Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/129

 B. ix. c. in. 12. PHOCIS. 121 times, but especially in treating subjects of this kind. For it is absurd, he says, if, in other things, we constantly follow this practice, but that when we come to speak of the oracle, which of all others is the most exempt from deception, we should introduce tales so incredible and false. Yet immediately afterwards he says, that it is the received opinion that Apollo, by the aid of Themis, established this oracle with a view to benefit the human race. He then explains these benefits, by saying, that men were invited to pursue a more civilized mode of life, and were taught maxims of wisdom by oracles ; by injunctions to perform or to abstain, or by posi- tive refusal to attend to the prayers of petitioners. Some, he says, suppose, that the god himself in a bodily form di- rects these things ; others, that he communicates an intima- tion of his will to men [by words]. 12. And lower down, when speaking of the Delphians and their origin, he says, that certain persons, called Parnassii, an indigenous tribe, anciently inhabited Parnassus, about which time Apollo, traversing the country, reclaimed men from their savage state, by inducing them to adopt a more civilized mode of life and subsistence ; that, setting out from Athens on his way to Delphi, he took the same road along which the Athenians at present conduct the procession of the Pythias ; that when he arrived at the Panopeis, he put to death Tityus, who was master of the district, a violent and lawless man ; that the Parnassii having joined him informed him of Python, another desperate man, surnamed the Dragon. Whilst he was despatching this man with his arrows, they shouted, Hie Paian ; l whence has been transmitted the custom of singing the Paean before the onset of a battle ; that after the death of the Python the Delphians burnt even his tent, as they still continue to burn a tent in memorial of these events. Now what can be more fabulous than Apollo discharging his arrows, chastising Tityi and Pythons, his journey from Athens to Delphi, and his travels over the whole country? If he did not consider these as fables, why did he call the fabulous Themis a woman, and the fabulous dragon a man, unless he intended to confound the provinces of history and fable. His account of the JEtolians is similar to this. After having 1 Probably, says Palmer, the expression is derived from Trait, O strike, or Ve irai, O youth.