[552] σεμναί, “there are certain reverend ones, sisters, three in number.” The reference is undoubtedly to the Thriae, but there is no reason to substitute “Θριαί” here; the mythology would be sufficiently clear from the context, aided by the emphatic “τρεῖς”, from which the ancients derived “Θριαί”. To an Athenian, “σεμναὶ” (“θεαί”) would probably have suggested the Furies, but the hymn-writer was no Athenian. The variant “μοῖραι”, which is obviously wrong, may have been a gloss due, partly at least, to “τρεῖς”. Apollodorus alluded to the Thriae in his account (“διδάσκεται τὴν διὰ τῶν ψήφων μαντικήν”), but this is no argument that he read “Θριαί” here, nor does he use the actual word. On the “Θριαί” see III. They App. are certainly here closely connected with bees (see on 559) if not actually personifications of the bee.
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The Homeric Hymns, edited, with preface, apparatus criticus, notes, and appendices. Thomas W. Allen. E. E. Sikes. London. Macmillan. 1904.
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