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Title: The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2

Author: Karl Otfried Müller

Translator: Sir George Cornewall Lewis
Henry Tufnell

Release date: September 17, 2010 [eBook #33743]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33743

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY
AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE DORIC RACE, VOL. 1 OF 2 ***

The History and Antiquities

Of The
Doric Race

by Karl Otfried Müller

Professor in the University of Göttingen

Translated From the German by

Henry Tufnell, Esq.

And

George Cornewall Lewis, Esq., A.M.

Student of Christ Church.

Second Edition, Revised.

Vol. I
London:

John Murray, Albemarle Street.

1839.

Contents

Extract From The Translators' Preface To The First Edition.
Advertisement To The Second Edition.
Introduction.
Book I. History Of The Doric Race, From The Earliest Times To The End
Of The Peloponnesian War.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.

Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Book II. Religion And Mythology Of The Dorians.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Chapter XI.
Chapter XII.
Appendix I.
Appendix II. Genealogy of Hellen.
Appendix III. The migration of the Dorians to Crete.
Appendix IV. History of the Greek congress or synedrion during the Persian
war.
Footnotes

[pg iii]

Extract From The Translators' Preface To The
First Edition.

The History, of which an English translation is now offered to the public,
forms the second and third volumes of a work by Professor C. O. Müller,
entitled, “Histories of Greek Tribes and Cities.” The first volume of this
series was published separately under the name of “Orchomenos and the
Minyæ;” and contains a most learned examination of the mythology and
early history of Orchomenos and other towns of Bœotia, and of the
migrations of the Minyæ, together with other questions more or less
connected with these subjects. It is, in every respect, a distinct and separate
work from the Dorians, comprised in the second and third volumes; nor was
it more incumbent on us to publish a translation of that first volume,
because it is often referred to in the subsequent volumes, than of the many
other admirable works on Grecian history, equally referred to, which are
inaccessible to persons not acquainted with the German language.

[pg iv]

At a time when a large part of the present translation had been completed,
the translators communicated by letter to Professor Müller their intention
with regard to his work on the Dorians, and requested him to read the
manuscript of their translation before it was printed, in case they should
have anywhere committed any errors, or failed to catch the import of his
words. To this request Mr. Müller, though not personally known by either of
the translators, not only acceded, but, with an unexpected, and indeed
unhoped-for liberality, expressed his willingness to contribute to our
translation all the alterations and additions which his reading had suggested
since the appearance of the original work. The manuscript was accordingly
transmitted, and carefully revised, corrected, and enlarged by the author. Of
the value of these changes it would perhaps be improper that we should
speak in the terms which they seem to us to deserve: of their number,
however, as this can be brought to a certain test, we will venture to assert,
that few books undergo so great changes after their first publication; and
that the present work may be in strictness considered, not only a translation,
but a new edition of the original. In making these changes, it was also the
author's wish to clear up ambiguities or obscurity of meaning, either by a
change in the expression, or a fuller development of the thought: and we
cannot help hoping, that even to a person [pg v] acquainted with German,
our translation will thus be found in many places more explicit and
satisfactory than the original text.

Besides those alterations, which appear for the first time in the following
translation, the additions and corrections published by the author in his
“Introduction to a scientific System of Mythology” have been here
incorporated; and a Dissertation on the early history of the Macedonian
nation, published separately by the author, some time after the appearance
of the Dorians, has been inserted in the Appendix.

Not only has the small map of Macedonia, appended to this Dissertation,
been inserted in our translation, in addition to the map of the Peloponnese,
which was alone contained in the original work, but also a map of northern
Greece, which, together with the explanatory article inserted in the
Appendix, is now for the first time given to the public. These three maps
together furnish a complete geographical picture of ancient Greece, from
the promontory of Tænarum to the north of Macedonia; and we may be

allowed to say, that in accuracy and fulness of detail, they rival, if not excel,
all other maps of the same regions1.

[pg vi]
After the printing of the whole work (with the exception of the Appendix)
had been completed, the sheets were sent to Mr. Müller, by which means
not only the translation of the original, but also of the manuscript additions,
have received the approbation of the author. Any discrepancies, therefore,
which may appear between the translation and the original must be
considered as sanctioned by the author. The translators at the same time
think it right to state, in case Mr. Müller should be exposed to any
misrepresentations in his own country, that in making their translation they
did not consider themselves bound to follow the letter of the original, and
have sometimes indulged in a free paraphrase: while in some places they
suggested more considerable changes, on account of the difference between
the opinions on many important subjects which generally prevail in
England and Germany.

(1830.)

[pg vii]

Advertisement To The Second Edition.

The First Edition of the present Translation has been revised by the Author;
and he has supplied several corrections and additions, which have been
inserted in their proper places.

The accounts of the geography of Peloponnesus and Northern Greece,
which were inserted in the Appendix to the First Edition of the Translation,
have been omitted in the present Edition.

April, 1839.

[pg 001]

Introduction.

§ 1. Origin of the Dorians in the North of Greece. § 2. Northern boundary of
Greece. § 3. The Macedonians. § 4. The Thessalians. § 5. Diffusion of the
Illyrians in Western Greece. § 6. The Phrygians. § 7. The Thracians. § 8. The
Hellenes, Achæans, Minyans, Ionians, and Dorians. § 9. The Hylleans. § 10.
Relation of the above nations to the Pelasgians. § 11. Difference between the
Pelasgic and Hellenic religions. § 12. Early language of Greece, and its chief
dialects.

1. The Dorians derived their origin from those districts in which the Grecian
nation bordered towards the north upon numerous and dissimilar races of

barbarians. As to the tribes which dwelt beyond these boundaries we are
indeed wholly destitute of information; nor is there the slightest trace of any
memorial or tradition that the Greeks originally came from those quarters.
On these frontiers, however, the events took place which effected an entire
alteration in the internal condition of the whole Grecian people, and here
were given many of those impulses, of which the effects were so long and
generally experienced. The prevailing character of the events in question,
was a perpetual pressing forward of the barbarous races, particularly of the
Illyrians, into more southern districts; yet Greece, although harassed,
confined, nay even compelled to abandon part of her territory, never
attempted to make a united resistance to their encroachments. The cause of
this negligence probably was, that all her views being turned to the south,
no attention whatever was paid to the above quarters.

[pg 002]
2. To begin then by laying down a boundary line (which may be afterwards
modified for the sake of greater accuracy), we shall suppose this to be the
mountain ridge, which stretches from Olympus to the west as far as the
Acroceraunian mountains (comprehending the Cambunian ridge and mount
Lacmon), and in the middle comes in contact with the Pindus chain, which
stretches in a direction from north to south. The western part of this chain
separates the furthest Grecian tribes from the great Illyrian nation, which
extended back as far as the Celts in the south of Germany. Every clue
respecting the connexion, peculiarities, and original language of this people
must be interesting, and the dialects of the Albanians, especially of those
who inhabit the mountains where the original customs and language have
been preserved in greater purity, will afford materials for inquiry.2 For our
present purpose it will be sufficient to state, that they formed the northern
boundary of the Grecian nation, from which they were distinguished both
by their language and customs.

3. In the fashion of wearing the mantle and dressing the hair,3 and also in
their dialect, the Macedonians bore a great resemblance to the Illyrians;
whence it is evident that the Macedonians belonged to the Illyrian nation.4
Notwithstanding which, there can be no doubt that the Greeks were
aboriginal5 inhabitants [pg 003] of this district. The plains of Emathia, the
most beautiful district of the country, were occupied by the Pelasgians,6

who, according to Herodotus, also possessed Creston above Chalcidice, to
which place they had come from Thessaliotis.7 Hence the Macedonian
dialect was full of Greek radical words. And that these had not been
introduced by the royal family (which was Hellenic by descent or adoption
of manners) is evident from the fact, that many signs of the most simple
ideas (which no language ever borrows from another) were the same in
both, as well as from the circumstance that these words do not appear in
their Greek form, but have been modified according to a native dialect.8 In
the Macedonian dialect there occur grammatical forms which are
commonly called Æolic,9 together with many Arcadian10 and Thessalian11
words: and what perhaps is still more decisive, several words, which,
though not to be found in the Greek, have been preserved in the Latin
language.12 There does not appear to be any peculiar affinity with the [pg
004] Doric dialect: hence we do not give much credit to the otherwise
unsupported assertion of Herodotus, of an original identity of the Doric and
Macednian (Macedonian) nations. In other authors Macednus is called the
son of Lycaon, from whom the Arcadians were said to be descended;13 or
Macedon is the brother of Magnes, or a son of Æolus, according to Hesiod
and Hellanicus,14 which are merely various attempts to form a genealogical
connexion between this semi-barbarian race, and the rest of the Greek
nation.15

4. The Thessalians, as well as the Macedonians, were, as it appears, an
Illyrian race, who subdued a native Greek population; but in this case the
body of the interlopers was smaller, while the numbers and civilization of
the aboriginal inhabitants were considerable. Hence the Thessalians
resembled the Greeks more than any of the northern races with which they
were connected: hence their language in particular was almost purely
Grecian, and indeed bore perhaps a greater affinity to the language of the
ancient epic poets than any other dialect.16 But the chief peculiarities of this
nation with which we are acquainted were not of a Grecian character. Of
this their national dress,17 which consisted in part of the flat and broad-
brimmed hat καυσία and the chlamys (which last was common to both
nations, but was unknown to the Greeks of Homer's time, and indeed [pg
005] long afterwards,18 until adopted as the costume of the equestrian order
at Athens), is a sufficient example. The Thessalians, moreover, were beyond
a doubt the first to introduce into Greece the use of cavalry. More important

distinctions however than that first alleged are perhaps to be found in their
impetuous and passionate character, and the low state of their intelligence.
The taste for the arts shown by the wealthy house of the Scopadæ proves no
more that such was the disposition of the whole people, than the existence
of the same qualities in Archelaus argues their prevalence in Macedonia.
This is sufficient to distinguish them from the race of the Greeks, so highly
endowed by nature. We are therefore induced to conjecture that this nation,
which a short time before the expedition of the Heraclidæ, migrated from
Thesprotia, and indeed from the territory of Ephyra (Cichyrus) into the
plain of the Peneus, had originally come from Illyria. On the other hand
indeed, many points of similarity in the customs of the Thessalians and
Dorians might be brought forward. Thus for example, the love for the male
sex (that usage peculiar to the Dorians) was also common among the
Illyrians, and the objects of affection were, as at Sparta, called ἀίται;19 the
women also, as amongst the Dorians, were addressed by the title of ladies
(δέσποιναι), a title uncommon in Greece, and expressive of the estimation
in which they were held.20 A great freedom in the manners of the female sex
was [pg 006] nevertheless customary among the Illyrians, who in this
respect bore a nearer resemblance to the northern nations.21 Upon the
whole, however, these migrations from the north had the effect of
disseminating among the Greeks manners and institutions which were
entirely unknown to their ancestors, as represented by Homer.

5. We will now proceed to inquire what was the extent of territory gained by
the Illyrians in the west of Greece. Great part of Epirus had in early times
been inhabited by Pelasgians,22 to which race the inhabitants of Dodona are
likewise affirmed by the best authorities to have belonged, as well as the
whole nation of Thesprotians;23 also the Chaonians at the foot of the
Acroceraunian mountains,24 and the Chones, Œnotrians, and Peucetians on
the opposite coast of Italy, are said to have been of this race.25 The ancient
buildings, institutions, and religious worship of the Epirots, are also
manifestly of Pelasgic origin. We suppose always that the Pelasgians were
Greeks, and spoke the Grecian language: an opinion in support of which we
will on this occasion only adduce a few arguments. It must then be borne in
mind, that all the races whose migrations took place at a late period, such as
the Achæans, Ionians, Dorians, were not (the last in particular) sufficiently
powerful or numerous to effect a complete change in the customs [pg 007]

of a barbarous population;26 that many districts, Arcadia and Perrhæbia, for
instance, remained entirely Pelasgic, without being inhabited by any nation
not of Grecian origin; that the most ancient names, either of Grecian places
or mentioned in their traditions, belonged indeed to a different era of the
dialect, but not to another language; that finally, the great similarity
between the Latin and Greek can only be explained by supposing the
Pelasgic language to have formed the connecting link. Now the nations of
Epirus were almost reduced to a complete state of barbarism by the
operation of causes, which could only have had their origin in Illyria;27 and
in the historic age, the Ambracian bay was the boundary of Greece. In later
times, more than half of Ætolia ceased to be Grecian, and without doubt
adopted the manners and language of the Illyrians;28 from which point the
Athamanes, an Epirot and Illyrian nation, pressed into the south of
Thessaly.29 Migrations and predatory expeditions, such as the Encheleans
had undertaken in the fabulous times, continued without intermission to
repress and keep down the genuine population of Greece.

[pg 008]
6. The Illyrians were in these ancient times also bounded on the east by the
Phrygians and Thracians, as well as by the Pelasgians. The Phrygians were
at this time the immediate neighbours of the Macedonians in Lebæa, by
whom they were called Brygians (Βρύγες, Βρύγοι, Βρίγες);30 they dwelt at
the foot of the snowy Bermius, where the fabulous rose-gardens of king
Midas were situated, while walking in which the wise Silenus was said to
have been taken prisoner. They also fought from this place (as the Telegonia
of Eugammon related)31 with the Thesprotians of Epirus. At no great
distance from hence were the Mygdonians, the people nearest related to the
Phrygians. According to Xanthus, this nation did not migrate to Asia until
after the Trojan war.32 But, in the first place, the Cretan traditions begin with
religious rites and fables, which appear from the most ancient testimonies to
have been derived from Phrygians of Asia;33 and, secondly, the Armenians,
who were beyond a doubt of a kindred race to the Phrygians,34 were
considered as an aboriginal nation in their own territory.35 It will therefore
be sufficient to recognise the same race of [pg 009] men in Armenia, Asia
Minor, and at the foot of mount Bermius, without supposing that all the
Armenians and Phrygians emigrated from the latter settlement on the
Macedonian coast. The intermediate space between Illyria and Asia, a

district across which numerous nations migrated in ancient times, was
peopled irregularly from so many sides, that the national uniformity which
seems to have once existed in those parts was speedily deranged. The most
important documents respecting the connexion between the Phrygian and
other nations are the traces that remain of its dialect. It was well known in
Plato's time that many primitive words of the Grecian language were to be
recognised with a slight alteration in the Phrygian, such as πῦρ, ὕδωρ,
χύων;36 and the great similarity of grammatical structure which the
Armenian now displays with the Greek, must be referred to this original
connexion.37 The Phrygians [pg 010] in Asia must, however, have been
intermixed with Syrians, who not only established themselves on the right
bank of the Halys, but on the left also in Lycaonia,38 and as far as Lycia,39
and accordingly adopted much of the Syrian language and religion.40 Their
enthusiastic and frantic ceremonies had doubtless always formed part of
their religion: these they had in common with their immediate neighbours
the Thracians: but the ancient Greeks appear to have been almost entirely
unacquainted with such rites.

7. The Thracians, who settled in Pieria at the foot of mount Olympus, and
from thence came down to mount Helicon, as being the originators of the
worship of Dionysus and the Muses, and the fathers of Grecian poetry,41 are
a nation of the highest importance in the history of civilization. We cannot
but suppose that they spoke a dialect very similar to the Greek, since
otherwise they could not have had any considerable influence upon the
latter people. They were in all probability derived originally from the
country called Thrace in later times, where the Bessians, a tribe of the
nation of the Satræ,42 at the foot of Mount Pangæum, presided over the
oracle of Dionysus. Whether the whole of the populous races of Edones,
Odomantians, Odrysians, Treres, &c. are to be considered as identical with
the Thracians in [pg 011] Pieria, or whether it is not more probable that
these barbarous nations43 received from the Greeks their general name of
Thracians, with which they had been familiar from early times, are
questions which I shall not attempt to determine. Into these nations,
however, a large number of Pæonians subsequently penetrated, who had
passed over at the time of a very ancient migration of the Teucrians,
together with the Mysians.44 To this Pæonian race the Pelagonians, on the
banks of the Axius, belonged; who also advanced into Thessaly, as will be

shown hereafter. Of the Teucrians, however, we know nothing, excepting
that in concert with (Pelasgic) Dardanians they founded the city of Troy,—
where the language in use was probably allied to the Grecian, and distinct
from the Phrygian.45

8. Now it is within the mountainous barriers above described that we must
look for the origin of the nations which in the heroic mythology are always
represented as possessing dominion and power, and are always contrasted
with an aboriginal population. These, in my opinion, were northern
branches of the Grecian nation, which had overrun and subdued the Greeks
who dwelt further south. The most ancient abode of the Hellenes Proper
(who in mythology are merely a small nation in Phthia46) was situated, [pg
012] according to Aristotle, in Epirus, near Dodona, to whose god Achilles47
prays, as being the ancient protector of his family. In all probability the
Achæans, the ruling nation both of Thessaly and of Peloponnesus, in the
mythical times, were of the same race and origin as the Hellenes. The
Minyans, Phlegyans, Lapithæ, and Æolians of Corinth and Salmone, came
originally from the districts above Pieria, on the frontiers of Macedonia,
where the very ancient Orchomenus, Minya, and Salmonia or Halmopia
were situated.48 Nor is there less obscurity with regard to the northern
settlements of the Ionians; they appear, as it were, to have fallen from
heaven into Attica and Ægialea: they were not, however, by any means
identical with the aboriginal inhabitants of these districts, and had, perhaps,
detached themselves from some northern, probably Achæan, race.49 Lastly,
the Dorians are mentioned in ancient legends and poems as established in
one extremity of the great mountain-chain of Upper Greece, viz. at the foot
of Olympus; there are, however, reasons for supposing, that at an earlier
period they had dwelt at its other northern extremity, at the furthest limit of
the Grecian nation.

[pg 013]
9. We now turn our attention to the singular nation of the Hylleans
(Ὑλλεῖς, Ὕλλοι), which is supposed to have dwelt in Illyria, but is in many
respects connected in a remarkable manner with the Dorians. The real place
of its abode can hardly be laid down; as the Hylleans are never mentioned
in any historical narrative, but always in mythical legends; and they appear
to have been known to the geographers only from mythological writers. Yet

they are generally placed in the islands of Melita and Black-Corcyra, to the
south of Liburnia.50 Now the name of the Hylleans agrees strikingly with
that of the first and most noble tribe of the Dorians. Besides which, it is
stated, that, though dwelling among Illyrian races, these Hylleans were
nevertheless genuine Greeks. Moreover they, as well as the Doric Hylleans,
were supposed to have sprung from Hyllus, a son of Hercules, whom that
hero begot upon Melite, the daughter of Ægæus:51 here the name Ægæus
refers to a river in Corcyra, Melite to the island just mentioned. Apollo was
the chief god of the Dorians; and so [pg 014] likewise these Hylleans were
said to have concealed under the earth, as the sign of inviolable sanctity,
that instrument of such importance in the religion of Apollo, a tripod.52 The
country of the Hylleans is described as a large peninsula, and compared to
Peloponnesus: it is said to have contained fifteen cities, which, however,
had not a more real existence than the peninsula as large as Peloponnesus
on the Illyrian coast. How all these statements are to be understood is hard
to say. It appears, however, that they can only be reconciled as follows: the
Doric Hylleans had a tradition, that they came originally from these
northern districts, which then bordered on the Illyrians, and were afterwards
occupied by that people; and there still remained in those parts some
members of their tribe, some other Hylleans. This notion of Greek Hylleans
in the very north of Greece, who also were descended from Hercules, and
also worshipped Apollo, was taken up and embellished by the poets;
although it is not likely that any one had really ever seen these Hylleans and
visited their country. Like the Hyperboreans, they existed merely in
tradition and imagination. It is possible also that the Corcyræans, in whose
island there was an “Hyllæan” harbour,53 may have contributed to the
formation of these legends, as is shown by some circumstances pointed out
above; but it cannot be supposed that the whole tradition arose from
Corcyræan colonies.

10. Here we might conclude our remarks on this subject, did not the
following important question deserve some consideration. What relation
can we suppose to have existed between the races which migrated into
those northern districts, and the native tribes, and [pg 015] what between
the different races of Greece itself? All inquiries on this subject lead us back
to the Pelasgians, who although not found in every part of ancient Greece
(for tradition makes so wide a distinction between them and many other

nations, that no confusion ever takes place),54 yet occur almost universally
wherever early civilization, ancient settlements, and worships of peculiar
sanctity and importance existed. And in fact there is no doubt that most of
the ancient religions of Greece owed their origin to this race. The Zeus and
Dione of Dodona; Zeus and Heré of Argos; Hephæstus and Athené of
Athens; Demeter and Cora of Eleusis; Hermes and Artemis of Arcadia,
together with Cadmus and the Cabiri of Thebes, cannot properly be referred
to any other origin. We must therefore attribute to that nation an excessive
readiness in creating and metamorphosing objects of religious worship, so
that the same fundamental conceptions were variously developed in
different places; a variety which was chiefly caused by the arbitrary neglect
of, or adherence to, particular parts of the same legend. In many places also
we may recognise the sameness of character which pervaded the different
worships of the above gods; everywhere we see manifested in symbols,
names, rites, and legends, a uniformity of ideas and feelings. The religions
introduced from Phrygia and Thrace, such as that of the Cretan Zeus and
Dionysus or Bacchus, may be easily distinguished by their more
enthusiastic character from the native Pelasgic worship. [pg 016] The
Phœnician and Egyptian religions lay at a great distance from the early
Greeks, were almost unknown even where they existed in the immediate
neighbourhood, were almost unintelligible when the Greeks attempted to
learn them, and repugnant to their nature when understood. On the whole,
the Pelasgic worship appears to form part of a simple elementary religion,
which easily represented the various forms produced by the changes of
nature in different climates and seasons, and which abounded in expressive
signs for all the shades of feeling which these phenomena awakened.

11. On the other hand, the religion of the northern races (who as being of
Hellenic descent are put in contrast with the Pelasgians) had in early times
taken a more moral turn, to which their political relations had doubtless
contributed. The heroic life (which is no fiction of the poets), the fondness
for vigorous and active exertion, the disinclination to the harmless
occupations of husbandry, which is so remarkably seen in the conquering
race of the Hellenes, necessarily awakened and cherished an entirely
different train of religious feeling. Hence the Zeus Hellanius of Æacus, the
Zeus Laphystius of Athamas, and, finally, the Doric Zeus, whose son is
Apollo, the prophet and warrior,55 are rather representations of the moral

order and harmony of the universe, after the ancient method, than of the
creative powers of nature. I do not however deny, that there was a time
when these different views had not as yet taken a separate direction. Thus it
may be shown, that the Apollo Lyceus of the Dorians conveyed nearly the
same notions as the Zeus Lycæus of the Arcadians, although the worship of
either deity [pg 017] was developed independently of that of the other. Thus
also certain ancient Arcadian and Doric customs had, in their main features,
a considerable affinity. The points of resemblance in these different
worships can be only perceived by comparison: tradition presents, at the
very first outset, an innumerable collection of discordant forms of worship
belonging to the several races, but without explaining to us how they came
to be thus separated. For these different rites were not united into a whole
until they had been first divided; and both by the connexion of worships and
by the influence of poetry new combinations were introduced, which
differed essentially from those of an earlier date.

12. The language of the ancient Grecian race (which, together with its
religion, forms the most ancient record of its history) must, if we may judge
from the varieties of dialect and from a comparison with the Latin language,
have been very perfect in its structure, and rich and expressive in its
flexions and formations; though much of this was polished off by the
Greeks of later ages: in early times, distinctness and precision in marking
the primitive words and the inflections being more attended to than facility
of utterance. Wherever the ancient forms had been preserved, they sounded
foreign and uncouth to more modern ears; and the language of later times
was greatly softened, in comparison with the Latin. But the peculiarities of
the pure Doric dialect are (wherever they were not owing to a faithful
preservation of archaic forms) actual deviations from the original dialect,
and consequently they do not occur in Latin; they bear, if I may be allowed
the expression, a northern character. The use of the article, which did not
exist in the Latin language or in that of epic poetry, can be ascribed to no
other [pg 018] cause than to immigrations of new tribes, and especially to
that of the Dorians. Its introduction must, as in the Romance languages, be
almost considered as the sign of a great revolution. The peculiarities of the
Doric dialect must have existed before the period of the migrations; since
thus only can it be explained how peculiar forms of the Doric dialect were
common to Crete, Argos, and Sparta: the same is also true of the dialects

which are generally considered as subdivisions of the Æolic; the only
reason for the resemblance of the language of Lesbos to that of Bœotia
being, that Bœotians migrated at that period to Lesbos. The peculiarities of
the Ionic dialect may, on the other hand, be viewed in great part as
deviations caused by the genial climate of Asia;56 for the language of the
Attic race, to which the Ionians were most nearly related, could hardly have
differed so widely from that of the colonies of Athens, if the latter had not
been greatly changed.57

[pg 019]

Book I. History Of The Doric Race, From
The Earliest Times To The End Of The
Peloponnesian War.

Chapter I.

§ 1. Earliest Settlement of the Dorians in Thessaly. § 2. Description of the
Vale of Tempe. § 3. Of the Passes of Olympus. § 4. And of Hestiæotis. § 5.
The Perrhæbians. § 6. The Lapithæ. § 7. Limits of the Territory in Thessaly
occupied by the Dorians. § 8. Contents of the Epic Poem Ægimius. § 9. Doric
Migration from Thessaly to Crete. § 10. Relation of the Dorians to the
Macedonians.

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

[pg 020]
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

[pg 022]
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. Migration of the Dorians from Thessaly to the Valley of Œta and
Parnassus. § 2. District of Œta. § 3. Limits of Doris. § 4. The Dryopians. § 5.
The Malians. § 6. The Ænianes.

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. Migration of the Dorians into Peloponnesus represented as the return of
the descendants of Hercules. § 2. Improbability of the common account. § 3.
Sources of the common account. § 4. Legends inconsistent with the common
account. § 5. Common account. The Heraclidæ fly from Trachis to Attica,
and are assisted by the Athenians against Eurystheus. § 6. Expeditions of the
Heraclidæ into Peloponnesus. § 7. Junction of the Heraclidæ with the
Dorians. § 8. The Heraclidæ pass into Peloponnesus by Rhium. § 9.
Connexion of the Dorians with the Locrians and Ætolians. § 10. Tisamenus
and the Peloponnesians defeated by the Dorians. § 11. Partition of
Peloponnesus. § 12. Immediate consequences of the immigration of the
Dorians.

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

[pg 073]

Chapter IV.

§ 1. Physical Structure of Greece and Peloponnesus. § 2. Physical Structure
of Arcadia. § 3. Of Laconia. § 4. Of Argolis. § 5. Of Achaia and Elis. § 6.
Improvement of the Soil by artificial means. § 7. Early Cultivation of the Soil
by the Pelasgians and Leleges. § 8. Numbers of the Doric Invaders. § 9.
Mode by which they conquered Peloponnesus.

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

[pg 078]

Far spreads Laconia's ample bound,
With high-heap'd rocks encompass'd round,
The invader's threat despising;
But ill its bare and rugged soil
Rewards the ploughman's painful toil;
Scant harvests there are rising.

While o'er Messenia's beauteous land
Wide-watering streams their arms expand,
Of nature's gifts profuse;
Bright plenty crowns her smiling plain;
The fruitful tree, the full-ear'd grain,
Their richest stores produce.

Large herds her spacious valleys fill,
On many a soft-descending hill
Her flocks unnumber'd stray;
No fierce extreme her climate knows,
Nor chilling frost, nor wintry snows,
Nor dogstar's scorching ray.

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

[pg 083]
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

[pg 087]

Chapter V.

§ 1. Reduction of Argos by the Dorians. § 2. Of Sicyon. § 3. Of Phlius and
Cleonæ. § 4. Of the Actè, Epidaurus, Ægina, and Trœzen. § 5. Independence
of Mycenæ and Tiryns. § 6. Ancient homage of the towns of the Actè to
Argolis. § 7. Territory of the Dryopians in Argolis. § 8. Reduction of Corinth
by the Dorians. § 9. Ancient inhabitants of Corinth. § 10. Reduction of
Megara by the Dorians. § 11. Reduction of Laconia by the Dorians under
Aristodemus. § 12. Resistance of Amyclæ. Position of Sparta. § 13.
Resistance of other Laconian towns to the Dorians. § 14. Traditions
respecting Eurysthenes and Procles. § 15. Reduction of Messenia by the
Dorians. § 16. Political state of Messenia.

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, BϾ 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. Doric colonies of Argos, Epidaurus, and Trœzen. § 2. Doric league of
Asia Minor. § 3. Mythical accounts of the colonization of Halicarnassus,
Rhodes, Cos, Nisyrus, Carpathos, and Casos. § 4. Rhodian colonies. § 5 and
6. Legends respecting the foundation of Mallus, Mopsuestia, Mopsucrene,
and Phaselis. § 7 and 8. Colonies of Corinth. § 9 and 10. Colonies of Megara.
§ 11 and 12. Colonies of Sparta.

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. Sources of the early history of Peloponnesus. § 2. Quoit of Iphitus,
Registers of Victors at the Olympic and Carnean Games, Registers at Sicyon
and Argos. § 3. Registers of the Spartan Kings. § 4. Spartan Rhetras, Land-
marks. § 5. Lyric Poets, Oral Tradition, and Political Institutions. § 6.
Mythical character of Lycurgus. § 7. Lycurgus founder of the sacred
armistice of Olympia. § § 8. and 9. Messenian wars: sources of the history of
them. § 10. First Messenian war. § 11. Second Messenian war. § 12.
Influence in Arcadia obtained by the Spartans. § 13. Limited ascendancy of
Argos in Argolis. § 14. Disputes between Argos and Sparta. § 15. Pheidon of
Argos. § 16. Further struggles between Argos and Sparta.

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

[pg 156]
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

[pg 158]
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 Doric principles of government opposed to despotic (or tyrannical)
power. § 2. Tyrants of Sicyon. § 3. Of Corinth. § 4. Of Epidaurus and of
Megara overthrown by Sparta. § 5. Other tyrants overthrown by Sparta. § 6.
Expedition of Cleomenes against Argos. § 7. Internal history of Argos. § 8.
Contests between Megara and Athens.

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

[pg 186]
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.

[pg 196]

Chapter IX.

§ 1. Sparta the head of the Peloponnesian confederacy. Its members and their
order of precedence. § 2. Mode in which the supremacy of Sparta was
exercised. § 3. Congress of the confederacy. § 4. Non-interference of the
confederacy with the internal affairs of the confederate States. § 5. Sparta the
head of the confederacy by general acknowledgment. § 6. Hellenic league
during the Peloponnesian war. § 7. Sparta withdraws from the command of
the Allied Army. § 8. Ionia never completely liberated by Athens from the
power of Persia. § 9. War between Sparta and Arcadia. § 10. Revolt of the
Helots; third Messenian war. § 11. Dissolution of the alliance between Sparta
and Athens. Battles of Tanagra and Œnophyta. Five years' truce. Thirty years'
truce. § 12. Origin of the Peloponnesian war. § 13. Opposite principles of the
contending parties in the Peloponnesian war. § 14. Its influence upon Sparta.

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

[pg 219]

Book II. Religion And Mythology Of The
Dorians.

Chapter I.

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

1. In turning from the history of the external affairs of the Dorians to the
consideration of their intellectual existence, our first step must be to enquire
into their religion; and for this purpose we will proceed to 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. Propagation of the worship of Apollo from Crete. § 2. in Lycia. § 3 and
4. in the Troad. § 5. in Thrace. § 6 and 7. on the Coast of Asia Minor. § 8. at
Trœzen, Tænarum, Megara. § 9. Thoricus. § 10. and Leucatas. § 11 and 12. in
Bœotia. § 13. 14. and 15. and in Attica.

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

[pg 242]
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

[pg 249]
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.

[pg 262]
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).

[pg 265]
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. Diffusion of the worship of Apollo in Peloponnesus by the Dorians. § 2.
His Introduction by the Dorians at the Olympic festival. § 3. Influence of the
Delphian oracle of Apollo. Subjects of the oracle. § 4. Migrations caused by
the oracle. § 5. Connexion of the temple of Delphi with the Amphictyons of
Thermopylæ. § 6. Worship of Apollo in Asia Minor and the islands. § 7. In
Italy and Sicily, in Apollonia and Cyrene.

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.

[pg 272]
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

[pg 279]
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

[pg 283]
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.

[pg 284]

Chapter IV.

§ 1. Connexion of the fable of the Hyperboreans with the worship of Apollo.
§ 2. Its connexion with the temples at Delphi; § 3. and Delos. § 4. Original
locality of the Hyperboreans. § 5. Localities subsequently assigned by Poets
and Geographers. § 6. The Hyperboreans considered a sacred people.

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. The Apollo of Tempe, Delphi, Delos, Crete, Lycia, Troy, Athens, and
Peloponnesus, the same deity. § 2. Apollo Nomius of Arcadia rightly
distinguished from the preceding. § 3. Apollo the father of Æsculapius
likewise a distinct deity. § 4 and 5. Apollo not originally an elementary deity,
or god of the sun. § 6. Origin of this idea. § 7. Rites of Apollo unlike those of
the elementary deities.

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.

[pg 298]
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

[pg 299]
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's Conception of Apollo. § 2. Apollo as a punishing deity. § 3.
Apollo as a beneficent deity. § 4. Explanation of the name Pæan. § 5. Of the
name Agyieus. § 6. Of the name Apollo. § 7. Of the name Phœbus. § 8. Of
the name Lyceus. § 9. Religious Attributes of Apollo.

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

[pg 316]
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. Zeus and Apollo originally the only two male deities of the Dorians. § 2.
Birth of Apollo. § 3. Sanctity of the island of Delos. § 4. Pains of Latona. § 5.
Spot of Apollo's birth. § 6. Battle with the Python. § 7. Apollo sings the
Pythian strain. § 8. Bondage of Apollo. § 9. Combat with Tityus. § 10.
Apollo's assumption of the oracular power.

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. Ritual worship of Apollo. Bloodless offerings. § 2. Expiatory rites. § 3.
Peace offerings. § 4. Festivals of Apollo. § 5. Traces of a festival calendar. §
6. Expiations for homicide. § 7. Rites of purification—use of the laurel
therein. § 8. Prophetic character of Apollo. § 9. His modes of divination. §
10. Use of music in the worship of Apollo. § 11. Apollo represented as
playing on the cithara. § 12. Contest of Apollo and Linus. Ancient plaintive
songs. § 13. Ancient hymns to Apollo. § 14. The pæan and hyporcheme. § 15.
The Hyacinthian and Carnean festivals. § 16. Apollo as represented by the
sculptors. § 17. Ancient statues of Apollo. § 18. Apollo as represented by
successive schools of sculptors. § 19. Political influence of the worship of
Apollo. § 20. Its connexion with the Pythagorean philosophy.

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

[pg 338]
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:

7th Munychion.
7th Thargelion.
7th Boëdromion.
7th Pyanepsion.

[pg 339]
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

[pg 343]
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. Worship of Artemis. § 2. The Artemis connected with Apollo distinct
from the other goddesses of that name. Her attributes. § 3. The Arcadian
Artemis. § 4. Fable of Alpheus and Arethusa. The Peloponnesian Artemis. §
5. The Attic Artemis. § 6. Artemis Orthia, or Iphigenia. § 7. Rites of the
worship of Artemis Tauria. § 8. The Artemis of Asia Minor. § 9. Her
connexion with the Amazons.

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

[pg 380]
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

[pg 385]
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