The games performed at Delphi in honour of Pythian Apollo bore the name of the Great Pythia, to distinguish them from the Lesser Pythia, held every year at Delphi, and also from the festival of the same name celebrated in other places. This festival, which at first was held every eight years, had been changed to a quadrennial one after the beginning of the 6th century B.C.; it lasted several days, and gradually many additions were made to the original contests. At first the musical competition, which comprised cithara and flute playing, was the only one; in later times, too, it was the principal part of the festival, but after the example of the Olympian games, gymnastic and equestrian contests were also added. A general truce was connected with the Pythian games as well as with the Olympian, and this lasted long enough to enable spectators from the distant colonies on the shores of the Mediterranean to journey in safety to Delphi and back. The chief events of the festival and the order of proceedings were something of this sort. A great sacrifice to the three gods, Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, called _Trittyes_ probably formed the introduction. Then followed an important part of the festival, calculated to arouse lively interest in the public, the _Pythian Nomos_, the subject of which was the celebrated fight with the dragon Pytho by Apollo. Many suggestions have been made about the nature of this performance. One is that the fight was presented in dumb show; another that it was a song, accompanied by instruments; and, again, another very popular theory is that this Pythian Nomos was a concerto of flute solos, by means of which various stages of the fight with the dragon were represented in tone painting. Probably the most important situations--the fight, thanksgiving, and hymn of victory--could be thus represented, and, indeed, they must have attained considerable proficiency in tone painting, since even the gnashing of the dragon’s teeth was musically represented. With a view to strengthening these effects, the flute, which always remained the chief instrument, was afterwards reinforced at certain places by trumpets and shepherds’ pipes. This Pythian Nomos constituted part of the musical contest, which was of greater importance in the Pythian games than the gymnastic competition, since Apollo was essentially the representative of the musical arts. Besides the solo flute playing, the musical competition included songs with cithara accompaniment, and at first also with the flute, but this last was discontinued, being regarded as too sad and gloomy; and, instead, cithara playing without song was introduced in the musical contest. It was only in much later times, when troops of artists were called in to make the festival more splendid, with the consent of the officials of the land, that dramas were also presented at the Pythian games.