Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/264

 248 HISTORY OF GREtUZ.. this Arnphiktyonic convocation. .ZEschines gives us an extrao' from the oath which had been taken by the sacred deputies, who nl tended on behalf of their respective races, ever since its first establishment, and which still apparently continued to be taken in his day. The antique simplicity of this oath, and of the con- ditions to which the members bind themselves, betrays the early age in which it originated, as well as the humble resources of those towns to which it was applied. 1 " We will not destroy any Amphiktyonic town, we will not cut off any Amphiktyonic town from running water," such are the two prominent obliga- tions which -ZEschines specifies out of the old oath. The second of the two carries us back to the simplest state of society, and (o towns of the smallest size, when the maidens went out with (heir basins to fetch water from the spring, like the daughters of Keleos at Eleusis, or those of Athens from the fountain of Kallirrhoe. 2 We may even conceive that the special mention of this detail, in the covenant between the twelve races, is bor- rowed literally from agreements still earlier, among the villages or little towns in which the members of each race were distrib- uted. At any rate, it proves satisfactorily the very ancient date to which the commencement of the Amphiktyonic convocation must be referred. The belief of JEschines (perhaps, also, the belief general in his time) was, that it commenced simultaneously with the first foundation of the Delphian temple, an event of which we have no historical knowledge ; but there seems rea- son to suppose that its original establishment is connected with Thermopylae and Demeter Amphiktyonis, rather than with Delphi and Apollo. The special surname by which Demeter and her temple at Thermopylae was known, 3 the temple of the hero Amphiktyon which stood at its side, the word Pylae, which obtained footing in the language to designate the half- yearly meeting of the deputies both at Thermopylae and at 1 JEschin. Fals. Lcgat. p. 279, c. 35 : "A.[ta 6e Ij upxw die?/2.dov r/> KTiffiv Toii /cpov, Kal TTJV TrpuTrjv avvodov yevofj,EVt]v TUV ' AfiQiKTvovuv, nal Tojf opicovf avruv uveyvuv, tv olf ivopnov rjv roif apxaiotr pjdefilav Kol.iv TUV 'A.[j.$iK.rvovi6cjv avuffrarov Trotf/ativ ftf]6' iiduTuv vafianaiuv elpfeiv, etc. rodot. vi. 137. Thucyd. ii. 15. a Herodot. vii. 200 ; Livy, xxxi. 33.
 * Homer, Iliad, vi. 457. Homer, Hymn to Demuter, DO, 107, 170. Ha