2518 ([return])
[ O. Muller thinks the ‘hides’ were a stalactite formation in the ‘Cave of Nestor’ near Messenian Pylos,—though the cave of Hermes is near the Alpheus (l. 139). Others suggest that actual skins were shown as relics before some cave near Triphylian Pylos.]
2519 ([return])
[ Gemoll explains that Hermes, having offered all the meat as sacrifice to the Twelve Gods, remembers that he himself as one of them must be content with the savour instead of the substance of the sacrifice. Can it be that by eating he would have forfeited the position he claimed as one of the Twelve Gods?]
2520 ([return])
[ Lit. “thorn-plucker”.]
2521 ([return])
[ Hermes is ambitious (l. 175), but if he is cast into Hades he will have to be content with the leadership of mere babies like himself, since those in Hades retain the state of growth—whether childhood or manhood—in which they are at the moment of leaving the upper world.]
2522 ([return])
[ Literally, ‘you have made him sit on the floor’, i.e. ‘you have stolen everything down to his last chair.’]