Delphi (51 page)

11
. Scott 2010: 52. See also Bommelaer 1991: 19, Morgan 2003: 113, Hall 2007: 276–90. The war may have been encouraged by rival factions within Delphi itself: Dovatour 1933. Provoked by Delphi: McInerney 1999: 105. The war as the result of regional rather than “interregional” tensions and interests: Morgan 1990: 136.

12
. For the importance of the Thessalian-Isthmus corridor to Thessalian policy: Kase and Szemler 1984.

13
. The tyrants of Corinth are said to have plotted actively against the Sicyonian tyrant: Forrest 1956: 37. Sicyon may have later been attacked for its role in the war at Delphi by Corinth's ally Miletus: Salmon 1984: 227.

14
. The Alcmaeonids had been significantly tainted by the Cylon affair in Athens: Cylon, was the would-be tyrant of Athens in the late seventh century, whom the oracle had supposedly supported, but whom the Alcmaeonids had taken upon themselves to kill. In doing so they committed religious sacrilege, and so subsequently had to be punished for their crime: Forrest 1956: 39–42.

15
. Luce 1992: 704. The annexation of this vast stretch of land (150–200 sq km) as sacred land was a game changer in Delphi's history. The degree to which this vast area was controlled by the city from the sixth century
BC
through to the Hellenistic period has no real likeness in the Greek world. The control can be demonstrated archaeologically: the area of Cirphis extending down from Delphi toward the sea has revealed no surviving remains indicating any kind of settlement from this period, in striking contrast to the rest of the region, a fact only plausible if the entire area had been off limits at that time as sacred land: Rousset 2002b: 239. As a result, control over the sacred land made Delphi something of a unique case in the ancient world, and enabled this small city to punch
significantly above its weight in comparison to other Greek cities; see Rousset 1996. The inclusion of Delphi under the auspices of the Amphictyony also put Delphi on a different track from other regional sanctuaries in Phocis, some of which demonstrate strong degrees of anti-Thessalian activity at exactly this time, e.g., Kalapodi: McInerney 2011: 101–102.

16
. Importance of symbolic capital in sixth century: Osborne 2009: 231. Prizes at games: see Valavanis 2004. At Delphi, it was a wreath made out of laurel branches.

17
. Development of cultural homogeneity: see Snodgrass 1986. For the use of Corinthian pottery at Delphi in this period: Luce 2008: 421. For sculpture and coinage: Osborne 2009: 234–54.

18
. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 99–100.

19
. Original focus around sanctuary of Demeter Anthela: Sanchez 2001: 44. Change in composition after annexation of Delphi: Lefèvre 1998: 16. See Tausend 1992.

20
. Range of purpose: see Sanchez 2001: 44–50. Prototype European Union: see Tenekides 1931, Daux 1957a, Daux 1957b, Sordi 1957, Tenekides 1958, Amandry 1979. Old boys' club: Hammond and Griffith 1979: 452. Recent consensus: Sanchez 2001: 44–51, 468–77, Lefèvre 2011. See Daux 1975: 350–54. Of varying interest to Greeks over time: see Lefèvre 1996. Absence in the fifth century
BC
(and from Herodotus): Sanchez 2001: 27, Hornblower 2007. For discussion of its existence and purpose in late Hellenistic and Roman times: Daux 1975.

21
. Convincing rest of Amphictyony: Sanchez 2001: 488. New range of raw materials: Jacquemin 1993.

22
. Difficulties in knowing: see Lefèvre 1998: 51. No permanent secretariat: Davies 1998: 11, Lefèvre 1998: 193. Reality: Davies 1998: 10–11.

23
. The primary bodies in the administration of the city of Delphi were its
ekklesia
(assembly), its
boule
(council), and its
prytaneis
(magistrates), among whom was the eponymous archon (chief magistrate) of the city. It is thought that it was primarily the prytaneis who liaised with the Amphictyony and handled sanctuary management: Arnush 1991: 11–45. All three bodies had places to meet within the city, with many scholars arguing that the bouleuterion (meeting place of the boule) was within the Apollo sanctuary, and the prytaneion very close to it. In later centuries (Hellenistic and Roman times), the theater within the sanctuary was used for meetings of the city's assembly, and the council of damiourgoi
(a particular class of citizen) came to have considerable influence: Heliod.
Aeth.
4.19; Vatin 1965: 227, Weir 2004: 51.

24
. Tension between Delphic city and Amphictyony: Lefèvre 1998: 51, Weir 2004: 53–55. On the responsibility of the city for particular events, and on its constitution (Aristotle wrote a treaty on the constitution of the Delphic polis, which is now lost): Roux 1970, Roux 1979: 61, Bommelaer 1991: 24, Jacquemin 1995b, Lefèvre 1998: 44–45.

25
. New cults may also have begun at this time at Delphi, like that of Neoptolemus. The stories associating the death of Neoptolemus with Delphi are varied, evoked perhaps to explain the emergence of a cult place in his honor within the Apollo sanctuary that is well known by the fourth century
BC
: Downie 2004: 152–217.

26
. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 108–109.

27
. Questions about plague: Diog. Laert. 1.110; Parke and Wormell
13
. See Bowden 2005: 110–11. Solon's consultations: Parke and Wormell
15
and
16
. For Solon's (later) popularity and sources, see: Osborne 2009: 204–11. For more on Solon, see: Blok and Lardinois 2006, Lewis 2006.

28
. Golden statues at Delphi: Plut.
Vit. Sol.
25.
Exegetai pythochrestoi
: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 110–11.

29
. Parke and Wormell
326
. See Bowden 2005: 114.

30
. Early Athenian treasury Jacquemin
85
; Scott
7
; see Scott 2010: 49.

31
. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 110.

32
. Cypselus, tyrant of Corinth, had offered the sanctuary's first treasury (see the last chapter), as well as numerous other dedications, and been heavily involved with the oracle. His tyrant son, Periander, continued to follow in his father's footsteps, perhaps with the dedication of a delicate and exquisitely carved ivory chest, fragments of which have been found buried in the sanctuary: Carter 1989.

33
. Jacquemin
435, 434
; Scott
19, 20.

34
. Scott 2010: 53–54. For more on the tholos and monopteros: de La Coste-Messelière and Picard 1928: 191–92, de La Coste-Messelière 1936: 52–54, 79, Partida 2000: 90.

35
. Paus. 10.7.7. The chariot may even have been displayed inside the monopteros: de La Coste-Messelière 1936: 79 n.3. The chariot and stadium races in this period would have taken place in the plain below the sanctuary, as there was no room for them on the steep hillside. While the stadium races would later
take place in the stadium built into the hillside, the chariot races for the games, throughout the sanctuary's history, took place on the plain below: Bommelaer 1991: 10.

36
. Although there are some notable Corinthian dedications during this period, including one of the chryselephantine statues found in the burial underneath the sacred way (now on display in the museum): Luce 2008: 412.

37
. Pausanias 5.16.5. See Salmon 1984: 227, Carter 1989: 374, Arafat 1995, Snodgrass 2001.

38
. Oracle responses concerning Adrastus: Parke and Wormell
24
. Using spoils on games: Schol. Pind.
Nem
. 9.20. See Parke and Wormell 1956a: 121.

39
. For the tendency of the ancient sources concerning Delphi's interactions with tyrants increasingly to rebrand the sanctuary as antityrannical in periods when tyranny was no longer a positive political option, as noted in the last chapter, see: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 121, Malkin 1989: 149. Some tyrants, though, in the period 600–550
BC
, received more useful responses, especially when they were portrayed as seeking atonement for their sins, e.g., Pythagoras, tyrant at Ephesus, who sought a method of alleviating famine brought on his city by is own impiety: Parke and Wormell
27
.

40
. This story too is argued to be a later creation, perhaps from the fifth century, given that all the rival competitors to Delphi in Croesus's competition were Delphi's real-life competitors for oracular consultation in the fifth century
BC
(Abar, Dodona, Amphiarius at Oropus, Lebadeia, Didyma, Ammon at Siwa), when a story underlining Delphi's preeminence would have been welcome: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 132. Although Herodotus notes that other sanctuaries received dedications following this process as well (e.g., the oracle of Amphiarius at Oropus: Hdt. 1.49–52), perhaps indicating that Delphi was not the only one to get the question right, but simply the one Croesus chose to use.

41
. For discussion of Croesus's offerings: Parke 1984, Flower 1991.

42
. See Flower 1991: 67–68. Croesus may even have named one of his grandchildren Pythios after the oracle: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 139.

43
. Parke and Wormell
53.
Croesus went on to make Sparta his allies, an introduction possibly made by Delphi itself as the oracle told the Spartans to go to Croesus when they needed gold: Parke and Wormell
56
. Croesus asked several other questions as well: Would he rule for a long time (Parke and Wormell
54
), which received an equally ambiguous answer: “Till a mule becomes king of Persia.” He is also said to have asked about how to cure his dumb son (Parke and Wormell
55
).

44
. Further gifts to and from Delphi: Hdt. 1.54. See Kurke 2011: 58. For discussion of Croesus's actions: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 135.

45
. Glaucus: Parke and Wormell
35, 36.
Aesop: Parke and Wormell
58
. For discussion of Aesop as a test case of Delphic greed: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 398, Kurke 2011: 59–74.

46
. Parke and Wormell 1956a: 331–39.

47
. Prevalence of Dionysus in oracular accounts: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 331. Importance of Dionysiac cult and activity at Delphi: Roux 1976: 176. E.g., consultation of the oracle in the Hellenistic period by various guilds of Dionysiac actors: Parke and Wormell
349.
See subsequent chapters for detailed discussion of Dionysus's role at Delphi.

48
. See Malkin 1987: 79.

49
. Heracleia Pontice: Malkin 1987: 73–76. Chersonesus: Bowden 2005: 120.

50
. Scott
22;
Le Roy 1967: 70–76. In a site on a steep hillside, and in which over 80 percent of the roofs were of yellow Corinthian clay, the presence of a different roofing clay and style would have been very noticeable: Scott 2010: 51. In addition, in the 540s
BC
, Cyrene, founded thanks to an oracle from Delphi, would turn back to the oracle to ask for help during a period of political turmoil and for which the oracle helped appoint a mediator, Demonax of Mantinea: Malkin 1989: 139, Scott 2012: 14–44.

51
. Scott
11, 12, 17
. For discussion: Scott 2010: 49.

52
. Scott
23
and
32
. For discussion: Scott 2010: 50.

53
. Bouleuterion: Scott 2010: 48–49. Cnidian Treasury: Scott
33.
Scott 2010: 47. Naxian Sphinx: Scott
21
; Scott 2010: 46.

54
. Hdt. 2.134–35; Scott
9.
Plutarch, in the first century
AD
, recounts how his friends were outraged that a dedication from a courtesan could have been accepted in a sanctuary like Delphi: Plut.
Mor.
401A.

55
. The discovery and initial report of the burial: Amandry 1939b, Amandry 1977, Picard 1991: 191–226, Luce 2008: 415.

CHAPTER 5. FIRE

1
. Also to be included in the Delphic “portfolio” is the 150–200 km of “sacred land”—the territory around Delphi declared sacred following the “First Sacred War”—which Delphi administered. In the second half of the sixth century
BC
, there seems to have been a specific magistrate in charge of it, who may also have had a role in running the Pythian games: Rousset 2002a: 212, 285 and inscription 33 (550–25
BC
).

2
. For the ancient sources on the fire, see Hdt. 2.180; 5.62.2–3; Paus. 10.5.13. For the melting of Croesus's dedications: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 143.

3
. Hdt. 2.180. Herodotus chooses to use the word “
automatos
.”

4
. Scott 2010: 56–60. For a recent discussion of the new boundary walls, see: Bommelaer 2011: 19–25.

5
. For the stone quarries that fed the building programs at Delphi, see: Amandry 1981a: 714–21, Bommelaer 1991: 245–47.

6
. Davies 2001a: 213.

7
. Cost of temple rebuilding: the daily pay for an Athenian juryman was approximately half a drachma (by the end of the fifth century
BC
), whereas a skilled hoplite could expect a drachma. There were 6,000 drachmas in a talent. See Burford 1969: 109. Contribution from Egypt: Parke and Wormell 1956a: 143–44.

8
. De La Coste-Messelière 1946: 285.

9
. Schachter 1994: 295–98.

10
. Polycrates of Samos: Parke and Wormell
67
. Archesilaus III of Cyrene: Hdt. 4.163; Parke and Wormell
69
and
70
. See also Malkin 1989: 139, Parker 2000: 92.

11
. Pactyes: Hdt. 1.157.2–160; Parker 2000: 92–93. Cnidians: Hdt. 1.174.4; Parke and Wormell
63
.

12
. Parke and Wormell
75, 76, 77, 78.

13
. Murder of Cylon: Hdt. 5.71; Thuc. 1.126; Osborne 2009: 202. Alcmaeon: see Hdt. 6.125. Parke and Wormell 1956a: 144. For the Alcmaeonids and Delphi: Daux 1940: 42–44.