2512 (return) [ The epithets are transferred from the god to his altar
‘Overlooking’ is especially an epithet of Zeus, as in Apollonius
Rhodius ii. 1124.]
2513 (return) [ Pliny notices the efficacy of the flesh of a tortoise
against withcraft. In _Geoponica_ i. 14. 8 the living tortoise is
prescribed as a charm to preserve vineyards from hail.]
2514 (return) [ Hermes makes the cattle walk backwards way, so that
they seem to be going towards the meadow instead of leaving it (cp. l.
345); he himself walks in the normal manner, relying on his sandals as
a disguise.]
2515 (return) [ Such seems to be the meaning indicated by the context,
though the verb is taken by Allen and Sikes to mean, ‘to be like
oneself’, and so ‘to be original’.]
2516 (return) [ Kuhn points out that there is a lacuna here. In l. 109
the borer is described, but the friction of this upon the fireblock (to
which the phrase ‘held firmly’ clearly belongs) must also have been
mentioned.]
2517 (return) [ The cows being on their sides on the ground, Hermes
bends their heads back towards their flanks and so can reach their
backbones.]
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?]