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 DELPHI DELPHINIUM 785 was restored to the custody of the amphictyons, and the Phocians were condemned to reSstab- lish the splendor of the dismantled temple, which, however, they were too poor to do properly. In 279 Brennus and the Gauls plan- ned the plunder of Delphi, but they also were said to have been driven back by a miracle. The temple was plundered by Sulla, and again by Nero, who silenced the oracle. Hadrian restored it, and in his reign Delphi enjoyed the greatest prosperity, its temple and other build- ings being again decorated and enriched with their former magnificence. Constantine plun- dered the temple of some valuable works of art ; but the oracle continued to flourish until Theodosms finally abolished it. The ancient city of Delphi was built in the form of an am- phitheatre on the S. W. side of Mount Par- nassus, and extended into the valley across the Site of Delphi. Plistus. At the time of the visit of Pausanias, -to whom we owe our best description of it, the general arrangement of its principal fea- tures was probably as follows : The tem- ple and the buildings connected with the wor- ship of Apollo were set apart within a sacred enclosure. Entering this by the eastern gate, and passing by the almost innumerable statues erected as offerings to the god, the visitor next came to the thesauri or treasuries, small build- ings standing about a stone called the stone of the sibyl. The neighboring stoa, built by the Athenians, also served as a repository for the riches of the temple. The great altar of Apollo stood in the open air before the principal edi- fice. The temple appears to have been a hexa- style, the exterior Doric, the interior Ionic. Its dimensions were about 195 ft. by 82. The exterior was elaborately adorned with sculp- tures. The divisions of the interior were the pronaon, with walls inscribed with sayings of the seven wise men of Greece ; the cella, where a perpetual fire burned on the hearth, and where was placed the omphalos or navel stone, supposed to mark the centre of the earth ; and the adytum, where the oracles were delivered. This last division is supposed to have been in part, if not wholly, underground. "Within it, and over a deep chasm from which issued a peculiar mephitic vapor, stood a tripod, upon which sat the Pythia, or priestess of the oracle, when she delivered its revelations. Preparing her- self by chewing the leaves of the laurel, she was placed upon the tripod, where, inspired by the god, as was believed, and probably af- fected by the vapor from the chasm, she fell into a violent convulsive ecstasy, uttering groans and confused sounds, with disconnected words. These were carefully noted by the attending priests, and rendered into metrical forms as revelations from Apollo. In the earliest times the Pythia was a young girl; afterward only women over 50 were selected for the office. They must be natives of Delphi, and were bound to absolute chastity. Of the theatre little is known; and the only other noteworthy objects within the enclosure were the louleuterion or council house of the Del- phi ans, which stood near the Athenian stoa, and a great many monuments of various kinds. Outside the enclosure, opposite the eastern gate, was the Oastalian fountain, the sacred spring in which all who visited Delphi for a religious purpose were obliged to purify themselves. Other temples and buildings in Delphi were
 * the temple of Athena Prona?a, the sanctuary

I of Phylacus, and the gymnasium. With re- 1 gard to the ruins at Castri, and the more com- plete topography of the city, see Leake's "Northern Greece" (London, 1835 and 1841), and Ulrich's Eeisen und Forschungen in Orie- chenland (Bremen, 1840). DELPHIN CLASSICS, the name of a celebrated edition of the Latin classics, prepared in the reign of Louis XIV., by 39 scholars, for the use of the dauphin (in usum Delphini). DELPHINIUM, the name of an extensive genus of annual or perennial herbaceous plants belonging to the natural order of ranunculacece. They have handsome irregular flowers, resem- bling somewhat the fanciful figures of the dolphin or the spurs of larks, and are commonly known as larkspurs. The genus is nearly al- lied to the aconites. The seeds, especially of D. staphisagria (stavesacre) and D. consolida (branching larkspur), are powerfully cathartic, and owing to the violence of their operation are seldom given internally ; they are, how- ever, employed in destroying vermin. The