Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/127

B. ix. c. in. 9. PHOCIS. 119 Delphi is exceedingly poor. Some of the offerings have been taken away for the sake of the money, but the greater part remain there. It is true that the temple was once very opulent, as Homer testifies ; " Nor all the wealth, which the marble threshold of Phrebus Apollo, the Archer, (Aphetor,) * contains in the rocky Pytho." 2 The treasuries indicate its riches, and the plunder committed by the Phocians, which gave rise to the Phocic or Sacred war, as it was called. It is however supposed that a spolia- tion of the temple must have taken place at some more re- mote period, when the wealth mentioned by Homer disap- peared ; for no vestige of it whatever was preserved to later times, when Onomarchus and Phayllus pillaged the temple, as the property [then] removed was of a more recent date than that referred to by the poet. For there were once deposited in the treasuries, offerings from spoils, bearing inscriptions with the names of the donors, as of Gyges, of Croesus, of the Sybarite, of the Spinetse on the Adriatic, and of others also. It would be unbecoming to suppose 3 that modern and ancient treasures were confounded together : other places pillaged by these people confirm this view. Some persons, however, understanding the word Aphetor to signify treasure, and the threshold of the aphetor the reposi- tory of the treasure under-ground, say, that this wealth was buried beneath the temple, and that Onomarchus and his companions attempted to dig it up by night ; violent shocks of an earthquake caused them to fly out of the templs, and desist from their excavation ; thus others were impressed with a dread of making similar attempts. 9. Of the shrines, the winged shrine 4 is to be placed among fabulous stories. The second is said to have been the work- manship of Trophonius and Agamedes, but the present shrine 5 was built by the Amphictyons. A tomb of Neoptole- mus is shown in the sacred enclosure. It was built according 1 a^rjrwp. 2 II. ix. 404. 3 A conjecture by Kramer. 4 Pausanias, b. x. c. 5, speaks of a temple of Apollo at Delphi, which was supposed to have been constructed by bees, with their combs and wings. 5 Of which Spintharus the Corinthian was the architect. Pausanias, b. x. c. 5.