ Apart from the point discussed above, the possibility that the dramatic setting within the story of Pentheus was adopted from Ovid, my conclusion that there is nothing in the narrative itself certainly derived from Ovid is shared by Keydell (op. cit. 603–4).

²² This conclusion is also shared by Keydell (op. cit. 604), but his statement that Nonnus simply gives a colourless, shortened version of the essential contents of the Homeric hymn is untrue of a version that is both longer than the hymn and also enlivened with impressive and seemingly original elements.

²³ The following story of the destruction of Alpus is very much on these lines.

²⁴ I owe to the editors a reference to the brief discussion of the sources of Ovid’s version and oi the relationship between the versions of Ovid and Nonnus by Brooks Otis (Ovid as an Epic Poet [Cambridge, 1966], Appendix vi, pp. 371–2). Its main value is the attention called to a reference by Servius auctus (ad Aen. iv 469) to the Pentheus of Pacuvius, in which Acoetes was the name of the follower of Dionysus who was brought as a prisoner to Pentheus. Pacuvius is thus established as one of Ovid’s sources, but it remains quite uncertain whether his play contained any reference to the story of the Tyrrhenian pirates. Otis accepts the indebtedness of Nonnus to Ovid for the dramatic setting of his version.