Greece: Painted by John Fulleylove; described by J.A. McClymont — John Shaqi
Greece: Painted by John Fulleylove; described by J.A. McClymontM'Clymont, J. A. (James Alexander)
History
Greece: Painted by John Fulleylove; described by J.A. McClymont
M'Clymont, J. A. (James Alexander)
Athens (Greece); Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel
There was yet a third Sacred War, a few years afterwards. The objects of
Amphictyonic wrath on this occasion were not the Phocians but the
Locrians of Amphissa (now Salona), who had taken possession of Cirrha
and repeated the old offence of using part of the consecrated ground for
their own secular purposes.
[Illustration: DELPHI. THE PORTICO (STOA) OF THE ATHENIANS
The wall of polygonal masonry to the right is part of the _Heleniko_, or
terrace wall, of the Great Temple of Apollo. Three marble steps at the
back of the Athenian portico, with two Ionic columns in place, stand in
front of the wall. The “sacred way,” terminating at the east end of the
Great Temple above, passes in front of this portico, and the row of
marble seats along its farther side marks out its course. To the left of
the drawing is seen the mountain slope of Kirphis leading down to the
gorge of the river Pleistos.]
The sympathies of Greece were divided in this war, and the final outcome
of the struggle was that Philip of Macedonia, who had been called in to
finish the previous war, and had been admitted a member of the
Amphictyony in place of the dispossessed Phocian tribe, now became
master of Greece by reason of his victory over the combined forces of
Athens and Thebes at the fateful battle of Chæronea in 338 B.C.
Within the past few years French archæologists have done wonderful work
at Delphi. By the removal of the modern village of Castri, the
foundations of the temple and the remains of many of the surrounding
buildings and monuments have been brought to light. As you pass along
the “Sacred Way” you can identify many of the sites mentioned by
Pausanias, in the very order in which he describes them. In most places
the old pavement still remains, with grooves to keep the feet from
slipping. Some of the most precious relics have been removed to the
Museum, where there are also models of many of the most beautiful works
of art that have perished. Among the former is the famous _Omphalos_ or
“Navel-stone,” on which Apollo is often represented as sitting. It
marked the spot at which two eagles met, which had been sent out by
Jupiter from extreme east and west, of equal speed in flight, to
determine the exact centre of the earth. The marble stone which is now
shown, although apparently identical with that seen by Pausanias,--for
it was discovered on the same spot,--may be only an imitation of the
original, like another which has also been recently discovered; and the
golden eagles which stood beside the _Omphalos_ have also disappeared.
The chasm in the temple floor, from which the vapour ascended that was
supposed to inspire the prophetess, cannot now be found, having probably
been filled up somehow; but a little way off there is a rock with a rift
in it, on which the first Sibyl (mentioned by Plutarch) is supposed to
have sat and prophesied. The rift may have been the lurking-place of the
dragon which Apollo shot with his darts, when he came from Delos, the
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