Chapter I.

1. “From early times the Dorians and Ionians were the chief races of the Grecian nation; the latter of Pelasgic, the former of Hellenic origin; the latter an aboriginal people, the former a people much addicted to wandering. For the former, when under the dominion of Deucalion, dwelt in Phthiotis; and in the time of Dorus, the son of Hellen, they inhabited the country at the foot of Ossa and Olympus, which was called Hestiæotis. Afterwards, however, being driven from Hestiæotis by the Cadmeans, they dwelt under mount Pindus, and were called the Macednian nation. From thence they again migrated to Dryopis; and having passed from Dryopis into Peloponnesus, they were called the Doric race.”58

This connected account cannot be considered as derived immediately from ancient tradition; but can only be viewed as an attempt of the father of history to arrange and reconcile various legends. Nor indeed is it difficult to discover and examine the steps of the argument which led him to this conclusion. It is clear that he considers the genealogy of Hellen,59 viz. that he was the son of Deucalion and father of Dorus, Xuthus, and Æolus, as an historical fact; although it is at least more recent than the poems of Homer, where the name of Hellenes does not include these races, but is the appellation of a single nation in Phthiotis: and that his object is to establish the position, that the Dorians were the genuine Hellenes. Now since Deucalion, the father of Hellen and grandfather of Dorus, was supposed to have dwelt in Phthiotis,60 Herodotus represents the Dorians as also coming from Phthiotis; although the people meant in these legends by the names of Deucalion and Hellen were the real ancient Hellenes, the Myrmidons,61 who were afterwards under the dominion of the Æacidæ,62 and are entirely distinct from the Dorians. Dorus was next represented as succeeding Hellen as king of the same people; and then, since the name of Dorus was [pg 021] in these fabulous accounts connected with Hestiæotis, he infers that the Dorians went thither from Phthiotis. But the modern mythologist must of course abandon this whole deduction as unfounded; and he can only adopt the datum from which the historian started; namely, that, according to ancient tradition, “Dorus dwelt at the foot of Olympus and Ossa.” Here then the real fact presents itself to us. The chain of Olympus, the divider of nations, whose lofty summit is still called by the inhabitants the celestial mansion, is the place in which the Dorians first appear in the history of Greece.

2. The mountain-valley, which in later times bore the name of Thessaly, was bounded to the west by Pindus, to the south by Othrys, to the east by Pelion and Ossa, and to the north by Olympus, under which name the ancient writers, for example Herodotus, also include the chain which in after-times (probably from an Illyrian word)63 was called the Cambunian mount. The course of the Peneus is so situated as to divide the open plain to the south, the ancient Pelasgic Argos, from the mountainous district to the north; towards the north-east it breaks through the mountain-ridge, dividing Ossa from Olympus; here too the river creeps under the loftier heights of mount Olympus;64 so that the path passes along the side of the more rugged and precipitous Ossa. This ravine was known by the ancient generic name of Tempea or Tempe (the cut, from τέμνω), and has been often poetically described, but seldom sufficiently considered as bearing upon the history of Greece.65

Before entering the pass, the traveller crosses a small round valley, agreeably situated; at the end of which on the left hand, where the mountains approach one another on both sides, was the ancient fortress of Gonnus (or Gonni), distant 160 stadia from Larissa, the chief city of the plain.66 From this point the mountains close upon one another more rapidly, until they rise on both sides of the glen in two rocky parapets, forming a gully, where in many places a path has been hewn along the river. About the middle of this path there stands now, upon a bold projection of Ossa, a fortress of Roman construction called Horæo-Castro, covering also a cross glen of that mountain: it was there probably that the strong-hold Gonnocondylum stood; which appears to have taken its name from the “windings” of the valley.67 Not far from this spot is the narrowest part of the ravine, hardly 100 feet in width: which is stated in an inscription to have been fortified by L. Cassius Longinus, the proconsul and partisan of J. Cæsar; but, without the aid of fortification, a few armed men would probably have been able to stop the progress of a force many times their number. The region has nothing beautiful or agreeable in its appearance, but presents rather a look of savage wildness: the perpendicular masses of rock of the same kind of stone appear, as it were, to have been [pg 023] rent asunder, and are without any covering of trees or grass; the blackness of the shadows in the deep hollow, and the dull echoes, increase the gloominess of the impression: beneath bubble the silver waters of the Peneus (ἀργυροδίνης).68 Not far from this narrow passage the defile opens towards the sea, to which the Peneus flows through marshes; and from hence may be seen the smiling country of Pieria, on the eastern side of Olympus, particularly the plains of Phila, Heracleum, and Leibethrum, which lead onwards to the southern parts of Macedonia.

3. This is the only road between Thessaly and the northern districts, which passes in its whole length along a valley; all the others are mountain-passes. Such was the other road to Macedonia, which crossed mount Olympus (ἐσβολὴ Ὀλυμπική).69 This road, too, begins at the strongly-fortified city of Gonnus, the key of the country towards the north; and it then goes along the southern side of Olympus, till it reaches the cities of Azorum and Doliche. Between these two towns is a place where three ways met.70 The chief road passes in a northerly direction over the summit of the Cambunian chain to the Macedonian highlands; and it was here that Xerxes set fire to the woods in order to open a passage for his army, which the Greeks had expected along the more practicable way through Pieria and the valley of Tempe; and it was often in the Roman wars traversed by large armies.71 From the south of Olympus two difficult mountain roads led over the heights of Olympus, connecting [pg 024] Northern Thessaly with Pieria. The one avoided the valley of Tempe, as it passed by the fortress of Lapathus to the north of that defile,72 then along the small lake of Ascurias, whence there was a view of the town of Dium on the sea-coast, at the distance of 96 stadia; after which it descended into the plains of Pieria. We should, however, more particularly notice the other road, taking a more northern direction, and passing over the lofty sides of Olympus, where formerly there stood the castle of Petra, and the temple of the Pythian Apollo, commonly called Pythium, together with a village of the same name,73 the height of which Xenagoras, by a geometrical measurement, ascertained to be 6096 Grecian feet.74 From this point there was a mountain-pass leading down to the coast to Heracleum and Phila in Pieria, and another way led along the ridge of Olympus by difficult and dangerous passages, as far as Upper Macedonia.75

These mountain-passes and defiles have not been explored by any modern traveller; but it was important for our subject to discover their position from the writings of the ancients. Not only did Perseus and Æmilius Paulus here contend for the fate of Macedonia, [pg 025] but it was in this region that the Greek nations of the heroic age disputed the possession of the fertile Thessaly. There was once a time when through these passes the nations pressed down, to whose lot the finest parts of Greece were once to fall; here every step was gained with labour, while the sons of the mountain inured themselves to hardships in their incessant wars. Of the numerous citadels which in these districts cover every important point, the greater number were probably built at a very early period. Thus there were three fortresses76 to defend the pass of Olympus, or the road from Gonnus to Azorum and Doliche, which two places, together with Pythium on the mountain, were comprehended under the name of the Pelagonian Tripolis.77

4. The highlands which border on Macedonia are so rarely mentioned in Grecian history, that we find in them few names of places, while in the valley of the Peneus there were always some traditional and historical memorials extant. For although the northern mountains were not destitute of fountains, grassy slopes, and fertile pastures, still the nations continually pressed downward to the fertile lands of the valley. In this plain Gonnus and Elatea are succeeded by Mopsium upon the right, and Gyrton and Phalanna on the left of the stream; and soon afterwards Larissa stood in the midst of the open country,78 which had been once deposited from the stagnant waters of the Peneus, and being constantly irrigated, always produced a [pg 026] plentiful crop. To the west of Larissa, in a narrower part of the valley, where the hills approach the river more from the north side, there stood, 40 stadia from Larissa, the town of Argura,79 and at the same distance again the fort of Atrax; on the northern bank of the river were the celebrated city of Pelinna80 and the castle of Pharcedon;81 higher up on the left bank, where the mountains on the north begin to recede and form another plain, was the ancient city of Tricca.82 Between Tricca and Pelinna stood, as it appears, the city of Œchalia, so celebrated in mythology; the ruins of which have been perhaps discovered by a traveller in some ancient walls of massive structure,83 of which Pouqueville saw many in this district. If now we follow the Peneus, which runs from the north-west, higher up the stream than Tricca, we come to the mountain district of Hestiæotis. At about three and a half hours from Tricca84 is now situated the convent Meteora, whose name alludes to its singular situation upon lofty columns of rock:85 from which place there were two ways, one leading higher up the Peneus in a [pg 027] westerly direction to Epirus, and the other passing through Stymphæa to Elimiotis in Macedonia,86 This was about the situation of the ancient fortress of Gomphi, which was near Pindus, and not very far from the sources of the Peneus.87 It is, indeed, probable that the name Γόμφοι expresses the wedge-shaped form of these rocks. According to Strabo, Gomphi (in the north-west), Tricca (in the south-west), Pelinna (in the north-east), and the more recent city of Metropolis (in the south-east), formed a square of fortresses, in the middle of which was the ancient Ithome; which Homer, from the steepness of the rock on which it stood, calls the precipitous (κλωμακόεσσα or κλιμακόεσσα).88 From Meteora the Peneus may be followed in a northerly direction to its origin from two small streams; whence there was a path which wound over the high chain of Pindus, and thus reached the country of Epirus. This was in ancient times the road which connected the two countries, and there still remain on it several Cyclopian walls, the strongholds of former ages.

5. There had dwelt in the valley of the Peneus from the earliest times a Pelasgic nation, which offered up thanks to the gods for the possession of so fruitful a territory at the festival of Peloria.89 Their habits were [pg 028] doubtless adapted to the nature of the country, which has still the same effect on the modern inhabitants; those who dwell near the river being of a soft and peaceable disposition, while the mountaineers are of a stronger and freer turn of mind.90 Larissa was the ancient capital of this nation.91 But at a very early time the primitive inhabitants were either expelled or reduced to subjection, by more northern tribes.92 Those who had retired into the mountains became the Perrhæbian nation, and always retained a certain degree of independence. In the Homeric catalogue the Perrhæbians are mentioned as dwelling on the hill Cyphus under Olympus, and on the banks of the Titaresius, which, flowing along the western edge of Olympus, is distinguished by its clear and therefore dark-coloured stream, from the muddy and white waters of the Peneus.93 At the present day the inhabitants of its banks are remarkable for their healthy complexion, while the Peneus is surrounded by a sickly population.94 The ancients however were reminded by the Titaresius of the Styx and of the infernal regions, not from any natural circumstance, but because both among these Perrhæbians and the Hellopian Pelasgians the name and worship of Dodona had been established.95 Accordingly there seems to have been in both places a Ψυχοπομπεῖον, or oracle of the dead. The prince of [pg 029] these Perrhæbians was called Guneus. So much may be gathered from the passage in Homer. Afterwards, in historical times, we find the Perrhæbians having extended their limits to the Cambunian mountains, the pass of Tempe, and the Peneus; and reaching to the west beyond the chain of Pindus.96 Gonnus and Atrax were likewise Perrhæbian towns.97 The Perrhæbians maintained themselves in the mountains, even when the Thessalians had seized upon the plain, not indeed as an independent, but still as a separate, and, until the Macedonian supremacy, as an Amphictyonic nation.

6. The plain on either side of the Peneus was however occupied by the Lapithæ, a race which derived its origin from Almopia in Macedonia, and was at least very nearly connected with the Minyans and Æolians of Ephyra.98 If it be allowed to speak of this heroic race, of superhuman strength and courage, in the same terms as of a real nation, we should say that the towns Elatea, Gyrton, Mopsium, Larissa, Atrax, Œchalia, Ithome, and Tricca, were under their dominion. Our reason is, that the Lapithæ, Elatus, Cæneus, Mopsus, Coronus, Eurytus and Hippodameia, were considered by popular tradition as inhabitants of the above towns; a belief indicated by the names of several of these heroes. The two last of these towns were the native places of the Asclepiadæ, whom the genealogical and other legends always represent as connected with the Lapithæ. In Homer the inhabitants of Tricca, Ithome, and Œchalia are represented as following the sons of Æsculapius; those of Argissa, Gyrton, Orthe, Elone, and Oloosson are headed by the descendants of [pg 030] the Lapithæ. Now from the researches mentioned by Strabo, it would seem that Orthe was the fortress of Phalanna, Argissa the town Argura, both on the river Peneus; Elone was a small town on mount Olympus, as also Oloosson;99 and it appears that the Homeric catalogue agrees well enough with the other traditions, and supposes the Lapithæ to have occupied the valley of the Peneus, with some parts of the mountainous country to the north.

7. Thus much it was necessary to premise, in order to give a faithful description of the spot in which the Dorians first make their appearance in the traditions of Greece. They bordered on the Lapithæ, but inhabited the mountain district of Hestiæotis, according to Herodotus,100 instead of the champaign country, like the latter race. Yet the same passage of that author implies that Tempe was within the territory of Hestiæotis, and belonged at that time to the Dorians; we shall see hereafter how much this account is confirmed by the altar of the Pythian Apollo in this valley.101 It will moreover be rendered probable that the Pythium above mentioned was situated on the mountain heights. Hence we may well suppose the whole Tripolis to have at one time belonged to the Dorians; since even Azorium was not always inhabited by Illyrian Pelagones, but had [pg 031] once been held by the Hellenes.102 It is also probable that Cyphus, a town said to have belonged to the Perrhæbians, was under the dominion of the Dorians; since this race possessed in their second settlement a town called Acyphas.103 It is remarkable that no direct and positive account of any Doric town in this district has been preserved, a circumstance to be attributed to the loss of the epic poem of Ægimius.

8. This poem, written in the Hesiodean tone (although the author probably lived about the 30th Olympiad, 660 B.C. in the last period of epic poetry),104 celebrated the most ancient exploits of the Doric race. Thus it sung how Ægimius, the Doric prince, whilst engaged in a difficult and dangerous war with the Lapithæ, called to his assistance the wandering Hercules, and by the promise of a third part of the territory obtained his alliance; by which means the enemies were beaten, their prince slain, and the disputed territory conquered.105 The name of the poem [pg 032] is a sufficient proof that such would have been its contents.106 Probably the heroes of Iolcus and the Phthiotans were also introduced as allies of the Lapithæ, and at least the adventures of Phrixus and Achilles.107 The scene of the second book was Eubœa, the name of which island was there derived from the cow Io;108 the attack of Hercules upon the Eubœan town of Œchalia also formed, as I conjecture, part of the subject. Ægimius was, however, supposed to reign in Hestiæotis, merely because the Dorians bordered in this direction upon the Lapithæ; he was easily carried over to the second settlements of the race under mount Œta.109 This hero is in general the mythical progenitor and hero of the Doric nation; hence Pindar called the customs and laws of that people “the ordinances of Ægimius.”110 Nevertheless only two tribes of the Dorians are stated to be descended from him, viz. the Dymanes and Pamphylians; the third and most distinguished, viz. the Hylleans, was supposed to be descended from Hyllus the son of Hercules, and adopted [pg 033] by Ægimius. And as the land in the Doric states was equally divided between these three tribes, Hercules was fabled to have received for his descendants a third part of the territory, which belonged of right to the Hylleans. This triple division of the land was expressly mentioned by the epic poet, who used the word τριχάϊκες to express that the Dorians had obtained and shared among themselves, at a distance from their native country (chiefly in Peloponnesus),111 a territory apportioned into three parts. An examination of the opinion, that the first race was distinguished from the other two as of different origin, will be found in a following chapter.112

We must also refer our reader to the investigation [pg 034] of the worship of Apollo, and the mythology of Hercules, in the second book, since from these alone can be collected the internal history of the Doric race during its earliest period.

9. One event which, even if it had not been noticed by tradition, would still have been felt and recognised from the effects it produced, is the migration of the Dorians from the district of Olympus to Crete. It is, indeed, a wonderful migration, being from one end of the Grecian world to the other, and it presents a striking anomaly in the history of the ancient colonies. We must suppose that the Dorians, whilst in their first settlements, excluded from the plain, and pressed by want, or restless from inactivity, constructed piratical canoes, manned these frail and narrow barks with soldiers, who themselves worked at the oars, and thus being changed from mountaineers into seamen—the Normans of Greece—set sail for the distant island of Crete. The earliest trace of the migration in question is found in the Odyssey, in which poem it is mentioned that the thrice-divided Dorians formed a part of the population of Crete.113 Andron states, even with geographical accuracy, that these Dorians came to Crete from Hestiæotis, at that time called Doris, under Tectaphus, the son of Dorus, together with Achæans and some Pelasgians who had remained in Thessaly.114 According to Dicæarchus, the Dorians migrated to Crete from Pelasgiotis;115 by which is [pg 035] meant the same district as that called by Andron Hestiæotis, since Pelasgiotis and Hestiæotis bordered on each other in the vicinity of Tempe. Again, Diodorus affirms that Asterius king of Crete, the adopted father of Minos, the legislator, was the son of Tectamus (Teutamus).116 The essential parts of these statements are rendered certain by two proofs: the first of these is, that the worship of Apollo was practised in Crete with precisely the same ceremonies as at Tempe, and connected with many of the same traditions; the second is, the very remote period at which the principles of the Doric constitution were systematized and established in Crete, so that they afterwards became a model and standard for other states of that race. This gives us the fullest right to consider Minos of Cnosus as a Dorian. We may assert, with still more reason, that the name of Minos indicates a period in which the Doric invaders united a part of the island into one state, and, by extending their power over the Cyclades and many maritime districts, obtained, according to the expression of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Aristotle, the dominion of the sea. To discredit this Doric migration would be to reject the simple explanation of many facts recorded in later history. At the same time, however, we do not mean to throw any doubt upon the later migrations from Peloponnesus, when it had already fallen under the power of the Dorians.117 We only assert that [pg 036] these took place at too late a period to account for many unquestionable facts. The portion of Crete first occupied by the Dorians was, according to Staphylus, the eastern coast;118 or, to speak more accurately, the eastern side of the north coast. Here stood the Minoan town of Cnosus, with its harbour Heracleum and colony Apollonia. From this point the dominion, customs, and worship of the Dorians were at a very early period extended over the districts inhabited by the Eteocretans, Pelasgians, and Cydonians; and, with the help of later migrations, pervaded the whole island.119 And although the different dialects could still be distinguished at the time of Homer,120 yet in later times the Doric appears to have been universally adopted.121

10. We now return to the passage of Herodotus, of which a part has been already quoted; “When however the Dorians were driven out by the Cadmeans, they dwelt under Mount Pindus, and were called the Macednian nation.” In this passage the author alludes to the legend, that the Cadmeans, being expelled from Thebes by the Argives, fled to the Encheleans of Illyria, where they bordered upon Homolè, a Magnesian mountain near the valley of Tempe. In this settlement they would certainly be in the neighbourhood [pg 037] of the Dorians. But we should bear in mind how perplexed is the fable which we have before us.122 The predatory excursion of the Encheleans to Phocis and Bœotia appears to admit of no doubt, as it was noticed by a Delphian oracle of tolerable antiquity, and by the tradition of the Thebans. The same horde may in its passage have also disturbed the Dorians in their settlements; but it is no less wonderful, that fugitive Thebans should have voluntarily taken refuge with the Encheleans in Illyria, than that this latter nation should have driven the Dorians from their settlements. It may be true that some northern hordes expelled the Dorians from mount Olympus, since at a later period we find the Pæonian (Teucrian) race of the Pelagones, who had descended from the Axius,123 and made themselves masters of the Tripolis, Azorum, Doliche, and Pythium, in possession of their ancient settlements.

As to the statement of Herodotus, that the Macednians, or ancient Macedonians (who in his lifetime inhabited the territory between the rivers Haliacmon and Lydias, from the mountains to the coast),124 were derived from the Dorians when dwelling under mount Pindus, he probably followed some accounts of the Macedonians, who, not satisfied with establishing the [pg 038] Doric origin of their royal family, wished to claim the same honour for the whole nation: but there does not appear to be any historical foundation for this statement. For the Macedonians, as was above remarked, were indeed for the most part Greeks, but neither their language or customs authorize us to consider them as Dorians.125

Chapter II.

1. “From thence,” Herodotus proceeds to relate, “the race of the Dorians migrated to Dryopis, afterwards called Doris, or the Doric Tetrapolis.” Here also it will be necessary to give some illustration of the geography of the country; beginning at Thermopylæ (the point at which mount Œta comes in contact with the sea) to the broken ridge where it is swallowed up in Parnassus, and both ranges are lost in the mountains of Pindus, and where this latter, the grand chain of Greece, is separated and branches off in different directions.

Following the plain of Phocis, which lies between mounts Œta and Parnassus, and is watered by the Cephisus, we presently find the mountains approaching each other from both sides, and contracting the valley of the river. The last towns of Phocis in this direction are, Amphicæa, Tithronium and Drymæa, still to be [pg 039] recognised in ruins, and places bearing the name of Palæocastro.126 Proceeding thence westward to the higher country, we soon arrive at the sources of the river Cephisus, which cannot be mistaken, since it immediately forms a stream of considerable size. The Cephisus indeed rises not in Œta but in Parnassus, and runs first to the north-east, in order to make a bend afterwards to the south-east.127 The situation is particularly indicated by the ancient citadel of a town, situated close to the source, upon a steep projection of Parnassus; this place must be recognised as Lilæa. The scenery around is of a grand and bold description. Twenty stadia from hence was situated Charadra, where a mountain-torrent joined the Cephisus. But the river Pindus, which falls into the Cephisus not far from Lilæa, comes down from a much greater elevation. These valleys, lying to the north-west of Lilæa,128 constitute the proper district of Doris, little described in detail by the ancients, and never till a short time since visited by modern travellers. The steep citadel, about an hour and a half's distance from Lilæa, situated upon a projection of Parnassus near the village of Mariolatis, is perhaps Bœum. The ancient walls in the valley towards the west near Stagni must be set [pg 040] down as the fortress of Cytinium.129 Erineus should probably be sought for in the defiles of Œta, nearer the sources of the stream just mentioned.130 Near Œta was situated Acyphas,131 probably the same as the city of Pindus132 above Erineus, and of the same name as the river; both which names the Dorians had brought with them from their early settlements. This corner of land, placed under the chief mountain-chain of Greece, and hanging over the plains which extend from thence, was bounded by the upper districts of Ætolia, by the territory of the Ozolian Locrians, Phocis, and southern Thessaly.133 From Cytinium a mountain-path led along the side of Parnassus to the country of the Locrians:134 this also has been explored by modern travellers. This pass made the small stronghold of Cytinium so important as a military post, that Philip of Macedon, when he invaded Northern Greece before the battle of Chæronea, immediately occupied Elatea and Cytinium135, evidently as a key to the [pg 041] western districts. From Delphi another mountain-path (which was reckoned by an ancient traveller at 180 stadia136) crossed over in the direction of Lilæa. The modern road to the north, from the valley of Pindus, likewise goes along a mountain-pass through the defiles and ravines of Œta, to the opposite side of the valley of the Spercheus, now called Hellada.137 If this was passable in ancient times, it formed the communication between Doris and the country of the Malians.

2. Mount Œta stretches in a westerly direction for the length of 200 stadia towards the Malian bay, which it reaches at Thermopylæ. It separates Doris, Phocis, and the Epicnemidian Locrians from the valley of the Spercheus. The passes connected with it are, first, the one just mentioned: secondly, another from Phocis to the rocky glen of Trachinia;138 and, lastly, that of Thermopylæ, together with the upper path, made famous by the battle with the Persians. The pass of Thermopylæ is formed on one side by the steep declivity of the mountain, and on the other by a deep and impassable salt-marsh: these in the narrowest part are only 60 paces distant from each other:139 in the middle arise the hot sulphurous springs, which gave the name to the defile. At no great distance from these lies the little plain of Anthela, breaking into two narrow parts of the pass. At the northern entrance of the passage there are still the ruins of a wall, which has perhaps [pg 042] served as a barrier against the invasions of Thessalian, Persian, and Roman armies. Near this spot the brook Asopus rises from the side of the mountain. At the southern end of the pass was the small town of Alpenus, its whole length being about five miles. From Thermopylæ the paved and raised military road leads northward over the Spercheus to Thessaly, southward by Alpenus, Scarpheia, and Thronium, and from thence to Elatea, and thus to the land of Phocis.

Although the broken and precipitous form of both mountain and valley rendered the chain of Œta little suited for human habitation, yet there was in ancient times a considerable number of cities reaching in a line from the Doric Tetrapolis, as far as the sea. Amphanæa must have been built upon mount Œta, but in the direction of Trachinia; so that, with a little latitude of expression, it was considered as in Thessaly.140 Rhoduntia and Teichius were fortified heights on the road over mount Œta.141 Phricium was situated near Thermopylæ on the Locrian side; from this place some colonists went to the Æolian Cume, and Larissa Phriconis.142 On the other side, upon the slope of the mountain above the valley of the small streams Melas and Dyras, lay Trachis. Heraclea was situated six stadia from the ancient Trachis.143 Not far from hence Ægoneia was probably situated.144

3. Having now marked out the topography of this district by traces, which, although not as clear as could be wished, are yet perfectly accurate, we will next proceed to inquire concerning the small native tribes which [pg 043] at different periods settled in these parts, and particularly concerning the Dorians themselves. Doris, in the limited meaning of the term, was the valley of the river Pindus. Whenever the Doric Tripolis is mentioned, the three cities meant are Bœum, Cytinium, and Erineus;145 which last place, as being the most considerable, appears to have been also called Dorium:146 but when writers speak of a Tetrapolis, Acyphas (or Pindus) is added as a fourth town.147 This is the country which Dorus the son of Hellen is said to have inhabited, when he brought together his nation on the side of Parnassus;148 a tradition which totally loses sight of the more ancient settlements of the Doric race. It appears, however, that the Dorians, whilst confined within these limits, did not rest content with the possession of this narrow valley, but occupied several places along mount Œta, of which Amphanæa was one.149 An unknown writer150 named six Doric [pg 044] towns,—viz., Erineus, Cytinium, Bœum, Lilæum, Carphæa and Dryope: of which, by Lilæum is meant the town of Lilæa, by Carphæa probably Tarphe near Thermopylæ,151 and by Dryope the country which had once belonged to the Dryopians. There was therefore probably a time when the heights near the sources of the Cephisus, and a narrow strip of land along mount Œta, as far as the sea, were in the possession of the Dorians. Nay this was even partly the case in the Persian war; for even at that time Doris stretched in a narrow tongue of land thirty stadia broad, between the Malians and Phoceans, nearly as far as Thermopylæ:152 Scylax also mentions the Dorians as inhabitants of the sea-coast.153 This district, however, near mount Œta is that which the Dryopians had formerly inhabited (as may be shown from a passage of Herodotus)154, before they were entirely dispossessed by the Dorians, their neighbours in the Tetrapolis. Thus, by means of this geographical investigation we have arrived at an historical event. It seems probable that the Dorians, having moved by slow degrees from Hestiæotis to mount Œta, first gained possession of the furthest extremity of the mountain-valley, and thence [pg 045] gradually spread towards the coast over the land of the Dryopians. This race indeed generally did not press all at once, but passed slowly into districts which had been seized by some part of them at an earlier period.155

4. The Dryopians (the fragments of whose history we here introduce) are an aboriginal nation, which may be called Pelasgic, since Aristotle and others assign to them an Arcadian origin.156 Their affinity with the Arcadians is confirmed by the worship paid by them to Demeter Chthonia, to Cora Melibœa, and Hades Clymenus: which bore a great resemblance to those of Phigaleia, Thelpusa, and other towns in Arcadia.157 Their territory bordered upon that of the Malians, so that they extended into the valley of the Spercheus beyond Œta, and in the other direction as far as Parnassus;158 to the east their settlements reached to Thermopylæ.159 Their expulsion is related [pg 046] in a manner entirely mythical, being connected with the propagation of the worship of Apollo (which is intimately allied with the migrations of the Dorians), and also with the adventures of Hercules; but when a clue to this method of narration is once discovered, it will be found to be equally, or perhaps more, instructive, and to convey much fuller information than a bare historical narrative. In the present instance, the Pythian Apollo is represented as the god to whom the vanquished Dryopians are sent as slaves, and who despatches them to Peloponnesus;160 and Hercules, in conjunction with the Trachinians, subdues and consecrates them to Apollo, or assigns to them settlements in Argolis, but allots their land to the Dorians or Malians.161

From this tradition we might perhaps infer that the Dryopians accompanied the Dorians in their migration to Peloponnesus, and settled there with them. But the situation of the places belonging to the Dryopians makes it necessary to seek some other explanation; for the colonies of this race lie scattered over so many coasts and islands, that they can only have been planted by single expeditions over the sea. In Argolis, for instance, they built Hermione, Asine, and Eion (Halieis), upon projecting headlands and [pg 047] promontories; in Eubœa, Styra and Carystus belonged to them;162 among the islands they had settlements in Cythnos163 and perhaps Myconos; they had also penetrated as far as Ionia and Cyprus.164 Hence it must be inferred that the Dryopians, harassed or dislodged by their neighbours, dispersed in various directions over the sea. It is, however, historically certain that a great part of the Dryopians were consecrated as a subject people to the Pythian Apollo (an usage of ancient times, of which there are many instances), and that for a long time they served as such; for even in the fragmentary history of the destruction of Crissa (Olymp. 47, 590 B.C.), we find Craugallidæ mentioned together with the Crissæans,165 which was a name of the Dryopians derived from a fabulous ancestor.166 The condition of the subjects of temples, and consequently of these Craugallidæ, will be treated of at large in another place.167

5. But the Dorians, though hostile to their neighbours the Dryopians, were on friendly terms with the Malians. This people dwelt in the valley of the Spercheus, enclosed on all sides by rocky mountains, and open only in the direction of the sea; they were divided into the inhabitants of the coast, the Sacerdotal, and the Trachinians.168 The second of these classes [pg 048] probably dwelt near to the Amphictyonic temple at Thermopylæ, the third on the rocky declivities of mount Œta. These are the people who were in such close alliance with the Dorians, that Diodorus speaks of Trachis as the mother-town of Lacedæmon.169 The friendship between Ceyx and Hercules, together with that of his sons, is the mythical expression for this connexion. The Malians were always a warlike people, those persons only who had served as hoplites being admitted to a share in the government.170 Their country was however chiefly famous for its slingers and darters.171

6. In after-times there came into these districts a nation which the ancient traditions of the country do not recognise, viz. the Hellenic Ænianes or Œtæans; the latter name denoting the region in which that nation was settled, the former their race;172 although I do not assert that the fourteen Œtæan communities173 constituted the entire nation of the Ænianes. For they also dwelt on the banks of the Inachus, and about the sources of the Spercheus, near the city of Hypata.174 In early times they had inhabited the inland parts of Thessaly, and about the end of the fabulous period they descended into those settlements, from which in later times they were dislodged by the Illyrian Athamanes.175 Although the Ænianes did not disavow a certain dependence on the Delphian oracle, and though they [pg 049] adopted among their traditions the fables respecting Hercules, anciently prevalent in their new settlements,176 yet on account of their geographical position they lived in opposition and hostility to the Malians and Dorians;177 who, as Strabo states, had been deprived by them of a part of their territory.178 Nay more, it is probable that the emigration of the Dorians which conquered Peloponnesus, was in some way or other connected with the arrival of the Ænianes in this region. There was an ancient enmity between the Lacedæmonians and the Œtæans.179 It was chiefly on this account that Sparta founded the town of Heraclea in the country of Trachinia; which would doubtless have caused the revival of an important Doric power in this part of Greece, had not the jealousy of the Thessalians and Dolopians, and even of the Malians themselves, been awakened at its first establishment.

Thus much concerning the situation of the Dorians in their settlements near mount Œta. The subject however is not yet exhausted; for we have still to trace the origin of the great influence which the establishment of the Dorians at Lycorea upon Parnassus had on the religion of Delphi (for that Lycorea was a Doric town will be made probable hereafter), as well as to treat of the Amphictyonic league, in the founding of which a very large share doubtless belonged to the Dorians: but the discussion of both these points must be deferred to the second book.180

As to the colonies of the Doric cities near mount Parnassus, Bulis on the frontiers of Phocis and Bœotia, [pg 050] on the Crissæan gulf, was probably founded from thence at the time of the Doric migration.181

Chapter III.

1. The most important, and the most fertile in consequences, of all the migrations of Grecian races, and which continued even to the latest periods to exert its influence upon the Greek character, was the expedition of the Dorians into Peloponnesus. It is however so completely enveloped in fables, and these were formed at a very early period in so connected a manner, that it is useless to examine it in detail, without first endeavouring to separate the component parts.

The traditionary name of this expedition is “the Return of the descendants of Hercules.”182 Hercules, [pg 051] the son of Zeus is (even in the Iliad), both by birth and destiny, the hereditary prince of Tiryns and Mycenæ, and ruler of the surrounding nations.183 But through some evil chance Eurystheus obtained the precedency, and the son of Zeus was compelled to serve him. Nevertheless he is represented as having bequeathed to his descendants his claims to the dominion of Peloponnesus, which they afterwards made good in conjunction with the Dorians; Hercules having also performed such actions in behalf of this race, that his descendants were always entitled to the possession of one-third of the territory. The heroic life of Hercules was therefore the mythical title, through which the Dorians were made to appear, not as unjustly invading, but merely as reconquering, a country which had belonged to their princes in former times. Hence Hercules is reported to have made war with some degree of propriety, and subdued the principal countries of the Doric race (except his native country Argos), Lacedæmon and the Messenian Pylus, to have established the national festival at Olympia, and even to have laid the foundation of the most distant colonies. To esteem as real these conquests and settlements, these mythical forerunners of real history, is incompatible with a clear view of these matters; and we could scarce seriously ask even the most credulous, how, at a time when sieges were in the highest degree tedious, Hercules could have stormed and taken so many fortresses, surrounded with almost impregnable walls?184

A severer criticism enjoins us to trace the mythical narrative to its centre, and attempt to ascertain whether the sovereign race of the Dorians did really spring from the early sovereigns of Mycenæ; such [pg 052] being not only the epic account, but also the tradition countenanced in Sparta itself. Tyrtæus said, in his poem called the Eunomia, “Zeus himself gave this territory (Laconia) to the race of Hercules; united with whom we (the Dorians) left the stormy Erineus, and reached the wide island of Pelops.”185 And a still more important proof is the reply of king Cleomenes, mentioned by Herodotus, who, when forbidden by the priestess in the Acropolis of Athens to enter the temple, as being a Dorian, answered, “I am no Dorian, but an Achæan,” referring to his descent from Hercules.186 From this it would appear that there was amongst the Dorians an Achæan phratria, to which the kings of Argos, Sparta, and Messenia, and the founders and rulers of Corinth, Sicyon, Epidaurus, Ægina, Rhodes, Cos, &c., belonged; and which, in conjunction with the Dorians, only recovered by conquest its hereditary rights.187

2. It is certainly hazardous at once to reject an extensive and connected system of heroic traditions, for the sake of establishing in its place a conjecture which sacrifices reports recognised by ages prior to historical information, and celebrated by the earliest poets, to a mere theory of historical probability. We [pg 053] must, however, recollect that mythical legends present in general merely the views and opinions of nations on the origin of their actual condition; these opinions being at the same time more often directed and determined by religious and other notions, especially by a certain feeling of justice, than by real tradition, and therefore they frequently conceal, rather than express, historical truth. The following remarks, partly deduced from inquiries which will follow, may serve to contrast with each other the characteristics of history and mythology.

In the first place, if we consider the narrative in question as a plain historical statement, and consequently suppose the Heraclidæ to have been expatriated Achæans, the same supposition must be extended to the whole tribe of Hylleans. For Hyllus, the representative of the Hylleans, is called the son of Hercules; and it was with reference to that tribe that the third part of the territory was secured to the descendants of Hercules: hence also Pindar calls the Dorians universally the descendants of Hercules and Ægimius.188 In this case, then, the Pamphylians and Dymanes would alone remain as Dorians proper. It is, however, by no means probable, that, if the most distinguished part of the Doric people had been of Achæan descent, the difference between the language, religion, and customs of these two races would have been so strongly and precisely marked.

In the second place, everything that is related concerning the exploits of Hercules in the north of [pg 054] Greece refers exclusively to the history of the Dorians; and conversely all the actions of the Doric race in their earlier settlements are mythically represented under the person of Hercules. Now this cannot be accounted for by supposing that there was only a temporary connexion between this hero and the Doric race.

Lastly, if we compare as much of the fables concerning Hercules related below as refers to the Dorians, with those current among the ancient Argives, and if we separate in mind the links by which the epic poets gave them an apparent historical connexion, we shall find no real resemblance between the two. The worship of Apollo, which can in almost every case be shown to have been the real motive which actuated the Dorians, was wholly foreign to the Argives. If then an Achæan tribe did arrive amongst the Dorians, bringing with it the story of Hercules, or a hero so called, this latter people must have applied and developed his mythology in a manner wholly different from those to whom they owed it. And after all, we should be obliged to suppose that long before their irruption into Peloponnesus, these Heraclidæ had been so intermixed with the Dorians, that their traditions were formed entirely according to the disposition of that race, since Hercules in Thessaly is represented as a complete Dorian. Here, however, we are again at variance with the fable, which represents the Heraclidæ as having fled to the Dorians a short time only before their entry into Peloponnesus.

Thus we are continually met with contradictions, and never enabled to obtain a clear view of the question, unless we assent to the proposition that [pg 055] Hercules, from a very remote period, was both a Dorian and Peloponnesian hero, and particularly the hero of the Hyllean tribe, which in the earliest settlements of the Dorians had probably united itself with two other small nations, the Heraclidæ being the hereditary princes of the Doric race. The story of the Heraclidæ being descended from the Argive Hercules, who performed the commands of Eurystheus, was not invented till after Peloponnesus had been introduced into the tradition.

3. There is hardly any part of the traditional history of Greece whose real sources are so little known to us as the expedition of the Heraclidæ. No one can fail to perceive that it possesses the same mythical character as the Trojan war; and yet we are deprived of that which renders the examination of a mythical narrative so instructive, viz. the traditional lore scattered in such abundance throughout the ancient epic poems. This event, however, early as it was, lay without the range of the epic poetry; and therefore, whenever circumstances connected with it were mentioned, they must have been introduced either accidentally or in reference to some other subject. In no one large class of epic poems was this event treated at length, neither by the cyclic poets, nor the authors of the Νόστοι. In the Ἠοῖαι attributed to Hesiod, it appears only to have been alluded to in a few short passages.189 Herodotus nevertheless mentions [pg 056] poets who related the migration of the Heraclidæ and Dorians into Laconia.190 Perhaps these belonged to the class who carried on the mythical fables genealogically, as Cinæthon the Laconian, and also Asius, who celebrated the descent of Hercules, and appears, from the character of his poems, to have also commemorated his descendants.191 Or they may have been the historical poets, such as Eumelus the Corinthian, although those alluded to by Herodotus cannot have composed a separate poetical history (as the former did of Corinth); since they would doubtless have followed the national tradition of Sparta; and this, with respect to the first princes of the Heraclidæ, differed from the accounts of all the poets with which Herodotus was acquainted, and was not the general tradition of Greece.192 And doubtless many such local traditions were preserved amongst particular nations, concerning an event which for a long time determined the condition of Peloponnesus. Thus the Tegeatans193 celebrated the combat of Echemus their general with Hyllus. Whether the early historians collected these accounts from oral record, or whether they derived them from the poets above mentioned (although the latter is more in their manner), cannot be determined; [pg 057] for there are only extant two fragments of these writers concerning the Heraclidæ, one of Hecatæus, the other of Pherecydes, which connect immediately with the death of Hercules, and therefore do not prove that these authors wrote any continuous account of the history of this migration. The early tradition received a fuller development in the Attic drama; but it was unavoidably represented in a very partial view. The Heraclidæ of Æschylus, and the Iolaus of Sophocles might, like the Heraclidæ of Euripides, have had on the whole the tendency to celebrate those merits which the Athenians are made to commend in Herodotus,194 even before the battle of Platæa, viz., their good offices towards the Heraclidæ, at the time when they took refuge in Attica. The last-named tragedian, in his Temenidæ, Archelaus, and Cresphontes, went further into the history of the Doric states, and descended lower into the historical period, than any poet before his time; his reason having, perhaps, been, the exhaustion of the legitimate mythical materials.195 Now these Attic tragedians manifestly took for their basis the narrative given by Apollodorus, himself an Athenian, as may be shown by some particular circumstances. Perhaps Ephorus rested more upon the earlier poets and historians, as far as we are acquainted with their statements; but his narrative, even if it were extant, could, no more than those of the former, be considered as proceeding from a critical examination; since, in the first place, from a total misapprehension of the character of tradition, he forced everything into history, and then endeavoured to restore the deficiencies of [pg 058] oral narrative by probable reasoning; of the fallaciousness of which method we will bring forward some proofs.

4. After what has been said, we will forbear to apologize for merely offering a few remarks on the origin and meaning of the traditions which concern the Doric migration, instead of endeavouring to give a history of that event. And, indeed, we might bring forward some most marvellous legends, but on that very account the better fitted to convince every one what is the nature of the ground on which we stand.

In the Ἠοῖαι attributed to Hesiod, it was stated that Polycaon the son of Butes, whose name represents the ancient (i.e. Lelegean) population of Messene, married Euæchme (Εὐαίχμη, viz. celebrated for the spear) the daughter of Hyllus, and grand-daughter of Hercules. In this simple and unpretending manner the early tradition conveyed the idea that the Hylleans and Dorians had, by the power of the spear, made themselves masters of Messene, and united themselves with the original inhabitants.196

In the Laconian village of Abia, there was a temple of Hercules, which was said to have been built by Abia the nurse of Glenus, the brother of Hyllus.197 It was, therefore, supposed that Hyllus and Glenus themselves came to Laconia. Pausanias endeavours to [pg 059] reconcile the local tradition with the received history, and assumes that Abia had fled hither after the death of Hyllus; which, however, is inconsistent with the common account that Peloponnesus was in the hands of the enemy, and that the battle in which Hyllus fell was at the Isthmus. We come now to the common relation of the order of events.

5. According to this account, the Heraclidæ, after the death of their father, were in Trachis with their host Ceyx, who generously protected them for a time, but was afterwards forced, by the threats of Eurystheus, to refuse them any longer refuge; Ceyx, according to Hecatæus,198 was compelled to say to them, “I have not the power to assist you; withdraw therefore to another nation;” and upon this they sought an asylum in Attica. Those early historians, however, who stated that Hercules died as king in Mycenæ, gave an entirely different account of this circumstance, viz., that Eurystheus, after the death of Hercules, expelled his sons, and again usurped the dominion,199 and they fled in consequence to Attica.

At Athens they sat as suppliants at the altar of Pity, received the protection of Theseus or Demophon, dwelt in the Tetrapolis,200 and fought, together with the Athenians, under the command of Hyllus [pg 060] and Iolaus (to whose prayers the gods had granted a second youth), at the pass of Sciron, a battle against Eurystheus; Macaria (probably an entirely symbolical being, but here the daughter of Hercules) having previously offered herself as an expiatory sacrifice. In this action they conquered the Argive king, whom Alcmene with womanish vengeance put to death, and whose tomb the Athenians showed before the temple of the Pallenian Minerva.201 This is the [pg 061] fable so much celebrated by the tragedians and orators, a locus communis as it were, which the Athenians sometimes even mentioned in their decrees,202 or wherever it served to show how poorly the Peloponnesians had requited their ancient benefactors. What credit a Lacedæmonian would have given to these stories, we know not; Pindar certainly knew nothing of them, for he states that Iolaus had near Thebes received a momentary renewal of youthful vigour for the purpose of putting to death Eurystheus, after which he immediately expired, and was buried by the Thebans in the family tomb of Amphitryon.203 In this account Eurystheus is represented as having been conquered in the neighbourhood of Thebes, and in consequence by a Theban army. It is not however necessary to esteem the Athenian tradition as altogether groundless, and purposely invented: it was probably founded on some actual event, and afterwards modified and embellished. The connecting link was without doubt the temple of Hercules in Attica. It was natural that, if the Athenians worshipped that hero, they should wish to have had the merit of protecting his descendants. Hence the sons of Hercules were said to have dwelt in the Tetrapolis at Marathon, where was the chief temple of Hercules in Attica, and in the neighbourhood of which flowed the fountain Macaria, represented as a daughter of that hero. It was on this account, as is reported, that the entire Tetrapolis was during the Peloponnesian war spared by the Lacedæmonians. Many circumstances, [pg 062] which will hereafter be brought forward, seem to show that an union and intercourse subsisted between the Dorians of Peloponnesus and some of the northern towns of Attica,204 the foundation of which appears to have been laid in the times of the Doric migration, by a settlement of Dorians and Bœotians in these towns. But this settlement had doubtless, when those fables were invented, been already lost in the mass of the Athenian people.

6. After this battle, won by the aid of the Athenians, the Heraclidæ are said (and with good reason, as they were assisted by the Athenians) to have obtained possession of all Peloponnesus, and to have ruled undisturbed for one year (or some fixed period); at the expiration of which, a pestilence (like a tragical catastrophe) drove them back again to Attica. The mythologists make use of this time to send Tlepolemus the Heraclide to Rhodes, in order that he may arrive there before the Trojan war. Of all this, however, Pherecydes could have known nothing, as he relates that Hyllus, having conquered Eurystheus, went to Thebes,205 without subduing Peloponnesus, and there with the other Heraclidæ formed a settlement near the gate of Electra, a circumstance which we shall advert to hereafter.206 In Peloponnesus, however, according to the traditions chronologically arranged, Eurystheus was succeeded by the Pelopidæ, who accordingly appear as the expellers of the legitimate sovereigns of the race of Perseus.207 Whether [pg 063] any such circumstance was known to the early poets is very much to be doubted; but it is at least clear, that in this case we are not in possession of the real tradition itself, but of scientific combinations of it. Against these new sovereigns were directed the expeditions of the Heraclidæ, of which it is generally stated that there were three. The account given of them follows the general idea of an entire dependence of the Dorians on the Delphian oracle;208 but the misconception of its injunctions, which embarrasses and perplexes the whole question, may, we think, be attributed entirely to the invention of the Athenians. The oracle mentioned the third fruit, and the narrow passage by sea (στενυγρὰ), as the time and way of the promised return, which the Athenians falsely interpreted to mean the third year, and the Isthmus of Corinth. But the account given in Apollodorus, nearly falling into Iambic or Trochaic metre, leaves no doubt that he took his account of the oracle from the Attic tragedians,209 as was remarked above. Deceived by these predictions, Hyllus forced his way into Peloponnesus in the third year, and found at the Isthmus the Arcadians, Ionians, and Achæans of the peninsula already assembled. In a single combat with Echemus the son of Aëropus, the prince of Tegea, Hyllus fell, [pg 064] and was buried in Megara; upon which the Heraclidæ promised not to renew the attempt for fifty or one hundred years from that time.210 Here every one will recognise the battle of the Tegeate with the Hyllean as an ancient tradition. But in the arrangement, by which it was contrived that the expeditions of the Heraclidæ should not be placed during the Trojan war and the youth of Orestes, we do not hesitate to suspect the industry of ancient systematic mythologists.

7. When the Heraclidæ had been once separated from the Dorians as belonging to a different race, and Hyllus set down as only the adopted son of the Doric king, it immediately became a matter of doubt at what time the junction of the Dorians and Heraclidæ in one expedition should be fixed. Sometimes the Dorians are represented as joining the Heraclidæ before the first, sometimes before the second, sometimes before the third expedition; by one writer as setting out from Hestiæotis, and by another from Parnassus.211 There were doubtless no real traditional grounds for any one report; and still less any sufficient to place the name Hyllus, and the events connected with it, at any fixed epoch. Hence also Hyllus is at one time called the contemporary of Atreus, and at another of Orestes;212 Pamphylus and Dymas are stated to have lived from the time of Hercules to the conquest of Peloponnesus.213 Nor is there any absurdity in this, inasmuch as they are the collective names of races which existed throughout [pg 065] this whole period. The descendants of Hyllus, however, are no longer races, but, as it appears, real persons; viz., his son Cleodæus,214 and his grandson Aristomachus. These names stood at the head of the genealogy of the Heraclidæ; as, for example, of the kings of Sparta; and they can hardly have been mere creations of fancy. From their succession is probably calculated the celebrated epoch of the expedition of the Heraclidæ, viz., 80 years after the Trojan war, which was without doubt determined by the early historians, since Thucydides was acquainted with it. The Alexandrine critics generally adopted it, as we know expressly of Eratosthenes, Crates, and Apollodorus.215 But all that is recounted of the expeditions of these two princes, however small in amount,216 cannot have been acknowledged by those who, like Herodotus, and probably all the early writers, stated the armistice after the death of Hyllus as lasting 100 years.217

8. At length Apollo himself opens the eyes of the Heraclidæ to the meaning of the oracle. It was not across the Isthmus, but over the Straits of Rhium, that they were to cross into Peloponnesus, and after the third generation had died away. They therefore first sailed from Naupactus, to the Molycrian promontory (Antirrhium), and thence to Rhium in Peloponnesus, which was only five stadia distant.218 That the Dorians [pg 066] actually came on that side into Peloponnesus, is a statement which may be looked on as certain; agreeing (as it does) with the fact that the countries near the Isthmus were the last to which the Dorians penetrated. The name Naupactus implies the existence of ship-building there in early times;219 and there was a tradition that the Heraclidæ passed over on rafts, imitations of which were afterwards publicly exposed at a festival, and called Στεμματιαῖα, i.e. crowned with garlands.220 This festival was doubtless the Carnea, since the Carnean Apollo was worshipped at Sparta under the name of Stemmatias. Now it is also stated that the Acarnanian soothsayer Carnus (who was reported to have founded the worship of the Carnean Apollo) was killed at the time of this expedition by Hippotes the son of Phylas, for which reason the Heraclidæ offered expiatory sacrifices to his memory.221 We see from this that some rites of a peculiar worship of Apollo were observed at this passage, which were probably for the most part of an expiatory nature. Now I have shown elsewhere, that the Carnean or Hyacinthian worship of [pg 067] the Ægidæ originated at Thebes, and prevailed in Peloponnesus before the arrival of the Dorians, particularly at Amyclæ:222 consequently, that prevalent near the straits of Naupactus might have been another, probably an Acarnanian223 branch of the religion of Apollo, which was afterwards incorporated in the Carnean festival; a supposition which, if admitted, would enable us to explain many statements of ancient authors. The religious rites and festivals are in fact often so intermingled and confused together, that it is necessary to trace their component parts to many and distant sources.

9. At their passage from Naupactus the Dorians stood in great need of the friendship and assistance of the native races, the Ozolian Locrians and Ætolians. The Locrians occupied Naupactus in early times;224 the Ætolians were their immediate neighbours, and their powerful city of Calydon was the mistress of the region. The Locrians are said to have aided the Dorians in their passage, by deceiving the Peloponnesians with false beacons;225 and we shall meet hereafter with traces of a lasting amity between the Locrians and Sparta. A most singular, but, doubtless for that very reason, a most ancient dress, has been given by mythology to the union of the Dorians and Ætolians. This connexion, which was indispensable for the passage from Naupactus, is also found implied in other legends, the general [pg 068] character of tradition being to express the same thing in various ways. Of these we may mention the marriage of Hercules with Deianira, the daughter of Œneus the Calydonian.226 At this time the Dorians were ordered by the oracle to seek a person with three eyes for a leader. This person they recognised in Oxylus the Ætolian, who either sat upon a horse, himself having one eye, or rode upon a one-eyed mule. Difficult as it is to rest satisfied with this interpretation of the oracle, so casual a circumstance having no connexion with the general course of events, yet it appears impossible to discover the true meaning of the word τριόφθαλμος.227 In all probability this expression for the whole Ætolian race was only delivered in a mythical shape, and the sorry explanation was not invented until a late period.228 The family of Oxylus is stated to have come from Calydon; so that the Ætolians (who in later times made themselves masters of Elis) appear to have come for the most part from that place.229 There existed, however, an ancient alliance and affinity between the inhabitants of Elis, the Epeans, and the Ætolians who dwelt on the farther side of the Corinthian gulf; and Oxylus himself was said to have originally belonged to Elis;230 hence it does not appear that there was any actual war between these two states, but only that the Ætolians were received by the Eleans, and admitted to [pg 069] the rights of citizenship;231 and at the same time the same honours were permitted to the heroes and heroines of the Ætolians as to their own.232

10. The systematised tradition next makes mention of a battle which took place between the united force of Peloponnesus, under the command of Tisamenus, the grandson of Agamemnon, and the sons of Aristomachus; in which the latter were victorious, and Peloponnesus fell into their possession. According as it suits the object of the narrator, this engagement is either represented to have been both by sea and land, and to have taken place at the passage,233 or after the march through Arcadia. We may fairly suppose that it was inferred merely on probable grounds that a battle must have been fought by Tisamenus, whom the tradition represented as prince of the Achæans at the capture of Ægialea.234 Many traditions agree in stating that the Heraclidæ at that time took the road through Arcadia; Oxylus is said to have led them by this way, [pg 070] that they might not be envious of his fertile territory of Elis;235 Cresphontes is moreover stated to have been the brother-in-law of Cypselus king of Arcadia, who had his royal seat at Basilis, on the Alpheus, in the country of the Parrhasians.236

11. Next comes the division of Peloponnesus among the three brothers Temenus, Cresphontes, and Aristodamus, or his sons. We have to thank the tragedians alone for the invention and embellishment of this fable;237 that it contains little or no truth is at once evident; for it was not till long after this time that the Dorians possessed the larger part of Peloponnesus;238 and a division of lands not yet conquered is without example in Grecian history. At the same time it is related that, upon the altars whereon the brothers sacrificed to their grandfather Zeus, there was found a frog for Argos, a snake for Sparta, and a fox for Messenia. It seems however probable that these are mere symbols, by which the inventors (perhaps the hostile Athenians) [pg 071] attempted to represent the character of those nations. For it cannot be supposed that national arms or ensigns are meant; unless indeed we give credit to the pretended discovery of Fourmont, who affirms that he found in the temple of the Amyclæan Apollo a shield with the inscription of Teleclus as general (βάγος), with a snake in the middle; and another of Anaxidamus, with a snake and two foxes.239 But he has represented the shield of so extraordinary a form, with sharp ends, and indentures on the sides, that the fraud is at once open to detection; and consequently the supposition that the snake was the armorial bearing of Sparta remains entirely unfounded.240

12. Although we cannot here give a complete account of the great revolution which the irruption of the Dorians universally produced in the condition of the different races of Greece,241 it may nevertheless be remarked, that a very large portion of the Achæans, who originally came from Phthia, retired to the northern coast of Peloponnesus, and compelled the Ionians to pass over to Attica. The reduction of the principal fortress of this country, the Posidonian Helice, is ascribed to Tisamenus; and that Helice was in fact the abode of the most distinguished families of the Achæan nation is evident from the legend, that Oxylus the Ætolian, at the command of the oracle, shared the dominion [pg 072] with Agorius, a Pelopid, who was descended from Penthilus the son of Orestes, and dwelt at Helice.242 The chronological difficulty of Oxylus being called the cotemporary of a grandson of Penthilus is not of much importance. At Helice was also shown the tomb of Tisamenus, whose supposed ashes the Spartans (doubtless with the idea of thus making amends for the injustice of his expulsion) afterwards brought to their city, as they also did the corpse of Orestes at Tegea.243 But hereupon follows a series of migrations to Æolis in Asia, which was founded in later times, in which the numbers of the Achæan race predominated. Although Orestes is called a leader of the first expedition,244 he probably is only put for his descendants: Penthilus also is perhaps put only for that part of his descendants who went with the colony to Lesbos and Æolis. For all the Penthilidæ did not go; we find indeed Penthilidæ in Mitylene;245 and others at Helice, as we have just seen. Pisander, a Laconian Achæan, is also mentioned as having gone with the expedition of Orestes; and there were men of his family in Tenedos at the time of Pindar.246

Chapter IV.

1. So wonderful is the physical organization of Greece, that each of its parts has received its peculiar destination and a distinct character; it is like a body whose members are different in form, but between which a mutual connexion and dependence necessarily exists. The northern districts as far as Thessaly are the nutritive organs which from time to time introduced fresh and vigorous supplies: as we approach the south, its structure assumes a more marked and decided form, and is impressed with more peculiar features. Attica and the islands may be considered as extremities, which, as it were, served as the active instruments for the body of Greece, and by which it was kept in constant connexion with others; while Peloponnesus, on the other hand, seems formed for a state of life, occupied more with its own than external concerns, and whose interests and feelings centred in itself. As it was the extremity of Greece, there also appeared to be an end set by nature to all change of place and habitation; and hence the character of the Peloponnesians was firm, steady, and exclusive. With good reason therefore was the region where these principles predominated considered by the Greeks as the centre and acropolis247 [pg 074] of their countries; and those who possessed it were universally acknowledged to rank as first in Greece.

2. This character of Peloponnesus will become more evident, if we examine the peculiar nature of its mountain-chains. Though the Isthmus of Corinth connected the peninsula with the continent by a narrow neck of land, yet it was not traversed in its whole length by any continuous chain of mountains; the Œnean hills being entirely separated from the mountains of Peloponnesus.248 The principal elevations in Peloponnesus form very nearly a circle, the circumference of which passes over the mountains of Pholoë, Lampe, Aroanius, Cyllene, Artemisium, Parthenium, and Parnon; then over Boreum, and from thence up to the northern rise of mount Taygetus, and finally over mount Lycaon along the river Alpheus. The highest ridge appears to be that part of Cyllene which looks to Parnon: the height of Cyllene, according to the statement of Dicæarchus,249 was not quite 15 stadia; according to another measurement, it was nine stadia wanting 80 feet;250 a considerable height, when it is remembered that the sea is near, and that Peloponnesus is the last link of the great chain, which runs down from the north of Macedonia. But the eastern plains also, for instance that of Tegea, are at a great height [pg 075] above the sea, and are often covered with snow late in the spring.251 Now from the circle of mountains which has been pointed out, all the rivers of any note take their rise; and from it all the mountainous ranges diverge, which form the many headlands and points of Peloponnesus. The interior part of the country however has only one opening towards the western sea, through which all its waters flow out united in the Alpheus. The peculiar character of this inland tract is also increased by the circumstance of its being intersected by some lower secondary chains of hills, which compel the waters of the valleys nearest to the great chains either to form lakes, or to seek a vent by subterraneous passages.252 Hence it is that in the mountainous district in the north-east of Peloponnesus many streams disappear, and again emerge from the earth. This region is Arcadia; a country consisting of ridges of hills and elevated plains, and of deep and narrow valleys, with streams flowing through channels formed by precipitous rocks; a country so manifestly separated by nature from the rest of Peloponnesus, that, although not politically united, it was always considered in the light of a single community. Its climate was extremely cold; the atmosphere dense, particularly in the mountains to the north:253 the effect which this had on the character and dispositions of the inhabitants has been described in a masterly manner by Polybius, himself a native of Arcadia.

3. Laconia is formed by two mountain-chains [pg 076] running immediately from Arcadia, and enclosing the river Eurotas, whose source is separated from that of an Arcadian stream by a very trifling elevation. The Eurotas is, for some way below the city of Sparta, a rapid mountain-stream; then, after forming a cascade, it stagnates into a morass; but lower down it passes over a firm soil in a gentle and direct course.254 Near the town of Sparta rocks and hills approach the banks on both sides, and almost entirely shut in the river both above and below the town:255 this enclosed plain is without doubt the “hollow Lacedæmon” of Homer.256 Here the narrowness of the valley, and the heights of Taygetus, projecting above in a lofty parapet, increase the heat of summer, both by concentrating the sun-beams, as it were, into a focus, and by presenting a barrier to the cool sea-breezes;257 whilst in winter the cold is doubly violent. The same natural circumstances produce violent storms of rain, and the numerous mountain-torrents frequently cause inundations in the narrow valleys.258 The mountains, although running in connected chains, are yet very much interrupted; their broken and rugged forms were by the ancients attributed to earthquakes;259 one of which caused so great consternation at Sparta a short time before the war with the Helots. The country is not however destitute of plains; that indeed along the lower part of the Eurotas is one of the finest in Greece, [pg 077] stretching towards the south, and protected by mountains from the north wind: moreover, the maritime district, surrounded by rocks, from Malea to Epidaurus Limera (Malvasia), is extremely fertile.260 Nor are the valleys on the frontiers of Messenia less productive; towards the promontory of Tænarum however the soil continually becomes harder, drier, and more ferruginous. The error of supposing that this country was nearly a desert appears from the very large number of its vegetable productions mentioned by Theophrastus and others: Alcman and Theognis also celebrate its wines: vines were planted up to the very summit of mount Taygetus, and laboriously watered from fountains in forests of plane-trees;261 the country was in this respect able to provide for its own wants. But the most valuable product, in the estimation of the new inhabitants, was doubtless the iron of the mountains.262 More fortunate still was the situation of the country for purposes of defence, the interior of Laconia being only accessible from Arcadia, Argolis, and Messenia by narrow passes and mountain-roads; and the most fertile part is the least exposed to the inroads of enemies from those quarters: the want of harbours263 likewise contributes to the natural isolation of Laconia from other lands. Euripides has on the whole very successfully seized the peculiar character of the country in the following lines, and contrasted it with the more favoured territory of Messenia:264

For along the banks of the Pamisus (which, notwithstanding the shortness of its course, is one of the broadest rivers in Peloponnesus), down to the Messenian bay, there runs a large and beautiful valley, justly called Macaria, or “The Happy,” and well worth the artifice by which Cresphontes is said to have obtained it. To the north, more in the direction of Arcadia, lies the plain of Stenyclarus, surrounded by a hilly barrier. The western part of the country is more mountainous, though without any such heights as mount Taygetus; towards the river Neda, on the frontiers of Arcadia, the country assumes a character of the wildest and most romantic beauty.

4. Argolis is formed by a ridge of hills which branches from Mount Cyllene and Parthenium in Arcadia, and is connected with it by a mountain-chain, very much broken, and abounding in ravines and [pg 079] caverns (hence called Τρητὸν);265 through which runs the celebrated Contoporia,266 a road cut out, as it were, between walls of rock, connecting Argos with Corinth. By similar passes Cleonæ, Nemea, and Phlius, more to the south, and eastwards Mycenæ, Tiryns, and Epidaurus, were connected; and this natural division into many small districts had a considerable effect upon the political state of Argos. The southern part of this chain ends in a plain, at the opening of which, and near the pass just alluded to, was situated Mycenæ, and in a wider part of it the city of Argos. The nature of this anciently cultivated plain is very remarkable; it was, as is evident, gradually formed by the torrents which constantly filled up the bay between the mountains; and hence it was originally little else than fen and morass.267 Inachus, “the stream,” and Melia, the daughter of Oceanus, “the damp valley” (where ash-trees, μελίαι, grow), were called the parents of the ancient Argives; and the epithet “thirsty” (πολυδίψιον Ἄργος), which is applied to Argos in ancient poems, refers only to the scarcity of spring-water in the neighbourhood of the town. Yet, notwithstanding the rugged nature of the rest of Argolis, there are, both in the interior and near the sea, here and there, small plains, which by the fertility of their soil attract and encourage the husbandman; the south-eastern coast slopes regularly down to the sea. To the north of the mountain-ridge which bounded Argolis, extending from the Isthmus [pg 080] as far as a narrow pass on the boundaries of Achaia, there is a beautiful, and in ancient times highly-celebrated plain, in which Corinth and Sicyon were situated.268 With respect to the progress of civilization at Argos, it is important to know that the mountains between that town and Corinth contain copper:269 accordingly, in the former town the forging of metals appears to have been early introduced; and hence arose the ancient celebrity of the Argive shields.270 But no precious metal has been ever found in any part of Peloponnesus: a circumstance which greatly tended to direct the attention of its inhabitants to agriculture and war, rather than commerce and manufactures.

5. That region which was in later times called Achaia, is only a narrow tract of land along the coast, lying upon the slope of the northern mountain-range of Arcadia. Hence most of the Achæan cities are situated on hills above the sea, and some few in enclosed valleys. The sources of the numerous streams by which the country is watered lie almost without exception in Arcadia, whose frontiers here reach beyond the water-line.

But the lowest slope of Peloponnesus, and the most gradual inclination to the sea, is on the western side; and it is in this quarter that we find the largest extent of champaign country in the peninsula, which, being surrounded by the chain beginning from mounts Scollis and Pholoë, was hence called the Hollow Elis. It was a most happy circumstance that these wide [pg 081] plains enjoyed an almost uninterrupted state of peace. Towards the coast the soil becomes sandy; a broad line of sand stretches along the sea nearly as far as the Triphylian Pylos, which from this circumstance is so frequently spoken of by Homer as “the sandy.”271 As this tract of country is very little raised above the level of the sea, a number of small lakes or lagoons have been formed, which extend along the greatest part of the coast, and are sometimes connected with one another, sometimes with the sea. Such being the nature of the country, the river Alpheus runs gently between low chains of hills and through small valleys into the sea. Towards the south the country becomes more mountainous, and approaches more to the character of Arcadia.

6. If now we picture to ourselves this singular country before the improvements of art and agriculture, it presents to the mind a very extraordinary appearance. The waters of Arcadia are evidently more calculated to fill up the deep ravines and hollows of that country, or to produce irregular inundations, than to fertilise the soil by quiet and gentle streams. The valleys of Stymphalus, Pheneus, Orchomenus, and Caphyæ in Arcadia required canals, dams, &c., before they could be used for the purposes of husbandry. One part of the plain of Argos was carefully drained, in order to prevent it becoming a part of the marshes of Lerna. In the lower part of the course of the Eurotas it was necessary to use some artificial means for confining the river: and that this care was at some time bestowed on it, is evident from the remains of quays,272 which give to the river the appearance [pg 082] of a canal. The ancient Nestorian Pylus was situated on a river (Anigrus), which even now, when it overflows, makes the country a very unhealthy place of residence; and no traveller can pass a night at Lerna without danger. Thus in many parts of Peloponnesus it was necessary, not merely for the use of the soil, but even for the sake of health and safety, to regulate nature by the exertions of art. At the present time, from the inactivity of the natives, the inevitable consequence of oppression, so bad an atmosphere prevails in some parts of the country, that, instead of producing, as formerly, a vigorous and healthy race, one sickly generation follows another to the grave. And that improvements of this kind were begun in the earliest periods, is evident from the fact, that the traces of primitive cities are discovered in those very valleys which had most need of human labour.273 This induction is also confirmed by the evidence of many traditions. The scanty accounts respecting the earliest times of Sparta relate, that Myles, the son of the earth-born Lelex, built mills, and ground corn at Alesiæ; and that he had a son named Eurotas, who conducted the water stagnating in the level plain into the sea by a canal, which was afterwards called by his name.274 Indeed the situation of Sparta seems to imply that the standing water was first drained off:275 nay, even in later times, it was possible, by stopping the course of the river, to lay most of the country between Sparta and the opposite heights under water.276

7. The consideration of these natural circumstances and traditions obliges us to suppose that the races which were looked on as the ancient inhabitants of Peloponnesus (the Pelasgians in the east and north, and the Leleges in the south and west) were the first who brought the land to that state of cultivation in which it afterwards remained in this and other parts of Greece. And perhaps it was these two nations alone to whom the care of husbandry, cattle, and everything connected with the products of the soil, belonged through all times and changes. For, in the first place, the numbers of the invading Achæans, Ionians, and afterwards of the Dorians, were very inconsiderable, as compared with the whole population of Peloponnesus; and, secondly, these races conquered the people as well as the country, and enjoyed an independent and easy life by retaining both in their possession: so that, whatever tribe might obtain the sovereign power, the former nations always constituted the mass of the population. By means of these usurpations agriculture was kept in a constant state of dependence and obscurity, so that we seldom hear of the improvement of the country, which is a necessary part of the husbandman's business. Agriculture was, however, always followed with great energy and success. For in the time of the Peloponnesian war, when the population of Peloponnesus must have been very great, it produced more corn than it consumed, and there was a constant export from Laconia and Arcadia downwards to the coast of Corinth.277

8. It is not with a view of founding any calculation upon them, but merely of giving a general idea of the numerical force of a Greek tribe (which many would [pg 084] suppose to be a large nation), that I offer the following remarks. At the flourishing period of the Doric power, about the time of the Persian war, Sparta, which had then conquered Messenia, contained 8000 families, Argos above 6000; while in Sicyon, Corinth, Phlius, Epidaurus, and Ægina, the Dorians were not so numerous, the constitution being even more oligarchical in those states. Although in the colonies, where they were less confined by want of sufficient space, and by the severity of the laws, the inhabitants multiplied very rapidly, yet the number of original colonists, as many of them as were Dorians, was very small. Now since in the states of Peloponnesus, even after they had been firmly established, the number of inhabitants, particularly of Dorians, never, from several causes, much increased,278 it seems probable that at the time of their first irruption the whole number of their males was not above 20,000.279 Nor were the earlier settlements of Achæans and Ionians more considerable. For the Ionians, as is evident from their traditions, appear as a military race in Attica, and probably formed, though perhaps together with many families of a different origin, one, and certainly the least, of four tribes (the ὅπλητες280). The arrival of the Achæans is represented in ancient traditions in the following simple manner: “Archander and Architeles, the sons of Achæus, having been driven from Phthiotis, came to Argos and Lacedæmon.”281 Their names signify “the ruler,” and “the chief governor.” [pg 085] Certainly the Achæans did not come to till the ground; as is also evident from the fact that, when dislodged by the Dorians, and driven to the northern coast, they took possession of Patræ, dwelt only in the town, and did not disperse themselves into the smaller villages.282

It seems pretty certain that the Dorians migrated together with their wives and children. The Spartans would not have bestowed so much attention as they did on women of a different race; and all the domestic institutions of the Dorians would have been formed in a manner very unlike that which really obtained. This circumstance alone completely distinguishes the migration of the Dorians from that of the Ionians, who having, according to Herodotus, sailed from Attica without any women, took native Carian women for wives, or rather for slaves, who, according to the same writer, did not even dare to address their husbands by their proper names. And this was probably the case with all the early settlements beyond the sea, since the form of the ancient Greek galley hardly admitted of the transport of women.

9. It would have been less difficult to explain by what superiority the Dorians conquered Peloponnesus, had they gained it in open battle. For, since it appears, that Homer describes the mode of combat in use among the ancient Achæans, the method of fighting with lines of heavy armed men, drawn up in close and regular order, must have been introduced into Peloponnesus by the Dorians; amongst whom Tyrtæus describes it as established. And it is evident that the chariots and darts of the Homeric heroes could never have prevailed against the charge of a deep and compact body armed with long lances. But it is more difficult still to comprehend [pg 086] how the Dorians could have entered those inaccessible fortifications, of which Peloponnesus was full; since their nation never was skilful in the art of besieging, and main force was here of no avail. How, I ask, did they storm the citadel of Acro-Corinthus, that Gibraltar of Peloponnesus?283 how the Argive Larissa, and similar fortresses? On these points, however, some accounts have been preserved with regard to the conquest of Argos and Corinth, which, from their agreement with each other, and with the circumstances of the places, must pass as credible historical memorials. From these we learn that the Dorians always endeavoured to fortify some post at a short distance from the ancient stronghold; and from thence ravaged the country by constant incursions, and, kept up this system of vexation and petty attack, until the defenders either hazarded a battle, or surrendered their city. Thus at a late period the places were still shown from whence Temenus and Aletes had carried on contests of this nature with success.284 And even in historical times this mode of waging war in an enemy's country (called ἐπιτειχισμὸς τῃ χώρᾳ) was not unfrequently employed against places, which could not be directly attacked.285

Chapter V.

1. Before the time of the Dorians, Mycenæ, situated in the higher part of the plain at the extremity of the mountain-chain, had doubtless been the most important and distinguished place in Argolis; and Argos, although the seat of the earliest civilization was dependent upon and inferior to it. At Mycenæ were the Cyclopian hall of Eurystheus,286 and the sumptuous palace of Agamemnon; and though, as Thucydides correctly says, the fortified town was of inconsiderable extent, yet it abounded with stupendous and richly-carved monuments, whose semi-barbarous but artificial splendour formed a striking contrast with the unornamented and simple style introduced after the Doric period.287 The Doric conquerors, on the other hand, did not commence their operations upon fortresses secured alike by nature and art, but advanced [pg 088] into the interior from the coast. For near the sea between Lerna and Nauplia, on the mouth of the Phrixus,288 there was a fortified place named Temenium, from which Temenus the son of Aristomachus, together with the Dorians, carried on a war with Tisamenus and the Achæans, and probably harassed them by repeated incursions, until they were obliged to hazard an open battle. From thence the Dorians, after severe struggles, made themselves masters of the town of Argos.289 It is related in an isolated tradition, that Ergiæus, a descendant of Diomed, stole and gave to Temenus the Palladium brought by his ancestor from Troy to Argos, which immediately occasioned the surrender of the city.290 Argos was therefore supposed to have been taken by Temenus himself.

2. The further extension of the Doric power is, however, attributed not to Temenus, but to his sons; for such the Doric tradition calls Ceisus, Cerynes, Phalces, and Agræus or Agæus.291 Of these, Ceisus is represented to have governed at Argos, and Phalces to have gone to Sicyon. The ancient Meconè or Sicyon had in early times been in the power of the Ionians, and afterwards subject to the Achæans of Argos. The very copious mythology of this ancient [pg 089] city contains symbolical and historical elements of the most various nature: we will only touch upon a part of the story immediately preceding the Doric invasion. Phæstus, a son of Hercules, is stated to have been king of Argos before that event; and having gone to Crete, where he founded the town of his name,292 to have been succeeded by his descendants Rhopalus, Hippolytus, and Lacestades, the last of whom lived on terms of friendship with Phalces. Between them, however, Zeuxippus, a son of Apollo and of the nymph Hyllis,293 is placed. We here perceive the traces of a connexion between Phæstus in Crete, and the introduction of the worship of Apollo and Hercules; this tradition, however, cannot authorise us to draw any chronological inferences.

3. Whether Phlius (situated in a corner of Arcadia, in a beautiful valley, whence arise the four sources of the Asopus294) was founded from Sicyon or Argos, was a matter of contention between these two towns: the latter simply called Phlias the son of Ceisus.295 This Phlias, however, is nothing else than the country personified; the name being derived from φλέω or φλιδάω, and signifying “damp,” or “abounding in springs,” which appellation was fully merited by the nature of the spot. Hence Phlias was with more reason called the son of Dionysus (Φλεὺς, Φλεὼν), who loved to dwell in such valleys. There is, therefore, greater probability in the account of the Sicyonians, that Phalces and Rhegnidas were the founders of the Doric [pg 090] dominion;296 it being moreover easier to force a way to Phliasia from Sicyon along the Asopus, than from Argos. It is known, that Pythagoras the Samian derived his origin from a certain Hippasus, who had quitted Phlius on that occasion; and the Ionic town of Clazomenæ is said to have been partly founded by some inhabitants of Cleonæ and Phliasia, who had been expelled by the Dorians;297 from which two facts we are justified in inferring the existence of a connexion between the early inhabitants of these places and the Ionians. Cleonæ, situated in a narrow valley, where the mountains open towards Corinth, and bordering upon Phlius, appears from this account to have been colonised at the same time with that town, but probably from Argos. For we find that the ruling power was there in the hands of the same Heraclide family, of which a branch went from Argos to Epidaurus.298

4. The Acte (as the northern coast of Argolis, over against Attica, was called)299 was reduced, according to the account of Ephorus, by Deiphontes and Agæus.300 The former of these, who was called a descendant [pg 091] of Ctesippus, and son-in-law of Temenus, and whose fortunes afforded materials for the tragic poets, made himself master of the town of Epidaurus, and dislodged the Ionians from thence: these latter, under the command of their king Pityreus, crossed over to Attica, whence the king's son Procles went subsequently, at the general Ionic migration, to Samos.301 Of the Dorians of Epidaurus, however, a part under the conduct of Triacon withdrew to Ægina,302 in which place Hellenes of Thessaly had formerly ruled, and united the island and mother-state into one commonwealth, with equal rights, and the same magistrates. Now since besides Epidaurus, Trœzen alone belonged to the Actè, and since both Agæus and Deiphontes are mentioned as the Dorian colonisers of this coast, it was probably this Agæus who brought Trœzen under the rule of the Dorians.303 In this city, too, he must have encountered some Ionians; since both the mythical genealogies and religious rites of the ancient Trœzen attest a close connexion between its earlier inhabitants and the Athenians.304 For Trœzen even shared with the Ionic cities in the peculiar worship of the Apaturian Athene, as the goddess of phratriæ and gentes;305 as also in that of Poseidon and his son Theseus.

5. The accounts already given show that Sicyon, [pg 092] Phlius, Cleonæ, Epidaurus, Trœzen, and Ægina received their share of Doric inhabitants either mediately or immediately from Argos. We can only regret the want of any accurate accounts respecting Mycenæ and Tiryns; the conquest of which cities must have been most difficult; but, when accomplished, decisive for the sovereignty of the Dorians. Pindar306 considers the expulsion of the Achæan Danai from the gulf of Argos, and from Mycenæ, as identical with the expedition of the Heraclidæ; and Strabo states that the Argives united Mycenæ with themselves.307 Nevertheless we find that in the Persian war Mycenæ and Tiryns were still independent states, and it admits of a doubt whether they had previously belonged for any length of time to Argos. That some ancient inhabitants at least still maintained themselves in the mountains above Argos, is shown by the instance of the Orneatæ. The inhabitants of Orneæ, a town on the mountainous frontier of Mantinea, having long been hostile to the Dorians, and at war with the Sicyonians,308 were at length overpowered by Argos, and degraded to the state of periœci.309 Now, since it is more probable that such a proceeding took place against the people of a different race, than against a colony of Argos, and also as there is nowhere any mention of a Doric settlement at Orneæ, it is evident that the inhabitants of Orneæ had up to that time been either Achæans or Arcadians.

6. Although from the foregoing accounts it appears that Argos almost entirely lost its power over the towns which it had been the means of bringing under the rule of the Dorians, yet in early times there existed certain [pg 093] obligations on the part of these cities towards Argos, which at a later period became mere forms. There was in Argos, upon the Larissa, a temple of Apollo Pythaëus, which had probably been erected soon after the invasion of the Dorians, as a sanctuary of the national deity who had led them into the country. It was a temple common to all the surrounding district, though belonging more particularly to the Argives.310 The Epidaurians were bound at certain seasons to send sacrifices to it.311 The Dryopians in early times, and afterwards also, in their character of Craugallidæ, or servants of the Delphian god, had at Asine and Hermione erected temples to Apollo Pythaëus, in acknowledgment of a similar dependence; and this was the only one spared by the Argives at the destruction of the former town.312

7. The fragments preserved respecting the ancient history of the Dryopians having been collected in a previous chapter,313 we shall here only remark that this people possessed a considerable district in the most southern part of Argolis, the boundaries of which, so long as they remained inviolate, were defined by two points, viz. the temple of Demeter Thermesia on the frontier between Hermione and Trœzen, eighty stadia from Cape Scyllæum, and a hill between Asine, Epidaurus, and Trœzen,314 and they may still be pointed out with tolerable certainty. Hercules, who, according to the Doric tradition, brought the Dryopians hither, had [pg 094] accurately marked out these boundaries. It is, however, also related that the Dryopians established themselves beyond these limits at Nemea315 in Argolis: this, however, as well as Olympia, was not any particular town, but merely the name of a valley, and particularly of a temple of Zeus there situated.

8. The history of the establishment of Corinth, though marvellous and obscure, contains nevertheless some historical traces by no means unworthy of remark. In the first place, it is stated that this town did not receive its inhabitants from Argos. The purport of the tradition is as follows: “When Hippotes at the time of the passage of the Dorians from Naupactus slew the soothsayer, he was banished (according to Apollodorus for ten years),316 during which time he led a roaming and predatory life;”317 whence his son was called Ἀλήτης, or the Wanderer.318 It is also recorded in the fragment of a tradition319 that Hippotes, when crossing the Melian gulf, imprecated against those who wished to remain behind, “That their vessels might be leaky, and themselves the slaves of their wives.” In like manner his son Aletes passed through the territory at that time called Ephyra, where he received from scorn a clod of earth;320 which in the ancient oracular language was a symbol of sovereignty.321 [pg 095] We might almost guess from these traditions that the Dorian warriors had harassed, and at length subdued the ancient Ephyreans, by ravaging their lands, and by repeated invasions. This is confirmed by the very credible account of Thucydides relating to this point.322 There was in the mountainous country, about sixty stadia from Corinth, and twelve from the Saronic gulf, a hill called Solygius, of which the Dorians had once taken possession for the purpose of making war against the Æolian inhabitants of Corinth. This hill was, however (at least in the time of Thucydides), entirely unfortified. Here we may recognise the very same method of waging war as in the account of Temenus given above, a method which in the Peloponnesian war was adopted by the Spartans at the fortifying of Decelea. Again, it is related in a tradition connected with the Hellotian festival, that at the taking of Corinth the Dorians set fire to the town, and even to the temple of Athene, in which the women had taken refuge.323 In another it is stated that Aletes, being advised by an oracle to attack the city on a “crowned day,” took it during a great funeral solemnity by the treachery of the youngest daughter of Creon: these, however, are for the most part mere attempts at an historical interpretation of ancient festival ceremonies. As Aletes (according to his genealogy) lived one generation after the conquerors of Peloponnesus, the capture of Corinth was dated thirty years after the expedition of the Heraclidæ;324 whence probably also arose the error of [pg 096] supposing that there had previously been Dorians at Corinth; as it was supposed that the Dorians had obtained their whole dominion over Peloponnesus at one time, by one expedition. The city appears to have received the name of Corinth at this time, instead of its former one of Ephyra;325 and it seems that the Dorians called it with a certain preference “The Corinth of Zeus;” although ancient interpreters have in vain laboured to give a satisfactory explanation of this name.

9. The early inhabitants of Corinth were, according to the expression of Thucydides,326 Æolians; and their traditions and religion show that they were very nearly connected with the Minyans of Iolcus and Orchomenus.327 Their kings were the Sisyphidæ, whose genealogy closes with Hyantidas and Doridas. We find in the last name the same confusion which has been pointed out (amongst others) in the legend of Thessalus the son of Jason,328 viz., that the arrival of a different nation was expressed by connecting the new comers genealogically with the heroes of the ruling race. Thus Doridas, i.e. the Dorians in a patronymic form, is the descendant of Sisyphus. Here begins the sovereignty of the Dorians; who, however, did not, as Pausanias329 states, altogether expel the ancient inhabitants, but formed the aristocratic class of the new state. Pindar and Callimachus, indeed, call the whole Corinthian nation Aletiadæ330 but merely by a poetical license; the only lineal descendants of Aletes being the [pg 097] ruling house, the Bacchiadæ, from which for a long time were taken the kings and Prytanes of Corinth and all its colonies. There were, however, at Corinth distinguished families of a different origin. The family of Cypselus, which afterwards obtained possession of the tyranny, was, according to Herodotus, of the blood of the Lapithæ, and descended from Cæneus.331 They came, according to Pausanias, from Gonusa, near Sicyon, to assist the Dorians against Corinth:332 Aletes, however, at the advice of an oracle, at first refused to receive them, but presently admitted them into the city, where they afterwards overthrew his own descendants. We shall allow this narrative, which contains a post eventum prophecy of the tyranny of the Cypselidæ, to rest on its own merits, remarking only that the Cænidæ had more reason to assist the ancient Æolians than the Dorians; and shall merely infer from it the existence of distinguished families in Corinth not of Doric descent.

10. As in this chapter we have hitherto rather followed a geographical than a chronological arrangement, we will now pass to the founding of Megara.333 That event is represented by the ancient tradition as connected with the expedition of the Peloponnesians against Athens;334 which is doubtless a correct statement, since Megara had before that epoch been closely united with Attica, and comprehended in Ionia. This [pg 098] expedition was, according to most authors, undertaken by the whole Peloponnesus; by some, however, the Corinthians are called the real authors of it, and Aletes the leader, Althæmenes of Argos, the son of Ceisus, being nevertheless joined with him. The defeat of the Doric invaders, by the voluntary sacrifice of Codrus, has been a favourite subject both with poets and rhetoricians.335 It is sufficient for our purpose to oppose to this celebrated legend an obscure tradition that some Athenians, whom Lycophron calls Codri, had a share in the expedition of the Heraclidæ.336 Whether or not the Ionians and Dorians met at the borders on this occasion, thus much is certain, that Megara in consequence of this invasion became a Doric town, and indeed soon afterwards a Corinthian colony.337 It also remained for some time in complete dependence on Corinth, as Ægina upon Epidaurus; in proof of which it is mentioned that the Megarians were bound to mourn for every death that occurred in the family of the Bacchiadæ at Corinth.338 When, however, the internal strength of Megara increased, it ventured to dissolve this connexion, and, in defiance of the Corinth of Zeus, to rout the Corinthians in the field.339 The [pg 099] border-wars of the Megarians and Corinthians were carried on without intermission.340 Megara appears not to have raised itself to the situation of a ruling city till after it had obtained its independence; since in earlier times it had been one of the five hamlets (κῶμαι) into which the country was divided, viz. the Heræans, Piræans, Megarians, Cynosyrians, and Tripodiscians.341 These small communities also waged war with each other, but with a singular lenity, of which some almost marvellous accounts have been preserved; the conquerors carried their prisoners home, treated them as guests and companions, who were hence called δορύξενοι, in opposition to δορυάλωτοι.

11. We now turn to Laconia, which, according to the above-mentioned legend concerning the division of Peloponnesus, fell to the share of Aristodemus or his sons.342 According to the common tradition (which was derived from the epic poets343) the twin brothers [pg 100] Eurysthenes and Procles344 took possession of Sparta after the death of their father; whereas the national tradition of Sparta, as Herodotus informs us, represented Aristodemus himself as having been the first ruler,345 and the double dominion of his children as not having been settled till after his death; the first-born, however, enjoying a certain degree of precedence.346 This is, indeed, contradicted by the account of Thucydides,347 who mentions as a Lacedæmonian tradition, that the kings who first took possession of Lacedæmon (i.e. Eurysthenes and Procles) were conducted thither with dances and sacrifices, an honour which at the command of the Delphian oracle was afterwards given to Pleistoanax at his restoration. This variation, however, is perhaps merely the effect of a pardonable negligence in the author.

12. It is, however, far more difficult to ascertain what was the condition of Laconia immediately after the invasion of the Dorians. For it is plain that the history, as it was arranged by Ephorus, and derived from him to other authors, is in contradiction with many isolated traditions, but which for that very reason are of the greater importance. So far, indeed, from the whole of the Laconian territory immediately [pg 101] falling into the hands of the Dorians,348 it is certain that a powerful fortress of the ancient Achæans, at a short distance from Sparta itself, held out for nearly three centuries after the Doric invasion.

There was a saying, well known in antiquity, of the “silent Amyclæ;” thus called because its citizens had been so often alarmed by the report of the enemy coming, that they at last made a law that no one should give tidings of the enemy's approach; in consequence of which the town was at length taken.349 This proverb, and the story on which it was founded, prove the existence of a long and determined contest between the two neighbouring cities. They also confirm the account of Pausanias, that the Dorians in the reign of Teleclus built a temple350 to Zeus Tropæus, because they had at length, after a tedious and severe struggle, overcome the Achæans of Amyclæ and taken their city. This city of Amyclæ, one of the most ancient and considerable in Peloponnesus, of which there still remains a fort situated upon a rock on the side of mount Taygetus, was therefore so far from being reduced by the Spartans immediately, that it held out until the reign of Teleclus, 278 years after the invasion, a short time before the first Messenian war; and [pg 102] then was only taken after a tedious contest, which, from the proximity of Amyclæ and Sparta, must have been very dangerous to the latter city. Now it is not possible that before this victory Amyclæ and Sparta, distant only 20 stadia (2-1/2 miles) from each other, should have been engaged in constant war, as it must have soon ended in the destruction of one or the other city: their truces and armistices were, however, doubtless interrupted frequently by sudden incursions. The important territory near mount Taygetus belonged at that time to Amyclæ, and all this country was still in the possession of the Achæans, with whom some Minyans from Lemnos, and Cadmean Greeks, known by the name of Ægidæ, had united themselves. This is the territory from which the colonies of Thera, Melos, and Gortyna proceeded; so, according to Pindar, Amyclæ was the point from which the first colonies to Lesbos and Tenedos set out, and also (as may be inferred from other notices) those Achæans who took possession of Patræ.351

Sparta, on the other hand, must have been of very slight importance before the Doric migration; by which event alone it was enabled to become the ruler of all the surrounding states. For, in the first place, Sparta was not built in the same manner as Mycenæ, Tiryns, and other ruling cities founded before the Doric invasion; the Acropolis is a hill of inconsiderable height, and easy of ascent, without any trace of ancient fortifications or walls. Secondly, it is remarkably deficient in monuments and local memorials of the times of the Pelopidæ and other mythical princes; much as the Spartans in other instances clung to traditions [pg 103] and records of this kind: while Amyclæ and Therapne had these in great abundance. Amyclæ, in a beautiful and well-wooded country,352 was the abode of Tyndareus and his family; here were the tombs of Cassandra and Agamemnon, who, according to a native tradition (preserved by Stesichorus and Simonides),353 ruled in this city. At no great distance was situated the town of Therapne. Alcman calls it the “well-fortified Therapne;”354 Pindar mentions its high situation;355 by which they clearly imply a position and fortification similar to that of Tiryns. The latter also calls it the ancient metropolis of the Achæans, amongst whom the Dioscuri lived; here were the subterraneous cemeteries of Castor and Pollux,356 vaulted, perhaps, in the ancient manner; here also the temples of the Brothers and of Helen in the Phœbæum, and many remains of the ancient symbolical religion.357 It is also very remarkable, that on the banks of the Eurotas, in the district between Therapne and Amyclæ, there should have been discovered a building358 which resembles the well-known treasury at Mycenæ, and [pg 104] which affords a certain proof that the dominion of the Pelopidæ extended to this district.

But although the local traditions make it probable that the ante-Doric rulers of the country dwelt in Amyclæ and Therapne, yet Homer describes Sparta as the residence of the Pelopidæ, transferring, apparently, the circumstances of his own time to an earlier period. Homer sometimes calls Lacedæmon the abode of Menelaus; by Lacedæmon meaning the entire country, and especially the valley round Sparta, which agrees far better with the epithet of “hollow Lacedæmon,” than the district of Amyclæ, which opens down to the sea.359 Sometimes he expressly mentions Sparta as the city in which Menelaus has fixed his abode.360

13. Amyclæ, however, is not the only Achæan city which was not reduced by the Dorians till a late period. Ægys, on the frontiers of Arcadia, is said to have been taken from the Achæans by Archelaus and Charilaus a short time before Lycurgus; Pharis, together with Geronthræ, by Teleclus;361 and Helos in the plains, near the mouth of the Eurotas, by Alcamenes, the son of Teleclus.362 So long as these places belonged to the Achæans, the Spartans were shut out from the sea, and surrounded on all sides by the possessions of a different race. It appears, however, that other places besides Sparta were held by the Dorians themselves [pg 105] previously to their obtaining possession of the whole of Laconia; such were, for instance, Bœæ near Malea,363 and perhaps also Abia on the confines of Messenia.364 But of the numerous contests which doubtless took place at this period, little information has come down to us, as they just lie between the provinces of mythology and history.

Thus much, however, we may with safety say, that Ephorus is clearly in error when he mentions a division of Laconia made by the Dorians, immediately after their conquest, for the sake of an undisturbed dominion over the country.365 The same historian further states that “Sparta was reserved by the Dorians as the seat of their own empire; that Amyclæ366 was granted to Philonomus, who had delivered the country to them by treachery, and that governors were sent into the other four divisions.” Also, that “the principal towns of these four provinces were Las, Epidaurus Limera (or Gytheium), Ægys, and Pharis; of which the first served as the citadel of Laconia,367 the second as an excellent harbour, the third as a convenient arsenal for the wars with Arcadia, and the fourth as an internal point of union. That the periœci dwelt in these towns, and were [pg 106] dependent upon the Spartans, though without losing their freedom.” This account doubtless suited the historical style of Ephorus; but it does not agree with the isolated but genuine traditions already mentioned.

The division into six provinces is nevertheless, in my opinion, to be considered as an historical fact; only the arrangement could not have been made till a much later period. Of these provinces, the first comprehended the district of the city; the second, the mountain-chain of Taygetus, with the western coast; the third, the Laconian gulf; the fourth, perhaps the modern Zaconia, on the eastern side of the Eurotas; the fifth, the northern frontier; and the sixth, the lower valley of the Eurotas. The reality of such a division is also confirmed by the existence of a similar one in Messenia; which is spoken of by other writers besides Ephorus.368 For this country is also said to have been divided by Cresphontes, so that Stenyclarus was the habitation of the Dorians and their king, under whose authority were placed the Messenian districts of Pylos, Rhium, Mesola, and Hyamia; of these, Pylos apparently comprehended the whole western coast; Rhium is the promontory of Methone and the neighbouring southern coast; Hyamia may perhaps be the shore of the Messenian bay nearest to the frontiers of Laconia; [pg 107] Mesola signifies the midland district369 near the Pamisus; and Stenyclarus is the northern plain of Messenia.

14. We have now another instance of the arbitrary manner in which Ephorus composed his history by probable arguments. He proceeds upon the fact that Eurysthenes and Procles, although the founders of Sparta, were not honoured as such (as ἀρχηγέται), that they did not enjoy any divine honour, did not give their name to any tribe, &c. (Now the very first of these statements is false; for Eurysthenes and Procles, according to the native tradition, were not the founders of Sparta, as was shown above.) Hence Ephorus infers that they must have offended the Dorians; and he finds the cause of this offence in the adoption of foreign citizens, through whose assistance they had extended their power. This instance is a sufficient justification for our rejecting the historical system of Ephorus, and neglecting the results which he obtained by it.

There must have been many stories concerning Eurysthenes and Procles current in ancient times which have not come down to us. There was a general tradition of their continual discord; and we know that the military fame of Procles was as great as that of Eurysthenes was insignificant.370 There is, however, something peculiarly worthy of notice in an incidental remark of Cicero,371 that Procles died a year before Eurysthenes. Could there have been chronicles of so early a period, or is it possible that tradition [pg 108] should preserve such precise dates? It is also a remarkable statement that the wives of both kings were likewise twin sisters, Lathria and Anaxandra by name, daughters of Thersander king of the Cleonæans, whose descent we mentioned above.372 Some great heroic actions of Soüs373 (the “violent”), the son of Procles, were also celebrated in Sparta.374 It was even said that he had carried on war against the Cleitorians; and it was related, that in the narrow valley of Cleitor, when surrounded by enemies, and oppressed by intolerable thirst, he promised to give up all his conquests, on the condition of himself and his army being allowed to drink from the fountain: that upon this he offered the crown to any one who would abstain from drinking, but, no one being willing to gain it at this price, he moistened himself with water from the fountain, and departed without drinking.375 But a Spartan king would hardly have ventured, even some centuries afterwards, to lead an army through the hostile territory of Arcadia, to a place at so considerable a distance as Cleitor, leaving behind so many hollow defiles, ravines, and mountains.

15. In the country which from this time forth obtained the name of Messenia,376 Pylos was before the Doric migration the most important town, whither the family of the Nelidæ had retired from the Triphylian territory.377 The Dorians under Cresphontes378 [pg 109] at first seated themselves in the opposite part of the country, at Stenyclarus, in the midland region; they must however have soon pressed so closely upon Pylos, that part of the inhabitants was forced to emigrate. For that many of the noble families, both at Athens and in Asia Minor, came originally from Pylos, is placed out of doubt by the agreement of many national and family traditions; and it is equally certain that they did not leave Peloponnesus long before the Ionic migration. Mimnermus, the most ancient witness to this fact, says that the founders of his native city Colophon came from the Nelean Pylos;379 i.e., he calls Andræmon, the founder of Colophon, a Pylian; where it almost seems that the poet meant a direct migration from that place. Pylos however (though it is generally considered to have been in the possession of the Dorians from this epoch) probably remained for some time an independent town, with a limited territory; even in the second Messenian war some Nestoridæ went as allies to the Messenians;380 and, after the defeat of the Messenians, the Pylians and the Methonæans were able to harbour them for a considerable time.381

16. Of the internal condition of Messenia we cannot even know so much as of that of Laconia, since, at the cessation of its political existence, its monuments, and even its inhabitants, perished; and thus all means of perpetuating a knowledge of its former state were [pg 110] entirely lost. Yet, setting aside the accounts of Ephorus, there remain some very simple circumstances from which we may form an idea of the condition of the country. It is related, that when Cresphontes was treacherously assassinated, the Arcadians, in conjunction with the kings of Sparta and Ceisus king of Argos, re-established in his place his son Æpytus,382 who had been brought up with Cypselus the Arcadian, the father of his mother Merope,383 and who rendered himself so celebrated, that all his descendants were called Æpytidæ. The name of Æpytus is evidently connected with Æpytis, a district on the frontiers of Arcadia and Messenia, near the ancient Andania, the earliest seat of civilization and religious worship in the country. The names of his descendants, Glaucus, Isthmius, Dotades, Sybotas (swine-herd), Phintas (or Φιλητὴς), are in remarkable contrast with those of the Lacedæmonian kings, as Eurysthenes (widely-ruling), Procles (the renowned), Agis (the general), Soüs (the violent), Echestratus (the general), Eurypon (the widely-reigning), Labotas (shepherd of the people), and so forth; for, whilst the latter signify powerful warrior princes, there sounds in the former something peaceable and pastoral. What Pausanias relates of these Messenian princes refers [pg 111] almost exclusively to a peaceful office—viz., the establishment of festivals; the gods also to whom they were consecrated agree with the same general character. Glaucus and Isthmius, we are told, established or promoted the worship of Æsculapius at Gerenia and Pharæ: Sybotas joined to the ancient worship of the great gods at Andania the funeral sacrifices of the hero Eurytus, brought over from the Thessalian to the Messenian Œchalia; and others in the same manner. In fact this Cabirian worship of Demeter at Andania, allied to that prevalent in Attica at Eleusis and Phyla, was one of the most ancient in Peloponnesus, and at that time flourished in Messenia;384 whereas, according to Herodotus, the Dorians everywhere exterminated the ancient rites of Demeter.385 Hence also the mystical consecration of Andania was discontinued as long as Messenia was governed by the Spartans, and it fell into oblivion, until many centuries afterwards Epaminondas solemnly re-established it, either from the mere recollection of the inhabitants, or, if the account be true, upon the authority of an inscription on a tin plate found in a brazen urn, containing some obscure words referring to ancient mystic ceremonies.386

The re-establishment of Æpytus may, however, have been effected by the threefold alliance of both the princes and nations of Argos, Sparta, and Messenia, by which they guaranteed their respective rights, an alliance of which Plato has preserved a faint, though [pg 112] undoubted trace, marked out in the spirit of his political philosophy.387

From the settlements of the Dorians within Peloponnesus, we now turn to those without that peninsula.

Chapter VI.

1. On account of the multiplicity of subjects which it will be now necessary to consider, we shall be compelled to shorten the discussion of several points, and to take for granted many collateral questions, except where we may be encouraged to enter into greater detail by the hope of disclosing fresh fields for the inquiries of others.

It will be the most convenient method to make the mother-states the basis of our arrangement, as these are known with far greater certainty than the dates of the foundation of their respective colonies; by which means we shall also be enabled to take in a regular order those settlements which lie near to, and were connected with, one another.

First, the colonies of Argos, Epidaurus, and Trœzen. We will treat of these together, as they all lie in the same direction, and as the colonies of [pg 113] the two last states more or less recognised the supremacy of Argos, and not unfrequently followed a common leader. These extend as far as the southern extremity of Asia Minor.

The Dorians on the south-western coast of Asia Minor derived their origin, according to Herodotus,388 from Peloponnesus. And indeed they were generally considered a colony of Argos389 (from which state Strabo derives Rhodes, Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Cos), led by princes of the Heraclidæ, from whom the noble families of Rhodes—for example, the Eratidæ or Diagoridæ at Ialysus—claimed to be descended.390 This emigration was considered contemporary, and as having some connexion with the expedition of Althæmenes, the son of Ceisus, from Argos to Crete.391 Now we know from Herodotus392 that the Coans, Calydnians, and Nisyrians came from Epidaurus; [pg 114] yet, as is evident from arguments already brought forward, two different expeditions cannot be understood to have taken place. Thus also Ægina was called a colony of Argos as well as of Epidaurus. The account of Herodotus is confirmed by the similarity of the worship of Æsculapius at Cos and at Epidaurus, which was sufficiently great to prove a colonial connexion.393 We have also a tradition of some sacred missions between Cos and Epidaurus; a ship of the latter is said to have brought a serpent of Æsculapius to the former state.394 If this is considered as an historical fact, we may, as it appears, deduce more from it than is commonly inferred—viz. that the Doric colonists of Cos, Calydna, &c. remained in Epidaurus a sufficient time before their passage into Asia Minor to adopt the worship of Æsculapius. And since we find that the worship of Æsculapius also prevailed in Cnidos and Rhodes,395 it may be fairly inferred, that of the inhabitants of these islands a part at least passed through Epidaurus. This is further confirmed by the orator Aristides, who, on the authority of the national tradition, states of the Rhodians, “that from ancient times they had been Dorians, and had had Heraclidæ and Asclepiadæ for their princes.”396 Thus also there were families of the Asclepiadæ and Heraclidæ at Cos, to the former of which Hippocrates was related on his father's side, to the latter on his mother's.397 Contemporaneous [pg 115] with this migration from Argos and Epidaurus was that from Trœzen,398 in which Halicarnassus, the citadel upon the sea (ἁλι-κάρηνον), was founded; which fact also receives confirmation from the similarity of religious worship.399 And indeed there is reason for believing that it was only one Doric tribe, the Dymanes, which colonized this city,400 who strengthened themselves by collecting together the earlier inhabitants, the Leleges and Carians.401

2. Those towns, however, only which composed the Doric Tripolis of Rhodes (a number which probably originated from the division of the tribes), together with Cnidos, Cos, and Halicarnassus, formed the regular Doric league (before the separation of Halicarnassus called the Hexapolis, afterwards the Pentapolis). The members of this alliance met on the Triopian promontory to celebrate in public national festivals the rites of Apollo and Demeter, which last were of extreme antiquity;402 its influence in political affairs was however probably very inconsiderable.403 But, besides those already mentioned, many towns and islands in this district were peopled by Dorians.404 [pg 116] The small island of Telos, near Triopium, was probably dependent upon Lindos:405 Nisyrus and Calydna (or Calymna) have been already mentioned; the inhabitants were Epidaurian Dorians, who belonged to the colony of Cos:406 Carpathus also received some Argive colonists. It is said to have been taken by Ioclus, the son of Demoleon, an Argive by descent.407 Syme also was colonised from Cnidos: of this town we shall make further mention when speaking of the Laconian settlements. The inhabitants of Astypalæa were partly derived from Megara;408 their Doric origin is attested by the dialect of decrees now extant;409 and by the same circumstance we are enabled to recognise as a Doric colony Anaphe,410 which is situated near the Doric islands of Thera, Pholegandros,411 and Melos; the position of these islands, together forming a chain across the southern part of the Ægæan sea, shows that they were colonized in a connected and regular succession. Myndus, however, upon the mainland had received inhabitants from the same town as Halicarnassus;412 perhaps Mylasa had also had some connexion with the Dorians.413 Cryassa in Caria was colonised by inhabitants [pg 117] of the Doric island of Melos.414 Even Synnada and Noricum, further to the interior in Phrygia, had inhabitants of Doric origin;415 yet the Spartan settlement in Noricum is a fact which it is difficult to understand; and with regard to the former we are wholly unable to state how the Dorians could have penetrated thus far.

I have now, though not without in some measure forestalling the regular course of these investigations, given an account of all the known cities in this territory which were founded by Dorians of Peloponnesus; and if to these we add the colonies from Rhodes upon the opposite coast of Asia, and the cities of Lycia founded from the island of Crete, in which the Doric dialect was doubtless spoken, we shall have before us a very extensive range of colonies belonging to that race. Some of these were probably dependent upon the more considerable; many on the contrary stood entirely alone, some very early disagreements having, as it appears, separated and estranged them from the league of the six towns.416 Hence the Calymnians [pg 118] (or Calydnians) at a later period, on the occasion of embarrassing lawsuits, had recourse not to the larger states of the same race, but to the Iasians (who, though a colony from Argos, had afterwards learned the habits and character of the Ionic race by a settlement from Miletus),417 which nation sent them five judges. This circumstance, however, may be accounted for by a temporary resemblance of their constitutions.418

3. Having thus put together the most simple historical accounts respecting the foundation of these Doric cities, we have still to examine the mythical narrations with which they are accompanied, and which were invented by representing the same colonies under different names, and attributing a false antiquity to their establishment. That this was in fact the case is evident from the mythical account which is connected with the colony of Trœzen, viz. “that Anthes and his son Aëtius, ancient princes of the Trœzenians, had in early times founded Halicarnassus.”419 This tradition, however, contradicts itself, when compared with the additional account in Callimachus,420 “that Anthes had taken out Dymanes with him;” which was exclusively a civil division of the Dorians. It is therefore far preferable to follow the statement of Pausanias,421 that the descendants of Aëtius passed over to Halicarnassus and Myndus long after his death. It [pg 119] must not, however, from this circumstance be inferred that these descendants of Aëtius were leaders of the colony, since it was necessary that these should be Doric Heraclidæ. But they were in all probability a family which cultivated the worship of Poseidon in preference to any other, and carried it over with them to the colony. But that a family of this kind, and with it the tradition and name of Anthes, actually prevailed in Halicarnassus, is seen also from the poetical name of the Halicarnassians (Antheadæ.)422

There is also a great similarity in the part which Tlepolemus bears in the history of the colonisation of Rhodes. In this case also the mythical hero is represented as coming from Argos,423 as well as the historical colony, only at an earlier period. But, it may be objected, the colony is related to have come immediately from Epidaurus, and not the hero. We have, however, still an evident trace of mythical genealogies of Rhodes, in which Tlepolemus was represented as immediately connected with the Heraclidæ of Epidaurus. For Pindar celebrates the Diagoridæ as descended on the father's side from Zeus, from Amyntor on the mother's, because both these were the grandfathers of Tlepolemus.424 Now Deiphontes of Epidaurus was also descended on his mother's side from Amyntor, and was [pg 120] therefore very nearly related to Tlepolemus. We may also probably suppose that there was in this Argive and Epidaurian colony a family which derived itself from Tlepolemus the son of Hercules, by which means the traditions concerning him were connected with this migration.425 The same want of consistency which we observed above, may here also be perceived in the statement of Homer, that the colony of Tlepolemus was divided into three parts, according to the different races of the settlers;426 whence it is evident that he was always considered as a Doric prince.

Thirdly, the colony of Cos, Nisyrus, Carpathus, and Casos also possessed leaders or heroic founders, whose expedition is reported to have taken place at a time different from that at which the colony was founded, and is placed back in a remote period, viz. Phidippus and Antiphus, sons of Thessalus the Heraclide, [pg 121] or of Hercules himself. Their origin is derived by the fable from the irruption of Hercules into Cos, where he made pregnant the daughter of Euryphylus; afterwards they are said to have migrated to Ephyra in Thesprotia, and their descendants to have gone from thence to Thessaly, where the Aleuadæ, the most distinguished and the wealthiest family of Larissa, claimed them as ancestors.427 Again, I do not deny that Heraclide families in exile at Cos derived their origin from both these heroes (it was indeed by this means that the name of Thessalus found its way into the Asclepiad family of Hippocrates); but that these families were born in the island of Cos itself, is evidently a patriotic invention of the Coans. There were, as we have seen, traditions respecting Phidippus and Antiphus in Cos, and also at Ephyra in Thesprotia; which traditions the fables and poems respecting the returns of the heroes from Troy, endeavoured to reconcile, by making Antiphus reach Ephyra, after a series of wanderings, instead of going directly to Cos; a supposition which will not gain many believers. It is also plain from the epigram of Aristotle,428 that, according to the traditions of Ephyra, that city was considered as the native country, and the domicile of the two heroes; and therefore was in direct opposition to the Coan tradition. Now that a Heraclide family should have gone from Cos to Ephyra in Epirus, is contrary to all other examples of the migrations of Greek races and colonies, and all that we know of the dispersion of Heraclide clans or families. On the other hand, a part of the mythology of Hercules, which appears to be of great antiquity,429 refers to this Ephyra in Epirus; and [pg 122] it was then quite natural, that with the conquest of Ephyra (a fabulous exploit of Hercules) the origin of a branch of the Heraclidæ should be connected, who then came with the Dorians into Peloponnesus, and by means of the Epidaurian colony to the island of Cos.

4. The favourable situations of these Doric cities on islands and promontories, possessing roadsteads and harbours convenient for maritime intercourse, attracted in early times a considerable number of colonies. It is remarkable that the Rhodians should have founded fewer and less considerable colonies on the coast of Asia Minor than in the countries to the west: for, with the exception of Peræa, which was not till later times dependent on this island, the only Rhodian towns in Asia Minor were Gagæ430 and Corydalla431 in Lycia, Phaselis,432 on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia, and Soli in Cilicia.433 On the other hand, in Olymp. 16. 4. 713 B.C., according to Thucydides, about the time of their colonising Phaselis, they founded in Sicily the splendid city of Gela, the mother-town of Agrigentum. This colony was sent from Lindus, which furnished its leader Antiphemus (or Deinomenes.)434 It was accompanied by inhabitants of the [pg 123] small island of Telos;435 and was at the same time joined by some Cretan emigrants. That however the numbers of those who came from the first-mentioned town predominated, is shown by the original name of the settlement, Λίνδιοι, and by the religion there established. Doric institutions were common to all the founders above mentioned, and were consequently established in their settlements.436 The connexion and intercourse with those islands continued without interruption; hence it was that, in later times, the family of Phalaris, coming from Astypalæa, found a welcome reception at Agrigentum;437 and the family of the Emmenidæ, which overthrew Phalaris, had come from the same region, viz. from Thera.438 Moreover, Parthenope, in the country of the Osci, and Elpiæ, or Salapiæ, in the territory of the Daunians (in the founding of which the inhabitants of Cos had a share), were beyond a doubt settlements of the Rhodians; and indeed this same people penetrated even to Iberia at an early period, and there founded Rhode; and we have also traces of their presence at the mouth of the Rhone.439 Hence also, perhaps, arose the account of the expedition of Tlepolemus to the Balearic islands; which account, and the statement that Sybaris was [pg 124] founded by him, may be understood merely as mythical expressions for the voyages undertaken by the Rhodians in the western sea.

5. It is, however, a matter even of still greater difficulty to determine the true history of several cities in Asia Minor, which are reported by tradition to have been colonies of Argos, and generally of the greatest antiquity. But it requires nothing short of absolute superstition to believe that Tarsus was founded by Io, or Perseus the Argive,440 who, with his descendant Hercules, was worshipped in this place as a tutelar deity;441 or that Mallus, Mopsuestia, Mopsucrene, and Phaselis were founded by Argive soothsayers at the time of the Trojan war.442 To these may be added Aspendus in Pamphylia, Curium in Cyprus, and even Ione, near Antiochia, in Syria,443 the founding of which place is attributed to the Argives. For, without considering the period at which the ancient Peloponnesians are represented to have undertaken such distant (and at that time impossible) voyages round the Chelidonian islands, it is most singular that Argos, which is at no time mentioned among the maritime nations of Greece, should have planted upon that one line of coast a series of colonies in so connected an order, and so completely useless to herself. We will therefore venture to advance an hypothesis, to which, though perhaps no complete proofs of it can be adduced, we have still sufficient traces to lead us, viz. [pg 125] that all these towns were colonised from Rhodes; but that, by a form frequently in use, they were led out in the name of Argos, the mother-country of Rhodes, and under the auspices of Argive gods and heroes.444 In the first place, Argives and Rhodians are mentioned together as founders; as in the instance of Soli, which nevertheless only defended the Rhodians as a sister state before the Roman senate.445 Of the manner in which heroes were adopted as founders, the city just mentioned furnishes a good instance. For the Argive soothsayer Amphilochus is said to have come hither, who, according to poems that went under the name of Hesiod, had been put to death by Apollo at Soli.446 The following example gives a still clearer notion of the manner in which these fables were formed. The Rhodians built Phaselis at the same time with Gela (Olymp. 16. 713 B.C.); the founder is called Lacius, whom the Delphian oracle had sent to the east, as it had Antiphemus to the west.447 Now it is shown in another part of this work448 that Lacius is a Cretan form for Rhacius; and this was the name of the husband of Manto, and father of Mopsus, the ancient mythical prophet of the temple at Claros. For, leaving no doubt that this person is intended, the tradition also says, that this Mopsus, the son of Rhacius, founded Phaselis:449 Pamphylia itself is called the [pg 126] daughter of Rhacius and of Manto;450 and lastly, the same Lacius is represented as a contemporary of Mopsus, and as having been sent out by Manto as a founder at the same time with the latter.451 The inference that we must draw is, that there was no such individual as Lacius who led the Lindians in person to Phaselis, but that he was merely a mythical being, and represents the Clarian oracle, which seems to have co-operated on this occasion.452 Those who are versed in the interpretation of mythical narratives will also hence infer, that the same was the case with his contrary, Ἀντιόφημος. In order, however, to give the mother-state, Argos, a share in the mythical account of the foundation of the Pamphylian colonies, it was necessary that Amphilochus, who belonged to the family of the Amythaonidæ, should, together with Calchas, have some connexion with them all; and, in fact, it is not impossible that soothsayers from Argos, who called themselves descendants of this prophet and hero, were procured by the Rhodians for this service.

6. We may now penetrate somewhat deeper into the obscure traditions of the Cilician cities Mallus, Mopsuestia, and Mopsucrene. In the fables concerning the founding of these towns, Amphilochus and Mopsus are always mentioned together; at the same time that the account of their Argive origin is very [pg 127] much brought into notice. Cicero calls both these prophets on this occasion kings of Argos.453 Here then we may also assume that soothsayers were brought from the mother-country, and suppose that the prophets of the Amphilochian oracle of Mallus were actually natives of Argos; and although, as will be shown below, the influence of the Clarian worship was also felt,454 yet the persons who were the real colonisers could only have been a sea-faring people, such as the Rhodians. In consequence, however, of these settlements having been founded at a very early period, when all colonies were as yet entirely dependent upon the oracles, and therefore were always under the direction of prophets, and as an inventive and imaginative spirit was then in full vigour, their true history has been enveloped in a thick cloud of mythological fiction, which we have at least begun to remove.

7. We next proceed to the Corinthian colonies, the geographical situation of which alone affords a remarkable result with regard to the maritime expeditions undertaken by the mother-country. For although Corinth had two harbours, Lechæum in the Crisæan, and Cenchreæ in the Saronic gulf, it it evident that all its colonies were sent out from the western port. They were founded, almost without exception, on the coasts of the Ionian sea; at the entrance of which the Corinthians had, perhaps at a very early period, founded the city of Molycreium.455 Notwithstanding this, the very first colony from Corinth, the date of which is known within a few years (Olymp. 5. 760-757 B.C.),456 ventured to cross the [pg 128] Ionian sea, and to found in the most beautiful part of Sicily the renowned city of Syracuse. The founder was Archias a Heraclide, and probably also of the family of the Bacchiadæ;457 he was followed by Corinthians, chiefly from the borough of Tenea;458 and on the road was joined by some Dorians from Megara;459 the expedition was also accompanied by a prophet of the sacred family of Olympia, the Iamidæ, whose descendants flourished at Syracuse in the time of Pindar.460 It appears, however, that Syracuse at that time borrowed many religious institutions from Olympia, as is proved by the worship of Arethusa, of Artemis Ortygia, and of the Olympian Zeus.461 These original founders built a town in the island of Ortygia, the name of which can be explained only from the worship of the goddess just mentioned. The lands taken from the aboriginal Sicilians they divided into lots, according to the number of the colonists. For the method universally observed in founding these colonies was, that the adventurers received before-hand a promise of a share in the territory—which also was called a lot. On the occasion of this very settlement, Æthiops, a Corinthian glutton, is said to have [pg 129] sold a promise of this kind to a companion for one honey-cake.462 Eumelus the Bacchiad, the celebrated poet of Corinth, seems to have been one of these colonists,463 as he is mentioned in connexion with Archias. Although the demus, or populace of the city, chiefly perhaps consisted of inhabitants of various nations, who put themselves under the protection of this colony, and although the territory around was peopled by Sicilian bondsmen, yet in its dialect, and probably for a considerable period in its customs also, Syracuse remained a purely Doric state: as the women in Theocritus say,464 “Our origin is Corinthian, and therefore we speak the language of Peloponnesus. For it is permitted, I suppose, to the Dorians to speak Doric.” Hence the Syracusans were so greatly pleased with an ambassador from Lucania, who had learnt to speak Doric in order to address them in their native tongue.465 Syracuse increased so rapidly in population and power, that seventy years after its foundation it colonized Acræ, and also Enna, situated in the centre of the island; twenty years after this, the town of Casmenæ; and in forty-five more, Camarina. Also some Syracusan466 fugitives named Myletidæ, together with Chalcideans from Zancle, are said to have founded Himera: [pg 130] hence the dialect there in use was a mixture of Chalcidean and Doric; but the institutions were entirely Chalcidean.

8. The other Corinthian colonies, as has been already remarked, were all situated to the east of the Ionian sea. The nearest of these are, besides their colony of Molycreium, Chalcis in Ætolia,467 and Solium in Acarnania;468 further on, we find that Ambracia was in very early times founded by Corinth,469 and accordingly was governed by a brother of Periander;470 by the influence of this settlement Amphilochian Argos changed its language and customs for those of the Greeks.471 Anactorium was founded by the Corinthians, under the command of Periander, in conjunction with the Corcyræans. At the same time, and in connexion with the same persons, they occupied the island of Leucadia;472 to the possession of which, however, the Corcyræans, as they were at that [pg 131] time subject to Corinth, had no just claim; and Themistocles unquestionably did wrong in attributing any such right to them;473 the Leucadians also always remained firm to their real parent-state. Next comes Corcyra itself, the founding of which by Chersicrates the Bacchiad474 is represented as having been a secondary branch of the colony sent to Syracuse;475 but it had at a very early period set itself up as a rival to the mother-state in the Ionian sea, whose ancient power had been probably broken before the Persian war. On the opposite coast lay Epidamnus, which city was chiefly founded by Corcyræans, but under the command of Phalius, the son of Eratocleides, a Corinthian Heraclide, whom the Corcyræans, according to the ancient colonial law, had sent for, together with some of his countrymen (in Olymp. 38. 2. 629 B.C. according to Eusebius), and were afterwards strengthened by emigrants from Dyspontium in Pisatis.—Lastly, Gylax, a Corinthian, together with 200 of his own countrymen, and a greater number of Corcyræans, founded Apollonia in the time of Periander. Here ends the list of Corinthian colonies, which formed a strong and continuous chain along the coast; and thus even the barbarians of the interior, especially the [pg 132] Epirots of Thesprotia, were forced to maintain a perpetual connexion with Corinth:476 hence also the kings of the Lyncestæ in Macedonia esteemed it an honour to derive their origin from the Bacchiadæ.477 At a still further distance lay the island of Issa, which was colonized from Syracuse.478 Corcyra, however, possessed settlements as far as the Flanatian gulf.479 From these facts it is evident that there was a time when Corinth predominated in these seas; and by means of Corcyra and Ambracia, and other towns, ruled over many nations of barbarians. But the loss of Corcyra, which had been at war with its mother-state in the 28th Olympiad (about 668 B.C.),480 even before the time of Periander (though it was for a short time again reduced to subjection by the enterprising Cypselidæ), was an incurable wound for Corinth. The other colonies, however, showed a remarkable obedience to her.481 It was not till after the loss of their maritime dominion in these quarters (an event which had nevertheless taken place before the Persian war) that the Corinthians appear to have founded Potidæa on the opposite side of Greece in Chalcidice, which colony they sought to retain in their power by continually interfering in its internal administration, and for this purpose sent thither every year magistrates named Epidemiurgi.482

9. Megara, on the other hand, was induced by its situation to send even its first colonies to the opposite [pg 133] side of Greece on the Thracian coast. Thus in Olymp. 17. 3. 710 B.C. it founded Astæus in Bithynia;483 afterwards Chalcedon, on the entrance of the Bosporus484 in Olymp. 26. 2. 675 B.C. (according to Eusebius); and 17 years later (Olymp. 30. 3. 658 B.C.) Byzantium in a more favoured spot, opposite to Chalcedon.485 The Argives also had a share in the foundation of this town; for which fact we may trust the general assertion of Hesychius of Miletus, that his circumstantial and fabulous history of the early times of this city was derived from ancient poets and historians. For the transmission of the worship of Here (whose temple both at Byzantium and Argos was on the citadel),486 and the traditions concerning Io, the attendant of the Argive Here, confirm in a manner which does not admit of a doubt, the pretensions of Argos to a share in this colony. Io, who was represented with horns on her forehead, is said to have here produced to Zeus a daughter, Ceroëssa the “Horned” by name (which is, however, only a different name for Io herself), who being suckled by the nymph Semestra, afterwards brought forth Byzas.487 Thence the fable of the cow swimming over the sea became peculiar to this place.488 In other respects the combinations [pg 134] of religious ceremonies as found at Byzantium, almost exactly resembled that which existed in Megara. Nay, so carefully did the Byzantians, though far removed from their mother-state, preserve the remembrance of it, that they carried over almost all the names of their native country and the neighbouring region. We find on the coast a temple of Poseidon, whose son was named Byzas; also of Demeter and Cora; the Scironian rocks, an Isthmian promontory, with the tomb of Hipposthenes a Megarean hero, the temple of Apollo on the high promontory of Metopum; also an altar of Saron, a pretended hero, whose name referred to the Saronic gulf.489 Thus Byzantium was never estranged from its Peloponnesian ancestors, although it adopted a large number of additional colonists,490 and ruled over Thracian subjects. Moreover, the prevailing dialect, which occurs in some public decrees still extant, remained for a long time Doric.491 The Byzantians, together with the Chalcedonians, either at the time of the expedition of Darius against the Scythians, or of the Ionic revolt, founded Mesambria on the Pontus,492 which some consider as a colony of Megara. The Megareans had also founded Selymbria even before the settlement of Byzantium,493 and probably carried on from this place a war with [pg 135] the Samians at Perinthus,494 when that island was still governed by Geomori, before the time of Polycrates. Moreover, the Megareans had a large share in the founding of Heraclea on the Pontus; for although they were strengthened by some Tanagræans from Bœotia, their numbers so predominated that this city was in general considered as Doric.495

10. Megara, however, at the same time founded some very considerable colonies to the west, viz., in Sicily. It will be sufficient to state in general terms that Hybla in Sicily was a Megarean colony, established in the 13th Olympiad (about 728 B.C.), and was even called Megara.496 It probably kept up a constant intercourse with the mother-state; since [pg 136] Theognis, who was a Megarean from Sicily, according to Plato, dwelt nevertheless for a long time in the Megara near Athens, to which state many of his poems refer.497 The founding of the small town of Trogilus, and of the more important city of Thapsos, preceded the building of Megara. A century later, some inhabitants of Megara founded Selinus in the neighbourhood of that part of the island, which town was in early times held by the Phœnicians, in later times by the Carthaginians.

11. The colonies of Sparta, which still remain to be considered, were more numerous than would be expected of a state so averse to maritime affairs. In the history of the migrations of the Heraclidæ, we find introduced the colonies of Thera, Melos, Gortyna, and Cyrene; which, although for the sake of honour they recognised Sparta as their mother-state, had been in fact founded by Achæans, Minyans, and Ægidæ, who dwelt at that time in a state of almost entire independence in a district of Laconia.498 All these states, however, retained the Doric name; and Cyrene, though even the founders married Libyan women,499 [pg 137] always preserved to the utmost of its power the institutions, customs, and language of its mother-country.500 The founding of Cnidos also took place at an early period, and was generally ascribed to the Lacedæmonians.501 The leader of the colony was, according to Diodorus, one Hippotes.502 Syme also was at that time peopled from Cnidos.503 The principal religion of this city, that of Aphrodite504 (who was here worshipped in a three-fold capacity), was without doubt the same as that which existed at Cythera, having been carried over by the Lacedæmonian colonists. The splendid city of Cnidos, protected toward the east by an Acropolis, which both its Cyclopian architecture505 and fabulous history prove to have existed before the time of the Dorians, was situated on a neck of land, with a harbour on each side, one of which was among the largest in Greece. Thus fitted by nature for commerce, Cnidos also founded colonies of its own, among which Lipara, established (in Olymp. 50, about 580 B.C.) upon one of the Æolian islands under the direction of descendants of Hippotes,506 overcame the Etruscans in several wars, and adorned Delphi with offerings [pg 138] of victory.507 Another colony from Cnidos, remarkable chiefly for its distance from the mother-country, is Black-Corcyra, on the coast of Illyria. Lacedæmon herself, however, is said to have sent out colonies to Phrygia, Pisidia, and Cyprus. In the former country, Pisistratus, a Spartan, is said to have founded Noricum near Celænæ on the river Marsyas.508 Selge in Pisidia is generally considered by the ancients to have been a Lacedæmonian colony, and we frequently find on coins of a late date this origin recognised. The representative of the state is Hercules the Doric hero: moreover, the free spirit, the bravery, and the good laws of the Selgæans (although the reverse is sometimes attributed to them) were derived from their mother-state.509 The wrestling youths in the act of grasping one another (ἀκροχειριζόμενοι) represented on their coins, bespeak a love for gymnastic exercises. It should, however, be remembered, that the founders of this colony were, according to a more exact statement, Amyclæans,510 i.e. fugitive Periœci, who perhaps had [pg 139] passed through Cnidos in their way to these districts. It appears that the Selgæans founded Sagalassus,511 which city is styled on its coins The Lacedæmonian. Perhaps Praxander went at the same time from Therapne in Laconia, with Cephas of Olenus (both Achæans by birth) to the island of Cyprus, where they founded Lapathus and Ceronia.512

12. But the most celebrated of all the Lacedæmonian colonies, and which really proceeded from Sparta, was Tarentum. The history of its origin is buried in fable, in the accounts of the first Messenian war; the accompanying circumstances will be mentioned below. The leader of this colony was Phalanthus, son of Aratus, a Heraclide.513 Taras, on the other hand, is called the son of Poseidon, because this colony carried over the worship of that deity from Tænarum to Italy. These emigrants also brought with them other religious rites, as for instance the worship of Hyacinthus;514 likewise many names from their native country, as that of the Eurotas, which they gave to the river Galæsus.515 But the fruitful and luxuriant [pg 140] territory to which they had moved, its soft and voluptuous climate, and the commerce, for which Tarentum was well situated,516 and always open (although it never carried it on in an active manner), helped to engender that effeminacy of character, which gave countenance to the fable of the founders having been the sons of unmarried women (παρθενίαι). Still, amidst all its degeneracy, Tarentum retained a certain degree of dependence on its mother-country: at the foundation of Heraclea the Tarentines allowed Cleandridas a Spartan to be one of the original colonists.517 The friendship, moreover, of the Cnidians with the Tarentines,518 as well as that with the Cyreneans, was founded on the recognition of a common origin. The colony of Croton (Olymp. 19. 2. 703 B.C., according to Eusebius) consisted indeed of Achæans, who came partly from the maritime town of Rhypæ,519 and partly from Laconia:520 it must, however, have been established under the authority of the Doric state of Sparta, since Apollo and Hercules, the Doric god and hero, were here worshipped with especial honour;521 the early constitution was also Doric; and although in general we are not to look for truth in the poetry of Ovid, yet in this instance we may credit his statement that Myscellus the founder was a Heraclide.522 In like manner the Locrians, who (in Olymp. 24. 2. 683 B.C.) founded Locri, must have procured Spartans as leaders,523 since (as their coins also show) they paid particular [pg 141] honours to the Dioscuri, in time of distress in war the statues of these gods having been sent to them from Sparta, as being a people of the same origin;524 and even in the Peloponnesian war they still adhered to the cause of Sparta.525 Of a nature wholly different were the rapid and transitory settlements of Dorieus the son of Anaxandrides, king of Sparta, which this noble adventurer founded in Sicily and Libya; when, scorning to submit to a worthless brother, and confiding in his own strength, he hoped to obtain by conquest a kingdom in a distant country.526 Finally, the Lyctians of Crete and other inhabitants of this island called themselves colonists of Sparta. In all probability many of the ancient Doric cities of this country received fresh settlers from Lacedæmon; which state, at the beginning of the Olympiads527 in the time of Alcamenes, and even during the life of Lycurgus,528 exercised a very considerable influence upon the internal affairs of Crete.

Having taken a view of the Doric settlements without Peloponnesus, we now return to the history [pg 142] of that peninsula, which we will divide into two periods, namely, before and after the 40th Olympiad, or the year 620 B.C.

Chapter VII.

1. Before we begin to collect and arrange the accounts extant concerning the early history of Peloponnesus, it will be first necessary to ascertain what are our sources of information respecting the events of this period. For the epic poets, who carried on an uninterrupted series of traditions on the events of the mythical ages, and have thus thrown over this dark period some faint glimmerings which may in many places be condensed into a distinct and useful light, only touch on a few points of the period whose history we are about to examine. On the other hand, indeed, the art of writing was during this time introduced among the Greeks through their intercourse with Asia; but that a long time elapsed before it [pg 143] came into general use, is evident from the almost surprising imperfection of those written documents which have been preserved to us of a date anterior to the 60th Olympiad, in comparison with the great perfection of the works of Grecian art. For this reason, writing was long regarded in Greece as a foreign craft, and letters were considered (for example in the Tean curses) as Phœnician symbols. Nevertheless, these few and scanty registers are the first materials for real history and chronology now extant. As such, the following have been made known to us from Peloponnesus.

2. The Quoit of Iphitus, upon which was inscribed in a circle the formula for proclaiming the sacred armistice of Elis, and in which Iphitus and Lycurgus were mentioned as the founders of it.529 There is no reason for doubting its genuineness, which was recognised by Aristotle, and the institution which it mentioned was considered by all ancient writers as a real fact.530 Secondly, the lists of the conquerors at the Olympic games brought down uninterruptedly from the victory of Chorœbus,531 which always recorded the conquerors in the foot-race, and in later times at least those in the other games.532 It is probable that they were originally engraved on single pillars, and afterwards collected under the inspection of the Hellanodicæ.533 Similar catalogues of conquerors in other [pg 144] games, besides the four great ones, were also probably not uncommon, but they were generally inscribed on separate pillars, and were therefore of little use to the historian.534 The names of the conquerors at the Carnean games at Sparta were also registered, so that Hellanicus was enabled to compose from them a work called Καρνεονῖκαι. The register at Sicyon contained a list of the priestesses of Here at Argos, and the poets and musicians of the games.535 But this also contained fabulous accounts: for example, the invention of playing and singing on the harp by Amphion. Nor were the catalogues of the priestesses of Here, which were probably kept at Argos, altogether free from fable, as may be perceived from the fragments of Hellanicus's chronological work on these priestesses, which was probably founded on the official catalogues.536

3. There were also at Lacedæmon public registers, in which Plutarch found mention of the daughters of Agesilaus;537 and in those of the earliest times the same author discovered the Pythian oracle concerning Lycurgus,538 the same that Herodotus refers to in his first book. These doubtless contained the names of all the kings, and probably also the years of their reigns, as far back as Procles, who, according to a statement noticed above, died one year before his [pg 145] brother Eurysthenes.539 This fact could hardly have been derived from any other source than some national annals, though it is not impossible that it was first transferred to them from oral narrative; in which case, however, it is difficult to understand how tradition, contrary to its general character, preserved dates. It was without doubt from these registers that Charon of Lampsacus, before the time of Herodotus, composed his work entitled, “The Prytanes, or Rulers, of Lacedæmon;”540 in which he also noticed the sacred offerings and monuments of ancient times.541 With respect to the chronological labours of Timæus, Polybius542 says that “this writer compared the ephors with the kings of Lacedæmon from the beginning, and the archons at Athens and priestesses at Argos with the conquerors at the Olympic games, and noted the errors which the cities had made in the registration, even when they only differed by three months.” Eratosthenes and Apollodorus founded their chronology, especially before the Olympiads, upon the same list of the kings;543 they both nearly agreed in reckoning 327 or 328 years from the expedition of the Heraclidæ to the first Olympiad (776 B.C.),544 which calculation would have been impossible [pg 146] if the duration of each king's reign had not been known; for if this computation is made by generations, reckoning about three to a century, quite a different number comes out.545 Lycurgus, however, was placed by Eratosthenes 108 years before the first Olympiad;546 in which computation he certainly went on the authority of the Quoit of Iphitus; which agrees with the statement of Apollodorus, that Homer, who according to this chronologist flourished 148 years before the first Olympiad, was a contemporary of Lycurgus when the latter was a young man.547—It appears, however, that the name of Lycurgus was not preserved in any register of the kings, since in that case it would have been impossible that he should have been called by Herodotus the guardian of his nephew Labotas the Eurysthenid,548 by Simonides (who lived in great intimacy with king Pausanias)549 the son of Prytanis and brother of Eunomus the Proclid, and by others the son of Eunomus and guardian of his nephew Charilaus,550 had there existed any genealogy of [pg 147] him which was sufficiently accredited. Hence we must infer that these catalogues only contained the names of the kings, and not even of the royal guardians or protectors, such as Lycurgus. On the other hand, the variations in the enumeration of the kings are unimportant, being confined to this, that in the pedigree of the Proclidæ Herodotus551 (or his transcribers) leaves out the name of Soüs, which occurs in all the rest, and, contrary to Pausanias, changes the order of Eunomus and Polydectes. Since the name of Polydectes is entirely wanting in Simonides and Eusebius, it is probable that Polydectes and Eunomus are only different names of the same king; and that Polydectes was the proper name, and Eunomus a title of honour.552 Upon this hypothesis we obtain the following series of kings of the Proclid line—Prytanis, Polydectes, Charilaus, with tolerable certainty. There must also have been registers of the names and years of the princes of Corinth, and the family of the Bacchiadæ, since no one could have had the boldness to invent them.553 Indeed there were altogether many [pg 148] pedigrees, particularly of the Heraclidæ: as, for example, of families at Cyrene,554 and the Ptolemies;555 their authority, however, could not have been very great; in the latter, indeed, we cannot fail to recognise the unscrupulous hand of Alexandrine flatterers. The ancient chronicles of Elis, which Pausanias saw, appear to have contained complete pedigrees from Oxylus down to Iphitus;556 although the descendants of the former were not kings. The father of Iphitus was there stated to have been also named Iphitus, in contradiction to the common account.557

4. None of these registers appear to have contained anything beyond the names of conquerors at the games (which have seldom any reference to history), and princes with the years of their reigns. If anything more was noted down, it was perhaps here and there an oracle, as those belonging to the history of Sparta in Herodotus,558 which were without doubt brought by the Pythians to Sparta in writing, at a very early period. To these may be perhaps added some ancient rhetras;559 under which term the ancient Dorians included all political documents, laws, and treaties. The most ancient instance of the last kind [pg 149] is the treaty between the Eleans and the inhabitants of Heræa, discovered by sir William Gell,560 the writing of which is so extremely rude as to prove that they were little practised in that art when it was engraved. It is however very doubtful how the Spartan rhetras of Lycurgus were drawn up. By some it has been supposed that they were originally composed in metre, in order to be chanted by the youth of Sparta;561 but this is contradicted by the certain testimony562 that Terpander of Antissa, whom the Spartans so highly esteemed, was the first who set these laws to music, and first gave them a metrical and poetical form; and Terpander did not live till after the 26th Olympiad, or 672 B.C.563 But the rhetra which Plutarch has preserved as the genuine constitutional formula bears a truly archaic character, since it contains a command of the Pythian Apollo to the lawgiver in the infinitive mood, and does not fall into verse. I do not perceive why it might not have been written, as well as the contemporaneous inscription on the Quoit of Iphitus, and the ancient oracles cited by Herodotus; at least we cannot in any other way account for the preservation of the words. The original rhetras, however, were very few, and formed merely the nucleus of a system of laws, more as a help to the memory than as a perfect code; hence the ancients could with propriety say, that Zaleucus was the first who committed laws to writing.564 The three rhetras, which were preserved besides the former one, were merely [pg 150] certain general formulas, and by no means explicit laws; they had the form of an oracle, as having proceeded from the Pythian god,565 but were written entirely in prose.566

Next in the list of public monuments come the ὅροι, or landmarks of territory. It is well known that we are in possession of such records of a later period, belonging to the sacred territory of the Pythian Apollo (in which earlier surveys of the Amphictyonic Hieromnemons, and ancient inscriptions on boundary-stones are appealed to), belonging to Cretan towns, and likewise to Samos and Priene, in which the inhabitants of Priene cite ancient records, preserved from the time of Bias in the temple of Athene.567 Historical works were also composed from these memorials.568 Now there must also have been records of this kind in Peloponnesus, although the inscriptions, by which the Messenians wished to prove [pg 151] to the Romans their original boundary towards Laconia, were evidently not made till after their re-establishment by Epaminondas.569

5. These documents, if we were in possession of them, would afford a valuable foundation for an account of the three centuries before regular history begins; but merely an outline, which would require to be filled up from other sources. This might partly be done from the writings of the Lyric poets, who flourished at that time, as Eumelus, Thaletas, Tyrtæus, Alcman, and Terpander;570 which writers had frequent intercourse with the Spartans, and introduced the events of the time into their poetry to a much greater degree than the epic poets. And in fact we find in the fragments of Tyrtæus and Alcman a lively representation of the feelings and manners of the period. The next source of information is oral tradition, which, though erring continually with regard to names and numbers, yet always relates something essential; and, finally, the political institutions continuing to exist in later times, which had their origin in this period.

These, and no other than these, can have been the means employed by the authors who wrote on the affairs of Laconia, in the century when history was approaching to maturity, such as Hellanicus, Charon, and Herodotus; and either directly or indirectly must have afforded materials to those who treated of the times of Lycurgus during the later age of Greek learning. But how little do we recognise the ancient [pg 152] simplicity and liveliness which characterise all the genuine remains of that time, in the historical style of Ephorus and Hermippus,571 and their followers. The object of these writers was to assimilate, as much as possible, the notions of antiquity to those of their own time, and to attempt in some way or other to represent every act as proceeding from such motives as would have actuated their own contemporaries. They have with a truly unsparing hand rubbed off the venerable rust of ancient tradition, and, totally mistaking the most powerful springs of action then prevalent, moulded all events of which any records had been preserved, into a connected form more suited to a modern history. It is almost impossible to describe with what unlucky zeal Plutarch, where Lycurgus only embodied in laws the political feelings of his race and nation, ascribes to that legislator plans and views generally unsatisfactory, and often absolutely childish.

6. If now we apply the method above stated to the history of Lycurgus, we shall find that we have absolutely no account of him as an individual person. Tradition very properly represents him as intimately connected with the temple of Delphi (by which the Dorians, and especially the state of Sparta, were at that time entirely led), and with Crete, the earliest civilized state of the Doric race. This connexion was generally represented under the form of a journey to both places; his tomb was also shown both at Cirrha and at Pergamia in Crete. It was easy to imagine that the reforms of Lycurgus were violently [pg 153] opposed, and produced tumults and disturbances.572 But the story of Alcander putting out one of Lycurgus's eyes (probably a popular tale) is founded on a false explanation of the title of Pallas Optiletis.573 It was indeed an ancient tradition that he was guardian of a Spartan king; but the common report of this being Charilaus574 is not quite certain, as we have seen above; and in order to account for both his travels and regency, he was reported to have abdicated the latter in order to avoid suspicion.575 If we set aside all fictions of this description, which have almost the spirit of a moral tale, like the Cyropædia of Xenophon, there remains very little traditional lore. Of his legislation we will treat hereafter.576

7. It is very singular that historians should have mentioned so little of the action of Lycurgus, which comes next in importance to that which has been just discussed;577 I mean the share that he had in founding the sacred armistice and games at Olympia, which event was without doubt the commencement of a more tranquil state of affairs in Peloponnesus. Lycurgus, as the representative of the Doric race, Iphitus, of the Ætolians and Eleans, and Cleosthenes,578 the son [pg 154] of Cleonicus of Pisa, the city to which the temple of Olympia properly belonged, and which had not then lost the management of it, in conjunction perhaps with several others, drew up the fundamental law of the Peloponnesian armistice. This contained two heads. First, that the whole territory of the Eleans (who acted as masters of the games, after the expulsion of the Pisatans, every year with more exclusive power) should remain for ever free from hostile inroads and ravages, insomuch that even armed troops were only to be allowed a passage on condition of first laying down their arms;579 secondly, that during the time of the festival a cessation of arms should also be proclaimed throughout the rest of Peloponnesus. But, since there was little agreement among the individual states in the computation of time, and as the Eleans alone were acquainted with the exact time at which the quadrennial festival came round, and perhaps also in order to make the injunction of the god more impressive, the Eleans always sent feciales round to the different states, “heralds of the season, the Elean truce-bearers of Zeus;”580 these persons proclaimed the Olympic armistice, first to their own countrymen, and then to the other Peloponnesians: after which time no army was to invade another's territory.581 The fine which was to have been paid by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian war for having sent [pg 155] out soldiers after this period was two minas for each hoplite, the very sum which by the agreement of the Peloponnesians was required for the ransom of prisoners of war;582 whence it is evident that the transgressors of the truce were considered as becoming slaves of the god, and were to be ransomed again from him. The decree was pronounced by the tribunal of the temple at Elis, according to the “Olympian law.”583 The fine was divided between the Eleans and the treasury at the temple of Olympia. To this temple also were paid all penalties incurred by the infraction of treaties;584 nay, sometimes whole cities were bound to pay a fixed tribute every year to the god.585 By these and similar laws was the armistice protected, which doubtless was not intended merely to secure the celebration of the games from disturbance, but also to effect a peaceable meeting of the Peloponnesians, and thus to give occasion for the settling of disputes, and the conclusion of alliances. Even in the Peloponnesian war public business was transacted at this assembly.586 But one chief effect of the Olympian festival appears to have been the production of a more friendly connexion between the Ætolian and Doric races. This fact appears to be established by the tradition that Iphitus introduced the worship of Hercules at Elis, which therefore had previously been peculiar to the Dorians.587 Apollo, the Doric god, was also at this time regarded as the protector of the sacred armistice of Olympia, as we shall see hereafter.588

8. We now proceed immediately to the Messenian wars, since it is hardly possible to find one independent event between the commencement of them and the time of Iphitus. These however are really historical, since we have in Tyrtæus a nearly contemporaneous account of the first, and one actually so of the second. The fragments and accounts of his poems are our principal guides for obtaining a correct knowledge of these transactions. And in these alone many circumstances appear in quite a different light from that in which they are represented in the romance of Pausanias. In the latter, the Spartans only are the aggressors, the Messenians only the subjects of attack; but, if we listen to Tyrtæus, the former also had to fight for their own country. But, since even the ancients possessed few remains of Tyrtæus, and as nearly all the historical part of his poems appears to have come down to us, whence did Pausanias derive his copious narrative, and the details with which he has adorned it? Was it from ancient epic poets? Yet of these there is nowhere any mention: and in general an historical event, if it could not be put into an entirely fabulous shape, like the stories of the origin and foundation of many colonies, lay altogether without the province of the early poetry. It is indeed possible that in the Naupactia, which are referred to for the mythical history of Messenia,589 some historical notices may have occasionally occurred, perhaps too in the works of Cinæthon and Eumelus: but the ancients, who disliked the labour of compiling a history from scattered fragments, probably gave themselves very little trouble to discover them. On the other hand, [pg 157] there existed a series of traditional legends, whose character announces their high antiquity; thus, that of the Messenians, that Aristomenes had thrice offered a hecatomphonion, or sacrifice for a hundred enemies slain in battle;590 whether or no of human victims is doubtful.591 A share in this sacrifice was also performed by Theoclus, who is called an Elean, because he belonged to a family of the Iamidæ, which, as it appears, was settled in Messenia; but this clan, though scattered about in different places, yet always retained their rights at Olympia.592 The same character may also be perceived in the legend of Aristomenes thrice incurring the danger of death. On the first of these occasions, when thrown into the Ceadas, he was preserved by a fox, the symbol of Messenia; on the second, whilst his guards were asleep, he turned to the fire and burnt in two the cords that bound his limbs,593 a story more certainly derived from tradition than the love-adventure which supplies its place in Pausanias: the third time however that he fell into the hands of his enemies, they cut open his breast, and found a hairy heart.594

9. Traditions of this kind were probably circulating in different forms among the victorious Lacedæmonians,595 amongst the refugee Messenians in Italy and Naupactus, the subject Messenians who remained in the country, and the other Peloponnesians, when they were recalled into existence by the re-establishment of the Messenian state by Epaminondas. Even before the battle of Leuctra, the Bœotians, on the advice of an oracle, hung up as a trophy the shield of Aristomenes,596 the device of which was a spread eagle:597 and when Epaminondas recalled the Messenian fugitives from Italy, Sicily, and even from Libya, and had erected them, with numerous Helots and people collected from various quarters, into a new state,598 Aristomenes was especially invoked before the foundation of the city.599 In this manner the ancient traditions were enabled to gain a new footing, and to be developed in a connected form. Several writers now seized upon a subject which had begun to excite so great interest, of whom Rhianus the poet and Myron the prose-writer are known to us.600 Myron gave an account of the first Messenian war down to the death of Aristodemus; but, in the opinion of Pausanias, utterly regardless whether or no he related falsehood and incredibilities; thus, in the teeth of all tradition, he introduced Aristomenes, [pg 159] the hero of the second war, into the first; and he wrote with an evident bias against Sparta.601 Rhianus, however, a native of Bena in Crete, celebrated the actions of Aristomenes, in the second war, from the battle near the Great Trench (Μεγάλη Τάφρος), until the end of the war, as Homer had done those of Achilles; and although Pausanias has disproved some of his statements of particular facts from Tyrtæus,602 yet he has frequently followed him, and especially in the poetical embellishments of his narrative.603 He never mentions any historians, such as Ephorus, Theopompus, Antiochus, or Callisthenes.604 Rhianus, however, though he might not have exclusively adopted the Messenian account,605 yet, as far as we can judge from Pausanias, gave the reins to his fancy, and mixed up many circumstances and usages of later times with the ancient tradition.606 It is not therefore our intention [pg 160] either to divert the reader with a continued narration of these fictions, at the expense of truth, or fatigue him by a detailed criticism of them, but merely to lay before him the chief circumstances, as they are known with historical certainty.

10. The first war is distinctly stated by Tyrtæus to have lasted nineteen years, and in the twentieth the enemy left their country, and fled from the mountain Ithome.607 The same authority also gives the time which elapsed between the first and second wars, viz., that the grandfathers were engaged in the first, the grandchildren in the second.608 The date of the first war is fixed by Polychares, who is stated to have been the author of it,609 having been conqueror in the race at the [pg 161] 4th Olympiad610 (764 B.C.); and it agrees well with this date that Eumelus, who was contemporary with Archias the founder of Syracuse (in the 5th Olympiad), composed a poem for free Messenia. Pausanias places the commencement (we know not on what grounds) at Olymp. 9. 2, (743 B.C.) the termination nineteen years later, Olymp. 14. 1. (724 B.C.) The interval between the two wars he states (though on what authority we know not, and contrary to Tyrtæus) to have been thirty-nine years;611 so that the second would have lasted from Olymp. 23. 4. to Olymp. 28. 1. (or from 685 to 668 B.C.)612 We shall, however, find hereafter that the date of this war was probably later by several years, though not so late as Diodorus fixed it, according to whom the war began in Olymp. 35. 3.613 We also know from Tyrtæus that the Spartan [pg 162] king who completed the subjugation of Messenia was Theopompus.614 Now, with respect to the origin of this war, it may be first traced in the increase of power, which Sparta, before the beginning of the Olympiads, owed to the exertions of its king Teleclus; this prince having succeeded in subduing the neighbouring city of Amyclæ, and in reducing several other Achæan towns to a state of dependence on Sparta.615 Indeed, if we correctly understand an insulated notice,616 Teleclus razed the town of Nedon, on the frontiers of Messenia and Laconia,617 and transplanted its inhabitants to the towns of Pœessa, Echeiæ, and Tragis. Hence arose border wars between the Dorians at Sparta and those at Stenyclarus. The temple of Artemis Limnatis,618 the possession of which was disputed between the two nations (though its festival was common to both), afforded, as may be discovered from the romance of Pausanias,619 the immediate ground for the war. For even in the reign of Tiberius the Lacedæmonians supported their claim to this temple by ancient annals and oracles;620 while the Messenians, on the other hand, brought forward the document already quoted, according to which this temple, together with the whole territory of Dentheleatis, in which it was situated, belonged to them. Dissensions in Messenia must have [pg 163] hastened the breaking out of the war, since it is certain that Hyamia, one of the five provinces of Messenia, was given by the Spartans to the Androclidæ, a branch of the family of the Æpytidæ.621 The history of the first war contains traces of a lofty and sublime poetical tradition: for example, that Aristodemus, though ready to appease the wrath of the gods by the blood of his own daughter,622 yet was unable to effect his purpose; that the damsel was put to death in vain; and upon this, recognising the will of the gods that Messenia should fall, and being terrified by portentous omens, he slaughtered himself upon the tomb of his murdered child.623 The war seems to have been confined chiefly to the vicinity of Ithome, which stronghold, situated in the midst of the country, commanded both the plain of Stenyclarus and that of the Pamisus. The reduction of this fortress necessarily entailed the subjugation of the whole country, and many of the Messenians began to emigrate. With this event the Doric colony of Rhegium is connected. Heraclides of Pontus624 merely relates, that some Messenians (who happened to be at this time at Macistus in Triphylia, in consequence of the violation of some Spartan virgins) united themselves to the Chalcidian founders of this town (who had been sent out from Delphi). He probably means those Messenians who wished to make a reparation for the violation of the Spartan virgins in the temple of Artemis Limnatis, and were in consequence [pg 164] expelled by their own countrymen.625 But, according to Pausanias,626 even this body of Messenians received the district of Hyamia; and the Messenians did not migrate to Rhegium until after the taking of Ithome under Alcidamidas, and again after the second Messenian war under Gorgus and Manticlus, son of Theoclus, one of the Iamidæ.627 Anaxilas the tyrant (who lived after Olymp. 70) afterwards derived his family from the Messenians,628 who constituted in general the first nobility of the town of Rhegium.629

The establishment of Tarentum is connected with the history of the first Messenian war; but it is wrapped up in such unintelligible fables (chiefly owing perhaps to an ignorance of Lacedæmonian institutions), that all we can learn from them is, that Tarentum was at that time founded from Sparta.630

11. In a fragment of Tyrtæus we find some very distinct traces of the condition of the subject Messenians after the first war, which will be separately considered hereafter. The second war clearly broke out in the north-eastern part of the country, on the frontier towards Arcadia, where the ancient towns of Andania and Œchalia were situated. In all probability this tract of country had never been subjugated [pg 165] by the Spartans. Aristomenes, the hero of this war, was born at Andania,631 from which town he harassed the Spartans by repeated inroads and attacks. In his first march he advanced as far as the plain of Stenyclarus; but after the victory at the Boar's Grave he returned to Andania. But this attempt of the Messenians to recover their independence became of serious importance by the share which the greater part of the states in Peloponnesus took in it. For Strabo,632 quoting Tyrtæus, states, that the Eleans, Argives, Arcadians, and Pisatans633 assisted the Messenians in this struggle. The Pisatans were led by Pantaleon the son of Omphalion, who celebrated the 34th Olympiad in the place of the Eleans;634 which fact enables us accurately to fix the time (644 B.C.).—At the head of the Arcadians was Aristocrates, whom Pausanias calls a Trapezuntian, the son of Hicetas, and mentions [pg 166] his treachery at the battle near the Trench, on the subsequent discovery of which the Arcadians deprived his family of the sovereignty of Arcadia.635 The same account is also given by Callisthenes,636 and both writers quote the inscription on a pillar erected near the mountain-altar of Zeus Lycæus in memory of the traitor's detection. Now we know from good authority637 that Aristocrates was in fact king only of Orchomenus in Arcadia,638 of which his family was so far from losing the sovereignty, that his son Aristodamus ruled over it, and also over a great part of Arcadia. The date of Aristocrates639 appears to have been about 680-640 B.C.640

The Lacedæmonians were therefore in this war really pressed by an enemy of superior force, a fact alluded to by Tyrtæus. Meanwhile Sparta was assisted by the Corinthians,641 perhaps by the [pg 167] Lepreatans,642 and even by some ships of the Samians;643 but chiefly by Tyrtæus of Aphidnæ, whom an absurd and distorted fable has turned into a lame Athenian schoolmaster. The fact of Sparta seeking a warlike minstrel in Aphidnæ, may be accounted for from its ancient connexions with this borough in Attica, which is said to have been in the hands of the Dioscuri. Whether or not Aphidnæ at that time belonged to Attica, and was subject to Athens, is a question we shall leave undecided; but there does not seem to be any reason for inferring with Strabo, from the passage of Tyrtæus itself, that the whole tradition was false, and that Tyrtæus was a Lacedæmonian by birth,644 though he doubtless became so by adoption. It is to be regretted that we have very little information concerning the war carried on by Sparta with the rest of [pg 168] the Peloponnesians;645 but the Messenians at a later period withdrew from Andania towards Eira, which is a mountain-fortress on the Neda, the border-stream towards Arcadia, near the sea-coast. When obliged to retire from this stronghold, they were received first by the Arcadians, their ancient and faithful allies (who, according to the tradition, gave them their daughters in marriage646); afterwards the exiles sought an asylum with their kinsmen at Rhegium. Aristomenes himself (if he was not put to death by the Spartans) is said to have died at Rhodes, in the house of the noble family of the Eratidæ.647

12. Besides the possession of Messenia, nothing was of such importance to the Spartans as the influence which they gained over the towns of Arcadia. But in what manner these came into their hands is very little known.648 During the Messenian war Arcadia was always opposed to Sparta. Hence, in the year 659 B.C., the Spartans suddenly attacked and took the town of Phigalea, in a corner of Messenia and Triphylia; but were soon driven out again by the neighbouring Oresthasians.649 But the place chiefly dreaded [pg 169] by Sparta, as being one of the most powerful cantons in Arcadia, and commanding the principal entrance to Laconia, was Tegea. Charilaus, one of the early kings of Sparta, is said to have been compelled, by the valour of the Tegeate women, to submit to a disgraceful treaty.650 At a later period also, in the reigns of Eurycrates and Leon the Eurysthenid,651 Sparta suffered injury from the same state,652 until it at last obtained the superiority under the next king, Anaxandridas. It was not, however, merely the ingenuity of a mountain-tribe, in protecting and fortifying its defiles, that made victory so difficult to the Spartans; but, although the pass which separates Tegea from Laconia, and even at the present time retains the vestiges of defensive walls, was of great service in repelling invasions from Laconia,653 yet Tegea was also formidable in the open field from her heavy-armed troops, which in later times always maintained the second place in the allied army of Peloponnesus.654

13. Argos never obtained so great authority in Argolis as Sparta did in Laconia, since, in the former country, the Dorians divided themselves into several ancient and considerable towns;655 and to deprive Dorians of their independence seems to have been [pg 170] more contrary to the principles of that race, than to expel them, as the Spartans did the Messenians. Argos was thus forced to content itself with forming, and being at the head of a league, which was to unite the forces of the country for common defence, and to regulate all internal affairs. An union of this kind really existed, although it never entirely attained its end. It was probably connected with the temple of Apollo Pythaëus, which, as we remarked above, was considered as common to the Epidaurians and Dryopians. An Argive Amphictyonic council is mentioned in the account of the Messenian war,656 and is evidently not a fiction, although erroneously there introduced. That it still continued to exist in the 66th Olympiad is clear from the fact, that, when the inhabitants of Sicyon and Ægina furnished Cleomenes with ships to be employed against Argos, each town was condemned to pay a fine of 500 talents.657 These penalties could not have been imposed by Argos as a single town, but in the name of a confederacy, which was weakened and injured by this act. We find that the Eleans could impose similar penalties in the name of the Olympian Zeus.658 But the very case here adduced shows how refractory was the conduct of the members of this alliance with regard to the measures taken by the chief confederate.

14. To this internal discord were added the continual disputes with Lacedæmon. Herodotus states, [pg 171] that in ancient times (i.e. about the 50th Olympiad, or 580 B.C.) the whole eastern coast of Peloponnesus as far as Malea (comprising the towns of Prasiæ, Cyphanta, Epidaurus Limera, and Epidelium), together with Cythera, and the other islands, belonged to the Argives.659 According to the account of Pausanias the territory of Cynuria, a valley between two ranges of mountains, on the frontiers of Laconia and Argos, inhabited by a native Peloponnesian race, had been from early times a perpetual subject of contention between the two states. The Lacedæmonians had subdued this district in the reigns of Echestratus and Eurypon.660 During the reigns of Labotas and Prytanis, the Spartans complained of an attempt of the Argives to alienate the affections of their Periœci in Cynuria:661 as, however, we know not by what authority this statement is supported, we shall allow it to rest on its own merits. In the reign of Charilaus the Lacedæmonians wasted the territory of Argos.662 His son Nicander made an alliance with the Dryopians of Asine against Argos. Accordingly this people were expelled by Eratus, the Argive king, from their town,663 and fled to their allies in Laconia; from whom they obtained, after the end of the first Messenian war, a maritime district, where they built a new Asine, and for a long time preserved their national manners,664 as well as their connexion with the ancient religious [pg 172] worship of their kinsmen, the inhabitants of Hermione.665

15. A clearer point in the Argive and Peloponnesian history is the reign of Pheidon. The accounts respecting this prince having been collected and examined in another work, it is merely necessary to repeat the result.666 Pheidon the Argive, the son of Aristodamidas, was descended from the royal family of Temenus, the power of which had indeed since the time of Medon, the son of Ceisus, been much diminished, but yet remained in existence for a long time. Pheidon broke through the restrictions that limited his power, and hence, contrary however to the ancient usage of the term, was called a tyrant. His views were at first directed towards making the independent towns of Argolis dependent upon Argos. He undertook a war against Corinth, which he afterwards succeeded in reducing. In all probability Epidaurus, and certainly Ægina, belonged to him; none of the other towns in the neighbourhood were able to withstand the bold and determined conqueror.667 The finishing stroke [pg 173] of his achievements was manifestly the celebration of the Olympic games, over which he, as descendant of Hercules (the first conqueror at Olympia), after having abolished the Ætolian-Elean Hellanodicæ, presided, in conjunction with the inhabitants of Pisa, the ancient town of Pelops, which at this time, and many centuries after this time, had not relinquished its claims to the management of the festival. This circumstance also enables us to fix with certainty the period of his reign, since, in the Elean registers, the 8th Olympiad was marked as having been celebrated by him (747 B.C.). But it was this usurpation that united the Eleans and Lacedæmonians against him, and thus caused his overthrow. While the undertakings of Pheidon thus remained without benefit to his successors, he has been denounced by posterity as the most rapacious of tyrants in Greece; but, had he succeeded in establishing a permanent state of affairs, he would have received equal honours with Lycurgus. Yet, notwithstanding his failure, some of his institutions survived him, which adorn his memory. He is known to have equalized all weights and measures in Peloponnesus, which before his time were different in each state; he was also the first who coined money. He was enabled to undertake both with the greater success, since the only two commercial towns at that time belonging to Peloponnesus lay in his dominions, viz. Corinth (whence he is sometimes called a Corinthian) and Ægina. According to the most accurate accounts he first stamped silver-money668 in Ægina (where at that time forges doubtless existed), and, after having circulated these, he consecrated the ancient and [pg 174] then useless bars of metal to Here of Argos, where they were exhibited in later times to strangers.669—Many of the most ancient drachmas of Ægina, with the device of a tortoise, perhaps belong to this period, since the Greek coins struck before the Peloponnesian war appear to indicate a progress of many centuries in the art of stamping money. Those however which we have are sufficient to show that the same standard was prevalent throughout Peloponnesus,670 a difference in weight, measure, and standard not having been introduced till after the Peloponnesian war. This again was a second time abolished by the Achæan league, and an equality of measures restored.671

16. After the fall of Pheidon the old dispute with Lacedæmon still continued.672 In the 15th Olympiad (720 B.C.) the war concerning the frontier territory of Cynuria broke out afresh;673 the Argives now maintained it for some time,674 and secured the possession of this district chiefly by the victory at Hysiæ in Olymp. 27. 4. (669 B.C.675) And they kept it until the time of Crœsus (Olymp. 58.), when they lost it by the famous battle of the three hundred, in which Othryadas, [pg 175] though faint with his wounds, erected the trophy of victory for Sparta:676 a history the more fabulous, since it was celebrated by sacred songs at the Gymnopædia.677 Inconsiderable in extent as was the territory678 for which so much blood was shed, yet its possession decided which should be the leading power in Peloponnesus. It was not till after this had taken place that Cleomenes, in whose reign the boundary of Lacedæmon ran near the little river Erasinus, was enabled to attack Argos with success.

The power of Argos in the neighbourhood of the city was very insecure and fluctuating. Towards the end of the second Messenian war Argos had conquered the neighbouring town of Nauplia; the Lacedæmonians gave Methone in Messenia to the expelled inhabitants.679 The temple of Nemea, in the mountains towards Corinth, was, from its situation, the property of the independent Doric town Cleonæ; the Argives took it from them before Olymp. 53. 1. 568 B.C.,680 [pg 176] and henceforth celebrated the games of Zeus. The Argives however again lost it; and some time before the 80th Olympiad the Cleonæans again regulated the festival,681 a privilege which they probably did not long retain. It is likely that about 580 B.C. the town of Orneæ, between Argos and Sicyon, which had anciently carried on wars with the latter city, was rendered subject to the former, from which circumstance the Periœci of Argos obtained the general name of Orneatans; to which class the Cynurians also belonged before the battle of Thyrea.682 But these events properly belong to the period, on the history of which we are now about to enter, and which we will designate in general as the time of the tyrants.

Chapter VIII.

1. The subject of this chapter may be best expressed in the words of Thucydides:683 “The tyrants of Athens, and of the rest of Greece, of which many [pg 177] states had been governed by tyrants before the Athenians, were, with the exception of those in Sicily, in most instances, and especially in later times, overthrown by the Lacedæmonians, whose state was never under a despotic government, and who, having become powerful through the early establishment of their own constitution, were enabled to arrange to their own liking the governments of other states.” It is a remarkable circumstance in the history of Greece, that at the same period of time tyrants everywhere obtained the supreme authority in Doric, Ionic, and Æolic cities; a proof that, although these nations were derived from different races, the same stage in the progress of social life was every where attended with the same phenomena. Those states alone in which the features of the Doric character were most strongly marked, viz., Sparta and Argos, resisted this influence; and we shall in general find that it was by a subversion of the Doric principles that the tyrants obtained their power. This will be made evident by a consideration of the absolute monarchies in the Doric states of Peloponnesus.

2. The inhabitants of Sicyon appear in ancient times to have been distinguished from other Dorians by a lively and excitable temperament, and by a disposition which they had at an early period transferred to their mythical hero Adrastus, whose “tongue was softly persuasive.”684 This very disposition, however, under the actual state of circumstances, opened the way to tyranny. In this instance of [pg 178] Sicyon, as in many others, the tyrant was the leader of the lower classes, who were opposed to the aristocracy. It was in this character that Orthagoras came forward, who, not being of an ancient family, was called by the nobles a cook.685 But, notwithstanding its low origin, the family of this person maintained the supremacy for a longer period than any other, according to Aristotle686 for a century, as they did not maltreat the citizens, and upon the whole respected the laws. Their succession is Orthagoras, Andreas, Myron, Aristonymus, and Cleisthenes,687 of whom, however, the second and fourth never ascended the throne, or only reigned for a short time. Myron was conqueror at Olympia in the chariot-race in the 33d Olympiad (648 B. C), and afterwards built a treasury, in which two apartments were inlaid with Tartessian brass, and adorned with Doric and Ionic columns.688 Both the architectural orders employed in this building, and the Tartessian brass, which the Phocæans had then brought to Greece in large quantities from the hospitable king Arganthonius,689 attest the intercourse of Myron with the Asiatics; we shall presently see that this same correspondence was of considerable importance for the measures of other tyrants. Cleisthenes appears to have employed violence [pg 179] in obtaining the sovereignty,690 which he held undisturbed, partly by creating terror through his military fame and exploits in arms, and partly by gaining the support of the people by the introduction of some democratic elements into the constitution. With regard to the latter measure, the singular alterations which he made in the tribes of Sicyon will be explained hereafter.691 We will here only remark that Cleisthenes himself belonged to the subject tribe, which was not of Doric origin; and while he endeavoured to raise the latter, at the same time he sought to depress, and even to dishonour the Doric tribes, so that he entirely destroyed and reversed the whole state of things which had previously existed. For this reason Cleisthenes was at enmity with Argos, the chief Doric city of this district.692 For the same reason he proscribed the worship of the Argive hero Adrastus, and favoured in its place the worship of Dionysus, a deity foreign to the Doric character; and lastly, prohibited the Homeric rhapsodists from entering the town, because Homer had celebrated Argos, and, we may add, an aristocratic form of government. These characteristic traits of a bold and comprehensive mind are gathered from the lively narrative of Herodotus. The same political tendency was inherited by his son-in-law Megacles, the husband of the beautiful Agariste, to obtain whose hand many rival youths had assembled in the palace of Cleisthenes, like the suitors of [pg 180] old, for that of Helen;693 and it was particularly manifested in Cleisthenes of Athens, who changed the Athenian constitution by abolishing the last traces of separate ranks. With regard, however, to the warlike actions of Cleisthenes, he must have been very celebrated for his prowess; since in the war of the Amphictyons against Cirrha, although denounced as a stone-slinger (that is, a man of the lowest rank),694 by the Pythian priestess, he shared the chief command of the army with the Thessalian Heraclid, Eurylochus, and helped to conquer the city.695 This took place in the third year of the 47th Olympiad, or 592 B.C.696 Out of the plunder of the town Cleisthenes built a portico for the embellishment of Sicyon;697 he was also conqueror in the chariot-race at the second Pythiad (Olymp. 49. 3. 584 B.C.)698 It may perhaps be possible from the scattered accounts concerning this prince to form a notion of his character. Cleisthenes was undoubtedly a man who was able to seize the spirit of the time, which aimed at great liberty and excitement—the very contrary of the settled composure of the Dorians; and, combining talents and versatility with the love of splendour and pageantry, ridiculed [pg 181] many things hitherto looked upon with awe, and set no limits to his love of change. Notwithstanding these qualities, he was, as is probable from the general testimony of Thucydides, overthrown by Sparta, perhaps soon after 580 B.C.;699 nor was the ancient state of things restored at Sicyon till 60 years afterwards,700 during which interval another tyrant named Æschines reigned, belonging however to a different family.

3. The Corinthian tyrants701 were nearly allied with those of Sicyon; since the former, not belonging to the Doric nobility, were placed in the same situation as the latter with regard to this class. In Corinth, before the commencement of the dynasty of tyrants, the ruling power was held by the numerous702 Heraclide clan of the Bacchiadæ, which had changed the original constitution into an oligarchy, by keeping itself distinct, in the manner of a caste, from all other families, and alone furnished the city with the annual prytanes, the chief magistrates. Cypselus the son of Aëtion, the grandson of Echecrates, from a Corinthian borough named Petra,703 and not of Doric descent, although connected on his mother's side with the Bacchiadæ, overcame, with the assistance again of the lower classes,704 the oligarchs, now become odious through their luxury705 and insolence, the larger part of whom, either voluntarily or by compulsion, quitted Corinth;706 and Cypselus became tyrant about the 30th [pg 182] Olympiad (660 B.C.),707 from the inability of the people to govern itself independently. However violently the Corinthian orator in Herodotus accuses this prince, the judgment of antiquity in general was widely different. Cypselus was of a peaceable disposition, reigned without a body-guard,708 and never forgot that he rose from a demagogue to the throne. He also undertook works of building, either from a taste for the arts, or for the purpose of employing the people. The treasury at Delphi, together with the plane-tree, was his work.709 To him succeeded his son Periander, who was at first equally or more mild than his father.710 Soon, however, his conduct became sensibly more violent, and, according to Herodotus, he was instigated by his correspondence with Thrasybulus, the tyrant of Miletus, who counselled him by every method to weaken, or even to exterminate, the nobility of his city.711 Many of his actions were evidently prompted by the wish of utterly eradicating the peculiarities of the Doric race, which were closely connected with an aristocratic spirit. For this reason he abolished the public tables, and prohibited the ancient education.712 He awed the people by his military splendour, and maintained triremes on both coasts of the [pg 183] Isthmus;713 his person he protected by three hundred body-guards.714 To maintain the city at peace, and to avoid all violent commotions, was a principle, on the observance of which the security of his dominion depended, and upon which a complete system of regulations was founded. With this view he abolished a criminal court715 for the condemnation of such as wasted their patrimony, inasmuch as persons in this situation were likely to become innovators. He interdicted immoderate luxury, and an extravagant number of slaves. Idleness he considered as especially dangerous. So little true did he remain to the democratic principles of his father, that he expelled the people from the city;716 and in order the more readily to accustom them to agricultural and mechanical labour, only permitted them to wear the dress of peasants.717 His own expenses were trifling, and therefore he required no other taxes than harbour-dues and market-tolls. He also avoided, where his projects did not require it, all violence and open injustice; and was even at times so strict a maintainer of public morality, that the numerous procuresses of the luxurious Corinth were by his orders thrown into the sea;718 the hospitable damsels of Aphrodite719 being protected by religion. He, as well as his father, made the construction of [pg 184] splendid monuments of art720 a means of taxing the property of the rich, and of employing the body of the people; though indeed his own refined taste took pleasure in such works. And in general, if considered in reference to the cultivation of taste and intellect, and the interests of agriculture and trade, the age of the tyrants was productive of a very great advancement in the Grecian states. The unpliant disposition, strict in the observance of all ancient customs and usages, was then first bent and subdued, and more liberal and extended views became prevalent. The tyrants were frequently in intimate connexion with the inhabitants of Asia Minor, whom Sparta despised for their luxury and effeminacy; and from the Lydian sultan in his harem at Sardes, a chain of communication, most important in its consequences, was established through the princes of Miletus and Samos with the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of Sparta. Periander was in correspondence not only with Thrasybulus, but also with Halyattes, the king of Lydia, and sent to the latter prince some Corcyræan youths to be castrated according to the oriental custom.721 The names of his kinsmen, Psammetichus and Gordias, the latter Phrygian, the former Egyptian, are proofs of an hospitable intercourse with those countries. On the other side of Greece, the policy of the Cypselidæ led them to attempt the occupation of the coast [pg 185] of the Ionian sea as far as Illyria, and to establish a connexion with the barbarous nations of the interior.722 Periander was of a daring and comprehensive spirit, and rivalled by few of his contemporaries, bold in the field, politic in council, though misled by continual distrust to undertake unworthy measures, and having too little regard for the good of the people when it interfered with his own designs; a friend of the arts, of an enlightened mind, but at the same time overcome by the strength of his passions; and, although devoid of awe for all sacred things, yet at times a prey to the most grovelling superstition. After the death of Periander, Psammetichus723 the son of Gordias, of the same family, succeeded to the sovereignty, but only reigned three years, having been, without doubt, overthrown by the Spartans in Olymp. 49. 3. 582 B.C.724

4. Periander was married to the fair Melissa, whose beauty had captivated him in the house of her father, the tyrant Procles, while she was distributing wine to the labourers in a thin Doric dress.725 Procles was ruler of Epidaurus and the island of Ægina, which were at that time still closely united; he himself was related by marriage to the princes of Orchomenus, and appears from this circumstance, and from his connexion with the family of Cypselus, to belong to the number of tyrants, who, being hostile to the Dorian aristocracy, obtained their power by the assistance of the lower ranks.

And when we also add that Theagenes of Megara, the father-in-law of Cylon the Athenian,726 precisely resembled the princes already mentioned in his conduct (since he likewise obtained his power by attacking [pg 187] the rich landed proprietors, and had killed their flocks upon the pastures of the river),727 and that like the others he endeavoured to please the people by embellishing the city, by the construction of an aqueduct, and of a beautiful fountain;728 it is easy to perceive in the dynasties of the Sicyonian, Corinthian, Epidaurian, and Megarian tyrants, a powerful coalition against the supremacy of the Dorians, and the ancient principles of that race, the more powerful, as they knew how to render subservient to their own ends the opinions which had lately arisen; and it is a matter of wonder that Sparta should have succeeded in overthrowing this combination.

5. If, indeed, it is also borne in mind that the Ionic, as well as the Æolic and Doric729 islands and cities of [pg 188] Asia, and also Athens, together with Phocis, Thessaly, and the colonies in Sicily and Italy, were all in the hands of tyrants, who doubtless assisted one another, and knew their common interest; and that Sparta alone, in most instances at the instigation of the Delphian oracle, declared against all these rulers a lasting war, and in fact overthrew them all, with the exception of the Sicilian tyrants; it must be confessed, that in this period of Grecian history no contest took place either greater, or, by its extent as well as its principles, of more important political and moral consequences. The following tyrants are stated by ancient historians to have been deposed by the Spartans:730 the Cypselidæ of Corinth and Ambracia, the former in Olymp. 49. 3. (584 B.C.), the latter probably somewhat later; the Pisistratidæ of Athens, who were allied with the Thessalians, in Olymp. 67. 3. (510 B.C.);731 their adherent Lygdamis of Naxos,732 probably about the same time: Æschines of Sicyon, about the [pg 189] 65th Olympiad733 (520 B.C.); Symmachus of Thasos; Aulis of Phocis; and Aristogenes of Miletus, of whom we know only the names;734 the larger number were dethroned under the kings Anaxandridas and Ariston, Cleomenes and Demaratus. Of these tyrants, some they deposed by a military force, as the Pisistratidæ; but frequently, as Plutarch says, they overthrew the despotism without “moving a shield,” by despatching a herald, whom all immediately obeyed, “as, when the queen bee appears, the rest arrange themselves in order.”735 In the time of Cleomenes also (525 B.C.) Sparta sent out a great armament, together with Corinthian and other allies, against Polycrates of Samos, the first Doric expedition against Asia, not, as is evident from the trivial reason stated by Herodotus, (viz. in order to revenge the plunder of a cauldron and a breastplate,) but with the intent of following up their principle of deposing all tyrants.736 But the besieging of a fortified town, situated upon the sea, and at so great a distance, was beyond the strength of Peloponnesus. The last expedition of Sparta against the tyrants falls after the Persian war, when king Leotychidas, the conqueror at Mycale, was sent for the purpose of ejecting the Aleuadæ of Thessaly, who had delivered up the country to the Persians in 470 B.C. or somewhat later. Aristomedes and Angelus were actually dethroned, but the king suffering himself to be bribed by others, the expedition did not completely succeed.737

We may suppose with what pride the ambassador [pg 190] of Sparta answered Gelon the tyrant of Syracuse (however brilliant and beneficial his reign may have been), when he required the command in the Persian war: “Truly the Pelopid Agamemnon would lament, if he heard that the supremacy was taken from the Spartans by Gelon and the Syracusans!”738

6. To these important changes in the political history of that time we may annex the subordinate events in the interior of Peloponnesus.

Sparta, by the conquest of Cynuria, had obtained the key of the Argive territory. Soon after this, Cleomenes, the eldest son of Anaxandridas the Eurysthenid, succeeded to the throne, a man of great boldness and strength of mind, sagacious, enterprising, accustomed, after the manner of his age and country, to express himself in a concise and emphatic language, only too much inflated by family and personal pride, and in disposition more nearly resembling his contemporaries the tyrants than beseemed a king of Sparta. The first exploit of this prince739 was the expedition against Argos. He landed in some vessels of Sicyon and Ægina on the coast of Tiryns, overcame the Argives at the wood of Argos,740 slew the greater part of the men able to bear arms, and would have [pg 191] succeeded in capturing their city, had he not, from an inconceivable superstition, dismissed the allied army without making any further use of the victory, and contented himself with sacrificing in the temple of Here.741 At the same time Argos, in consequence of this defeat, remained for a long time crippled, and it was even necessary that a complete change in her political condition should take place, in order to renovate the feeble and disordered state into which she had fallen.

7. For after the bond-slaves or gymnesii742 of Argos had for a time governed the state thus deprived of its free inhabitants, until the young men who had in the mean time arisen to manhood overcame and expelled them, the Argives, as Aristotle743 relates, saw themselves compelled, in order to restore the numbers of their free population, to collect about them the surrounding subjects of their city, the Periœci, and to [pg 192] distribute them in the immediate neighbourhood.744 The completion of this plan took place one generation after the fatal battle with Cleomenes, at the time of the Persian war, in which Argos, whose attention was wholly occupied with strengthening her affairs at home, took no part. At that time the Argives, in order to increase their own numbers, dispeopled nearly all the large cities in the surrounding country, and transplanted the inhabitants to Argos;745 particularly Tiryns, Mycenæ, Hyseæ, Orneæ, and Midea.746 Tiryns and Mycenæ were in the time of the Persian war free, and even independent communities, which followed the command of Sparta without the consent of Argos; the latter town indeed contested with Argos the right to the administration of the temple of Here, and the presidency at the Nemean games.747 The destruction of their city, which the Argives undertook in concert with the Cleonæans and Tegeates,748 was effected in the year 464 B.C. (Olymp. 79. 1). But of the Mycenæans, a few only followed the Argives, as the larger number either took refuge at Cleonæ (which city was at that time independent, and had for some time the management of the Nemean games)749, at Ceryneia in Achaia, and even in Macedonia.750 Of the Tirynthians [pg 193] also some fled to Epidaurus, and some to Halieis in the territory of the Dryopians, in which place the expelled Hermioneans also found an asylum.751 For Hermione, which Herodotus during the time of the Persian war considers as a Dryopian city,752 was subsequently taken by the Argives.753 The other cities which have been mentioned, had however, as we know of Orneæ and also Hysiæ, previously belonged to Periœci, being subjects of Argos, and were only then incorporated for the purpose of enlarging the metropolis.754 The Argives, by these arbitrary proceedings, secured themselves as well against external foes as against their former enemies the bond-slaves, and also acquired a large number of laborious and industrious inhabitants, who, by the continuance of peace, soon re-established the prosperity and wealth of Argos.755 The oracle has well marked out the principles which were then expedient for the welfare of that state, when it recommended it, as “the enemy of its neighbours, and friend of the gods, to draw in its arms, and [pg 194] remain in watchful quiet, guarding its head; for that the head would save the body.”756 At the same time, however, by these proceedings, a complete change in the constitution was brought about, and Argos, as we shall see hereafter, gradually lost the peculiar features of the Doric character.

The other actions of Cleomenes of which we have any knowledge refer to the political changes at Athens, and could only be connectedly related in a history of the Athenian constitution, or in reference to the events in Ægina, which we have narrated elsewhere.

8. It is remarkable that during this whole time, in which Sparta founded her empire, we read of no serious contest between Dorians and Ionians. For although the border-states, Megara and Ægina (the latter after its revolt from Epidaurus), carried on a continued war with Athens, the whole race took no part in the contest, and Sparta herself fulfilled the office of an impartial arbitrator between Athens and Megara. Even before the time of Solon, the Athenians and Megarians fought in the territory of Eleusis.757 The chief struggle was for the island of Salamis, which Solon is supposed to have gained by the well known stratagem,758 a fact however which was denied by Daimachus of Platæa.759 According to the Megarian account, some refugees from their own city (named Δορύκλειοι) betrayed the island to the Athenians.760 So much is certain, that five Spartan arbitrators (Critolaidas, Amompharetus, Hypsechidas, Anaxilas, [pg 195] and Cleomenes), in obedience to ancient traditions and fables respecting the original owners of Salamis, adjudged the possession of Salamis to the Athenians. Yet in the troubles which succeeded the banishment of Megacles, this island was again lost, as well as the harbour Nisæa, which had been before conquered.761 They soon however regained it, and Megara appears from that time forth to have given up all hopes of recovery: as in this age the power of Athens increased so rapidly, that Megara could no longer think of renewing her ancient contests.

Since it is not my object to give a continuous and general narration of facts, but only to extract what is most instructive for the condition of the Doric race, I shall not carry on the history of the Dorians out of Peloponnesus to a lower point, as their local connexions would lead us far astray into other regions. For the same reason I will only touch upon a few events of the Persian wars, confining myself to the internal affairs of Peloponnesus during that period, among which the supremacy of Sparta is the most important and remarkable.

Chapter IX.

1. Sparta, by the conquest of Messenia and Tegea, had obtained the first rank in Peloponnesus, which character she confirmed by the expulsion of the tyrants, and the overthrow of Argos. From about the year 580 B.C. she acted as the recognised commander, not only of Peloponnesus, but of the whole Greek name. The confederacy itself however was formed by the inhabitants of that peninsula alone, on fixed and regular laws; whereas the other Greeks only annexed themselves to it temporarily. The order of precedence observed by the members of this league may be taken from the inscription on the footstool of the statue of Zeus, which was dedicated at Olympia after the Persian war, the Ionians, who were only allied for a time, being omitted.762 It is as follows: Lacedæmon, [pg 197] Corinth, Sicyon, Ægina, Megara, Epidaurus,763 Tegea, Orchomenus, Phlius, Trœzen, Hermione, Tiryns, Mycenæ, Lepreum, and Elis; which state was contented with the last place, on account of the small share which it had taken in the war. The defenders of the Isthmus are enumerated in the following order;764 Lacedæmonians, Arcadians, Eleans, Corinthians, Sicyonians, Epidaurians, Phliasians, Trœzenians, and Hermionians, nearly agreeing with the other list, only that the Arcadians, having been present with their whole force, and also the Eleans, occupy an earlier place; and the Megarians and Æginetans are omitted, as having had no share in the defence. This regular order of precedence is alone a proof of a firm union. The Tegeates, since they had joined the side of Lacedæmon, enjoyed several privileges, and especially the place of honour at the left wing of the allied army.765 Argos remained excluded from the nations of Peloponnesus, as it never would submit to the command of Sparta; the Achæans, indifferent to external affairs, only joined themselves momentarily to the alliance:766 but the Mantineans, though latterly they followed the policy of Argos,767 were long attached to the Peloponnesian league; for at the end of the Persian war they sent an army, which arrived too late for the battle of Platæa;768 having before, together with the other Arcadians, helped to defend the Isthmus;769 they had also been engaged in the first days of the action at [pg 198] Thermopylae;770 and they were at this time still the faithful allies of the Lacedæmonians.771 Their subsequent defection from Sparta may be attributed partly to their endeavours to obtain the dominion of Parrhasia, which was protected by Lacedæmon;772 to their hostility with Tegea,773 which remained true to Sparta after the great war with Arcadia, which began about 470 B.C. and to the strengthening of their city (συνοικισμὸς), and the establishment of a democratic government, through the influence of Argos.774

2. The supremacy of Sparta775 was exercised in the expeditions of the whole confederacy, and in transactions of the same nature. In the first, a Spartan king—after it had been thought proper never to send out two together—was commander-in-chief, in whose powers there were many remains of the authority of the ancient Homeric princes. Occasionally, however, Sparta was compelled to give up her privilege to other commanders, especially at sea, as, for instance, the fleet at Salamis to Eurybiades. When any expedition was contemplated, the Spartans sent round to the confederate states,776 to desire them to have men and stores in readiness.777 The highest amount which each state could be called on to supply was fixed once for all, and it was only on each particular occasion to be determined [pg 199] what part of that was required.778 In like manner, the supplies in money and stores were regularly appointed;779 so that an army, with all its equipment, could be collected by a simple summons. But agricultural labour, festivals, and the natural slowness of the Doric race, often very much retarded the assembling of this army. The contributions, chiefly perhaps voluntary, both of states and individuals, were registered on stone: and there is still extant an inscription found at Tegea, in which the war supplies of the Ephesians, Melians, &c, in money and in corn, are recorded.780 But the Lacedæmonians never exacted from the Peloponnesian confederacy a regular annual contribution, independent of circumstances; which would have been in fact a tribute: a measure of this kind being once proposed to king Archidamus, he answered, “that war did not consume according to rule.781” Pericles, however, properly considers it as a disadvantage to the Peloponnesians that they had no paid troops, and that neither in common nor in the several states they had amassed any treasure.782 The object of an expedition was publicly declared: occasionally however, when secrecy was required, it was [pg 200] known neither to the states nor to their army.783 The single allied states, if necessity demanded it, could also immediately summon the army of the others;784 but it is not clear to what extent this call was binding upon them. The Spartan military constitution, which we will explain hereafter, extended to the whole allied army; but it was doubtless variously combined with the tactics of the several nations.785 To the council of war, which moreover only debated, and did not decide, the Spartan king summoned the leaders of the several states, together with other commanders, and generally the most distinguished persons in the army.786

3. According to the constitution of the Peloponnesian league, every common action, such as a declaration of war, or the conclusion of a peace or treaty, was agreed on at a congress of the confederates. But, as there was no regular assembly of this kind, the several states sent envoys (ἄγγελοι), like the deputies (πρόβουλοι) of the Ionians, who generally remained together only for a short time.787 All the members had legally equal votes;788 and the majority sometimes decided against a strong opposition;789 Sparta was often [pg 201] outvoted, Corinth being at all times willing to raise an opposition.790 We have however little information respecting the exact state of the confederacy; it is probable indeed, from the aristocratic feelings of the Peloponnesians, that, upon the whole, authority had more weight than numbers; and for great undertakings, such as the Peloponnesian war, the assent of the chief state was necessary, in addition to the agreement of the other confederates.791 When the congress was summoned to Sparta, the envoys often treated with a public assembly (ἔκκλητοι)792 of the Spartans; although they naturally withdrew during the division. Of these envoys, besides Sosicles the Corinthian, we also know the name of Chileus of Tegea, who prevailed upon the ephors, after a long delay, to send the army to Platæa, and who did much to allay the differences existing between the members of the then numerous confederacy.793

4. But upon the internal affairs, laws, and institutions of the allied states, the confederacy had legally no influence. It was a fundamental law that every state (πόλις) should, according to its ancient customs (καττὰ πάτρια), be independent and sovereign (αὐτόνομος καὶ αὐτόπολις);794 and it is much to the credit of Sparta, that, so long as the league was in existence, she never, not even when a favourable opportunity offered, deprived any Peloponnesian state of this independence. Nor were disputes between [pg 202] individual states brought before the congress of the allies, which, on account of the preponderance of Sparta, would have endangered their liberty; but they were commonly either referred to the Delphian oracle, or to arbitrators chosen by both states.795 When Elis claimed an ancient tribute from Lepreum, both states agreed to make Sparta their arbitrator by a special reference. In this character Sparta declared that Lepreum, being an independent member of the confederacy, was not bound to pay the tribute: and Elis acted unjustly in refusing to abide by her agreement, on the plea that she had not expected the decision.796 For disputes between citizens of different states there was an entirely free and equal intercourse of justice (commercium juris dandi repetendique).797 The jurisdiction of the states was also absolutely exempt from foreign interference (αὐτόδικοι).798 These are the chief features of the constitution of the Peloponnesian confederacy; the only one which in the flourishing times of Greece combined extensive powers with justice, and a respect for the independence of its weaker members.

5. Sparta had not become the head of this league by agreement, and still less by usurpation; but by tacit acknowledgment she was the leader, not only of this, but of the whole of Greece; and she acted as such in all foreign relations from about the year 580 B.C. Her alliance was courted by Crœsus: and the Ionians, when pressed by Cyrus, had recourse to the Spartans, [pg 203] who, with an amusing ignorance of the state of affairs beyond the sea, thought to terrify the king of Persia by the threat of hostilities. It is a remarkable fact, that there were at that time Scythian envoys in Sparta, with whom a great plan of operations against Persia is said to have been concerted; which it is not easy to believe.799 In the year 520 B.C. the Platæans put themselves under the protection of Cleomenes,800 who referred them to Athens; a herald from Sparta drove the Alcmæonidæ from their city:801 afterwards Aristagoras sought from the protector of Greece802 aid against the national enemy: and when the Æginetans gave the Persians earth and water, the Athenians accused them of treachery before the Spartans: and lastly, during the Persian war, Greece found in the high character of that state the only means of effecting the union so necessary for her safety and success.803

6. In this war a new confederacy was formed, which was extended beyond Peloponnesus; the community of danger and of victory having, besides a momentary combination, also produced an union destined for some duration. It was the assembly of this league—a fixed congress at Corinth during, and at Sparta after, the war—that settled the internal differences of Greece, that invited Argos, Corcyra, and Gelon to join the league, and afterwards called upon Themistocles to answer for his proceedings.804 So much it did for the present emergency. But at the same [pg 204] time Pausanias, the regent of Sparta, after the great victory of Platæa (at which, according to Æschylus, the power of Persia fell by the Doric spear),805 prevailed upon the allies to conclude a further treaty. Under the auspices of the gods of the confederacy, particularly of the Eleutherian (or Grecian) Zeus, they pledged themselves mutually to maintain the independence of all states, and to many other conditions, of which the memory has been lost. To the Platæans in particular security from danger was promised.806 The Ionians also, after the battle of Mycale, were received into this confederacy.807

7. The splendid victories over the Persians had for some time taken Sparta, which was fitted for a quiet and passive existence, out of her natural sphere; and her king Pausanias had wished to betray his country for the glitter of an Asiatic prince. But this state soon perceived her true interest, and sent no more commanders to Asia, “that her generals might not be made worse:” she likewise decided to avoid any further war with the Persians, thinking that Athens was better fitted to carry it on than herself.808 The decision of the Spartans was doubtless influenced by the defection of the Ionians from Pausanias, and their refusal to obey Dorcis, whom the Spartans had sent with a small body of men in his place. Nevertheless, the chief motives which determined them must have lain deeper; for without the Greeks of Asia Minor, they could, by the assistance of the naval powers of Peloponnesus, Corinth, Ægina, &c, have continued a [pg 205] war which promised more gain and plunder than trouble and danger. If the speech were now extant in which Hetoëmaridas the Heraclid proved to the councillors that it was not expedient for Sparta to aim at the mastery of the sea,809 we should doubtless possess a profound view, on the Spartan side, of those things which we are now accustomed to look on with Athenian eyes. Nor is it true that the supremacy over the Greeks was in fact transferred at all from Sparta to Athens, if we consider the matter as Sparta considered it, however great the influence of this change may have been on the power of Athens. But Sparta continued to hold her pre-eminence in Peloponnesus, and most of the nations of the mother-country joined themselves to her: while none but the Greeks of Asia Minor and the islands, who had previously been subjects of Persia, and were then only partially liberated, perhaps too much despised by Sparta, put themselves under the command of Athens.810

8. But the complete liberation of Asia Minor from the Persian yoke, which has been considered one of the chief exploits of Athens, was in fact never effected. Without entering into the discussion respecting the problematical treaty of Cimon,811 we will merely seek to ascertain the actual state of the Asiatic Greeks at this period. Herodotus states, that Artaphernes, the satrap at Sardes under Darius, fixed the tribute to be paid by the Ionians as it remained until the time of the [pg 206] writer,812 i.e. about the end of the Peloponnesian war. It is evident that this was a tribute to be paid to the king of Persia: the exactions of the Athenians were clearly not regulated by any Persian register of property. Again, in the nineteenth year of the war, Tissaphernes sought for assistance against Athens, that he might be able to pay to the king of Persia the tribute due from the Grecian maritime towns, which the Athenians had prevented him from collecting.813 From this it is plain that the shah of Susa was ignorant that the majority of those cities had for more than sixty years paid to the Athenians and not to him, and attributed the arrears only to the negligence of his viceroys. I say only the majority; for the Athenians had been far from completing the glorious work of the great Cimon; and after the war-contributions had become a most oppressive tribute, these cities might not themselves be very desirous to change their master. Hence Themistocles, as a vassal of Persia, possessed undisturbed, at the accession of Artaxerxes, the beautiful towns of Magnesia on the Mæander, Lampsacus, Myus, Percote, and ancient Scepsis.814 At a still later period the descendants of king Demaratus, Eurysthenes, and Procles, ruled by the same title over Halisarna in Mysia.815 The neighbouring towns of Gambrium, Palægambrium, Myrina, and Grynium had [pg 207] been given by Darius to Gongylus, and his descendants still dwelt there after the Peloponnesian war.816 When Athens unjustly expelled the Delians from their island, they found a place of refuge at Adramytteum, on the coast of Æolis, which was granted them by the satrap Pharnaces.817 Thus the Athenian empire did not prevent the vassals and subjects of the king of Persia from ruling over the Greeks of Asia Minor, even down to the very coast. We need not go any further to prove the entire falsehood of the account commonly given by the panegyrical rhetoricians of Athens.

9. Peloponnesus took the less concern in these proceedings, as internal differences had arisen from some unknown cause, which led to an open war between Sparta and Arcadia. We only know, that, between the battle of Platæa (in which Tegea, as also later still, showed great fidelity towards Sparta) and the war with the Helots (i.e. between 479 and 465 B.C.), the Lacedæmonians fought two great battles, the one against the Tegeates and Argives at Tegea, the other against all the Arcadians, with the exception of the Mantineans, at Dipæa in the Mænalian territory. Tisamenus, an Elean, of the family of the Iamidæ, was in both battles in the Spartan army; and in both Sparta was victorious.818 Yet, in an epigram of Simonides, the valour of the Tegeates is praised, who by their death had saved their city from destruction;819 probably after the loss of the first battle. As we find that Argos had a share in this war,820 it is possible [pg 208] that the views of that state were directed against the ascendancy of Sparta; perhaps also the independence of the Mænalians, Parrhasians, &c. had been, as was so often the case, attacked by the more powerful states of Arcadia, and was defended by the head of the Peloponnesian confederacy.

10. This war had not been brought to a termination, when, in the year 465 B.C., in the reign of Archidamus821 and Pleistoanax, a tremendous earthquake (which is said to have been predicted by Anaximander822) destroyed Sparta, and a sudden ruin threatened to overwhelm the state of Greece. For, in the hope of utterly annihilating their rulers, many Helots (perhaps doubly excited by the late outrage on the suppliants at the altar of the Tænarian god),823 especially the ancient inhabitants of Messenia, and two cities of the Periœci, revolted from Sparta; these rebels were all named Messenians, and the war was called the third Messenian war.824 The circumstances of this terrible contest are almost unknown to us; and we can only collect the few fragments extant of its history. Aëimnestus the Spartan, who had killed Mardonius, fought with 300 men at Stenyclarus against a body of Messenians, and was slain with all his men.825 This was followed by a great battle with [pg 209] the same enemy at Ithome,826 in which the Spartans were victorious. Most of the conquered Messenians then intrenched themselves on the steep summit of Ithome, which was even then sacred to Zeus Ithomatas; and they probably restored the ancient walls and defences which had fallen down. Upon this the Lacedæmonians, foreseeing a tedious siege, called in the aid of their allies; and this call was answered among others by the Æginetans,827 the Mantineans,828 the Platæans,829 and the Athenians, who, at the request of the Spartan envoy Periclides, sent 4000 hoplites830 under the command of Cimon; the Spartans, however, dismissed them before the fortress was taken, in which they expected to be aided by the superiority of the Athenians in the art of besieging, not without showing their suspicion of the innovating spirit of their ally.831 In the tenth year of the siege, 455 B.C., Ithome surrendered on terms; and the Messenians, together with [pg 210] their wives and children, quitted Peloponnesus, under a promise of never again entering it. It appears that the war between Lacedæmon and Arcadia was concluded upon conditions, of which one was, that no person should be put to death for the sake of the Lacedæmonian party at Tegea; and another, that Sparta was to expel the Messenians from the country, but not kill them—which were inscribed on a pillar on the banks of the Alpheus.832 The Athenians, however, gave the fugitives the town of Naupactus, which they had shortly before conquered, and which was conveniently situated for tempting them, against their promise, to make inroads and forays in Peloponnesus. The Messenians still continued, in the Peloponnesian war, to be distinguished from the neighbouring people by their Doric dialect.833

11. Immediately after the dismission of the Athenians from Ithome, the people of Athens, in order to resent the affront, annulled the alliance with Sparta, which had subsisted since the Persian war;834 entered into a treaty with Argos, the enemy of Sparta, and also with the Thessalians; and even joined to itself Megara, which was dependent on its commercial intercourse. Then followed the war with the maritime towns of Argolis, in which Athens, after many reverses, at length succeeded in destroying the fleet of [pg 211] Ægina, and subjugating that island (457 B.C.).835 Sparta was compelled to be a quiet spectator of the subjection of so important a member of her confederacy, as she was still occupied with the siege of Ithome, and in the same year had sent out an army to liberate her mother country, Doris, from the yoke of the Phocians. But when, after the execution of this object, the Spartans were hastening back to Peloponnesus, they were compelled to force their passage home by the battle of Tanagra, which, with the assistance of the Thebans, they gained over an army composed of Athenians, Ionians, Argives, and Thessalians. This aid was afforded to them on the condition that they would help the Thebans to regain their supremacy in Bœotia, which the Thebans had lost by their defection from the Grecian cause in the Persian war.836 Sparta, however, after so decisive a victory, concluded a four months' armistice with Athens, during which that state conquered the Thebans at Œnophyta, finished the blockade of Ægina, subdued all Bœotia with the exception of Thebes, and Phocis, and extended its democratical constitution, which after the battle of Tanagra was nearly threatened with destruction,837 even to the city of Thebes. The inactivity of Sparta during these astonishing successes of her enemy (for when she concluded the armistice with Athens she must have partly foreseen its consequences) seems to prove that she was entirely occupied with the final capture [pg 212] of Ithome, and the settlement of her interests in Arcadia.838 But that the war, which was now renewed by Athens, nevertheless extended to the whole Peloponnesian league, is shown by the connected attacks of Tolmides on the Spartan harbour Gytheium, and the cities of Sicyon and Corinth, and also by the expedition of Pericles in the Corinthian gulf. The five years' truce in 451 B.C. was only an armistice between Athens and the Peloponnesian confederacy, which left Bœotia to shake off the Athenian yoke by its own exertions. This was also the time of the Sacred war, in which a Spartan and an Athenian army, one coming after the other, the first gave the management of the temple to the Delphians, and the second, against all ancient right,839 to the Phocians. At the end of these five years Megara revolted from the Athenians, and in consequence an invasion of Attica by the Peloponnesians took place, which, though it did not produce any immediate result, was soon followed by the thirty years' truce, in which Athens ceded her conquests in Megaris and Peloponnesus,840 and on the mainland returned within her ancient boundaries; but she preserved the same power over her other confederates. For when the Athenians soon afterwards attacked the revolted island of Samos, the [pg 213] Peloponnesians indeed debated whether they should protect it, but the proposal of Corinth was adopted, that Athens should be allowed to deal with her allies as she pleased.841

12. If now we consider the events which have been briefly traced in the foregoing pages, it will be perceived, that the principle on which the Lacedæmonians constantly acted was one of self-defence, of restoring what had been lost, or preserving what was threatened with danger; whereas the Athenians were always aiming at attack or conquest, or the change of existing institutions. While the Spartans during this period, even after the greatest victories, did not conquer a foot of land, subjugate one independent state, or destroy one existing institution; the Athenians, for a longer or for a shorter time, reduced large tracts of country under their dominion, extended their alliance (as it was called) on all sides, and respected no connexion sanctioned by nature, descent, or antiquity, when it came in conflict with their plans of empire. But the astonishing energy of the Athenian people, which from one point kept the whole of Greece in constant vibration, almost paralysed Sparta; the natural slowness of that state became more and more apparent: which having been, as it were, violently transplanted into a strange region, only began by degrees to comprehend the policy of Athens.

But when Athens saw the Peloponnesian confederacy again established, and as she could not, on account of the truce, attack it directly, she looked to the colonial law, which rested rather on hereditary feelings than on positive institution, for an opportunity of an [pg 214] indirect attack. This was soon found in the defensive treaty with Corcyra, which state was engaged with its mother country Corinth in a war, according to ancient Greek principles, wholly unlawful and unjust. Besides this, however, it was an actual breach of the thirty years' truce.842 And the same principles were expressed in the demand that Potidæa should, for the sake of the Athenian confederacy, give up its original connexion with the parent state. In both these cases it is manifest that the maxims of the Athenian policy were directly at variance with the general feeling of justice entertained by the Greeks, and especially with the respect for affinity of blood; and this fundamental difference was the true cause of the Peloponnesian war.

13. As it would not be consistent with the plan of this work to give a detailed account of the influence of the Peloponnesian war upon the political and private character of the Greeks, we must be content to point out the following obvious points of opposition between the contending parties. In the first place, then, Dorians were opposed to Ionians; and hence in the well-known oracle it was called the Doric war.843 The individual exceptions are for the most part merely apparent;844 also when the Athenians attacked Sicily, all the Doric cities were opposed to them.845 On the side of Athens were ranged all the Ionians of Europe, [pg 215] of the islands, and of Asia, not indeed voluntarily, but still not altogether against their inclination. The union of the free Greeks against the evil ambition of one state. At the beginning of the war the general voice of Greece was in favour of Sparta846 (which was heard through the Delphian oracle, when it promised that state assistance);847 nor did she compel any one to join in it. The allies of Athens, having previously been Persian subjects, were accustomed to obey; and on the present occasion forced to submit; the public assembly of Athens was the only free voice in so large a combination. Land-forces against sea-forces. According to the speech of Pericles, Peloponnesus was able, in an action with heavy-armed troops, to resist all the rest of Greece together; and Athens avoided coming to this mode of engagement with singular ingenuity. The fleet of the Peloponnesians, on the other hand, was at the beginning of the war very inconsiderable.848 Hence it was some time before the belligerent parties even so much as encountered one another. The land was the means of communication for one party, the sea for the other: hence the states friendly to Athens were immediately compelled to build long walls for the purpose of connecting the chief city with the sea, and isolating it from the land; as Megara before, and Argos and Patræ during the war.849 Large bodies of men practised in war against wealth. The Peloponnesians carried on the war with natives: whereas Athens manned her fleet—the basis [pg 216] of her power—chiefly with foreign seamen; so that the Corinthians said justly that the power of Athens was rather purchased than native.850 It was the main principle of Pericles' policy, and it is also adopted by Thucydides in the famous introduction to his History, that it is not the country and people, but moveable property, (χρήματα, in the proper sense of the word,) which makes states great and powerful. Slow and deliberate conviction against determined rashness. This is evident both from the different direction taken by the alliances of the two parties, and from their national character. It was with good reason that the oracle admonished Sparta to carry on the war with decision and firmness; for that state was always cautious of undertaking a war, and ready for peace.851 Maintenance of ancient custom as opposed to the desire of novelty. The former was the chief feature of the Doric, the latter of the Ionic race. 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 [pg 217] of states the Athenians encouraged political associations or clubs (ἑταιρίαι), 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, cumbrous, 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 noble simplicity of the ancient times of Greece, soon disappeared in this tumultuous age.855 Sparta therefore and [pg 218] 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

Chapter I.

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 analyse 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 asserted, that the principal 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 institutions dedicated to the worship of Apollo; insomuch that the adoration of this god may be shown from the most ancient testimonies of mythology to have gradually advanced with the extension of the Doric [pg 220] 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 gods 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 assert its connexion with any race not of Hellenic 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 [pg 221] has been supposed that the worship of this god was introduced from the East (an opinion founded chiefly on the establishments of his religion in Lycia); but we shall presently show that its institution 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, Ætolians, Phrygians, and Thracians, the worship of this god 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 circumstance 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 [pg 222] 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-pass leading to Macedonia; and the altar in the ravine of the Peneus,863 from which the god himself was called Τεμπείτας; and in an inscription discovered near this spot, on the banks of the river between Tempe and Larissa, are the words ΑΠΛΟΥΝΙ ΤΕΜΠΕΙΤΑ, “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 [pg 223] 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 god whom he honoured, in order to return home amidst the joyful songs of the choruses of virgins, as δαφνηφόρος, 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 Pheræ); then through the country of the Malians and Ænianes, over mount Œta, through Doris and the western part of Locris;867 avoiding in a remarkable manner the shorter and more frequented road from Thessaly through Thermopylæ, over Phocis, and through the pass 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 pass through the second settlements of the Dorians, between Œta and Parnassus, where [pg 224] 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 circumstance is a sufficient proof of the antiquity of the usage. The theoria next proceeded to Pheræ, 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 Pheræ.870 The harbour of Pheræ was Pagasæ, in the furthest recess of the Pagasæan bay, in which place there was a celebrated altar of the [pg 225] Pagasæan 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 Pagasæan 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 Pagasæ,876 points to the connexion with Delphi; the same Trophonius, a renowned [pg 226] 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 institution, 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 Hestiæotis to Parnassus, 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 god.

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 gods 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 [pg 227] 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 goddess, who assisted 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 goddess 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 Phæstus, 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 [pg 228] 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 [pg 229] 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 Phœnicia, but the Dorian invaders alone who made Crete the head-quarters of the worship of Apollo: we therefore assert that this worship (as originally founded in Crete), had not the slightest connexion with the enthusiastic (and probably Phrygian) orgies of the Idæan 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 [pg 230] 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 prophets894 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 certain895), a fortified town in the inmost recess of the Crissæan bay, was probably a settlement of this Cretan colony, as the name Κρῖσα seems to signify nothing else than a Cretan city (Κρησία πόλις).896 Although the Pythian sanctuary itself was situated in the territory of Crissa,897 [pg 231] yet the town of Crissa possessed, besides an altar of Apollo Delphinius on the shore, 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 Crissæa 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 Heraclitus 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 constituted the whole population of the country. For, in the first place, the extensive territory of the temple was [pg 232] 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 nobility, whose influence over the temple was very considerable. These are the persons who, according to Euripides, “sat near the tripod, the Delphian nobles, 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 god, the five Ὅσιοι, 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 [pg 233] from Lycoreia on the heights of Parnassus, founded (as was supposed) by Deucalion, the father of Hellen;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 Parnassus, 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 [pg 234] 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, Parnassus, 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 Œta and Parnassus.

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 Ætolians 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-passes towards Bœotia, 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 [pg 235] great deity of the Dorians, which, under the name of Lapithæ, opposed the Dorians themselves in Thessaly. And on the other side, Apollo was related in the Poems of Hesiod, and the Minyad, to have assisted the Locrian Curetes against the Ætolians, and slain their prince Meleager.915

Chapter II.

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 shores 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 [pg 236] 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 Ægean sea, to erect, wherever they touched, temples to that god, 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 Hellenic 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 [pg 237] 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 title 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 goddess 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 god, where he also gave out oracles through the mouth of a priestess.930 The oblations of cakes in the shape of lyres, bows and [pg 238] 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 god, 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 Parnassus, 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 sanctity, 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 [pg 239] 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 space 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 Cassandra 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 [pg 240] northern foot of mount Ida, and the native place of the archer Pandarus, the son of Lycaon, worshipped Apollo under the title 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 Lycæus.943 The origin of this worship can neither be attributed to the native Trojan and Dardan race, nor yet to the later Æolians, 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 [pg 241] 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 Laomedon948 is the same fable as that of Admetus at Pheræ, 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 Panthoidæ. Panthus (from whom a tribe in modern Ilium derived its name Πανθωῒς)949 was a priest of the god,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 Æacidæ, 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 Æneas, whom, when wounded by Diomed, the god 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 prophecy956 respecting the future dominion of the descendants of Æneas 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 Hellespontine or Mermessian. We now see that the ancient poet, being well acquainted with the existence of the Æneadæ at Gergis, their festivals and sacrifices, felt himself bound, according [pg 243] 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 illustration of the fable of Æneas. We must first assume 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 Æneas. 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 assumed this form among the distressed and conquered Trojans. Now a colony of Gergithians also inhabited the territory of the Æolian Cume,958 where Apollo possessed a magnificent temple;959 and if these oracles had been known to the Cumæans, they would readily have passed over to their kinsmen the Cumans 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 Dædalus);960 underneath was the grotto of the sibyl. Here it was said that Æneas 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 [pg 244] 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 Hellespont 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 Æneas, 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 Deræa 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 principal of these was the Didymæum, 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 [pg 245] principal 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 priest966 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 titles of ἑκάεργος and ἑκαέργη.970 The ruins of this temple, so highly honoured in Asia, still bear witness to its ancient fame and splendour. From the temple [pg 246] to the harbour971 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 god of Branchidæ as the principal deity in their town, and introduced him into their numerous colonies, from Naucratis973 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 (προστάτης).977

7. The twin brother of the Didymæan god, both in origin and in the similarity of worship, is the Clarian Apollo. However fabulous the particular circumstances 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 [pg 247] 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 Bœotia. 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 Leucæ, between Smyrna and Phocæa (where the Cumæans celebrated a festival),982 was probably a member of the Trojan family, to which the Grynean Apollo, in the territory of Myrina near Cume (where there was also an oracle), appears to be related.983 Apollo [pg 248] 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 Trœzen, Tænarum, Megara, and Thoricus.

Trœzen, 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 Trœzen, 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 establishment989 on the promontory of Tænarum 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 Laconia991 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 god 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 [pg 250] from Crete. On the former citadel stood a statue of Apollo Decatephorus,994 “the receiver of tithes,” 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 tithe.995

9. The process of our investigation will shortly lead us to examine the Attic legends, consisting of a confused mass of tradition, with which the worship of all the gods, including that of Apollo, was in that country perplexed.

To commence then with the legends which are connected with the temple of Apollo at Thoricus. Thoricus, situated on the south-eastern coast of Attica, was one of the ancient twelve towns of that country, [pg 251] and always remained a place of consequence, of which there are still extant considerable remains. Favoured by its situation, it soon became a commercial station; Cretan vessels were accustomed in ancient times to anchor in its harbour.996 The fable of Cephalus and Procris appears, from some poetical and mythological accounts, to have been connected with Crete and the worship of Apollo.997 We know for certain that the Cephalidæ, who existed at a still later period in Attica,998 preserved some hereditary rites of Apollo: for when in the tenth generation Chalcinus and Dætus, the descendants of the hero, returned to the country which their ancestor had quitted in consequence of murder, they immediately built a temple to that god on the road to Eleusis.999

10. But the fable of Cephalus was also connected with another great temple of Apollo, which in the west of Greece looked down from the chalky cliffs of the promontory of Leucatas over the Ionian sea, and of which there are ruins still extant.1000 Now Cephalus, the hero of Thoricus, is said to have gained these regions in company with Amphitryon:1001 he is also said to have first made the celebrated leap from the rock of Leucatas.1002 This leap, doubtless, had originally a religious meaning, and was an expiatory [pg 252] rite. At the Athenian festival of Thargelia, a festival sacred to Apollo, criminals, crowned as victims, were led to the edge of a rock, and thrown down to the bottom; and the same ceremony appears to have been performed on certain sacred occasions at Leucatas.1003 Here, however, the fall of the criminal was broken by tying feathers, and even birds, to his body; below, he was taken up, and conveyed to a distance, that he might carry away with him every particle of guilt. This was without doubt the original meaning of the leap of Cephalus, who was stained with the guilt of homicide, and on that very account a fugitive from his country. According to a legend noticed in an ancient epic poem, his purification took place at Thebes;1004 whereas the Leucadian tradition doubtless represented his leap from the rock as the act of atonement.

In later times, indeed, the object of this leap was totally altered; it was supposed to be a specific for disappointed love.1005 This singular application of the ancient custom gave a romantic colour to the legend connected with it. Cephalus and Procris were also represented in after-times as tormented by love and jealousy. Probably the story partly obtained this form in Cyprus, the island of Aphrodite, whither the fable of Cephalus1006 was early carried by Attic settlers. But in whatever manner it was perverted, we cannot doubt that the leap of Cephalus from the [pg 253] Leucadian rock was a part of the expiatory worship of Apollo.

These considerations refer to the Cretan rites solemnized at Thoricus. In Athens itself, the traditions of Crete and Delphi being found united together, it is necessary that we should first return to the latter place, and follow the Pythian worship through Bœotia.

11. This indeed is neither the time nor place to relate how the Pythian worship, in spite of the opposition of hostile races, traced the route of the procession through the passes of Parnassus. The fact is indeed evident from an almost unbroken chain of temples and oracles, the links of which, viz., Thurium, Tilphossium, the temple of Galaxius, the oracle of Eutresis, the Ismenium, Tenerium, Ptoum, and Tegyra, are all connected either by tradition or religious rites with Delphi. Delium is probably the only place on the eastern coast founded from Delos. Pindar represents the establishment of several such temples under the form of a migration of the god himself.1007

I shall content myself with noticing a few of the temples above-mentioned.

The first in order is the oracle at the fountain of Tilphossa under Mount Helicon, famous for the grave of Tiresias and the monument of Rhadamanthus, who is said to have dwelt here with Alcmena the mother of Hercules.1008 To this spot were attached some remarkable traditions of the Cretan worshippers of Apollo, forming a branch of the colonization of Cirrha; which is alluded to in Homer's account of [pg 254] the Thracians' bringing Rhadamanthus to Eubœa for the purpose of seeing Tityus;1009—a remarkable passage, which I can only understand to mean that the Cretan hero was desirous to see Tityus, who was vanquished by Apollo.

Tegyra was a place of great importance in the Bœotian tradition, as being the birthplace of Apollo.1010 The Delphian oracle was more favourable to this tradition than to that of Delos. Pindar1011 represents the youthful god as coming to take possession of Pytho from Tegyra, not, as the Attic poets, from Delos.

12. The identity of the Bœotian with the Delphian worship of Apollo was particularly striking in the temple of Ismene at Thebes. As at Delphi the Python was slain and the laurel broken anew every eight years, so at Thebes a procession of laurel-bearers took place at the same periods, the use of which, as a measure of time, is evident.1012 Here also, as at Delphi, the statue of Athene was placed in front of the temple (πρόναος).1013 Tripods were the sacred vessels in both temples, though never employed in the latter for the purpose of prophecy. In later times the priests were contented with observing omens from the flame and ashes of sacrifices,1014 like the πυρχόοι of Delphi;1015 although [pg 255] the mode of delivering oracles, from a mental enthusiasm, was prevalent also in Thebes at an earlier period; at least Tiresias (whom we may consider as a prophet of the temple of Ismene)1016 does not, either in Homer or the tragedians, appear as a diviner from fire.

That, however, the whole worship of Apollo was not one of those originally instituted at Thebes, will be evident from the following observations. In the ancient legends respecting Cadmus, in which Demeter, Cora, Cadmus, and afterwards Bacchus, predominate in succession, Apollo never appears in a conspicuous character. For particular additions of the poets may be easily distinguished from the genuine popular tradition. The fable, that Cadmus, after the slaughter of the serpent, was, like Apollo, compelled to live eight years in slavery,1017 must be considered as a poetical transposition. Cadmus and Apollo had originally no points of resemblance to each other. The situation of the temple of Apollo at Thebes is a most convincing proof that his worship was totally distinct from any other. Those of the ancient national gods were built on the citadel of Cadmeia, whilst Apollo was not only not worshipped in the citadel, but even without the gates, in the temple of Ismene,1018 which, according to Pausanias, must have been situated opposite to the temple of Hercules and the house of Amphitryon. This proximity of the hero and god, as well as all other points of union between the two at Thebes, will [pg 256] be employed for the purpose of establishing further conclusions, when we explain the legend of Hercules.1019

To settle with any accuracy, from the traditions concerning Tiresias and Hercules, the time at which the Bœotian temples of Apollo were founded, seems hardly possible, since the former contain no chronological information, and the latter are entirely unconnected with the rest of the Theban mythology. A tradition respecting the establishment of the festival of the Daphnephoria places it at the time of the Æolian migration,1020 whence it might perhaps be inferred that the Æolians introduced the worship of Apollo into Bœotia. This hypothesis would however involve us in endless perplexities; and it is most probable that its diffusion was gradually effected, soon after the settlement at Cirrha, about the time at which the worship of Apollo rose to importance at Athens.

13. The introduction of this worship into Attica coincides exactly with the passage of the Ionians into that country. The traditions respecting the most ancient kings, Cecrops, Erichthonius, and Erechtheus, chiefly refer to the temples, symbols, and festival rites of Athene; and this goddess, together with the other deities of the Acropolis, plays the principal part in them, particularly in her connexion with the blessings of husbandry. But with the reign of Ion the Attic mythology assumes quite a different character.1021 This seems to me a complete refutation of the assertion of the Ionians as to their identity with the aboriginal nation of the Pelasgians.1022 Still more evident is it [pg 257] then, that in proportion as the Ionians, being a warlike nation,1023 separated themselves from the original inhabitants, whose employment was agriculture and pasturing, their Hellenic worship deviated from the ancient one of the country. Aristotle indeed speaks of the paternal Apollo (Ἀπόλλων πατρῷος) as being a son of Athene and Hephæstus;1024 but this is nothing more than an endeavour to create a family connexion between the principal gods of the same town: for where do we ever find a temple dedicated conjointly to Athene and Apollo? what ceremonies and sacrifices were offered to them in common? and in what legends are they found connected? Till such an union of the two deities is discovered, we must consider Athene as an ancient and native deity, Apollo as one of much later introduction. The Athenians, indeed, maintained that an ancient hero of their country, Erysichthon, a son of Cecrops himself, erected the first statue of Apollo at Delos:1025 but it is easy to recognise in this account the attempt of the Athenians to fortify their claims to the dominion of the Delian temple, and to represent their rights as prior to all others. In all that is related of the Ionian princes (to whom Ægeus1026 and Theseus belong) with reference to religious institutions, mention is seldom made of the ancient Athenian deities, Athene and Hephæstus. The whole is [pg 258] taken up with accounts either of the establishment of the worship of Poseidon (which prevailed in the Ionian cities and in the places of their national assemblies), or the establishment and maintenance of an intercourse with the temples of Apollo at Delos, Delphi, and Cnosus.

14. In the second place, the fabulous history of these heroes also concerns the worship of Apollo, in so far as the origin of the Pythian Theorias is contained in it. Ion is even a real son or adopted disciple of the Pythian god; and in all probability there was no more difference originally between his two fathers, Apollo and Xuthus,1027 than between the two fathers of Theseus, Ægeus and Poseidon. Theseus consecrated his hair to the same god; a place at Delphi was called Thesea.1028 It is also related of Ægeus, that his kingdom, embracing the plain of Attica, stretched as far as Pythium, where it bordered on Megaris.1029 This Pythium was situated in the “sacred Œnoë,”1030 a fortified borough town of the tribe Hippothoontis, on the frontiers of Megaris, Bœotia, and Attica,1031 to the north of the plain of Eleusis, and in a district of remarkable fertility.1032

This temple was manifestly built on the frontiers in [pg 259] order to afford a resting-place to the sacred procession, which in the beginning of the spring went from Athens to Pytho. For if favourable omens had been observed in the town itself, and it was intended to despatch the procession, the prophet in the Pythium at Œnoë performed sacrifices every day, in order to procure a favourable journey, just as the Delian procession was regulated by omens observed in the Delium at Marathon.1033 The families charged with the preparations for sending the procession (probably all of ancient Ionian extraction) were called Pythaistæ and Deliastæ.1034 The omens looked for were the Pythian lightnings, a very unusual mode of divination in Greece. The Pythaistæ took their station in the town, near the altar of Zeus Astrapæus, between the Olympieium and Pythium, both of which were among the earliest sanctuaries, although they first owed their magnificence to Pisistratus.1035 From this spot it was the custom to watch for nine nights, during three months, a lofty peak of mount Parnes,1036 called Harma; and it was only in case the wished-for lightnings flashed favourably over the heights that the embassy could proceed along the Pythian road. This road led from Athens, near mount Corydallus (on which there was a temple of Apollo),1037 through the Eleusinian [pg 260] plain to Œnoë; from thence through the pass of Dryoscephalæ to Bœotia, where it touched either Thespiæ or Thebes, then Lebadeia and Chæronea, and then passed on by Panopeus and Daulis through the defile between Parnassus and Cirphis to Delphi: a mountain road which the Athenians declared that they had themselves opened,1038 and which Theseus is said to have freed from robbers,1039 in the same manner that he purified the road to the Isthmus from monsters. This was also the sacred road for the Peloponnesians, if we except that part of it which traversed Attica.1040

There still remains to be mentioned a remarkable fact respecting Œnoë, which will greatly assist us in explaining the fable of the voyage of Theseus to Crete: I allude to the existence of a tomb of Androgeus, the son of Minos, whom the natives had put to death as he was passing on the Pythian road.1041 A Cretan was murdered in the sacred way of the Cretan worship; Minos came to take vengeance for the violation of the sacred armistice; and hence Athens was obliged to send a tribute to Cnosus. Now the nature of this tribute may be perceived from a tradition preserved by Aristotle,1042 that the boys who were sent to Crete by the Athenians lived at Cnosus as slaves; and that [pg 261] afterwards, when the Cretans, in consequence of an ancient vow, sent a tithe of men to Delphi, the descendants of these slaves went with them, and subsequently passed from thence to Italy. From this it appears that the Athenians were compelled to send sacred slaves to the chief temple at Cnosus, viz., that of Apollo. For this reason these missions took place every eight years (δι᾽ ἐννέα ἐτῶν);1043 that is, probably at every Ennaëteris of the Cretan and Delphic festival; and for the same reason they consisted of seven young men and women, as this number was especially sacred to Apollo.1044

It is well known how much this tradition was disfigured by the Athenians (originally perhaps in their popular legends, and afterwards by the poets), in what an odious light it was represented, and so mixed up with extraneous matter, that we should only render the problem too difficult if we attempted to investigate the whole of its component parts.

We may however affirm with certainty that the voyage of Theseus to Crete had originally no other meaning than the landings at Naxos1045 and Delos, which were connected with it—viz., a propagation of religious worship.

The landing at Delos is a mythical type of the theorias, which the Athenians, in common with all the Ionian islands, had from early times sent to this place;1046 moreover, the ship which conveyed Theseus home was always regarded as a sacred vessel. It was sent out at the Thargelia, after the priest, on the sixth day of Thargelion, had crowned the poop.1047

Amongst other Delian rites the worship of Eilithyia was also at that time brought over to Athens, probably from the island of Crete, where an ancient cavern of the goddess, near Amnisus, has been already mentioned.1048 One point at which the procession from Attica to Crete touched was the borough town and harbour of Prasiæ, on the eastern coast of Attica, where, besides the temple of Apollo, was the tomb of Erysichthon, the Delian and Athenian hero; and tradition represented the gifts of the Hyperboreans to have been transported from this port to that sacred island.1049

Lastly, the origin of the Delphinian expiatory festival from Delphi and Crete is as evident as its introduction by the Ionian princes; for Ægeus dwelt in the Delphinium, and was there buried. To him was also ascribed the establishment of the Delphinian [pg 263] tribunal. Theseus, previously to his expedition to Crete, here placed the olive-branch, bound with wool, on the sixth day of Munychion,1050 and purified himself from the murder of the Pallantidæ.1051

15. The political situation of the worship of Apollo at Athens still requires to be noticed. From our previous observations it is clear that the Ionians had adopted it from the Dorians; hence Ion himself is called the son of the Pythian god. The paternal deity of Athens was, as Demosthenes says, no other than the Pythian Apollo.1052 We may then assert, without hesitation, that the Ionians were the only race who had gentilitious rites of Apollo, and that they alone could properly be called γενῆται Ἀπόλλωνος πατρῴου. Thus, when the archons at the scrutiny swore, that besides Zeus Herceus, the household god, they worshipped also Apollo πατρῷος;1053 this form of oath originated at a time when the Eupatridæ, that is, the noble Ionic and Hellenic families, were alone eligible to the dignity of the archonship. Nor was it till, by the timocracy of Solon and democracy of Aristides, the richer class in general and the whole [pg 264] people were admitted to this office, that Apollo πατρῷος was considered as a deity common to all families.1054 The democratical judges of Athens also yearly took an oath before this deity:1055 this ceremony was at first perhaps only required of the criminal judges of aristocratical descent, viz., the Ephetæ. It is however clear that originally the religion of Apollo was adapted for the military caste alone, the ancient Hopletes; hence he was not a god of artisans and husbandmen, but of warriors. Hence also Ion or Xuthus adopted him as the Athenian god of war (πολέμαρχος) at the festival of Boedromia,1056 the name of which is derived from the onset of armed troops in battle.

As originally the Eupatridæ alone cultivated the worship of Apollo, they alone possessed the ceremony of purification, which is here, as elsewhere, mixed up with the rites of the Cretan worship. According to Plutarch,1057 Ion had instructed the Athenians in religion, i.e., in that of Apollo; and the same author relates,1058 that Theseus established the Eupatridæ as administrators of the government, judges, and interpreters of the sacred rites (ἐξηγηταὶ ὁσίων καὶ ἱερῶν).

By this we are to understand that it was their duty to give information respecting every thing which regarded the jus sacrum; which in ancient times especially comprehended expiations and excommunications for homicide. The rites necessary at purification were also entirely in the hands of the Eupatridæ, (πάτρια);1059 and this is the reason why in old times they took cognizance of every homicide, and in later times of manslaughter, the connexion of which duties with the worship of Apollo will be shown hereafter.1060

I have been induced to place these points in as strong a light as possible, from the democratical tendency of Athenian poetry, which endeavoured to obliterate all traces of the forcible occupation of Attica, and of the foreign extraction of the families of the Eupatridæ. On this account the vacant period between the times of the Erecthidæ and Ægidæ was notoriously supplied by arbitrary insertions, and the fable of Ion represented in a thousand various ways. This tendency is also recognised in the tragedy of Ion by Euripides, the artful and ingenious plan of which cannot be sufficiently admired. According to the ancient tradition, Ion was the son of the hero Xuthus, or of the Pythian Apollo (who were originally considered as identical), and probably of Creusa, a native of Attica, which was a mode of expressing his new settlement there. Euripides, on the other hand, separates Ion from Xuthus,1061 who is always represented as somewhat rude and coarse, and [pg 266] even tyrannical,1062 and so alters the whole story, that the hero does not appear as a newcomer, but as the legitimate offspring of the female line of the race of the Erecthidæ. By this device the poet preserved the idea that the Athenians were an aboriginal nation, on which they so prided themselves,1063 and set aside, in a manner most agreeable to their feelings, the fable which contradicted this claim to antiquity. Ion himself in the tragedy gives utterance to some very popular sentiments; and of the power of aristocracy, once so firmly established, the last faint memorial is almost buried in oblivion.1064

Chapter III.

1. We now come to the third epoch of the propagation of the worship of Apollo. The first embraced the earliest migrations of the Doric nation, when the great temples at Delphi, Cnosus, and Delos were founded from Tempe. The second period is that of [pg 267] the maritime supremacy of Minos, when the coasts of Asia and Greece were covered with groves and expiatory altars of this god. The third comprehends the chief migration of the Dorians, and others occasioned by it. Through these means Apollo became the principal deity in Peloponnesus, where, in early times, we find few traces of his existence. That the Carnean Apollo of the Lacedæmonians, and the Apollo Nomius of the Arcadians, form no exceptions to our assertion, will be proved in a subsequent inquiry into the nature and origin of these worships.1065

After the Doric conquest of Peloponnesus, the chief temples were every where consecrated to Apollo. We have already spoken of the sanctuary of Apollo Pythaëus, in which the Argive confederacy held their meetings;1066 nor was the temple of Apollo Lyceus in the market-place less celebrated.1067 The Spartans also worshipped this deity under the former name,1068 and the inhabitants of Sicyon under the latter.1069 Hecatus, it [pg 268] is pretended, was a soothsayer, who came with the sons of Aristodemus to Sparta; and his descendant, in the second Messenian war, held the same office:1070 the name of this family refers to the worship of Apollo Hecatus (the far-darting god). At Sparta Apollo was the national deity; the kings sacrificed to him on the first and seventh days of every month;1071 the influence of the capital city had also caused its general extension throughout the country.1072 Corinth,1073 Epidaurus,1074 Ægina,1075 and Trœzen1076 followed the same example.

The name of the Delphian god had now attained throughout Peloponnesus the universal respect which it so long enjoyed: it had even led the way to the settlement [pg 269] and conquest of that peninsula, and hence Apollo was called by the Dorians their leader and founder.1077 It was not till a later period that the kings of Messenia (who upon the whole adhered less strictly to the Doric customs than the Spartans) entered into a connexion with the sanctuary at Delos, which had then already fallen into the power of the Ionians. About the fifth Olympiad (760 B.C.) Eumelus, the Corinthian poet, composed an ode for a Messenian chorus to that holy island.1078 On the other hand, it was owing to the Dorians (particularly to the Spartans) that the Pythian sanctuary remained independent, in the hands of the Delphians; to preserve it in this state was one of the duties which they inherited from their fathers;1079 and they protected it more than once, particularly against the Athenians.

2. The political power of the Dorians over the whole of Peloponnesus necessarily ensured the preponderance of their religious institutions; nevertheless we find that the Achæans and Arcadians possessed few temples of Apollo, and those not the principal ones in their cities.1080 The worship of Apollo was however, through Spartan influence, held in great respect at Tegea (the customs of which town had indeed become almost entirely Doric), where there was also a tribe called Apolloneatis.1081 The country moreover being intersected in every direction by roads to Olympia and Delphi (to which place Peloponnesus despatched her [pg 270] hecatombs in the beginning of the spring),1082 must have been by this very circumstance induced to establish temples in honour of Apollo, an instance of which appears in that at Onceum.

The principal deity of the Doric name soon obtained a conspicuous place in the national festival, held equally sacred by all Peloponnesians; I mean that of Olympia. The establishment of this festival is probably of early date; perhaps it took place during the time when the dominion of the Pelopidæ spread from Pisa and Olympia over most parts of the peninsula. Hence the Elean Ætolians, when they seized upon the presidency of these games, were, by the command of the oracle, at the same time obliged to take one of the Pelopidæ from the Achæan town of Helice for their prince.1083 Moreover, the ancient rivalry between the Olympian and Isthmian worship, which occasioned the prohibition against any Elean contending at the Isthmus,1084 can hardly have arisen at any other time than when (previously to the Doric usurpation) the Olympian Zeus was the chief god of the Achæans,1085 the Isthmian Poseidon of the Ionians.

But it was not till the Dorians, for the purpose of assembling all the Peloponnesians, at least every four years, under the protection of their god, had taken possession of the temple at Olympia; nor till Iphitus the Ætolian, and Lycurgus the Dorian, had renewed these contests, or given them a greater degree of importance, that Apollo and Zeus are found in connexion with each other, and even contending in the course at [pg 271] Olympia. And as a further instance of change, the sacred armistice of Olympia went by the local name of Therma;1086 and hence Apollo, as the patron and guardian deity of the institution, was called Thermius, and worshipped under that title in the grove of Altis.1087 At this time Hercules (whose worship, once entirely unknown in Elis, was introduced by Iphitus)1088 is also reported to have brought the wild olive-tree from the Hyperboreans to the Alpheus, and planted the sacred grove of Altis with it.1089 The important influence of the Delphian oracle on the Olympian games also occasioned the time of their celebration to be regulated by the Pythian cycle of eight years.1090 For whereas the whole cycle of eight years consisted of ninety-nine lunar months, at the expiration of which time the revolutions of the moon and sun again nearly coincided; this period was at Olympia divided into two unequal parts of fifty and forty-nine months, so that the festival took place sometimes in the month of Apollonius, sometimes in Parthenius.

The introduction of the worship of Apollo must have had no less influence on the families of the soothsayers, who ministered at the altars of the Olympic deities. These were the Clytiadæ, Iamidæ, and Telliadæ;1091 of which the Clytiadæ considered themselves as belonging to a clan, which produced very many soothsayers, viz., the Melampodidæ.1092 This explains the fable that Melampus received the gift of prophecy from Apollo on the banks of the Alpheus,1093 in the place where it was exercised by his descendants the Clytiadæ.

3. The Doric migration gave rise to many others, which spread the worship of Apollo in various directions; no longer, however, as a peculiar deity of the Dorians and Cretans, but, in a more extended sense, as the national god of the Greeks. This was chiefly occasioned by the influence of Delphi, which seems to have given the chief stimulus to that great migration. In fact, it became from this time invested with a power which hardly belonged to any subsequent institution. Apollo is represented as governing nations with an arbitrary power, compelling them, however unwilling, to undertake distant expeditions, and pointing out the settlements which they are to occupy. In order to convey a more distinct idea of this singular phenomenon, it is necessary that the condition of the immediate subjects of the Pythian temple should be more closely examined.

When the district of the Cirrhæans had, by the Amphictyonic war, become forfeited to the temple of [pg 273] Delphi, the sacred lands belonging to it formed a very considerable territory. Two inscriptions contain surveys of the Hieromnemons respecting its boundaries: one relating to those towards Anticirrha in the east, the other to those in the direction of Amphissa to the west.1094 Now it certainly appears that in ancient times, when Cirrha was in existence, none of these lands belonged to the temple, which must therefore have possessed little or no territory. But in spite of the generally received accounts of the Amphictyonic war, it can be satisfactorily proved, that in earlier times Cirrha and the temple, with its appendages, formed one state.1095 Their territory indeed consisted for the most part of rock, mountain, and narrow glens;1096 yet towards the south it embraced the spacious plain of Crissa, and in the north at least the luxuriant vineyards of Parnassus. By whom then was this territory cultivated? certainly neither by the Doric nobles nor the Cretan colonists, who in the Homeric hymn are derided by the god for thinking of the labours of agriculture, and commanded to employ themselves merely in sacrificing victims.1097 Thus it is evident, that there were subjects of the temple, who, besides the humble employment of cultivating the soil, were also obliged to tend the herds belonging to the temple. These were the servants of the temple whom we so frequently find mentioned.1098 The same class also existed in Crete, as we have before proved from the tribute sent by Athens; and Crete, in its turn, as well as Eretria and [pg 274] Magnesia,1099 sent such “human firstlings” to the temple of Pytho. Mention is also made of a town in Crete composed of a thousand men, all sacred slaves.1100 Now these slaves of Delphi may have been procured in different ways, either as tribute (and that either of a city or of individuals), as voluntary bondsmen, or by purchase:1101 the latter mode was probably of rare occurrence in early times. There still remain a considerable number of Delphian monuments, in which private individuals present or sell to the god those slaves whom they wish to favour.1102 The condition of these vassals corresponds to that of the Doric bondsmen;1103 but their servitude was probably of a milder nature; for we find it frequently stated that the sacred slaves lived inviolate under the protection of the god, although (at least in early times) they were entirely dependent on the sacred council of the temple. Originally, a great part consisted of prisoners taken in war. We collect from ancient epic poems that [pg 275] Manto the daughter of Tiresias was, after the war of the Epigoni, sent to the Pythian god as a share of the spoil1104 (ἀκροθίνιον): one individual, as is usual in the language of mythology, standing for many. The Gephyræans also are said to have been at that time decimated, sent from Thebes to Delphi, and thus to have arrived at Athens.1105 After the Persian war, an idea was actually entertained of reviving this punishment against the Thebans, whose enemies considered them, at a still later period, as in the eye of justice decimated, and given as slaves to Apollo.1106

4. When the Pythian god was either unwilling or unable to retain within his territory the crowds who had been collected in this manner, he sent them out as colonists; without, however, entirely giving up all claim to their obedience. The early Grecian history affords several examples of this proceeding: the earliest is a Doric tradition respecting the Dryopes, which differs in some respect from their own account. Hercules, here represented as a Doric hero, had subjugated the Dryopes, and brought them to Delphi as an offering to Apollo, by whom he was commanded to settle them on the southern coast of Argolis.1107 That this nation, probably of Pelasgic origin, did not in early times worship the Doric god, is evident from the tradition that Leogoras the Dryopian violated the temple of Apollo.1108 But it is equally certain that they were henceforth compelled to serve Apollo as their [pg 276] chief deity, especially in his character of Apollo Pythaëus at Argos.1109 A part of this nation however remained at Delphi, where it is frequently mentioned in later times under the name of Craugallidæ, who, together with the Cirrhæans, appear as enemies to the temple;1110 from which circumstance it may be inferred that most of these Cirrhæans were revolted subjects of the temple.

The migration of the Magnesians approaches rather nearer to the historical age. This race, dwelling under mount Pelion, felt itself, about the time of the Thessalian migration, so pressed for want of territory, that it had recourse to the Delphian oracle, by whose advice it decimated its numbers; that is, it sent off a tenth part of the young male population, who (like a ver sacrum in Italy)1111 renounced their native land.1112 These young colonists were mostly despatched to the worshippers of Apollo in Crete, where they founded the town of Magnesia, which Plato speaks of as a place that had been destroyed, and considers as a prototype of his ideal state, Apollo having been its only [pg 277] legislator.1113 The intercourse of Crete with the coast of Asia Minor soon carried over these sojourners to the banks of the Mæander and the Lethæus, at the confluence of which rivers they had been settled some time before the Ionic migration;1114 being, as was afterwards declared by a Panhellenic decree, the first Greeks who settled in Asia Minor.1115 Still, although thus separated from their mother country, they maintained, as sacred colonists (ἱεροὶ ἄποικοι), a perpetual connexion with Delphi, and were bound, in ancient times, to provide all travellers with food and lodging.1116 The Delphians could expect a similar reception at Delos:1117 and indeed an extended exercise of the duties of hospitality formed one of the principal objects of this worship. Pausanias1118 gives an account of this very important worship of Apollo in Magnesia as follows:1119 “At Hylæ, a place in the territory of the Magnesians,1120 is a cavern consecrated to Apollo; [pg 278] not, indeed, remarkable for its size; but it contains a statue of Apollo of great antiquity, and which confers strength for every kind of work. Certain devotees throw themselves, by the assistance of this image, from steep and lofty precipices; or tearing large trees up by the roots, walk with their burden down the steepest paths.” We would attempt to trace more minutely the connexion of Magnesia with Crete and Delphi, had not all clue to history been necessarily broken off by the conquest of this proud and prosperous city by the Ephesians, and its complete destruction by the Treres, a Cimmerian tribe, in the time of the Lydian monarch Ardys.1121

We have only time to notice some few other events of a similar nature. Thus the Ænianes came to the oracle about the same time, and on a similar emergency as the Magnesians; dwelt for some years in the territory of Cirrha, and were afterwards sent to the banks of the Inachus in southern Thessaly.1122 An example of historical authority is furnished by the Chalcideans in Eubœa, the youthful part of whose population was despatched by Apollo to Rhegium in Italy;1123 hence this town also celebrated the worship of the god with expiatory rites and festivals,1124 to which the Messenians of Sicily sent choruses of thirty-five boys across the straits.1125

5. These events, which from their connected form cannot be poetical fictions, give some idea of the extensive influence of the temple of Delphi, the power of which was probably at its highest pitch in the time immediately succeeding the Doric migrations. Hence also this was the epoch of the greatest influence of the Amphictyons of Thermopylæ;1126 which confederation of Thessalian tribes, and of tribes derived from Thessaly, united the worship of the Doric temple of Apollo with that of Demeter at Thermopylæ, and thus an Hellenic and ancient Pelasgic worship were combined together,1127 probably not without a view of forming a more intimate union between the different races of Greece. The assembling in the spring of the year at Delphi was probably copied from the meeting of the neighbouring towns, in the spring festival, at Tempe, at which business of a political kind was sometimes transacted.1128 The power, however, of the Amphictyons of Thermopylæ was at no time actually political, and, with a very few exceptions, all their regulations and undertakings concerned the protection of the two temples in their rights and possessions, the rights of other temples in Greece, and the maintenance of some principles of international law (νόμοι Ἀμφικτυονικοὶ), founded upon religious notions.

6. The Dorian colonies introduced Apollo into Asia Minor as the principal deity of their national and federal festival on the promontory of Triopium,1129 where [pg 280] they probably first planted his worship, without, however, excluding the more ancient Pelasgic rites of Demeter and the infernal gods, which, although of a different nature, were united in the ceremonies at Triopium with those of Apollo.1130 In the same manner the twelve towns of the Æolians, with whom Apollo was by no means so nearly connected, celebrated in his honour, as it seems, their federal festival in the grove of Gryneum near Myrina.1131 And though when the Ionians crossed over from Athens to Asia Minor they remained so constant to the worship of Poseidon that they consecrated to him their national festival at Mycale, and also built in the island of Tenos a splendid temple of Poseidon and Amphitrite, honoured with festivals and sacred embassies;1132 yet the Cretan worship was so prevalent at Delos, when first overrun by the Ionians, that this island was itself the religious metropolis of the Cyclades,1133 at whose festivals and contests the higher classes of the islanders attended with their families, even in ancient times; which naturally gave rise to the establishment of temples to [pg 281] Apollo, the principal deity, in the rest of the Cyclades; as Cythnus,1134 Siphnus,1135 Ceos,1136 Naxos,1137 &c.

7. The principal places to be mentioned in Italy besides Rhegium are Croton and Metapontum. The former was an Achæan and Lacedæmonian colony; in the founding of which, according to tradition, the oracle had an important share;1138 the memory of which is preserved by temples of Apollo Pythius, Hyperboreus,1139 and Alæus,1140 within, and close to the town. Croton was peculiarly subject to the influence of Apollo, whose worship operated to an unusual extent on the character and customs of its inhabitants. On the founding of Metapontum our information is scanty. The inhabitants generally supposed themselves to be of Achæan origin; yet Ephorus has preserved a remarkable, though confused tradition, that Daulius the tyrant of Crissa was the founder of that town.1141 It [pg 282] seems, then, that inhabitants of Daulis, in the narrow valley of Parnassus, and Crissæans, from the coast, had passed over to Italy in very early times. The inhabitants of Metapontum, as ancient subjects of Apollo, sent him golden ears of corn (χρυσοῦν θέρος) as a tithe of their harvest; we find on their coins the full ears of barley, which were paid as tribute, and on the reverse the god himself, armed with his helmet, arrow and bow, as a conqueror, and holding a branch of laurel; exactly coinciding with the symbols used in the temple of Delphi.1142 Thus historical tradition and religious symbols both point to the same conclusion.1143

During the period of which we are treating, the regulation of colonies by the Delphian oracle was the chief instrument which extended the worship of Apollo on the coast of the Mediterranean. In honour of this deity the Chalcideans who founded Naxos, the first Greek colony in Sicily (Olymp. 5. 2. 759 B.C.), erected on the coast an altar of Apollo Archegetas, upon which the Sicilian Theori always sacrificed when they sailed to the temple of Apollo in their mother-country.1144

Apollonia, the Corinthian settlement on the Ionian sea, was also supposed to have been founded by Apollo;1145 hence the above-mentioned custom of sending “the golden summer” to Delphi prevailed in this town.1146 We have in a former work1147 shown that the worship at Thera and Cyrene was paid to the deity of the Theban Ægidæ, viz., the Carnean Apollo; who, however, at the founding of the colony (Olymp. 37), was already considered as the same with the Dorian god; hence the fountain of Apollo at Cyrene, its colony of Apollonia, &c. Mythology, which often first clothes the events of history in a fabulous garb, and then refers them to an early and unknown time, expressed the founding of Cyrene, under the guidance of the temple of Apollo, in the following elegant personification—That Cyrene, a Thessalian nymph, the favourite of Apollo, was carried by her divine lover to Africa, in his chariot drawn by swans.1148

We shall abstain from bringing down the colonization of this religion to a later period, since in after-times the lively principle which at first actuated the worshippers of Apollo was lost; and, instead of considering their actions as the effect of supernatural compulsion, men were rather disposed to regulate their conduct according to the dictates of reason and free-will.

Chapter IV.

1. Wearisome as it is to follow up the chain of remote events which gave rise to the wide diffusion of the worship of Apollo, nevertheless the fable of the Hyperboreans, by referring a number of particular circumstances to one head, is very well qualified to arrest and fix our attention.

We assert, then, the connexion of this tradition with the original worship of Apollo. No argument to the contrary can be drawn from its not being mentioned either in the Iliad or Odyssey; these poems not affording any opportunity for its introduction. Moreover, the Hyperboreans were spoken of in the poem of the Epigoni, and by Hesiod.1149 The fable, indeed, may not have come till late within the province of poetical mythology; as a local tradition, it must have arisen whilst that primitive connexion between the temples of Tempe, Delphi, and Delos (which was afterwards entirely dissolved) still existed in full vigour.

2. According to a Doric hymn of Bœo, a poetess of Delphi, quoted by Pausanias,1150 Pagasus, and the godlike Agyieus, the sons of the Hyperboreans, founded the celebrated oracle at Delphi. Agyieus is merely another name for Apollo himself. Pagasus refers to the Pagasæan temple on the sacred road.1151 [pg 285] With them came Olen, the first prophet and bard of Apollo. Two other Hyperborean heroes, Hyperochus and Laodicus, assisted in the slaughter of the Gauls at Delphi;1152 and, in accordance with similar traditions, Mnaseas of Patara called all the inhabitants of Delphi descendants of the Hyperboreans.1153

Alcæus,1154 in a hymn to Apollo, related how “Zeus adorned the new-born god with a golden fillet and lyre, and sent him, in a chariot drawn by swans, to Delphi, in order to introduce justice and law amongst the Greeks. Apollo, however, ordered the swans first to fly to the Hyperboreans. The Delphians, missing the god, instituted a pæan and song, ranged choruses of young men around the tripod, and invoked him to come from the Hyperboreans. The god remained an entire year with that nation, and at the appointed time, when the tripods of Delphi were destined to sound, he ordered the swans to resume their flight. The return of Apollo takes place exactly in the middle of summer; nightingales, swallows, and grasshoppers sing in honour of the god; and even Castalia and Cephisus1155 heave their waves to salute him.”

If Alcæus consecrated this pæan, as Pindar did his [pg 286] pæan, to the worship of the Delphian god, he would hardly have dared to do more than embellish the local traditions. Supposing, however, that this was not the case, he would still have taken the principal event (viz., the arrival of Apollo from the Hyperboreans) rather from a fable universally acknowledged, than the unauthorized fictions of poetry. The whole account, and even the time, are clearly drawn from the mysteries of the worship. According to the tradition of Delphi, Apollo, at the expiration of the great period, visited the beloved nation of the Hyperboreans, and danced and played with them from the vernal equinox to the early setting of the Pleiades; and when the first corn was cut in Greece, he returned to Delphi, as I suppose, with the full ripe ears, the offerings of the Hyperboreans.1156 Even the story of the swans was no addition of Alcæus; for the painted vases in the south of Italy (the extremity of the Grecian world) represent the same fiction as the Lesbian poet; nay, so exactly do they correspond, that we do not indeed recognise Alcæus, but the traditions upon which the account was founded, as they were perhaps related at Metapontum and Croton. The boy Apollo, the sceptre and goblet in one hand, and full ears of barley in the other (which allude to the offerings of the Hyperboreans, and the “golden summer”), is seated, with a mild aspect, on a car, the axles of which are bound with swans' feathers. Hyperborean women, with torches, and pitchers for sacred libations, conduct him.1157 The [pg 287] swans, with which Apollo here comes, occur elsewhere in the legends of Delphi, which refer to the Hyperboreans. The most ancient temple of Delphi, according to the assertion of the priests, was merely a low hut, built with branches of the sacred laurel of Tempe; the second was a tent, which either the Hyperboreans or Pteras of Crete formed of swans' feathers and wax.1158 The Peneus flowed by the altar of Tempe; the notes of the swans on the banks of this river are mentioned in a short hymn attributed to Homer.1159 And allowing that these birds were here particularly numerous, it is evident that their brilliant colour and majestic motion peculiarly adapted them for symbols of Apollo.

3. We find the same tradition, with merely a few local alterations, at Delos.1160 Latona, in the first place, is said to have arrived in that island from the country of the Hyperboreans as a she-wolf, having completed the whole journey, pursued by Here, in twelve days and nights.1161 Afterwards the young [pg 288] virgins, Arge and Opis, came with Apollo and Artemis; a lofty tomb was erected to their memory at Delos, upon which sacrifices were offered; an ancient hymn, which was attributed to the ancient minstrel Olen, celebrated their appearance.1162 Afterwards the Hyperboreans sent two other virgins, Hyperoche and Laodice, the same names as occur above, and with them five men, who are called perpherees1163 (from their bringing the sacred gifts enveloped in wheaten straw): this exactly corresponds with “the golden summer” of the Delphians. The perpherees received great honours at Delos; and the Delian maidens before marriage laid on the tomb of the two Hyperborean virgins a spindle, the young men a branch, both entwined with locks of hair. The offering, however, of the Hyperborean women was, it was said, really intended for Ilithyia, the protectress of women in labour, in order to fulfil a vow made to that goddess for the birth of Apollo and Artemis. Now these missions, according to Delian traditions, always continued to be carried on. The Hyperboreans were supposed to pass them on to their neighbours the Scythians; from them they were transmitted through a chain of nations on the coast of the Adriatic, by Dodona,1164 through Thessaly, [pg 289] Eubœa, and the island of Tenos, and came accompanied with flutes and pipes,1165 to Delos.1166 This story cannot have been a mere poetical fiction; it doubtless originated in the active connexion kept up by means of sacred missions with the ancient settlements of the worship of Apollo in the north of Thessaly.1167 In Delos also, as at Delphi, there was a story of the god resting for some time amongst the Hyperboreans; though the scene was generally changed to Lycia.1168 A painted vase exhibits the god with a lyre in his hand, alighting near the palm-tree of Delos: a young woman, representing a whole chorus, receives him, playing upon a stringed instrument.1169

As the temple at Olympia was connected with Delphi, we find also here some traditions respecting the country of the Hyperboreans, as the native land of the wild olive-tree which flourished in the grove of Zeus.

4. Thus much concerning the places where the fable of the Hyperboreans really existed; we must next notice the situation generally assigned to that sacred nation. In this the name is our chief guide. In the first place it indicates a northern nation; [pg 290] which idea is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that the worship of Apollo came from the most northern part of Greece, from the district of Tempe;1170 and although the actual distance was not great, yet the imagination might have been moved by this circumstance to conceive Apollo as coming from the most remote regions of the north. But, in the second place, the Hyperboreans are said to dwell beyond Boreas; so that this happy nation never felt the cold north wind: in the same manner that Homer represents the summit of Olympus as rising above the storms, nor ever covered with snow, but surrounded by an atmosphere of cloudless and undisturbed serenity.

5. This is nearly the whole of our information on the origin of this fabulous people. Poets, however, and geographers, dissatisfied with such accounts, attempted to assign to it a fixed habitation in the catalogue of nations: and for this purpose connected multifarious and foreign accounts of the northern regions of the world with the religious fable of the Hyperboreans, and moulded the whole into an imaginary picture of a supposed real people.

Among these stories the most remarkable is that which connects the Hyperboreans with the Scythians. Herodotus found them mentioned in the Arimaspea of Aristeas the Proconnesian, in which poem his ideas of the worship of Apollo were interspersed with obscure accounts of the northern regions.1171 He came, led by the spirit of Apollo, through Scythia to the [pg 291] Issedones,1172 the one-eyed Arimaspians, the Griffins that kept watch over the gold, and thus at last reached the Hyperboreans who inhabited the shores on the further side of the ocean. Now Aristeas must have collected the tradition concerning these nations and monsters from the same sources as Herodotus; viz., from the Greeks dwelling on the Pontus and Borysthenes, and through these from the Scythians.

In the list of the fabulous nations of the north, the ancient Damastes exactly agrees with the Arimaspea of Aristeas.1173 Beyond the Scythians he places the Issedones, then the Arimaspians, then the Rhipæan mountains, from which the north wind blows, and on the other side of these, on the sea-coast, the Hyperboreans.1174 Without doubt this geographer placed the Issedones in the districts to the north of the Euxine sea, and rather to the east of Greece.1175 And indeed neither Issedones, Arimaspians, nor Griffins could be placed in any other region than that which lies to the north of the Euxine sea, as all this tract had become known to the Greeks by means of the Scythians, who dwelt in these parts; it was only in this district that the Greeks heard of Arimaspians. The case is entirely different with respect to the Hyperboreans and Rhipæans. Of the former the Scythians, as Herodotus tells us, knew nothing; and the latter are a mere political fiction of Greece, since they derived their names from hurricanes (ῥιπαὶ), issuing from a cavern, which they warded off [pg 292] from the Hyperboreans, and sent to more southern nations. For this reason the Hyperboreans could also be placed in another part, remote from Scythia; still however they kept their original position in the north. Thus Pindar,1176 and also Æschylus in the Prometheus Unbound,1177 place the Hyperboreans at the source of the Ister. Now, if, with Herodotus, the Ister is conceived to be a river which runs through all Europe from its western extremity, the Hyperboreans, in spite of their name, must be placed in the regions of the west.1178 But there was in ancient times also an idea that the Ister was a vast stream descending from the extreme north;1179 and this notion was evidently entertained by the two poets just mentioned; thus Æschylus, in the Prometheus Unbound, represented Hercules as penetrating to the place where Boreas rushes from the mountains; and with this the Rhipæan mountains, the Hyperboreans, and the Ister were doubtless mentioned. Sophocles also placed the “ancient garden of Phœbus” i.e., the country of the Hyperboreans, at the extremity of the earth, and near the dwelling of Boreas.1180 This natural conception of the Hyperboreans, and agreeing so well with the origin of the legend, is universal among the early poets; it is only in the works [pg 293] of later writers that we find certain traces of a translation of the Hyperboreans to Italy and other western countries, and of a confusion of the Rhipæans with the Alps and Pyrenees.

6. We see then that notwithstanding the arbitrary license assumed by poets, the religious ideas respecting the Hyperboreans were every where preserved without the slightest variation. They were represented as a pious nation, abstaining from the flesh of animals, and living in perpetual serenity, in the service of their god, for a thousand years.1181 “The muse,” says Pindar, “is not estranged from their manners. The choruses of virgins and sweet melody of the lyre or pipe resound on every side; and, twining their hair with the glittering laurel, they feast joyfully. Neither disease nor old age is the lot of this sacred race; while they live apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the revengeful Nemesis.”1182

Respecting their festivals, which were supposed to take place in the open air,1183 it was related by Hecatæus the younger, of Abdera, that these were celebrated by three gigantic Boreadæ, whose songs and dances were accompanied by innumerable flocks of swans.1184 But the strangest account is that of Pindar, that whole hecatombs of asses were sacrificed at these festivals:1185 [pg 294] this however is borrowed from the real worship, from one of the sacred rites of Delphi, where asses were sacrificed at the Pythian festival.1186 Lastly, the account given of the death of the Hyperboreans strongly reminds us of the rites of the Thargelia, and the leap at Leucate; we are told that, tired of a long existence, they leapt, crowned with garlands, from a rock into the sea.1187

Chapter V.

1. Having treated of the extension and propagation of the worship of Apollo, and some of the most remarkable legends and fables connected with it, we next turn our attention to the nature and character of the religion itself.

In the first place, then, we shall remind the reader of a position sufficiently established by the foregoing inquiries; that the Apollo of Tempe, Delphi, Delos, [pg 295] Crete, Lycia, Troy, Athens, and Peloponnesus, is the same god, and not, as was very frequently the case in the religions of Greece, a combination of several deities under one name. This conclusion we supported as well by historical accounts respecting the foundation of his numerous temples, as by the evidence derived from a recurrence of the same names, rites, and symbols; such, for example, as the titles of Lycius and Lycia, Delphinius and Pythius; the oracles and sibyls; the purifications and expiations; the custom of leaping from rocks; decimations; the golden summer, and bloodless oblations; the laurel-berries; the legend of the Hyperboreans, and the cycle of eight years. Hence the theologians mentioned by Cicero1188 were wrong in endeavouring without any authority to distinguish between the Athenian, Cretan, and Hyperborean Apollo.

2. It appears, however, that they were warranted in distinguishing from the rest the Apollo Nomius of Arcadia; although in their etymology of the name,1189 which made him a divine lawgiver, they by no means followed the most authentic sources of religious history. The correct account is without doubt that given by Pindar,1190 who calls Aristæus, conjointly with Zeus and Apollo, a protector of flocks, and guardian of huntsmen. In fact, Aristæus and his son Actæon were ancient deities of the early Pelasgic inhabitants of Greece.1191 That god also protected agriculture and pasturing, warded off the scorching heat of summer, charmed by incantations the mild Etesian winds, and [pg 296] loved hunting and the care of bees. His chief haunts were the plains under mount Pelion and Iolcus—from which place his worship was introduced into Cyrene—the fertile valley of Thebes, Parrhasia in Arcadia,1192 and the Parrhasian island of Ceos;1193 at Cyrene, Apollo and Cyrene were called his parents.1194 The genealogy attributed to Aristæus varied considerably in different places; through the prevalence of Greek worship in Arcadia he was considered identical with Apollo. It was remembered that the Delphian god had also tended the herds of Admetus; and perhaps the national worship of Aristæus at Pheræ had partly contributed to the formation of this fable.1195 Deities, whose worship at an early period fell into disuse, were adapted and modified in various ways to suit the ruling powers: and even if a complete and consistent system of mythology was eradicated and destroyed as a whole, yet particular portions of it would combine themselves with the prevailing religion, and thus obtain a new existence. Thus also the ancient elementary deity, which had received the name of Apollo Nomius, was called the son of the ancient Silenus,1196 because his attributes seemed to resemble those of the attendants of Bacchus.1197 I shall take occasion hereafter to explain [pg 297] the connexion between the Carnean Apollo and this deity.1198

3. It should also be observed that Apollo and Æsculapius were connected in fable and mythology; and this at an early period, for Hesiod called Æsculapius the son of Apollo;1199 but, as it appears, only in mythology, and not in any religious worship. Thus neither at Tricca, Lebadea, Epidaurus, nor Cos, were Apollo Pæan and Æsculapius intimately connected; nor do we ever find that they had altars, festivals, or sacrifices in common, except perhaps in a temple at the modern town of Megalopolis.1200 This practical difference may be accounted for by the national origin of the two worships. For Phlegyas, the ancestor of Æsculapius, and the sons of Æsculapius mentioned in the Homeric Catalogue, belonged to races which were hostile both to the Dorians and the temple of Delphi; and the dispersion of the schools of the Asclepiadæ through Greece had nothing in common with the foundation of the temples of Apollo.

4. Having made these distinctions, we now return to the principal position established by the preceding inquiries; viz., that it was the Dorians among whom the religion of Apollo was the most ancient, important, and truly national worship.

The Dorians being an active and heroic people, it is natural that their peculiar religious feelings should have had a like tendency. Hence, as they displayed a perpetual aversion to the innocent employments of husbandry, and a love for active and military exertion, their national god was exactly the reverse of the elementary deities worshipped by the agricultural races.

But this inference seems to be invalidated by an opinion entertained by many at least of the later Greeks, and by most modern writers on mythology, that Apollo was an elementary deity, the deified personification of the sun. On the whole of this difficult and doubtful subject it is not my intention now to enter; but I shall be satisfied with laying before the reader the principal arguments on both sides, and afterwards stating my own views on the subject.

5. In the first place, then, the accounts above given of Apollo returning from the Hyperboreans with the ripe ears of corn, and the tribute of the golden ears, certainly suggest the idea of a guardian of agriculture.1201 On the coins of Metapontum we frequently see these ears of corn, with the grasshopper, or mouse both in the act of creeping, upon the reverse. The same explanation is applicable to both symbols. The mouse and grasshopper are animals hurtful to the corn, which the god was supplicated to protect from their attacks. In like manner the Cretan Apollo Σμίνθειος was doubtless a destroyer of field mice (σμίνθοι);1202 and his statue was represented with one foot upon a mouse.1203

Again, in Rhodes he was called ἐρυθίβιος, “the averter of mildew;”1204 which attribute was peculiarly suitable to him, as being one of the Triopian deities, one of whom was Demeter, the destroyer of Erysichthon. These are probably the chief reasons which can be adduced in favour of the position that Apollo was an elementary deity; reasons which are founded on the symbols and ceremonies of the real worship, and not on the opinions of later philosophers. But, first, the argument that Apollo was an elementary god, because he was a patron and protector of agriculture, is inconclusive; for he performs this office in his character of guardian and averter of misfortune generally. The case indeed would be otherwise, had Apollo been supposed either to call forth the seed from the earth or bring it to maturity; no trace however of these functions being attributed to him ever occurs. It is therefore unnecessary on this account to identify him with the sun. And it may be remarked likewise, that the chief festivals of Apollo were not connected with any remarkable epochs of the sun's course, but rather with the rising of the stars, particularly of the pleiads, and with the phases of the moon. Thus the new moon was sacred to Apollo, who hence received the name of Νεομήνιος;1205 and so likewise the first quarter, or the seventh day; and, finally, the full moon (διχομηνία), particularly in the island of Zacynthus.1206 From these circumstances, however, no one will infer that Apollo was a god of the moon.

We do not, however, deny that Apollo and the god of the sun admitted in particular points of a comparison [pg 300] and parallel with each other; the source of external light might be a symbol of the “bright and pure” god; and indeed the Platonists favoured this supposition,1207 which is not, however, supported by any historical authority. The worship of the sun was practised in the Acropolis of Corinth, at Rhodes, Athens, and in earlier times also at Calauria and Tænarum; but in none of these places was it connected with the rites of Apollo.1208

6. This naturally leads us to inquire how any ideal connexion between Apollo and the sun, if it really existed, should have been entirely overlooked for so many centuries; how was it that these deities were not identified till the Grecian mythology had ceased to have any influence upon the ideas and feelings of mankind? Even when the Egyptian interpreters identified Horus with Apollo, they were in all probability guided only by the resemblance between the destroyer of the Python and the vanquisher of Baby (Typhon in Greek).1209 The Persian magi, however, in discovering a connexion between the worship of Apollo and their religion (on which account Xerxes preserved from injury the island where Apollo and Artemis were born),1210 were influenced by a well-grounded comparison, which we shall find occasion to confirm in a subsequent chapter;1211 yet, in all probability, it was not the sun, but Ormuzd, whom they supposed to be Apollo. It was [pg 301] not until the philosophers of the Ionic school identified the deities of the popular creed partly with material powers and objects, and partly with the attributes of the universal intellect (νοῦς), that the doctrine was advanced of Apollo being the sun. From them Euripides, who called Zeus the air, and Vesta the earth, was naturally among the first to receive it. In the tragedy of Phaethon, the mother of the unfortunate youth complained against his father Helius as follows; “Rightly does he who knows the secret names of the gods call thee Apollo” (the destroyer);1212 referring, without doubt, not to any doctrine connected with, or revealed in the mysteries, but to a philosophical interpretation. This opinion, thus adopted by Euripides, became still more general at Alexandria; and Callimachus blames those “who separate Apollo from the sun, and Artemis from the moon.”1213 Soon afterwards it was said to have originated in very early times; and the author of the astronomical treatise attributed to Eratosthenes1214 relates, that Orpheus the Thracian had from the top of a mountain, at break of day, prayed to the sun, whom he also called Apollo, as the greatest of all the deities.1215 Nevertheless, this statement does not authorize us to infer, that in the ancient Orphic Hymns, previous to Herodotus, Apollo and the sun were identified. For this system of religious [pg 302] speculation was chiefly concerned about Bacchus; and in all the Orphic fragments of any antiquity Apollo is hardly ever noticed.1216

7. It seems, therefore, that whatever might have been the poetical attributes of Apollo in late times, in his religious character he was never an elementary deity, the essence of whose godhead is a personification of the creative powers of nature. None of the characteristic marks of such a religion are discoverable in his worship. So far from being a god of generation1217 and production, he remains unmarried and youthful; for it is easy to see that his poetical amour with the nymph Daphne, and his sons, mentioned in poetry and prophecy, have no connexion with his worship. In his sacred rites and symbols there is no trace of the adoration of the generative powers, like those occurring in the ancient Arcadian worship of Hermes, the Argive fables of Here, or the Attic legends of Hephæstus and Athene. The worship of Apollo is even still more widely removed from the boisterous and frantic orgies so conspicuous in the Thracian rites of Dionysus. And although this latter worship flourished by the side of Helicon and Parnassus, near the Pythian temple, and both kinds of religious worship were practised in the immediate neighbourhood of each [pg 303] other,1218 yet the religious feelings and rites which distinguished the services of the two gods always remained dissimilar.

In the subsequent discussion we shall accordingly take for granted the original diversity of Apollo and the sun; and though the rites of the worship of Apollo, as preserved and recorded in later times, are doubtless of greater antiquity than any written documents which either we or the Greeks possessed, it will be convenient first to state the clearer and more intelligible accounts of Homer on the subject of Apollo, his divine character and worship.

Chapter VI.

1. Homer, as we have already seen, had, both from hearsay and personal observation, acquired a very accurate knowledge of the Cretan worship of Apollo in the Smintheum, in the citadel of Troy, in Lycia near mounts Ida and Cragus, as well as of Pytho and the Delian palm-tree. His picture of Apollo is, however, considerably changed by the circumstance of the god acting as a friend to the Trojans and an enemy to the Greeks, although both equally honour him with sacrifices and pæans. Yet he generally appears to the [pg 304] Greeks in a darker and more unfavourable view. “Dread the son of Zeus,” says the priest of Chryse to the Greeks, “he walks dark as night; the sure and deadly arrows rattle on his shoulders.” His punishments are sudden sickness, rapid pestilence, and death, the cause and occasion of which is generally unseen; yet sometimes he grants death as a blessing.1219 His arrows are said to wound from afar, because they are unforeseen and unexpected. He is called the far-darting god;1220 his divine vengeance never misses its aim. He appears in the terror of his might when from the heights of the citadel he stimulates the Trojans with a loud war-cry to the combat;1221 and leads them on, a cloud around his shoulders, and the ægis in his hand, into the thick of the battle,1222 like Ares himself,1223 though far from showing the boisterous confidence of that deity. Achilles, to whom he is indeed particularly hostile, calls him the most pernicious of all the gods. Even when he appears amongst the gods, “all tremble before him in the palace of Zeus, and rise from their seats; while Latona alone rejoices that she has produced so strong a son and so powerful an archer.”1224

It is remarkable how seriously Homer (who otherwise speaks of the gods, and particularly of those friendly to Troy, with some levity of expression)1225 describes [pg 305] the character of Apollo. He is never represented as hurried on by blind fury. He never opposes the Greeks without reason, or through caprice, but only when they disregard the sacred rights of priests and suppliants, or assume an unusual degree of arrogance. But when the gods separate into two bodies, and descend to the contest, he, unmoved by passion, shuns the combat, and speaks of the quick succession of the race of man in a manner which betokens the oracular deity of Pytho.1226 A similar spirit is perceivable in his address to the daring Diomed: “The race of the immortal gods resembles not that of mortals.” Thus Apollo appears as the minister of vengeance, the chastiser of arrogance. Consistently with this character he destroys the proud Niobe,1227 the unruly Aloidæ,1228 Tityus and the Python, the enemies of the gods. His contests with Eurytus of Œchalia, and with Phorbas the Phlegyan, were grounded on historical facts; the former alluded to the enmity between the Dorians and Œchalians, the latter to that between the Pythian sanctuary and the Phlegyans.1229

2. We will now examine the notions of other poets on the character of Apollo as a revenging and punishing deity, in which light he is introduced by Homer. [pg 306] Archilochus calls upon Apollo to “punish and destroy the guilty as he is wont to destroy them.”1230 Hipponax, the successor of Archilochus in vituperative satiric poetry, prays that “Artemis and Apollo may destroy thee;”1231 and Æschylus, with manifest allusion to the name, says, Ἀπόλλων ἀπώλεσας;1232 which, however, can hardly entitle us to infer that the name of Apollo was really derived from ἀπολεῖν;1233 for we should lose sight of one main point, viz., the object against which his destructive powers were directed, or be reduced to consider him an universal destroyer, a character which is ill adapted to mark the nature of a divine being of any kind whatsoever. Apollo slays, indeed, but only to inflict deserved punishment. At Megara was exhibited the tomb of Corœbus, who had slain the Fury sent by Apollo against that town, to punish the crimes of the fathers by destroying their children.1234 After this action, Corœbus was ordered to carry in his arms a tripod from Pytho, and erect on the spot where he should fall down from exhaustion, a town (Tripodiscus) and a temple to the god. This explains why many sacred fines were at Corinth, Patara, and Amphipolis,1235 paid into the temple of Apollo, who thus appears, in some measure, as enforcing his own judgments. [pg 307] Æschylus refers to his office of avenging murder, where he speaks of Apollo, Pan, and Zeus, as the gods who send the Furies;1236 Zeus as ruler of the world, Pan as the dæmon that disorders the intellect, Apollo as the god of punishment. Hence it was not without reason that the Romans believed Apollo to be represented in a statue of the god Vejovis, a terrible god, equipped with arrows.1237 At least there is some connexion between him and Apollo καταιβάσιος, “who darts down in the lightning;” to whom the Thessalians vowed every year a hecatomb of men.1238 At Argos it was the custom immediately after death for the relations to sacrifice to Apollo as a god of death; the priest of Apollo (the amphipolus) offered up the victim, and for consuming the fragments of the sacrifice a new fire was always kindled. On the thirtieth day afterwards a sacrifice was offered to Hermes as the conductor of souls.1239

3. Although we have thus dwelt upon the gloomy side of Apollo's character, it must not be supposed that he was considered in the light of a malevolent and destroying power. Thus Pindar declares that of all the gods “he is the most friendly to men.”1240 His titles, also, as connected with different temples, serve to remove that impression. Thus he was called the Healer at Elis,1241 the Assister at Phigaleia,1242 the Defender, the Averter of Evil,1243 at Athens, and in many [pg 308] oracles.1244 Although some of these names were perhaps not introduced until the Peloponnesian war, and the restriction of his avenging power to physical evil is first perceptible in Pindar and the tragedians,1245 yet the idea of the healing and protecting power of Apollo must have been of remote antiquity. Under all these names Apollo does not so much appear bestowing positive good as assuaging and warding off evil; and in this character he was invoked (according to an oracle) to send health and good fortune.1246

4. The preceding arguments may perhaps receive confirmation from a description of the god Pæan (Παιήων) in Homer. The name clearly betokens a healing deity, and though the poet indeed speaks of him as a separate individual, and the physician of Olympus,1247 yet this division appears to have been merely poetical, without any reference to actual worship; since from very early times the pæan had, in the Pythian temple,1248 been appointed to be sung in honour of [pg 309] Apollo.1249 The song, like other hymns, derived its name from that of the god to whom it was sung. The god was first called pæan, then the hymn, and lastly the singers themselves.1250 Now we know that the pæan was originally sung at the cessation of a plague, and after a victory, and generally, when any evil was averted, it was performed as a purification from the pollution.1251 The chant was loud and joyous, as celebrating the victory of the preserving and healing deity.1252 Besides the pæans of victory,1253 however, there were others which were sung at the beginning of battle;1254 and there was a tradition that the chorus of Delphian virgins had chanted “Io Pæan” at the contest of Apollo with the Python.1255 The pæan of victory varied according to the different tribes; all Dorians, viz., Spartans, Argives, Corinthians, and Syracusans, had the same.1256 This use of the pæan, as a song of rejoicing [pg 310] for victory, sufficiently explains its double meaning; it bore a mournful sense in reference to the battle, and a joyous sense in reference to the victory. Apollo, under this name, was therefore either considered as a destroying (from παίω), or as a protecting and healing deity, who frees the mind from care and sorrow;1257 and accordingly the tragedians, by an analogical application of the word, also called Death, to whom both these attributes belonged, by the title of Pæan.1258 And thus this double character of Apollo, by virtue of which he was equally formidable as a foe, and welcome as an ally,1259 was authorized by the ambiguity of his name.

5. On the other hand, the title Agyieus had a single signification.1260 This appellation of Apollo was peculiar to the Dorians,1261 and consequently of great antiquity at Delphi;1262 from which place, however, it was brought over to Athens at a very early period, and indeed partly at the command of an oracle.1263 His statue was erected in court-yards, and before the doors of houses; that is, at the boundary of private and public property, in order to admit the god as a tutelary deity, and to avert evil. The symbol or image of the god [pg 311] was most simple, being a conical block of stone. The ancients knew not whether to consider it as an altar or statue.1264 The worship consisted of a constant succession of trifling services and marks of adoration.1265 Frankincense was burnt before the pillar;1266 it was bedecked with wreaths of myrtle, garlands, &c. This was sufficient to remind, and at the same time to assure, the ancient Dorians of the protecting presence of their deity. The Athenians represented their Hermes in a similar manner. This god, although fundamentally distinct from Apollo, was invested by them with the same offices: thus the statues of both gods were placed, as protecting powers, in front of the houses: both gods were supposed to confer blessings on those who either entered or left the house: both were represented by simple columnar statues. With Apollo, however, this protection was rather of a spiritual and inward nature: while the phallic form, which always distinguished the Hermæ of Athens, shows that this god was considered to afford, by increasing the fruitfulness of the fields and cattle, and generally all the products of nature, a more external and physical assistance.

6. To these titles may perhaps be added the name of Apollo itself. That we must search for its etymology in the Greek language alone, and that it could have been derived from no other source, is evident [pg 312] from the preceding investigations. In the first place, then, we cannot derive it from the sun, ΑϜΕΛΙΟΣ,1267 since the digamma is never changed into Π. The derivation from ΟΛΩ we have already rejected, as being founded on a partial and occasional attribute of the god.1268 On the other hand, we may observe that the ancient Doric Æolian form of the name was not Ἀπόλλων but Ἀπέλλων,1269 which also obtained amongst the ancient Latins,1270 and from which the Macedonian and Delphian month Apellæus evidently derived its name. Now if this is admitted to be the original form, Ἀπέλλων simply means the averter or defender,1271 and belongs to the same class as Ἀλεξίκακος, Ἀποτροπαῖος, and other names mentioned above.

7. All these names, however, only indicate the attributes and actions of the deity; but the name Phœbus expresses more nearly his peculiar nature. From its original sense of “bright,” “clear,” its secondary sense of “pure,” “unstained,” is easily derived;1272 and hence the term φοιβάζειν (which perhaps [pg 313] is connected with the Latin februare), “to expiate.” Phoebus therefore is the clear and spotless god, often emphatically called the “pure and holy” (ἁγνὸς θεός).1273 This name is particularly applied to him when he returns purified from Tempe.1274 The same meaning is implied in the epithet ξανθὸς, which also signifies “pure,” and “clear;”1275 hence the streams near the temples of Apollo in Troy and Lycia were called Xanthus,1276 and amongst the Macedonians the expiatory festival of the army bore the title of Xanthica.1277 In allusion to Apollo as a god of joy and gladness, Aeschylus frequently forbids that he should be invoked in sorrow.1278 Several other passages from poets and grammarians might be adduced to support this idea.1279

8. We now come to the most enigmatical of all the titles of Apollo, viz., “Lyceus.” It was shown above, that Apollo Lycius was worshipped at Lycorea on mount Parnassus, in Lycia at the foot of mount Cragus, in Lycia under mount Ida, at Athens, Argos, Sparta, and Sicyon. This religion must have been of greater antiquity than the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, having been carried over thither at the time of [pg 314] their establishment. Homer was also acquainted with this title of Apollo.

In explanation of this epithet we every where find traditions concerning wolves. The descendants of Deucalion, who survived the deluge, following a wolf's roar, founded Lycorea on a ridge of mount Parnassus. Latona came as a she-wolf from the Hyperboreans to Delos: she was conducted by wolves to the river Xanthus. Wolves protected the treasures of Apollo; and near the great altar at Delphi there stood an iron wolf with ancient inscriptions.1280 The attack of a wolf upon a herd of cattle occasioned the worship of Apollo Lyceus at Argos, where a brazen group of figures, commemorating the circumstance, was erected in the market-place.1281 The Sicyonian tradition of Apollo “the destroyer of wolves” is certainly of less antiquity, as also the epithet Λυκοκτόνος (Lupercus), which occurs in Sophocles and other authors.1282

Now in inquiring into the meaning of the symbol of the wolf in this signification, it may be first remarked that it is a beast of prey. In this point of view it cannot but appear a remarkable coincidence that Apollo should in the Iliad assume the form of a hawk,1283 and a species of falcon should be called his swift messenger.1284 Thus also the tragedians frequently [pg 315] represented Apollo, in his character of a destroyer, under the title of Lyceus.1285 We are not, however, to suppose that it was this character of Apollo as a destroying power which gave a name, not only to innumerable temples, but even to whole countries; such a supposition would, contrary to history and analogy, make the early state of this religion to have been one of the grossest barbarism and superstition. It is far more probable that the name Lyceus is connected with the ancient primitive word lux (whence λευκός). The Greek word λύκη is preserved most distinctly in λυκάβας, i.e. course of the light;1286 and by the epithet Λυκηγένης, applied to Apollo by Homer,1287 and probably taken from some ancient hymns, we should (from the idiom of the Greek language) rather understand one born of light, than the Lycian god. That light and splendour are frequently employed, both in the symbols of worship and language of the poets, to express the attributes of Apollo, cannot be denied;1288 and we only remind the reader of the belief that the fire which burnt on the altar of Apollo Lyceus at Argos had originally fallen from heaven:1289 and thus the epithet Lyceus would seem to belong to the same class as Ægletes, Phœbus, and Xanthus.1290

It is not to be supposed that the wolf was made use of as a symbol of Apollo merely from an accidental similarity of name; but it is difficult to discover what analogy even the lively imagination of the Greeks could have found between the wolf and light. At a later period it was attempted to explain this symbol by the circumstance that all wolves produced their young within twelve days in the year, the precise time during which Latona was wandering as a she-wolf from the Hyperboreans to Delos.1291 This physical interpretation was, however, grounded on the fable, and not the fable on it. Perhaps the sharp sight of the wolf1292 (if we can trust the accounts of the ancients), or even the bright colour of the animal, may afford a better explanation.1293

In the ancient Grecian worship, however, there is another example, and one in the highest degree remarkable, of the connexion between light and the wolf. On the lofty peak of Lycæum, a mountain of Arcadia, above the ancient Lycosura, there stood (as Pindar says) a lofty and splendid altar of Zeus Lycæus, with which were in some way connected all the traditions concerning Lycaon, who sacrificed his child to Zeus, and was in consequence transformed into a wolf. Now not only does the symbol of the wolf occur in this place,1294 but there is also a reference to [pg 317] light. There stood here a sacred shrine or adytum, supposed to be inaccessible; and the popular belief was, that whoever entered it cast no shadow; and in order to escape being sacrificed, the aggressor was obliged to escape as a deer: hence the pursuing god naturally appeared to the imagination as a wolf.1295 We perceive that light was supposed to dwell within the sanctuary. Thus in this very ancient worship of the Parrhasians, which in other respects has little in common with the Doric worship of Apollo, we discover the same combination of ideas and symbols that exists in the latter, and cannot but consider it a vestige of some very ancient symbolical idea peculiar and general among the Greeks.

9. Having proceeded so far, we shall endeavour to unite and harmonize the different facts already collected. Apollo, as he is represented by Homer, exhibits the character of a destroying and avenging, as well as a delivering and protecting power. But he is the avenger of impiety and arrogance, and the punisher of injustice and sin, and not the author of evil to mankind for evil's sake. He was therefore always considered as attended with certain beings whose nature was contrary to his own; his character could only be shown in opposition with a system of hostile attributes and powers. As the warring and victorious god, he required enemies to combat and conquer: as the pure and bright god, he implies the existence of a dark and impure side of nature. In this manner the worship of Apollo resembled those religions, such as the ancient Persian, which were [pg 318] founded on the doctrine of two principles, one of good, the other of evil. At the same time he is no deified personification of the creative or generative powers of nature, nor of any natural object or phenomenon; and he has therefore nothing in common with the deities of the elementary religions.

These ideas, which seem to be expressed with tolerable distinctness, in the most ancient epithets and symbols connected with the worship of Apollo, as well as in the images and fictions of poets down to the time of Euripides, we will first examine with reference to the mythical history and adventures of Apollo, and secondly we will endeavour to point out the influence which these notions exercised upon the worship itself.

Chapter VII.

1. Our present investigation renders it necessary to ascend to a period in which the primitive religion of the Dorians exhibited a distinct and original character, before it had been combined with the worship of other deities. At that time this nation had only two male deities, Zeus and Apollo: for the existence of the latter everywhere supposes that of the former, and both were intimately connected in Crete, Delphi, and elsewhere; though the Doric Zeus did not receive great [pg 319] religious honours. In the temple of Delphi, Zeus and Apollo were represented as Moiragetæ, accompanied by two Fates.1296 The supreme deity, however, when connected with Apollo, was neither born, nor visible on earth, and perhaps never considered as having any immediate influence upon men. But Apollo, who is often emphatically called the son of Zeus,1297 acts as his intercessor, ambassador, and prophet with mankind.1298 And whilst the father of the gods appears, indistinctly and at a distance, dwelling in ether, and enthroned in the highest heavens, Apollo is described as a divine hero, whose office is to ward off evils and dangers, establish rights of expiation, and announce the ordinances of Fate. It is our purpose to investigate these latter attributes, more especially in the mythology of Delos and Delphi.

2. The legend of the birth of Apollo at Delos was indeed recognised by the Ionians and Athenians, but neither by the Delphians, Bœotians, nor Peloponnesians;1299 as is plain from the indifference which they [pg 320] generally showed for the temple in that island. We also know that the Bœotians represented Tegyra as the birthplace of Apollo.

Apollo, says Pindar, was born with time;1300—alluding to the many obstacles and delays experienced at his birth. These had been occasioned by the influence of an hostile power, the same which produced Typhaon from the depths of Tartarus,1301 called by the poets Here.

This power refused its assistance at the birth of Apollo, and compelled Latona to wander in the pains of childbirth over earth and sea until she arrived at the rocky island of Delos.

3. Hence the island of Delos itself became one of the subjects of mythology. Pindar, in an ode to Delos, addresses it as “the daughter of the sea, the unshaken prodigy of the earth, which mortals call Delos, but the gods in Olympus the far-famed star of the dark earth;”1302 and related how “the island, driven about by the winds and waves, as soon as Latona had placed her foot on its shore, became fast bound to the roots of the earth by four columns.”1303 The fable of the floating island1304 (which is, however, of a more recent date than the Homeric hymn to Apollo) indicated merely the restless condition which preceded the tranquillity and brightness introduced by the manifestation of the god. Henceforth Delos remained fixed and unshaken, immoveable, according to the belief of the Greeks, even by earthquakes; [pg 321] for which reason, the whole of Greece was alarmed when this phenomenon happened before the Persian war.1305 By the words “the star of the dark earth,” Pindar alludes to the idea that Delos (as the name shows) was considered as a pure and bright island, whose shores, too holy for pollution, were ever kept free from corpses, the sight of which is odious to the god. Hence also the tradition that Asteria, whose name is derived from ἀστὴρ, the offspring of the Titans, had cast herself into the sea, and been petrified on the shore.

4. The birth of Apollo, being an epoch in mythology, was without doubt celebrated in ancient hymns, whose simplicity presented a striking contrast to the higher polish of the Homeric poems. A hymn of this description, ascribed to Olen, was addressed to Eileithyia, the worship of which goddess, together with other religious ceremonies, was brought over (as has been above remarked)1306 from Cnosus to Delos, and from thence to Athens.1307 In calling Eileithyia the mother of the god of love,1308 Olen exceeded the regular bounds of tradition respecting Apollo, by confusing the worship of a strange god with that deity, and probably [pg 322] identified her with the ancient Aphrodite (Ἀφροδίτη ἀρχαία), whose altar Theseus is said to have erected at Delos.1309 In either case, the establishment of this ancient Attic worship on the sacred island, and its connexion with the Delian rites, illustrate the mention of Eros in the Delian hymn.

Nine days and nine nights Latona writhed in hopeless pains of childbirth, surrounded by the benevolent Titanidæ, Dione, Rhea, Themis, and Amphitrite, who finally (according to the hymn of Homer) prevailed upon Eileithyia by the promise of a golden necklace. Then the pains seized Latona; she cast her arms around the palm-tree, and brought forth her divine son. The explanations of the bribe offered to Eileithyia are all too far-fetched: probably pregnant women at Delos consecrated their necklaces to that goddess.

5. The exact spot where the birth of Apollo took place was shown in Delos, since the least circumstance connected with so important an event could not fail to excite interest. It must be looked for in the place where the torrent Inopus flows from mount Cynthus.1310 Here there was a circular pool (the λίμνη τροχόεσσα), the form of which is often carefully mentioned.1311 By its side grew two sacred trees, the palm and the olive, which are not elsewhere reckoned among those sacred to Apollo; as in Greece Proper the first does not grow at all, and the second not without great care. The Delian temple alone could boast of the palm, the use [pg 323] of palm-branches at the games having also originated in Delos.1312

This island acquired so much sanctity by the birth of Apollo, that no living being was permitted either to be born or die within its boundary.1313 Every pregnant woman was obliged to go over to the neighbouring island of Rheneia, in order to be delivered. One of the ideas of the Greeks respecting religious purity (which may in general be traced to the worship of Apollo) was, that all intercourse with pregnant women polluted in the same manner as the touch of a corpse. The prohibition against keeping dogs had the same origin.1314 On the whole, the Delian traditions are not to be considered as of very great antiquity or credit; they contain, indeed, hardly any original source of information respecting Apollo, being generally composed of descriptions of the sanctity of the island itself; several legends, as that of its having once floated on the ocean, &c., appear to have been the invention of the Ionians; this race, even in fiction, allowing itself far greater latitude than the Dorians.

6. Apollo, according to the Attic legend, passed to Delphi from Delos through Attica and Bœotia; the Homeric Hymn to Apollo makes him come from the northern districts, but likewise through Bœotia: according to other traditions he came from the Hyperboreans. According to another, Latona was carrying the two babes, Apollo and Artemis, in her arms, when [pg 324] assailed by the Python,1315 the mother seeking refuge on a sacred stone near the plane-tree at Delphi:1316 in another, Apollo was a child at the time of this event;1317 and, accordingly, a Delphian boy, both whose parents were alive, represented the actions of the deity at the great festival. The destruction of the Python, however, always formed the chief event of the sacred fable. It was by this feat that Apollo gained possession of the oracular chasm, from which the goddess Earth had once spoken. It was not, however, without some resistance that she gave way to the claims of the youthful god, whom, according to Pindar, she even attempted to hurl down to Tartarus.1318 The serpent Python is represented as the guardian of the ancient oracle of the Earth,1319 and a son of the Earth itself, sprung from the warm clay that remained after the general deluge, and dwelling in a dark defile near a fountain, which was said to be supplied from the Styx.1320 The serpent, as usual, represents an earthly being, by which is personified the rough and shapeless offspring of nature. It was supposed to be connected with the nature of water and the sea; and hence was called Delphin, or [pg 325] Delphine,1321 like the fish of the same name, which was particularly sacred to Apollo, and in all probability was also conceived to have been subdued by him. After this, the serpent that watched the oracle remained, although conquered, as a memorial of the ancient struggle, and of the victory of the god, and was placed near the rocky chasm at the foot of the tripod, in the inner sanctuary.1322

7. The battle with the Python being finished,1323 Apollo himself breaks the laurel, to weave a crown of victory.1324 Here too he was said first to have sung the pæan, as a strain of triumph. In the dramatic exhibition, by which the Delphians represented the adventures of Apollo, the Pythian strain (νόμος Πύθιος) was here introduced. This air, which was originally nothing more than a simple melody, soon received all the embellishment of art; and, being raised by [pg 326] Timosthenes to the dignity of a great musical composition,1325 was (contrary to the ancient custom) performed with flutes, lyres, and trumpets, without the accompaniment of the voice. The accounts concerning this festival are indeed copious, but unluckily of too late a date to give us an idea of its ancient and genuine character. In Plutarch's time1326 it was not a hollow serpent's den, but an imitation of a princely house (καλιὰς), that was erected in a court (ἅλως), at every octennial festival.1327 Into this building the women of a Delphian family1328 led the boy by a secret passage (δολωνεία) with lighted torches, and fled away through the door, overturning the table, and setting fire to the house.

8. Although the destruction of the Python is characterized as a triumph of the higher and divine power of the deity, yet the victorious god was considered as polluted by the blood of the monster, and obliged to undergo a series of afflictions and woes. Tradition represented him as going immediately after the battle by the sacred road to Tempe; which the boy, who personified Apollo, afterwards took as leader of the religious procession.1329 The direction of this road has been accurately stated above. The chief circumstance in this wandering was the bondage θήτευσις [pg 327] of Apollo under Admetus the Pheræan, to which the god subjected himself in order to expiate his guilt. This too was represented by the boy, who probably imitated the manner in which the god, as a herdsman and slave, submitted to the most degrading services.1330 Perhaps it was the piety of Admetus, celebrated in tradition, which entitled him to the privilege of possessing such a slave; yet it must be doubted, whether, conformably to the spirit of the ancient mythology, an ideal being, and not a mortal hero, was not originally intended to be represented under this name. Ἄδμητος is an usual name for the god of the infernal regions; to whom, according to the original idea, Apollo became enslaved. The worship of this deity is connected with that of Hecate, who was called θεὰ Φεραία, and the daughter of Admetus.1331 Cannot we, in the rescuing of Alcestis from the infernal regions by Apollo1332 and Hercules, find some clue which may lead us to suppose that the fable of Admetus refers to a worship of the infernal deities? An ancient dirge, called the song of Admetus, was chanted in Greece, having, as was pretended, been first sung by Admetus at the death of his wife, originally perhaps addressed to Αἵδες [pg 328] ἄδμητος.1333 How well does it suit the sublime character of the religious poetry in question, that the god, who had been polluted by the combat with the impure being, should be obliged, in order to complete his penance, to descend into the infernal regions. In confirmation of this, there have been preserved some obscure traditions, which represent Apollo as actually dying, that is, descending into the infernal regions.1334 However, after eight years, the appointed time of bondage, the god wanders to the ancient altar of Tempe, where, sprinkling with laurel-branches, and other expiatory rites, symbolically restore his purity,1335 After this, the purified deity returns by the same road to Deipnias, near Larissa, and there breaks his long fast.

9. These Delphian traditions in very early times became the theme of epic poetry, in which however another cause was assigned for the slavery of Apollo; it was represented as a punishment inflicted by Zeus for slaying the Cyclops, who forged the lightning with which Zeus struck his son Æsculapius, because, not satisfied with recovering the sick, he even recalled the dead to life.1336 Yet some of the poets also state that [pg 329] Pheræ was the place of his servitude, alluding to the Pythian road, and mention a great year (μὲγαν ἐνιαυτὸν) as the time of his bondage;1337 by which they mean the Delphian period. We may perhaps find a trace of a more ancient tradition in the story of amber being a petrified tear, which Apollo shed during the time of his slavery in his ancient abode amongst the Hyperboreans, in the land of the Celts.1338

The combat with Tityus is nearly allied to that with the Python. This earth-born monster, dwelling at Panopea, a town situated on the sacred road, and hostile to the Delphians, laid hands upon Latona when passing through that place: but her children soon overcome the ravisher, and send him to the shades below; where a vulture incessantly preys upon his liver,1339 the seat of inordinate desire.

10. The hostile part of nature now lying vanquished, and quiet having gained the victory over disturbance, Apollo begins to exercise the other office for which he was sent into the world. He mounts the tripod of the Delphian oracle, no longer to give utterance to the dark responses of the earth, but to [pg 330] proclaim the “unerring decree of Zeus.”1340 For it is evident that, in the language of this religion, fate was considered as the will of Zeus (Διὸς νοὸς, Διὸς αἴσα), who was at Delphi called Μοιραγέτης, “leader of fate;” whilst the epic poets, from their custom of making each god a separate individual, generally (though the glimmering of a more exalted idea may be sometimes traced) made Zeus, like all other individuals, subject to fate. The prophetic powers of Apollo will be more fully treated of in the following chapter.

Chapter VIII.

1. Our intention in this chapter is to show that, besides the mythology, the ceremonies also of the worship of Apollo so agree and harmonize together, [pg 331] as to furnish a decisive proof of its regular and systematic development; after which we will endeavour to point out this agreement, and elucidate its relative bearings; although an attempt of this kind must necessarily be very imperfect, since the religion, which, in order to comprehend, we should regard with the ardour of devotion, is now merely the subject of cold and heartless speculation.

First, with regard to the sacrifices, it is remarkable, that in many of the principal temples a particular sanctity and importance was attributed to bloodless offerings. At Delphi cakes and frankincense were consecrated in holy baskets;1341 at Patara, cakes in the form of bows, arrows, and lyres, emblems both of the wrath and placability of the deity.1342 At Delos, an altar, called the altar of the pious, stood behind the altar built of horns, on which were deposited only cakes of wheat and barley; this, according to tradition, was the only one on which Pythagoras sacrificed.1343 In this island also at festivals were offered mallows and ears of corn;1344 the simplest food of man, in remembrance of primitive simplicity and temperance. At Delphi the young women of Parnassus are said to have brought the first-fruits of the year to Apollo, [pg 332] immediately after the destruction of the Python.1345 The pious offerings of the Hyperboreans, as has been remarked above, were the same as those last enumerated. And perhaps we may add to our list the custom, at the Attic autumnal festival of the Pyanepsia, of hanging grapes, fruits, and small jars of honey and oil, to branches of olive or laurel bound with wool, and carrying them to the doors of a temple of Apollo;1346 though perhaps this rite belonged rather to Bacchus, the Sun, and the Hours,1347 who shared the honour of this festival with Apollo.

2. The above offerings doubtless express the existence of a pure and filial relation, like that in which the Hyperboreans stood to Apollo; it being quite sufficient for persons in so innocent a state to give a constant acknowledgment of the benevolence and power with which the god defends and preserves them. But as the pure deity was himself supposed to be stained with blood, so might the minds of his worshippers become tainted with sin, and lose their internal quiet. When in this state, being as it were under the influence of a fiendlike and corrupting power (Ἄτη), the mind naturally wishes to put an end to its unhappy condition by some specific and definite act. This is effected by the solemn expiation and purification of the religion of Apollo. Expiatory rites were thus introduced into the regular system of worship, and formed a part of the ancient jus sacrum. It was soon however perceived that the usual routine [pg 333] of life sometimes needed the same ceremony, and hence expiatory festivals were connected with the public worship of the god; by which not only individuals, but whole cities were purified. These festivals were naturally celebrated in the spring, when the storms of winter disappear, and nature bursts into fresh life.1348 But in these the pious gifts of individuals no longer sufficed, nor even the sacrifice of animals; and the troubled mind seemed to require for its purification a greater sacrifice. At Athens, during the Thargelia, two men (or a man and a woman), adorned with flowers and fruits, having been rubbed over with fragrant herbs, were led in the most solemn manner, like victims, before the gate, and thrown with imprecations from the rock; but were in all probability taken up below, and carried beyond the borders. The persons used for these expiations (Φαρμακοὶ) were condemned criminals, whom the city provided for the purpose.1349 This festival was common to all Ionians; it is particularly mentioned at Miletus1350 and Paros;1351 and the same rites were also practised in the Phocæan colony of Massalia.1352 In Ionia the victims were beaten with branches of the fig-tree and with sea-onions; at the same time there was played on the [pg 334] flute a strain (called χραδίης), which, according to the testimony of Hipponax, was reduced by Mimnermus into elegiac measure.1353 At Athens also the victims were crowned with figs and fig-branches, being probably the symbol of utter worthlessness. The antiquity of this manner of purification has been shown above, in our remarks upon the religious ceremonies of Leucadia.1354

3. The peace-offerings (ἱλασμοὶ), by which Apollo was first appeased, and his wrath averted, should, as it appears, be distinguished from the purifications (καθαρμοὶ), by which he was supposed to restore the mind to purity and tranquillity. At Sicyon (where the religion of Apollo flourished at a very early period) it was related, that Apollo and Artemis had, after the destruction of the Python, wished to be there purified, but that, being driven away by a phantom (whence in after-times a certain spot in the town was called φόβος), they proceeded to some other place. Upon this the inhabitants were attacked by a pestilence; and the seers ordered them to appease the deities. Seven boys and the same number of girls were ordered to go to the river Sythas and bathe in its waters, then to carry the statues of the two deities into the temple of Peitho, and from thence back to that of Apollo.1355 The Attic festival of Delphinia (on the sixth of Munychion) had evidently the same meaning; in this seven boys and girls reverently conveyed the ἱκετηρία, an olive-branch bound with white fillets of wool, into [pg 335] the Delphinium.1356 This took place exactly one month before the Thargelia; and in all probability the peace-offerings and purifications (ἱλασμοὶ and καθαρμοὶ) were celebrated at the same period throughout the whole of Greece.

4. By comparing and arranging the scattered fragments of information respecting the time of the festivals belonging to these two classes, we shall obtain the following clear and simple account.1357

In the commencement of the Apollinian year, in the first month of spring, called Bysius (i.e. Πύθιος) at Delphi, Munychion at Athens, Apollo was supposed to come through the defile of Parnassus to Delphi, and begin the battle with the Delphinè. He next assumes the character of the wrathful god, whom it was necessary to appease; and hence, on the sixth day of the month, the expiatory festival of Delphinia took place at Athens, and probably also at Miletus and Massalia; we may likewise suppose that it was the same month which in Ægina and Thera went under the name of Delphinius:1358 on the seventh Apollo destroyed the Python.1359 The pæan was now sung. This too was the day on which, according to immemorial [pg 336] custom, the oracle first broke silence; at a late period it was also esteemed at Delphi as the birthday of Apollo.1360 Immediately after, the Delphian procession moved on to Tempe; and at the same time the tithes of men were once despatched to Apollo in Crete.1361

In the second month of spring, called by the Ionians Thargelion, Apollo was purified at the altar at Tempe, and probably on the seventh day of the month; for the great expiatory festival of both deities, Apollo and Artemis, was at Athens celebrated on the sixth and seventh days; and Delos was at the same time purified; this ceremony was immediately followed by a feast of thanksgiving in honour of the god of light. According to Delian tradition, Artemis and Apollo (ἑβδομαγέτης)1362 were born on the sixth and seventh days of this month.1363 On the same day however on which the Delphian boy broke the laurel and turned homewards, the purifying laurel-boughs (from which [pg 337] the festival of the Daphnephoria derived its name)1364 were probably also carried round in Bœotia, and throughout the rest of Greece.1365 Soon after this, the setting of the Pleiades took place (the day before the ides of May, according to the statement of Eudoxus);1366 at which time Hesiod makes the harvest begin; then, as has been above remarked, on the testimony of Diodorus and ancient works of art,1367 Apollo, having been presented with the first ears of corn, leaves the Hyperboreans, and appears in a milder and more noble character at Delphi.

If it was wished that the setting of the Pleiades should occur at a regular interval from the preceding festival, this could have been effected only by cycles, by which the lunar and sidereal years were made to agree. Now it was not difficult to observe, that, after ninety-nine lunar months, the setting of the Pleiades coincided pretty exactly with the same phase of the moon. From this circumstance arose the period of eight years, called by the Greeks ἐνναετηρὶς, in conformity with which the great festivals of Apollo at Delphi, Crete, and Thebes were from the earliest times arranged.1368

5. These data afford a sufficient proof of a remarkable and by no means fortuitous connexion between the expiatory festivals of Apollo: we may discover the vestiges of a sacred calendar, once, without doubt, preserved entire, but which, through the various combinations introduced into the Grecian worship, became disjointed and broken. This was particularly the case in the Attic festivals, where the same festival is frequently, as it were, doubled, and placed in different portions of the year. A remarkable instance, illustrative of the above remark, immediately occurs to us. As the months Munychion and Thargelion succeeded each other in the second half of the year, so did Boëdromion and Pyanepsion in the first. The sixth of Boëdromion was sacred to Artemis; the seventh, without doubt, to Apollo Boëdromius, the martial god; who therefore corresponds with the Delphinian Apollo, and the festival with the Delphinia. The Pyanepsia, however, were very similar to the Thargelia; the laurel-boughs wrapt with wool, carried round at the celebration of both, remind us of the Daphnephoria;1369 only, as was above remarked, the worship of Bacchus, which Theseus is said to have established at Naxos, after his return from the islands, was mixed up with it, and is to be recognised in the carrying of boughs (ὀσχοφορία), which was introduced into this festival. Thus these four seventh days (ἑβδόμαι) correspond with each other as follows:

6. We turn from these expiatory festivals of universal occurrence to the expiations which the religion of Apollo enjoined for those who had incurred the guilt of homicide.1370 We previously noticed some establishments of this nature connected with the temples at Tænarum, at Trœzen, and of Branchidæ: a similar one also existed at Delphi, as may be gathered from the fable of Orestes, related by Æschylus, in which Apollo appears at the same time as leader of the avenging Furies, and as purifier of the murderer. Immediately after this deed, the matricide takes an olive-branch bound with woollen fillets,1371 and flies like a frightened stag1372 to Delphi, where Apollo himself purifies his blood-stained hands by the sacrifice of swine and ablutions;1373 and thus liberates him from the Furies, as a defence against whom he had (according to Stesichorus) also given him a bow and arrows.1374 [pg 340] After the purification of Orestes at Delphi, the Athenian poets affirm that he went to Athens, and, under the protection of the god, placed himself before the Areopagus, where Cephalus had also stood in a similar situation.1375

At Athens likewise, as was remarked above, the expiatory rites of the worship of Apollo were connected with the criminal courts of justice, the aristocratic ephetæ being intrusted both with the ceremony of purification and the duties of judges. These were fifty-one men, of noble birth,1376 who in early times had jurisdiction in five courts of justice (amongst which the Areopagus was of course included) over every description of homicide.1377 Solon probably first separated the Areopagus from the other four courts; and in order to make it a timocratic tribunal, with cognizance over cases of wilful murder, he gave it great [pg 341] political, though not religious power; the latter he was not able to bestow. The jurisdiction of the ephetæ was now confined to cases of unintentional or justifiable homicide, and some others of no importance; thus remaining a singular remnant of the ancient judicial forms, in the midst of an universal change. We shall now describe the ceremonies in use at the expiation of homicides. It is necessary, however, in the first place, to distinguish the wilful murderer, who either left for ever his native land, losing all privileges and property therein, or who suffered the penalty of the laws, from the man who killed another without design, or with some good cause, to be approved by the sentence of the ephetæ. A person in the latter situation left his country by a particular road for a certain time; during which he also kept at a distance from places of public resort (ἀπενιαυτισμὸς).1378 Afterwards, the reconciliation took place either with the kindred or certain chosen phratores; but only in case they were willing,1379 and that it was only a homicide of the second description.1380 The term used was αἰδέσασθαι, because an offender of this [pg 342] kind was an unfortunate person, and therefore, according to the opinion of the ancient Greeks, worthy of respect. Afterwards, the perpetrator was purified from all guilt by sacrifices and expiatory rites. In early times the purification probably always took place abroad, frequently in the ancient settlements of the injured family. At Athens it was performed after the return of the criminal; and there the cases of atoneable murders were of course less frequent than in the heroic age; since, under a less regular government, and with closer family ties, there were more incitements and excuses for that crime. Hence at that time those institutions must have been of double importance, which checked the fearful consequences of an unlucky act, quieted the workings of an uneasy conscience, and moderated the too eager thirst for revenge.1381

From this ancient connexion of the religious expiations and criminal jurisdiction, we easily perceive why at Athens Apollo should have presided over all the courts of justice;1382 and why he was also represented at Tenedos as armed with a double hatchet,1383 the instrument used in that island for the execution of adulterers.1384

7. Apollo was likewise supposed to preside over purifications of houses, towns, and districts;1385 and accordingly they were performed by Tiresias, the prophet of the Ismenium, at Thebes;1386 as also in later times by Epimenides, in his character of a Cretan worshipper of Apollo, at Athens (after Olymp. 46. 1.), and at Delos at a still earlier period.1387 This is the first purification of Delos of which we have any account; the second is that instituted by Pisistratus (about the 60th Olympiad); the third, that set on foot by Athens (Olymp. 88. 3. 426 B.C.), when the island was entirely freed from the corpses so odious to Apollo.1388

In all these rites we find frequent use of the laurel (the δάφνη Ἀπολλωνιὰς),1389 to which a power of warding off evil was ascribed, both when employed in sprinkling, and when merely carried round in procession.1390 This tree also served several purposes in the delivery of oracles; a branch of it in ancient times distinguished the prophets,1391 and even the god himself as such;1392 hence his nurses were said by some to have been Κορυθάλεια,1393 i.e. “the laurel itself;” and Ἀλήθεια, or “the fulfilment of oracles.”1394 The reason why the [pg 344] laurel was supposed to have these powers is as obscure as the origin of the ancient symbolical language in general. Perhaps it was merely the appearance of the evergreen-tree, with its slender form and glittering leaves, that made it a symbol of Apollo. The laurel will bear a tolerably severe winter,1395 and therefore nourished in the north of Greece; while the olive, the tree of Athene, belongs to its more southern regions. But, be this as it may, the situation of Tempe, where this shrub still grows with great luxuriance, certainly added much to the sanctity of the symbol:1396 and for this reason the amour of the god with Daphne is often placed on the banks of the Peneus.1397 Indeed Apollo was supposed to love all groves, particularly of forest-trees, laurels, wild-olives, &c. The freshening coolness and holy silence of such places were thought to be proper preparatives for entering the sanctuary.1398

8. It has appeared incomprehensible to many, why Apollo should be a god of prophecy, and how this office can be reconciled with his other attributes. Many have been satisfied with supposing an accidental association of music, prophecy, and archery, without being able to discover any principle of union. In the following pages we shall endeavour to account for the combination [pg 345] in the same deity of attributes apparently so unconnected.

Prophecy, according to the ideas of the ancients, is the announcement of fate (of μοῖρα, αἶσα). Now fate was considered to be the right order of things, the established physical and moral harmony of the world, in which every thing occupies the place fitted for its capacities and function. Fate therefore coincides with supreme Justice (Θέμις); which notion Hesiod expressed by saying that Zeus married Themis, who produced to him the Fates. The pious, religious mind could not separate Zeus and Destiny: Fate was the will and thought of the highest of the gods. A man whose actions agreed with this established harmony, and who followed the appointed course of things, acted justly (κατ᾽ αἶσαν, ἐναίσιμα); the violent and arrogant man endeavoured at least to break through the laws of Fate. Now it was this right order of events which the ancient oracles were supposed to proclaim; and hence they were called θέμιστες, ordinances or laws of justice.1399 They were not imagined to be derived from a foreknowledge of futurity; but merely to declare that which, according to the necessary course of events, must come to pass. It cannot indeed fail to surprise us that the oracle was delivered by a woman in a state of ecstasy, and not as the result of serious reflection. But do we not find in the earlier period of Grecian philosophy (especially in the Ionic school) every new and profound discovery [pg 346] appearing as the work of sudden illumination and ecstasy, and indeed often accompanied with miraculous circumstances? And would not the mind in that age have naturally been raised to such an excited and rapturous state, when, endeavouring to escape from the narrow bounds of daily life, it recognised in the general course of events the influence of the gods? The means adopted to promote this inspiration, the vapour of the chasm, the chewing of the laurel-leaves, the drinking of the water of the well, are of the most innocent description. We do not however mean to deny that these ceremonies soon became an unmeaning form, the oracle being made subservient to political purposes.

The custom of a woman giving utterance to the decrees of the god originated partly from the peculiar estimation in which women were held by the Dorians, and partly from the natural tendency of the female sex (so often remarked by the ancients) to fits of ecstasy. Prophetesses were elsewhere also frequently connected with temples of Apollo; as, for instance, Manto, during the fabulous age, with the Ismenian and Clarian temples, and Cassandra with that of Thymbra, whose nature was nearly allied to that of the sibyls, who likewise were always connected with temples of the same god. As to the manner in which the responses of the Pythian priestess were delivered, Heracleitus of Ephesus says, that “the god, whose oracle is at Delphi, neither utters nor conceals any thing, but gives signs;”1400 which at least serves to contradict [pg 347] the common idea of the designed ambiguity of this oracle.

This temple must however have lost much of its dignity, when it condescended, for the sake of rich offerings from the Lydian monarch, to answer enigmatically the insidious questions which Crœsus put to the Grecian oracles. In earlier times a Greek would not have dared, without the greatest faith in its responses, to approach the temple, which had regulated almost the whole political state of Greece, conducted its colonies, instituted the sacred armistices, and established by its authority the legislation of Lycurgus. For in general the god had not to announce what would, but what should take place; and he frequently declared events not as to happen independently of his injunction, but as the consequence of his answers. All Dorians were in a certain state of dependence on the Pythian temple; and as long as that race possessed the ascendency in Greece, the hearth in the centre of the earth (μεσόμφαλος ἑστία), with its eternal fire, at Pytho,1401 was considered as the Prytaneum and religious centre of the whole of Greece.1402

9. In ancient Greece, however, prophecy was by no means derived altogether from Apollo, but merely that species of it which proceeded from a rapturous and entranced state of the soul. Nevertheless, the enthusiastic and imaginative frame of mind, in which cool grottos, with their flowing waters and hollow echoes, seemed to transport the votary into a former world, was derived from the Nymphs: and the Bacidæ, who were considered as under the influence of the Nymphs [pg 348] (νυμφόπληκτοι), have no more to do with Apollo than the σεληνιακοὶ, among whom Musæus is reckoned.

Of the various modes of divination from omens,1403 only two or three were referred to this god, and that rather accidentally than in accordance with any fixed principle:1404 for example, divination from lightning,1405 from birds,1406 from sacrifices,1407 and from the drawing of lots, which, however, was either disdained by him, as below his dignity, or transferred to Hermes.1408

Connecting the idea of Apollo, which we have now acquired, with our preceding inquiries, we find the whole combine in an easy and natural manner. Apollo, as a divine hero, overcomes every obstacle to the order and laws of heaven; and those are heavenly regulations and laws which he proclaims as the prophet of Zeus. By these, also, tranquillity, brightness, and harmony, are every where established, and every thing destructive of them is removed. The belief in a fixed system of laws, of which Apollo was the executor, formed the foundation of all prophecy in his worship.

10. We have next to consider for what reason and to what extent music was included among the solemnities (τιμαὶ) in honour of Apollo. On this point, however, [pg 349] we must guard against inferring too much from the poets. By the ancients he was represented as playing on the cithara (φόρμιγξ), frequently in the midst of a chorus of Muses, singing and dancing;1409 whose place in the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo is filled by ten goddesses, among whom “Ares and Hermes vault and spring” (perhaps like Cretan tumblers or κυβιστητῆρες), “whilst Apollo, in a beautifully woven garment, plays, and at the same time dances with quick motion of the feet;” for Apollo was not considered as merely a god of music; thus Pindar addresses him as the god of dance.1410 But we are not warranted from this poetical fiction to infer a religious union of the Muses and Apollo, nor can such a connexion be any where traced; indeed the worship of these goddesses was, both in origin and locality,1411 entirely different from that of Apollo. Besides, amongst the early writers, Apollo is never considered as the patron of poets, or invoked, as the Muses are, to grant poetical inspiration: players on the cithara alone were under his protection. The cithara was his attribute, both in many ancient statues1412 and also on the coins of Delphi; it is his ancient and appropriate instrument; the deeper-toned lyre, with its arched sounding-board, Apollo received from Hermes:1413 [pg 350] the instances in which he is represented as bearing it are very rare.

11. But for what reason is Apollo described as playing upon the cithara? for no other, assuredly, than that the music of the cithara was from times of remote antiquity connected with his worship; and that, because it appears best fitted to express a tranquil and simple harmony; the worship of Apollo, as we have frequently remarked, always endeavouring to produce a solemn quiet and stillness of the soul. Pindar beautifully says of this god that he “invented the citharis and bestows the muse on whom he wills, in order to introduce peaceful law into the heart.”1414 To this also refer the golden κηληδόνες, which, according to the account of the same poet,1415 were suspended from the roof of the brazen temple at Delphi; and they were without doubt intended as emblems of the mild and soothing influence of the god. This was naturally the chief object of music when used in purifications, and as an incantation (ἐπῳδὴ); when passions were to be overcome, and pain soothed; and in ancient times this was one of its most important applications.1416 Chrysothemis, an ancient Pythian minstrel of mythology, was hence called the son of Carmanor, the expiatory priest of Tarrha;1417 as also Thaletas, the Cretan poet, purified Sparta by music, when attacked with [pg 351] the plague.1418 The Pythagoreans, who paid an especial honour to Apollo, went still further, and employed music as a charm to soothe the passions, attune the spirit to harmony, and cure both body and mind. Hence they much preferred the cithara to the flute,1419 as, according to Grecian ideas, there was something in the sound of the flute wild, and at the same time gloomy; this, too, is the reason why Apollo disliked the music of that instrument.1420 This also explains his contest with Marsyas, the Phrygian Silenus and flute-player, whose tough skin, having been stript off by the conqueror, always moved (according to the report of the inhabitants of Celænæ), with joy, as was believed, at the sound of flutes.1421

The flute was not an instrument of much antiquity among the Greeks; Homer only mentions it as used by the Trojans.1422 In the time of Hesiod it had been introduced at the comus, the band of noisy revellers.1423 But the cithara alone for a long time kept its place as the instrument for the chorus: even in the time of Alcman flute-players came mostly from Asia Minor; and their names (Sambas, Adon, Telos1424) frequently had, from this circumstance, a barbarous sound. This kind of music was principally adopted in places where [pg 352] Dionysus was worshipped; for instance, in Bœotia. It was of course also much used in the rites of the Phrygian Magna Mater, and of the Phrygian Pan:1425 hence Pindar, who inherited the character of a flute-player from his father, dedicated a shrine to the mother of the gods, and to Pan.1426 When, however, it had become common throughout Greece, it could not be excluded from a place so celebrated for music as Delphi, and Apollo's ear became less fastidious. Alcman and Corinna, indeed, were too partial to that art (the former as being a Lydian, the latter a Bœotian), when they represented Apollo himself playing on the flute.1427 This instrument, however, had at that time been adopted even in the sacred exhibition of the Delphian worship: a dirge on the death of the Python1428 (nominally the production of Olympus a Phrygian musician, contemporary with, or somewhat later than, Terpander),1429 was played on the flute in the Lydian strain, and probably formed a part of that dramatic representation. Moreover, this instrument was used to accompany Prosodia (songs which were sung on the way to a temple) in the procession to Tempe, and in the Pentathlon at the gymnastic contests.1430 A peculiar species of flute, from being used in pæans, obtained the name of the Pythian:1431 yet the music of the flute, combined with singing (αὐλῳδία), in lyric and elegiac [pg 353] measures, was excluded from the Pythian games, after it had once been heard, as making too gloomy an impression:1432 for all sadness, and therefore all plaintive strains, were every where excluded from the worship of Apollo; and the music in his temples was always intended to have an enlivening and tranquillizing effect upon the mind.

12. From this view of the subject we may explain the singular story of the contest of Apollo with Linus, and of the defeat and consequent death of the latter.1433 For this purpose it will be necessary to state shortly my ideas respecting the real character of Linus. Linus, then, the subject of the song called by his name, was originally a god of an elementary religion (in which there were numerous symbols to signify the death of all animated life): he was nearly connected with Narcissus (i.e., the Torpid), whose tomb was shown at Thebes and Argos, at which last place matrons and maidens bewailed him in the month Arneius, as a boy brought up among lambs and torn in pieces by dogs.1434 The song of lamentation for the untimely death of Linus, the much-loved boy,1435 was sung to the [pg 354] harp in a low and subdued voice, and listened to with pleasure in the times of Homer and Hesiod,1436 although then, perhaps, the air was not always very melancholy. But in after times this was its predominant character, as is proved by the names Αἴλινος and Οἰτόλινος.1437 It was a great favourite with the husbandmen,1438 who were generally aboriginal inhabitants. In this point there was a resemblance between the usages of ancient Greece and Asia Minor, where religious dirges of this description, different, indeed, in different districts, but having every where the same mournful tune, were customary.1439 Such were, for instance, the lament of the tribe of Doliones;1440 the Hylas, sung at fountains in the country of the Mysians and Bithynians1441 (probably the same as the Mysian song);1442 the song of the beautiful Bormus, whose watery death was deplored by the husbandmen of Mariandyne on the flute in the middle of summer;1443 of Lityerses, whom the Phrygians bewailed yearly during the time of harvest at Celænæ, the native place of Marsyas;1444 and which, with the melancholy Carian strain, was played to the Phrygian flute.1445 Besides these there were the Gingras, or song of Adonis, and the Maneros, the rustic song of Pelusium in Egypt, which Herodotus compares [pg 355] with the Linus.1446 And even at Cyprus the contest of the two opposite kinds of music was in some measure renewed; there being a tradition that Cinyras, the priest of Aphrodite, and composer of the mournful strains in honour of Adonis, had, like Marsyas and Linus, been overcome and put to death by Apollo.1447

Thus we behold Apollo the representative of the severe, even, and simple music of the Greeks, in contest with that impassioned spirit, alternating between the extremes of fury and apathy, which the professors of an elementary religion sought to represent even in their music; and consequently this fable also harmonizes with the fundamental principles of the religion of Apollo.

13. Having now ascertained the general character of the music employed in the worship of Apollo, we shall endeavour to obtain a more accurate knowledge of its varieties.

One of the most ancient species of composition (in which Chrysothemis the Cretan and Philammon were said to have contended at Delphi) was a hymn to Apollo;1448 which we must suppose to have been composed in the ancient Doric dialect, and sung simply to the cithara. In reference to its musical execution, this hymn was also called a nome,1449 the invention of which was ascribed to Apollo himself.1450 At Delos [pg 356] also there were nomes, which were sung at the cyclic choral dances, and were attributed to Olen, another representative of the ancient poetry of hymns.1451 The general character of these was composure and regularity;1452 the measure was anciently (as we know from certain testimony) only hexameter:1453 which agrees well with the fact that the origin of the hexameter was derived from Pytho.1454 In the account that Philammon, the ancient composer of hymns, had placed choruses of young women round the altar, who sang the birth of Latona and her children in lyric measures (ἐν μέλεσι),1455 the nomes of Philammon,1456 as improved by Terpander the ancient lyric poet, appear to be confounded with the original ones; since these, after the fashion of the most ancient composers, contained only hexameters.1457 The ancient religious poets mentioned in these accounts, Chrysothemis, Philammon, and Olen, may be looked on as Dorians with the same certainty as the founders of the temples of Tarrha, Delphi, and Patara, to which they particularly belonged.1458 The language also of the poems ascribed to [pg 357] them must have been Doric; though indeed the fact of a poetical use of this dialect before the historic times will not agree with the predominant, though perhaps not well-grounded notions respecting the progress of poetry in Greece.

14. That the pæan was a song of thanksgiving for deliverance has been mentioned above. With respect, however, to the manner in which it was performed, we learn from Homer that it was sung after the sacrificial feast,1459 when the goblets were carried round after the sacred libation; and this was also the case at Sparta and Athens.1460 It was generally sung in a sitting posture, although in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo that god is represented as accompanying the Cretans who sing in a measured step.1461 At Sparta it was danced in choruses.1462 On the whole it required a regular and sedate measure,1463 even when it assumed a more lively air, as for the nome, and the solemn σπονδειακὸν, sung at libations.1464

But the most lively dance which accompanied the songs used in the worship of Apollo, was that termed the hyporcheme.1465 In this, besides the chorus of singers who usually danced around the blazing altar, [pg 358] several persons were appointed to accompany the action of the poem with an appropriate pantomimic display (ὑπορχεῖσθαι). Homer himself bears witness to the Cretan origin of this custom, since the Cnosian dance, represented by Hephæstus on the shield of Achilles, appears from the description to have been a kind of hyporcheme,1466 and hence all dances of this description were called Cretan.1467 From that island they passed at an early period over to Delos, where, even in Lucian's time, the wanderings of Latona and her island, with their final repose, were represented in the above manner.1468 At the same time also probably took place the custom mentioned in the hymn to the Delian Apollo as characterizing the songs of the young women of that island; viz., that they represented the voices and gestures of every nation:1469 perhaps they introduced the peculiar dances of the various countries which Latona visited in her wanderings. The ludicrous, and at the same time complicated dance (γέρανος) which Theseus is said first to have danced with his crew round the altar at Delos,1470 was probably of the same description. All that can be clearly ascertained [pg 359] respecting the rhythm of these compositions is that the hexameter was altogether unfitted to their playful and joyous character.1471 But both the hyporcheme and pæan were first indebted for their systematic improvement to the Doric musicians, Xenodamus of Sparta, and Thaletas of Elyrus in Crete (about 620 B.C.),1472 who first brought the Cretic or Pæonic metre into general use; which names point out beyond doubt its Cretan origin, and its use in pæans.1473 Cretics form a quick and lively, though a pleasing and by no means inharmonious1474 rhythm, being particularly adapted to rapid motion. Thus a joyous and agreeable harmony was added, at the festivals of Apollo, to the serious and solemn music, although the softness and insipidity of several Ionian and Asiatic tunes were, without doubt, always rejected.

Thus, if we except the purifying and propitiatory rites, the festivals of Apollo bore the character of a serene and joyful mind, every other attribute of the deity being lost in those of victory and mercy. Hence in his statues at Delphi1475 and Delos1476 he was [pg 360] represented as bearing in his hand the Graces, who gave additional splendour and elegance to his festivals by the dance, music, and banquet.1477

15. We have as yet omitted the mention of two great national festivals celebrated at Amyclæ by the Spartans in honour of the chief deity of their race,1478 viz., the Hyacinthia and the Carnea, from a belief that they do not properly belong to Apollo. That the worship of the Carnean Apollo, in which both were included, was derived from Thebes, whence it was brought over by the Ægidæ to Amyclæ, has been proved in a former work;1479 our present object is to show, from the symbols and rites of this worship, that it was originally derived more from the ancient religion of Demeter than from that of Apollo. The youth Hyacinthus, whom the Carnean Apollo accidentally struck with a quoit,1480 evidently took his name from the flower (a dark-coloured species of iris), which in the ancient symbolical language was an emblem of death; and the fable of his death is clearly a relic of an ancient elementary religion. Now the hyacinth most frequently occurs, in this sense, in the worship of Demeter; thus, for example, it was under the name Κοσμοσάνδαλος sacred to Demeter Chthonia at Hermione.1481 We find further proof of this in the ancient sculptures with which the grave, and at the [pg 361] same time the altar of Hyacinthus, was adorned: the artists indeed appear to have completely comprehended the spirit of the worship. We find Demeter, Cora, Pluto, and the Cadmean Dionysus, with Ino and Semele, and Hyacinthus himself, together with a sister named Polybœa.1482 Polybœa is hardly, if at all, distinct from Cora,1483 whom Lasus of Hermione called Melibœa. To this may be added the sacrifices to the dead, and lamentations customary on the first day1484 (which were forbidden at all other festivals of Apollo); nightly processions,1485 and several other detached traces of the symbols of Demeter and Dionysus,1486 which, by an attentive observer, may be easily distinguished from those of Apollo. The time of the festival was also different: it took place on the longest day of the Spartan month Hecatombeus, which corresponds to the Attic Hecatombæon,1487 at the time when Hylas was invoked on the mountains of Bithynia, and the tender productions of nature droop their languid heads.

The Carnean festival took place, as it appears, in the following month to the Hyacinthian, equally in honour of Apollo of Amyclæ. But the Doric religion seems here to have preponderated, and to have supplanted the elementary symbols so evident in the Hyacinthia. The Carnea was, as far as we know, altogether a warlike festival, similar to the Attic Boëdromia. [pg 362] It lasted nine days, during which time nine tents were pitched near the city, in each of which nine men lived, for the time of the festival, in the manner of a military camp. There is no reference to an elementary religion except some obscure ceremonies of the priest Agetes and the Carneatæ.1488 This leads us to suppose that at the union of the Amyclæan worship, introduced by the Ægidæ, with the Doric worship of Apollo at Sparta, the Hyacinthia preserved more of the peculiarities of the former, the Carnea of the latter, although the sacred rites of both were completely united. At the same time we do not deny the difficulty of inquiring into the origin and primitive form of ceremonies the history of which is so complicated; and this alone must excuse the shortness of our account respecting these two festivals.

16. Finally, the manner in which Apollo is represented in sculpture, particularly by the ancient artists, may assist our investigation into the ideas and sentiments on which his worship was founded. Apollo was a subject peculiarly adapted for sculpture. Since his connexion with elementary religion was slight, and there was nothing mystic in his character, the sculptors were soon able to fix upon a regular cast of features, to distinguish him from other deities: for Apollo, not only in poetry, but in the fables most nearly connected with his worship, is generally represented as a human god, and in all his actions and sufferings more nearly connected with the heroes than any other divinity. But before this perfection and conventional uniformity of the art, the early sculptors were much assisted in [pg 363] characterizing the statues of Apollo by his numerous and significant symbols, such as the bow, the cithara, the laurel, &c.: and thus they were able, in some measure, to give an idea of the power and properties of Apollo, though merely in stiff and rude images of wood and stone.

17. The simple Cippus of Apollo Agyieus did not represent any particular attribute, but was merely intended as a memorial of the presence of the protecting god.1489 In endeavouring more fully to express his character, the symbols of power would naturally come next. His attributes of vengeance doubtless preceded those of mercy, although both, in fact, harmonized together: it must, however, have been long, before the surpassing beauty of the god (celebrated even in the Theogony of Hesiod) could be the subject of sculpture. The attribute, then, of strength, as also that of omniscience, the ancient Lacedæmonians wished to represent by the Apollo with four hands and four ears at Amyclæ.1490 But the chief statue on the above spot was an image, which, besides the bow, bore a helmet and lance: of the same nature was also the statue on mount Thornax, the face of which had been gilded by the Lacedæmonians.1491 The Megarians also consecrated at Delphi a statue of Apollo bearing a lance;1492 and at Tenedos he was armed with the double hatchet,1493 like [pg 364] the Labrandenian Zeus of the Carians.1494 In a very ancient bas-relief, discovered by Dodwell on the mouth of a well at Corinth, and which we shall hereafter examine further, Apollo holds the cithara in his hand;1495 his whole form too, as in all the ancient sculptures, is stouter and more manly than usual.

18. On inquiring concerning the artists of the most ancient symbolical statues of Apollo, we find that the Cretans were the first sculptors, as well as musicians, of that worship. From Crete, an ancient wooden statue of Apollo, of the rudest style of workmanship, was brought to Delphi:1496 from hence, too (about Olymp. 50, 580 B.C.), there came Dipœnus and Scyllis the Dædalidæ, who made for the Sicyonians statues of Apollo, Artemis, Hercules, and Athene, of which we will speak hereafter. The Pythian oracle greatly interested itself in the labours of these artists; for when the envy of the native artists had driven them from Sicyon, it compelled the inhabitants to recall them. The managers of the temple of Delphi appear indeed to have been, from very early times, great [pg 365] patrons of the art of sculpture, particularly in brass. The subterranean temple at Pytho (the existence of which has been doubted, but, in my opinion, without sufficient grounds) was covered with brass, as were several treasuries of the ancient princes of Greece. The temples and courts were fitted with numerous tripods; caldrons, goblets, and arms of brass were there arranged promiscuously, from periods of the highest antiquity. There was also a knife used in sacrifice called the Delphian knife,1497 nor do the singing golden Κηληδόνες, which Pindar represents as suspended from the roof of the brazen temple, seem to be a mere poetical fiction.

But the Cretan school of sculpture produced Tectæus and Angelion, who erected the celebrated, and probably colossal statue of Apollo at Delos, which (as was before mentioned) held the Graces in one hand and a bow in the other. With the same school also, though in a more distant degree, was connected Canachus of Sicyon, who, about the seventy-third Olympiad, made a famous bronze statue for the Didymæum,1498 and one of wood for the Ismenium. From the accounts and various imitations of this work of art we are enabled to form some idea of its character. The god was represented with a manly form, his breast broad and prominent, the trunk square, the legs almost like pillars, and in a firm position, the left leg being a little advanced. The hair, encircled with a fillet, lay in [pg 366] slender twisted curls over the forehead; over each shoulder were three platted tresses, and behind the hair fell in a broad cluster down the back. The countenance nearly resembled those in the marbles of Ægina. In the right hand, which was stretched straight forward, was a fawn (an obscure symbol which we shall not here attempt to explain); the left, not quite so much elevated, grasped a bow. The whole must have had an awful and imposing appearance, conveying the idea of sublimity and dignity far more than of grace or loveliness.1499 We cannot suppose the style of the colossal statue of Apollo to have been very different which, several Olympiads later, was modelled in brass by Calamis for Apollonia on the Pontus, and which was afterwards brought to Rome by Lucullus:1500 nor that of Apollo Alexicacus, erected at Athens by the same artist at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.1501 The Apollo which Onatas of Ægina, the contemporary of Calamis, executed for the inhabitants of Pergamus, was a colossal statue displaying great beauty of form, and, as it appears, of a more youthful appearance than was common for statues of Apollo at that time.1502 In this, Apollo was represented [pg 367] as καλλίτεκνος, as the beautiful son of Latona; under which name he was worshipped at Pergamus.1503 It is not improbable that the union of strength and beauty so conspicuously exhibited in the ideal forms of the two children of Latona was suggested by the peculiar character of the Doric education; and that the artist represented the god as an Ephebus, whose skill in the chorus and on the field of battle was exactly equal.

But the figure which we are accustomed to consider as properly belonging to Apollo did not originate even in the school of Polycletus and Myron,1504 but was the creation of a later period; since both the coins of a date prior to the time of Alexander,1505 and single heads, which must be referred to the same period,1506 do not indeed preserve the features ascribed to the work of Canachus, but still are quite different from the most celebrated of the statues now extant, having broader cheeks, a shorter and thicker nose; in a word, the proportions are what the ancients termed quadrate, or square. It was not till the times of Scopas, Leochares, Praxiteles, and Timarchides, that the Apollo appeared whom we may call the twin-brother of Venus, so similar are the forms of both deities. The expression of inspiration and ecstasy, which several of the best statues exhibit, may also be shown to have first originated in the school of Scopas, since the earlier artists aimed rather at producing the appearance of tranquillity and composure [pg 368] than of transient excitement; and the exquisite taste with which these sculptors were able to express inspiration without extravagance, deserves the highest praise. Without detailing the particular productions of these and later artists, we shall only show how they may be best classified. The Apollo Callinicus of Belvedere stands by itself, swelling with the pride of victory:1507 next comes the Apollo resting from the fight, with the right arm bent over the head, the left leaning on a pillar, holding the bow, which has evidently been used, or a cithara: being evidently a statue of the resting Apollo (Ἀπόλλων ἀναπαυόμενος); but from the circumstance that a statue of this kind stood in the Lyceum at Athens1508 it is usually called the “Apollo of the Lyceum:” then follows the Apollo Citharœdus (playing on the harp), either naked, in different positions, or covered with the Pythian stola, and in an almost theatrical attitude.1509 It would be foreign to our [pg 369] subject to enter into details respecting this class of statues, and those derived from them, as the Sauroctonus, Nomius, &c.

19. Finally, we would endeavour to trace the influence of the worship of Apollo on the policy and philosophy of Greece, if the question did not embrace so wide a field, lying, as it does in great measure, beyond the confines of history. We may, however, select, from what has been already said, as proofs of the influence of this worship on political concerns, the armistice connected with the festivals of Apollo, the truce observed in the sacred places and roads, the soothing influence of the purifications for homicide, together with the idea of the punishing and avenging god, and the great influence of the oracles in the regulation of public affairs.1510 It has, moreover, been frequently remarked how by its sanctity, by the dignified and severe character of its music, by all its symbols and rites, this worship endeavoured to lull the minds of individuals into a state of composure and security, consistently, however, with an occasional elevation to a state of ecstatic delight.

20. Lastly, the worship of Apollo was so nearly connected with a branch of Grecian philosophy that the one frequently established and explained scientifically that which the other left merely to the feeling; I mean the Pythagorean system. Pythagoras possessed hereditary rites of Apollo; he dwelt at Croton, where that god received such various honours;1511 he lived mostly among Dorians, who were everywhere [pg 370] partial to that worship; and a Delphian priestess, by name Aristocleia, is mentioned among his followers.1512 Thus it is not without reason that the Pythagorean philosophy has in modern times been considered as Doric: in its political doctrines it followed Doric principles, and with the Doric religion it was united both externally and internally: besides which, the attempt to realize and disseminate national ideas and opinions may perhaps illustrate the rapid growth of the power of the Pythagorean league. The recondite principle of this philosophy always is, that the essence of things lies in their due measure and proportion, their system and regularity; that everything exists by harmony and symmetry alone; and that the world itself is an union of all these proportions (κόσμος, or order). The same abstraction from materiality also belonged to the religion of Apollo; for this too suggests the idea of order, harmony, and regularity, and in these it makes the nature and actions of the Deity to consist. Hence, too, music was one chief ingredient of the Pythagorean philosophy, as well as a necessary element of the worship of Apollo, as best expressing the harmony on which both were founded. In both the soothing and appeasing of the passions was aimed at and effected, that the mind might be quieted and strengthened at the same time.1513 But we must leave the full investigation [pg 371] of this subject to those who have acquired a profounder knowledge of the philosophy of Pythagoras.

Chapter IX.

1. We now proceed to consider the worship of Artemis; a subject which need not be so fully examined as that of Apollo, as it does not, like the worship of that god, everywhere present the same fundamental notions, and therefore cannot, in all its first beginnings, be derived from the religion of the Dorians. But as in general the Grecian mythology adopted the most various and inconsistent religious views and ideas, so in the name of the single goddess Artemis were united almost opposite branches of ancient worship, which we must attempt to separate. Lest, however, it should be supposed that we are unable to trace the association of ideas, which saw a simple character in the “various forms of that great goddess, who, having her origin in the interior of [pg 372] Asia, passed from thence into Greece, and was worshipped as the moon, the goddess of the woods, the huntress, the nurse of children, and a nurse of the universe, as well by the choruses of the virgins of Caryæ, as in the dances of the temples;”1514 we will endeavour to ascertain some historical criterion, which may distinguish the worship of Artemis from that of any other deity, and which must not be one of the ideas or symbols of the worship itself, since it is concerning the possibility or impossibility of their connexion that we are to inquire.

2. For this purpose it may be assumed, that the Artemis connected with Apollo belongs alone to the same system of religious notions: and consequently, the Artemis of Ephesus, Artemis Orthia, and Artemis Tauropolus, are of a different nature, as Apollo is never represented as their brother: of this, however, more hereafter. Here we will first show, that in all the chief temples of Apollo, Artemis was worshipped as his sister, as the partner of his nature and of his actions, and, as it were, a part of the same deity. Thus both were children of Latona, and were equally the rulers of the temple of Delphi;1515 the victory over the Python, the flight, and the expiation, concern both;1516 both were honoured at the Pythian games of Sicyon, together with Latona;1517 as also in [pg 373] Crete,1518 Delos, Lesbos,1519 at Carthæa,1520 in the Didymæum,1521 on the citadel of Troy,1522 in the worship of Lycia,1523 as well as in that of Metapontum.1524 The worship both of Apollo and Artemis is said to have been derived from the Hyperboreans;1525 and the names of the Hyperborean priestesses, who brought the rites to Delos, Arge and Opis, according to others Hecaerge and Loxo, are only epithets of Artemis. Arge probably means “the rapid;” Opis1526 (Ὦπις, Ionice Οὖπις, the same as ὄπις) well characterises the spirit of this religion, as it signifies the constant watch and care of the goddess over human actions,1527 while at the same time she inspires fear and veneration of herself.1528 She was known also by the same name among the Dorians [pg 374] of Sparta,1529 and celebrated as such in sacred chants:1530 thus almost all the attributes and actions of Apollo are referred also to Artemis. She is also the goddess of sudden death;1531 which she sometimes inflicts in wrath, but sometimes without anger;1532 and hence she is represented as armed, not only with bow and arrows, but in the Doric states with a complete panoply.1533 In ancient poets she is not only the destroyer of wild beasts, but also, like her brother, of sacrilegious men.1534 Thus, with Apollo, she killed Tityus, and, by herself, the Aloidæ,1535 and Orion, who dared to violate Opis when bringing the ears of corn to Delos.1536 Hence she [pg 375] was to be appeased by expiatory rites; and had an equal share in Thargelia, and similar festivals.1537 And for the same reason the laurel was likewise sacred to Artemis.1538 She was honoured with the song of the pæan.1539 She is at the same time the destroyer and the preserver (λυκεία1540 and οὐλία).1541 And even her name Ἄρτεμις1542 clearly corresponds with that of the protecting Apollo, since it signifies the “healthy,” the “uninjured.”1543 Whether the art of music belonged to Apollo alone is not certain; at least the Lacedæmonians celebrated in honour of Artemis a musical contest called καλαϝοιδία;1544 and her singing is represented in the Iliad as delighting both gods and men.1545 On reliefs which represent the victors in musical contests, Apollo is always accompanied by his mother and sister.1546 Artemis had also a claim to the gift of prophecy, at least if we can attribute any antiquity to the tradition of her being a sibyl.1547 Like Apollo, she is [pg 376] always represented as unmarried; and therefore not as the deity of an elementary religion, and originally not as goddess of the moon, although it cannot be denied that the worship of the moon was very nearly connected with other branches of the worship of Artemis.

But, it may be asked, if this Artemis always has the same characteristics as Apollo, and has none that are peculiar to herself, why should there be two deities to express one idea? Wherefore both a male and female, if neither have any relation to sex? It is difficult to give a satisfactory answer to these questions.

This consideration may, however, in some measure assist; namely, that as soon as Apollo was once supposed to be as an earthly god, as the ideal of all human strength, it was necessary to add also a female being. And the near approximation of the male to the female deity may be accounted for by the condition of the Doric women, who were much more considered as independent beings, and possessed a capability for all those other things which adorn the other sex.

3. But the most difficult part of our problem still remains unsolved; viz. to ascertain what was the worship of Artemis, which had not the same origin and nature with that of Apollo. First of all we should mention the Arcadian. That goddess has nowhere so many temples as in Arcadia; she was there the national deity, and had been long revered, under the title of “Hymnia”, by all the races of that people.1548 She was also introduced under the name of [pg 377] Callisto into the national genealogies, and called the daughter of Lycaon1549 (i.e. of the Lycæan Zeus), and mother of Arcas (i.e. of the Arcadian people). For that Callisto is only another form of the name of Artemis Calliste, which is a common epithet of Artemis, is plain from the fact that the tomb of that heroine was shown in the temple of the goddess,1550 and that Callisto was said to be changed into a bear, which was the symbol of the Arcadian Artemis.1551 Afterwards, indeed, the fable was much altered; and it was related that Artemis changed Callisto into a bear merely from anger.1552 But that this ancient Arcadian deity was not the Doric Artemis is proved by the above-mentioned criterion; viz. that she has no connexion with Apollo.

Another circumstance, however, speaks even still plainer. Apollo and his sister seldom received any particular surnames from places where they were worshipped;1553 whereas the other Artemis has almost innumerable names from the mountains, hills, fountains, and waters of Arcadia, and the other regions of Peloponnesus. Hence Alcman remarks that the goddess bears the names of thousands of hills, cities, and rivers.1554 There must have been, therefore, something [pg 378] in the attributes of this Arcadian Artemis which produced such a number of local names; she must have been considered as united and connected with the country in which she was worshipped. This leads to the notion of an elementary goddess, of a similar, though more universal nature than nymphs of the mountains, rivers, and brooks. Accordingly we find that this ancient Peloponnesian Artemis was nearly connected with lakes, fountains, and rivers. She was worshipped in several places under the titles of Limnatis and Heleia.1555 There were frequently [pg 379] also fountains in the temples of Artemis: viz., at Corinth, Marius, Mothone,1556 and near the district of Derrhiatis in Laconia.1557 She likewise received great honours at the Clitorian fountain of Lusi.1558 Among rivers, those she was most connected with are the Cladeus and the Alpheus.1559 The moist and watery district, through which this latter stream flows into the sea, was filled with temples of the nymphs of Aphrodite and Artemis, among which the sanctuary of the Alphean Artemis1560 is most remarkable. There were in that temple paintings of Cleanthus and Aregon of Corinth, which were chiefly on subjects relating to religion; as, for instance, that of Poseidon presenting a thunny-fish to Zeus while in the act of producing Athene.1561 All this naturally suggests the idea of a goddess who produced a flourishing and vigorous life from the element of water; and hence we would not entirely reject the popular faith of the Phigaleans, that Eurynome, the goddess of fish, and herself represented as half a fish, was an Artemis.1562

4. The mention of the river Alpheus reminds us of Sicily, whither, in order to catch the fountain Arethusa, which was swallowed up in the land of Elis, he is said to have followed her under the sea, and to have first reached her in the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse.1563 This singular fable may perhaps be explained by the following considerations. Syracuse was founded in the 5th Olympiad by Corinthians, with whom were some settlers from the district of Olympia, and particularly some members of the family of the Iamidæ, who held a sacred office at the altar of the Olympian Zeus.1564 These joint colonists (συνοιχιστῆρες according to the expression of Pindar) appear to have had sufficient weight in the new city to introduce their own religion and mythology. For, as we have seen above, Artemis was worshipped at Olympia as the goddess of the Alpheus, being generally considered in that country as presiding over lakes and rivers. She had in the grove of Altis an altar, together with Alpheus;1565 and there was there a popular legend, that Alpheus had once loved Artemis. Now the settlers that went from this district to Syracuse, in their first expedition, confined themselves to the island of Ortygia. Here they built a temple to the river-goddess Artemis; a sanctuary of so great fame, that Pindar calls the whole island “the seat of Artemis, the river-goddess.1566” There was, however, no river in Ortygia, and therefore Artemis was supposed to regret her beloved Alpheus. Hence arose the belief that Arethusa, a fountain near the [pg 381] temple, contained the sacred water of the Alpheus;1567 a belief which was strengthened by the circumstance that large fish were found in the spring;1568 and from this arose the fable that Alpheus had followed the goddess to Sicily. But Artemis was supposed to fly from the pursuit of Alpheus.1569 This at least was the fiction followed by Telesilla, a poetess who lived in the 64th Olympiad;1570 and the same fable was perhaps adopted by Pindar.1571 Afterwards, however, the precise meaning and origin of this fable were forgotten; and the fountain-nymph Arethusa took the place of Artemis, and became the object of the pursuit of the river-god.1572 Such appears to have been the origin of the elegant fable of Alpheus and Arethusa.

We now return to the Peloponnesian Artemis, and will mention some of her other symbols and attributes. Her statue stood next to that of Demeter, at Megalopolis, dressed in the skin of a deer, with a quiver on her back, holding a torch in one hand, and two serpents in the other, with a dog by her side.1573 The connexion which existed between her and the Arcadian Demeter is probably more ancient than this statue; and indeed the symbol of the deer seems to have been common in Arcadia to both Artemis and [pg 382] Cora, called in Arcadia despœna.1574 She was also worshipped with Bacchus;1575 and, like him, had phallic festivals.1576 From her connexion with fountains and rivers, and other rural objects, it was natural that this Artemis should be considered as the patron of wild animals. Thus Æschylus calls her “the protectress of young lions, and the whelps of other wild beasts.”1577 In like manner she was supposed to preside over the breeding of horses,1578 and generally over the nurture of infants and children;1579 it was therefore by a perversion of the original idea that she took the character of a [pg 383] huntress, the enemy and destroyer of wild animals. An analogous inconsistency to that before pointed out in the attributes of the Doric Apollo and Artemis, who were represented as both protecting and destroying.1580

5. By the mythological symbol of Artemis Callisto, the bear, we are reminded of some ceremonies at Athens, where young girls, between the ages of five and ten years (who were consecrated to the Munychian and Brauronian Artemis), were called bears;1581 and the goddess herself, in some singular traditions, is represented as a bear calling for human blood.1582 When the Ionians went from Athens to Asia, they carried the worship of the Munychian goddess to Miletus and Cyzicus;1583 and to the former city the kindred worship of Artemis Chitone, as the goddess presiding over birth, whose wooden statues were made of fructiferous wood.1584

6. The consideration of the Attic festival of Artemis leads again to another variety of the worship of Artemis; viz., to that of Artemis Orthosia, Orthia, or Iphigenia. We will first give the traditions and facts as we find them. Iphigenia, coming from Tauria to Attica, was supposed to have landed at [pg 384] Brauron, and at the neighbouring Halæ Araphenides, and left behind her the ancient wooden image of Artemis.1585 Here she was immediately interwoven with the heroic genealogy, and called the daughter of Theseus.1586 In Sparta there was a temple of Artemis Orthia in a damp part of the city, called Limnæum, where was also shown a wooden statue, which had come from Tauria.1587 As to the introduction of the worship, it is said that Astrabacus and Alopecus (the ass and fox), the sons of Irbus, descendants of Agis in the fourth generation (about 900 B.C.), had found the image in a bush, and had been struck mad by the sight of it; that the Limnatæ, and other villages of Sparta, had upon this offered sacrifices to them, when a quarrel arose, and murder ensued. A number of men were killed at the altar; and accordingly the goddess called for victims to atone for the pollution; instead of which, in later times, the scourging of boys was instituted, over the severity of which the priestess presided.1588 It is remarkable that this was immediately followed by a πομπὴ Λυδῶν, a Lydian procession.1589

From this narration it follows that the scourging was considered as a substitute for human sacrifice; and further, that the worship was looked upon as of a foreign origin: notwithstanding this, it was completely interwoven into the Lacedæmonian mythology. For it can be shown that the pretended daughter of Agamemnon, Iphigenia, is no other than the Taurian goddess, who was actually worshipped in several cities of Greece under the name of Ἰφιγένεια. Considered as a heroine, indeed, she became first, instead of the goddess thirsting for human sacrifice, the virgin sacrificed to her; and, secondly, her sacrificing priestess.1590 According to the Cyprian poems (for Homer knew nothing of her) Iphigenia was sacrificed to Artemis; but was by her brought to Tauria, and made immortal, a deer (or, according to others, a bear, and also a bull) having been left in her place;1591 Hesiod also represented her as immortal, viz., as Hecate.1592 The sacrifice was supposed to have taken place at Aulis, because there was a temple (probably of the Orthosian Artemis) near the port, to whom sacrifices were made at the passage.1593

This worship probably came to Laconia from Lemnos,1594 one of its principal seats. In early tradition Lemnos was probably identical with Tauria,1595 and the latter country derived its poetical name from the symbol of the bull, in the same manner as Lycia in later times took its name from the symbol of the wolf. In [pg 386] Lemnos also a great goddess was anciently worshipped with sacrifices of virgins; to which place the wooden image is said to have been brought from Brauron. This opinion becomes more evident by a comparison with the worship of Chryse. Agamemnon is said to have been the father of Chryse as well as of Iphigenia,1596 and also, according to others, of a son Chryses, who went to Tauria with Orestes.1597 Now it is certain that Chryse was a goddess, who had from early times been worshipped both at Lemnos and Samothrace. The Argonauts under Hercules and Jason were said to have sacrificed to her; and her ancient wooden image, raised over an hearth of unhewn stones, is often represented on ancient vases.1598 Philoctetes is said to have been bitten by the viper1599 when he discovered this altar.1600 This goddess Chryse, who is also called Athene, was probably only a different form of her sister Iphigenia.

The worship of both these goddesses spread to other places, to the north of the Ægean sea. Thus on the coast of Byzantium there was an altar of Artemis Orthosia;1601 and opposite to it, at Chrysopolis, was the tomb of Chryses, the son of Agamemnon, who, in his search after Iphigenia, was said to have died there.1602 It is evident that this system of religious names was arbitrarily transferred to the genealogy of the Lacedæmonian [pg 387] kings, and most curiously interwoven with the Trojan mythology. The Greeks first became acquainted with Tauria by their voyages to Miletus; and they gave it a name already celebrated in their mythology. They found there some sanguinary rites of a goddess, which, by partly softening the name, they called Oreiloche;1603 they also found human sacrifices, which they supposed to be offered to Iphigenia;1604 their own worship of that deity bore so many marks of ancient barbarism, that they were willing to consider the northern barbarians as its authors. Yet it is certain that the Tauric Artemis was no more derived from the Taurians, than the Æthiopian Artemis from the Æthiopians,1605 &c. In Asia Minor1606 also there were modes of worship, which the Greeks compared with the rites of the Orthosian Artemis, of the similarity of which we shall presently treat.

7. Hitherto we have merely collected the fabulous narrations of the ancients, and attempted to show their connexion; we shall next speak of the ceremonies which attended the worship of this goddess or goddesses.

In the first place we will treat of the meaning and character of this truly mystical worship.1607 We have [pg 388] a goddess adored with frantic and enthusiastic orgies, certain signs of an elementary religion, as well as with human sacrifices, which the character of the Greeks endeavoured only to moderate and to ennoble; it appears to have originally resembled the Arcadian worship of Callisto; but that it acquired at Lemnos, from the proximity of the Asiatic religion, a wilder and more extravagant form, which it retained after its return to Attica and Laconia. It cannot be a matter of doubt that Artemis Tauropolus is nearly identical with the Taurian goddess; this name of the goddess was established in Samos (where cakes of sesamy and honey were offered to her on solemn festivals),1608 in the neighbouring island of Icarus,1609 and at Amphipolis.1610 The ceremonies were undoubtedly enthusiastic, as the goddess herself was considered as striking the mind with madness;1611 and bloody, because the worship at Aricia was considered like it.1612

8. We are now to consider those temples of Artemis which had a purely Asiatic, and not a Grecian origin, and are wholly distinct, not only from the Doric, but also from the Arcadian worship of Artemis.

The Ephesian Artemis was doubtless found by the Ionians, when they settled on that coast, as already an object of worship, in her temple,1613 situated in a marshy valley of the Cayster.1614 From some real or accidental resemblance in the attributes of the Munychian and Ephesian goddesses, they called the latter “Artemis;” yet, wherever her worship spread, she was always distinguished by the additional title of “Ephesian.”1615 Every thing that is related of the worship of this deity is singular and foreign to the Greeks. Her constant symbol is the bee, which is not otherwise attributed to Artemis; the other attributes, which adorned her statues in later times, are too far-fetched to admit of any conclusion being drawn from them. The bee, however, appears originally to have been the symbol of nourishment;1616 the chief priest himself was called ἐσσὴν, or the king-bee: some of the other sacerdotal names are of barbarous, and not Greek derivation.1617 The gods, by whom this great goddess1618 was surrounded, must also have been of a peculiar description. It is not probable that Latona was originally called [pg 390] her mother,1619 as Apollo is never joined with her.1620 Her nurse appears to have been called Ammas.1621 Hercules is said to have proclaimed her birth from mount Ceryceum.1622 This Hercules may perhaps be some native demigod, possibly one of the Idæan Dactyli, whose names were, according to some, contained in Ephesian incantations, which were inscribed at the foot of her statues.1623

9. Thus much concerns the character of this worship, which appears, like an isolated point, projecting from a religious system, otherwise confined to the western parts of Greece.

As to its origin, the unanimous tradition of antiquity is that it was founded by the Amazons, This legend had probably been mentioned in some of the ancient epic poems before it was alluded to by Pindar;1624 and that it was also preserved on the spot appears from the celebrated contest of Phidias, Polycleitus, and other artists, to make statues of Amazons for the Ephesian temple: lately also a sarcophagus was found near [pg 391] Ephesus representing the battle of the Amazons.1625 The traditions respecting the foundation of the cities of Smyrna, Cume, Myrlea, Myrina, Æolis, Priene, Mytilene, and Pitane also make mention of the Amazons.1626 With respect to the meaning of Amazons, it has rightly (in my opinion) been supposed that the idea of them was suggested by the sight of the innumerable female slaves (ἱερόδουλοι) who were employed about the temples of Asia Minor.1627 According to Callimachus also the Amazons danced to the sound of the pipe round the statue which had been newly raised on the trunk of an elm-tree. It is also stated as an historical fact, that, even in the times of the Ionians, women of the Amazon race dwelt round the temple;1628 although virgins only were permitted to enter the sanctuary itself.1629 It appears therefore that the goddess upon whom these Amazons attended, being represented as a beneficent and nourishing deity, was likewise supposed to have the attributes of war and destruction; a double and opposite character, which we have traced in other branches of the worship of Artemis. As to the native country of the Amazons, who were supposed to have founded this worship, it does not seem to have been Phrygia, as they are stated in the Iliad to have come from the east of the Sangarius, and to have [pg 392] fought with the Phrygians.1630 The Syrians, however, bordered on that people: and Pindar, who says that the Amazons led the Syrian army,1631 fully coincides with those who fix their origin on the banks of the Thermodon, Chadesius and Lycastus along the coast of Themiscyra.1632 The striking agreement of several authors in this statement, and its singular precision, render it of double importance. And what country could have been more probably the native place of the Ephesian Artemis, as well as of the warlike Hierodulæ, than Cappadocia; where there were, in the historical age, large numbers of sacred slaves, both male and female; where also there was an elementary religion, with frantic rites, and the principal divinity was at the same time a Bellona and a Magna Mater?

This same oriental worship had also been in other places adopted by the Greeks of Asia Minor. Among these are Leucophryne, who was worshipped in Phrygia, near a warm spring,1633 and thence particularly honoured along the banks of the Mæander in Magnesia; and therefore also by Themistocles.1634 She was represented in the same form as the Ephesian goddess.1635 Her sacred animal was the buffalo.1636 The Artemis of Sipylus was worshipped with wanton games, from which she [pg 393] was also called at Olympia (according to Pausanias) Cordaca.1637 The Pergæan Artemis known all over Greece by her itinerant priests,1638 and of the same form as the Artemis Leucophryne;1639 with many others.1640 It was in the true spirit of this worship that the musician Timotheus called Artemis “the raging and foaming, like a Bacchanalian;”1641 and the tragic poet Diogenes in a beautiful though not a very accurate passage of his Semele speaks of the Lydian and Bactrian virgins, who with soft strains worshipped the Tmolian Artemis on the banks of the Halys.1642

I have now endeavoured to give the reader a general view of the different branches and forms of the worship of Artemis; in which some difficult and doubtful questions have of necessity been passed over: but I have preferred rather to reckon on the acquiescence of the reader in some uncertain propositions than to weary his patience by a detailed examination of all the debatable points.

Chapter X.

1. Having considered the worship of those deities which either wholly or partially owed their origin to the Dorians, we must now, in order to complete our account of the religion of that race, point out the various worships which they adopted from other nations.

This inquiry will be of value in two other respects than the plain and immediate result to which it leads; viz., from the light it throws on the history of the Doric colonies, and likewise on the Doric character upon which the mode of worship had a most powerful influence.

But since the subject embraced in its full extent would be almost endless (there being no part of ancient history on which there are such ample accounts as on the local worships), we must give up all attempt at completeness, and rest satisfied with a narrower view.

To begin then with Zeus. It is remarkable that there was no great establishment of the worship of this god (except the Phrygian in Crete) in any Doric country, but wherever it occurred was connected with and subordinate to that of some other deity. The worship at Olympia1643 appears to have been established [pg 395] by the Achæans, who in other places (e.g., at Ægium) consecrated temples to Zeus alone: the worship of Zeus Hellanius at Ægina was introduced by the Hellenes of Thessaly. But the whole of Argolis and also Corinth were, from early times, under the protection of Here, the character of whose worship resembled that of Zeus, although it was more pronounced. The chief temple was twelve stadia from Mycenæ, and forty from Argos, beyond the district of Prosymna;1644 its service was performed by the most distinguished priestesses, and celebrated by the first festivals and games, being also one of the earliest nurseries of the art of sculpture. It appears that Argos was the original seat of the worship of Here, and that there it first received its peculiar form and character: for the worship of the Samian Here, as well as that at Sparta,1645 was supposed to have been derived from Argos, which statement is confirmed by the resemblance in the ceremonies; and the same is true of the worship of the same goddess at Epidaurus,1646 Ægina, and Byzantium. [pg 396] In the early mythology of Argos her name constantly occurs; and the traditions concerning Io, so far as they were native, are only fabulous expressions for the ideas and feelings excited by this religion. Thus also the Corinthian fables of Medea refer to the indigenous worship of Here Acræa.1647 Hence the Corinthians introduced into their colony of Corcyra, together with the religion of Here,1648 the mythology and worship of Medea.1649 The peculiarities of the worship of Here must partly be looked for in the symbolical traditions respecting Io and Medea, and other mythological personages of the same description, and partly in the various rites of the Samian festival. It was doubtless founded on some elementary religion, as may be plainly seen from the tradition that Zeus had on mount Thornax in southern Argolis seduced Here in the shape of a cuckoo (whose song was considered in Greece as the prognostic of fertile rains in the spring). The marriage with Zeus (called ἱερὸς γάμος) is always a prominent feature in the worship of Here; she was represented veiled, like a bride; and was carried, like a bride, on a car, with other similar allusions.1650 At Samos it was related that the statue of the goddess had been once entirely covered with branches; and this, as it appears, was also represented at festivals.1651 The Argive festival of Λέχερνα, i.e., of the “bed of twigs,” had the same meaning.1652

2. In Argolis also the worship of Athene was of great antiquity, and enjoyed almost equal honours with that of Here; her temple was on the height of Larissa: and doubtless she had the same character and origin as the Athene Chalciœcus of Sparta.1653 Their names were in both places nearly the same, as at Sparta she was called Ὀπτιλέτις,1654 and in Argolis Ὀξυδέρκης, the quick-sighted;1655 and though in both places the names were explained from historical events, it seems more accurate to compare them with the title of Athene at Athens and Sigeum, Γλαυκῶπις, and others of the same kind. At Argos a large part of the heroic mythology is associated with the worship of Athene: for Acrisius was fabled to have been buried in her temple on the citadel;1656 and since Ἀκρία was a title of the goddess herself,1657 it appears to me that the name Ἀκρίσιος may be satisfactorily explained in this manner: especially as it is plain from an analysis of the mythology of Acrisius, Perseus, and the Gorgons, that it is entirely founded on symbols of Athene. Corinth also had a part in these fables, as is clearly shown by the figures of Pegasus, of the head of Medusa and Athene herself upon the coins of this state and of its colonies Leucadia, Anactorium, and Amphilochian Argos.1658

There is also another branch of the worship of Athene in the Doric states, viz., that which extended from Lindus in Rhodes to Gela in Sicily, and from thence to Agrigentum and Camarina.1659 In all these places Athene was the protectress of the citadel and the town, and was associated with Zeus Polieus (also with Zeus Atabyrius.1660) As to the ceremonies with which she was honoured, we only know from Pindar that at Rhodes they offered fireless sacrifices to her, and that the ancient sculpture of Rhodes was connected with her worship. That of Hierapytna in Crete (the coins of which city have the Athenian symbols of Athene) more resembled the Rhodian worship, if what the envoys from Præsus stated at Rhodes was correct, viz., that at Hierapytna the Corybantes were called the offspring of the sun and of Athene.1661

3. Although the worship of these deities, and of Here in particular, had probably been more prevalent before than after the Doric invasion, the religion of Demeter was still more depressed. This worship was nearly extirpated by the Dorians, a fact which we know from Herodotus, who, in speaking of some rites of Demeter Thesmophoria which were supposed to have been founded by the daughters of Danaus, states that when the Peloponnesians were driven out by the Dorians, these rites were discontinued, and were only [pg 399] kept up by those Peloponnesians who remained behind, and by the Arcadians.1662 Consequently we meet with few traces of the worship of Demeter in the chief cities of the Doric name.1663 Thus it appears that in Argos the ceremonies in honour of this goddess were on one side driven into the marshes of Lerna, and on the other to the eastern extremity of the peninsula, inhabited by the Dryopes. In the former of these two places some mystical rites were long performed, and in the latter the chief worship was that of the deities of the earth and the infernal regions (χθόνιοι θεοί). Some inscriptions found at Hermione, which besides Demeter and Cora mention the name of Clymenus,1664 an epithet of Pluto, agree well with the beginning of the hymn which Lasus the Hermionean addressed to the deities of his native city: “I sing of Demeter and the Melibœan Cora, the wife of Clymenus, sounding the deep-toned Æolic harmony of hymns.”1665 And that the Hermioneans considered the temple of the earthly Demeter (which was connected with the entrance of the infernal regions supposed to be at Hermione) as the first in the city, is also evident from the fact that the Asinæans, expelled from Argolis and resident in Messenia, sent sacrifices and sacred missions from thence to their national goddess at Hermione.1666

In ancient times also a worship was prevalent at [pg 400] Argos which we will designate by the name of the Triopian Demeter.1667 All the fables concerning Triopas and his son Erysichthon (from ἐρυσίβη, robigo) belong to an agricultural religion, which at the same time refers to the infernal regions. The places where this religion existed in ancient times are the Thessalian plains of Dotium, Argos, and likewise Attica;1668 and from the first-mentioned place it was transmitted to the south-western coast of Asia Minor by an early national connexion which is indicated in the account of an ancient Pelasgic colony from Dotium to Cnidos, Rhodes, and Syme;1669 and here it formed the basis of the Triopian worship, on which were afterwards founded the federative festivals of the six Doric cities. In front of Triopium is the small island of Telos, whence a single family joined the Lindian colony that founded Gela in Sicily, and earned with it the sacra Triopia. A member of this family named Telines advanced this private worship of the infernal gods so greatly that it was incorporated in the national religion, and he was appointed to administer it as Hierophant; it was from this person that Hiero the king of Syracuse was descended.1670

4. By this history of the colonial connexions, well attested from without, and having great internal probability, we have ascertained the origin of one of the branches of the worship of Demeter in Sicily. Another [pg 401] was probably introduced by the clan of the Emmenidæ,1671 which being originally of Theban origin came into Sicily with the colony of Gela: for it was probably owing to the traditions of this family alone that Agrigentum, as well as ancient Thebes, was called “a gift from Zeus to Persephone at their nuptial festival.”1672

But from neither of these two sources can the celebrated worship of Demeter at Syracuse and its colony Enna (which in the eyes both of the inhabitants and of the Romans had made Sicily the native country of Ceres) be derived, since it differed in certain respects from both the above-named worships.1673 From its importance we may infer that it was one of the most ancient religions of Syracuse, and established at the first foundation of that town; and since of these some came from Olympia,1674 but the larger part from Corinth, and there is no reason for supposing that it was derived from the former place, it must have been brought over from the parent state. Now it is true that there was at Corinth a temple of Demeter and Cora, the priestesses of which also prophesied by means of dreams;1675 but the worship of those goddesses was there [pg 402] of far less importance than in Sicily, where its preponderance may perhaps be accounted for by the fertility of the soil, which enabled it to produce wheat, while the Greeks had in their own country been accustomed to eat barley, and therefore stimulated the colonists to be especially thankful to the goddess of corn. When, however, it is remembered that Megara also had a large share in the colonising of Syracuse, it will hardly be doubted that this state was the real source from which the worship in question originated, since Demeter was there an ancient national deity, and was not disturbed in her sanctuary on the citadel of Caria even by the Doric invaders.1676

In Laconia also the worship of Demeter had been preserved from ancient times, although it could not have been much respected by the Dorians in Sparta. For the Eleusinia of that country were chiefly celebrated by the inhabitants of the ancient town of Helos, who on certain days carried a wooden statue of Cora to the Eleusinium on the heights of Taygetus.1677 The Lacedæmonians had also adopted the worship of Demeter under the title of χθονία, or earthly, from the Hermioneans, some of whose kinsmen had settled in Messenia.1678

5. Poseidon was not originally a god of the Doric race, but was suited rather to the character of [pg 403] the Ionians, who, from dwelling near the sea, had acquired a love for foreign communication and a great spirit of enterprise. We therefore find it only in a few places, for example, at Tænarum1679 (whence it was carried to Tarentum), at Cyrene,1680 in Ægina,1681 and particularly on the Corinthian isthmus; also at Trœzen and Calauria, which places (as has been already shown) were among the ancient settlements of the Ionians on the Saronic gulf,1682 to which the legends concerning Theseus chiefly refer.1683 From Trœzen the worship of Poseidon was transmitted to Posidonia in Magna Græcia, and also to Halicarnassus, chiefly by the family of the Antheadæ.

6. The worship of Dionysus did not enjoy equal honours among all the Dorians. It had indeed penetrated as far as Sparta, where it had driven even the Lacedæmonian women to phrensy;1684 and the Delphic oracle itself had ordered the institution of a race of Bacchanalian virgins.1685 But nothing is known of any sumptuous or regular ceremonies in honour of Dionysus; and we might indeed have supposed à priori that the austere and rigid notions of the Spartans would have been very averse to that deity. The same is probably true of Argos, which had for a long time wholly abstained from the worship of Dionysus, but [pg 404] afterwards dedicated to him a festival called τύρβη (turba).1686 The conduct of Corinth and Sicyon was in this respect altogether different. The former city had received from Phlius1687 the worship of this god under the title of βακχεῖος, i.e., “exciting to phrensy;” and also under that of λύσιος, the “appeasing” or “soothing,” from Thebes, whence it was said to have come at the time of the Doric invasion,1688 and where it was celebrated with festivals, of which we have very ample accounts.1689 In early times some rude beginnings of tragedy had been formed from the dithyrambic choruses1690 there performed, as the tradition of Epigenes informs us; though these were not regular dramas; there were likewise the tragic choruses transferred from Bacchus to some of the heroes, and Adrastus had been made the subject of these songs before the tyranny of Cleisthenes.1691 The worship of this god had also produced a native kind of comic and ludicrous entertainment, the Phallophori.1692 In the neighbouring city of Corinth, the same worship, with its musical and poetical accompaniments, prevailed;1693 and it was in this town that, [pg 405] according to Pindar,1694 the dithyramb was first established, although indeed under the direction of a foreigner (Arion). In the Doric colonies of Magna Græcia this worship preserved the same character of irregularity and excess; the whole town of Tarentum was (as Plato says) drunk at the festival of Bacchus. The painted vases give a perfect representation of the antics and masques of this ancient carnival.

7. In Corinth, however, and Sicyon, the worship of Aphrodite as well as of Dionysus was established. It seems probable that the worship of that deity had indeed a native origin in Greece, but that it had been extended and modified by Phœnician settlers in some of the maritime towns. The institution of the “hospitable damsels,”1695 whom the goddess their mistress herself ordered to be at the disposal of strangers,1696 was undoubtedly of Asiatic origin, and unknown to the ancient Greeks.1697 Sicyon, however, appears to have derived the worship of these two deities from Corinth, the coins of which city generally have a dove,1698 and frequently also a head of Aphrodite of ancient workmanship; and the native poetess Praxilla (452 B.C.) addressed Aphrodite as the mother of Dionysus,1699 and sang of the joys and woes of the Phœnician [pg 406] Adonis.1700 While again the Dorians of these maritime cities had a certain susceptibility, flexibleness, and softness of character, the very contrary of all these qualities distinguished the Spartans. For although that state came into connexion with a Phœnician establishment of the worship of Aphrodite in the island of Cythera, they transformed it while they adopted it, and had their own armed Aphrodite, and the chained and veiled goddess of marriage.1701 From the same island also they received the god Adonis under the name of Ciris.1702 Aphrodite, however, enjoyed greater honours in the Spartan colony of Cnidos, whence she went to Halicarnassus under the title of Acræa, and from thence to the mother city Trœzen.1703 The worship of Aphrodite at Selinus in the west of Sicily1704 was doubtless derived from the neighbouring town of Eryx, and was consequently also Phœnician; and the temple was probably one of the wealthiest of that once flourishing city.1705

The worship of Hermes does not appear to have prevailed in any Doric state; in one respect he was superseded by Apollo Agyieus. The same may nearly be said of Hephæstus and Ares, the latter of whom [pg 407] was worshipped by the Spartans under the names of Theritas and Enyalius. Of the worship of Æsculapius it has been already1706 mentioned that it was derived to Cos, Cnidos, and Rhodes, from Epidaurus, which state again had in ancient times received it through the Phlegyans from Tricca.1707 From Epidaurus, according to Pausanias,1708 also came the worship of Sicyon, and the Cyrenæan at Balagræ,1709 with which, as at Cos, an ancient school of physicians was connected.1710

8. We will just notice the worship of the Charites established in Crete and Sparta; first, as a fresh proof of the early religious connexion between those two countries,1711 and as a sign of that hilarity and gladness which was the most beautiful feature of the religion of the Greeks. These goddesses were at Sparta called Cleta and Phaënna; their temple was on the road from the city to Amyclæ, on the river Tiasa.1712 Allied to this was the worship of Eros, as practised by the Cretans and Spartans, with whom, before every battle, the most beautiful men assembled and sacrificed to that god:1713 not as the great uniter of heaven and earth, but as awaking mutual esteem and affection, which produce that fear of the disapprobation of friends which is the noblest source of valour.1714

The most obscure, perhaps, of all the branches of religion whose origin we have to investigate is the [pg 408] worship of the Dioscuri, or the sons of Zeus. It appears probable that it had a double source, viz., the heroic honours of the human Tyndaridæ, and the ancient Peloponnesian worship of the great gods or Cabiri; and in process of time the attributes of the latter seem by poetry and tradition to have been transferred to the former, viz., the name of the sons of Zeus, the birth from an egg, and the egg-shaped caps, the alternation of life and death, the dominion over the winds and the waves. As belonging to their worship at Sparta I may mention the ancient images called δόκανα, two upright beams with two others laid across them transversely;1715 the custom in military expeditions of taking either one or both of the statues of the Dioscuri according as one or both kings went with the army;1716 which places the Tyndaridæ in the light of gods of war; and the belief that they often appeared as assistants in time of need, or even merely as friendly guests,1717 which distinguishes them from most other heroes. Upon the whole we know that the Dorians found the worship and mythology of the Tyndaridæ established at Amyclæ, Therapne, Pephnos, and other places; and they adopted it, without caring to preserve its original form and meaning; rather, indeed, [pg 409] attempting to give to the worship of the sons of Tyndareus a military and political reference.

9. Before we proceed to consider the heroic mythology of the Dorians, which is chiefly confined to Hercules, we will first attempt to sketch the principal features of the religious character of the Dorians, as seen in the several worships already enumerated. Both in the development of modes of religion peculiar to that race, and in the adoption and alteration of those of other nations, an ideal tendency may be perceived, which considered the deity not so much in reference to the works or objects of nature, as of the actions and thoughts of men. Consequently their religion had little of mysticism, which belongs rather to elementary worships; but the gods assume a more human and heroic form, although not so much as in the epic poetry. Hence the piety of the Doric race had a peculiarly energetic character, as their notions of the gods were clear, distinct, and personal; and it was probably connected with a certain degree of cheerfulness and confidence, equally removed from the exuberance of enthusiasm and the gloominess of superstition. Funeral ceremonies and festivals with violent lamentations, as well as enthusiastic orgies, were not suited to the character of the Dorians; although their reverence for antiquity often induced them to adopt such rites when already established. On the other hand, we see displayed in their festivals and religious usages a brightness and hilarity, which made them think that the most pleasing sacrifice which they could offer to their gods was to rejoice in their sight, and use the various methods which the arts afforded them of expressing their joy. With all this, their worship bears the stamp of the greatest [pg 410] simplicity, and at the same time of warmth of heart. The Spartans prayed the gods “to give them what was honourable and good;”1718 and although they did not lead out any splendid processions, and were even accused of offering scanty sacrifices, still Zeus Ammon declared that the “calm solemnity of the prayers of the Spartans was dearer to him than all the sacrifices of the Greeks.”1719 They likewise showed the most faithful adherence to the usages handed down to them from their ancestors, and hence they were little inclined to the adoption of foreign ceremonies;1720 although in commercial towns, as, for instance, at Corinth, such rites were willingly admitted, from a regard for strangers of other races and nations.1721

Chapter XI.

1. In the following attempt to unravel the complicated mythology of Hercules, we will begin with [pg 411] those fables in which this hero appears evidently as the progenitor of the Doric Heraclidæ,1722 as representative of the heroes of the Hyllean tribe, the highest order in the Doric nation.

We will first direct our attention to the locality described in the beginning of the first book, the ancient country of the Dorians in the most mountainous part of Thessaly, where this nation was continually at enmity with its immediate neighbours, the Lapithæ. In this war Hercules appears as the hero of the Hyllean tribe, according to the epic poem Ægimius, and gained for them a third part of the conquered territory. With this contest is, as it appears, also connected the celebrated conquest of Œchalia, the subject of an epic poem called Οἰχαλίας ἅλωσις, which was ascribed to Homer or Creophylus.1723 In this poem it was related how Eurytus of Œchalia, the skilful archer, who was said to have surpassed Hercules himself in this mode of fighting, and who dared to engage with Apollo,1724 promised his daughter Iole as a prize to the person who should excel himself and his sons in archery; but Hercules having accepted the challenge, Eurytus refused to perform his engagement: upon which Hercules collected an army, conquered Œchalia, killed Eurytus and his sons, carried away Iole prisoner, and gave her in marriage to his son Hyllus.1725

The situation of this “well-fortified”1726 Œchalia is an ancient subject of controversy. There were three places of this name; one on the banks of the Peneus in Thessaly, in the ancient country of the Lapithæ, between Pelinna to the east and Tricca to the west, not far from Ithome:1727 another in the island of Eubœa, in the district of Eretria.1728 The third was a town in Messenia, which in latter times was called Carnasium, upon the boundary of Arcadia;1729 in which region there was also a town named Ithome; and, as it is stated, another named Tricca; so that we must suppose that there was some early connexion between the inhabitants of this district and the tribes near the Peneus. Now it may be presumed that each of these Œchalias was considered by the respective inhabitants as the celebrated town of the great Eurytus; whence among the early poets there was a difference of statement on the subject. For the Messenian Œchalia is called the city of Eurytus in the Homeric catalogue,1730 and in the Odyssey,1731 which statement was followed by Pherecydes;1732 the Eubœan city was selected by the writer [pg 413] of the poem called the Taking of Œchalia;1733 as also probably in the Ægimius,1734 and afterwards by Hecatæus of Miletus;1735 the Thessalian, in another passage in the catalogue of the ships, apparently of considerable antiquity.1736 Since, then, this question cannot be settled by authority, we can only infer (but with great probability) from the connexion of the traditions that the last-mentioned Œchalia was the city of the original fable. The contest for this city is evidently closely connected with the war with the Lapithæ; Eurytus, as well as the Lapithæ, was hated by Apollo. If Œchalia is placed on the banks of the Peneus, the conquest of it naturally falls in with the other tradition; if not, it stands isolated and unconnected. Again; Hercules, according to all traditions, conquers Iole for his son Hyllus; now Hyllus never occurs in mythology except in connexion with the Dorians; consequently the place of the battle must be looked for in the vicinity of the Doric territory.

Even before the time of this war (according to the common narration) Hercules had embroiled himself with the Œchalians by killing Iphitus, the son of Eurytus, who demanded of him the restitution of some plundered cattle or horses. In the common version of this story, Peloponnesus was the scene of the encounter; for Hercules is said to have hurled him from the walls of Tiryns.1737 But to expiate this murder, and [pg 414] the violation of the rights of hospitality, Hercules became a slave; and, in order to release himself from the guilt, he was compelled to pay to the father of Iphitus his own ransom.

2. The meaning of this servitude cannot be rightly explained without observing the remarkable coincidence between some parts of the mythology of Hercules and Apollo, which we will here shortly elucidate. As Eurytus is represented sometimes as killed by Apollo, sometimes by Hercules, so in the poem of the Shield of Hercules1738 this hero punishes Cycnus for profaning the Pagasæan temple; thus, in another tradition, he slays Phylas and Laogoras, princes of the Dryopes, for violating the shrine of Delphi and other temples;1739 and consecrates the whole nation to the Pythian Apollo.1740 Nor do I believe that Euripides invented the fable of the restoration of Alcestis, and the contest between Hercules and death.1741 It is also perhaps fair to infer, from the legends of epic poets, in which Hercules is represented as a hero in brazen armour, who defended the sacred roads with his sword, and overthrew the violent sons of Ares that waylaid the sacrificial processions in the narrow passes and defiles, that in ancient fables he was considered not only as the defender of the Doric race, but also of the Doric worship.

We may now proceed to consider the sale and servitude of Hercules; a point of primary importance in [pg 415] the various forms which the legends concerning this hero assume. In the present instance this degradation originated from the killing of Iphitus. Here also the parallel with the servitude of Apollo at Pheræ cannot fail to strike every one. The god and the hero were chosen, as examples, to impress the people in early times with a strong sense of the sacred character, and necessity of expiation for homicide.1742 By whom Hercules was supposed to have been purchased in the original legend of northern Thessaly we know not; at a later period Omphale was called his mistress, who (according to Pherecydes)1743 bought him for three talents.

3. We will now proceed to the second settlements of the Dorians, which comprehend the towns between the ridges of Œta and Parnassus; viz., Erineus, Cytinium, Bœum, and Pindus.1744

The neighbours of the Dorians in these settlements were, as has been already stated, the Dryopes, the Melians of Trachis, and the Ætolians. The first were hostile to the Dorians; the other two were for the most part friendly to them. These facts again are expressed with much clearness in the mythology of Hercules. [pg 416] Of the relation between the Dorians and Dryopians, and the manner in which it is expressed in the fables of Hercules, we have already given an account.1745 Ceyx, the Trachinian, was a faithful friend of Hercules, and of his descendants; in one account, indeed, he is called the nephew of Hercules,1746 who is said to have founded for him his town of Trachis.1747 In this place was shown a grave of Deianira,1748 the daughter of Œneus, whose marriage with Hercules is evidently a mythological expression for the league which existed between the Ætolian and Dorian nations before the invasion of Peloponnesus.1749 For Deianira was an inhabitant of Calydon;1750 and the Calydonians had the principal share in this expedition. To this marriage is annexed a series of connected Ætolian fables concerning Hercules. For the peculiarity of this part of the heroic mythology is, that they readily passed from one nation to another; and wherever they obtained a firm ground, formed a large mass of traditions. Among these is the conquest of the bull Achelous,1751 and the adventure at the ford of the Euenus,1752 which afterwards occasioned the death of Hercules. It is also probable that the residence of Hercules at Olenus, in the house of Dexamenus, was connected with the Ætolian adventures; although even Hesiod does not in this legend mention the ancient Ætolian town Olenus in the neighbourhood of Calydon, [pg 417] but the Achæan city of the same name on the banks of the Pirus.1753 Now Dexamenus is frequently placed in connexion with the Calydonian family of Œneus;1754 the wife of Œneus came from Olenus, and was of the same family. The ancient legend represented him as a hospitable hero: which quality is also expressed in his name (Δεξαμενὸς, from δεξάμενος); in return for which, Hercules released him from his brutal guests, the Centaurs;1755 to which fable the ancient battle of the Centaurs in the mythology of Hercules probably annexed itself. Lastly, Hercules is said to have led the Ætolians against the Thesprotians of Ephyra. This expedition was perhaps as much celebrated in ancient lays as the taking of Œchalia. Ephyra, which is here spoken of, is an ancient city of Thesprotia,1756 situated on the spot where the Acherusian lake flows into the sea through the river Selleeis (Acheron). In later times the name of this city was Cichyrus; but even at the present day remains of the original Cyclopian style of building, not unlike those of Tiryns, are extant.1757 The whole district is celebrated in fables as the dwelling-place of Aidoneus: as the seat of an oracle where departed spirits were questioned, it was always regarded by the inhabitants with an awe, which was further increased [pg 418] by a belief that the natives were very skilful in the preparation of poison.1758 This city Hercules is said to have attacked as an ally of the Ætolians; whence it appears probable that this circumstance gave occasion for introducing his contest with Hades, and his adventures in the infernal regions, such as the carrying away of Cerberus, the liberation of other heroes,1759 &c. It must not, however, be thought, that in the style of Euhemerus, I suppose a king Aidoneus to have really once reigned in this district, who had a dog, or rather a general, named Cerberus, whom Hercules overcame in a battle, &c. The following appears to be a more probable method of accounting for the origin of this fable. The gloomy religious rites on the banks of the Acheron, which had always deterred the neighbouring nations from a participation in them, were at an early period contrasted with the free and active habits of the heroic tribes; the awe inspired by the presence of the unearthly spectres with the proud spirit and bold thoughts of a military life. If now the people themselves came into collision with each other, their gods necessarily did the same; the result of which was traditions of contest and war between themselves. On the other hand, it must not be thought that the fable has a purely symbolical meaning; and that Hercules was worshipped, together with [pg 419] Hades, merely as an enemy of Death, as a deity alleviating and removing the terrors of the infernal regions.

4. The rest of this fable, however, entirely loses its symbolical character; viz., the manner in which the birth of several Doric heroes is connected with the taking of Ephyra; who, though out of the confines of history, are nevertheless to be considered as real individuals. In the first place, Hercules is stated to have begotten Tlepolemus on Astyocheia, whom, according to Homer, he carried away from Ephyra, on the river Sellecis, after having destroyed many cities;1760 Antiphus and Pheidippus also were said to have come from Ephyra in Thesprotia, the sons of Thessalus, and grandsons of Hercules, to whom the noblest families of Thessaly, as well as the Heraclidæ of Cos, referred their origin;1761 the latter, however, according to another and later tradition, sprang from the union of Hercules and the daughter of Eurypylus in Cos itself.1762 The origin of this intricate fable appears to be as follows: There were in the ancient country of the Dorians some noble families which referred their origin to the conquest of Ephyra; and these were designated by the names of Tlepolemus, Antiphus, and Pheidippus; those families went with the other Dorians to Peloponnesus, and passed through Argos and Epidaurus to Rhodes and Cos, where they partly new-modelled their original family legends. Now it was always admitted [pg 420] that the Thessalian people came also from Ephyra and Thesprotia; and when it settled among the Greeks, and sought to participate in their traditions, it was natural that Hercules, the conqueror of Ephyra, should be placed at the head of its genealogies.

5. To the combat of Hercules and Pluto at Ephyra we will now annex the legend of Geryoneus. The cattle of Geryoneus and Pluto grazed together in the island of Erytheia;1763 but they were supposed to belong to the Sun,1764 and therefore were of a bright red colour. Now Erytheia was anciently believed to be near the kingdom of Hades. For the statement of Hecatæus, that Erytheia and Geryoneus belonged to Epirus and the region of Ambracia,1765 could not have been owing to an attempt to give to mythology an appearance of reality: but he seems to have availed himself of some real tradition. This is certain, from the datum of Scylax, who would never have laid down Erytheia in his Periplus1766 on the authority of a logographer. According to this writer it is situated between the territory of the Atintanes and the Ceraunian mountains, north of Epirus, on the borders of Greece, at no great distance from the earliest seats of the Dorians. Now [pg 421] it is a remarkable fact, that, even in historical times, there were in the same country, viz., near the Aous, a river running from mount Lacmon, herds sacred to the Sun, which were guarded in the daytime on the banks of that river, and in the night in a cave of the mountain, by men whom the inhabitants of the Greek city of Apollonia intrusted with this office as a particular honour.1767 It is not probable that the Corinthians, who founded Apollonia, should have been the first to introduce this usage, although there are traces of an ancient worship of the Sun in the territory of Corinth;1768 but we may fairly assume that the colonists merely retained a native custom. This hypothesis clears away all difficulty. The empire of Hades on this earth was conterminous with a district in which the worship of the Sun prevailed, and which contained innumerable herds of cattle, under the protection of the god; but the Greek hero, little caring for their sanctity, had driven them away, and devoted them to his own gods. Epirus was always distinguished for its excellent breed of cattle, which were said to have sprung from the herds of Geryoneus, which Hercules offered to the Dodonæan Zeus.1769

6. We were led to these considerations by the Ætolian legends respecting Hercules, from which we [pg 422] will now return to the Dorians, who possessed the mountainous tract along mount Œta towards Thermopylæ. There was perhaps no region in the whole of Greece which abounded more in local fables of Hercules. It was in the pass of Thermopylæ that he caught those strange monsters the Cercopes;1770 here it was that Athene caused a hot spring to issue for him from the ground;1771 on the top of mount Œta, on the Phrygian rock,1772 was raised the fatal pile, which the brook of Dyras in vain strove to extinguish;1773 and many adjacent cities claimed a connexion with his exploits:1774 even the Ænianes (who at a later period settled in this district) attempted to appropriate to themselves these traditions;1775 and Heraclea Trachinia, not founded till the Peloponnesian war, and the neighbouring Cylicrani, were referred to the mythology of Hercules.1776 It is certain that local traditions of this kind must have originated with the inhabitants of this district. Is it at least probable that the natives of Argos would [pg 423] have placed the death of their deified hero in a foreign region, if they had been the original inventors of this fiction? The career of the Doric hero doubtless closed on the funeral pile of Œta; and this adventure ended a series of fables, of which there are now extant only some fragments. In this point of view we may perceive a connexion between many of the legends detailed above.

The general tendency and spirit of these legends may be described in the following proposition: The national hero is represented as everywhere preparing the way for his people and their worship; and as protecting them from other races. Thus he opens a communication between Tempe and Delphi, between the fabulous worshippers of Apollo, the Hyperboreans, and the worshippers of his own age. At the same time his own person is an outward symbol of the national worship; he complies with its rites of expiation for homicide, being himself both the victim and the sacrificer.

7. We will next consider the Theban legends of Hercules; and will, for the sake of clearness, first state the propositions which the following discussion is intended to establish.

Hercules at Thebes is not to be considered as a Cadmean; and has no connexion with the ancient gods, and traditions of the Cadmeans; but his mythology was introduced into Bœotia partly by the Doric Heraclidæ, and partly from Delphi, together with the worship of Apollo.

To prove that Hercules has no connexion with the Cadmean gods, temples, and princes, it is only necessary to refer to a genealogical table of the Theban mythology, and a plan of Thebes sketched after [pg 424] Pausanias. From the former we perceive that Hercules (whose father is represented as having arrived as a fugitive from Mycenæ) is not made the relation either by blood or marriage of the Cadmeans, Creon (κρέων, the ruler), his supposed father-in-law, being only a fictitious personage, invented to fill up a chasm in the pedigree;1777 from the latter, that the temples of Hercules were not only not in the citadel (like those of Cadmus, Harmonia, and Semele), or within the walls of the city, but were all without the gates. This fact is of great importance as to the antiquity of any worship in a city. The ancient and original deities, which enjoyed the honours of founders, possessed the citadel as their birthright; while all gods afterwards introduced enjoyed a less honourable abode in the suburbs of the town. Now it is known that the house of Amphitryon and the Gymnasium of Hercules stood in front of the gate of Electra, opposite the Ismenium;1778 and to this we may add the account of Pherecydes1779 respecting a village near that same gate, which the Heraclidæ had founded before their invasion of Peloponnesus, and where there was a statue of Hercules in the market-place. What can be clearer than that these Heraclidæ established the worship of their hero at Thebes? Near this place (it should be observed) was the Ismenian sanctuary of Apollo. Opposite to this [pg 425] temple Hercules was said to have been educated; and at a festival of Apollo to have carried the laurel before the chorus of virgins; and afterwards to have consecrated a tripod in the temple, as was the general custom in later times. This tripod is represented on the famous relief of the Argive apotheosis of Hercules, with the inscription Ἀμφιτρύων ὑπὲρ Ἀλκαίου τριπόδ Ἀπόλλωνι.1780

With this is evidently connected the story of the robbery of the Delphian tripod, of which the common version is as follows: Hercules was visited with a severe illness, as a punishment for the murder of Iphitus; and, in consequence, he had recourse for relief to Delphi; but as the Pythian priestess refused to answer the questions of one guilty of homicide, he threatened to plunder the temple, and carry off the tripod. Apollo accordingly pursued him, till Zeus separated the combat of his two sons by lightning.1781 The fable went on to say that a new consecration of the Delphian tripod took place, and a reconciliation of the god and hero: of this part we are only informed by works of art, these being indeed of tolerable antiquity.1782 But it [pg 426] is manifest that this is not the genuine, ancient, and sacred tradition. How could this hero, who in other respects was entirely dependent on the mandates of the oracle, and who in so many ways protected and promoted the worship of Apollo,1783 suddenly become a sacrilegious violator of his most holy and ancient temple? This carrying away of the tripod appears from other traditions to signify nothing else than a propagation of the worship of Apollo.1784 Whither, then, is this tripod stated to have been first moved? By the Arcadians Hercules was said to have brought it to Pheneus, but was compelled again to restore it to Apollo.1785 The hero, on his journey to Elis, is said to have built a temple to the Pythian Apollo;1786 which, however, can scarcely be more ancient than the Doric migration. The foundation of this temple, as dependent on the Delphic oracle, was therefore by the tradition expressed under this image of the transportation of the tripod, the bearer of it being Hercules. But it is more important to our present purpose that, according to the Bœotian account,1787 Hercules was supposed to have brought the tripod to Thebes, that is probably to the Ismenium. This fable therefore shows the connexion [pg 427] between the Ismenium and the great sanctuary of Apollo; and represents Hercules as the intermediate link between these two temples.

8. Several other traditions current in Bœotia are connected with the above explanation of this tradition. The Cretan colony, which, setting out from Cirrha, established the Tilphosian temple at Ocalea in Bœotia, was represented under the person of Rhadamanthus.1788 Rhadamanthus is said to have there dwelt with Alcmene, and to have instructed the youthful hero in the Cretan art of archery.1789 For this reason also Zeus raised Alcmene from the dead, and conducted her to the islands of the blest as the wife of Rhadamanthus. A stone remained in her tomb, which was set up in her sacred grove at Thebes.1790

9. The Theban traditions of Hercules are not all equally significant; but some, such as those just mentioned, had a religious, some a political1791 import, and others only express the bodily strength of that hero. The education of Hercules is confided to certain fabulous personages, most of whom were supposed to reside in Bœotia.1792 His most remarkable instructor is the minstrel Linus, whom (probably in execution of the will of Apollo) he put to death,1793 justifying himself [pg 428] by the law of Rhadamanthus. The destruction of the lion of Cithæron is an imitation of the legend of Nemea, of which we shall speak hereafter.1794 After this adventure he went to Thespiæ, to the house of Thestius, where he deflowers in one or in fifty-seven nights the fifty daughters of his host, a fable which has perhaps an astronomical reference.1795

With respect to the singular legend of Hercules murdering his children by Megara by throwing them into the fire,1796 it cannot be denied that this had some symbolical meaning, derived from an ancient elementary religion. In general, however, this temporary fury is merely an exaggerated picture of that heroic mind whose courage and endurance had carried Hercules through so many dangers and difficulties for the good of mankind.1797 According to the Bœotian version, it was a melancholy madness, in which Hercules, regardless even of all that was most dear to him, murdered his children, and was even on the point of slaying his father.1798 Upon this the hero, oppressed with a deep melancholy, turned for relief to the atoning Apollo; and either to the god of the Ismenium1799 or of Pytho.1800 The oracle commands him to serve as a [pg 429] slave, in the same manner as Apollo himself had served after the destruction of the Python. In the broken narrative of Apollodorus a remarkable trace has been preserved as to the time during which, according to the Bœotian tradition, the slavery of Hercules lasted, viz., eight years and one month.1801 This cannot be considered as an accidental number; but it is probable that the Ennaëteris is signified, which was a period of eight years and three intercalary months; of which only the last month is here mentioned, because the two inserted in the middle were less conspicuous. Hercules, therefore, like Apollo at Pheræ, was supposed to have served for an ἀΐδιος ἐνιαυτὸς, for the octennial period of mythology and ancient astronomy.1802

10. We will here add some observations on the Attic worship of Hercules, which was celebrated chiefly at Marathon in the Tetrapolis,1803 in the three villages of Melite, Diomea, and Collytus,1804 which lay close to one another in the vicinity of Athens; at Cynosarges1805 in particular, which belonged to the demus [pg 430] of Diomea; at Acharnæ1806 and Hephæstia,1807 and in the city itself; and likewise near the sea in the Tetracomæ, or “Four Hamlets.”1808 The circumstance that those temples which were not situated in the vicinity of the city were all in the northern part of Attica, seems to prove that the worship was derived from the northern frontiers; and it was attributed to the presence of the Heraclidæ in Attica, though the fable of the great assistance which Athens lent to the Heraclidæ was peculiar to the Athenians.1809 It is probable, however, that at some early period a division of the Doric people passed through Attica, and there founded that worship which, by the supremacy of the Dorians and their various connexions with other nations, increased in character and importance. If the Lacedæmonians really spared the Tetrapolis in the Peloponnesian war,1810 their forbearance must be attributed to the respect which they showed to their national hero. There is a tradition worthy of notice, that Theseus consecrated to Hercules all the temples which had been dedicated to himself;1811 whence it may be inferred that the worship of the former demigod was thus transferred at some early period; only not, it should be observed, at the time of Theseus himself. That the worship of Hercules was only half-nationalized may (as it appears) be inferred from the custom of the Parasiti of that hero at Cynosarges being always [pg 431] Athenians, of whose parents one only was a citizen; a symbolical allusion to the half-foreign origin of their worship.

Of the same description are the traditions which were peculiar to the villages of Aphidna, Decelea, and Titacidæ (likewise situated in the north of Attica), respecting the expedition of the Tyndaridæ; who were said to have conquered Aphidna with the aid of Decelus and Titacus.1812 From this plunder, according to a Spartan legend, the very ancient temple of Pallas Chalciœcus at Sparta was built. In this instance, likewise, the tradition was recognised as real history; for the Lacedæmonians always kept up a friendly intercourse with Decelea; nor was it, we may be assured, without some particular reason that in the Messenian war at the command of the oracle they called to their aid Tyrtæus, the man of Aphidna. But as the Tyndaridæ, i.e., their images (as was mentioned above),1813 accompanied every Spartan army on its marches, it is probable that these stories originated in some Doric expedition into the northern parts of Attica, which left behind it these permanent traces and recollections.

Chapter XII.

1. We must now entreat the indulgence of our readers when we enter upon an obscure and difficult part of our subject, and one lying beyond the limits of historical record. We allude to the Peloponnesian mythology of Hercules; a collection of legends doubtless for the most part invented subsequently to the Doric invasion, and intended by that nation in great measure to justify their conquest of the peninsula, and to make their expedition appear, not as an act of wrongful aggression, but as a re-assertion of ancient right. Some hero (perhaps even of the same name) must have existed in the Argive traditions in the time of the Persidæ, and the resemblance may have been sufficiently striking to identify him with the father of the Doric Hyllus. We shall therefore consider the destroyer of the Nemean lion as a native Argive hero; but the delay experienced at his birth, and his consequent exposure to want and toil, evidently belong to the Doric tradition, as well as the enmity of Here; fables which were partly borrowed from the worship of Apollo, and may partly have been intended to indicate [pg 433] the contrast between the ancient worship of Argos and that of the invading race.1814

We shall now proceed without further preface to consider the different adventures of Hercules, which may be divided into two classes; the first consisting of his warlike exploits, the second of his combats with wild beasts. We shall commence with the examination of the latter.1815

Nemea was separated from the Argive temple of Here, the most ancient one in the country, by a chain of mountains and a long rocky ravine. It cannot be denied that the moon was often invoked in this worship, although it would not be safe to consider Here as the goddess of the moon. Now Nemea is called the daughter of the moon,1816 from which deity the Nemean lion is also said to have sprung; the antiquity of which fable may be inferred from the circumstance that Anaxagoras availed himself of it, as being generally received, to account for the physical hypothesis of the Antichthon.1817 Connected with this is Hesiod's tradition that the goddess Here had herself brought [pg 434] up the lion, which she is by that poet represented as having done out of enmity to Hercules. Hence we detect the symbolical character of the fable, which resembles that of Perseus and Gorgo, &c.; although we can scarcely attempt to explain the whole legend in a similar manner. The combat with the Lernæan hydra may also be thus explained. Hercules is represented as employing in this contest the same sickle with which Perseus beheaded Medusa.1818