§ 1. Ritual worship of Apollo. Bloodless offerings. § 2. Expiatory rites. § 3. Peace offerings. § 4. Festivals of Apollo. § 5. Traces of a festival calendar. § 6. Expiations for homicide. § 7. Rites of purification—use of the laurel therein. § 8. Prophetic character of Apollo. § 9. His modes of divination. § 10. Use of music in the worship of Apollo. § 11. Apollo represented as playing on the cithara. § 12. Contest of Apollo and Linus. Ancient plaintive songs. § 13. Ancient hymns to Apollo. § 14. The pæan and hyporcheme. § 15. The Hyacinthian and Carnean festivals. § 16. Apollo as represented by the sculptors. § 17. Ancient statues of Apollo. § 18. Apollo as represented by successive schools of sculptors. § 19. Political influence of the worship of Apollo. § 20. Its connexion with the Pythagorean philosophy. 1. Our intention in this chapter is to show that, besides the mythology, the ceremonies also of the worship of Apollo so agree and harmonize together, as to furnish a decisive proof of its regular and systematic development; after which we will endeavour to point out this agreement, and elucidate its relative bearings; although an attempt of this kind must necessarily be very imperfect, since the religion, which, in order to comprehend, we should regard with the ardour of devotion, is now merely the subject of cold and heartless speculation. First, with regard to the sacrifices, it is remarkable, that in many of the principal temples a particular sanctity and importance was attributed to _bloodless_ offerings. At Delphi cakes and frankincense were consecrated in holy baskets;(1341) at Patara, cakes in the form of bows, arrows, and lyres, emblems both of the wrath and placability of the deity.(1342) At Delos, an altar, called the altar of the pious, stood behind the altar built of horns, on which were deposited only cakes of wheat and barley; this, according to tradition, was the only one on which Pythagoras sacrificed.(1343) In this island also at festivals were offered mallows and ears of corn;(1344) the simplest food of man, in remembrance of primitive simplicity and temperance. At Delphi the young women of Parnassus are said to have brought the first-fruits of the year to Apollo, immediately after the destruction of the Python.(1345) The pious offerings of the Hyperboreans, as has been remarked above, were the same as those last enumerated. And perhaps we may add to our list the custom, at the Attic autumnal festival of the Pyanepsia, of hanging grapes, fruits, and small jars of honey and oil, to branches of olive or laurel bound with wool, and carrying them to the doors of a temple of Apollo;(1346) though perhaps this rite belonged rather to Bacchus, the Sun, and the Hours,(1347) who shared the honour of this festival with Apollo.