Hymn to Demeter and Persephone

Three lines, of which the first two are word for word the opening of the great Hymn to Demeter (homeric-demeter-001). The coincidence is neither accidental nor plagiarism: this is how such preludes were made.

A rhapsode kept a stock of ready openings, and to any of them an ending could be attached — to suit the occasion, the city, the commission. Here what is attached is: "hail, goddess, and keep this city safe, and begin the song". One line turns the start of a long poem into a self-contained prelude for local performance.

This arrangement has already appeared in this corpus, in a different trade: Latin verse epitaphs were taken by monumental masons from a ready stock, and one and the same verse stands on stones in different provinces (terra-funerary-003). Mass production of sacred text is an ordinary thing in antiquity, and was not counted as forgery.

Ἄρχε δ᾽ ἀοιδῆς — begin the song. The goddess is asked to begin what the singer is about to sing. Responsibility for the performance is transferred to her before the first word.