I shall content myself with noticing a few of the temples above-mentioned.
The first in order is the oracle at the fountain of Tilphossa under Mount Helicon, famous for the grave of Tiresias and the monument of Rhadamanthus, who is said to have dwelt here with Alcmena the mother of Hercules.[1008] To this spot were attached some remarkable traditions of the Cretan worshippers of Apollo, forming a branch of the colonization of Cirrha; which is alluded to in Homer's account of [pg 254] the Thracians' bringing Rhadamanthus to Eubœa for the purpose of seeing Tityus;[1009]—a remarkable passage, which I can only understand to mean that the Cretan hero was desirous to see Tityus, who was vanquished by Apollo.
Tegyra was a place of great importance in the Bœotian tradition, as being the birthplace of Apollo.[1010] The Delphian oracle was more favourable to this tradition than to that of Delos. Pindar[1011] represents the youthful god as coming to take possession of Pytho from Tegyra, not, as the Attic poets, from Delos.
12. The identity of the Bœotian with the Delphian worship of Apollo was particularly striking in the temple of Ismene at Thebes. As at Delphi the Python was slain and the laurel broken anew every eight years, so at Thebes a procession of laurel-bearers took place at the same periods, the use of which, as a measure of time, is evident.[1012] Here also, as at Delphi, the statue of Athene was placed in front of the temple (πρόναος).[1013] Tripods were the sacred vessels in both temples, though never employed in the latter for the purpose of prophecy. In later times the priests were contented with observing omens from the flame and ashes of sacrifices,[1014] like the πυρχόοι of Delphi;[1015] although [pg 255] the mode of delivering oracles, from a mental enthusiasm, was prevalent also in Thebes at an earlier period; at least Tiresias (whom we may consider as a prophet of the temple of Ismene)[1016] does not, either in Homer or the tragedians, appear as a diviner from fire.
That, however, the whole worship of Apollo was not one of those originally instituted at Thebes, will be evident from the following observations. In the ancient legends respecting Cadmus, in which Demeter, Cora, Cadmus, and afterwards Bacchus, predominate in succession, Apollo never appears in a conspicuous character. For particular additions of the poets may be easily distinguished from the genuine popular tradition. The fable, that Cadmus, after the slaughter of the serpent, was, like Apollo, compelled to live eight years in slavery,[1017] must be considered as a poetical transposition. Cadmus and Apollo had originally no points of resemblance to each other. The situation of the temple of Apollo at Thebes is a most convincing proof that his worship was totally distinct from any other. Those of the ancient national gods were built on the citadel of Cadmeia, whilst Apollo was not only not worshipped in the citadel, but even without the gates, in the temple of Ismene,[1018] which, according to Pausanias, must have been situated opposite to the temple of Hercules and the house of Amphitryon. This proximity of the hero and god, as well as all other points of union between the two at Thebes, will [pg 256] be employed for the purpose of establishing further conclusions, when we explain the legend of Hercules.[1019]
To settle with any accuracy, from the traditions concerning Tiresias and Hercules, the time at which the Bœotian temples of Apollo were founded, seems hardly possible, since the former contain no chronological information, and the latter are entirely unconnected with the rest of the Theban mythology. A tradition respecting the establishment of the festival of the Daphnephoria places it at the time of the Æolian migration,[1020] whence it might perhaps be inferred that the Æolians introduced the worship of Apollo into Bœotia. This hypothesis would however involve us in endless perplexities; and it is most probable that its diffusion was gradually effected, soon after the settlement at Cirrha, about the time at which the worship of Apollo rose to importance at Athens.
13. The introduction of this worship into Attica coincides exactly with the passage of the Ionians into that country. The traditions respecting the most ancient kings, Cecrops, Erichthonius, and Erechtheus, chiefly refer to the temples, symbols, and festival rites of Athene; and this goddess, together with the other deities of the Acropolis, plays the principal part in them, particularly in her connexion with the blessings of husbandry. But with the reign of Ion the Attic mythology assumes quite a different character.[1021] This seems to me a complete refutation of the assertion of the Ionians as to their identity with the aboriginal nation of the Pelasgians.[1022] Still more evident is it [pg 257] then, that in proportion as the Ionians, being a warlike nation,[1023] separated themselves from the original inhabitants, whose employment was agriculture and pasturing, their Hellenic worship deviated from the ancient one of the country. Aristotle indeed speaks of the paternal Apollo (Ἀπόλλων πατρῷος) as being a son of Athene and Hephæstus;[1024] but this is nothing more than an endeavour to create a family connexion between the principal gods of the same town: for where do we ever find a temple dedicated conjointly to Athene and Apollo? what ceremonies and sacrifices were offered to them in common? and in what legends are they found connected? Till such an union of the two deities is discovered, we must consider Athene as an ancient and native deity, Apollo as one of much later introduction. The Athenians, indeed, maintained that an ancient hero of their country, Erysichthon, a son of Cecrops himself, erected the first statue of Apollo at Delos:[1025] but it is easy to recognise in this account the attempt of the Athenians to fortify their claims to the dominion of the Delian temple, and to represent their rights as prior to all others. In all that is related of the Ionian princes (to whom Ægeus[1026] and Theseus belong) with reference to religious institutions, mention is seldom made of the ancient Athenian deities, Athene and Hephæstus. The whole is [pg 258] taken up with accounts either of the establishment of the worship of Poseidon (which prevailed in the Ionian cities and in the places of their national assemblies), or the establishment and maintenance of an intercourse with the temples of Apollo at Delos, Delphi, and Cnosus.
14. In the second place, the fabulous history of these heroes also concerns the worship of Apollo, in so far as the origin of the Pythian Theorias is contained in it. Ion is even a real son or adopted disciple of the Pythian god; and in all probability there was no more difference originally between his two fathers, Apollo and Xuthus,[1027] than between the two fathers of Theseus, Ægeus and Poseidon. Theseus consecrated his hair to the same god; a place at Delphi was called Thesea.[1028] It is also related of Ægeus, that his kingdom, embracing the plain of Attica, stretched as far as Pythium, where it bordered on Megaris.[1029] This Pythium was situated in the “sacred Œnoë,”[1030] a fortified borough town of the tribe Hippothoontis, on the frontiers of Megaris, Bœotia, and Attica,[1031] to the north of the plain of Eleusis, and in a district of remarkable fertility.[1032]
This temple was manifestly built on the frontiers in [pg 259] order to afford a resting-place to the sacred procession, which in the beginning of the spring went from Athens to Pytho. For if favourable omens had been observed in the town itself, and it was intended to despatch the procession, the prophet in the Pythium at Œnoë performed sacrifices every day, in order to procure a favourable journey, just as the Delian procession was regulated by omens observed in the Delium at Marathon.[1033] The families charged with the preparations for sending the procession (probably all of ancient Ionian extraction) were called Pythaistæ and Deliastæ.[1034] The omens looked for were the Pythian lightnings, a very unusual mode of divination in Greece. The Pythaistæ took their station in the town, near the altar of Zeus Astrapæus, between the Olympieium and Pythium, both of which were among the earliest sanctuaries, although they first owed their magnificence to Pisistratus.[1035] From this spot it was the custom to watch for nine nights, during three months, a lofty peak of mount Parnes,[1036] called Harma; and it was only in case the wished-for lightnings flashed favourably over the heights that the embassy could proceed along the Pythian road. This road led from Athens, near mount Corydallus (on which there was a temple of Apollo),[1037] through the Eleusinian [pg 260] plain to Œnoë; from thence through the pass of Dryoscephalæ to Bœotia, where it touched either Thespiæ or Thebes, then Lebadeia and Chæronea, and then passed on by Panopeus and Daulis through the defile between Parnassus and Cirphis to Delphi: a mountain road which the Athenians declared that they had themselves opened,[1038] and which Theseus is said to have freed from robbers,[1039] in the same manner that he purified the road to the Isthmus from monsters. This was also the sacred road for the Peloponnesians, if we except that part of it which traversed Attica.[1040]
There still remains to be mentioned a remarkable fact respecting Œnoë, which will greatly assist us in explaining the fable of the voyage of Theseus to Crete: I allude to the existence of a tomb of Androgeus, the son of Minos, whom the natives had put to death as he was passing on the Pythian road.[1041] A Cretan was murdered in the sacred way of the Cretan worship; Minos came to take vengeance for the violation of the sacred armistice; and hence Athens was obliged to send a tribute to Cnosus. Now the nature of this tribute may be perceived from a tradition preserved by Aristotle,[1042] that the boys who were sent to Crete by the Athenians lived at Cnosus as slaves; and that [pg 261] afterwards, when the Cretans, in consequence of an ancient vow, sent a tithe of men to Delphi, the descendants of these slaves went with them, and subsequently passed from thence to Italy. From this it appears that the Athenians were compelled to send sacred slaves to the chief temple at Cnosus, viz., that of Apollo. For this reason these missions took place every eight years (δι᾽ ἐννέα ἐτῶν);[1043] that is, probably at every Ennaëteris of the Cretan and Delphic festival; and for the same reason they consisted of seven young men and women, as this number was especially sacred to Apollo.[1044]