The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2

by Karl Otfried Müller

Chapter I.

§ 1. Apollo and Artemis the principal deities of the Doric race. § 2. Traces of the worship of Apollo in Tempe. § 3. Route of the Theoria from Tempe to Delphi. § 4. Establishment of the worship of Apollo at Delphi; § 5. Crete; § 6. And Delos. § 7. Early history of Crissa. § 8. Doric population of Delphi. § 9. Opposition to the worship of the Delphian Apollo.

1. In turning from the history of the external affairs of the Dorians to the consideration of their intellectual existence, our first step must be to enquire into their religion; and for this purpose we will proceed to analyse and resolve it into the various worships and ceremonies of which it was composed, and to trace the origin and connexion of these as they successively arose.

Now it may with safety be asserted, that the principal deities of the Dorians were Apollo and Artemis, since their worship is found to have predominated in all the settlements of that race; and conversely the Doric origin can be either proximately or remotely traced wherever there were any considerable institutions dedicated to the worship of Apollo; insomuch that the adoration of this god may be shown from the most ancient testimonies of mythology to have gradually advanced with the extension of the Doric [pg 220] nation. Yet we are not to understand that the worship of Apollo and the Doric race were so exactly co-extensive that the presence of the latter always proves either the previous or actual existence of the former. Indeed it is certain that in ancient as well as in modern times the worship of particular gods was not only propagated by migration and conquest, but that religious belief was also extended by peaceful intercourse, and, as it were, by moral contact.

In order to rest the claims of the Doric race to the worship of Apollo on a secure foundation, it is necessary first to give a direct contradiction to all those statements which assert its connexion with any race not of Hellenic descent. In the first place, then, Apollo was not a national deity of the aboriginal Pelasgic nations of Greece.[858] Had this been the case, he would certainly have enjoyed frequent and distinguished honours in those countries where the numbers of that race remained undiminished; for example, in Arcadia. Now there were very few temples of Apollo in Arcadia; and moreover, the founding of most of these was either connected with a foreign hero, or else attributed to some external influence.[859] Secondly, it [pg 221] has been supposed that the worship of this god was introduced from the East (an opinion founded chiefly on the establishments of his religion in Lycia); but we shall presently show that its institution in this quarter was in fact derived from the Dorians. To this we may add, that amongst none of the half-Grecian nations, for example, the Leleges, Carians, Ætolians, Phrygians, and Thracians, the worship of this god can be proved to have been national. The same may be affirmed of the Italian nations. Apollo never occurs in the ancient Etruscan religion. Nor was Rome acquainted with this worship, until it was introduced by the Sibylline oracles; a sacred spot was then allotted on the Flaminian meadow; and the temple erected there (324 A.U.C.) was, up to the time of Cicero, the only one in Rome.[860] Nay, that the Italians adopted Apollo altogether as a foreign deity is proved by the circumstance of their not having united him with their native Jupiter, or Mercury, as they did the Grecian Zeus, Hermes, &c. In our inquiries therefore into the origin of the worship of Apollo, we are limited to the races of purely Greek offspring. It remains only to be shown why we have selected the Dorians in particular from all these different tribes. And we merely make this preliminary remark, that the [pg 222] mythical genealogy, in which Dorus is called the son of Apollo,[861] was a simple expression for this fact.

2. The most ancient settlements of the Doric race, of which any historical accounts are extant, were, as we before ascertained,[862] the country at the foot of Olympus and Ossa, near the valley of Tempe. In this district there were two sanctuaries, bearing the character of the highest antiquity, viz., the Pythium, on the ridge of Olympus, near a steep mountain-pass leading to Macedonia; and the altar in the ravine of the Peneus,[863] from which the god himself was called Τεμπείτας; and in an inscription discovered near this spot, on the banks of the river between Tempe and Larissa, are the words ΑΠΛΟΥΝΙ ΤΕΜΠΕΙΤΑ, “To Apollo of Tempe.”[864] From another inscription found in this district we gather an account of certain native Thessalian festivals, at which branches of laurel were carried round, that were doubtless procured from the groves in the valley of Tempe; whither also the Delphians every eight years, at the expiration of the sacred period, sent the Pythian theori, who, after the performance of a sacrifice, broke the expiatory branch [pg 223] from the sacred laurel-tree.[865] According also to the admission of the Delphians themselves, the temple of Apollo at Tempe was more ancient than their own, since a perfect expiation could only be performed in that sanctuary. In accordance with the tradition that Apollo himself, after having slain the Python, fled to the altar at Tempe to be purified from the pollution, the sacred boy, at each return of the appointed day, went to Tempe by a certain path,[866] in imitation of the god whom he honoured, in order to return home amidst the joyful songs of the choruses of virgins, as δαφνηφόρος, or laurel-bearer. The religious usages at this festival will be investigated hereafter; here we will only consider the route which the procession took. It led through Thessaly and Pelasgia (that is, through the plain of the Peneus, which stretches to the south as far as Pheræ); then through the country of the Malians and Ænianes, over mount Œta, through Doris and the western part of Locris;[867] avoiding in a remarkable manner the shorter and more frequented road from Thessaly through Thermopylæ, over Phocis, and through the pass of Panopeus and Daulis to Delphi. The reasons of this deviation may have been the opposition offered in early times by hostile tribes from the eastern side of Delphi to the peaceable march of sacred processions; and also that the theoria might in its progress pass through the second settlements of the Dorians, between Œta and Parnassus, where [pg 224] doubtless the worship of Apollo had likewise prevailed.[868]

3. The first half of the Pythian road, which goes through Thessaly, is very accurately determined by a combination of different testimonies. Its first stage was from Tempe to Larissa. Near this place was a village named Deipnias, where the boy who carried the laurel-branch first broke his long fast;[869] as Apollo himself was reported also to have done. That the place received its name from this circumstance is a sufficient proof of the antiquity of the usage. The theoria next proceeded to Pheræ, where the boy, on his way to Tempe, and before his purification, represented the servitude of Apollo when a refugee at the palace of Admetus. This use of slavery as a preparative for the expiation of guilt, is doubtless taken from some very ancient tradition; and it is alluded to by the earliest epic poets; in the Iliad the horses of Eumelus, the son of Admetus, are stated to have derived their excellence from having been under the care of Apollo at Pheræ.[870] The harbour of Pheræ was Pagasæ, in the furthest recess of the Pagasæan bay, in which place there was a celebrated altar of the [pg 225] Pagasæan Apollo, situated in an extensive grove,[871] where there were large numbers of sacred ravens.[872] This sanctuary is the theatre of Hesiod's poem of the Shield of Hercules; and at no great distance the river Anaurus runs into the sea,[873] which stream, swollen by violent storms of rain carried away the tomb of Cycnus, the son of Mars; “for thus Apollo, the son of Latona, willed it, because Cycnus had plundered the hecatombs which the nations brought to the temple of Pytho.”[874] Hence it is evident that the Pagasæan sanctuary was situated on the road consecrated by the processions to and from Delphi; and we may perceive also in these words of Hesiod an allusion to a fable perhaps much celebrated by early poets, viz., that Cycnus was slain for having profaned the temple of Apollo.[875] Moreover, the legend related by Heraclides Ponticus, that Trophonius founded the temple of Apollo at Pagasæ,[876] points to the connexion with Delphi; the same Trophonius, a renowned [pg 226] architect of the mythical age, is also said to have built the most ancient temple of Pytho.

4. We thus arrive at Delphi, the second grand station of the worship of Apollo, and, as it were, a focus, from which it diverged in numberless directions, and to which it was again partially reflected. Now although from early times the singular and striking character of the place might often have raised the feelings to ecstasy, and excited in the spectator dim and shadowy forebodings of the future; yet the establishment of a fixed institution, with its sacred regulations and rights, was intimately connected with the introduction of the worship of Apollo. At what time, however, did this first obtain a footing at Delphi? Probably when the Doric race came from Hestiæotis to Parnassus, and settled above Delphi, which event took place at a very early period. This supposition, to which we are led by the preceding inquiry, is not inconsistent with the celebrated tradition that Cretan navigators landed on this coast in the time of Minos, and there introduced the worship of Apollo. In order, however, to reconcile these two accounts, we must first examine the Cretan worship of that god.

5. The population of Crete having been in early times composed of a heterogeneous mixture of different nations, it was natural that the worships of many different gods should prevail there; yet in many cases it is possible to ascertain the nation from which they severally originated. Amongst these, the Dorians, whose chief settlement was on the north-eastern coast near Cnosus (from which point, however, they very soon spread over other parts of the island), had brought over the worship of Apollo from their settlements under Olympus. According to a tradition preserved [pg 227] in the Homeric hymn to Apollo, the ship, which Apollo in the shape of a dolphin conducted to Delphi, set out from the city of Cnosus. Of this city the chief temple was that of Apollo Delphinius.[877] In its territory was situated a place called Apollonia; and the remarkable town of Amnisus, with the grotto of Eileithyia, where it was supposed that this goddess, who assisted at the birth of Apollo, was herself born.[878] On the same coast are Miletus, where (as will be mentioned hereafter) the worship of Apollo prevailed, and Lato (Camira), whose name reminds us of the goddess Latona. It cannot be doubted that the same worship also prevailed in the ancient Doric town of Lyctus, in the interior of the island.[879] Nearer to the southern coast was Gortyna, which, though founded by a different race, yet in later times recognised the dominion and worship of the same nation as Cnosus: accordingly, the most central point of this city was called Pythium.[880] Immediately bordering on it was Phæstus, the birthplace of Epimenides, which town was said to have derived its origin and name from a Heraclid of Sicyon.[881] Here, together with Hercules, Apollo and Latona received particular honours.[882] Further on towards the [pg 228] west, in the mountains, was Tarrha, one of the most ancient and considerable temples of Apollo.[883] Here, according to the Cretan tradition, dwelt Carmanor the father of the minstrel Chrysothemis, a priest who was said to have purified Apollo himself from the blood of the Python;[884] which legend, when compared with the account of his expiation at the altar in the valley of Tempe, shows how the legends connected with the worship of Apollo crossed over to Crete, and there again took root. With the residence of Apollo when a refugee in the house of Carmanor, there is connected a tradition of his amour with Acacallis, who bore him Naxos,[885] or Miletus,[886] or Phylander and Phylacis, who, in a sacred offering of the Elyrians at Delphi, were represented as sucking the teat of a she-goat.[887] This Elyrus, like most of the ancient towns of Crete, was situated in the mountains of the interior, probably not far from Tarrha.[888] Although there have not been preserved [pg 229] accounts sufficient to lead to any general conclusion, yet those which we have adduced establish the position that it was not the original inhabitants of mount Ida or any supposed colonists from Phœnicia, but the Dorian invaders alone who made Crete the head-quarters of the worship of Apollo: we therefore assert that this worship (as originally founded in Crete), had not the slightest connexion with the enthusiastic (and probably Phrygian) orgies of the Idæan Zeus, with the Corybantes, &c. Yet from these ceremonies being celebrated at so short a distance from each other, confusions soon arose; so that in later times the Curetes were called the sons of Apollo.[889] According to some writers, Corybas was the father of Apollo, and he was reported to have disputed the sovereignty of Crete with Zeus.[890]

6. From Crete, we will now proceed to Delos. Virgil, on the authority (as it appears) of some ancient epic poet, calls the Cretans ministers of the Delian altars.[891] The voyages of Theseus from Cnosus to Delos is also founded on the same connexion, as will be more fully explained hereafter.[892] We must not, however, too hastily conclude, that in the age of Minos, when the Cretans were the dominant nation in the Greek Archipelago, Delos received the worship of Apollo from a Cretan colony.[893] It may with greater [pg 230] probability be conjectured, that the Dorians in their first expedition to Crete (which could hardly have traversed so great a distance without leaving behind some traces of its existence) had founded the sanctuary at Delos; since the tradition of the transmission of sacred presents from the country of the Hyperboreans to that island, is most simply explained as a memorial of a religious connexion, which had once been long maintained, by means of sacred processions, with the northern settlements of the Dorians.

7. Now respecting the presence of Cretans at Delphi, it was nothing more than an attempt of these islanders, who dwelt on the very verge of the Grecian territory, to gain for themselves the credit of a reciprocal influence upon the early settlements of their own race and religion. We find in the Hymn of Homer, that Apollo, descending from Olympus, himself founded his temple at Pytho, and afterwards obtained experienced priests, minstrels, and prophets[894] from Cnosus; for which purpose he, in the shape of a dolphin, conducted a Cretan vessel to Crissa. Crissa, or Cirrha (for that the same place was originally signified by both names I consider as certain[895]), a fortified town in the inmost recess of the Crissæan bay, was probably a settlement of this Cretan colony, as the name Κρῖσα seems to signify nothing else than a Cretan city (Κρησία πόλις).[896] Although the Pythian sanctuary itself was situated in the territory of Crissa,[897] [pg 231] yet the town of Crissa possessed, besides an altar of Apollo Delphinius on the shore, in early times one of the chief temples of Apollo:[898] hence in Homer's Catalogue the sacred Crissa is mentioned, together with the rocky Pytho; and the Pythian sanctuary is called Crissæa templa, on the faith of some ancient tradition, by a Roman poet. This expression must have been borrowed from poems anterior to the destruction of Cirrha (about 585 B.C.) before this town had by its extortions and oppression of pilgrims deserved the wrath of the Amphictyonic confederacy; nor is it probable that it retained a share in the management of the Delphian temple up to the very last moment of its political existence, when it was visited with a destruction so complete, as nearly to deprive us of all knowledge of its previous history. The unfortified town of Delphi, which, with the Amphictyons, obtained after that war the sole management of the temple, previously perhaps had not been a place of any importance; at least it is not mentioned in any earlier writings than one of the most recent hymns of Homer, and by Heraclitus of Ephesus.[899]

8. In ancient times the service of the temple, as appears from the Homeric Hymn, was performed both at Delos and Delphi by Cretans; but it is scarcely possible that they should have constituted the whole population of the country. For, in the first place, the extensive territory of the temple was [pg 232] cultivated by a subject people, of whom we shall speak hereafter, and who were certainly not of Doric, and probably in few cases of Cretan descent;[900] besides whom there was a native nobility, whose influence over the temple was very considerable. These are the persons who, according to Euripides, “sat near the tripod, the Delphian nobles, chosen by lot;”[901] called also “the lords and princes of the Delphians.” They also formed a criminal court, which, by the Pythian vote, sentenced all offenders against the temple to be hurled from a precipice.[902] To the same persons also doubtless belonged the permission and superintendence of the ancient rite of expiation; and it was their duty (as it was that of the court of the Samothracian priests) to determine whether a homicide was expiable or not. Their influence over the oracle was so great, that they may be considered to have been the actual managers of it. Their political bias may be inferred from the fact, that Timasitheus the Delphian distinguished himself by his boldness and resolution among the aristocratical party of Isagoras at Athens.[903] It appears that these families originally came to Delphi from the mountainous country in the interior. Thus the chief-priests of the god, the five Ὅσιοι, were chosen by lot from a number of families who derived their descent from Deucalion,[904] by which they probably meant to denote their origin [pg 233] from Lycoreia on the heights of Parnassus, founded (as was supposed) by Deucalion, the father of Hellen;[905] from which town it is known that great part of the population of Delphi had proceeded.[906] Now this place, of which traces still remain in the village of Liacura (now only inhabited in summer by mountain shepherds)[907] was in all probability of Doric origin, since it formed the communication between the Tetrapolis and Delphi.[908] The language spoken at Delphi was likewise a Doric dialect.[909]

If then this was the case, Doric mountaineers from the heights of Parnassus, and Cretan colonists on the sea-coast, met together (according to a very uncertain computation about 200 years before the Doric migration into Peloponnesus), in order to establish the Delphian worship. The Doric dialect, it may be observed, which prevailed at Delphi, was common to both parties. It is known from many traditions and historical traces, that the connexion established by the Cretans continued for a long time.[910] The ancient tents made of feathers, and a wooden statue of [pg 234] Apollo, perhaps one of the most ancient specimens of rude carving, were also reported to have been brought from Crete. The fabulous series of Delphic minstrels began with Chrysothemis, the son of Carmanor, the above-mentioned priest of Tarrha.[911] Crete, however, did not merely send works of sculpture and hymns to Delphi, but sometimes even men,[912] for the service of the Pythian Apollo.

9. I know not whether these accounts are sufficient to afford an intelligible description of a time when the worship of Apollo, being established at the foot of Olympus, Parnassus, and in the distant island of Crete, and producing a certain degree of communication between these points, had not as yet penetrated to any part of Greece which lay to the south of Œta and Parnassus.

It is evident, moreover, that the extension of this worship met with a long opposition. Apollo is in ancient traditions represented as himself protecting his own temple.[913] The Phlegyans to the east, and the Ætolians to the west, appear to have been particularly adverse to the worship of the Delphian Apollo. That there was a national opposition caused by the Phlegyans possessing the stronghold of Panopeus in the mountain-passes towards Bœotia, is shown by the legends, that Phorbas their leader wrestled there with Apollo; that Phlegyas burned the temple to the ground; and lastly, that Apollo exterminated their whole race with thunder and lightning.[914] The same people is here represented as waging war with the [pg 235] great deity of the Dorians, which, under the name of Lapithæ, opposed the Dorians themselves in Thessaly. And on the other side, Apollo was related in the Poems of Hesiod, and the Minyad, to have assisted the Locrian Curetes against the Ætolians, and slain their prince Meleager.[915]