Thomas W. Allen, E. E. Sikes, Commentary on the Homeric Hymns

[3] ἀκτῌ̂ ἐΠὶ Προβλ̂ητι: cf. Od. 5.405 “, κ 89, ν” 97, Apoll. Arg. 2.365. Νεηνίͅη ἀνδρὶ ἐοικώς=Od. 10.277, followed by “πρῶτον ὑπηνήτῃ” (of Hermes). It was supposed that the youthful type of Dionysus in art was created in the age of Praxiteles; but it is now known that the type goes back to Calamis ( Curtius A. Z. 1883, p. 255; cf. Roscher 1089 f., 1126 f.), i.e. to the first half of the fifth century. In any case the present passage is no indication of lateness, for, as Bergk notes, the god only assumes the form of a youth for the occasion; the transformation is on Homeric analogy. Moreover it is probable that the young Dionysus was familiar to poetry for many years before the art-type was created (see Sandys, Eur. Bacch.p. xcix f.). The hymnwriter does not conceive of the god as effeminate and voluptuous, but as the ideal of a young Greek athlete with broad shoulders (5) like Telemachus, Od. 15.61; cf. the metamorphosis of Apollo, h. Apoll. 450 “ἀνέρι εἰδόμενος αἰζηῷ τε κρατερῷ τε”

“πρωθήβῃ, χαίτῃς εἰλυμένος εὐρέας ὤμους”; so Verg. Aen.x. 485pectus ingens of the young Pallas.