The altar of the adytum, on the very centre, as men deemed, of the whole earth. Zeus, it was said, had sent forth two eagles at the same moment; one from the East and the other from the West, and here it was that they had met. The stone was of white marble, and the two eagles were sculptured on it. Strabo, ix. 3. Footnote 478: The priestess dwells upon the outward tokens, which showed that the suppliant came as one whose need was specially urgent. On the ritual of supplication generally comp. _Suppl._, vv. 22, 348, 641, Soph., _Œd. King_, v. 3; _Œd. Col._, vv. 469-489. Footnote 479: Æschylos apparently follows the _Theogonia_ of Hesiod, (l. 278), who describes the Gorgons as three in number, daughters of Phorkys and Keto, and bearing the names of Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. The last enters into the Perseus cycle of myths, as one of the monsters whom he conquered, with a face once beautiful, but with her hair turned to serpents by the wrath of Athena, and so dreadful to look upon that those who gazed on her were turned to stone. When Perseus had slain her, Athena placed her head in her ægis, and thus became the terror of all who were foes to herself or her people. A wild legendary account of them meets us in the _Prom. Bound_, v. 812. As works of art, the Gorgon images are traceable to the earliest or Kyclopian period. Footnote 480: Here also we have a reference to a familiar subject of early Greek art, probably to some painting familiar to an Athenian audience. The name of Phineus indicates that the monstrous forms spoken of are those of the Harpies, birds with women's faces, or women with birds' wings, who were sent to vex the blind seer for his cruelty to the children of his first marriage. Comp. Soph. _Antig._, v. 973. In the _Æneid_ they appear (iii. 225) as dwelling in the Strophades, and harassing Æneas and his companions. Footnote 481: The old image of Pallas, carved in olive-wood, as distinguished from later sculpture. Footnote 482: The early code of hospitality bound the host, who as such had once received a guest under the shelter of his roof, not to desert him, even though he might discover afterwards that he had been guilty of great crimes, but to escort him safely to the boundary of his territory. Thus Apollo, as the host with whom Orestes had taken refuge, sends Hermes, the escort God, to guide and defend him on his way to Athens. Footnote 483: The thought that the highest wisdom came to men rather in “visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,” than through the waking senses, which we have already met with in _Agam._, v. 173, is traceable to the mysticism of Pythagoras, more distinctly perhaps to that of Epimenides. Footnote 484: