Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER VI.

They say the most ancient town here was built by Parnassus, who was they say the son of the Nymph Cleodora, and his fathers, (for those called heroes had always two fathers, one a god, one a man), were they say Poseidon among the gods and Cleopompus among men. They say Mount Parnassus and the dell Parnassus got their names from him, and that omens from the flight of birds were discovered by him. The town built by him was they say destroyed in Deucalion’s flood, and all the human beings that escaped the flood followed wolves and other wild beasts to the top of Mount Parnassus, and from this circumstance called the town which they built Lycorea (Wolf-town). There is also a different tradition to this, which makes Lycorus the son of Apollo by the Nymph Corycia, and that Lycorea was called after him, and the Corycian cavern from the Nymph. Another tradition is that Celæno was the daughter of Hyamus the son of Lycorus, and that Delphus from whom Delphi got its name was the son of Celæno (the daughter of Hyamus) by Apollo. Others say that Castalius an Autochthon had a daughter Thyia, who was the first priestess of Dionysus and introduced his orgies, and that it was from her that females inspired by Dionysus got generally called Thyiades, and they think Delphus was the son of Apollo and this Thyia. But some say his mother was Melæne the daughter of Cephisus. And in course of time the inhabitants called the town Pytho as well as Delphi, as Homer has shown in his Catalogue of the Phocians. Those who wish to make genealogies about everything think that Pythes was the son of Delphus, and that the town got called Pytho after him when he was king. But the prevalent tradition is that the dragon slain by Apollo’s arrows rotted here, and that was why the town was called Pytho from the old Greek word to rot, which Homer has employed in his account of the island of the Sirens being full of bones, because those that listened to their song rotted away.[94] The dragon that was slain by Apollo was the poets say posted there by Earth to guard her oracle. It is also said that Crius, the king of Eubœa, had a son of an insolent disposition, who plundered the temple of the god, and the houses of the wealthy men. And when he was going to do this a second time, then the Delphians begged Apollo to shield them from the coming danger, and Phemonoe (who was then priestess) gave them the following oracle in hexameters, “Soon will Phœbus send his heavy arrow against the man who devours Parnassus, and the Cretans shall purify Phœbus from the blood, and his fame shall never die.”

[94] Odyssey, xii. 46.

CHAPTER VII.

It appears that the temple at Delphi was plundered from the beginning. For this Eubœan robber, and a few years later the people of Phlegyas, and Pyrrhus the son of Achilles also, all laid their hands on it, and part of Xerxes’ army, but those who enriched themselves most and longest on the treasures of the god were the Phocian authorities and the army of the Galati. And last of all it was fated to experience Nero’s contempt of everything, for he carried off from Apollo 500 brazen statues, some of gods some of men.

The most ancient contest, and one for which they gave a prize first, was they say singing a Hymn in honour of Apollo. And the first victor was Chrysothemis the Cretan, whose father Carmanor is said to have purified Apollo. And after Chrysothemis they say Philammon was next victor, and next to him his son Thamyris. Neither Orpheus they say from his solemn position in respect to the mysteries and his general elevation of soul, nor Musæus from his imitation of Orpheus in all things, cared to contend in this musical contest. They say also that Eleuther carried off the Pythian prize for his loud and sweet voice. It is said also that Hesiod was not permitted to be a competitor, because he had not learned to accompany his voice with the harp. Homer too went to Delphi to enquire what was necessary for him, and even had he learnt how to play on the harp, the knowledge would have been useless to him, because of his being blind. And in the third year of the 48th Olympiad, in which Glaucias of Croton was victor, the Amphictyones established prizes for harping as at the first, and added contests for pipes, and for singing to the pipes. And the victors proclaimed were Cephallen who was distinguished in singing to the harp, and the Arcadian Echembrotus for his singing to the pipes, and the Argive Sacadas for his playing on the pipes. Sacadas also had two other Pythian victories after this. Then too they first ordained prizes for athletes as at Olympia, with the exception of the fourhorse races, and they established by law the long course and double course for boys. And in the second Pythiad they invited them no longer to contend for prizes, but made the contest one for a crown only, and stopped singing to the pipes, as not thinking it pleasing to the ear. For singing to the pipes was most gloomy kind of music, and elegies and dirges were so sung. The votive offering of Echembrotus confirms me in what I say, for the brazen tripod offered by him to Hercules at Thebes has the following inscription, “Echembrotus the Arcadian offered this tripod to Hercules, after having been victorious in the contests of the Amphictyones, and in singing to the Greeks songs and elegies.” So the contest of singing to the pipes was stopped. Afterwards they added a chariot race, and Clisthenes the tyrant of Sicyon was proclaimed victor. And in the eighth Pythiad they added harping without the accompaniment of the voice, and Agelaus from Tegea got the crown. And in the 23rd Pythiad they had a race in armour, and Timænetus from Phlius got the laurel, five Olympiads after Damaretus of Heræa was victor. And in the 48th Pythiad they established the race for a pair-horse chariot, and the pair of Execestides the Phocian was victorious. And in the fifth Pythiad after this they yoked colts to chariots, and the four-colt car of Orphondas the Theban came in first. But the pancratium for boys, and the pair of colts, and the racing colt they instituted many years after the people of Elis, the pancratium in the 61st Pythiad (when Iolaidas the Theban was victor), and one Pythiad after the racing colt (when Lycormas of Larissa was proclaimed victor), and in the 69th Pythiad the pair of colts (when the Macedonian Ptolemy was victor). For the Ptolemies delighted to be called Macedonians, as indeed they were. And the crown of laurel was given to the victors in the Pythian games, for no other reason I think than that (according to the prevalent report) Apollo was enamoured of Daphne[95] the daughter of Ladon.

[95] Daphne means laurel. See Wordsworth’s noble Poem, The Russian Fugitive, Part iii.

CHAPTER VIII.

Some think that Amphictyon the son of Deucalion appointed the general Council of the Greeks, and that was why those who assembled at the Council were called Amphictyones: but Androtion in his history of Attica says that originally delegates came to Delphi from the neighbouring people who were called Amphictiones, and in process of time the name Amphictyones prevailed. They say too that the following Greek States attended this general Council, the Ionians, the Dolopes, the Thessalians, the Ænianes, the Magnetes, the Malienses, the Phthiotes, the Dorians, the Phocians, the Locrians who dwelt under Mount Cnemis and bordered upon Phocis. But when the Phocians seized the temple, and ten years afterwards the Sacred War came to an end, the Amphictyonic Council was changed: for the Macedonians obtained admission to it, and the Phocians and (of the Dorians) the Lacedæmonians ceased to belong to it, the Phocians because of their sacrilegious outbreak on the temple, and the Lacedæmonians because they had assisted the Phocians. But when Brennus led the Galati against Delphi, the Phocians exhibited greater bravery than any of the Greeks in the war, and were in consequence restored to the Amphictyonic Council, and in other respects regained their former position. And the Emperor Augustus wished that the inhabitants of Nicopolis near Actium should belong to the Amphictyonic Council, so he joined the Magnetes and Malienses and Ænianes and Phthiotes to the Thessalians, and transferred their votes, and those of the Dolopes who had died out, to the people of Nicopolis. And in my time the Amphictyones were 30 members. Six came from Nicopolis, six from Macedonia, six from Thessaly, two from the Bœotians (who were originally in Thessaly and called Æolians), two from Phocis, and two from Delphi, one from ancient Doris, one from the Locrians called Ozolæ, one from the Locrians opposite Eubœa, one from Eubœa, one from Argos Sicyon Corinth and Megara, and one from Athens. Athens and Delphi and Nicopolis send delegates to every Amphictyonic Council: but the other cities I have mentioned only join the Amphictyonic Council at certain times.

As you enter Delphi there are four temples in a row, the first in ruins, the next without statues or effigies, the third has effigies of a few of the Roman Emperors, the fourth is called the temple of Athene Pronoia. And the statue in the ante-chapel is the votive offering of the Massaliotes, and is larger in size than the statue within the temple. The Massaliotes are colonists of the Phocæans in Ionia, and were part of those who formerly fled from Phocæa from Harpagus the Mede, but, after having beaten the Carthaginians in a naval engagement, obtained the land which they now occupy, and rose to great prosperity. This votive offering of the Massaliotes is of brass. The golden shield which was offered to Athene Pronoia by Crœsus the Lydian was taken away (the Delphians said) by Philomelus. Near this temple is the sacred enclosure of the hero Phylacus, who, according to the tradition of the Delphians, protected them against the invasion of the Persians. In the part of the gymnasium which is in the open air was once they say a wild wood where Odysseus, when he went to Autolycus and hunted with the sons of Autolycus, was wounded on the knee by a boar.[96] As you turn to the left from the gymnasium, and descend I should say about 3 stades, is the river called Plistus, which falls into the sea at Cirrha the haven of the Delphians. And as you ascend from the gymnasium to the temple on the right of the road is the water Castalia which is good to drink. Some say it got its name from Castalia a local woman, others say from a man called Castalius. But Panyasis, the son of Polyarchus, in the poem he wrote about Hercules says that Castalia was the daughter of Achelous. For he says about Hercules,