Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/20

 DELPHL Tuov iNi2 T^y T^Aiy, Strab. ix. p. 418; media aaxi rapes in fonnam theatri leoessit, Jiutln, zzir. 6.) The northern barrier of the Phaedriades is deft towards the middle into two stnpendons cliflb, be- tween which iasnes the fiur-fiuned Castalian spring, ivhich flows down the hill into the Pieistns. The ancient town kj on both sides of the stream, bat the greater part of it on the left or western bank, on which stands the modem -rillage of Kattri, Above the town was the sanctoaiy cf the god, im- mediately under the Phaedriades. Delphi was, so to speakt shat in on all sides froai the rest of the world, and coold not have been seen by any of the nomeroos ]n]grims who yiaited it, till they had crossed one of its rocky barriers, when all its glories bnrst suddenly npon thdr view. On its northern side were the Phaedriades ; on its eastern and western sides, the two lower ridges projecting irom the Phaedriades towards the Pleistos; while -on the other side of the river towards the sonth rose the range of Mt. Cirphis. / Three roads led to Delphi; one from Boeotia, — the celebrated Sehuie, — which passed through the eastern of two ridges mentioned above; and two othen from the west, crossing the only two openings in the western ridge. /Of these two the more northerly led from Amphissa, and the more soatherly from Crissa, the modem Ckrytd^ which was the one taken by the pilgrims coining from Cirrha. Traces of tihe an- cient carriage-road from Crissa to Delphi may still he seen. Delphi was fortified by nature, on the nortb, east, and west, by the Phaedriades and the two projeding ridges: it was only undeftnded on the south. On this side it was first fortified by a line of wdls by Philomelas, who also erected two fortresses to command its two approaches from the west. The drcait of the city was only 16 stadia, or a little more than two miles, (Strab. I, c.) A topographical description of the city is given below. The Delphian valley, or that part of the vale of the Pleistus lying at the foot of the town, is men- tioned in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (284), under the name of Koiku finaaa ; and is calleld by Pindar •Koidw99w pdaros {Pl/th. v. 50), and *AiroKK»pta vAwa {Pyth. vi. 10), and by Strabo also vdani (Strab. ^c.).')e IL HiSTOBT. The town of Delphi owes its origin as well as its importance to the oracle of Apollo. According to some traditions, it had belonged to other divinities before it passed into the hands of Apollo. In Aeschylus it is represented as held in suooeeuon by Gata, Themis, and the Titanian Phoebe, the kst of whom gave it to Phoebus, when he came from Delos. (^Eum. 1, seq.) Pausanias says that it was origi- nally tihe joint oracle of Poseidon and Ge; that Qe gave her sharvvto Themis, and Themis to Apollo; and that the latter obtained from. Poseidon the other half by giving him in exchange the island of Galanreta. (Pans. z. 5. § 6, seq.) The proper name of the oracle was Pttho (n^«); and in Homer that of Delphi, which was subsequently the luune of the town, dees not occur. In the Iliad the temple of Phoebus Apollo at the rocky Pytho is already filled with treasures (IL iz. 405); and in the catalogue of the ships the mhabitants of Pytho are mentioned in the same line with those of Cypa- rissns (//. iz. 405). In the Odyssey Agamemnon 6gDiiiltBth0onudeatPytho((M:viii.8O). It thus DELPHL 761 '>. appears in the most ancient times as a sacred spot; but the legend of its foundation is first related in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. In thb poem Apollo, seeking for a spot where he may found an oracle, comes at last to Crissa under Mount Par- nassus. He is charmed with the solitude and sub- limity of the place, and forthwith commences the erection of a temple, which is finished under the superintendence of the two brothers Trophonius and Agamedes. He then slays the huge serpent which infested the place; and frt>m the monster totting (from wM^of) in the ground, the temple was called Pytho, and the god the Pythian : — ^ oS vw nvM» KUtKi^vrai' ol 5< Ibturra riv^ioi' KttXiowruf Mkmtfunf, i^pwa frciVi o^roi; wucrc T4kttp fiii^s ^^f ^^Xtom. {Hffmn. in Apoll 372.) The temple now wanted priests; and the god, be- holding a Crotan ship sailing frtim Cnossus, meta- morphosed himself into a dolphin, and brought the vessel into the Crissaean gulf. Here the Cretans landed, and, conducted by the god, founded the town of Crissa, and became the priests of the temple. He taught them to worship him under the name of Apollo Delpbinius, because he had met them in the form of a dolphin (AfA^i's ). MtUler (Dorioiu, voL i. p. 238), and many other writers, suppose that this temple was really founded by colonists from Crete, and that the very name Crissa points to a Cretan origin. We, however, are dis- posed to think that in this, as in so many otlier cases, the legend has sprung out of an attempt to ezpUdn the names ; and tlwt it was simply the names of Crissa and Delphi which suggested the story of the Cretan colonists and of the metamori^osls of the god into the dolphin. It is useless to speculate as to what is the real origin of the names of Crissa and Pytho. Many writers derive the latter from wvBicBai, ** to inquire," in spite of the difference of the quantity (IlvOci, irv9wdai) but the similarity of sound between the two words is probably only accidental Whatever may be thought of the origin of the places, the historical fiict worthy of notice is» that Crissa had at first the superintendence of the sanctuary of Pytho, and con^ued to claim juris- diction over it even after the Amphictyonic Council held its spring meeting at the temple, and b^an to regard itself as the guardian of the phM». A town gradually sprung up round the sanctuary, the inhabitants of which daimed to administer the affiiirs of the temple independently of the Crissaeans. Meantime Cirrha, which was originally the sea-port of Crissa, increased at the expense of the latter; and tihus Crissa declined in importance, as Cirrha and Delphi augmented. It is probable that Crissa had already sunk into insignificance before the Sacred War in b. o. 595, which ended in the de- stmction of Cirrha by the order of the Amphictyonic CouncU, and in the dedication of the Cirrhaean plain to the town. An account of this war is given else- where [CftiasA] ; and it is only necessary to repeat here, tiiat the sp(Mls of Cirrha were employed by the Amphictyons in founding the Pythian games, which were henoeforwards celebrated under the superintendence of the council every four yean, — in the former half of every third Olympiad. The firat celebration of the Pytl^an games took place in D. c. 586. The horse races and foot races were celebrated in the maritime plain near the site of Cirrha. The hippodrome oontinaed to be in thia " r, b ^
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