The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2Müller, Karl Otfried
History
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2
Müller, Karl Otfried
Dorians -- History; Greece -- Antiquities, Dorian; Greece -- History -- Dorian Invasions, approximately 1125-1025 B.C.
The expiatory establishment(989) on the promontory of TÆNARUM was also
said to have been founded by Tettix, a Cretan,(990) who is merely a
personified symbol of Apollo, like Lycus, Corax, Cycnus, &c, in other
places. Callondas is said to have purified the soul of the murdered
Archilochus at this gate of the infernal regions. Considering the
proximity of Delium in Laconia(991) and of the little island of Minoa to
this temple, we may conclude that the origin of the above sanctuary was
connected with these places.
In front of the harbour of MEGARA was another island called Minoa, and
numerous legends had been there preserved in which the Cretans of Minoa
(though probably only by a corruption of the original tradition) were
represented as enemies and plunderers. Megara had two citadels: the Carian
with the temple of Demeter, and a more modern one towards the sea,
surmounted by temples of Apollo. This is said to have been built by
Alcathous the son of Pelops, while Apollo stood by and played upon his
lyre. A sounding-block of stone was exhibited at the place where the god
lay down his lyre.(992) The same fable is also alluded to by Theognis of
Megara.(993) Here then there is a worship and temples of an earlier date
than the Doric migration, and which certainly proceeded from Crete. On the
former citadel stood a statue of Apollo Decatephorus,(994) “the receiver
of tithes,” whose name is explained by the fable that the daughter of
Alcathous was once sent as a tribute to Crete, like the Athenian youths
and maidens. Thus a fact which will be soon proved with respect to Athens,
is also true of Megara—viz., that these missions always conveyed a sacred
tithe.(995)
9. The process of our investigation will shortly lead us to examine the
Attic legends, consisting of a confused mass of tradition, with which the
worship of all the gods, including that of Apollo, was in that country
perplexed.
To commence then with the legends which are connected with the temple of
Apollo at THORICUS. Thoricus, situated on the south-eastern coast of
Attica, was one of the ancient twelve towns of that country, and always
remained a place of consequence, of which there are still extant
considerable remains. Favoured by its situation, it soon became a
commercial station; Cretan vessels were accustomed in ancient times to
anchor in its harbour.(996) The fable of Cephalus and Procris appears,
from some poetical and mythological accounts, to have been connected with
Crete and the worship of Apollo.(997) We know for certain that the
Cephalidæ, who existed at a still later period in Attica,(998) preserved
some hereditary rites of Apollo: for when in the tenth generation
Chalcinus and Dætus, the descendants of the hero, returned to the country
which their ancestor had quitted in consequence of murder, they
immediately built a temple to that god on the road to Eleusis.(999)
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