10. We have next to consider for what reason and to what extent _music_ was included among the solemnities (τιμαὶ) in honour of Apollo. On this point, however, we must guard against inferring too much from the poets. By the ancients he was represented as playing on the cithara (φόρμιγξ), frequently in the midst of a chorus of Muses, singing and dancing;(1409) whose place in the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo is filled by ten goddesses, among whom “_Ares and Hermes vault and spring_” (perhaps like Cretan tumblers or κυβιστητῆρες), “_whilst Apollo, in a beautifully woven garment, plays, and at the same time dances with quick motion of the feet_;” for Apollo was not considered as merely a god of music; thus Pindar addresses him as the god of dance.(1410) But we are not warranted from this _poetical_ fiction to infer a _religious_ union of the Muses and Apollo, nor can such a connexion be any where traced; indeed the worship of these goddesses was, both in origin and locality,(1411) entirely different from that of Apollo. Besides, amongst the early writers, Apollo is never considered as the patron of poets, or invoked, as the Muses are, to grant poetical inspiration: players on the cithara alone were under his protection. The cithara was his attribute, both in many ancient statues(1412) and also on the coins of Delphi; it is his ancient and appropriate instrument; the deeper-toned lyre, with its arched sounding-board, Apollo received from Hermes:(1413) the instances in which he is represented as bearing it are very rare.