The excavators proceeded to clear out cave Γ, and here they found nothing, no votive tablets, no altar, no inscriptions. But in carrying on their work further East they came on a fourth cave, of a character quite different from that of Α, Β, or Γ. The fourth cave, Δ, has a very narrow entrance; it communicates by a narrow passage with Δ′ and also with Δ″, but Δ″ has been turned into a small Christian church, of which the pavement and a portion of a brick wall yet remain. Here at Δ we have a cave in the full sense of the word, and here we have in all probability the cave or caves, the ‘seats[182]’ (θακήματα) of Pan.
But, be it remembered, Pan was a late-comer; his worship was introduced after his services at Marathon. In heroic days, the time of the story of Creousa, the Long Rocks were shared by the Pythian god and the daughters of Aglauros. The hollow triple cave marked Δ′, Δ″, Δ‴ was once the property of Apollo, and it saw the birth of Ion; later it was handed over to Pan, and is again, as in the Lysistrata[183], the natural sequestered haunt of lovers. Kinesias, on the Acropolis, points out to Myrrhine that near at hand is the sanctuary of Pan for seclusion, and close by the Klepsydra for purification.
In the countless votive tablets[184] to Pan and the nymphs, the type varies little. We have a cave, an altar: round the altar three nymphs are dancing, usually led by Hermes, and, perched on the side of the cave or looking through a hole, Pan is piping to them. The three nymphs, three daughters of Kekrops, were then dancing on the Long Rocks long before Pan came to pipe to them. Concerned as we are for the present with Apollo and his Pythion, it is only necessary to note that their shrine, the sanctuary of Aglauros, must have been near the cave of Pan, somewhere to the East. Euripides[185] speaks of them as practically one:
O seats of Pan and rock hard by
To where the hollow Long Rocks lie
Where, before Pallas’ temple-bound
Aglauros’ daughters three go round
Upon their grassy dancing-ground
To nimble reedy staves.
Where thou O Pan art piping found