previous next


Δήλιοι. The following points may be noticed in the Delian story: (1) H.'s source is obviously the hymn (35. 1) as well as the temple tradition; he is familiar with the shrine (34. 2, 35. 4), and compares the ritual with what he has seen in Thrace (33. 5). (2) The offerings were wrapped in straw not only as packing material, but to shield their sanctity. No doubt such offerings came to Delos regularly from the states of which it was the religious centre (for Delos cf. vi. 97. 1 n. and Jebb, Essays). (3) With these ritual connexions has been combined the tradition of one of the oldest traderoutes of Europe, the ‘Amber route’, from the northern end of the Adriatic, near which the Alps are lowest, down the coast, and then from Dodona across to the Malian Gulf. The Greek stages are given carefully, but the northern ones are unknown, and in their place (regardless of geography) are inserted the Hyperboreans, who were far to the north-east, but who were especially connected with Apollo. This route is dated by A. J. Evans (Freeman, Sicily, iv. 220-1) as early as 1,000 B. C.; for a brief account of it cf. Tozer, Geog. pp. 31 seq.; he points out that amber also reached the Mediterranean through Gaul by the Rhone valley, at least as early as the time of Pytheas (fourth century), and possibly even before the foundation of Massilia. (4) The common tendency to duplicate beginnings (cf. the Spartan kings, who are not Eurysthenidae and Proclidae, but Agiadae and Eurypontidae) is clearly seen; probably both pairs of maidens are personified attributes of divinity (v.i.). (5) The tradition is also given in Callimachus (Hymn. Del. 283), who follows H., and in Pausanias (i. 31. 2), who, however, following an Attic tradition (probably dating from the time of Athenian control of Delos), brings the offerings by an eastern route via the Arimaspi, the Issedones, and Sinope to Prasiae in Attica, ‘where there is a shrine of Apollo’; cf. also Plut. Mor. 1136.

Ἀδρίην. Probably the road passed Apollonia; for connexion of this with Delphi cf. ix. 93-4.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: