CHAPTER IX

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Delphi is everywhere hilly, the sacred precincts of Apollo and other parts of the town alike. The sacred precincts are very large and in the upper part of the town, and have several entrances. I will enumerate all the votive offerings that are best worthy of mention. The athletes however, and musical competitors, of no great merit I do not think worthy of attention, and notable athletes I have already described in my account of Elis. At Delphi then there is a statue of Phayllus of Croton, who had no victory at Olympia, but was twice victor in the pentathlum and once in the course in the Pythian games, and fought a naval engagement against the Medes, having furnished a ship himself, and manned it with some people of Croton who were sojourners in Greece. So much for Phayllus of Croton. On the entrance to the sacred enclosure is a bull in brass by Theopropus the Æginetan, the votive offering of the Corcyræans. The tradition is that a bull in Corcyra left the herd and pasture, and used to resort to the sea bellowing as he went; and as this happened every day the herdsman went down to the sea, and beheld a large shoal of tunny fish. And he informed the people of Corcyra, and they, as they had great difficulty in catching these tunnies much as they wished, sent messengers to Delphi. And then in obedience to the oracle they sacrificed the bull to Poseidon, and after this sacrifice caught the fish, and offered both at Olympia and Delphi the tenth of their catch. And next are the votive offerings of the people of Tegea from the spoils of the Lacedæmonians, an Apollo and Victory, and some local heroes; as Callisto the daughter of Lycaon, and Arcas who gave his name to Arcadia, and the sons of Arcas, Elatus and Aphidas and Azan; and besides them Triphylus, (whose mother was not Erato but Laodamia, the daughter of Amyclas king at Lacedæmon), and also Erasus the son of Triphylus. As to the artificers of these statues, Pausanias of Apollonia made the Apollo and Callisto, and the Victory and effigy of Arcas were by Dædalus of Sicyon, Triphylus and Azan were by the Arcadian Samolas, and Elatus and Aphidas and Erasus were by the Argive Antiphanes. All these the people of Tegea sent to Delphi after the capture of the Lacedæmonians who invaded them. And opposite them are the votive offerings of the Lacedæmonians when they vanquished the Athenians, statues of Castor and Pollux and Zeus and Apollo and Artemis, and besides them Poseidon crowning Lysander the son of Aristocritus, and Abas who was Lysander’s prophet, and Hermon the pilot of Lysander’s flag-ship. This statue of Hermon was designed by Theocosmus the Megarian, as the Megarians ranked Hermon among their citizens. And Castor and Pollux are by the Argive Antiphanes, and Abas is by Pison from Calauria near Trœzen, and Artemis and Poseidon and Lysander are by Dameas, and Apollo and Zeus by Athenodorus. Both Dameas and Athenodorus were Arcadians from Clitor. And behind the statues we have just mentioned are those of the Spartans or their allies who fought for Lysander at the battle of Ægos-potamoi, as Aracus the Lacedæmonian, and Erianthes the Bœotian beyond Mimas, and then Astycrates, and the Chians Cephisocles and Hermophantus and Hicesius, and the Rhodians Timarchus and Diagoras, and the Cnidian Theodamus, and the Ephesian Cimmerius, and the Milesian Æantides. All these were by Tisander. The following were by Alypus of Sicyon, Theopompus from Myndus, and Cleomedes of Samos, and from Eubœa Aristocles of Carystus and Autonomus of Eretria, and Aristophantus of Corinth, and Apollodorus of Trœzen, and from Epidaurus in Argolis Dion. And next to these are the Achæan Axionicus from Pellene, and Theares from Hermion, and Pyrrhias from Phocis, and Comon from Megara, and Agasimenes from Sicyon, and Telycrates from Leucas, and Pythodotus from Corinth, and Euantidas from Ambracia, and lastly the Lacedæmonians Epicyridas and Eteonicus. All these are they say by Patrocles and Canachus. The reverse that the Athenians sustained at Ægos-potamoi they maintain befell them through foul play, for their Admirals Tydeus and Adimantus were they say bribed by Lysander. And in proof of this they bring forward the following Sibylline oracle. “Then shall Zeus the lofty-thunderer, whose strength is almighty, lay grievous woes on the Athenians, fierce battle for their ships of war, that shall perish through the treachery and villainy of their commanders.” They also cite these other lines from the oracles of Musæus, “Verily a fierce storm is coming on the Athenians through the villainy of their commanders, but there shall be some comfort, they shall level low the state that inflicted this disaster, and exact vengeance.” So much for this affair. And as for the engagement between the Lacedæmonians and Argives beyond Thyrea, the Sibyl foretold that it would be a drawn battle, but the Argives thinking they had got the best of it in the action sent to Delphi as a votive offering a brazen horse by Antiphanes of Argos, doubtless an imitation of the Trojan Horse.

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