fierce than suspicious.[383] So, too, the twelve chief Ionic cities
in and near Asia Minor, had their Pan-Ionic Amphiktyony peculiar to
themselves: the six Doric cities, in and near the southern corner
of that peninsula, combined for the like purpose at the temple of
the Triopian Apollo; and the feeling of special partnership is here
particularly illustrated by the fact, that Halikarnassus, one of the
six, was formally extruded by the remaining five, in consequence
of a violation of the rules.[384] There was also an Amphiktyonic
union at Onchêstus in Bœotia, in the venerated grove and temple of
Poseidôn:[385] of whom it consisted, we are not informed. These are
some specimens of the sort of special religious conventions and
assemblies which seem to have been frequent throughout Greece. Nor
ought we to omit those religious meetings and sacrifices which were
common to all the members of one Hellenic subdivision, such as the
Pam-Bœotia to all the Bœotians, celebrated at the temple of the
Itonian Athênê near Korôneia,[386]—the common observances, rendered
to the temple of Apollo Pythaëus at Argos, by all those neighboring
towns which had once been attached by this religious thread to the
Argeians,—the similar periodical ceremonies, frequented by all who
bore the Achæan or Ætolian name,—and the splendid and exhilarating
festivals, so favorable to the diffusion of the early Grecian
poetry, which brought all Ionians at stated intervals to the sacred
island of Delos.[387] This latter class of festivals agreed with the
Amphiktyony, in being of a special and exclusive character, not open
to all Greeks.
[380] Pindar, Isthm. iii. 26 (iv. 14); Nem. vi. 40.
[381] Strabo, viii. p. 374.
[382] Strabo, viii. p. 343; Pausan v. 6, 1.
[383] At Iolkos, on the north coast of the Gulf of Pagasæ, and
at the borders of the Magnêtes, Thessalians, and Achæans of
Phthiôtis, was celebrated a periodical religious festival, or
panegyris, the title of which we are prevented from making out by
the imperfection of Strabo’s text (Strabo, ix. 436). It stands in
the text as printed in Tzschucke’s edition, Ἐνταῦθα δὲ καὶ τὴν
Πυλαϊκὴν πανήγυριν, συνετέλουν. The mention of Πυλαϊκὴ πανήγυρις,
which conducts us only to the Amphiktyonic convocations of
Thermopylæ and Delphi is here unsuitable; and the best or
Parisian MS. of Strabo presents a gap (one among the many which
embarrass the ninth book) in the place of the word Πυλαϊκὴν.
Dutneil conjectures τὴν Πελϊακὴν πανήγυριν, deriving the name
from the celebrated funeral games of the old epic celebrated by
Akastus in honor of his father Pelias. Grosskurd (in his note
on the passage) approves the conjecture, but it seems to me not
probable that a Grecian panegyris would be named after Pelias.
Πηλϊακήν, in reference to the neighboring mountain and town of
Pelion, might perhaps be less objectionable (see Dikæarch. Fragm.
pp. 407-409, ed. Fuhr.), but we cannot determine with certainty.
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