1 This hymn, which first introduced into sacred song the trochaic
metre familiar in Greek Tragedy and the Latin adaptations of it,
supplies the Moz. Brev. with some stanzas for use during Holy Week.
The lines selected are 22-24, 1-21.
11 The use of the symbol _Ô_, (pronounced here as a single
syllable), appears to indicate that the names Omega and Omikron
came into use at a later date than Prudentius' time. In Rev. i. 8,
the best MSS. read _egô eimi to alpha kai to ô_.
33 The words _vulnerum piamina_ are generally supposed to refer to
the "gifts which Moses commanded" to be offered by those healed of
leprosy (Lev. xiv. 2). If so, Prudentius' language may imply that
the cure was not actually complete until the offering of these gifts,
and is at variance with St. Matthew, viii. 43, "and forthwith his
leprosy was cleansed." Probably, however, his idea is rather that
the gifts to the priest formally marked the leper as a clean man.