Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/18

 DELQS. Bffmn, m ApoB, 146, seq.; Grate, EM o/Grteee, ToL ui. p. 222.) Tb* festival inis condncted with gn$X spiendoor; ud, as at Delphi, there were musical, as well aa gynuustic contests. Like the Olympic and other great festiTals of Hellas, it doubtless grew out of one of a mora limited chaiacter; and we are expraeslj informed that Dek» was eriginallj the .centra of an Amphietyooj, to which the Cydades and the neighboonng islaDds belooged. (Thne. iiL 104: Strab. x. p. 485; comp. BSckh, Jfucr. toL L p. 252, eeq.) The Athenians took part in this fes- tival at an early period, aa is evident from the mention of the Deliagtae in one of Solon's laws (Athen. vi p. S34). It was rehfeed at a hter period that the Athenians institnted the festival to eammemarate the safe ratom of Theseos from Crete, and that the Teaeel in which the sacred embassy sailed to the festival was the identical one which had carried Theseos and his oompaniooa. (Pint The$. 21 ; Pkt Pkaed. sab init) The two Ionic despots, Peisistratos of Athens and Polycrates of Samoa, both took a warm interast in the festival: PeisistnitTU porified the ishnd by removing all the tombs which wera within view of the temple ; and Polycrates dedicated the neighbooring island of Bheneia to the Delian JkpoDo, by ftstemng it with a chain to Delos. Bat .owing to varioos caoses, among which nndoabtedly was Uie conquest of the Ionic cities in Asik Minor .by the Persians, the ftstival had fallen into decay at the commencement of the Petopcnneeian War. In the sixth year of this war, b. g. 426, the Athouans porified Delos. They removed all the tomba from the island, and dedaied it to be onlawfol henceforth for any living being to be bom or die within it, and that every pregnant woman shonld be carried over to the island of Bheneia in order to be delivered. (Thoc Lc; Strab. x. p. 486.) On thu occasion .the Athenians restored the ancient festival nnder the .name of the DeUa, of which an aeooont is given elsewhere. (JHeL of Ani, tat JkHa.) The sancti^ of Delos was respected by Datis and Artapbemes, who wonld not anchor here, bnt passed on to BheneiA. They also sent a herald to recall the Delians, who had fled to Tenos, and they bamt npon the altar of the sod 800 talents of frankincense. (UenxL vi. 97.) On the formation of the confederacy in B. a 477, for the porpoee of carrying on the war against Persia, Delos was choeen as the common treasory (Thoc. i. 96); bat sobseqnently the trans- ference of the treasory to Athens, and the altered character of the confederacy, reduced the island to a ooodikian of absolate political dependence upon Athens. The porification of Delos by the Athenians in B. c. 426 has been already mentioned; bat foor yean afterwards (b. c. 422) the Athenians thinking the removal of the Delians themselves essential to the complete porificatian of the island, banished all the inhabitants, who obtained a settlement at Atra- myttiom (Adrunyttiom), which was given to them by the satrap Phamaoes. (Thoc v. 1 ; Pans. iv. 27. § 9.) Here, some years afterwards (b.c. 411), several of thMn were mordered by Anaces, a general of Tiswphernes (Thoa viii. 108). After the fidl of Corinth (b. a 146) Dek)s became the centra of an extensive commerce. The sanctity of the spot and its conseqoent secority, its festival which waa a kind of fior, the excellence of its har- bour, and its convenieDt sitoation on the highway from Italy and Greece to Aria, madi it a favoorite resort of merchants. (Strab. x. p. 486.) So ex- teosivie was the oom^ierce curiad on at Pdos, that - DELOS. 789 10,000 davei are said to have chaiwsd handa here in one day. (Strab. xiv. p. 668.) Ddoe was cele- brated for its bronze, and before the invention of the Corinthian bronze the aet Ddiaetm had the greatest reputation in antiqoity, and the vessels made of it were in very great request (Plin. xxxiv. 2. s. 4; "vasaDeliaca," CUi.pro Bote uIm. 46, Verr. u. 34; JDicL o/AikL p. 25, b., 2nd ed.) The Bomans confirmed the Athenians in the possession of the island; but in the Uithridatic War the generals of Uithridates inflict^wl upon it a devastation, from which it never recovered. In the time of Strabo it still belonged to the Athenians. (Polyb. xxx. 18; Strab. L a ; Appian, MUkr. 28; Pans. iii. 23. §§ 3,4.) Pansanlas describes it as almost dmyted in /. his time (viiL 83. § 2, comp. ix. 34. § ^yAuAM, efTA-d ,^ Deks is little more than a rock, being only ^mtJL<ctLA' miles in dreumference, according to Pliny i}»c^Jt»li ^h^ The town is described by Strabo (x. p. 485) as lying '"^''^<^. in a phun at the foot of Mount Cynthus, and the only buildings which he specifies in the island are the Ufkof of ApoUo, and the temple of Leto. The - town was situated on the western side of the island. Mount Cynthus, from which ApoUo and Leto are so often called, is a bare granite rock not more than 400 or 500 feet high. It was probaUy the acr»- pohs of the andent town, and seems to have been surrounded by a walL On its sides are many archi- tectural fragments of white marble, and on its sum- mit are the foundations and remains of a large build- ipg of the knic order. In antiquity two flights of steps led up to the summit of the mountain; Uie one on the northern, and the other on the western ddeu On the western side is an ancient gate, of which ^ the roof is formed of two stones rudely diaped, and resting against each other at an angle so obtuse that tiie rise is only 4 feet 2 inches, above a breadth of 16 fiset 2 toches." (Leake.) The andent writers speak of a little river Ihopus / (*lM*witfs) in the island. They compare its rismg I and foiling with the ssme phaenanena of the Kile, and some even suppose there was a connectian be- ' tween it and the Aegyptian river. (StralK vi. p. 271, ' X. p. 485 ; Callun. J7ynMi. in i>0{. 206, 263, «• i>ftaf». 171 ; Pbus. ii. 5. § 8; Plin. u. 103. s. 106.) We also find mention of a lake or tank, called >dutn rpox^f^' Vy Herodotus (ii. 170) and Theognis (7), Tpoxodiraa by Callimachus (aa JkL 261), contain- ing the water necessaiy for the aetviee of the temple of ApoUo. Its name, as well as the epithet rtpai- yis given it by Callimachus (ni ApoU. 59), sufli- dentlypioves that it was oval or dreular; and there can be no doubt that it is the oval basin, 100 yards in length, situated in the Borthem half of the ishmd, anda little inland east of the andent harbour, which Toumefort and the earlier writen absurdly sup- posed to be a Naumachia. This lake is frequently mentioned by other ancient writers; and near it Leto is said to have brought forth her divine chil- dren. (Aeech. Eum, 9; Eurip. /on, 169, Iphig. Tamr» 1 103.) Othen again repreeent the birthplace of ApoUo and Artemis as near the Inopos (Hodl m Apck 18; Callim. m DeL 206); and as the exact spot waa pointed out in later times, the Iw^os would appear to have been situated in the northern part of the iskndy near the oval basin mentioned above. Leake, however, identifies the Inopos with the small brook which flows down from Mount Cynthus and jdns the sea at the port of Fumi, since it is the only running stream *m the island, and that only in wintn. Imp is Mud to have grasped a pahn-trqi 3c4