The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race Volume I Part 5

The Dorians wished to preserve their ancient dignity and power, as well as their customs and religious feelings: the Ionians were commonly in pursuit of something new, frequently, as in the case of the Sicilian expedition, but obscurely seen and conceived. _Union of nations and races against one arbitrarily formed._ As has been already shown, this difference was the cause of the war; and indeed Athens in the course of it hardly recognised any duty in small states to remain faithful to cities of the same race, and to their mother countries; otherwise, why was Melos so barbarously punished, for remembering rather that it was a colony of Sparta than an island? Thus also in the interior of states the Athenians encouraged political a.s.sociations or clubs (?ta???a?), while the Spartans trusted to the ties of relationship.(852) _Aristocracy against democracy._(853) This difference was manifested in the first half of the war by Athens changing, while Sparta only restored governments; for in this instance also the power of Sparta was in strictness only employed in upholding ancient establishments, as an aristocracy may indeed be overthrown, but cannot be formed in a moment.

14. These obvious points of difference are sufficient to substantiate the result which we wish to arrive at. It is manifest that the second of the two forces, which in each of these instances came into collision, must necessarily have always overcome the first. The slow, c.u.mbrous, unwieldy body of the Spartan confederacy was sure to suffer under the blows of its skilful, forward, and enterprising antagonist. The maxims which, according to Thucydides, were current at this time,(854) that rashness was to be called courage in a friend's cause, provident foresight hidden cowardice, moderation a cloak for pusillanimity, and that to be prudent in every thing was to be active in nothing, necessarily impeded and shackled the beneficial effects of the measures of the Doric party. The "honesty and openness" of the Doric character, the n.o.ble simplicity of the ancient times of Greece, soon disappeared in this tumultuous age.(855) Sparta therefore and the Peloponnesians emerge from the contest, altered, and as it were reversed; and even before its termination appear in a character of which they had before probably contained only the first seeds.

But in the second half of the war, when the Spartans gave up their great armaments by land, and began to equip fleets with hired seamen; when they had learnt to consider money as the chief instrument of warfare, and begged it at the court of Persia; when they sought less to protect the states joined to them by affinity and alliance, than to dissolve the Athenian confederacy; when they began to secure conquered states by harmosts of their own, and by oligarchs forced upon the people, and found that the secret management of the political clubs was more to their interest than open negotiation with the government; we see developed on the one hand an energy and address, which was first manifested in the enterprises of the great Brasidas, and on the other a worldly policy, as was shown in Gylippus, and afterwards more strongly in Lysander; when the descendants of Hercules found it advisable to exchange the lion's for the fox's skin.(856) And, since the enterprises conducted in the spirit of earlier times either wholly failed or else remained fruitless, this new system, though the state had inwardly declined, brought with it, by the mockery of fate, external fame and victory.(857)

BOOK II. RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE DORIANS.

Chapter I.

-- 1. Apollo and Artemis the princ.i.p.al deities of the Doric race. -- 2. Traces of the worship of Apollo in Tempe. -- 3. Route of the Theoria from Tempe to Delphi. -- 4. Establishment of the worship of Apollo at Delphi; -- 5. Crete; -- 6. And Delos. -- 7. Early history of Crissa. -- 8. Doric population of Delphi. -- 9. Opposition to the worship of the Delphian Apollo.

1. In turning from the history of the external affairs of the Dorians to the consideration of their intellectual existence, our first step must be to enquire into their religion; and for this purpose we will proceed to a.n.a.lyse and resolve it into the various worships and ceremonies of which it was composed, and to trace the origin and connexion of these as they successively arose.

Now it may with safety be a.s.serted, that the princ.i.p.al deities of the Dorians were Apollo and Artemis, since their worship is found to have predominated in all the settlements of that race; and conversely the Doric origin can be either proximately or remotely traced wherever there were any considerable inst.i.tutions dedicated to the worship of Apollo; insomuch that the adoration of this G.o.d may be shown from the most ancient testimonies of mythology to have gradually advanced with the extension of the Doric nation. Yet we are not to understand that the worship of Apollo and the Doric race were so exactly co-extensive that the presence of the latter always proves either the previous or actual existence of the former. Indeed it is certain that in ancient as well as in modern times the worship of particular G.o.ds was not only propagated by migration and conquest, but that religious belief was also extended by peaceful intercourse, and, as it were, by moral contact.

In order to rest the claims of the Doric race to the worship of Apollo on a secure foundation, it is necessary first to give a direct contradiction to all those statements which a.s.sert its connexion with any race not of h.e.l.lenic descent. In the first place, then, Apollo was not a national deity of the aboriginal _Pelasgic_ nations of Greece.(858) Had this been the case, he would certainly have enjoyed frequent and distinguished honours in those countries where the numbers of that race remained undiminished; for example, in Arcadia. Now there were very few temples of Apollo in Arcadia; and moreover, the founding of most of these was either connected with a foreign hero, or else attributed to some external influence.(859) Secondly, it has been supposed that the worship of this G.o.d was introduced from the _East_ (an opinion founded chiefly on the establishments of his religion in Lycia); but we shall presently show that its inst.i.tution in this quarter was in fact derived from the Dorians. To this we may add, that amongst none of the _half-Grecian_ nations, for example, the Leleges, Carians, aetolians, Phrygians, and Thracians, the worship of this G.o.d can be proved to have been national. The same may be affirmed of the _Italian_ nations. Apollo never occurs in the ancient _Etruscan_ religion. Nor was _Rome_ acquainted with this worship, until it was introduced by the Sibylline oracles; a sacred spot was then allotted on the Flaminian meadow; and the temple erected there (324 A.U.C.) was, up to the time of Cicero, the only one in Rome.(860) Nay, that the Italians adopted Apollo altogether as a foreign deity is proved by the circ.u.mstance of their not having united him with their native Jupiter, or Mercury, as they did the Grecian Zeus, Hermes, &c. In our inquiries therefore into the origin of the worship of Apollo, we are limited to the races of purely Greek offspring. It remains only to be shown why we have selected the _Dorians_ in particular from all these different tribes. And we merely make this preliminary remark, that the mythical genealogy, in which Dorus is called the son of Apollo,(861) was a simple expression for this fact.

2. The most ancient settlements of the Doric race, of which any historical accounts are extant, were, as we before ascertained,(862) the country at the foot of Olympus and Ossa, near the valley of TEMPE. In this district there were two sanctuaries, bearing the character of the highest antiquity, viz., the Pythium, on the ridge of Olympus, near a steep mountain-pa.s.s leading to Macedonia; and the altar in the ravine of the Peneus,(863) from which the G.o.d himself was called ?epe?ta?; and in an inscription discovered near this spot, on the banks of the river between Tempe and Larissa, are the words ??????? ????????, "To Apollo of Tempe."(864) From another inscription found in this district we gather an account of certain native Thessalian festivals, at which branches of laurel were carried round, that were doubtless procured from the groves in the valley of Tempe; whither also the Delphians every eight years, at the expiration of the sacred period, sent the Pythian theori, who, after the performance of a sacrifice, broke the expiatory branch from the sacred laurel-tree.(865) According also to the admission of the Delphians themselves, the temple of Apollo at Tempe was more ancient than their own, since a perfect expiation could only be performed in that sanctuary. In accordance with the tradition that Apollo himself, after having slain the Python, fled to the altar at Tempe to be purified from the pollution, the sacred boy, at each return of the appointed day, went to Tempe by a certain path,(866) in imitation of the G.o.d whom he honoured, in order to return home amidst the joyful songs of the choruses of virgins, as daf??f????, or _laurel-bearer_. The religious usages at this festival will be investigated hereafter; here we will only consider the route which the procession took. It led through Thessaly and Pelasgia (that is, through the plain of the Peneus, which stretches to the south as far as Pherae); then through the country of the Malians and aenianes, over mount ta, through Doris and the western part of Locris;(867) avoiding in a remarkable manner the shorter and more frequented road from Thessaly through Thermopylae, over Phocis, and through the pa.s.s of Panopeus and Daulis to Delphi. The reasons of this deviation may have been the opposition offered in early times by hostile tribes from the eastern side of Delphi to the peaceable march of sacred processions; and also that the theoria might in its progress pa.s.s through the second settlements of the Dorians, between ta and Parna.s.sus, where doubtless the worship of Apollo had likewise prevailed.(868)

3. The first half of the Pythian road, which goes through Thessaly, is very accurately determined by a combination of different testimonies. Its first stage was from Tempe to Larissa. Near this place was a village named Deipnias, where the boy who carried the laurel-branch first broke his long fast;(869) as Apollo himself was reported also to have done. That the place received its name from this circ.u.mstance is a sufficient proof of the antiquity of the usage. The theoria next proceeded to Pherae, where the boy, on his way to Tempe, and before his purification, represented the servitude of Apollo when a refugee at the palace of Admetus. This use of slavery as a preparative for the expiation of guilt, is doubtless taken from some very ancient tradition; and it is alluded to by the earliest epic poets; in the Iliad the horses of Eumelus, the son of Admetus, are stated to have derived their excellence from having been under the care of Apollo at Pherae.(870) The harbour of Pherae was Pagasae, in the furthest recess of the Pagasaean bay, in which place there was a celebrated altar of the Pagasaean Apollo, situated in an extensive grove,(871) where there were large numbers of sacred ravens.(872) This sanctuary is the theatre of Hesiod's poem of the Shield of Hercules; and at no great distance the river Anaurus runs into the sea,(873) which stream, swollen by violent storms of rain carried away the tomb of Cycnus, the son of Mars; "_for thus Apollo, the son of Latona, willed it, because Cycnus had plundered the hecatombs which the nations brought to the temple of Pytho._"(874) Hence it is evident that the Pagasaean sanctuary was situated on the road consecrated by the processions to and from Delphi; and we may perceive also in these words of Hesiod an allusion to a fable perhaps much celebrated by early poets, viz., that Cycnus was slain for having profaned the temple of Apollo.(875) Moreover, the legend related by Heraclides Ponticus, that Trophonius founded the temple of Apollo at Pagasae,(876) points to the connexion with Delphi; the same Trophonius, a renowned architect of the mythical age, is also said to have built the most ancient temple of Pytho.

4. We thus arrive at DELPHI, the second grand station of the worship of Apollo, and, as it were, a focus, from which it diverged in numberless directions, and to which it was again partially reflected. Now although from early times the singular and striking character of the place might often have raised the feelings to ecstasy, and excited in the spectator dim and shadowy forebodings of the future; yet the establishment of a _fixed_ inst.i.tution, with its sacred regulations and rights, was intimately connected with the introduction of the worship of Apollo. At what time, however, did this first obtain a footing at Delphi? Probably when the Doric race came from Hestiaeotis to Parna.s.sus, and settled above Delphi, which event took place at a very early period. This supposition, to which we are led by the preceding inquiry, is not inconsistent with the celebrated tradition that Cretan navigators landed on this coast in the time of Minos, and there introduced the worship of Apollo. In order, however, to reconcile these two accounts, we must first examine the Cretan worship of that G.o.d.

5. The population of CRETE having been in early times composed of a heterogeneous mixture of different nations, it was natural that the worships of many different G.o.ds should prevail there; yet in many cases it is possible to ascertain the nation from which they severally originated.

Amongst these, the Dorians, whose chief settlement was on the north-eastern coast near Cnosus (from which point, however, they very soon spread over other parts of the island), had brought over the worship of Apollo from their settlements under Olympus. According to a tradition preserved in the Homeric hymn to Apollo, the ship, which Apollo in the shape of a dolphin conducted to Delphi, set out from the city of Cnosus.

Of this city the chief temple was that of Apollo Delphinius.(877) In its territory was situated a place called Apollonia; and the remarkable town of Amnisus, with the grotto of Eileithyia, where it was supposed that this G.o.ddess, who a.s.sisted at the birth of Apollo, was herself born.(878) On the same coast are Miletus, where (as will be mentioned hereafter) the worship of Apollo prevailed, and Lato (Camira), whose name reminds us of the G.o.ddess Latona. It cannot be doubted that the same worship also prevailed in the ancient Doric town of Lyctus, in the interior of the island.(879) Nearer to the southern coast was Gortyna, which, though founded by a different race, yet in later times recognised the dominion and worship of the same nation as Cnosus: accordingly, the most central point of this city was called _Pythium_.(880) Immediately bordering on it was Phaestus, the birthplace of Epimenides, which town was said to have derived its origin and name from a Heraclid of Sicyon.(881) Here, together with Hercules, Apollo and Latona received particular honours.(882) Further on towards the west, in the mountains, was Tarrha, one of the most ancient and considerable temples of Apollo.(883) Here, according to the Cretan tradition, dwelt Carmanor the father of the minstrel Chrysothemis, a priest who was said to have purified Apollo himself from the blood of the Python;(884) which legend, when compared with the account of his expiation at the altar in the valley of Tempe, shows how the legends connected with the worship of Apollo crossed over to Crete, and there again took root.

With the residence of Apollo when a refugee in the house of Carmanor, there is connected a tradition of his amour with Acacallis, who bore him Naxos,(885) or Miletus,(886) or Phylander and Phylacis, who, in a sacred offering of the Elyrians at Delphi, were represented as sucking the teat of a she-goat.(887) This Elyrus, like most of the ancient towns of Crete, was situated in the mountains of the interior, probably not far from Tarrha.(888) Although there have not been preserved accounts sufficient to lead to any general conclusion, yet those which we have adduced establish the position that it was not the original inhabitants of mount Ida or any supposed colonists from Phnicia, but the Dorian invaders alone who made Crete the head-quarters of the worship of Apollo: we therefore a.s.sert that this worship (as originally founded in Crete), had not the slightest connexion with the enthusiastic (and probably Phrygian) orgies of the Idaean Zeus, with the Corybantes, &c. Yet from these ceremonies being celebrated at so short a distance from each other, confusions soon arose; so that in later times the Curetes were called the sons of Apollo.(889) According to some writers, Corybas was the father of Apollo, and he was reported to have disputed the sovereignty of Crete with Zeus.(890)

6. From Crete, we will now proceed to DELOS. Virgil, on the authority (as it appears) of some ancient epic poet, calls the Cretans ministers of the Delian altars.(891) The voyages of Theseus from Cnosus to Delos is also founded on the same connexion, as will be more fully explained hereafter.(892) We must not, however, too hastily conclude, that in the age of Minos, when the Cretans were the dominant nation in the Greek Archipelago, Delos received the worship of Apollo from a Cretan colony.(893) It may with greater probability be conjectured, that the Dorians in their first expedition to Crete (which could hardly have traversed so great a distance without leaving behind some traces of its existence) had founded the sanctuary at Delos; since the tradition of the transmission of sacred presents from the country of the Hyperboreans to that island, is most simply explained as a memorial of a religious connexion, which had once been long maintained, by means of sacred processions, with the northern settlements of the Dorians.

7. Now respecting the presence of Cretans at Delphi, it was nothing more than an attempt of these islanders, who dwelt on the very verge of the Grecian territory, to gain for themselves the credit of a reciprocal influence upon the early settlements of their own race and religion. We find in the Hymn of Homer, that Apollo, descending from Olympus, himself founded his temple at Pytho, and afterwards obtained experienced priests, minstrels, and prophets(894) from Cnosus; for which purpose he, in the shape of a dolphin, conducted a Cretan vessel to Crissa. Crissa, or Cirrha (for that the same place was originally signified by both names I consider as certain(895)), a fortified town in the inmost recess of the Crissaean bay, was probably a settlement of this Cretan colony, as the name ???sa seems to signify nothing else than a _Cretan_ city (???s?a p????).(896) Although the Pythian sanctuary itself was situated in the territory of Crissa,(897) yet the town of Crissa possessed, besides an altar of Apollo Delphinius on the sh.o.r.e, in early times one of the chief temples of Apollo:(898) hence in Homer's Catalogue the _sacred_ Crissa is mentioned, together with the rocky Pytho; and the Pythian sanctuary is called _Crissaea templa_, on the faith of some ancient tradition, by a Roman poet.

This expression must have been borrowed from poems anterior to the destruction of Cirrha (about 585 B.C.) before this town had by its extortions and oppression of pilgrims deserved the wrath of the Amphictyonic confederacy; nor is it probable that it retained a share in the management of the Delphian temple up to the very last moment of its political existence, when it was visited with a destruction so complete, as nearly to deprive us of all knowledge of its previous history. The unfortified town of Delphi, which, with the Amphictyons, obtained after that war the sole management of the temple, previously perhaps had not been a place of any importance; at least it is not mentioned in any earlier writings than one of the most recent hymns of Homer, and by Herac.l.i.tus of Ephesus.(899)

8. In ancient times the service of the temple, as appears from the Homeric Hymn, was performed both at Delos and Delphi by Cretans; but it is scarcely possible that they should have const.i.tuted the whole population of the country. For, in the first place, the extensive territory of the temple was cultivated by a subject people, of whom we shall speak hereafter, and who were certainly not of Doric, and probably in few cases of Cretan descent;(900) besides whom there was a native n.o.bility, whose influence over the temple was very considerable. These are the persons who, according to Euripides, "_sat near the tripod, the Delphian n.o.bles, chosen by lot_;"(901) called also "_the lords and princes of the Delphians_." They also formed a criminal court, which, by the Pythian vote, sentenced all offenders against the temple to be hurled from a precipice.(902) To the same persons also doubtless belonged the permission and superintendence of the ancient rite of expiation; and it was their duty (as it was that of the court of the Samothracian priests) to determine whether a homicide was expiable or not. Their influence over the oracle was so great, that they may be considered to have been the actual managers of it. Their political bias may be inferred from the fact, that Timasitheus the Delphian distinguished himself by his boldness and resolution among the aristocratical party of Isagoras at Athens.(903) It appears that these families originally came to Delphi from the mountainous country in the interior. Thus the chief-priests of the G.o.d, the five ?s???, were chosen by lot from a number of families who derived their descent from Deucalion,(904) by which they probably meant to denote their origin from Lycoreia on the heights of Parna.s.sus, founded (as was supposed) by Deucalion, the father of h.e.l.len;(905) from which town it is known that great part of the population of Delphi had proceeded.(906) Now this place, of which traces still remain in the village of _Liacura_ (now only inhabited in summer by mountain shepherds)(907) was in all probability of Doric origin, since it formed the communication between the Tetrapolis and Delphi.(908) The language spoken at Delphi was likewise a Doric dialect.(909)

If then this was the case, Doric mountaineers from the heights of Parna.s.sus, and Cretan colonists on the sea-coast, met together (according to a very uncertain computation about 200 years before the Doric migration into Peloponnesus), in order to establish the Delphian worship. The Doric dialect, it may be observed, which prevailed at Delphi, was common to both parties. It is known from many traditions and historical traces, that the connexion established by the Cretans continued for a long time.(910) The ancient tents made of feathers, and a wooden statue of Apollo, perhaps one of the most ancient specimens of rude carving, were also reported to have been brought from Crete. The fabulous series of Delphic minstrels began with Chrysothemis, the son of Carmanor, the above-mentioned priest of Tarrha.(911) Crete, however, did not merely send works of sculpture and hymns to Delphi, but sometimes even men,(912) for the service of the Pythian Apollo.

9. I know not whether these accounts are sufficient to afford an intelligible description of a time when the worship of Apollo, being established at the foot of Olympus, Parna.s.sus, and in the distant island of Crete, and producing a certain degree of communication between these points, had not as yet penetrated to any part of Greece which lay to the south of ta and Parna.s.sus.

It is evident, moreover, that the extension of this worship met with a long opposition. Apollo is in ancient traditions represented as himself protecting his own temple.(913) The Phlegyans to the east, and the aetolians to the west, appear to have been particularly adverse to the worship of the Delphian Apollo. That there was a national opposition caused by the Phlegyans possessing the stronghold of Panopeus in the mountain-pa.s.ses towards Botia, is shown by the legends, that Phorbas their leader wrestled there with Apollo; that Phlegyas burned the temple to the ground; and lastly, that Apollo exterminated their whole race with thunder and lightning.(914) The same people is here represented as waging war with the great deity of the Dorians, which, under the name of Lapithae, opposed the Dorians themselves in Thessaly. And on the other side, Apollo was related in the Poems of Hesiod, and the Minyad, to have a.s.sisted the Locrian Curetes against the aetolians, and slain their prince Meleager.(915)

Chapter II.

-- 1. Propagation of the worship of Apollo from Crete. -- 2. in Lycia. -- 3 and 4. in the Troad. -- 5. in Thrace. -- 6 and 7. on the Coast of Asia Minor. -- 8. at Trzen, Taenarum, Megara. -- 9.

Thoricus. -- 10. and Leucatas. -- 11 and 12. in Botia. -- 13. 14.

and 15. and in Attica.

1. But whilst the worship of Apollo was experiencing so much opposition in the north of Greece, the sea, with the neighbouring coasts and islands afforded ample opportunities for its propagation from the sh.o.r.es of Crete.

This serves to account for the singular fact, that the most ancient temples of Apollo throughout the south of Greece, are found in maritime districts, and generally on promontories and headlands.

The colonies of Apollo branched out in various directions from the northern coast of Crete, carrying every where with them the expiatory and oracular ceremonies of his worship.(916) The remarkable regularity with which these settlements were established cannot, however, be regarded as the work of missions systematically carried on, or as part of the policy of Minos.(917) They are to be accounted for by the natural desire of the tribes of Crete, whilst migrating along the coast of the aegean sea, to erect, wherever they touched, temples to that G.o.d, whose worship was blended with their spiritual existence.

We shall first advert to those settlements which (taking the coast of Crete as our centre) were founded in the direction of LYCIA, MILETUS, CLAROS, and the TROAD; the first and last of which were the most ancient, the others being perhaps a century later.(918)

2. It is stated by Herodotus that Sarpedon migrated with some _barbarous_ nations from Crete to Lycia or Milyas.(919) This unsupported and singular account is however probably not founded on tradition, the popular idea being that he was a brother of Minos the Cnosian, whom it represented as a prince of purely h.e.l.lenic blood. By these means the Cretan laws (that is, the Doric customs, which had been first fully developed in Crete), and also the Doric worship of Apollo, were spread over Lycia. For the situation of the chief temples is a sufficient proof that the settlers of Lycia came, not from the inland countries of Asia, but over the sea to the coast. Xanthus, a city renowned for the valour of its inhabitants,(920) and situated on the river of the same name, was a Cretan settlement.(921) It seems to have been a Lycian tradition, that Xanthus was the father of Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon:(922) in this town was a temple sacred to Sarpedon;(923) but it is uncertain whether to the elder Sarpedon, the brother of Minos, or to the younger, a hero of the same family mentioned in Homer, whose corpse Apollo rescued from the Greeks, and conveyed to his native country.(924) Apollo was also worshipped under the t.i.tle of Sarpedonius.(925) Sixty stadia below the town, and ten from the mouth of the river Xanthus, was a grove sacred to Latona, near an ancient temple of the Lycian Apollo.(926) To this spot the G.o.ddess had been conducted by wolves; here also she had bathed her new-born babes in the river,(927) and been hospitably received by an old woman in a wretched hovel.(928) These are the only remains of the national tradition, which in its general character was perhaps only another version of that prevalent at Delos. But the chief temple was one at Patara, in the southern extremity of Lycia,(929) the winter habitation of the G.o.d, where he also gave out oracles through the mouth of a priestess.(930) The oblations of cakes in the shape of lyres, bows and arrows, which were made to Apollo at Patara, remind us of similar customs at Delos, and furnish a fresh proof of the close connexion between the worships of these two countries.(931)

Further to the east was the oracle of Apollo Thyrxeus, near the Cyanean islands;(932) to the west lay Telmissus, with its interpreters of dreams, who attributed their origin to Apollo.(933) Not only the towns just mentioned, but almost every other on the coast of Lycia, honoured the G.o.d, from whom even the name of the country was derived.(934)

Amongst these settlements we must probably also reckon that on the promontory of Corycus in Cilicia, since we find in its vicinity the temple of Zeus Sarpedon. The name of the place, if compared with that of the Corycian grotto on Parna.s.sus, is of itself sufficient evidence that the worship of Apollo prevailed there, which is still further proved by the tradition that stags swam over from thence to Curium in Cyprus.(935) Here also stood an altar of Apollo, of particular sanct.i.ty, which no one was allowed to touch on pain of being thrown from the rocks of the neighbouring promontory. In this punishment we shall presently recognise one form of the expiatory rites, which every where accompanied the worship of Apollo.

3. No place contained so many temples of Apollo within so small a s.p.a.ce as the coast of Troy; Cilia, in the recess of the Adramyttian gulf; Chryse, in the territory of the Hypoplacian Thebes;(936) the Smintheum, in its immediate neighbourhood;(937) the island of Tenedos (whose religious ceremonies were by some unaccountable means transplanted to Corinth and Syracuse),(938) are all mentioned in a few verses of the Iliad.(939) No less celebrated was Thymbra, situated at the confluence of the Thymbrius and Scamander, where Ca.s.sandra was reported to have been brought up in the temple of Apollo, and thus to have learnt the art of prophecy.(940) On the Trojan citadel of Pergamus itself was a temple of Apollo, with Artemis and Latona; and hence Homer represents these three deities as protecting the falling city.(941) It is however important to remark, that the inhabitants of Zelea, a town on the northern foot of mount Ida, and the native place of the archer Pandarus, the son of Lycaon, worshipped Apollo under the t.i.tle of Lycius, or Lycegenes; and that Zelea was also called Lycia;(942) for these facts show that there was a real connexion between the name of Lycia and the worship of Apollo, and that it was the worship of Apollo which gave the name to this district of Troy, as it had done to the country of the Solymi. In Chryse also Apollo was called Lycaeus.(943) The origin of this worship can neither be attributed to the native Trojan and Dardan race, nor yet to the later aeolians, although these for the most part adopted it into their religious ceremonies.(944) It is however certain, from an ancient tradition, that the Cretans also colonized this coast; though we are not aware what was the precise account of Callinus, the ancient elegiac poet,(945) who preserved it. It was however the popular belief that Apollo Smintheus, and indeed the whole Trojan nation, were derived from Crete.(946) The last notion, that all the Trojans were of Cretan origin, is in the highest degree improbable; but it will hardly be denied that there came to Troy a Cretan colony in connexion with Apollo Smintheus. Indeed the Cretans who inhabited the district of Troy must often have been mentioned in ancient traditions, as a strange account of their strict administration of justice has been preserved.(947) Could we but obtain a more authentic source of traditions relating to the religious worship than the deceitful accounts of poets, we might perhaps discover in it many confirmations of the historical traces to which we have just adverted. Even now we may perceive that the servitude of Apollo under Laomedon(948) is the same fable as that of Admetus at Pherae, the locality alone being changed.

4. By observing Homer's accounts of the worship of Apollo in different Trojan families, we may discover a remarkable consistency and connexion in the ancient tradition.

In the first place he represents it as belonging chiefly to the family of the Panthoidae. Panthus (from whom a tribe in modern Ilium derived its name ?a?????)(949) was a priest of the G.o.d,(950) and hence his sons were protected by Apollo in battle.(951) Hence also Euphorbus, the descendant of Panthus, is selected to kill Patroclus, who, as well as all the other aeacidae, was in the heroic mythology represented as odious to Apollo.(952)

The other family, described in the Iliad as connected with Apollo, is that of aeneas, whom, when wounded by Diomed, the G.o.d himself conducted to his temple on the citadel of Troy, and delivered over to the care of Latona and Artemis.(953) Now that this history was not a mere arbitrary fiction of the poet may be distinctly proved. For we know that, after Troy had fallen, the remaining Trojans still maintained themselves in the mountains; they are mentioned by Herodotus as a separate state existing in the stronghold of Gergis, in the defiles of Ida;(954) and, even after the Peloponnesian war, Dardan princes reigned here and at Scepsis.(955) It can, we think, be shown that Homer's prophecy(956) respecting the future dominion of the descendants of aeneas over the remnant of the Trojan nation, refers solely to the town of Gergis, and perhaps to the neighbouring valleys. Now the chief temple at Gergis was that of Apollo,(957) and in the same town there was an ancient Sibylline oracle, known by the name of the _h.e.l.lespontine_ or _Mermessian_. We now see that the ancient poet, being well acquainted with the existence of the aeneadae at Gergis, their festivals and sacrifices, felt himself bound, according to the spirit of mythology, to represent Apollo as the ancient guardian of that family.

We shall seize this opportunity of briefly pointing out the results which may be drawn from these facts, in ill.u.s.tration of the fable of aeneas. We must first a.s.sume that the above oracle of Apollo at Gergis announced to the Trojan Gergithians the re-establishment of their nation under the dominion of the descendants of aeneas. Such a prophecy, in fact, agrees so exactly with the spirit and system of the ancient oracles, that its existence can scarcely be doubted. The hopes, the longing after a restoration of their ancient power, must necessarily have a.s.sumed this form among the distressed and conquered Trojans. Now a colony of Gergithians also inhabited the territory of the aeolian c.u.me,(958) where Apollo possessed a magnificent temple;(959) and if these oracles had been known to the c.u.maeans, they would readily have pa.s.sed over to their kinsmen the c.u.mans of Campania. At this last place there was, on the summit of a rock, a temple of Apollo (one of the most ancient in the whole settlement, and, as it was pretended, built by Daedalus);(960) underneath was the grotto of the sibyl. Here it was said that aeneas landed; and here, according to Stesichorus, he remained, and never went further to the north.(961) Nothing was more probable than that these oracles should in both cases have been applied locally, and that a new Troy should in consequence have been founded both in Asia and Italy. Hence, when the Greek sibylline oracles, in connexion with the worship of Apollo, became the state-oracles of Rome, all that had been prophesied of districts near the h.e.l.lespont was, without scruple or ceremony (though not without the ingenuity of commentators and interpreters), applied to Rome. It is evident that the origin of the strange fable of aeneas, the father of Romulus, and all that was afterwards added to it, may be explained in this simple manner.

5. The most ancient temple of Apollo in THRACE was also founded by Cretans, as well as that at Ismarus or Maroneia;(962) Maron its priest being, according to tradition, a Cretan adventurer.(963) With this sanctuary was probably connected the ancient oracular temple of Apollo at Deraea near Abdera,(964) alluded to in the device on the coins of Abdera; on one side of which Apollo is seen with the arrow in his hand; and on the reverse is a griffin, a symbol which appears to have been adopted by the Teians in consequence of their having resided for some time in their colony of Abdera.

6. The Cretan worshippers of Apollo also established some considerable temples on the Ionian coast. The princ.i.p.al of these was the Didymaeum, in the territory of Miletus. Before the Ionic migration, Miletus was a Cretan fortress, on the coast, in a country at that time called Caria.(965) The disagreement of traditions as to whether Sarpedon or Miletus (the Cretan) was the founder, confirms, rather than weakens, the princ.i.p.al fact of its settlement from Crete, both traditions describing the same fact in a different manner. With the founding of this stronghold was connected that of a temple, which is ascribed to Branchus, an expiatory priest(966) of Delphi, whose name (which was well fitted for a prophet),(967) moulded into a patronymic form, was afterwards adopted by the priests of the temple;(968) the temple itself, and even the place (which was also called Didyma). Thus we here again see a fresh connexion between the Delphians and Cretans, there being indeed hardly any distinction between them before they were dispersed by the different migrations of the Doric race. The worship at Didyma was in fact the same with that of Crete and Delphi; expiatory ceremonies and prophecies being united, and the latter delivered with rites very similar to those observed at the Pythian oracle. Apollo was here called _Philesius_ and _Delphinius_, which names were afterwards adopted by other Ionians;(969) with him was connected Zeus, both, according to Callimachus, being the ancestors of Didyma; and also Artemis, who, in an ancient hymn ascribed to Branchus, is with Apollo addressed under the t.i.tles of ???e???? and ??a????.(970) The ruins of this temple, so highly honoured in Asia, still bear witness to its ancient fame and splendour. From the temple to the harbour(971) Panormus there was a sacred road adorned on both sides with more than sixty statues in a very ancient style of workmanship: amongst these, an Egyptian lion attests the connexion of king Necho with the oracle.(972) The Ionians of Miletus, however, acknowledged the G.o.d of Branchidae as the princ.i.p.al deity in their town, and introduced him into their numerous colonies, from Naucratis(973) to Cyzicus,(974) Parium,(975) Apollonia Pontica,(976) and the distant Taurica: the coins and inscriptions of which place agree in representing him as the guardian deity (p??st?t??).(977)

7. The twin brother of the Didymaean G.o.d, both in origin and in the similarity of worship, is the Clarian Apollo. However fabulous the particular circ.u.mstances of its foundation, still it was impossible in ancient times to invent a religious colonial connexion where none in fact existed. The traditions manifestly imply a double dependence of the establishment at Claros: viz., upon Delphi and Crete. Manto, the daughter of Teiresias the Theban soothsayer, was, according to the epic poets, consecrated by the Epigoni to the Delphian Apollo after the taking of Thebes,(978) and she was afterwards sent by Apollo to the spot on which the Ionians at a later period founded the city of Colophon; having, in obedience to the commands of the oracle, married on her way Rhacius the Cretan, whose name, according to the dialect of Crete, had the double form Rhacius and Lacius.(979) Augias, the Cyclic poet, mentioned the tomb of her father Teiresias at Colophon,(980) which was generally supposed to be in Botia. The offspring of this marriage was Mopsus, who was probably called the progenitor of the family from which, even in the Roman time, the priests of the oracle were selected.(981) The forms of prophecy were in this temple also similar to those at Delphi.

The other temples of Apollo on the coast of Asia Minor were generally connected with some one of the four already mentioned. The temple of Leucae, between Smyrna and Phocaea (where the c.u.maeans celebrated a festival),(982) was probably a member of the Trojan family, to which the Grynean Apollo, in the territory of Myrina near c.u.me (where there was also an oracle), appears to be related.(983) Apollo Malloeis, in the territory of Mytilene, in Lesbos, was an off-shoot of the Clarian worship:(984) to the same branch also belonged the oracle of Apollo at Mallus in Cilicia,(985) inasmuch as it was said to have been founded by Mopsus the son of Manto.

8. The worship of Apollo also penetrated to several parts of European Greece, where it was established by Cretan adventurers on capes and headlands-particularly at Trzen, Taenarum, Megara, and Thoricus.

TRZEN, as has been above remarked,(986) shared with Athens both the race of her inhabitants and her worship, together with the connexion between Athens and Crete; the meaning of which will be explained hereafter.(987) Hence we may conjecture the Cretan origin of the nine families, which were in existence at a late date at Trzen, and in early times performed the rites of atonement and purification (of which Orestes was said to have been the first subject) near a laurel-tree in front of the temple of Apollo, and a sacred stone in front of the temple of the Lycean Artemis.(988)

The expiatory establishment(989) on the promontory of TaeNARUM was also said to have been founded by Tettix, a Cretan,(990) who is merely a personified symbol of Apollo, like Lycus, Corax, Cycnus, &c, in other places. Callondas is said to have purified the soul of the murdered Archilochus at this gate of the infernal regions. Considering the proximity of Delium in Laconia(991) and of the little island of Minoa to this temple, we may conclude that the origin of the above sanctuary was connected with these places.

In front of the harbour of MEGARA was another island called Minoa, and numerous legends had been there preserved in which the Cretans of Minoa (though probably only by a corruption of the original tradition) were represented as enemies and plunderers. Megara had two citadels: the Carian with the temple of Demeter, and a more modern one towards the sea, surmounted by temples of Apollo. This is said to have been built by Alcathous the son of Pelops, while Apollo stood by and played upon his lyre. A sounding-block of stone was exhibited at the place where the G.o.d lay down his lyre.(992) The same fable is also alluded to by Theognis of Megara.(993) Here then there is a worship and temples of an earlier date than the Doric migration, and which certainly proceeded from Crete. On the former citadel stood a statue of Apollo Decatephorus,(994) "the receiver of t.i.thes," whose name is explained by the fable that the daughter of Alcathous was once sent as a tribute to Crete, like the Athenian youths and maidens. Thus a fact which will be soon proved with respect to Athens, is also true of Megara-viz., that these missions always conveyed a sacred t.i.the.(995)