_The Homeric Hymns:_—The text of the Homeric hymns is distinctly bad in
condition, a fact which may be attributed to the general neglect under
which they seem to have laboured at all periods previously to the
Revival of Learning. Very many defects have been corrected by the
various editions of the Hymns, but a considerable number still defy all
efforts; and especially an abnormal number of undoubted lacuna
disfigure the text. Unfortunately no papyrus fragment of the Hymns has
yet emerged, though one such fragment (_Berl. Klassikertexte_ v.1. pp.
7 ff.) contains a paraphrase of a poem very closely parallel to the
_Hymn to Demeter_.