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Hymn to Dionysos I
- For some say, at Drakanum; and some, on windy Ikarus; and some, in Naxos, O Heaven-born, Insewn; and others by the deep-eddying river Alpheios that pregnant Semele bare you to Zeus the thunder-lover.
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- And others yet, lord, say you were born in Thebes; but all these lie.
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- The father of men and gods gave you birth remote from men and secretly from white-armed Hera.
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- There is a certain Nysa, a mountain most high and richly grown with woods, far off in Phoenicia, near the streams of Aigyptos.
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- [Lacuna]
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- "and men will lay up for her many offerings in her shrines. And as these things are three, so shall mortals ever sacrifice perfect hecatombs to you at your feasts each three years."
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- The son of Kronos spoke and nodded with his dark brows.
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- And the divine locks of the king flowed forward from his immortal head, and he made great Olympos reel.
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- So spoke wise Zeus and ordained it with a nod.
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- Be favorable, O Insewn, inspirer of frenzied women! We singers sing of you as we begin and as we end a strain, and none forgetting you may call holy song to mind.
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- And so, farewell, Dionysos, Insewn, with your mother Semele whom men call Thyone.
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