Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/128

DELPHI. north of an indentation in the northern shore of the Corinthian Gulf. In the Homeric poem it is always culled Pytlio. It was situated on the southern slope of Mount I'nrnassus, where ahove the steep and narrow valley of the I'leistos rise the twin clitfs of the Plnedriadie. These pret'i-- pii-es are separated only by a narrow eliasui, from whieh issues the famous fountain of Cas- tulio (q.v.). The temple, theatre, and stadium were situated at the foot of the western clilT, and about them the town must have gathered, though the gynuiasiimi and a sanctuary of . Athena lay to the cast. Uelow the terrace on which the town lay, the land slopes abruptly to the bed of the brook. The natural surroundings are full of wild grandeur; from underground cav- erns streamed cold vapors, and the region was lia- ble to violent shocks from earthquakes. Under these circumstances, the place seems early to have become the scat of a worship of the earth-shaker, Poseidon, and the earth-mother, Gica. .Somewhat later, but still at a very early- date, the worship of Apollo was introduced, and took the place of these cults, .pollo was a pro- phetic god, and Delphi became the seat of an oracle, which soon attained great fame. At lirst the responses seem to have been given from the rustlings of the laurel, as at Dodona from the oak, but later, probably with the introdviction of the worship uf Dionysus, the orgiastii' ))roph- ecy apjiears. The Pytliia, a woman over fifty years ohi, after chinking fr.jm the holy spring, and chewing laurel-leaves, took her scat upon a tri- pod over a cleft in the ground, whence was be- lieved to issue an intoxicating vapor. Her ut- terances were taken down and put into hexam- eters by poets attached to the temple. During the greatest prosperity of the oracle three women relieved one another in this exhausting task. At the head of the temjile service stood two prie*ts, holding oflice for life, and seemingly in charge of the oraide. The oracle was consulted by States and kings in matters of national pol- icy, and also by private persons on all manner of personal matters, such as voyages, business ventures, marriages, and other details of daily life. Its fame brought it great wealth and many splendid olTerings, among which those of Croesus and Uelon of Syracuse were especially famous, in the earliest source, the Homeric liynui to Apollo, Delphi ap|)ears in dependence upon the Phocian city of ('ri*a. near the tdrinlhian (!ulf. which controlled access from the sea, and through the later political history of the place this early claim of the Phocians to the control of the oracle keeps recurring until the conquest of Philip of Maeedon. The power of Crisa led to the tirst Sacred War. in which the Amphicty- onic Council (q.v.) of Thcrniopyla? first appear^ as a guardian of the oracle. In n.r. .5!lO-.ia!l Crisa fell, and the first celebration of the Pythian games oi'curred : in B.C. .)S2-.5S1 the fort was captured, the harbor filled up. and the whole plain placed under a curse. On this occa- sion another celebration of the games occurred, and from this time they were celebrated every four years. In n.r. .548 the stone temple, said (o have been built by Trophonius and .gamedes, was burneil. and the priests at once collected subscriptions from all f;reeee. and even from for- eign parts, for its recon-.trnctinn. The work was undertaken by the .Mcmaonidir. then exiles from Athens, who exceeiliil their contract l.v iiiinlMV- 98 DELPHI. ing Parian marble for the east front. Some fragments of M-iilpture found by the Krcni'li seem to belong to this building. During the Persian wars the oracle showed a |iro-Pcrsian spirit, though later the ))riests declared that super natural aid lia>l turned to llight a Persian plun- dering expedition. In spite of its prophecies ot defeat, Delphi was richly rewarded by the (ireeks from the Persian booty. During the fifth cen- tury Delphi was adorned by the Oreek States with treasuries to contain their olfcrings. as well as with many works of art commemorative of victories over their enemies. About B.C. 373 the temple sulfercd severely, and once more col- lections were invited from the Cireck States for its restoration, which docs not seem to have been completed till n.c. 328. Before that time, how- ever, an attempt of the Phocians to reassert their control of the oracle led to the Third Sacred War (B.C. 3.")T-3-l(>) , whkh ended in the triumph of Philip II. of Macedon (q.v.). .bout n.c. 300 Delphi jiassed into the power of the .Etolian League, and when. B.C. 278. the (Tallie invasion was repelled, we hear once more of the super- natural jiowers that drove back the robbers from the Teni])le of Apollo. During the years that followeil Delphi seems to have lost much of its old importance, though the inscriptions show that oll'crings were still made there, and honors bestowed on benefactors of the connnunity. I'ndcr the Romans it en- joyed only spa>modic prosi)erity. One Pythia sufficed for the inquirers of the oradc, and while some of the emperors endeavored to re- store some of the fallen splendor, others found in the mass of statues and works of art a con- venient source for the decoration of the capital. Xero is said to have carried off .300 statues, while Constantine. along with many other treas- ures, remnvi'd to Constantinople the serpent col- umn wliiih had formcil part of the olfcring after Plata-a. and still bears the names of those Greek States which fought against the Persians. Later Delphi liecame the site of a Christian church, but the ruins finally vanished, and until 18!V2 the site was occu|)ied by the village of Castri. In that year the French School at .thens, under the direction of HomoUc, began excavations, whieh have resulted in laying bare the entire sacred precinct, iiu-huling many treasuries and other buildings, as well as the altar, temple, theatre, ami stadium. The inscriptions found nund)er over 3000, many of them doi'umcnts of great importance for the liistory of (Jreece. The sculpture also has thrown much light upon the history of art during the later sixth and early fifth century B.C., while it seems almost certain that in a marble statue we have a ccmtemporary copy of a bronze l>y the great Lysjppus. The reports of the^e excavations are to be found in the Iliillflin (If cDiriniioiidancc hclli'iii(jm vols, xvii. et seq. (Paris, 18!)3, et seq), and the Comptcn rciiiliis dr I'Acailvmic drs Inscriptions rl IMlf.1 LrllicK (Paris. 1803 et seq.). Consult also: Mommsen. Delphiha (Leipzig. 1878): Pomtow. lirilriiijr :iir Tupnqraphie vcm Delphi (Berlin. 1880) : and Hilb-r von Oaertringen and Pomtow, ill PiiulyWissowa. Jtcah nriiklopiidir drr l.lassisriii II Allt rlummrissfnschHft, vol. iv. (Stuttgart, liion. DELPHI. A city and the county-seat of Carmll County. Ind., tlO miles north by west of liiiliaii.i|ii,li< : on tlic V:ib:i~li I'lvir. and on the