(1) The Pythia
We have seen how in 582 B.C. the old local musical festival which had been held at Delphi every eight years was transformed into a Panhellenic four-yearly festival with an athletic and equestrian programme copied from Olympia under the presidency of the amphictyonic league. Delphi now became a second centre of this league, which consisted originally of the twelve tribes dwelling round the shrine of Demeter at Phylae or Anthela. The league was administered by a council composed of two representatives from each tribe, the Hieromnemones, who met twice a year in spring and autumn at Phylae and Delphi alternately. Their autumn meeting must have coincided every fourth year with the Pythian festival which took place in the month of Boukatios, about the end of August. An amphictyonic law of the year 380 B.C.[[332]] contains full details of the duties of the Hieromnemones. Besides the general care of the sacred territory, precinct, monuments, and revenues, they were responsible for all the preparations necessary for the Pythia. They saw to the repairs of the stadium, hippodrome, and other buildings; they arranged the programme, made provision for the sacrifices and processions; they saw that the sacred truce was duly proclaimed, and sent invitations to the various states of Greece, while each Hieromnemon was individually responsible for the state of the roads and bridges by which the official theorioi would travel to the festival. At the games themselves certain of their number, with the title of ἐπιμεληταί, acted as stewards and judges, and presented the laurel crowns to the victors. The actual presidency at the games seems usually to have been entrusted to the Thessalians, whose influence predominated in the league.
Though as a festival the Pythia were second only to the Olympia, it may be doubted whether from a purely athletic point of view they equalled in importance the Nemea or even the Isthmia. The Peloponnese was, as we have seen, the real home of Greek athletics, and, moreover, musical competitions seem always to have held the chief place at Delphi, as was but fitting in the precinct of Apollo. The chief event in the musical programme remained throughout all time the ancient Hymn to Apollo, sung to the lyre (κιθαρωδία), recounting his victory over the Python. Chrysothemis, Philammon, and Thamyris were among the legendary victors in this competition, which was said to have been won in the seventh century four times in succession by Terpander of Lesbos. In 582 two competitions were added: one in singing to the flute (αὐλωδία)—a competition which was, however, at once discontinued—and a solo on the flute, which, like the ancient hymn, represented the various phases in the contest between Apollo and the Python. This was the celebrated Pythian nome. The prize was won in 582, and on two subsequent occasions, by Sacadas of Argos; and Pythocritus of Sicyon is credited with no less than six successive victories, probably at the close of the sixth century. Pindar’s twelfth Pythian ode was written to celebrate the victory of Midas of Agrigentum in flute-playing. The musical programme was completed in 558 B.C. by the introduction of a competition in playing on the lyre, of a somewhat similar character. The first winner was Agesilaus of Tegea. Under the Empire dramatic and poetical competitions took place at the Pythia; but we cannot say whether they existed at an earlier date. If we may trust Pliny’s[[333]] statement, there must have been a competition in painting in the fifth century; for he tells us that Timagoras of Chalcis defeated Panaenus, the brother or nephew of Pheidias.
Next in importance to the musical competitions were the chariot and horse races, which rivalled in popularity even those at Olympia. At first they were confined, as at Olympia, to the four-horse chariot and the horse race. The pair-horse chariot-race (συνωρίς) and the chariot-race for colts were introduced at Delphi in 398 B.C. and 378 B.C., only a few years after their introduction at Olympia. The remaining two events, the synoris for colts and the riding race for colts, which were introduced at Delphi in 338 B.C. and 314 B.C., did not figure at Olympia till the next century. The popularity of horse-racing at Delphi was due to the wide-spread influence of the Delphic oracle among the Greek colonies, and particularly to the intimate connexion between Delphi and the great horse-breeding lands of Northern Greece, which belonged to the Thessalian Amphictyony; at a later time also to the influence of Macedon. Delphi was no less accessible than Olympia to the Greeks on either side of the Corinthian Gulf, and to the colonies of the West, and of Africa. The earliest victor in the chariot-race was Cleisthenes of Sicyon, and in the fifth century we find among the victors Megacles, the Alcmaeonid of Athens; Hieron of Syracuse, twice victor in the horse-race, once in the chariot-race; Xenocrates of Agrigentum, for whom Pindar wrote his earliest hymn of victory; and Arcesilas of Cyrene. The “Charioteer” is supposed by some archaeologists to be part of the monument commemorating the victory of Arcesilas.
Still more significant than these names is the number of competitors. Pindar, in his ode on the victory of Arcesilas, states that in this race no less than forty chariots fell. The entries, then, must have been still more numerous. We may doubt whether such a field was possible at Olympia. The princes of the West can have formed but a small portion of the entries; few of them can have cared to undertake the expense and labour necessary to compete so far from home unless they had a good prospect of success. A field of forty implies large entries from the home district, and the home district of Delphi afforded an abundant supply of competitors. Northern Greece was a land of horses, and therefore, as Aristotle remarks, of oligarchies. Thessaly, in particular, was famed for producing the finest horses in Greece, and Thebes was famous for its chariots.[[334]] In both countries the power was in the hand of the land-owning classes, whose wealth consisted largely in their studs of horses. In Thessaly cavalry were first organized and employed for war. Thebes was credited with the first victory in the chariot-race, Thessaly with the first victory in the horse-race at Olympia. They had celebrated local festivals. Pindar’s second Pythian is in honour of a victory in the chariot-race won by Hieron at some Theban festival, either the Heraclea or the Iolaea, and the thirteenth ode of Bacchylides celebrates the victory of Cleoptolemus of Thessaly in the Thessalian Petraea. Some idea of the proportion of local entries at the Pythia may be formed from the list of competitors given in the description of the chariot-race in the Electra of Sophocles. There are ten competitors. One comes from Sparta, one from Achaea; Orestes himself is proclaimed an Argive, but drives a team of Thessalian horses; two are Libyans from Barca, which reminds us of the victory of Arcesilas; the remaining five are an Athenian, a Boeotian, an Aetolian, a Magnesian, and an Aenianian. The Magnetes and Aenianes were Thessalian tribes belonging to the ancient Amphictyony. Thus five came from Northern Greece, two from the colonies, and three from the Peloponnese, if we suppose the Achaean to belong to the Peloponnesian and not to the Thessalian Achaeans. The few records which we possess of the fourth century and later suggest that the competition was now practically confined to Northern Greece, the only exception being the victory of Ptolemaeus, the son of Lagus, in 314 B.C., and he, though king of Egypt, was a Macedonian. In the second century there seem to have been horse-races in connexion with the official deputations, Pythaids, sent from time to time from Athens to Delphi; but these deputations had no necessary connexion with the Pythian games. In Roman times we find no mention of horse or chariot races at Delphi, and we may therefore assume that, owing to the impoverishment of Greece, these competitions had ceased to exist.
The athletic programme was the same as that of Olympia, with the addition of two races for boys, the diaulos and the dolichos. In 498 B.C. the race in armour, which had been introduced at Olympia a few years previously, was introduced at Delphi, and in 346 B.C. the boys’ pankration, which did not appear at Olympia till 200 B.C. The strong local element which we have noticed in the horse-races is apparent in athletics, and in the fifth century the festival also attracted numerous athletes from the colonies of the West. Many of those who were victorious at Olympia were also victorious at Delphi. The scanty records do not allow us to draw definite conclusions; but it seems probable that the athletic competition did not reach the same standard as in the festivals of the more athletic Peloponnese. Of individual athletes in the fifth century Phayllus of Croton and Agias of Thessaly deserve especial mention. Phayllus, who served with distinction in the Persian wars, won two victories in the pentathlon and one in the stade-race, which were commemorated by a statue the basis of which still exists. Agias was a pankratiast of the fifth century. Daochus, a member of the same family, two generations later set up in Thessaly a group of bronze statues representing those of his family who had distinguished themselves, including a statue of Agias by Lysippus. A replica of this statue in marble has been found at Delphi (Fig. [20]).
In Pindar’s time the athletic competitions as well as the horse-races took place not at Delphi but in the Crisaean plain below. The horse-races continued to be held there, Delphi itself affording no suitable space for a hippodrome. But in the second half of the fifth century the athletics were transferred to a new stadium constructed above the precinct of Apollo. The change is connected by M. Homolle with an attempt of the Phocians to reassert their rights to the control of the games at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.[[335]] The fourth century was one of great activity among the states of Northern Greece, in Thebes, in Thessaly, and in Macedon, and the Pythian festival regained the importance which it had somewhat lost owing to the doubtful part played by Delphi and the Northern States in the struggle with Persia. The Pythian games appealed to the ambitious rulers of Thessaly and Macedon in the same way as the Olympic games had to the tyrants of an earlier age. Jason of Pherae usurped the presidency of the games, and was preparing to celebrate them with extraordinary magnificence when his ambition was cut short by his murder. Philip of Macedon was more politic. By espousing the cause of the Amphictyons against the Phocians in the Sacred war he won their gratitude, and was appointed by them as president of the games. The new activity at Delphi may be seen in the numerous additions to the programme made in this century. The gymnasium was built in this period, and Aristotle undertook the task of drawing up a register of Pythian victors, being assisted in the task by his nephew Callistratus. A copy of this register was placed in the temple of Apollo.[[336]]
In 290 B.C. during the war between Demetrius Poliorketes and Pyrrhus, the roads leading to Delphi were in possession of the Aetolians, and Demetrius therefore ordered the Pythia to be celebrated at Athens, there being, he said, no more fitting place for the worship of Apollo than Athens, where he was regarded as the father of the race. The intimate relations between Athens and Delphi at this period are proved by the splendid deputations the Pythaids, as they were called, sent to Delphi from time to time.[[337]] The splendour of the Pythaids reached its height in the second century. Their arrival at Delphi was celebrated by equestrian, musical and dramatic displays and competitions; but these deputations did not necessarily coincide with the Pythian festival, and after the capture of Athens by Sulla in 87 B.C. they practically ceased.
We know little of the Pythian games under the Empire: we have the names of a few victors, many of them in musical or dramatic competitions, others professional periodonikai. Nero won the Pythian crown, and in return for it carried off hundreds of works of art from Delphi to Rome. At a later period Herodes Atticus rebuilt the stadium in the form in which it exists to-day. The Pythian games still existed in the time of the Emperor Julian, and were probably abolished finally at the end of the fourth century when the Olympic games were abolished.
The festival must have lasted several days, but the precise duration is unknown. The musical competitions appear to have come first, then the athletic events, and lastly the chariot and horse races. The boys’ events were not, as at Olympia, grouped together; but each boys’ competition preceded the corresponding competition for men.[[338]] The prize was a wreath of bay leaves plucked in the vale of Tempe by a boy whose parents were both living. It is represented on one of the coins in Fig. [27], while the other coin shows the prize table and on it a crow, five apples, a vase and a laurel wreath. As at Olympia, the victors had the privilege of erecting their statues in or near the precinct. The chief religious ceremony of the festival must have been the official procession along the sacred way to the temple of Apollo.
Fig. 28. Imperial coin of Corinth, in British Museum (enlarged).