PȲTHĬA (πύθια), one of the four great national festivals of the
Greeks. It was celebrated in the neighbourhood of Delphi, anciently
called Pytho, in honour of Apollo, Artemis, and Leto. The place of
this solemnity was the Crissaean plain, which for this purpose
contained a hippodromus or race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in
length, and a theatre, in which the musical contests took place.
The Pythian games were, according to most legends, instituted by
Apollo himself. They were originally perhaps nothing more than a
religious panegyris, occasioned by the oracle of Delphi, and the
sacred games are said to have been at first only a musical contest,
which consisted in singing a hymn to the honour of the Pythian god,
with the accompaniment of the cithara. They must, on account of the
celebrity of the Delphic oracle, have become a national festival
for all the Greeks at a very early period, and gradually all the
various contests were introduced which occur in the Olympic games.
[OLYMPIA.] Down to Ol. 48. the Delphians had been the agonothetae at
the Pythian games; but in the third year of this Olympiad, after the
Crissaean war, the Amphictyons took the management under their care,
and appointed certain persons, called _Epimeletae_ (ἐπιμεληταί),
to conduct them. Some of the ancients date the institution of the
Pythian games from this time. Previous to Ol. 48. the Pythian games
had been an ἐνναετηρίς, that is, they had been celebrated at the
end of every eighth year; but in Ol. 48. 3. they became, like the
Olympia, a πενταετηρίς, _i.e._ they were held at the end of every
fourth year; and a Pythiad, therefore, from the time that it was
used as an aera, comprehended a space of four years, commencing
with the third year of every Olympiad. They were in all probability
held in the spring, and took place in the month of Bucatius, which
corresponded to the Attic Munychion.
PȲTHĬI (πύθιοι), four persons appointed by the Spartan kings, two by
each, as messengers to the temple of Delphi. Their office was highly
honourable and important; they were always the messmates of the
Spartan kings.
PYXIS, _dim._ PYXĬDŬLA (πύξις, dim. πυξίδιον), a casket; a
jewel-box. The caskets in which the ladies of ancient times kept
their jewels and other ornaments, were made of gold, silver, ivory,
mother-of-pearl, tortoise-shell, &c. They were also much enriched
with sculpture. The annexed woodcut represents a very plain
jewel-box, out of which a dove is extracting a riband or fillet.
[Illustration: Pyxis, jewel-box. (From a Painting at Herculaneum.)]
QUADRĀGĒSĬMA, the fortieth part of the imported goods, was the
ordinary rate of the Portorium under the empire. [PORTORIUM.]