Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/25

 76e DELPHI the Urjgat in Graeoe (Phikstr. ViL ApoHLin. 11), • «ad vied in beauty with the temples of Athene (£urip. /on, 184 ; Pind. Pyth. vii. 9). It has been Already related that it was erected by the Alcmae- «nidaa, nnder the anperintendenoe of the Corinthian Architect Siuntharus, after it had been bnmt down in B. a 648, and that the fnmt was built of Parian nuurble, while the remainder was of ordinary stone. The tympana of the pediments of the two porticoes were filled with scnlptores, the one with statoes of Artemis, Leto, ApoUo, the llnses, and the setting son, and the other with those of IMonyvns and the Thyiades, both of them the works of Athenian artists. (Pans. z. 19. § 4.) Euripides has de- scribed ^?e of the metopes, probably those on the eastern front. The subjects were, Hercules and loUiUB slaying tiie Lemaean hydrik, Belleropbon killing the Ghimaera, Zens kiUuig Mimas, Pallas killing Enoeladus, and Bacchus anoSier of the giants. (Eurip. Ian, 1 90 — ^2 18.) As in the Parthenon, there were gilded shields upon the arehitraYes of the two fronts beneath the metopes: those in the eastern front were dedicated by the Athenians from the spoils of the Persians at Marathon, and those on the western front by the Aekolians from the spoils of the Gauls. (Pans. z. 19. § 4.) The interior of the temple consisted of thrae di* visions, the Pronaus (irp6vt»t)^ the Gella (vuAsf nfK^)t and the Adytum, where the oracles wvrs de» livered (jS^vroy, luanuov^ XR^^P*^)* In the Pronaus stood a braeen statue of Homer (Pans. z. 24. § S), and alsoy in the time of Herodo- tus, the large silver crater presented by Croesus (Herod, i. 51). On the walls of the Pronaus were inscribed, by order of the Amphictyons, in golden letters, tiie celebrated sayings of the Seven Wise . y Men, such as ** Know thyself" '* Nothing too much." f4kj^*A 4yiC(ViiL de Gamd, t Pans. z. 24. $ I ; Plin. vii. '^ H ®f ) ^^ '^ was^ up in wood the fifth letter Ce*/r>rvLm; or the Greek alphabet, whidi, acoordmg to tradition, /v'. Xa t-M was dedicated in common by the Sevoi Wise Men. ^' 5 V3, ting also represented the diphthong c/. There were various interpretations of its meaning, of which Pln« tarch has given an account in his treatise upon tiie fiubjeot The Celhi was supported by Ionic columns, as appears from existing fragments. In it Pansanias saw an altar of Poseidon, to whom the oracle be* longed in the most ancient times, statues of two Moerae or Fates, together with statues of Zeus and Apollo as leaders of the Fates, the hearth upon which the priest of Apollo slew Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, and the iron chair of Pindar, on which he is said to have sung his hymns to ApoUa (Paus. Z.24. §4,8eq.) On the hearth burnt a perpetual fire, and near it was the Omphalos, or Navel-Stone, which was sup- posed to mane the middle point of the earth. ( Am- chyl. Choeph. 1034, seq.; ^otHjISos yas fUff6t*/^ Kos iffrloj Eurip. lon^ 461.) According to tradi- tion, two eagles, which had been sent by Zeus, one from the east, and the other from the west, met at this punt, and. thus determined it to be the centre of the eartli. (Pind. Pj/th, iv. 131, vi. 8; fitrab. iz. p. 419.) The Omphaloe was a white stone, adorned with stripes of various kinds, and upon it wore the representations of the two eagles '(6fi^>ak6s . . . reuvmfiwoff Strab. L c. ; arifi- /juuri 7* Mvrhs, Eurip. Ion, 224; Paus* z. 16. § 6). It is frequently represented in Tase-pointmgs, DELPHL in which Orestes is exhibited sitting upon it, ex- actly as described by Aeschylus. (£imi. 40 ; comp. Muller, Aesehl. Bum, § 27.) The site of the Om- phaloe is not mentioned by Pauaanias. It was clearly In the interior of the temple, for in Aeschylus the Pythia, in going throngh the temple to the Ady- tum, perceives Orntes seated upon the 'Omphaks {Eum, I c). It probably stood, along with the sa- cred hearth, as nearly as possible in the centre of tfae Gella. The sacred hearth was usually in the centre of the hoose or the temple. Thus, the altar in the middleof the palace at Mycenae iacdled by Clytaon- nestra fMtr^fi^aXof ioruu (Aescfau Agam. 1056.) The temfde was hypaethial, that is, there was an openiog m the roof of the Cella* This foOowa fimm the nairative of Jnatin, who relates that, when tfae temple was attacked by the Ganls, the priests saw the god descend into the sanctuary through the open part of the roof ('*per culminis aperta fast^iia," Justin, zxiv. 8). In fiuit, all temples which had in the interior an altar on which sacrifices were ofionsd, or a hearth on which fire was k^ bonuBg, were obliged to have some openixig fir canrying off the smokoi The Adytum, in which the ondes were de- livered, was a subterraneous chamber, which no ene was allowed to enter except the priests, or those to whom special permission was given. Tltat the Ady- tum was under-gioand appears firam the ezprea a io n s by which it is nequently designated in the ancient writers, and which reftr not only to natural caves and grottoes, but to cfaamben built nnder-gromid. (CdBtd r* lErrps HpiKomSf Eurip. Pkom. 232; Hrpov, Strab. iz. p. 419; rb rov icKnOimos livdv' irot ffnikeuffy, Athen. zv. ^ 701, c ; *^ speeua,** Li^ L 56 ; " Castalium antrum," Ov. Met iii. 14 ; " ca- vema," .Lucan, v. 135, 162.) It is described as situated In the inmost part of the tonple, and is frequently called twxit* (Pans. z. 24. ^ 5; fwx^i, Aesch. Eum, 39.) No account of it is given by Pansanias, who simply says that " few are admitted into the inmost part of the temple, and that in it there is a second statue of Apollo, made of gold.'' (Paus. /. c.) Ulriehs conjectures that the entrance into the Adytum may have been either on the western side of theCeAla,opporito the great door of the temple; or on the northern side, where an ezcavataon might be made in the rock in tiie direction of the fonntain Cassotis, which flowed into tiie Adytum. Stephanus B. says (s. v. AtK^) that the Ady- tum was built of five stones, by the celebrated Trx>- phonlus and Agamedes, who appear in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo as the original architects of the temple. And it is natural to conclude that the Adytum and the polygonal substmctaon of the temple escaped the fire which destroyed the building in Uie 58th Olympiad. In the inmost part of the Adytum stood a tripod over a deep chasm in the earth, whence proceeded an intoxicating vapour, which was supposed to in- spire the priestess with the gift of prx)pnecy. (Strah. L c.) This opening is described by various names in the ancient writers. (xd<r/ia, IMod. zvL 26; *y^ <rrtf/ia, Stobaeus, £d. i. 42; TlvSiicip vri/uop, Lucian, Ner, 10, Dion Cass. hail. 14; "hiatus,"* Lucan, v. 82 ; '* terrae foramen," zziv. 6.) Accord- ing to Plutarch this vapour arose from a fountain (cfo Drf. Or, 50, de P^ Ot, 17), which is said by Pansanias to have been the fountain Cassotis, that disappeared beneath the ground in the Adytnfli (z. 24. § 7). Pansanias also tektes tiiat the onde
 * U&s fhtt^. It ma a simple E, which in the andent Greek wri-