Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/128

120 STRABO. CASAUB. 421. to the injunction of an oracle. Neoptolemus was killed by Machsereus, a Delphian, when, as the table goes, he was seek- ing redress from the god for the murder of his father, but, probably, he was preparing to pillage the temple, Branchus, who presided over the temple at Didyma, is said to have been a descendant of Machsereus. 10. There was anciently a contest held at Delphi, of players on the cithara, who executed a paean in honour of the god. It was instituted by Delphians. But after the Crissean war the Amphictyons, in the time of Eurylochus, established contests for horses, and gymnastic sports, in which the victor was crowned. These were called Pythian games. The players 1 on the cithara were accompanied by players on the flute, and by citharists, 2 who performed without singing. They per- formed a strain (Melos), 3 called the Pythian mood (Nomos). 4 It consisted of five parts ; the anacrusis, the ampeira, catace- leusmus, iambics and dactyls, and pipes. 5 Timosthenes, the com- mander of the fleet of the Second Ptolemy, and who was the author of a work in ten books on Harbours, composed a melos. His object was to celebrate in this melos the contest of Apollo with the serpent Python. The anacrusis was intended to ex- press the prelude ; the ampeira, the first onset of the contest ; the cataceleusmus, the contest itself; the iambics and dactyls denoted the triumphal strain on obtaining the victory, together with musical measures, of which the dactyl is peculiarly ap- propriated to praise, and the use of the iambic to insult and reproach; the syringes or pipes described the death, the players imitating the hissings of the expiring monster. 6 11. Ephorus, whom we generally follow, on account of his exactness in these matters, (as Polybius, a writer of repute, testifies,) seems to proceed contrary to his proposed plan, and to the promise which he made at the beginning of his work. For after having censured those writers who are fond of in- termixing fable with history, and after having spoken in praise of truth, he introduces, with reference to this oracle, a grave declaration, that he considers truth preferable at all 1 Ki0apyot, played on the cithara, accompanying it with words. 2 KiOapiffTcti, played on the cithara alone. 3 * 8 Groskurd and Meineke propose emendations of the text of this passage. The translation is rather a paraphrase.