forty-eight before Christ. It is mentioned in the hymn to Apollo ascribed to Homer. An opulent and illustrious family, called Alcmæonidæ, which had fled from Athens and the tyrant Hippias, contracted with the deputies for the building of a new temple, and exceeded their agreement. The front was raised with Parian marble, instead of the stone called Porus, which resembled it in whiteness, but was not so heavy. A Corinthian was the architect. This temple is described by Pausanias. The pediments were adorned with Diana, and Latona, and Apollo, and the Muses; the setting of Phœbus, or the Sun; with Bacchus, and the women called Thyades. The architraves were decorated with golden armour; bucklers suspended by the Athenians, after the battle of Marathon, and shields taken from the Gauls under Brennus. In the portico were inscribed the celebrated maxims of the seven sages of Greece. There was an image of Homer, and in the cell was an altar of Neptune, with statues of the Fates, and of Jupiter and Apollo, who were surnamed leaders of the Fates. Near the hearth before the altar, at which Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, was slain by a priest, stood the iron chair of Pindar. In the sanctuary was an image of Apollo gilded. The enclosure was of great extent, and filled with treasuries, in which many cities had consecrated tenths of spoil taken in war, and with the public donations of renowned states in various ages. It was the grand repository of ancient Greece, in which the labours of the sculptor and statuary, gods, heroes, and illustrious persons, were seen collected and arranged; the inequalities of the area, or acclivity, contributing to a full display of the noble assemblage.

It is observed by Strabo, that great riches, though the property of a god, are not easily secured. Several attempts to rob Apollo are on record. Neoptolemus was slain, while sacrificing, on suspicion. Xerxes divided his army at Panopeus, and proceeded with the main body through Boeotia into Attica, while a party, keeping Parnassus on the right, advanced along Schiste to Delphi, but was taken with a panic, as near Ilium, and fled. This monarch, it is related, was as well apprised of the contents of the temple, and the sumptuous offerings of Halyattes and Croesus, as of the effects which he had left behind in his own palace. The divine hoard was seized by the Phocensians under Philomelus, and dissipated in a long war with the Amphictyons. The Gauls experienced a reception like that of the Persians, and manifested similar dismay and superstition. Sylla, wanting money to pay his army, sent to borrow from the holy treasury, and when his messenger would have frightened him, by reporting a prodigy, that the sound of a harp had been heard from within the sanctuary, replied, It was a sign. that the god was happy to oblige him.

The trade of Apollo, after it had flourished for a long period, was affected by the malepractices of some concerned in the partnership, who were convicted of bribery and corruption, and ruined the character of their principal. The temple, in the time of Strabo, was reduced to extreme poverty, but the offerings which remained were very numerous. Apollo was silent, except some efforts at intervals to regain his lost credit. Nero attempted to drive him, as it were by violence, from the cavern; killing men at the mouth, and polluting it with blood; but

he lingered on, and would not entirely forsake it. Answers were reported as given by him afterwards, but not without suspicion of forgery. An oracle of Apollo at another place informed the consulters, that he should no more recover utterance at Delphi, but enjoined the continuance of the accustomed offerings.

CHAP. LXVII.

SITE OF DELPHI-THE COURT OF THE TEMPLE-EXTINCTION OF APOLLO-VESTIGES-AN INSCRIPTION-OTHER-IN

SCRIPTIONS-CASTALIA.

THE city of Delphi was seated on a high rock, with the oracle above it; and was in circuit sixteen stadia, or two miles. The natural strength of the place excited admiration, as much as the majesty of the god. It was free under the Romans. Pausanias has described it. Near the entrance from Schiste was a temple in ruins, with one empty. A third contained a few images of Roman emperors. Beyond these was the temple of Minerva, styled Pronæa, because after it was the principal temple, that of Apollo. There the god interposed to repel the Persians. By the temple of Minerva was the portion of Phylacus, an heroum, or monument. His spectre, it was believed, had appeared to the Persians and to the Gauls, in armour, huge and tall. A court of the gymnasium was said to have been the birthplace of the wild sow which wounded Ulysses. Turning from it to the left, and going down not more than three stadia, less than half a mile, you come to the stream of the Pleistus. Proceeding up to the temple of Apollo, on the right hand was the

water of Castalia, sweet to drink. The houses, with the sacred enclosure of the temple, which overlooked the city, stood on an acclivity. The area, or court within the wall, was large, and many ways were cut, leading out of it. A sibyl was said to have chanted her oracles from a prominent rock above the Athenian portico. Coming out of the temple, the wall was on the left, and also the tomb of Neoptolemus, to whom the Delphians made yearly oblations. Higher up was a stone, not big, on which they poured oil daily, and upon festivals put white wool. On the way back to the temple was the fountain Cassotis, and a wall with a passage up to it. The water was said to run under ground, and, in the sanctuary of the temple, to render women prophetical. Above Cassotis was a building called Lesche, in which the story of Troy was painted by Polygnotus, with equal skill and labour. In the sacred enclosure was a theatre worthy of notice. Without it, and above all, was a stadium, constructed originally with the stone of Parnassus, which had been changed for Pentelic marble at the expense of Atticus Herodes.

Apollo, though frequently pillaged, and poor in money and plate, was still possessed of an invaluable treasure in the offerings, which remained within the court of his temple. The number, variety, and beauty of these monuments was prodigious. Some were venerable for their antiquity, and the occasions on which they had been dedicated. The inscriptions were authentic records, pregnant with information. The Greek was here deeply interested, perusing the national story, and viewing his famous countrymen or illustrious ancestors. The store appeared inex

haustible, and the robbery of Nero, who removed five hundred brasen images, was rather regretted than perceived. The holy treasuries, though empty, served as memorials of the piety and glory of the cities which erected them. The Athenian portico preserved the beaks of ships and the brasen shields, trophies won in the Peloponnesian war. A multitude of curiosities was untouched. The account given of them by Pausanias may convey some idea of the opulence of the spot, which indeed was amazing, even after repeated diminution.

Constantine the Great proved a more fatal enemy to Apollo and Delphi than either Sylla or Nero. He removed the sacred tripods to adorn the Hippodrome of his new city; where these, with the Apollo, the statues of the Heliconian Muses, and the celebrated Pan, dedicated by the Greek cities after the war with the Medes, were extant, when Sozomen wrote his history. Afterwards Julian sent Oribasius to restore the temple; but he was admonished by an oracle to represent to the emperor the deplorable condition of the place. "Tell him the well-built "court is fallen to the ground. Phoebus has not a cottage, nor the prophetic laurel, nor the speaking "fountain (Cassotis); but even the beautiful water " is extinct."

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We passed by many broken sarcophagi, or stone coffins, when we approached the monastery. Higher up, on the right hand, was a square ruin with a small door-way, perhaps the basement of the monument of Phylacus. The masonry is of the species termed incertum. Some vestiges of temples are visible; and above them, in the mountain-side, are sepulchres, niches with horizontal cavities for the