APPENDIX, CONTAINING A FEW REMARKS ON THE SITE OF THE TEMPLE OF DELPHI. THE oracle of Delphi is so well known, and the passages relating to it in ancient writers so much more numerous and accessible than those concerning Dodona, that it seems unnecessary to enter into any full details on the subject. Indeed any thing like a regular history of it would exceed the limits of a treatise, and any thing short of such an account, yet professing to give a detail, would be unsatisfactory. I shall confine myself therefore to an investigation. into the actual site of the temple, a point which has hitherto been much controverted, but which, as far as I can judge, appears capable of being ascertained with very considerable precision from the documents which may be collected from the writers of antiquity. In order to make this discussion more intelligible, I must beg to accompany it with what I conceive to be a rude outline of the place. 3 Y VOL. I. 530 DISSERTATION ON THE ORACLE OF DELPHI. Every one knows that the city of Delphi rose in a succession of terraces, the very first of which was considerably elevated above the vale of the Pleistus, till it was bounded by the rocks of Parnassus. It was nearly semicircular, and in the annexed plan the curved line will represent about a mile and a quarter, the straight line joining its extremities about three-fourths of a mile; in all about. two miles, or rather more. The temple of Delphi was no doubt far more splendid and extensive than that of Dodona, which, if we may argue from analogy, was probably but of moderate size, for we know that the kindred temple of Hammon was far from being on a magnificent scale. For this assertion we have the indisputable authority of Lucan Pharsal. ix. 515. Non illic Libya posuerunt ditia gentes The riches and splendour of Delphi however are universally known, and I shall now proceed just to notice some of the principal passages which indicate its situation. Pausan. p. 917. Τρωπομένῳ εἰς αρισέραν καὶ ὑποκατάβαν, ἐ πλέον ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ἢ τρία σάδια, ποταμός ἐσιν ὀνομαζόμενος Πλεῖςος.—Ἐκ δὲ τῇ γυμνασία τὴν ἐς τὸ ἱερὸν ἀνίονι, ἐςὶν ἐν δεξίᾳ τῆς ὁδὲ τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς Καςαλίας. So that from the gymnasium at the eastern end of the semicircle you descended somewhat less than half a mile to the bed of the Pleistus, and turning, ascended in a N. N. W. direction to go to the temple, leaving the Fons Castalius on the right. Again, p. 818. Axis de Δέλφις δέ τι πόλις ἀναντὲς διὰ πάσης παρέχεται σχῆμα. Κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ δὲ τῇ πόλει τῇ ἄλλῃ καὶ ὁ ἱερὸς ávavlès dià περίβολος τῇ ̓Απολλῶνος. Οὗτος δὲ μεγέθει μέγας, ΚΑΙ ΑΝΩΤΑΤΩ ΤΟΥ ΑΣΤΕΟΣ EETIN. So that the whole city was built on a slope, as was also the peribolus of the temple, at the very top of the city, not only ave but avwrál, at the very top, as high as possible. It must therefore have been at the very vertex of the arc. Again, p. 877. Τῇ περιβόλε δὲ τὰ ἱερᾶ θέατρον ἔχεται, θεᾶς ἄξιον. ΕΠΑΝΑΒΑΝΤΙ ἐκ τῶ περιβόλι Διονύσε ἄγαλμα ἐνταῦθα Κνιδίων ἐςὶν ἀνάθημα. Στάδιον δὲ σφισὶν ΑΝΩΤΑΤΩ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ ΤΟΥΤΟ ΕΣΤΙΝ. Here we see a theatre joined the peribolus, perhaps on the east. Going out, I suppose to the west, you come to a statue of Bacchus and the stadium, EHANABANTI, a little rising, and we again find the DISSERTATION ON THE ORACLE OF DELPHI. 531 ..... same word ANOTATO used to describe the situation of the temple and stadium. Again p. 858. Ἐξελθόντι δὲ τῆ νάς, και τραπέντι ἐπ ̓ ἀρίσερα περίβολός ἐςι και Νεοπτολέμε το Αχιλλέως ἐν αὐτῷ τάφος . . . . . ΕΠΑΝΑΒΑΝΤΙ δὲ ἀπὸ τὰ μνήματος λίθος ἐςὶν ε' μέγας . . . ἰᾶσι δὲ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸν νέων αὖθις μετὰ τὰ λίθε τὴν θεάν ἐςιν ἡ Κασσῶλις καλεμένη πηγή. So that if you go out of the temple and turn to the left, or east (for I suppose it to have fronted the south, and had a magnificent view towards the Sinus Crissæus) you come to the tomb of Neoptolemus with its peribolus, and between this and the temple, higher than the former, but lower than the latter, is the stone of Saturn and the fountain Cassotis. If the fountain Cassotis could be found, this would point directly to the site of the temple, which must have stood a little to the N. N. W. of it. But in a limestone country at the foot of a mountain many fountains may be found, and some may have been choked up or diverted from their former channels by the fall of rocks or earthquakes. Strabo agrees with Pausanias in his account of Delphi, p. 418. Kara de ro νότιον οἱ Δέλφοι, πειρῶδες χώριον, θεατροειδες, ΚΑΤΑ ΚΟΡΥΦΗΝ ΕΧΟΝ ΤΟ ΜΑΝΤΕΙΟΝ και τὴν πόλιν ςαδίων ἐκκαιδέκα κύκλον πληρᾶσαν. That the adytum or cave was in the temple is certain. Diod. Sic. xvi. 26. Οντος χάσματος ἐν τέτῳ τῷ τόπῳ καθ ̓ ὅν ἐςιν νῦν τὰ ἱερᾶ τὸ καλεμένον ἄδυλον. The same thing is said nearly in the same words by the scholiast on Aristophanes, Plut. 9. The authority of Justin is perhaps questionable, unless he may be considered as an epitomiser of Trogus, who himself indeed was but a Latin historian. Yet it contains a passage so remarkable that even while I am studying conciseness I cannot help inserting it. It occurs lib. xxiv. 6. Templum autem Apollinis positum est IN MONTE PARNASSO IN RUPE UNDIQUE IMPENDENTE. MEDIA saxi rupes in formam Theatri recessit.—IN HOC RUPIS ANFRACTU MEDIA FERE MONTIS ALTITUDINE, planities exigua est, atque in ea profundum terræ foramen quod in oracula patet. By these expressions I understand Justin to mean that the temple was on the highest terrace above the town, and about half way up the nearest crags of Parnassus measured from the vale of the Pleistus below. And that this is his meaning is evident from a subsequent passage, c. 8. Contra Delphi-scandentes Gallos E SUMMO MONTIS VERHere the SUMMUS VERTEX can Temples of Diana, Minerva, and learn from Justin and Plutarch. TICE partim saxo, partim armis obruerunt. only mean the crags that overhung the town. the earth, were near the Pythian temple, as we 2 532 DISSERTATION ON THE ORACLE OF DELPHI I must add one word upon the celebrated foramen. It is well known that caverns of this nature are not unfrequent in limestone countries. At the foot of a great mountain range like Parnassus there might be several; some it appears even now exist, but it is said that the spiracle of the prophetic vapour is now unknown. We have, I think, ascertained the site of the temple beyond dispute; and I rejoice to find it must be very near the spot fixed on by our enterprising and scientific friend Dr. Clarke in the fourth volume of his most interesting Travels. We have ascertained farther, beyond dispute, that the sacred fissure was in the adytum of the temple. That it may be searched for there now in vain, supposing the site of the temple accurately described, is not impossible. It may be covered over with the ruins of the temple, or by injuries of the weather in the lapse of ages; but I conceive it to be merely covered over, and not actually filled up, because such fissures are usually very deep, and we know this to have been also very small, so that a tripod could stand over its mouth, and therefore a large stone placed there by design or accident might easily cover it. Now my belief is that it was covered by design, having been closed, as I suppose, by order of Constantine, when he removed the brazen tripod from Delphi which is now at Constantinople, an account of which may be found in Eusebius de Vita Constant. iii. 54, and Sozomen Eccles. Hist. ii. 5, who, after speaking of the statue and tripod uf Apollo brought from Delphi, and some other statues, adds, respecting the temples themselves-New dè oi μèv Ougŵr, οἱ δὲ ὀρόφων ἐγυμνώθησαν· οἱ δὲ καὶ ἄλλως ἀμελέμενοι ΗΡΕΙΠΟΝΤΟ ΤΕ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΕΦΘΕΙ PONTO. I will only add, that if I could be at Delphi with the power of making excavations, I would try to discover the spiracle at the risk of becoming φοιβόληπΊος by the exhalation, |