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χρησμολόγος applies both to the seers (μάντις) and prophets (χρησμῳδός), like Musaeus, Bacis (viii. 96. 2), Amphilytus (i. 62. 4), ‘qui . . . concitatione quadam animi aut soluto liberoque motu futura praesentiunt, . . . ut Bacis Boeotius, ut Epimenides Cres, ut Sibylla Erythraea’ (Cic. Div. i. 18. 34), and to the learned and skilled interpreters of ancient sayings and oracles (ch. 142. 3), whose advice in times of crisis had great weight (Thuc. ii. 8). Of the latter class was Onomacritus who collected and arranged a number of oracles currently ascribed to the mythical seer Musaeus, which with the similar collection ascribed to Orpheus were the chief specimens of this apocryphal literature. To him may be ascribed the Pisistratid collection of oracles (v. 90. 2; cf. Introd. § 24 (3)) and skill in their interpretation (v. 93. 2). He is said to have been commissioned by Pisistratus along with three colleagues to collect and arrange the scattered lays of Homer (Cramer, Anec. i. 6); if so, he must by now (485 B. C.) have been quite an old man. He had a bad reputation as a forger (§ 3) and interpolator (Schol. Harl. Od. xi. 604); indeed, some writers treat the work of Musaeus as wholly or mainly a forgery (Clem. Alex. p. 397, Potter; Paus. i. 22. 7), while others regard it as a compilation from old materials (Plut. Mor. 407 B).

In the Pisistratid family Hipparchus appears to have been specially the patron of poets, e.g. Anacreon and Simonides (Plato, Hipparch. 228 f.).

Λάσος: a lyric and dithyrambic poet said to have been the teacher of Pindar and inventor of the cyclic chorus, and to have written a treatise on music.

The Νέαι (νῆσοι), which lay off the east coast of Lemnos, were raised from the sea by volcanic eruptions (Plin. ii. § 202, Steph. Byz.), Mount Mosychlos, on the east coast of Lemnos, being active in ancient times. The prophecy was fulfilled, for that part of Lemnos is now submerged, while one of these small islands, Chryse (still existent in 72 B. C.; cf. App. Mith. 77), had disappeared even when Pausanias (viii. 33. 4) wrote. The ‘sacred’ volcanic isle which appeared (circ. 197 B. C.) between Thera and Planasia, was also the subject of an oracle (Plut. Mor. 399).

ἀφανιζοίατο: present, because that tense is usual in oracles; cf. ch. 140, 220.

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