More commonly there is between the Olympian and the hero all appearance of decent friendliness. A compromise is effected; the main ritual is in honour of the Olympian, but to the hero is offered a preliminary sacrifice. A good instance of this procedure is the worship of Apollo at Amyclae[880] superposed on that of the local hero Hyakinthos. The great bronze statue of Apollo stood on a splendid throne, the decorations of which Pausanias describes in detail. The image itself was rude and ancient, the lower part pillar-shaped, but for all that the god was a new-comer. ‘The basis of the image was in form like an altar, and they say that Hyakinthos was buried in it, and at the festival of the Hyakinthia _before_ the burnt sacrifice (θυσίας) to Apollo, they devote offerings (ἐναγίζουσιν) to Hyakinthos into this altar through a bronze door.’ Apollo and Hyakinthos established a _modus vivendi_. Apollo instituted his regular Olympian sacrifices (θυσίαι) and left to Hyakinthos his underworld offerings (ἐναγίσματα). But not every Olympian was so successful. Ritual is always tenacious. So too at Delphi, Apollo may seat himself on the omphalos, but he is still forced to utter his oracles through the mouth of the _priestess_ of Gaia. Zeus, we have seen, arrogated to himself the title of Meilichios; he had the old snake reliefs dedicated to him, but he was powerless to change the ritual of the hero, and had to content himself, like an underworld god, with holocausts. All that he could do was to emphasize the untruth that he, not the hero, was Meilichios, Easy to be intreated. All that could be effected by theological _animus_ was done. It has been seen (p. 9) how in the fable of Babrius the hero-ancestor is positively forbidden to give good things, and meekly submits; and, long before Babrius, the blackening process had set in. The bird-chorus in Aristophanes[881] tells of the strange sights it has seen on earth: ‘We know of an uncanny spot, Very dark, where the candles are not; There to feast with the heroes men go By day, but at evening, oh no! For the night time is risky you know. If the hero Orestes should meet with a mortal by night, He’d strip him and beat him and leave him an elegant sight.’