equally suitable if the scene of Leto's pangs had been in the neighbourhood of the oval basin. I rendered κεκλιμένη πρὸς "reclining against," for argument's sake: but it is not necessarily more than "reclining towards" i.e. on the ground at the foot of the hill. (2) Themistius (circ. 360 A.D.) says:—"In Delos the inhabitants say that a certain temple is shown, simple in style and furniture, but venerable by reason of its tradition and of the legends which are told concerning it. There, the story has it, Leto was released from her pangs when she was giving birth to the two gods; and, in honour of the spot, Apollo fixed there his sacred tripods, and thence gave his decrees to the Greeks[1]." This passage is very striking. Clearly it would not apply to a handsome temple in the plain, close to the town. It implies that the shrine had to be sought out. And the description applies exactly to the grotto on Cynthus, before which a tripod appears to have stood in a conspicuous place.
It has been seen that the Phoenicians had probably been in contact with Delos before the worship of Apollo had come thither from Asia, and had brought with them a cult which is found in Delos at
- ↑ Orat. 18. 1, ἐν Δήλῳ, ταύτῃ τῇ νήσῳ, νεών τινα φασὶν οἱ ἐπιχώριοι δείκνυσθαι, λιτὸν μὲν ταῖς κατασκευαῖς, εὐαγῆ δὲ τῷ λόγῳ καὶ τοῖς περὶ αὐτοῦ διηγήμασιν. ἔνθα κατέχει λόγος, ὅτε ἔτικτεν ἡ Λητὼ θεούς, λυθῆναι τὰς ὠδῖνας αὐτῇ, καὶ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα τιμῇ τοὺ χωρίου μετὰ κλάδων ἐκεῖ τοὺς ἱεροὺς πηγν;μενον τρίποδας θεμιστεύειν ἐκεῖθεν τοῖς Ἕλλησιν. The word θεμιστεύειν reminds us that in the Homeric hymn Θέμις attends the birth of the Delian Apollo (94).
