The most eminent public transactions of the Phocians were as follows.

They took part in the war against Ilium, and fought against the

Thessalians, (before the Persians invaded Greece), when they displayed

the following prowess. At Hyampolis, at the place where they expected

the Thessalians to make their attack, they buried in the earth some

earthenware pots, just covering them over with soil, and awaited the

attack of the Thessalian cavalry: and they not knowing of the artifice

of the Phocians spurred their horses on to these pots. And some of the

horses were lamed by these pots, and some of the riders were killed

others unhorsed. And when the Thessalians more angry than before with

the Phocians gathered together a force from all their cities and

invaded Phocis, then the Phocians (in no small alarm at the various

preparations made by the Thessalians for war, and not least at the

quantity and quality of their cavalry), sent to Delphi to inquire how

they were to escape from the coming danger: and the answer of the

oracle was, “I put together in combat a mortal and immortal, and I

shall give victory to both, but the greater victory to the mortal.”

When the Phocians heard this they sent 300 picked men under Gelon

against the enemy at nightfall, bidding them watch as stealthily as

they could the movements of the Thessalians, and return to the camp by

the most out-of-the-way road, and not to fight if they could help it.

These picked men were all cut to pieces by the Thessalians together

with their leader Gelon, being ridden down by the horses, and butchered

by their riders. And their fate brought such consternation into the

camp of the Phocians, that they gathered together their women and

children and all their goods, their apparel and gold and silver and

the statues of the gods, and made a very large funeral pile, and left

thirty men in charge with strict orders if the Phocians should be

defeated in the battle, to cut the throats of the women and children,

and offer them as victims with all the property on the funeral pile,

and set light to it, and either kill one another there, or rush on the

Thessalian cavalry. Desperate resolves such as this have ever since

been called by the Greeks _Phocian Resolution_. And forthwith the

Phocians marched forth against the Thessalians, under the command of

Rhœus of Ambrosus and Daiphantes of Hyampolis, the latter in command

of the cavalry, and the former in command of the infantry. But the

commander in chief was Tellias, the seer of Elis, on whom all the hopes

of the Phocians for safety were placed. And when the engagement came

on, then the Phocians bethought them of their resolves as to their

women and children, and saw that their own safety was by no means

certain, they were consequently full of desperation, and the omens

of the god being auspicious, won one of the most famous victories of

their time. Then the oracle which was given to the Phocians by Apollo

became clear to all the Greeks, for the word given by the Thessalian

commanders was _Itonian Athene_, and the word given by the Phocian

commanders _Phocus_. In consequence of this victory the Phocians sent

to Apollo to Delphi statues of the seer Tellias and of the other

commanders in the battle, and also of the local heroes. These statues

were by Aristomedon the Argive.

The Phocians also found out another contrivance as successful as their

former one.[84] For when the enemy’s camp was pitched at the entrance

to Phocis, five hundred picked Phocians waited till the moon was at

its full, and made a night attack on the Thessalians, having smeared

themselves and likewise their armour with plaster so as to look white.

A tremendous slaughter of the Thessalians is said to have ensued, who

looked upon what they saw as a divine appearance, and not as a ruse of

the enemy.

It was Tellias of Elis who contrived this trick on the Thessalians.

[84] Reading τῶν πρότερον as _Siebelis_ suggests.

CHAPTER II.

When the army of the Persians passed into Europe, it is said that the

Phocians were obliged to join Xerxes, but they deserted the Medes and

fought on the Greek side at Platæa. Some time afterwards a fine was

imposed upon them by the Amphictyonic Council. I cannot ascertain why,

whether it was imposed upon them because they had acted unjustly in

some way, or whether it was their old enemies the Thessalians who got

this fine imposed. And as they were in a state of great despondency

about the largeness of the fine, Philomelus the son of Philotimus,

second in merit to none of the Phocians, whose native place was

Ledon one of the Phocian cities, addressed them and showed them how

impossible it was to pay the money, and urged upon them to seize the

temple at Delphi, alleging among other persuasive arguments that the

condition of Athens and Lacedæmon was favourable to this plan, and

that if the Thebans or any other nation warred against them, they

would come off victorious through their courage and expenditure of

money. The majority of the Phocians were pleased with the arguments

of Philomelus, whether the deity perverted their judgment,[85] or

that they put gain before piety. So the Phocians seized the temple at

Delphi, when Heraclides was President at Delphi, and Agathocles Archon

at Athens, in the fourth year of the 105th Olympiad, when Prorus of

Cyrene was victorious in the course. And after seizing the temple

they got together the strongest army of mercenaries in Greece, and the

Thebans, who had previously been at variance with them, openly declared

war against them. The war lasted 10 continuous years, and during that

long time frequently the Phocians and their mercenaries prevailed,

frequently the Thebans had the best of it. But in an engagement near

the town Neon the Phocians were routed, and Philomelus in his flight

threw himself down a steep and precipitous crag, and so perished: and

the Amphictyonic Council imposed the same end on all those who had

plundered the temple at Delphi. And after the death of Philomelus

the Phocians gave the command to Onomarchus, and Philip the son of

Amyntas joined the Thebans: and Philip was victorious in the battle,

and Onomarchus fled in the direction of the sea, and was there shot by

the arrows of his own soldiers, for they thought their defeat had come

about through his cowardice and inexperience in military matters. Thus

Onomarchus ended his life by the will of the deity, and the Phocians

chose his brother Phayllus as commander in chief with unlimited

power. And he had hardly been invested with this power when he saw

the following apparition in a dream. Among the votive offerings of

Apollo was an imitation in brass of an old man, with his flesh already

wasted away and his bones only left. It was said by the Delphians to

have been a votive offering given by Hippocrates the doctor. Phayllus

dreamt that he was like this old man, and forthwith a wasting disease

came upon him, and fulfilled the dream. And after the death of Phayllus

the chief power at Phocis devolved upon his son Phalæcus, but he was

deposed because he helped himself privately to the sacred money. And

he sailed over to Crete with those Phocians who joined his party, and

with a portion of the mercenaries, and besieged Cydonia, because the

inhabitants would not give him the money he demanded, and in the siege

lost most of his army and his own life.

[85] Compare the Proverb, _Quem Jupiter vult perdere dementat

prius_.

CHAPTER III.

And Philip put an end to the war, called the Phocian or the Sacred War,

in the tenth year after the plunder of the temple, when Theophilus was

Archon at Athens, in the first year of the 108th Olympiad, in which

Polycles of Cyrene won the prize in the course. And the following

Phocian towns were taken and rased to the ground, Lilæa, Hyampolis,

Anticyra, Parapotamii, Panopeus, and Daulis. These towns were

renowned in ancient times and not least in consequence of the lines

of Homer.[86] But those which the army of Xerxes burnt were rendered

thereby more famous in Greece, as Erochus, Charadra, Amphiclea, Neon,

Tithronium, and Drymæa. All the others except Elatea were obscure

prior to this war, as Trachis, Medeon, Echedamia, Ambrosus, Ledon,

Phlygonium, and Stiris. And now all those towns which I have mentioned

were rased to the ground, and except Abæ turned into villages. Abæ had

had no hand in the impiety of the other towns, and had had no share

either in the seizing of the temple or in the Sacred War. The Phocians

were also deprived of participation in the temple at Delphi and in the

general Greek Council, and the Amphictyonic Council gave their votes

to the Macedonians. As time went on however the Phocian towns were

rebuilt, and they returned to them from the villages, except to such as

had always been weak, and suffered at this time from want of money. And

the Athenians and Thebans forwarded this restoration, before the fatal

defeat of the Greeks at Chæronea, in which the Phocians took part, as

afterwards they fought against Antipater and the Macedonians at Lamia

and Crannon. They fought also against the Galati and the Celtic army

with greater bravery than any of the Greeks, to avenge the god at

Delphi, and to atone I think for their former guilt. Such are the most

memorable public transactions of the Phocians.

[86] Iliad, ii. 519-523. Cyparissus in Hom. is probably Anticyra. See

ch. 36.

CHAPTER IV.

From Chæronea it is about 20 stades to Panopeus, a town in Phocis,

if town that can be called which has no Town-Hall, no gymnasium, no

theatre, no market-place, no public fountain, and where the inhabitants

live in narrow dwellings, like mountain cottages, near a ravine. But

they have boundaries, and send members to the Phocian Council. They say

that their town got its name from the father of Epeus, and that they

were not Phocians originally, but Phlegyans who fled into Phocis from

Orchomenia. The ancient enclosure of Panopeus occupies I conjecture

about 7 stades, and I remembered the lines of Homer about Tityus, where

he called Panopeus the town delighting in the dance,[87] and in the

contest for the dead body of Patroclus he says that Schedius (the son

of Iphitus) the king of the Phocians, who was slain by Hector, dwelt

at Panopeus.[88] It appears to me that he dwelt there from fear of the

Bœotians, making Panopeus a garrison-town, for this is the point where

the Bœotians have the easiest approach to Phocis. I could not however

understand why Homer called Panopeus delighting in the dance, till I

was instructed by those who among the Athenians are called Thyiades.

These Thyiades are Athenian women who annually go to Parnassus in

concert with the Delphian women, and celebrate the orgies of Dionysus.

These Thyiades hold dances on the road from Athens and elsewhere and

also at Panopeus: and I imagine Homer’s epithet relates to this.

There is in the street of Panopeus a building of unbaked brick of no

great size, and in it a statue in Pentelican marble, which some say

is Æsculapius and others Prometheus. The last adduce the following

to confirm their opinion. Some stones lie near the ravine each large

enough to fill a cart, in colour like the clay found in ravines and

sandy torrents, and they smell very like the human body. They say

that these are remains of the clay out of which the human race was

fashioned by Prometheus. Near the ravine is also the sepulchre of

Tityus, the circumference of the mound is about the third of a stade.

Of Tityus it is said in the Odyssey,[89]

“On the ground lying, and he lay nine roods.”

But some say that this line does not state the size of Tityus, but

that the place where he lay is called Nine Roods. But Cleon, one of

the Magnesians that live on the banks of the Hermus, said that people

are by nature incredulous of wonderful things, who have not in the

course of their lives met with strange occurrences, and that he himself

believed that Tityus and others were as large as tradition represented,

for when he was at Gades, and he and all his companions sailed from the

island according to the bidding of Hercules, on his return he saw a sea

monster who had been washed ashore, who had been struck by lightning

and was blazing, and he covered five roods. So at least he said.

About seven stades distant from Panopeus is Daulis.[90] The people here

are not numerous, but for size and strength they are still the most

famous of the Phocians. The town they say got its name from the nymph

Daulis, who was the daughter of Cephisus. Others say that the site of

the town was once full of trees, and that the ancients gave the name

_daula_ to anything dense. Hence Æschylus calls the beard of Glaucus

(the son of Anthedonius) _daulus_. It was here at Daulis according to

tradition that the women served up his son to Tereus, and this was the

first recorded instance of cannibalism among mankind. And the hoopoe,

into which tradition says Tereus was changed, is in size little bigger

than a quail, and has on its head feathers which resemble a crest. And

it is a remarkable circumstance that in this neighbourhood swallows

neither breed nor lay eggs, nor build nests in the roofs of houses:

and the Phocians say that when Philomela became a bird she was in

dread both of Tereus and his country. And at Daulis there is a temple

and ancient statue of Athene, and a still older wooden statue which

they say Procne brought from Athens. There is also in the district of

Daulis a place called Tronis, where a hero-chapel was built to their

hero-founder, who some say was Xanthippus, who won great fame in war,

others Phocus (the son of Ornytion and grandson of Sisyphus). They

honour this hero whoever he is every day, and when the Phocians bring

the victims they pour the blood through a hole on to his tomb, and

consume the flesh there also.

[87] Odyssey, xi. 581.

[88] Iliad, xvii. 306, 307.

[89] xi. 577.

[90] There is probably some mistake in the text here, for instead of

_seven_ stades Dodwell thought the distance _twenty-seven_, and Gell

_thirty-seven_ or _forty-seven_.

CHAPTER V.

There is also an ascent by Daulis to the heights of Parnassus, rather

longer than the ascent from Delphi but not so steep. As you turn from

Daulis on to the high road for Delphi and go forward, you will come

to a building on the left of the road called Phocicum, into which the

Phocians assemble from each of their towns. It is a large building,

and in it are pillars all the length of the building, and galleries on

each side, where the Phocians sit in assembly. But at the end of the

building there are neither pillars nor galleries, but statues of Zeus

and Athene and Hera, Zeus on his throne, and Hera standing by on the

right, Athene on the left.

As you go on from thence you will come to the Cross-roads, where

they say Œdipus murdered his father.[91] There are records indeed of

the woes of Œdipus in all parts of Greece. So it seems it was fated.

For directly he was born they pierced his ankles, and exposed him on

Mount Cithæron in Platæa. He was brought up at Corinth and the country

near the Isthmus. And Phocis and the Cross-roads here were polluted

by his father’s blood. Thebes has attained even more celebrity from

the marriage of Œdipus and the injustice of Eteocles. To Œdipus the

Cross-roads here and his bloody deed there caused all his subsequent

woes, and the tombs of Laius and his attendant are in the very middle

of the place where the 3 roads meet, and there are unhewn stones

heaped up on them. They say that Damasistratus, who was king of Platæa,

came across their corpses and buried them.

The high-road from here to Delphi is very steep, and rather difficult

even for a well-equipped traveller. Many varying legends are told

about Delphi, and still more about the oracle of Apollo. For they say

that in the most ancient times it was the oracle of Earth, and that

Earth appointed as priestess of her oracle Daphnis, who was one of the

Mountain Nymphs. And the Greeks have a poem called Eumolpia, the author

of which was they say Musæus the son of Antiophemus. In this poem

Delphi is represented as a joint oracle of Poseidon and Earth, and we

read that Earth delivered her own oracles, but Poseidon employed Pyrcon

as his interpreter. These are the lines:

“Forthwith Earth uttered forth oracular wisdom,

And with her Pyrcon, famed Poseidon’s priest.”

But afterwards they say Earth gave her share to Themis, and Apollo

received it from Themis: and he they say gave Poseidon for his share in

the oracle Calauria near Trœzen. I have also heard of some shepherds

meeting with the oracle, and becoming inspired by the vapour, and

prophesying through Apollo. But the greatest and most widespread fame

attaches to Phemonoe, who was the first priestess of Apollo, and the

first who recited the oracles in hexameters. But Bœo, a Phocian woman

who composed a Hymn for Delphi, says that the oracle was set up to the

god by Olen and some others that came from the Hyperboreans, and that

Olen was the first who delivered oracles and in hexameters. Bœo has

written the following lines,

“Here Pegasus and divine Aguieus, sons of the Hyperboreans, raised to

thy memory an oracle.”

And enumerating other Hyperboreans she mentions at the end of her Hymn

Olen,

“And Olen who was Phœbus’ first prophet,

And first to put in verse the ancient oracles.”

Tradition however makes women the first utterers of the oracles.

The most ancient temple of Apollo was they say built of laurel, from

branches brought from a tree at Tempe. So that temple would resemble a

hut. And the people of Delphi say the next temple was built of the wax

and wings of bees, and was sent by Apollo to the Hyperboreans. There

is also another tradition that this temple was built by a Delphian

whose name was Pteras, that it got its name from its builder, from whom

also a Cretan city by the addition of one letter got called Apteræi.

For as to the tradition about the fern (_Pteris_) that grows on

mountains, that they made the temple of this while it was still green,

this I cannot accept. As to the third temple that it was of brass is

no marvel since Acrisius made a brazen chamber for his daughter, and

the Lacedæmonians have still a temple of Athene Chalciœcus,[92] and

the Romans have a forum remarkable for its size and magnificence with

a brazen roof. So that the temple of Apollo should be brazen is not

improbable. In other respects however I do not accept the legend about

the temple being by Hephæstus, or about the golden songsters that

Pindar sang of in reference to that temple,

“Some golden Charmers sang above the gable.”

I think Pindar wrote this in imitation of Homer’s Sirens.[93] Moreover

I found varying accounts about the destruction of this temple, for

some say it was destroyed by a landslip, others by fire. And the

fourth (built of stone by Trophonius and Agamedes) was burnt down

when Erxiclides was Archon at Athens, in the first year of the 58th

Olympiad, when Diognetus of Croton was victor. And the temple which

still exists was built by the Amphictyones out of the sacred money, and

its architect was the Corinthian Spintharus.

[91] See Sophocles, _Œdipus Tyrannus_, 733, 734. What I translate

in this Paragraph “Cross-roads” would be literally “the road called

Cleft,” which an English reader would hardly understand.

[92] That is, “_Athene of the Brazen House_.”

[93] See Odyssey, xii. 39 _sq._

CHAPTER VI.

They say the most ancient town here was built by Parnassus, who was

they say the son of the Nymph Cleodora, and his fathers, (for those

called heroes had always two fathers, one a god, one a man), were they

say Poseidon among the gods and Cleopompus among men. They say Mount

Parnassus and the dell Parnassus got their names from him, and that

omens from the flight of birds were discovered by him. The town built

by him was they say destroyed in Deucalion’s flood, and all the human

beings that escaped the flood followed wolves and other wild beasts

to the top of Mount Parnassus, and from this circumstance called the

town which they built Lycorea (_Wolf-town_). There is also a different

tradition to this, which makes Lycorus the son of Apollo by the Nymph

Corycia, and that Lycorea was called after him, and the Corycian cavern

from the Nymph. Another tradition is that Celæno was the daughter of

Hyamus the son of Lycorus, and that Delphus from whom Delphi got its

name was the son of Celæno (the daughter of Hyamus) by Apollo. Others

say that Castalius an Autochthon had a daughter Thyia, who was the

first priestess of Dionysus and introduced his orgies, and that it

was from her that females inspired by Dionysus got generally called

Thyiades, and they think Delphus was the son of Apollo and this Thyia.

But some say his mother was Melæne the daughter of Cephisus. And in

course of time the inhabitants called the town Pytho as well as Delphi,

as Homer has shown in his Catalogue of the Phocians. Those who wish

to make genealogies about everything think that Pythes was the son

of Delphus, and that the town got called Pytho after him when he was

king. But the prevalent tradition is that the dragon slain by Apollo’s

arrows rotted here, and that was why the town was called Pytho from

the old Greek word to rot, which Homer has employed in his account

of the island of the Sirens being full of bones, because those that

listened to their song rotted away.[94] The dragon that was slain by

Apollo was the poets say posted there by Earth to guard her oracle. It

is also said that Crius, the king of Eubœa, had a son of an insolent

disposition, who plundered the temple of the god, and the houses of

the wealthy men. And when he was going to do this a second time, then

the Delphians begged Apollo to shield them from the coming danger, and

Phemonoe (who was then priestess) gave them the following oracle in

hexameters, “Soon will Phœbus send his heavy arrow against the man who

devours Parnassus, and the Cretans shall purify Phœbus from the blood,

and his fame shall never die.”

[94] Odyssey, xii. 46.

CHAPTER VII.

It appears that the temple at Delphi was plundered from the beginning.

For this Eubœan robber, and a few years later the people of Phlegyas,

and Pyrrhus the son of Achilles also, all laid their hands on it,

and part of Xerxes’ army, but those who enriched themselves most and

longest on the treasures of the god were the Phocian authorities and

the army of the Galati. And last of all it was fated to experience

Nero’s contempt of everything, for he carried off from Apollo 500

brazen statues, some of gods some of men.

The most ancient contest, and one for which they gave a prize first,

was they say singing a Hymn in honour of Apollo. And the first victor

was Chrysothemis the Cretan, whose father Carmanor is said to have

purified Apollo. And after Chrysothemis they say Philammon was next

victor, and next to him his son Thamyris. Neither Orpheus they say

from his solemn position in respect to the mysteries and his general

elevation of soul, nor Musæus from his imitation of Orpheus in all

things, cared to contend in this musical contest. They say also that

Eleuther carried off the Pythian prize for his loud and sweet voice. It

is said also that Hesiod was not permitted to be a competitor, because

he had not learned to accompany his voice with the harp. Homer too went

to Delphi to enquire what was necessary for him, and even had he learnt

how to play on the harp, the knowledge would have been useless to him,

because of his being blind. And in the third year of the 48th Olympiad,

in which Glaucias of Croton was victor, the Amphictyones established

prizes for harping as at the first, and added contests for pipes, and

for singing to the pipes. And the victors proclaimed were Cephallen who

was distinguished in singing to the harp, and the Arcadian Echembrotus

for his singing to the pipes, and the Argive Sacadas for his playing on

the pipes. Sacadas also had two other Pythian victories after this.

Then too they first ordained prizes for athletes as at Olympia, with

the exception of the fourhorse races, and they established by law the

long course and double course for boys. And in the second Pythiad they

invited them no longer to contend for prizes, but made the contest one

for a crown only, and stopped singing to the pipes, as not thinking

it pleasing to the ear. For singing to the pipes was most gloomy kind

of music, and elegies and dirges were so sung. The votive offering

of Echembrotus confirms me in what I say, for the brazen tripod

offered by him to Hercules at Thebes has the following inscription,

“Echembrotus the Arcadian offered this tripod to Hercules, after having

been victorious in the contests of the Amphictyones, and in singing to

the Greeks songs and elegies.” So the contest of singing to the pipes

was stopped. Afterwards they added a chariot race, and Clisthenes the

tyrant of Sicyon was proclaimed victor. And in the eighth Pythiad they

added harping without the accompaniment of the voice, and Agelaus

from Tegea got the crown. And in the 23rd Pythiad they had a race in

armour, and Timænetus from Phlius got the laurel, five Olympiads after

Damaretus of Heræa was victor. And in the 48th Pythiad they established

the race for a pair-horse chariot, and the pair of Execestides the

Phocian was victorious. And in the fifth Pythiad after this they yoked

colts to chariots, and the four-colt car of Orphondas the Theban came

in first. But the pancratium for boys, and the pair of colts, and the

racing colt they instituted many years after the people of Elis, the

pancratium in the 61st Pythiad (when Iolaidas the Theban was victor),

and one Pythiad after the racing colt (when Lycormas of Larissa was

proclaimed victor), and in the 69th Pythiad the pair of colts (when

the Macedonian Ptolemy was victor). For the Ptolemies delighted to be

called Macedonians, as indeed they were. And the crown of laurel was

given to the victors in the Pythian games, for no other reason I think

than that (according to the prevalent report) Apollo was enamoured of

Daphne[95] the daughter of Ladon.

[95] Daphne means laurel. See Wordsworth’s noble Poem, _The Russian

Fugitive_, Part iii.

CHAPTER VIII.

Some think that Amphictyon the son of Deucalion appointed the general

Council of the Greeks, and that was why those who assembled at the

Council were called Amphictyones: but Androtion in his history

of Attica says that originally delegates came to Delphi from the

neighbouring people who were called Amphictiones, and in process

of time the name Amphictyones prevailed. They say too that the

following Greek States attended this general Council, the Ionians, the

Dolopes, the Thessalians, the Ænianes, the Magnetes, the Malienses,

the Phthiotes, the Dorians, the Phocians, the Locrians who dwelt

under Mount Cnemis and bordered upon Phocis. But when the Phocians

seized the temple, and ten years afterwards the Sacred War came to

an end, the Amphictyonic Council was changed: for the Macedonians

obtained admission to it, and the Phocians and (of the Dorians) the

Lacedæmonians ceased to belong to it, the Phocians because of their

sacrilegious outbreak on the temple, and the Lacedæmonians because they

had assisted the Phocians. But when Brennus led the Galati against

Delphi, the Phocians exhibited greater bravery than any of the Greeks

in the war, and were in consequence restored to the Amphictyonic

Council, and in other respects regained their former position. And

the Emperor Augustus wished that the inhabitants of Nicopolis near

Actium should belong to the Amphictyonic Council, so he joined the

Magnetes and Malienses and Ænianes and Phthiotes to the Thessalians,

and transferred their votes, and those of the Dolopes who had died

out, to the people of Nicopolis. And in my time the Amphictyones were

30 members. Six came from Nicopolis, six from Macedonia, six from

Thessaly, two from the Bœotians (who were originally in Thessaly and

called Æolians), two from Phocis, and two from Delphi, one from ancient

Doris, one from the Locrians called Ozolæ, one from the Locrians

opposite Eubœa, one from Eubœa, one from Argos Sicyon Corinth and

Megara, and one from Athens. Athens and Delphi and Nicopolis send

delegates to every Amphictyonic Council: but the other cities I have

mentioned only join the Amphictyonic Council at certain times.

As you enter Delphi there are four temples in a row, the first in

ruins, the next without statues or effigies, the third has effigies of

a few of the Roman Emperors, the fourth is called the temple of Athene

Pronoia. And the statue in the ante-chapel is the votive offering of

the Massaliotes, and is larger in size than the statue within the

temple. The Massaliotes are colonists of the Phocæans in Ionia, and

were part of those who formerly fled from Phocæa from Harpagus the

Mede, but, after having beaten the Carthaginians in a naval engagement,

obtained the land which they now occupy, and rose to great prosperity.

This votive offering of the Massaliotes is of brass. The golden shield

which was offered to Athene Pronoia by Crœsus the Lydian was taken away

(the Delphians said) by Philomelus. Near this temple is the sacred

enclosure of the hero Phylacus, who, according to the tradition of the

Delphians, protected them against the invasion of the Persians. In the

part of the gymnasium which is in the open air was once they say a wild

wood where Odysseus, when he went to Autolycus and hunted with the sons

of Autolycus, was wounded on the knee by a boar.[96] As you turn to the

left from the gymnasium, and descend I should say about 3 stades, is

the river called Plistus, which falls into the sea at Cirrha the haven

of the Delphians. And as you ascend from the gymnasium to the temple

on the right of the road is the water Castalia which is good to drink.

Some say it got its name from Castalia a local woman, others say from

a man called Castalius. But Panyasis, the son of Polyarchus, in the

poem he wrote about Hercules says that Castalia was the daughter of

Achelous. For he says about Hercules,

“Crossing with rapid feet snow-crown’d Parnassus he came to the

immortal fountain of Castalia, the daughter of Achelous.”

I have also heard that the water of Castalia is a gift of the river

Cephisus. Alcæus indeed so represents it in his Prelude to Apollo, and

his statement is confirmed by the people of Lilæa, who believe that the

local cakes and other things, which they throw into the Cephisus on

certain stated days, reappear in the Castalia.

[96] Odyssey, xix. 428-451.

CHAPTER IX.

Delphi is everywhere hilly, the sacred precincts of Apollo and other

parts of the town alike. The sacred precincts are very large and in the

upper part of the town, and have several entrances. I will enumerate

all the votive offerings that are best worthy of mention. The athletes

however, and musical competitors, of no great merit I do not think

worthy of attention, and notable athletes I have already described in

my account of Elis. At Delphi then there is a statue of Phayllus of

Croton, who had no victory at Olympia, but was twice victor in the

pentathlum and once in the course in the Pythian games, and fought a

naval engagement against the Medes, having furnished a ship himself,

and manned it with some people of Croton who were sojourners in

Greece. So much for Phayllus of Croton. On the entrance to the sacred

enclosure is a bull in brass by Theopropus the Æginetan, the votive

offering of the Corcyræans. The tradition is that a bull in Corcyra

left the herd and pasture, and used to resort to the sea bellowing

as he went; and as this happened every day the herdsman went down to

the sea, and beheld a large shoal of tunny fish. And he informed the

people of Corcyra, and they, as they had great difficulty in catching

these tunnies much as they wished, sent messengers to Delphi. And then

in obedience to the oracle they sacrificed the bull to Poseidon, and

after this sacrifice caught the fish, and offered both at Olympia and

Delphi the tenth of their catch. And next are the votive offerings

of the people of Tegea from the spoils of the Lacedæmonians, an

Apollo and Victory, and some local heroes; as Callisto the daughter

of Lycaon, and Arcas who gave his name to Arcadia, and the sons of

Arcas, Elatus and Aphidas and Azan; and besides them Triphylus,

(whose mother was not Erato but Laodamia, the daughter of Amyclas

king at Lacedæmon), and also Erasus the son of Triphylus. As to the

artificers of these statues, Pausanias of Apollonia made the Apollo

and Callisto, and the Victory and effigy of Arcas were by Dædalus of

Sicyon, Triphylus and Azan were by the Arcadian Samolas, and Elatus

and Aphidas and Erasus were by the Argive Antiphanes. All these the

people of Tegea sent to Delphi after the capture of the Lacedæmonians

who invaded them. And opposite them are the votive offerings of the

Lacedæmonians when they vanquished the Athenians, statues of Castor

and Pollux and Zeus and Apollo and Artemis, and besides them Poseidon

crowning Lysander the son of Aristocritus, and Abas who was Lysander’s

prophet, and Hermon the pilot of Lysander’s flag-ship. This statue

of Hermon was designed by Theocosmus the Megarian, as the Megarians

ranked Hermon among their citizens. And Castor and Pollux are by the

Argive Antiphanes, and Abas is by Pison from Calauria near Trœzen,

and Artemis and Poseidon and Lysander are by Dameas, and Apollo and

Zeus by Athenodorus. Both Dameas and Athenodorus were Arcadians from

Clitor. And behind the statues we have just mentioned are those of

the Spartans or their allies who fought for Lysander at the battle of

Ægos-potamoi, as Aracus the Lacedæmonian, and Erianthes the Bœotian

beyond Mimas, and then Astycrates, and the Chians Cephisocles and

Hermophantus and Hicesius, and the Rhodians Timarchus and Diagoras, and

the Cnidian Theodamus, and the Ephesian Cimmerius, and the Milesian

Æantides. All these were by Tisander. The following were by Alypus of

Sicyon, Theopompus from Myndus, and Cleomedes of Samos, and from Eubœa

Aristocles of Carystus and Autonomus of Eretria, and Aristophantus

of Corinth, and Apollodorus of Trœzen, and from Epidaurus in Argolis

Dion. And next to these are the Achæan Axionicus from Pellene, and

Theares from Hermion, and Pyrrhias from Phocis, and Comon from Megara,

and Agasimenes from Sicyon, and Telycrates from Leucas, and Pythodotus

from Corinth, and Euantidas from Ambracia, and lastly the Lacedæmonians

Epicyridas and Eteonicus. All these are they say by Patrocles and

Canachus. The reverse that the Athenians sustained at Ægos-potamoi they

maintain befell them through foul play, for their Admirals Tydeus and

Adimantus were they say bribed by Lysander. And in proof of this they

bring forward the following Sibylline oracle. “Then shall Zeus the

lofty-thunderer, whose strength is almighty, lay grievous woes on the

Athenians, fierce battle for their ships of war, that shall perish

through the treachery and villainy of their commanders.” They also cite

these other lines from the oracles of Musæus, “Verily a fierce storm

is coming on the Athenians through the villainy of their commanders,

but there shall be some comfort, they shall level low the state that

inflicted this disaster, and exact vengeance.” So much for this affair.

And as for the engagement between the Lacedæmonians and Argives beyond

Thyrea, the Sibyl foretold that it would be a drawn battle, but the

Argives thinking they had got the best of it in the action sent to

Delphi as a votive offering a brazen horse by Antiphanes of Argos,

doubtless an imitation of the Trojan Horse.

CHAPTER X.

On the basement under this horse is an inscription, which states that

the following statues were dedicated from the tenth of the spoils of

Marathon. These statues are Athene and Apollo, and of the commanders

Miltiades, and of those called heroes Erechtheus and Cecrops and

Pandion, and Leos, and Antiochus the son of Hercules by Meda the

daughter of Phylas, and Ægeus, and of the sons of Theseus Acamas.

These, in accordance with an oracle from Delphi, gave names to the

Athenian tribes. Here too are Codrus the son of Melanthus, and Theseus,

and Phyleus, who are no longer ranked among the Eponymi. All these that

I have mentioned are by Phidias, and these too are really the tenth

of the spoils of Marathon. But the statues of Antigonus, and his son

Demetrius, and the Egyptian Ptolemy, were sent to Delphi later, Ptolemy

through goodwill, but the Macedonians through fear.

And near this horse are other votive offerings of the Argives, statues

of those associated with Polynices in the expedition against Thebes,

as Adrastus the son of Talaus, and Tydeus the son of Œneus, and the

descendants of Prœtus, (Capaneus the son of Hipponous, and Eteoclus

the son of Iphis), and Polynices, and Hippomedon (Adrastus’ sister’s

son), and near them the chariot of Amphiaraus and in it Baton, the

charioteer and also kinsman of Amphiaraus, and lastly Alitherses. These

are by Hypatodorus and Aristogiton, and were made, so the Argives

themselves say, out of the spoils of the victory which they and their

Athenian allies obtained at Œnoe in Argolis. It was after the same

action, I think, that the Argives erected the statues of the Epigoni.

They are here at any rate, as Sthenelus and Alcmæon, who was, I

take it, honoured above Amphilochus in consequence of his age, and

Promachus, and Thersander, and Ægialeus, and Diomede, and between the

two last Euryalus. And opposite these are some other statues, dedicated

by the Argives who assisted Epaminondas and the Thebans in restoring

the Messenians. There are also effigies of heroes, as Danaus the most

powerful king at Argos, and Hypermnestra the only one of her sisters

with hands unstained by murder, and near her Lynceus, and all those

that trace their descent from Hercules, or go back even further to

Perseus.

There are also the horses of the Tarentines in brass, and captive women

of the Messapians (barbarians near Tarentum), by Ageladas the Argive.

The Lacedæmonians colonized Tarentum under the Spartan Phalanthus, who,

when he started on this colony, was told by an oracle from Delphi that

he was to acquire land and found a city where he saw rain from a clear

sky. At first he paid no great heed to this oracle, and sailed to Italy

without consulting any interpreters, but when, after victories over

the barbarians, he was unable to capture any of their cities, or get

possession of any of their land, he recollected the oracle, and thought

the god had prophesied impossibilities: for it could not rain he

thought from a clear and bright sky. And his wife, who had accompanied

him from home, endeavoured to comfort him in various ways, as he was

in rather a despondent condition, and laid his head on her knees, and

began to pick out the lice, and in her goodwill it so fell out that she

wept when she thought how her husband’s affairs made no good progress.

And she shed tears freely on Phalanthus’ head, and then he understood

the oracle, for his wife’s name was Æthra (_clear sky_), and so on the

following night he took from the barbarians Tarentum, the greatest and

most prosperous of their maritime cities. They say the hero Taras was

the son of Poseidon and a local Nymph, and both the city and river got

their name from him.

CHAPTER XI.

And near the votive offering of the Tarentines is the treasury of the

Sicyonians, but you will see no money either here or in any of the

treasuries. The Cnidians also brought statues to Delphi, as Triopas

(their founder) standing by a horse, and Leto and Apollo and Artemis

shooting at Tityus, who is represented wounded. These statues stand by

the treasury of the Sicyonians.

The Siphnii too made a treasury for the following reason. The island

of Siphnos had gold mines, and the god bade them send a tenth of the

revenue thus accruing to Delphi, and they built a treasury and sent

the tenth to the god. But when in their cupidity they left off this

tribute, then the sea encroached and swept away their mines. Statues

after a naval victory over the Tyrrhenians were also erected by the

people of Lipara, who were a colony of Cnidians, and the leader of the

colony was they say a Cnidian whose name was Pentathlus, as Antiochus

the Syracusan (the son of Xenophanes) testifies in his History of

Sicily. He says also that when they had built a town at Pachynus, a

promontory in Sicily, they were expelled from it by force by the Elymi

and Phœnicians, and either occupied deserted islands, or drove out the

islanders from those islands which they call to this day by the name

Homer employs, the islands of Æolus. Of these they lived in Lipara and

built a city there, and used to sail to Hiera and Strongyle and Didymæ

for purposes of cultivation. In Strongyle fire clearly ascends from the

ground, and in Hiera fire spontaneously blazes up on a height in the

island, and near the sea are convenient baths, if the water is not too

hot, for often it is difficult to bathe by reason of the great heat.

The Theban treasuries were the result of the victory at Leuctra, and

the Athenian treasuries from the victory at Marathon and the spoil

of Datis on that occasion: but whether the Cnidians built theirs to

commemorate some victory or to display their wealth I do not know. But

the people of Cleonæ suffered greatly like the Athenians from a plague,

till in obedience to the oracle at Delphi they sacrificed a goat to the

rising sun, and, as they thus obtained deliverance from their plague,

they sent a brazen goat to Apollo. And the treasury of the Syracusans

was the result of the great reverses of Athens, and the Potidæan

treasury was erected out of piety to the god.

The Athenians also built a portico with the money which they got in war

from the Peloponnesians and their Greek allies. There are also votive

offerings of the figure-heads of captured ships and brazen shields. The

inscription on these mentions the cities from which the Athenians sent

the firstfruits of their spoil, Elis, and Lacedæmon, and Sicyon, and

Megara, and Pellene in Achaia, and Ambracia, and Leucas, and Corinth

itself. In consequence of these naval victories they sacrifice to

Theseus, and to Poseidon at the promontory of Rhium. I think also the

inscription refers to Phormio the son of Asopichus, and to his famous

deeds.

CHAPTER XII.

There is a projecting stone above, on which the Delphians say the first

Herophile, also called the Sibyl, chanted her oracles.[97] I found her

to be most ancient, and the Greeks say she was the daughter of Zeus

by Lamia the daughter of Poseidon, and that she was the first woman

who chanted oracles, and that she was called Sibyl by the Libyans. The

second Herophile was younger than her, but was herself clearly earlier

than the Trojan War, for she foretold in her oracles that Helen would

be reared in Sparta to the ruin of Asia Minor and Europe, and that

Ilium would be taken by the Greeks owing to her. The Delians make

mention of her Hymn to Apollo. And she calls herself in her verses not

only Herophile but also Artemis, and says she was Apollo’s wedded wife

and sister and daughter. This she must have written when possessed by

the god. And elsewhere in her oracles she says her father was a mortal

but her mother one of the Nymphs of Mount Ida. Here are her lines,

“I was the child of a mortal sire and goddess mother, she was a Nymph

and Immortal while he eat bread. By my mother I am connected with

Mount Ida, and my native place is red Marpessus (sacred to my mother),

and the river Aidoneus.”

There are still in Trojan Ida ruins of Marpessus, and a population of

about 60 inhabitants. The soil all about Marpessus is red and terribly

dry. Why in fact the river Aidoneus soaks into the earth, and on its

emerging sinks into the ground again, and is eventually altogether lost

in it, is I think the thin and porous soil of Mount Ida. Marpessus

is 240 stades distant from Alexandria in the Troad. The inhabitants

of Alexandria say that Herophile was the Sacristan of Sminthian

Apollo, and that she foretold by dream to Hecuba what we know really

came about. This Sibyl lived most of her life at Samos, but visited

Clarus in Colophonia, Delos, and Delphi, and wherever she went chanted

standing on the stone we have already mentioned. Death came upon her

in the Troad, her tomb is in the grove of Sminthian Apollo, and the

inscription on the pillar is as follows.

“Here hidden by stone sepulchre I lie, Apollo’s fate-pronouncing

Sibyl I, a vocal maiden once but now for ever dumb, here placed by

all-powerful fate, and I lie near the Nymphs and Hermes, in this part

of Apollo’s realm.”

Near her tomb is a square Hermes in stone, and on the left is water

running into a conduit, and some statues of the Nymphs. The people of

Erythræ, who are most zealous of all the Greeks in claiming Herophile

as theirs, show the mountain called Corycus and the cavern in it in

which they say Herophile was born, and they say that she was the

daughter of Theodorus (a local shepherd) and a Nymph, and that she

was called Idæa for no other reason than that well-wooded places were

called by people at that time _Idas_. And the line about Marpessus and

the river Aidoneus they do not include in the oracles.

Hyperochus, a native of Cumæ, has recorded that a woman called Demo,

of Cumæ in the Opican district, delivered oracles after Herophile and

in a similar manner. The people of Cumæ do not produce any oracle

of Demo’s, but they shew a small stone urn in the temple of Apollo,

wherein they say are her remains. After Demo the Hebrews beyond

Palestine had a prophetess called Sabbe, whose father they say was

Berosus and mother Erymanthe, but some say she was a Babylonian Sibyl,

others an Egyptian.

Phaennis, (the daughter of the king of the Chaones), and the Peleæ at

Dodona, also prophesied by divine inspiration, but were not called

Sibyls. As to the age and oracles of Phaennis, one will find upon

inquiry that she was a contemporary of Antiochus, who seized the

kingdom after taking Demetrius prisoner. As to the Peleades, they were

they say earlier than Phemonoe, and were the first women that sang the

following lines:

“Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be. O great Zeus!

Earth yields us fruits, let us then call her Mother.”

Prophetical men, as Euclus the Cyprian, and the Athenian Musæus the

son of Antiophemus, and Lycus the son of Pandion, as well as Bacis

the Bœotian, were they say inspired by Nymphs. All their oracular

utterances except those of Lycus I have read.

Such are the women and men who up to my time have been said to have

been prophetically inspired: and as time goes on there will perhaps be

other similar cases.[98]

[97] The text is somewhat uncertain here. I have tried to extract the

best sense.

[98] “Qui hoc et similia putant dicuntque _Pausaniam

opposuisse Christianis_, hos velim explicare causam, cur Pausanias

tecte tantum in illos invadere, neque usquam quidquam aperte contra eos

dicere ausus sit.” _Siebelis._

CHAPTER XIII.

The brazen head of the Pæonian bison was sent to Delphi by Dropion,

the son of Deon, king of the Pæonians. These bisons are most difficult

of all beasts to capture alive, for no nets are strong enough to hold

them. They are hunted in the following manner. When the hunters have

found a slope terminating in a hollow, they first of all fence it all

round with a palisade, they then cover the slope and level ground near

the bottom with newly stripped hides, and if they chance to be short

of hides, then they make old dry skins slippery with oil. The most

skilful horsemen then drive these bisons to this place that I have

described, and slipping on the first hides they roll down the slope

till they get to the level ground at the bottom. There they leave them

at first, but on the 4th or 5th day, when hunger and weakness has

subdued their spirit somewhat, those who are skilled in taming them

offer them, while they are still lying there, pinenuts after first

removing the husks, for they will at first touch no other kind of food,

and at last they bind them and lead them off. This is how they capture

them.

Opposite the brazen head of this bison is the statue of a man with a

coat of mail on and a cloak over it: the Delphians say it is a votive

offering of the people of Andros, and that it is Andreus their founder.

And the statues of Apollo and Athene and Artemis are votive offerings

of the Phocians from spoil of the Thessalians, their constant enemies,

and neighbours except where the Epicnemidian Locrians come in. Votive

offerings have been also made by the Thessalians of Pharsalus, and by

the Macedonians who dwell at Dium under Pieria, and by the Greeks of

Cyrene in Libya. These last sent a chariot and statue of Ammon on the

chariot, and the Macedonians at Dium sent an Apollo who has hold of a

doe, and the Pharsalians sent an Achilles on horseback, and Patroclus

is running by the side of the horse. And the Dorians of Corinth built a

treasury also, and the gold from the Lydians was stored there. And the

statue of Hercules was the votive offering of the Thebans at the time

they fought with the Phocians what is called The Sacred War. Here also

are the brazen effigies erected by the Phocians, when in the second

encounter they routed the Thessalian cavalry. The people of Phlius also

sent to Delphi a brazen Zeus, and an effigy of Ægina with Zeus.[99] And

from Mantinea in Arcadia there is an offering of a brazen Apollo, not

far from the treasury of the Corinthians.

Hercules and Apollo are also to be seen close to a tripod for the

possession of which they are about to fight, but Leto and Artemis are

trying to appease the anger of Apollo, and Athene that of Hercules.

This was the votive offering of the Phocians when Tellias of Elis led

them against the Thessalians. The other figures in the group were made

jointly by Diyllus and Amyclæus, but Athene and Artemis were made

by Chionis, all 3 Corinthian statuaries. It is also recorded by the

Delphians that, when Hercules the son of Amphitryon came to consult the

oracle, the priestess Xenoclea would not give him any response because

of his murder of Iphitus: so he took the tripod and carried it out of

the temple, and the prophetess said,

“This is another Hercules, the one from Tiryns not from Canopus.”

For earlier still the Egyptian Hercules had come to Delphi. Then the

son of Amphitryon restored the tripod to Apollo, and got the desired

answer from Xenoclea. And poets have handed down the tradition, and

sung of the contest of Hercules and Apollo for the tripod.

After the battle of Platæa the Greeks in common made a votive offering

of a gold tripod standing on a bronze dragon. The bronze part of the

votive offering was there in my time, but the golden part had been

abstracted by the Phocian leaders.[100] The Tarentines also sent to

Delphi another tenth of spoil taken from the Peucetian barbarians.

These votive offerings were the works of art of Onatas the Æginetan

and Calynthus, and are effigies of footsoldiers and cavalry, Opis king

of the Iapyges come to the aid of the Peucetii. He is represented in

the battle as a dying man, and as he lies on the ground there stand by

him the hero Taras and the Lacedæmonian Phalanthus, and at no great

distance a dolphin: for Phalanthus before he went to Italy suffered

shipwreck in the Crissæan Gulf, and was they say brought safe to shore

by a dolphin.

[99] Ægina was the daughter of the river-god Asopus, and was carried

off from Phlius by Zeus. See Book ii. ch. 5. Hence the offering of the

people of Phlius.

[100] See _Rawlinson’s_ Herodotus, Book ix. ch. 81.

CHAPTER XIV.

The axes which were the votive offering of Periclytus, the son of

Euthymachus of Tenedos, have an old legend connected with them. Cycnus

was they say the son of Poseidon, and king at Colonæ, a town in the

Troad near the island Leucophrys. This Cycnus had a daughter Hemithea

and a son Tennes by Proclea, daughter of Clytius, and sister of that

Caletor of whom Homer says in the Iliad[101] that he was slain by Ajax

when he tried to set on fire the ship of Protesilaus,--and, Proclea

dying, Cycnus married for his second wife Phylonome, the daughter of

Cragasus, who failing to win the love of Tennes told her husband that

Tennes wanted to have illicit dealings with her against her will, and

Cycnus believed this lie, and put Tennes and his sister into a chest,

and sent them to sea in it. And they got safe to the island Leucophrys,

since called Tenedos from Tennes. And Cycnus, who was not destined to

be ignorant of his wife’s deception all his life, when he learned the

truth sailed after his son to implore his forgiveness, and to admit

his unwitting error. And as he was anchoring at the island, and was

fastening his vessel by ropes to some tree or piece of rock, Tennes in

his rage cut the ropes with his axe. Hence it is passed into a proverb,

when people obstinately decline a conference, that they resemble him

who cut the matter short with his Tenedian axe. Tennes was afterwards

slain the Greeks say by Achilles as he was defending Tenedos, and

in process of time the people of Tenedos, as they were weak, joined

themselves to the people of Alexandria on the mainland of the Troad.

The Greeks who fought against the King of the Persians erected at

Olympia a brazen Zeus, and an Apollo at Delphi, after the actions of

Artemisium and Salamis. It is said also that Themistocles, when he

went to Delphi, brought of the spoils of the Medes as a present to

Apollo, and when he asked if he should offer them inside the temple,

the Pythian Priestess bade him at once take them away altogether. And

these were the words of her oracular response: “Put not in my temple

the beautiful spoils of the Persians, send them home as quickly as

possible.” It is wonderful that the god declined to accept the spoils

of the Medes only from Themistocles. Some think the god would have

rejected all the Persian spoil equally, if those who offered it had

first asked (like Themistocles) if the god would accept it. Others say

that, as the god knew that Themistocles would be a suppliant of the

Persians, he refused on that account to accept the spoil from him, that

he might not win for him by acceptance the undying hate of the Medes.

This invasion of Greece by the barbarian you may find foretold in the

oracles of Bacis, and earlier still in the verses of Euclus.

Near the great altar is a bronze wolf, the votive offering of the

Delphians themselves. The tradition about it is that some man plundered

the treasures of the god, and hid himself and the gold in that part

of Parnassus where the forest trees were most thick, and that a wolf

attacked him as he slept and killed him, and that this wolf used to run

into the town daily and howl: and the Delphians thought this could not

but be by divine direction, so they followed the wolf and discovered

the sacred gold, and offered to the god a bronze wolf.

[101] xv. 419-421.

CHAPTER XV.

The gilt statue of Phryne here was made by Praxiteles, one of her

lovers, and was an offering of Phryne herself. And next it are two

statues of Apollo, one offered by the Epidaurians in Argolis after

victory over the Medes, and the other by the Megarians after their

victory over the Athenians at Nisæa. And there is an ox an offering

of the Platæans, when they defended themselves successfully on their

own soil with the rest of the Greeks against Mardonius the son of

Gobryas. Next come two more statues of Apollo, one offered by the

people of Heraclea near the Euxine, the other by the Amphictyones when

they fined the Phocians for cultivating land sacred to the god. This

Apollo is called by the Delphians Sitalcas,[102] and is about 35 cubits

high. Here too are statues of the Ætolian Generals, and of Artemis and

Athene, and two statues of Apollo, votive offerings of the Ætolians

after their victories over the Galati. Phaennis indeed foretold in her

oracles, a generation before it happened, that the army of the Celts

would pass from Europe to Asia to destroy the cities there.

“Then indeed the destroying host of the Galati shall cross the narrow

passage of the Hellespont, marching to the flute, and shall lawlessly

make havoc of Asia. And the god shall even afflict more grievously all

those that dwell near the sea-shore. But Cronion shall verily soon

raise up a helper, the dear son of a Zeus-reared bull, who shall bring

a day of destruction to all the Galati.”

By the bull Phaennis meant Attalus the king of Pergamus, who was also

called bull-horned in the oracle.[103]

The statues of cavalry leaders seated on horseback were offered to

Apollo by the Pheræans, when they had routed the Athenian cavalry. And

the bronze palm and gilt statue of Athene on the palm were dedicated

by the Athenians for the victory at the Eurymedon on the same day both

on land and river. I noticed that some of the gold on this statue was

plucked off. I put this down to the cupidity of sacrilegious thieves.

But Clitodemus, the oldest writer on Athenian Antiquities, says in his

account of Attica that, when the Athenians were making preparations for

the expedition to Sicily, an immense number of crows came to Delphi,

and with their beaks knocked off and tore away the gold off the statue.

He also says that they broke off the spear, the owls, and all the

fruit on the palm in imitation of real fruit. Clitodemus relates also

other prodigies to deter the Athenians from the fatal expedition to

Sicily. The people of Cyrene also placed at Delphi a figure of Battus

in his chariot, who took them by ship from Thera to Libya. Cyrene is

the charioteer, and Battus is in the chariot and Libya is crowning

him, the design is by the Cretan Amphion the son of Acestor. And when

Battus built Cyrene, he is said to have found the following remedy for

an impediment in his speech. As he was travelling in the remote parts

of Cyrene which were still unoccupied he chanced to see a lion, and his

terror at the sight made him cry out loud and clearly.[104] And not far

from Battus the Amphictyones erected another statue of Apollo, out of

the proceeds of the fine imposed on the Phocians for their impiety to

the god.

[102] _i.e._ _Prohibitor of corn-growing_ (on the sacred land).

[103] The words of the oracle were as follows:

Θάρσει Ταυρόκερως, ἕξεις βασιληίδα τιμὴν

καὶ παίδων παῖδες· τούτων γε μὲν οὐκέτι παῖδες.

[104] So the son of Crœsus found his tongue from sudden fright. See

Herodotus, i. 85.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the votive offerings which the Lydian kings sent to Apollo nothing

now remains but the iron base of the bowl of Alyattes. This was made

by Glaucus of Chios, who first welded iron, and the places where the

base is joined are not riveted together by bolts or nails, but simply

by welding. This base from a broad bottom rises turret-like to a

point. The sides are not entirely covered, but have girders of iron

like the steps in a ladder. Straight bars of iron bend outwards at the

extremities, and this is the seat for the bowl.

What is called by the Delphians the navel, made of white stone, is

according to their tradition the centre of the world, and Pindar in one

of his Odes gives a similar account.[105] Here is a votive offering of

the Lacedæmonians, a statue by Calamis of Hermione, the daughter of

Menelaus and wife of Orestes (the son of Agamemnon), and still earlier

the wife of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. The Ætolians have also

erected a statue to Eurydamus their general, who commanded their army

against the Galati.

There is still among the mountains of Crete a town called Elyrus, its

inhabitants sent a brazen goat as their offering to Delphi. This goat

is represented suckling Phylacides and Philander, who according to the

people of Elyrus were the sons of Apollo by the Nymph Acacallis, with

whom he had an intrigue in the city Tarrha in the house of Carmanor.

The Carystians also from Eubœa offered a brazen ox to Apollo after

the Median war. I think both they and the Platæans made their votive

offerings because, after repulsing the barbarian, they enjoyed

prosperity in other respects and a free land to cultivate. The Ætolians

also sent effigies of their generals and Apollo and Artemis, when they

had subdued their neighbours the Acarnanians.

The strangest thing I heard of was what happened in the seafight

between the Liparæans and Tyrrhenians. The Pythian Priestess bade

the Liparæans fight a naval engagement with the Tyrrhenians with as

small a fleet as possible. They put to sea therefore with only five

triremes, and the Tyrrhenians, thinking themselves quite a match for

the Liparæans, put out to sea against them with only the same number of

ships. And the Liparæans took them, and also another five that put out

against them, and a third and even fourth set of five ships. They then

placed at Delphi as votive offerings as many statues of Apollo as they

had captured ships. Echecratides of Larissa offered the small Apollo,

and the Delphians say this was the first of all the votive offerings.

[105] Pindar _Pyth._ viii. 85. So also Æschylus, _Eumen._ 40.

CHAPTER XVII.

Of the western barbarians the Sardinians offered a brazen statue

of Sardus, from whom their island took its name. For its size and

prosperity Sardinia is equal to the most celebrated islands. What its

ancient name was among its original inhabitants I do not know, but

the Greeks who sailed there for commerce called it Ichnusa, because

its shape was like that of a man’s foot-print. Its length is about

1,120 stades and its breadth 470. The first that crossed over into

the island were they say Libyans, their leader was Sardus, the son of

that Maceris who was called Hercules by the Egyptians and Libyans.

The most notable thing Maceris ever did was to journey to Delphi: but

Sardus led the Libyans to Ichnusa, and gave his name to the island.

They did not however eject the original inhabitants of the island, but

the new comers were received as fellow colonists rather from necessity

than choice. Neither did the Libyans nor the aborigines of the island

know how to build cities, but lived dispersed in huts and caves as

each chanced. But some years after the Libyans some Greeks came to

the island under Aristæus, (who was they say the son of Apollo by

Cyrene): and who migrated they say to Sardinia in excessive grief at

the death of Actæon, which made him ill at ease in Bœotia and indeed

all Greece. There are some who think that Dædalus fled at the same time

from Camicus, owing to the hostility of the Cretans, and took part in

this colony of Aristæus: but it is altogether beyond probability that

Dædalus, who was a contemporary of Œdipus when he reigned at Thebes,

could have shared either in a colony or in anything else with Aristæus,

the husband of Autonoe the daughter of Cadmus. Nor do I think that even

these Greeks built a town, inasmuch as in numbers and strength they

were inadequate to such a task. And after Aristæus the Iberes crossed

into Sardinia under Norax, and built the town of Nora, which is the

first mentioned in the island: Norax was they say the son of Hermes

by Erythea the daughter of Geryon. And a fourth band of colonists of

Thespians and Athenians under Iolaus came to Sardinia and built the

town of Olbia, and the Athenians separately built the town which they

called Ogryle, either preserving the name of one of their townships

in this way, or because Ogrylus was one of the expedition. There are

still places in Sardinia called after Iolaus, who is still honoured by

the inhabitants. And after the capture of Ilium several of the Trojans

escaped, as well as those who got off safe with Æneas; part of them

were carried by the winds to Sardinia, and mixed with the Greeks who

had gone there earlier. And what hindered the barbarians from fighting

against the Greeks and Trojans was that in their equipment for war

they stood on an equality, and both armies feared to cross the river

Thorsus which parted them. Many years afterwards however the Libyans

passed over into the island a second time with a larger host, and

fought against the Greeks, and entirely destroyed all but a remnant,

and the Trojans fled to the hilly parts of the island, and occupying

the mountains, which were difficult of access from the rocks and

crags, are called to this day Ilians, but they resemble the Libyans

in their appearance and armour and mode of living. And there is an

island not far from Sardinia, called by the Greeks Cyrnus, but by its

Libyan inhabitants Corsica. A large contingent in this island, who had

suffered grievously from faction, crossed over to Sardinia and dwelt

in part of the mountainous district, and were called by the Sardinians

Corsi from the name of their fatherland. And when the Carthaginians

became a great naval power, they subdued all the Sardinians but the

Ilians and the Corsi, (who were prevented from being reduced to slavery

by the security which the mountains gave them,) and themselves built

in the island the towns Caralis and Sulci. And the Libyans or Iberes,

who were allies of the Carthaginians, disputed over the spoil, and

got so angry that they parted from them, and they also went and dwelt

in the mountainous parts of the island. And they were called Balari,

according to the dialect of the people of Cyrnus, who give that

name to exiles. Such are the races that inhabit Sardinia, and such

are the towns they have built. And in the island towards the North

and the mainland of Italy is a mountain range difficult of access,

whose summits are contiguous, and this part of the island affords no

harbours to mariners, but violent gusts and squalls of wind sweep

from the mountain-tops over the sea. In the middle of the island are

other mountains less lofty, but the air there is generally turbid and

pestilential, in consequence of the salt that crystallizes there, and

the violence of the South Wind; for the North Winds, on account of

the height of the mountains towards Italy, are prevented from blowing

in summer time so as to cool the air and soil. Some say that Cyrnus

is not further by sea from Sardinia than eight stades, and as it is

mountainous and lofty throughout, they think it prevents either the

West or North West Winds reaching Sardinia. There are no serpents in

the island either venomous or harmless, nor wolves. The rams are of no

greater size than elsewhere, but their appearance is just such as a

statuary in Ægina might suppose a wild ram to be, thicker however in

the breast than the Æginetan works of art, and the horns do not stand

out direct from the head, but twist round the ears, and in speed they

surpass all animals. The island is free from all deadly grasses and

herbs with one exception, a grass like parsley which is deadly, and

those who eat of it die laughing. This is the origin of Homer[106]

and subsequent writers speaking of the Sardonic laughter when things

are in evil plight. This grass grows chiefly near springs, but does

not communicate to them its venom. We have introduced this account of

Sardinia into our history of Phocis, because the Greeks have such very

scanty knowledge about the island.

[106] Odyssey, xx. 301, 302.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The horse, which is next the statue of Sardus, was they say the votive

offering of the Athenian Callias (the son of Lysimachides), out of his

own personal gains in the Persian war. And the Achæans offered a statue

of Athene after they had reduced the town of Phana in Ætolia by siege.

The siege lasted a long time, and, when the besiegers found they could

not take the town, they sent messengers to Delphi, and this was the

response they received.

“O inhabitants of the land of Pelops and of Achaia, who come to Pytho

to enquire how you are to capture the town, observe what portion of

water daily given to the inhabitants keeps them alive, and how much the

town has already drunk. In this way may you take the fenced village of

Phana.”

Not understanding the meaning of the oracle, they resolved to raise

the siege and depart homewards, as the inhabitants of the besieged

place took very little heed of them, when a woman came out of the town

to fetch water from a well near the walls. They hurried up from the

camp and took this woman prisoner, and the Achæans learned from her

that the little water from this well (when they got it each night) was

measured out, and the people in the town had no other water whatever to

drink. So the Achæans fouled the water so as to make it undrinkable and

captured the town.

And next to this statue of Athene the Rhodians of Lindus erected a

statue of Apollo. And the Ambraciotes offered a brazen ass, after

their victory by night over the Molossi. The Molossi had made ready

for a night attack on them, when an ass, who chanced to be driven from

the field, pursuing a she-ass with lust and braying, and the driver

also crying out in a loud and disorderly manner, the Molossi were so

dismayed where they were in ambush that they left the place, and the

Ambraciotes detected their plan, and attacked and defeated them that

very night.

And the people of Orneæ in Argolis, as the Sicyonians pressed them

hard in war, vowed to Apollo, if they should succeed in repelling

the Sicyonians, to have a procession to him at Delphi daily and to

sacrifice to him any quantity of victims. They obtained the wished-for

victory, but as to discharge their vow daily was a great expense, and

the trouble even greater than the expense, they hit upon the expedient

of offering to the god representations in brass of the procession and

sacrifice.

Here too is a representation in iron of the contest between Hercules

and the Hydra, the votive offering and design of Tisagoras. Making

statues in iron is most difficult and laborious. This Tisagoras,

whoever he was, is famed for the heads of a lion and wild boar at

Pergamus. These are also in iron, and were a votive offering of his to

Dionysus.

And the Phocians of Elatea, who held out against the siege of Cassander

till Olympiodorus came from Athens to their relief, sent a brazen lion

to Apollo at Delphi. And the Apollo next that lion is the offering of

the Massaliotes for their victory over the Carthaginians in a sea-fight.

The Ætolians also erected a trophy and statue of an armed woman,

(Ætolia to wit), out of the fine they imposed on the Galati for their

cruelty to the people of Callion.[107] There is also a gilt statue of

Gorgias of Leontini, his own votive offering.

[107] See ch. 22.

CHAPTER XIX.

Next to the statue of Gorgias is a votive offering of the Amphictyones,

a statue of Scyllis of Scione, who had wonderful fame as a diver, and

taught his daughter Hydna diving. When a violent storm came on Xerxes’

fleet off Mount Pelion they greatly added to the wrecks, by diving

down and cutting the cables that kept the ships at anchor. It was for

this good service that the Amphictyones made statues of Scyllis and his

daughter. And among the statues that Nero took away from Delphi was

this of Hydna. [Virgins that are virgins indeed still dive in the sea

with impunity.][108]

I shall next relate a Lesbian tradition. The nets of some fishermen

at Methymna fished up out of the sea a head made of olive-wood, which

seemed that of a foreign god, and not one worshipped by the Greeks. The

people of Methymna inquired therefore of the Pythian priestess what god

or hero it belonged to, and she bade them worship Phallenian Dionysus.

Accordingly the people of Methymna offered their vows and sacrifices to

it, and sent a bronze imitation of it to Delphi.

On the gables are representations of Artemis and Leto and Apollo and

the Muses, and the setting of the Sun, and Dionysus and the Thyiades.

The faces of all these are by the Athenian Praxias, the pupil of

Calamis: but as the temple took some time to build Praxias died before

it was finished, and the rest of the carving on the gables was by

Androsthenes, also an Athenian, and the pupil of Eucadmus. Of the

golden arms on the architraves, the Athenians offered the shields after

the victory at Marathon, and the Ætolians the arms of the Galati behind

and on the left, which resemble the Persian shields called _Gerrha_.

Of the irruption of the Galati into Greece I gave some account in

connection with the council-chamber at Athens: but I prefer to give

the fullest account in connection with Delphi, because the greatest

struggle between them and the Greeks took place here. The first

expedition of the Celts beyond their borders was under Cambaules: but

when they got as far as Thrace on that occasion they did not dare to

go any further, recognising that they were too few in number to cope

with the Greeks. But on the second expedition, egged on by those who

had formed part of the army of Cambaules, who had tasted the sweets of

plunder and were enamoured of the gains of looting, a large army of

both infantry and cavalry mustered together. This army the commanders

divided into three parts, and each marched into a different district.

Cerethrius was to march against the Thracians and the Triballi: Brennus

and Acichorius were to lead their division into Pæonia: and Bolgius

was to march against the Macedonians and Illyrians. This last fought a

battle against Ptolemy king of the Macedonians, who had treacherously

slain Seleucus the son of Antiochus, (though he had been a suppliant

at his court), and was nicknamed Lightning on account of his

audacity.[109] In this battle Ptolemy fell, and with him no small part

of the Macedonians: but the Celts durst not adventure any further into

Greece, and so this second expedition returned home again. Thereupon

Brennus urgently pressed upon the general assemblies, and upon each

individual chieftain of the Galati, the advantages of invading Greece,

pointing out her weak state at that period, and the immense wealth of

her community, her votive offerings in the temples, her quantity of

silver and gold. He succeeded in persuading the Galati to invade Greece

once more, and among other chieftains he chose Acichorius once more as

his colleague. The army mustered 152,000 foot and 20,400 horse. Such

at least was the fighting force of the cavalry, for its real number

was 61,200: as each horse-soldier had two servants, who themselves

were excellent cavalry also and mounted. For the custom of the Galati

in an engagement was that these servants should remain in the rear

close at hand, and if a horse was killed they supplied a fresh one,

and if the rider was killed one of them took his place, and if he too

was killed then the third took his place. And if one of the masters

was only wounded, then one of his servants removed him to the camp,

and the other took his place in the battle. In this custom I think the

Galati imitated the 10,000 Persians, called _The Immortals_. But the

difference was that _The Immortals_ were a reserve force only used at

the end of an action, whereas the Galati used these reserves as wanted

all through the action. This mode of fighting they called _Trimarcisia_

in their dialect: for the Celts called a horse _marca_. Such was the

force, such the intentions, with which Brennus marched into Greece.

[108] I follow _Schubart_ in surrounding this remarkable statement with

brackets.

[109] See the circumstances in Book i. ch. 16.

CHAPTER XX.

The Greeks for their part, though very dejected, were induced to fight

bravely for their country by the very urgency of the peril. For they

saw that at the present crisis it was not merely their liberty that

was at stake, as at the time of the Persian invasion, but that, even

if they granted land and water to the enemy,[110] they would have no

future security. For they still remembered the former irruption of the

Galati into Macedonia and Thrace and Pæonia, and their recent outrages

in Thessaly had been reported to them. It was the universal opinion

therefore, both with individuals and states, that they must either die

or conquer.

It will not be without instruction to compare the numbers of those

who fought against Xerxes at Thermopylæ with those who fought now

against the Galati. The Greeks that marched against the Mede were as

follows: 300 Lacedæmonians only under Leonidas, 500 from Tegea, 500

from Mantinea, 120 Arcadians from Orchomenus, 1000 from the other towns

of Arcadia, 80 from Mycenæ, 200 from Phlius, 400 from Corinth, 700

Bœotians from Thespia and 400 from Thebes. And 1,000 Phocians guarded

the pass at Mount Œta, who must be added to the Greek contingent. As

to the Locrians under Mount Cnemis Herodotus has not mentioned their

precise number, he only says they came from all the towns. But we

may conjecture their number pretty accurately: for the Athenians at

Marathon, including slaves and non-combatants, were not more than

9,000: so that the fighting force of Locrians at Thermopylæ could not

be more than 6,000. Thus the whole force employed against the Persians

would be 11,200. Nor did all of these stay all the time under arms at

Thermopylæ, for except the men from Lacedæmon and Thespia and Mycenæ

they waited not to see the issue of the fight. And now against these

barbarians who had crossed the ocean the following Greeks banded

themselves at Thermopylæ: 10,000 heavy armed infantry and 500 horse

from Bœotia, under the Bœotarchs Cephisodotus and Thearidas and

Diogenes and Lysander: 500 cavalry and 3,000 foot from Phocis, under

Critobulus and Antiochus: 700 Locrians, all infantry, from the island

Atalanta, under the command of Midias: 400 heavy armed infantry of

the Megarians, their cavalry under the command of Megareus: of the

Ætolians, who formed the largest and most formidable contingent, the

number of their horse is not recorded, but their light-armed troops

were 90,[111] and their heavy armed 7000: and the Ætolians were under

the command of Polyarchus and Polyphron and Lacrates. And the Athenians

were under Callippus the son of Mœrocles, as I have before stated, and

consisted of all the triremes that were sea-worthy, and 500 horse, and

1,000 foot, and because of their ancient renown they were in command of

the whole allied army. And some mercenary troops were sent by various

kings, as 500 from Macedonia, and 500 from Asia, those that were sent

by Antigonus were led by Aristodemus the Macedonian, and those that

were sent by Antiochus were led by Telesarchus, as also some Syrians

from Asia situated by the river Orontes.

When these Greeks, thus banded together at Thermopylæ, heard that the

army of the Galati was already in the neighbourhood of Magnesia and

Phthiotis, they determined to send about 1,000 picked light-armed

soldiers and a troop of horse to the river Sperchius, to prevent the

barbarians’ crossing the river without a struggle. And they went and

destroyed the bridges, and encamped by the river. Now Brennus was by no

means devoid of intelligence, and for a barbarian no mean strategist.

Accordingly on the following night without any delay he sent 10,000 of

his troops, who could swim and were remarkably tall,--and all the Celts

are remarkably tall men--down the river to cross it not at the ordinary

fords, but at a part of the river where it was less rapid, and marshy,

and diffused itself more over the plain, so that the Greeks should not

be able to notice their crossing over. They crossed over accordingly,

swimming over the marshy part of the river, and using the shields of

their country as a sort of raft, while the tallest of them could ford

the river. When the Greeks at the Sperchius noticed that part of the

barbarians had crossed over, they returned at once to the main army.

[110] The technical term for submission to an enemy. See Herodotus, v.

17, 18; vii. 133.

[111] This 90 seeming a very small force, _Schubart_ conjectures 790,

_Brandstäter_ 1090.

CHAPTER XXI.

Brennus next ordered those who dwelt near the Maliac Bay to throw

bridges over the Sperchius: which they did quickly, standing greatly in

dread of him, and being very desirous that the barbarians should depart

and not injure them by a long stay in their part of the country. Then

Brennus passed his army across these bridges, and marched for Heraclea.

And though they did not capture it, the Galati ravaged the country, and

slew the men that were left in the fields. The year before the Ætolians

had compelled the people of Heraclea to join the Ætolian League, and

now they protected Heraclea just as if it was their own. That is why

Brennus did not capture it, but he paid no great attention to it, his

only anxiety being to dislodge the enemy from the passes, and get into

Greece by Thermopylæ.

He advanced therefore from Heraclea, and learning from deserters

that a strong force from all the Greek cities was concentrated at

Thermopylæ, he despised his enemy, and the following day at daybreak

opened battle, having no Greek seer with him, or any priests of his

own country, if indeed the Celts practise divination. Thereupon the

Greeks advanced silently and in good order: and when the two armies

engaged, the infantry were careful not to break their line, and the

light-armed troops keeping their ground discharged their darts arrows

and slings at the barbarians. The cavalry on both sides was useless,

not only from the narrowness of the pass, but also from the smooth and

slippery and rocky nature of the ground, intersected also throughout by

various mountain streams. The armour of the Galati was inferior, for

their only defensive armour was the shield used in their country, and

moreover they were less experienced in the art of war. But they fought

like wild beasts with rage and fury and headlong inconsiderate valour:

and, whether hacked about by swords and battle-axes, or pierced with

darts and javelins, desisted not from their furious attacks till bereft

of life. Some even plucked out of their wounds the weapons with which

they had been wounded, and hurled them back, or used them in hand to

hand fight. Meantime the Athenians on their triremes, not without great

difficulty and danger, sailed along the mud which is very plentiful

in that arm of the sea, and got their vessels as near the barbarians

as they could, and shot at their flanks with all kinds of darts and

arrows. And the Celts by now getting far the worst of it, and in the

press suffering far more loss than they could inflict, had the signal

to retire to their camp given them by their commanders. Accordingly

retreating in no order and in great confusion, many got trodden

underfoot by one another, and many falling into the marsh disappeared

in it, so that the loss in the retreat was as great as in the heat of

action.

On this day the Athenians exhibited more valour than all the other

Greeks, and especially Cydias, who was very young and fought now for

the first time. And as he was killed by the Galati his relations hung

up his shield to Zeus Eleutherius with the following inscription,

“Here I hang in vain regret for the young Cydias, I once the shield of

that good warrior, now a votive offering to Zeus, the shield which he

carried on his left arm for the first time, on that day when fierce

war blazed out against the Galati.”

This inscription remained till Sulla’s soldiers removed the shields in

the portico of Zeus Eleutherius, as well as other notable things at

Athens.

And after the battle at Thermopylæ the Greeks buried their dead, and

stripped the bodies of the barbarians. But the Galati not only asked

not permission to bury their dead, but plainly did not care whether

their dead obtained burial or were torn to pieces by birds and beasts.

Two things in my opinion made them thus indifferent to the burial of

their dead, one to strike awe in their enemies by their ferocity, the

other that they do not habitually mourn for their dead. In the battle

fell 40 Greeks, how many barbarians cannot be accurately ascertained,

for many of them were lost in the marsh.

CHAPTER XXII.

On the seventh day after the battle a division of the Galati

endeavoured to cross Mount Œta by Heraclea, by a narrow pass near the

ruins of Trachis, not far from which was a temple of Athene, rich in

votive offerings. The barbarians hoped to cross Mount Œta by this pass,

and also to plunder the temple by the way. The garrison however under

the command of Telesarchus defeated the barbarians, though Telesarchus

fell in the action, a man zealously devoted to the Greek cause.

The other commanders of the barbarians were astounded at the Greek

successes, and doubted whereunto these things would grow, seeing that

at present their own fortunes were desperate, but Brennus thought that,

if he could force the Ætolians back into Ætolia, the war against the

other Greeks would be easier. He selected therefore out of his whole

army 40,000 foot and about 800 horse, all picked men, and put them

under the command of Orestorius and Combutis. And they recrossed the

Sperchius by the bridges, and marched through Thessaly into Ætolia.

And their actions at Callion were the most atrocious of any that we

have ever heard of, and quite unlike human beings. They butchered all

the males, and likewise old men, and babes at their mother’s breasts:

they even drank the blood, and feasted on the flesh, of babies that

were fat. And high-spirited women and maidens in their flower committed

suicide when the town was taken: and those that survived the barbarians

submitted to every kind of outrage, being by nature incapable of pity

and natural affection. And some of the women rushed upon the swords

of the Galati and voluntarily courted death: to others death soon

came from absence of food and sleep, as these merciless barbarians

outraged them in turn, and wreaked their lusts on them whether dying or

dead. And the Ætolians having learnt from messengers of the disasters

that had fallen upon them, removed their forces with all speed from

Thermopylæ, and pressed into Ætolia, furious at the sufferings of

the people of Callion, and even still more anxious to save the towns

that had not yet been captured. And the young men flocked out from

all their towns to swell their army, old men also mixed with them

inspirited by the crisis, and even their women volunteered their

services, being more furious against the Galati than even the men. And

the barbarians, having plundered the houses and temples and set fire

to Callion, marched back to the main army at Thermopylæ: and on the

road the people of Patræ were the only Achæans that helped the Ætolians

and fell on the barbarians, being as they were capital heavy-armed

soldiers, but hard-pressed from the quantity of the Galati and their

desperate valour. But the Ætolian men and women lined the roads and

threw missiles at the barbarians with great effect, as they had no

defensive armour but their national shields, and when the Galati

pursued them they easily ran away, and when they desisted from the

vain pursuit harassed them again continually. And though Callion had

suffered so grievously, that what Homer relates of the contest between

the Læstrygones and the Cyclops seems less improbable,[112] yet the

vengeance which the Ætolians took was not inadequate: for of the 40,800

barbarians not more than half got back safe to the camp at Thermopylæ.

In the meantime the fortunes of the Greeks at Thermopylæ were as

follows. One pass over Mount Œta is above Trachis, most steep and

precipitous, the other through the district of the Ænianes is easier

for an army, and is the way by which Hydarnes the Mede formerly

turned the flank of Leonidas’ forces. By this way the Ænianes and

people of Heraclea promised to conduct Brennus, out of no ill-will

to the Greeks, but thinking it a great point if they could get the

Celts to leave their district and not remain there to their utter

ruin. So true are the words of Pindar, when he says that everybody is

oppressed by his own troubles, but is indifferent to the misfortunes

of other people.[113] And this promise of the Ænianes and people of

Heraclea encouraged Brennus: and he left Acichorius with the main army,

instructing him to attack the Greek force, when he (Brennus) should

have got to their rear: and himself marched through the pass with

40,000 picked men. And it so happened that that day there was a great

mist on the mountain which obscured the sun, so that the barbarians

were not noticed by the Phocians who guarded the pass till they got

to close quarters and attacked them. The Phocians defended themselves

bravely, but were at last overpowered and retired from the pass: but

were in time to get to the main force, and report what had happened,

before the Greeks got completely surrounded oh all sides. Thereupon the

Athenians took the Greeks on board their triremes at Thermopylæ: and

they dispersed each to their own nationality.

[112] Odyssey, x. 199, 200.

[113] _Nem._ i. 82. Thus _La Rochefoucauld_ is anticipated. “Nous avons

tous assez de force pour supporter les maux d’autrui.”

CHAPTER XXIII.

And Brennus, waiting only till Acichorius’ troops should come up from

the camp, marched for Delphi. And the inhabitants fled to the oracle

in great alarm, but the god told them not to fear, he would protect

his own. And the following Greeks came up to fight for the god; the

Phocians from all their towns, 400 heavy armed soldiers from Amphissa,

of the Ætolians only a few at first, when they heard of the onward

march of the barbarians, but afterwards Philomelus brought up 1200. For

the flower of the Ætolian army directed itself against the division of

Acichorius, not bringing on a general engagement, but attacking their

rearguard as they marched, plundering their baggage and killing the

men in charge of it, and thus impeding their march considerably. And

Acichorius had left a detachment at Heraclea, to guard the treasure in

his camp.

So Brennus and the Greeks gathered together at Delphi drew up against

one another in battle-array. And the god showed in the plainest

possible way his enmity to the barbarians. For the whole ground

occupied by the army of the Galati violently rocked most of the day,

and there was continuous thunder and lightning, which astounded the

Celts and prevented their hearing the orders of their officers, and the

lightning hit not only some particular individual here and there, but

set on fire all round him and their arms. And appearances of heroes,

as Hyperochus and Laodocus and Pyrrhus, and Phylacus--a local hero at

Delphi--were seen on the battle field. And many Phocians fell in the

action and among others Aleximachus, who slew more barbarians with

his own hand than any other of the Greeks, and who was remarkable

for his manly vigour, strength of frame and daring, and his statue

was afterwards placed by the Phocians in the temple of Apollo at

Delphi. Such was the condition and terror of the barbarians all the

day, and during the night things were still worse with them, for it

was bitterly cold and snowed hard, and great stones came tumbling

down from Parnassus, and whole crags broke off and seemed to make the

barbarians their mark, and not one or two but thirty and even more,

as they stood on guard or rested, were killed at once by the fall of

one of these crags. And the next day at daybreak the Greeks poured

out of Delphi and attacked them, some straight in front, but the

Phocians, who had the best acquaintance with the ground, came down

the steep sides of Parnassus through the snow, and fell on the Celtic

rear unexpectedly, and hurled javelins at them, and shot at them with

perfect security. At the beginning of the battle the Galati, especially

Brennus’ body-guard who were the finest and boldest men in their army,

fought with conspicuous bravery, though they were shot at on all

sides, and suffered frightfully from the cold, especially such as were

wounded: but when Brennus was wounded, and taken off the field in a

fainting condition, then the barbarians sorely against their will beat

a retreat, (as the Greeks by now pressed them hard on all sides), and

killed those of their comrades who could not retreat with them owing to

their wounds or weakness.

These fugitive Galati bivouacked where they had got to when night came

on them, and during the night were seized with panic fear, that is a

fear arising without any solid cause. This panic came upon them late in

the night, and was at first confined to a few, who thought they heard

the noise of horses galloping up and that the enemy was approaching,

but soon it ran through the host. They therefore seized their arms, and

getting separated in the darkness mutually slew one another, neither

recognizing their native dialect, nor discerning one another’s forms

or weapons, but both sides in their panic thinking their opponents

Greeks both in language and weapons, so that this panic sent by the

god produced terrific mutual slaughter. And those Phocians, who were

left in the fields guarding the flocks and herds, were the first to

notice and report to the Greeks what had happened to the barbarians in

the night: and this nerved them to attack the Celts more vigorously

than ever, and they placed a stronger guard over their cattle, and

would not let the Galati get any articles of food from them without a

fierce fight for it, so that throughout the barbarian host there was a

deficiency of corn and all other provisions. And the number of those

that perished in Phocis was nearly 6,000 slain in battle, and more than

10,000 in the savage wintry night and in the panic, and as many more

from starvation.

Some Athenians, who had gone to Delphi to reconnoitre, brought back the

news of what had happened to the barbarians, and of the panic that the

god had sent. And when they heard this good news they marched through

Bœotia, and the Bœotians with them, and both in concert followed the

barbarians, and lay in ambush for them, and cut off the stragglers.

And Acichorius’ division had joined those who fled with Brennus

only the previous night: for the Ætolians made their progress slow,

hurling javelins at them and any other missile freely, so that only

a small part of the barbarians got safe to the camp at Heraclea. And

Brennus, though his wounds were not mortal, yet either from fear of his

comrades, or from shame, as having been the instigator of all these

woes that had happened to them in Greece, committed suicide by drinking

neat wine freely.[114] And subsequently the barbarians got to the river

Sperchius with no little difficulty, as the Ætolians attacked them

fiercely all the way, and at that river the Thessalians and Malienses

set on them with such vigour that none of them got home again.

This expedition of the Celts to Greece and their utter ruin happened

when Anaxicrates was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the 125th

Olympiad, when Ladas of Ægæ was victor in the course. And the following

year, when Democles was Archon at Athens, all the Celts[115] crossed

back again to Asia Minor. I have delivered a true account.

[114] Which after his wounds would be fatal.

[115] As _Siebelis_ well points out, this cannot refer to Brennus’

army, which we have just been told was all cut to pieces, but to the

swarm of Celts in Macedonia and Thrace, who returned to Asia Minor,

cowed by this catastrophe.

CHAPTER XXIV.

In the vestibule of the temple at Delphi are written up several wise

sayings for the conduct of life by those whom the Greeks call _The

Seven Wise Men_. These were Thales of Miletus and Bias of Priene (both

from Ionia), and (of the Æolians in Lesbos) Pittacus of Mitylene,

and (of the Dorians in Asia Minor) Cleobulus of Lindus, and Solon of

Athens, and Chilo of Sparta, and the seventh Plato (the son of Aristo)

makes[116] Myson of Chenæ, a village on Mount Œta, instead of Periander

the son of Cypselus. These Seven Wise Men came to Delphi, and offered

to Apollo those famous sayings, _Know thyself_ and _Not too much of

anything_. And they inscribed those sayings in the vestibule of the

temple.

You may also see a brazen statue of Homer on a pillar, and read the

oracle which they say was given to him, which runs as follows:

“Fortunate and unfortunate, for you are born to both destinies, you

inquire after your fatherland. But you have no fatherland, only a

motherland. Your mother’s country is the island Ios, which shall

receive your remains. But be on your guard against the riddle of young

boys.”[117]

The inhabitants of Ios still shew the tomb of Homer, and in another

part of the island the tomb of Clymene, who they say was Homer’s

mother. But the people of Cyprus, for they too claim Homer as their

own, and say that Themisto (one of the women of their country) was

his mother, cite the following prophetical verses of Euclus touching

Homer’s birth;

“In sea-girt Cyprus shall a great poet one day be born, whom divine

Themisto shall give birth to in the country, a poet whose fame shall

spread far from wealthy Salamis. And he leaving Cyprus and sailing

over the sea shall first sing the woes of spacious Hellas, and shall

all his days be immortal and ever fresh.”

These oracles I have heard and read, but I have nothing private to

write either about the country or age of Homer.

And in the temple is an altar of Poseidon, for the most ancient oracle

belonged to Poseidon, and there are also statues of two Fates, for

in the place of the third Fate is Zeus the Arbiter of the Fates, and

Apollo the Arbiter of the Fates. You may also see here the altar at

which the priest of Apollo slew Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, as I

have stated elsewhere. And not far from this altar is the iron Chair

of Pindar, on which they say he used to sit and sing Hymns to Apollo,

whenever he came to Delphi. In the interior of the temple, to which

only a few have access, is another statue of Apollo all gold.

As one leaves the temple and turns to the left, there are precincts

in which is the grave of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, to whom the

people of Delphi offer funeral rites annually. And not far from this

tomb is a small stone on which they pour oil daily, and on which at

every festival they lay raw wool: and they have a tradition about this

stone, that it was the one which was given to Cronos instead of a son,

and that he afterwards voided it.

And if, after looking at this stone, you return to the temple, you will

come to the fountain Cassotis, which is walled in, and there is an

ascent to it through the wall. The water of this fountain goes they say

underground, and inspires the women in the sanctuary of the god with

prophetical powers: they say the fountain got its name from one of the

Nymphs of Parnassus.

[116] In the _Protagoras_, 343 A.

[117] The tradition the oracle refers to is that Homer died of grief,

because he could not solve the riddle which some fisher boys propounded

to him. The oracle is also alluded to in Book viii, ch. 24.

CHAPTER XXV.

Above the fountain is a building which contains some paintings of

Polygnotus, it is the votive offering of the people of Cnidos, and

is called _The Lounge_ by the people of Delphi, because they used to

assemble there in old times and discuss both serious and trifling

subjects. That there were many such places throughout Greece Homer has

shown in Melantho’s reviling of Odysseus:

“For you will not go to sleep at a smithy or at some lounge, but you

will keep talking here.”[118]

On the right as you enter the building is a painting of the capture of

Ilium and the return of the Greeks. And they are making preparations

for Menelaus’ hoisting sail, and his ship is painted with boys and

sailors all mixed up together on board: and in the middle of the

ship is Phrontis the pilot with two punting poles. Homer[119] has

represented Nestor among other things telling Telemachus about

Phrontis, how he was the son of Onetor, and pilot of Menelaus, and most

able in his art, and how he died as he sailed past Sunium in Attica.

And Menelaus, who was up to this time sailing with Nestor, was now left

behind, that he might discharge all due funeral rites for Phrontis.

Beneath Phrontis in the painting of Polygnotus is Ithæmenes carrying

some garment, and Echœax descending the gangway-ladder with a brazen

water-pot. And Polites and Strophius and Alphius are represented

taking down the tent of Menelaus, which is not far from the ship. And

Amphialus is taking down another tent, a boy is sitting at his feet,

but there is no inscription on him, and Phrontis is the only person

with a beard. His was the only name in the group that Polygnotus got

out of the Odyssey: the others I imagine he invented. There too stands

Briseis, and Diomede near her, and Iphis in front of them both, they

all appear to be gazing at Helen’s beauty. And Helen is seated, and

near her is Eurybates, who has no beard, and was I suppose the herald

of Odysseus. And Helen’s handmaids are by, Panthalis standing at her

side, and Electra fastening her sandals: these names are different

however from those Homer gives in the Iliad, when he describes Helen

and her maids going on to the walls.[120] And above Helen sits a

man clothed in purple, looking very dejected: before reading the

inscription one would conjecture that it is Helenus the son of Priam.

And near Helenus is Meges, who is wounded in the shoulder, as he is

described by Lescheos of Pyrrha, the son of Æschylinus, in his _Capture

of Ilium_, he was wounded he says by Admetus the son of Augeas in the

night-attack of the Trojans. And next to Meges is Lycomedes the son of

Creon, who is wounded on the wrist, as Lescheos says he was by Agenor.

It is manifest that Polygnotus must have read Lescheos’ poem, or he

would not have painted their wounds so accurately. He has also depicted

Lycomedes with a third wound in the ankle, and a fourth on the head.

Euryalus also the son of Mecisteus is represented as wounded in the

head and wrist. All these are above Helen in the painting: and next

Helen is Æthra the mother of Theseus with her head shaven, and Theseus’

son Demophon apparently wondering whether he could save her. And the

Argives say that Melanippus was the son of Theseus by the daughter

of Sinis, and that he won the prize in the race, when the Epigoni

restored the Nemean games which were originally introduced by Adrastus.

Lescheos has stated that Æthra escaped when Ilium was taken, and got

to the Greek camp, and was recognized by the sons of Theseus, and

Demophon asked her of Agamemnon. And he said he would willingly gratify

Demophon, but could not do so before he obtained the consent of Helen,

so a messenger was sent to Helen and she gave her consent. I think

therefore the picture represents Eurybates coming to Helen on this

errand, and delivering the message of Agamemnon. And the Trojan women

in the painting look in sad dejection as if they were captives already.

There is Andromache, with a babyboy at her breast. Lescheos says that

this babyboy was hurled from a tower, not in consequence of any decree

of the Greeks, but simply from the private hatred of Neoptolemus. There

too is Medesicaste, one of the illegitimate daughters of Priam, of whom

Homer says that she dwelt in the town of Pedæum, and married Imbrius

the son of Mentor.[121] Andromache and Medesicaste are represented

veiled: but Polyxena has her hair plaited after the manner of maidens.

The Poets represent her to have been slain at the tomb of Achilles,

and I have seen paintings both at Athens and Pergamus beyond the river

Caicus of her death. Polygnotus has also introduced Nestor into the

same painting, with a hat on his head and a spear in his hand: and

a horse near seems to be rolling in the dust. Near the horse is the

sea-shore, and you can see the pebbles, but the rest of the scene does

not resemble a sea view.

[118] Odyssey, xviii. 328, 329. See Dr. Hayman’s admirable note on this

passage.

[119] Odyssey, iii. 276 _sq._

[120] Iliad, iii. 144. Their names there are _Æthra_ and _Clymene_.

[121] Iliad, xiii. 171-173.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Above the women between Æthra and Nestor are the captives, Clymene,

and Creusa, and Aristomache, and Xenodice. Clymene is enumerated

among the captives by Stesichorus in his _Fall of Ilium_: Aristomache

likewise is represented in the poem called _The Return from Ilium_

as the daughter of Priam, and wife of Critolaus the son of Hicetaon:

but I do not remember either poet or prose-writer making mention of

Xenodice: and as to Creusa, they say that the Mother of the Gods and

Aphrodite rescued her from slavery to the Greeks, and that she was the

wife of Æneas, though Lescheos and the author of the Cyprian Poems

represent Eurydice as the wife of Æneas. Above these are painted

Deinome Metioche Pisis and Cleodice reclining on a couch: Deinome is

the only one of these mentioned in the poem called _The Little Iliad_,

so I think Polygnotus must have invented the other names. Here too is

Epeus naked knocking down the walls of Troy, and above the walls is

the head only of the Wooden Horse. Here too is Polypœtes, the son of

Pirithous, with his head bound by a fillet, and near him Acamas, the

son of Theseus, with a helmet on his head, and a crest on the helmet.

Here too is Odysseus with a coat of mail on. And Ajax the son of Oileus

is standing near the altar with a shield in his hand, taking his oath

in connection with the violation of Cassandra: Cassandra is seated on

the ground and holding fast the wooden statue of Athene, for she tore

it from its base, when Ajax dragged her away from the altar. And the

sons of Atreus are painted with their helmets on: and on Menelaus’

shield is a representation of the dragon that appeared to him as an

omen during the sacrifice at Aulis. They are administering the oath

to Ajax. And near the painting of the horse by Nestor’s side[122] is

Neoptolemus killing Elasus, whoever he was;[123] his dying agony is

well depicted: and Astynous, who is mentioned by Lescheos, has fallen

on to his knee, and Neoptolemus is in the act of smiting him with the

sword. And Polygnotus has represented Neoptolemus alone of all the

Greeks continuing to butcher the Trojans, that the painting should

correspond with the scenes depicted on the tomb of Neoptolemus. Homer

indeed calls Achilles’ son everywhere by the name of Neoptolemus, but

the Cyprian Poems say he was called Pyrrhus by Lycomedes, and that the

name Neoptolemus was given him by Phœnix, because he[124] was very

young when he first went to the wars. Here too is the painting of an

altar, and a little boy clinging to it in dire fear: a brazen coat

of mail lies on the altar, such as was worn in old times, for in our

days we seldom see such. It consisted of two pieces called _Gyala_,

one a protection for the breast and belly, the other for the back,

both joined together by clasps. And such coats of mail would afford

sufficient protection without a shield: and so Homer represented

Phorcys the Phrygian without a shield, because he was armed with this

kind of coat of mail.[125] In Polygnotus’ painting I recognize a coat

of mail of this kind: and in the temple of Ephesian Artemis Calliphon

of Samos has painted some women fitting this kind of coat of mail on

Patroclus. And Polygnotus has represented Laodice standing on the

other side of the altar. I do not find her name mentioned by any poet

among the captive Trojan women: and it seems probable enough that the

Greeks let her go. For Homer has represented in the Iliad that Menelaus

and Odysseus were entertained by Antenor, and that Laodice was the

wife of Antenor’s son Helicaon.[126] And Lescheos states that Helicaon

was wounded in the night-engagement, and recognized by Odysseus,

and rescued out of the battle alive. It follows therefore, from the

affection of Menelaus and Odysseus for the family of Antenor, that

Agamemnon and Menelaus would have offered no violence to Helicaon’s

wife. What Euphorion of Chalcis therefore has written about Laodice is

very improbable. And next Laodice is a stone prop, and a bronze laver

on it. And Medusa sits on the ground holding this prop with both her

hands. Whoever has read the Ode of Himeræus will include her among the

daughters of Priam. And near Medusa is an old woman closely shaven, (or

possibly a eunuch), with a naked child in his or her arms: the child’s

hand is before its eyes for fear.

[122] See ch. 26 nearly at the end.

[123] An Elasus is mentioned in Iliad, xvi. 696.

[124] _He_ (_i.e._ Neoptolemus). _Siebelis_ very ingeniously suggests

ὁ Ἀχιλλέως. I accept that suggestion as necessary to the

sense.

[125] See Iliad, xvii. 314. Pausanias goes a little beyond Homer

methinks.

[126] See Iliad, iii. 205-207. Also 122-124.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Of the dead in the painting are Pelis naked,[127] lying on his back,

and underneath him Eioneus and Admetus both in their coats of mail.

According to Lescheos Eioneus was slain by Neoptolemus, and Admetus

by Philoctetes. And above these are others, near the laver Leocritus,

the son of Polydamas, who was killed by Odysseus, and near Eioneus

and Admetus Corœbus the son of Mygdon. This Mygdon has a famous tomb

on the borders of the Stectorenian Phrygians, and poets have given

those Phrygians the name of Mygdones after him. Corœbus came to wed

Cassandra, and was killed by Neoptolemus according to the prevalent

tradition, but by Diomede according to Lescheos. And above Corœbus are

Priam and Axion and Agenor. Lescheos says that Priam was not slain

at the altar of Household Zeus, but was torn away from the altar and

killed by Neoptolemus with no great difficulty at the doors of the

palace. As to Hecuba, Stesichorus in his _Fall of Ilium_ has stated

that she was taken to Lycia by Apollo. And Lescheos says that Axion

was the son of Priam, and killed by Eurypylus the son of Euæmon. The

same poet states that Agenor was killed by Neoptolemus. And Echeclus,

Agenor’s son, seems to have been slain by Achilles. And Sinon, the

companion of Odysseus, and Anchialus are carrying out the corpse of

Laomedon for burial. There is another dead person in the painting,

Eresus by name; no poet, so far as my knowledge goes, has sung either

of Eresus or Laomedon. There is a painting also of the house of

Antenor, and a leopard’s skin hung up over the porch, as a sign to the

Greeks not to meddle with the family of Antenor. And Theano, _Antenor’s

wife_, is painted with her sons, Glaucus seated on his armour, and

Eurymachus seated on a stone. Near him stands Antenor with his daughter

Crino, who is carrying her baby boy. All these are depicted with

sorrowful countenances. The servants are placing a chest and other

articles on the back of an ass, on which a little boy also sits. And

under this painting is the following Elegiac couplet by Simonides.

“Polygnotus of Thasos, the son of Aglaophon, painted these incidents

in the capture of Ilium.”

[127] _Naked_ here, and in connection with Epeus in ch. 26, probably

only means without armour on. Cf. “Nudus ara, sere nudus.” Virg. Georg.

i. 299.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The other part of the painting, that on the left, represents Odysseus

descending to Hades, to consult the soul of Tiresias about his return

home. In the painting is a river, which is obviously Acheron, and

there are some reeds growing in it, and some fishes so indistinct that

they look like the ghosts of fishes. And there is a boat on the river,

and a ferryman with his oars. Polygnotus has followed (I think) here

the description, in the poem called the Minyad, about Theseus and

Pirithous.

“Unwillingly did old Charon admit these living persons into his boat

meant for the use of the dead.”

Polygnotus has accordingly represented Charon as old. The persons

on board are not very easy to trace. But there is Tellis, looking

like a youth, and Cleobœa still a virgin, with a cist on her knees

such as they use in the worship of Demeter. Of Tellis I know nothing

more than that Archilochus was his greatgrandson. And Cleobœa they

say first introduced the mysteries of Demeter from Paros to Thasos.

And on the bank of the Acheron near Charon’s boat a son, who had not

treated his father well, is being strangled by his father. For the

ancients reverenced fathers exceedingly,[128] as one may infer among

other things from the conduct of those called _Pious_ at Catana, who,

when Catana was consumed by fire from Mount Ætna, took no account of

silver or gold, but the one took up his mother, the other his father,

and fled for their lives. And as they advanced with great difficulty

for the flame gathered on them, (but they would not for all that set

their parents down), the flames they say divided so as to let them

pass without hurt. These young men are still honoured at Catana. And

in Polygnotus’ painting near the man who ill-treated his father, and

has consequently a bad time of it in Hades, is a sacrilegious wretch

suffering punishment. The woman[129] who is punishing him seems well

acquainted with poison, and other things that can do man harm. Men were

also in those days remarkable for piety to the gods, as the Athenians

shewed when they captured the temple of Olympian Zeus at Syracuse, for

they removed none of the votive offerings, and left the former priest

still in charge. Datis the Mede also showed the same piety both in

word and in deed, in word to the Delians, and in deed when, finding a

statue of Apollo on a Phœnician ship, he gave it back to the people of

Tanagra to take to Delium. In those days all men honoured the deity,

and so Polygnotus introduced into his painting the sacrilegious wretch

suffering punishment. Above those I have described is Eurynomus, who

according to the Antiquarians at Delphi is a demon in Hades, and eats

the flesh of the dead clean to the bones. No such person however is

mentioned in the Odyssey, or in the Minyad, or in _The Return from

Ilium_, though these poems contain accounts of Hades and its horrors.

I shall therefore describe Eurynomus’ appearance in this painting.

His colour is a blueish-black, like that of the flies that infest

meat,[130] and he shows his fangs, and sits on a vulture’s skin. And

next him are Auge and Iphimedea from Arcadia. Auge came to Teuthras in

Mysia, and, of all the women who consorted with Hercules, bare a son

most like him. And Iphimedea is treated with very great honour by the

Carians who dwell at Mylasa.

[128] See for example Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 331, 332, with context.

[129] _Boettiger_ takes this woman to be _Punishment_ personified.

[130] Our “bluebottles.”

CHAPTER XXIX.

Above those I have already mentioned are Perimedes and Eurylochus,[131]

the comrades of Odysseus, with the victims which are black rams. And

next them is a man seated, whom the inscription states to be Ocnus.

He is representing rope-making, and a she-ass near him eats the rope

as fast as he makes it. This Ocnus they say was an industrious man,

who had an extravagant wife: and whatever he got together by industry

was very soon spent by her. This picture therefore of Polygnotus is

supposed to be a skit on Ocnus’ wife. And I know that the Ionians,

when they see anyone labouring hard to no profit, say that he is

weaving Ocnus’ rope.[132] However those who divine by the flight of

birds give the name of Ocnus to a very rare kind of heron, both large

and handsome. Tityus too is in the picture, no longer being tortured,

but worn out by his continuous punishment to a mere shadow. And if

you look at the next part of the picture, you will see Ariadne very

near the man who is ropemaking: she is sitting on a rock, and looking

at her sister Phædra, who is suspended to a rock by a rope which she

holds in both hands. She is so represented to make her end appear more

decorous. And Dionysus took Ariadne from Theseus either by some chance,

or purposely preparing an ambush for him, sailing against him with a

larger armament. This was the same Dionysus, I take it, who was the

first to invade India, and the first to throw a bridge over the river

Euphrates; the place where he built this bridge was called Zeugma, and

a rope is preserved to this day, wreathed with tendrils of the vine and

ivy, which was used in the construction of the bridge. Both Greeks and

Egyptians have many legends about Dionysus. And below Phædra Chloris is

reclining on the knees of Thyia: no one will err who states that there

was a great friendship between these two women in their lifetime: and

both came from the same neighbourhood, Orchomenus in Bœotia.[133] There

are other traditions about them, as that Poseidon had an intrigue with

Thyia, and that Chloris was married to Poseidon’s son Neleus. And next

Thyia is Procris the daughter of Erechtheus, and next her, with her

back towards her, is Clymene, who is represented in _The Return from

Ilium_ to have been the daughter of Minyas, and the wife of Cephalus

the son of Deion, and mother by him of Iphiclus. All the poets agree

that Procris was Cephalus’ wife before Clymene was, and that she was

murdered by her husband. And beyond Clymene in the interior of the

painting is the Theban Megara, who was Hercules’ wife, but eventually

repudiated by him, because he lost all his children by her, and so did

not think his marriage with her a lucky one. Above the head of those

women I have mentioned is the daughter of Salmoneus sitting on a stone,

and beside her Eriphyle is standing, lifting her fingers through her

dress to her neck. You may conjecture that she is holding the famous

necklace in the hand which is concealed by the folds of her dress. And

above Eriphyle is Elpenor, and Odysseus kneeling, holding his sword

over a ditch: and Tiresias the prophet is approaching the ditch, and

near Tiresias is Anticlea, the mother of Odysseus, sitting on a stone.

And Elpenor is wearing the coarse plaited coat usual among sea-faring

men. And below Odysseus Theseus and Pirithous are seated on the

enchanted rock, Theseus has both his own sword and that of Pirithous,

and Pirithous is looking at his like one indignant that swords are

useless for their present venture. Panyasis has represented Theseus and

Pirithous as not fastened to their seat, but that the rock grew to them

instead of fetters. The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous has

been alluded to by Homer both in the Iliad and Odyssey. In the latter

Odysseus says to the Phæacians,

“I then perhaps had seen the heroes of former times, whom I fain would

have seen, as Theseus and Pirithous, the famous sons of the gods.”[134]

And in the Iliad, in his chiding of Agamemnon and Achilles, Nestor uses

the following words:[135]

“I never before saw such heroes nor shall I e’er again, as Pirithous,

and Dryas shepherd of his people, and Cæneus and Exadius and divine

Polyphemus, and Theseus son of Ægeus like to the Immortals.”

[131] Odyssey, xi. 23 _sq._

[132] Propertius has an allusion to this, v. iii. 21, 22.

[133] It will be seen that I adopt the suggestion of _Siebelis_. The

reading is doubtful.

[134] Odyssey, xi. 630, 631. The last line is in brackets in modern

editions.

[135] Iliad, i. 262-265. The last line here is in brackets in modern

editions.

CHAPTER XXX.

Polygnotus has painted next the daughters of Pandareus, as to whom

Homer says, in a speech of Penelope, that their parents died through

the wrath of the gods when they were still maidens, and that as they

were orphans they were brought up by Aphrodite, and received gifts

from other goddesses, as from Hera prudence and beauty, from Artemis

tallness of stature, from Athene an education fit for women. But when

Aphrodite went up to heaven to obtain a good match for the girls from

Zeus, they were carried off in her absence by the Harpies and given by

them to the Furies. Such at least is Homer’s account about them.[136]

And Polygnotus has painted them crowned with flowers, and playing with

dice. Their names were Camiro and Clytie. Pandareus was you must know a

Milesian from Cretan Miletus, and an associate of Tantalus both in his

theft and perjury. And next the daughters of Pandareus is Antilochus

with one of his feet on a stone, and his head on both his hands. And

next him is Agamemnon, leaning on his sceptre under his left arm, and

with a staff in his hands. And Protesilaus and Achilles are seated, and

looking at one another. And above Achilles is Patroclus standing. None

of these have beards except Agamemnon. And above them is painted the

stripling Phocus, and Iaseus with a beard, who is trying to take a ring

from Phocus’ left hand. The circumstances are as follows. When Phocus,

the son of Æacus, crossed over from Ægina to the country now called

Phocis, and obtained the sovereignty over the men in that part of the

mainland, and meant to dwell there, Iaseus was most friendly with him,

and offered him various presents, as was very natural, and among others

a stone signet-ring set in gold: and when Phocus not long after sailed

back to Ægina, Peleus contrived his death: and so in the painting, as

a memorial of their friendship, Iaseus is represented as wishing to

look at the signet-ring, and Phocus letting him take it. Above them

is Mæra sitting on a stone: in _The Return from Ilium_ she is said to

have died a virgin, and to have been the daughter of Prœtus, the son

of Thersander and grandson of Sisyphus. And next Mæra is Actæon, (the

son of Aristæus), and his mother, both seated on a deerskin and holding

a fawn in their hands. And a hound for hunting is near: these are

emblems of the life and death of Actæon. And in the lower part of the

painting next to Patroclus is Orpheus sitting on a hill, with a harp

in his left hand, and with his right hand he is touching the branches

of a willow-tree, and he leans against the tree: the scene looks like

the grove of Proserpine, where Homer tells us poplars and willows

grew.[137] And Orpheus’ dress is Greek, no part of his attire is

Thracian, not even his hat. And Promedon is leaning against the other

side of the willow-tree. Some think Polygnotus introduced Promedon’s

name into legend. Others say he was a Greek who was passionately fond

of music, and especially of that of Orpheus. In the same part of the

painting is Schedius, who led the Phocians to Troy, with a dagger in

his hand, and a garland of grass on his head. And next him sits Pelias,

with beard and head all hoary, gazing at Orpheus. And Thamyris sitting

near Pelias is blind and dejected in mien, with thick hair and beard,

his lyre is broken and the strings torn asunder. Above him is Marsyas,

seated on a stone, and near him Olympus, a handsome boy, learning to

play on the pipe. The Phrygians at Celænæ represent that the river

flowing through their town was formerly this piper Marsyas, and that

the piping in honour of Cybele was his invention: they say also that

they repulsed the army of the Galati through his aid, as he assisted

them both with the water of the river and his melody.

[136] Odyssey, xx. 63 _sq._

[137] Odyssey, x. 509, 510.

CHAPTER XXXI.

If you look again at the upper part of the painting, you will see next

Actæon Salaminian Ajax Palamedes and Thersites playing with dice, which

were the invention of Palamedes. And the other Ajax is looking at them

playing: he looks like a shipwrecked man, and his body is wet with the

foam of the sea. Polygnotus seems to have purposely collected together

the enemies of Odysseus. And Ajax the son of Oileus hated Odysseus,

because he urged the Greeks to stone him for his rape of Cassandra. And

I have read in the Cyprian Poems that Palamedes going a fishing was

drowned by Diomede and Odysseus. And a little above Ajax the son of

Oileus is Meleager painted, looking at Ajax. All these except Palamedes

have beards. As to the death of Meleager, Homer informs us that a Fury

heard Althæa cursing him, and that this was the cause of his death. But

the poems called the Great EϾ and the Minyad agree in stating that

Apollo assisted the Curetes against the Ætolians, and killed Meleager.

As to the famous tradition about the firebrand; how it was given to

Althæa by the Fates, and how Meleager was fated not to die till it was

consumed by fire, and how Althæa set it on fire in a rage, all this was

first described by Phrynichus, the son of Polyphradmon, in his play

called Pleuroniæ:

“He escaped not dread fate, but was consumed by the swift flame,

as soon as the ill-contrived firebrand was set on fire by his stern

mother.”

Phrynichus does not however seem to introduce the legend as his own

invention, but only to allude to it as one well-known throughout Greece.

In the lower part of the painting next Thracian Thamyris sits Hector,

like a man oppressed with sorrow, with both his hands on his left knee.

And next him is Memnon seated on a stone, and close to Memnon Sarpedon,

who is leaning his head on both his hands, and one of Memnon’s hands

is on Sarpedon’s shoulder. All of these have beards, and some birds

are painted on Memnon’s cloak. These birds are called Memnonides, and

every year the people near the Hellespont say they come on certain

days to Memnon’s tomb, and sweep all the parts round the tomb that are

bare of trees or grass, and sprinkle them with their wings which they

wet in the river Æsepus. And near Memnon is a naked Ethiopian boy, for

Memnon was king of the Ethiopians. However he did not come to Ilium

from Ethiopia, but from Susa in Persia and the river Choaspes, after

vanquishing all the tribes in that neighbourhood. The Phrygians still

shew the road by which he marched his army, the shortest route over the

mountains.[138]

Above Sarpedon and Memnon is Paris, as yet a beardless youth. He is

clapping his hands like a rustic, apparently to attract the notice of

Penthesilea, who looks at him, but by the toss of her head seems to

despise him, and jeer at him as a boy. She is represented as a maiden

with a Scythian bow, and a leopard’s skin round her shoulders. Above

her are two women carrying water in broken pitchers, one still in her

prime, the other rather advanced in life. There is no inscription on

either of them, except a notification that they are both among the

uninitiated. Above this pair are Callisto the daughter of Lycaon, and

Nomia, and Pero the daughter of Neleus, from every suitor of whom her

father asked the kine of Iphiclus.[139] Callisto has a bear-skin for

her coverlet, and her feet are on the knees of Nomia. I have before

stated that the Arcadians consider Nomia one of their local Nymphs. The

poets say the Nymphs are long-lived but not immortal. Next to Callisto

and the other women with her is a hill, up which Sisyphus the son of

Æolus is laboriously rolling a stone. There is also a winejar in the

painting, and an old man, and a boy, and two women, a young woman

under a rock, and an old woman near the old man. Some men are bringing

water, and the old woman’s water-pot appears to be broken, and she is

pouring all the water in the pitcher into the winejar. One is inclined

to conjecture that they are people making a mock of the Eleusinian

mysteries. But the older Greeks considered the Eleusinian mysteries

as much above all other religious services, as the gods are superior

to heroes. And under the winejar is Tantalus, undergoing all those

punishments mentioned by Homer,[140] and also terrified lest a stone

overhanging his head should fall on him. It is plain that Polygnotus

followed the account of Archilochus: but I do not know whether

Archilochus invented the addition to the legend about the stone, or

merely related what he had heard from others.

Such is a full account of the various details in this fine painting of

the Thasian painter.

[138] So _Corayus_. The meaning and reading is very obscure.

[139] See Homer’s Odyssey, xi. 287 _sq._ Neleus refused the matchless

Pero’s hand to any suitor who would not bring as a wedding-present

these kine of Iphiclus.

[140] Odyssey, xi. 582-592.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Near the temple precincts is a handsome theatre. And as you ascend from

the precincts you see a statue of Dionysus, the offering of the men

of Cnidos. In the highest part of the city is a stadium made of the

stone of Mount Parnassus, till the Athenian Herodes embellished it with

Pentelican marble. I have now enumerated the most remarkable things

still to be seen at Delphi.

About 60 stades from Delphi on the road to Mount Parnassus is a brazen

statue, and from thence it is an easy ascent for an active man, or for

mules and horses to the Corycian cavern. It got its name, as I pointed

out a little back,[141] from the Nymph Corycia, and of all the caverns

I have seen is best worth a visit. The various caverns on sea-coasts

are so numerous that one could not easily enumerate them: but the most

remarkable whether in Greece or in foreign lands are the following.

The Phrygians near the river Pencala, who originally came from Arcadia

and the Azanes, show a round and lofty cavern called Steunos, which

is sacred to the Mother of the Gods, and contains her statue. The

Phrygians also, who dwell at Themisonium above Laodicea, say that when

the army of the Galati harried Ionia and the neighbouring districts,

Hercules and Apollo and Hermes came to their aid: and showed their

chief men a cavern in a dream, and bade them hide there their women

and children. And so in front of this cavern they have statuettes of

Hercules and Hermes and Apollo, whom they call _The Cavern-Gods_.

This cavern is about 30 stades from Themisonium, and has springs of

water in it, there is no direct road to it, nor does the light of the

sun penetrate into it, and the roof in most of the cavern is very

near the ground. The Magnesians also at a place called Hylæ near the

river Lethæus have a cavern sacred to Apollo, not very wonderful for

size, but containing a very ancient statue of Apollo, which supplies

strength for any action. Men made holy by the god leap down rocks and

precipices unhurt, and tear up huge trees by the roots, and carry them

with ease through mountain passes. But the Corycian cavern excels

both of these, and through most of it you can walk without needing

torches: and the roof is a good height from the ground, and water

bubbles up from springs, but still more oozes from the roof, so that

there are droppings from the roof all over the floor of the cavern.

And those that dwell on Mount Parnassus consider it sacred to Pan and

the Corycian Nymphs. It is a feat even for an active man to scale the

heights of Parnassus from it, for they are higher than the clouds, and

on them the Thyiades carry on their mad revels in honour of Dionysus

and Apollo.

Tithorea is about 80 stades from Delphi _viâ_ Mount Parnassus, but the

carriage road by a way less mountainous is many stades longer. Bacis in

his oracles and Herodotus in his account of the invasion of Greece by

the Medes differ as to the name of the town. For Bacis calls the town

Tithorea, but Herodotus calls it Neon, and gives the name Tithorea

to the summit of Parnassus, where he describes the people of the town

fleeing on the approach of the Medes. It seems probable therefore

that Tithorea was originally the name for the entire district, but as

time went on the people, flocking into the town from the villages,

called it Tithorea and no longer Neon. And the people of the place

say it got its name from the Nymph Tithorea, one of those Nymphs

who according to the legendary lore of poets were born of trees and

especially oak-trees.[142] A generation before me the deity changed the

fortunes of Tithorea for the worse. There is the outline of a theatre,

and the precincts of an ancient market-place, still remaining. But

the most remarkable things in the town are the grove and shrine and

statue of Athene, and the tomb of Antiope and Phocus. In my account

of the Thebans I have shewn how Antiope went mad through the anger

of Dionysus, and why she drew on her the anger of the god, and how

she married Phocus the son of Ornytion, of whom she was passionately

fond, and how they were buried together. I also gave the oracle of

Bacis both about this tomb and that of Zethus and Amphion at Thebes.

I have mentioned all the circumstances worth mention about the town.

A river called Cachales flows by the town, and furnishes water to its

inhabitants, who descend to its banks to draw water.

At 70 stades distance from Tithorea is a temple of Æsculapius, who

is called Archegetes, and is greatly honoured both by the Tithoreans

and other Phocians. Within the sacred precincts are dwellings for the

suppliants and slaves of the god, the temple stands in the midst, and

a statue of the god in stone, two feet high with a beard, on the right

of which is a bed. They sacrifice all kinds of animals to the god but

goats.

About 40 stades from the temple of Æsculapius are the precincts and

shrine of Isis, and of all the Greek shrines to the Egyptian goddess

this is the holiest: for neither do the people of Tithorea live

near it, nor may any approach the shrine whom Isis herself has not

previously honoured by inviting them in dreams. The gods of the lower

world have the same practice in the towns near the Mæander, they send

visions in dreams to whoever they allow to approach their shrines.

And twice every year, in Spring and Autumn, the people of Tithorea

celebrate the Festival of Isis. The third day before each Festival

those who have right of access purify the shrine in some secret manner:

and remove to a place about 2 stades from the shrine whatever remains

they find of the victims offered in sacrifice at the previous Festival,

and bury them there. On the following day the traders make tents of

reed or any other material at hand. On the next day they celebrate the

Festival, and sell slaves, and cattle of every kind, and apparel, and

silver and gold. And at noon they commence the sacrifice. The wealthier

sacrifice oxen and deer, the poorer sacrifice geese and guineafowls,

but they do not sacrifice swine or sheep or goats. Those whose duty it

is to burn the victims in the shrine, first roll them up in bandages

of linen or flax, after the process in use in Egypt. There is a solemn

procession with all the victims, and some convey them into the shrine,

while others burn the tents before it and depart with speed. And on one

occasion they say a profane fellow, who had no right to approach the

shrine, entered it with audacious curiosity at the time the sacrificial

fire was lit, and the place seemed to him full of phantoms, and he

returned to Tithorea, related what he had seen, and gave up the ghost.

I heard a similar account from a Phœnician, of what happened on one

occasion when the Egyptians were celebrating the Festival of Isis, at

the time when they say she bewails Osiris: which is the season when the

Nile begins to rise, and the Egyptians have a tradition that it is the

tears of Isis that make the river rise and irrigate the fields. He told

me that the Roman Governor of Egypt bribed a man to enter the shrine at

Coptos during the Festival, and he came back, related what he had seen,

and also died directly after. So Homer’s word seems true, that the gods

are not seen by mortals with impunity.[143]

The olives at Tithorea are not so plentiful as in Attica and Sicyonia.

They are superior however in colour and flavour to those from Spain and

Istria: all kinds of ointment are produced from them, and they send

these olives to the Roman Emperor.

[141] See chapter 6.

[142] And consequently called _Dryads_.

[143] Iliad, xx. 131. Compare Exodus, xxxiii. 20.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Another road from Tithorea leads to Ledon, which was formerly reckoned

a town, but was in my day deserted by its inhabitants through its

weakness, and about 80 of them live near the Cephisus, and give the

name Ledon to their settlement there, and are included in the Phocian

General Council, as the people of Panopeus also are. This settlement

by the Cephisus is 40 stades from the ruins of Ledon, which got its

name they say from an Autochthon of that name. Several towns have been

irretrievably ruined by the wrong-doing of their inhabitants, as Troy

was utterly destroyed by the outrage of Paris against Menelaus, and

the Milesians by the headlong desires and passion of Hestiæus, one

time to govern the town of the Edoni, another time to be a Councillor

of Darius, another time to return to Ionia. So too the impiety of

Philomelus caused Ledon to be wiped off the face of the globe.[144]

Lilæa is a winter day’s journey from Delphi: you descend by Parnassus:

the distance is I conjecture about 180 stades. The people of Lilæa,

when their town was restored, had a second reverse at the hand of

Macedonia, for they were besieged by Philip the son of Demetrius and

capitulated upon conditions of war, and a garrison was put into their

town, till a townsman, whose name was Patron, incited the younger

citizens to rise against the garrison, and overcame the Macedonians

and compelled them to evacuate the town on conditions of war. And the

people of Lilæa for this good service put up his statue at Delphi.

There is at Lilæa a theatre and market-place and baths: there are also

temples to Apollo and Artemis, whose statues, in a standing position,

are of Attic workmanship in Pentelican marble. They say the town got

its name from Lilæa, who was one of the Naiades, and reputed to be the

daughter of the Cephisus, which rises here, and flows at first not with

a gentle current, but at mid-day especially roars like the roaring of a

bull.[145] In spring summer and autumn the air of Lilæa is salubrious,

but in winter the proximity of Parnassus keeps it cold.

About 20 stades further is Charadra, which lies on a lofty ridge.

Its inhabitants are very badly off for water, as their only water is

from the Charadrus three stades down the hill side, which falls into

the Cephisus, and which no doubt gave its name to the place. In the

market-place are some altars to the Heroes: some say Castor and Pollux

are meant, others say some local heroes. The land near the Cephisus is

out and out the best in Phocis for planting, and sowing, and pasture:

and this part of the country is mostly portioned out into farms, so

that some think Homer’s lines,

“And those who near divine Cephisus dwelt,”[146]

refer to those who farmed near the Cephisus, and not to the town

of Parapotamii. But this idea is not borne out by Herodotus in his

History, or by the records of the victors in the Pythian Games, which

were first instituted by the Amphictyones, and Æchmeas of Parapotamii

won the prize among boys for boxing. And Herodotus mentions Parapotamii

among the towns in Phocis that king Xerxes set on fire. Parapotamii

was however not restored by the Athenians and Bœotians, but its

inhabitants, owing to its poverty and want of money, were partitioned

out among other towns. There are now no ruins of Parapotamii, nor is

its exact site known.

From Lilæa is 60 stades’ journey to Amphiclea. The name of this place

has been changed by the natives, for Herodotus following the oldest

tradition called it Amphicæa, but the Amphictyones called it Amphiclea

in their decree for the destruction of the towns in Phocis. The natives

relate the following tradition about one of its names. They say that

one of their rulers, suspecting a plot of some of his enemies against

his baby boy, put him in a cot, and hid him in what he thought the

most secure place, and a wolf tried to get at the little fellow, but a

snake twined itself round the cot as a sure protection. And the child’s

father coming up, and fearing that the snake had harmed his little boy,

hurled his javelin at it and slew both child and snake: but learning

from some herdsmen that the snake he had killed had been the preserver

and guard of his child, he had a funeral pyre for snake and child

together. And they say the place to this day presents the appearance

of a funeral pyre blazing, and they think the town was called Ophitea

(_Snake-town_) from this snake. Noteworthy are the orgies which they

perform here to Dionysus, but there is no public entrance to the

shrine, nor is there any statue of the god. But the people of Amphiclea

say that the god prophecies to them and cures sicknesses by dreams, and

his priest is a prophet, and when possessed by the god utters oracles.

About 15 stades from Amphiclea is Tithronium, which lies in the plain,

and about which there is nothing remarkable. And 20 stades further is

Drymæa. At the place where the roads from Tithronium and Amphiclea to

Drymæa meet, near the river Cephisus, the people of Tithronium have a

grove and altars and temple to Apollo, but no statue of the god. Drymæa

is about 80 stades from Amphiclea as you turn to the left ... according

to Herodotus.[147] It was originally called Nauboles, and its founder

was they say Phocus the son of Æacus. At Drymæa is an ancient temple to

Law-giving Demeter, and the statue of the goddess, to whom they keep an

annual feast called the Thesmophoria, is erect in stone.

[144] The circumstances are narrated in ch. 2.

[145] ὦ ταυρόμορφον ὄμμα Κηφισοῦ πατρός. Eurip. _Ion._ 1261.

[146] Iliad, ii. 522.

[147] Hiatus hic est valde deflendus.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Next to Delphi Elatea is the greatest town in Phocis. It lies opposite

Amphiclea, and is 180 stades from that place by a road mostly through

the plain, but rather uphill near Elatea. The Cephisus flows through

the plain, and bustards are very frequent on its banks. The Elateans

repulsed Cassander and the army of the Macedonians. They also contrived

to hold out against Taxilus the general of Mithridates, for which

good service the Romans gave them freedom and immunity from taxation.

They lay claim to foreign ancestry, and say that they were originally

Arcadians: for Elatus (they say) the son of Areas defended the god,

when the men of Phlegyas attacked the temple at Delphi, and afterwards

remained in Phocis with his army, and founded Elatea: which was one of

the towns in Phocis that the Mede set on fire. It shared in the general

disasters of the Phocians, and the deity also brought upon it special

troubles of its own at the hands of the Macedonians. And when Cassander

blockaded Elatea, it was Olympiodorus who mainly rendered the blockade

inoperative. But Philip, the son of Demetrius, inspired the greatest

terror in the minds of the populace at Elatea, and at the same time won

over by bribes the most influential townsfolk. And Titus Flaminius the

Roman General, who had been sent from Rome to free all Greece, promised

to grant them their ancient polity, and invited them to revolt from the

Macedonians: but whether from want of judgment, or because the populace

had their way, they continued faithful to Philip, and were reduced by

the blockade of the Romans. And some time after they held out against

Taxilus, the general of Mithridates, and the barbarians from Pontus,

and it was for that good service that the Romans granted them their

freedom. When too the Costoboci, a piratical tribe, overran all Greece

in my day, and came to Elatea, Mnesibulus got together an army of

picked men, and, though he himself fell in the battle, slew many of the

barbarians. This Mnesibulus won several victories in the course, and

in the 235th Olympiad was victor both in the stadium and in the double

course though he carried his shield. And there is a brazen statue of

him near the race-course. They have also a handsome market-place at

Elatea, and a figure of Elatus on a pillar, I do not know whether in

honour of him as their founder, or to mark his tomb. There is a temple

also of Æsculapius, and a statue of the god with a beard by Timocles

and Timarchides, who were both of Athenian extraction. At the extreme

right of Elatea is a theatre, and ancient statue of Athene in bronze:

the goddess they say fought for them against the barbarians under

Taxilus.

About 20 stades from Elatea is a temple of Athene Cranæa, the road

to it is uphill but by so gentle a slope that it is very easy and

scarcely appreciable. But the crest of the hill at the end of this

road is mostly precipitous on a limited area: and here is the temple,

with porticoes and chambers, where various people that minister to the

goddess reside, and especially the priest, whom they select out of the

youths, and take great care that he ceases to be priest when he has

passed the flower of his age. And he is priest for 5 continuous years,

during which he resides with the goddess, and takes his baths after

the ancient manner in bathing tubs.[148] The statue of the goddess was

executed by the sons of Polycles. She is armed for battle, and her

shield is an imitation of that of Athene in the Parthenon at Athens.

[148] See for instance Homer’s Odyssey, xvii. 87-90.

CHAPTER XXXV.