Apollo is Abaddon or Apollyon: the Muses serve him and are the locusts
or musical performers of Revelation.
See how
INSTRUMENTAL CHURCHES appeal to the paganism
defined by Strabo as authority for instrumental music in
the Christian system.
A.
Ralph Johnson in Instrumental Music, Sacred or
Sinful.
1. Tom Burgess in Documents on Instrumental Music reviewed. Psallo and Instrumental Music: Proofs do not prove
anything but the "music-homosexuality" connection.
See more on Strabo's
definition of the worship of Apollo or Abaddon
or Apollyon: his MUSES are the
locusts or musical performers in the book of
revelation.
2. Tom
Burgess More Review of Plutarch: if Psallo authorizes
"church music" it authorizes a homosexual gathering.
3. Tom
Burgess
on Moralia confirms the
"Music-Heresy-Perversion" connection which has no
historical exception. 10/20/04
4. Tom
Burgess
on John Chrysostom: are the
anti-instrumentalists ignorant rurals? 10/21/04 What about Paul and Martin
Luther and John Calvin and Zwingli and--everyone who
believed the Bible as authority.
5. Tom
Burgess
on Kurfees versus Thayer and Grimm: Quotes from: G. C. Brewer,
A Medley on the Music Question, Gospel Advocate,
Nashville 1948. Burgess uses the same Krewson arguments.
LATEST
11/06/05
Charles Daily
Northwest College of the Bible Part One ..... Part One A .....Part Two .... THRESKIA or CHARISMATIC
Homer's
Hymn to Apollo.
Apollo is the father of musical harmony. Melody or
"psallo" speaks of his "twanging his bowstring to sind
singing arrows into the literal heart. He is the
father of "far shooting arrows" including love darts.
He is the father of liars and thieves. In his good
nature he is the father of purification or purging.
From the Britannica: Apollo:
by name Phoebus, in
Greek religion, a deity of manifold function and meaning,
the most widely revered and influential of all the Greek
gods. Though his original nature is obscure, from the time
of Homer onward he was the god of divine distance, who
sent or threatened from
afar; the god who made men aware of their own guilt
and purified them of it;
who presided over religious law and the constitutions of cities; who
communicated to man through prophets and oracles
his knowledge of the future and the will of his father,
Zeus.
Even the gods feared him, and only his
father and his mother, Leto, could endure his presence. Distance, death, terror, and awe
were summed up in his symbolic bow;
a gentler side of his nature, however,
was shown in his other attribute, the lyre, which
proclaimed the joy of communion with Olympus (the home of the gods) through music, poetry,
and dance.
In humbler circles he was also a god of
crops and herds, primarily as a divine bulwark against wild
animals and disease, as
his epithet Alexikakos (Averter of Evil) indicates. His
forename Phoebus means "bright" or "pure," and the view became current that
he was connected with the sun.
Helios in his chariot (Greek: "Sun"), in Greek religion, the
sun god. He drove a chariot daily from east to west across the sky and
sailed around the northerly stream of Ocean each night
in a huge cup. In classical Greece, Helios was especially worshiped
in Rhodes, where from at least the early 5th century BC
he was regarded as the chief god, to whom the island
belonged. His worship spread as he became increasingly
identified with other deities, often under Eastern
influence.
From the 5th century
BC, Apollo, originally a deity of
radiant purity, was more and more interpreted as a sun god. During the Roman Empire
the sun itself came to be
worshiped as the Unconquered Sun.
Among Apollo's other epithets was Nomios (Herdsman), and he is said to have served
King Admetus of Pherae in the lowly capacities of groom
and herdsman as penance for slaying Zeus's armourers, the
Cyclopes.
He was also called Lyceius, presumably because he protected the flocks
from wolves (lykoi);
because herdsmen and shepherds beguiled
the hours with music,
scholars have argued that this was Apollo's original
role.
Though the most Hellenic of all gods,
Apollo apparently was of foreign origin, coming either
from somewhere north of Greece or from Asia.
Traditionally, Apollo and his twin, Artemis, were born on
the isle of Delos. From
there Apollo went to Pytho (Delphi), where he slew Python, the dragon
that guarded the area. He established his oracle by taking
on the guise of a dolphin,
leaping aboard a Cretan ship, and forcing the crew to
serve him.
Thus Pytho was renamed Delphi after the
dolphin (delphis), and the Cretan cult of Apollo
Delphinius superseded
that previously established there by Earth (Gaea).
During the Archaic period (8th to 6th
century BC), the fame of the Delphic oracle spread as far
as Lydia in Anatolia and achieved pan-Hellenic status. The
god's medium was the Pythia, a local woman over fifty years old, who, under his inspiration, delivered
oracles in the main temple of Apollo.
The oracles were subsequently interpreted and versified by priests. Other oracles of Apollo existed on the
Greek mainland, Delos, and in Anatolia, but none
rivalled Delphi in importance.
Of the Greek festivals in honour of
Apollo, the most curious was the octennial Delphic
Stepterion, in which a boy reenacted the slaying of the
Python and was temporarily banished to the Vale of
Tempe.
Although Apollo had many love affairs,
they were mostly unfortunate: Daphne, in her efforts to
escape him, was changed into a laurel, his sacred shrub; Coronis (mother of
Asclepius) was shot by Apollo's twin, Artemis, when Coronis proved unfaithful; and
Cassandra (daughter of King Priam of Troy) rejected his
advances and was punished by being made to utter true
prophecies that no one believed.
In Italy Apollo was introduced at an
early date and was primarily concerned, as in Greece, with
healing and prophecy; he
was highly revered by the emperor Augustus because the
Battle of Actium (31 BC) was fought near one of his
temples.
........... In art Apollo was represented as a beardless
youth,
........... either naked
or robed, and often holding either a bow or a lyre.
........... Introductory notes from the Britannica
about Apollo
-Strabo, Geography 9.3.1
III. [1] After Boeotia and Orchomenus
one comes to Phocis; it stretches towards the north
alongside Boeotia, nearly from sea to sea; it did so in
early times, at least, for in those times Daphnus belonged
to Phocis, splitting Locris into two parts and being
placed by geographers midway between the Opuntian Gulf and
the coast of the Epicnemidians. The country now belongs to
the Locrians (the town has been razed to the ground), so
that even here Phocis no longer extends as far as the
Euboean Sea, though it does border on the Crisaean Gulf.
For Crisa itself belongs to Phocis, being situated by the
sea itself and so do Cirrha and Anticyra and the places
which lie in the interior and contiguous to them near Parnassus--I mean Delphi, Cirphis,
and Daulis--and Parnassus itself which belongs to Phocis and forms its
boundary on its western side. In the same way as Phocis
lies alongside Boeotia,
so also Locris lies
alongside Phocis on either side; for Locris is double,
being divided into two parts by Parnassus, the part on the
western side lying alongside Parnassus and occupying a
part of it, and extending to the Crisaean Gulf, whereas
the part on the side towards the east ends at the Euboean
Sea. The Westerners1 are called Locrians and Ozolae; and
they have the star Hesperus engraved on their public seal. The other
division of inhabitants is itself also divided, in a way,
into two parts: the Opuntians, named after their
metropolis, whose territory borders on Phocis and Boeotia,
and the Epicnemidians, named after a mountain called
Cnemis, who are next to the Oetaeans and Malians. In the middle between both, I
mean the Westerners and the other division, is Parnassus,
extending lengthwise into the northerly part of the
country, from the region of Delphi as far as the junction
of the Oetaean and the Aetolian mountains, and the country
of the Dorians which lies in the middle between them. For
again, just as Locris, being double, lies alongside
Phocis, so also the country of the Oetaeans together with
Aetolia and with certain places of the Dorian Tetrapolis,
which lie in the middle between them, lie alongside either
part of Locris and
alongside Parnassus and the country of the Dorians.
Immediately above these are the Thessalians, the northerly
Aetolians, the Acarnanians, and some of the Epeirote and
Macedonian tribes. As I was saying before,2 one should
think of the aforementioned countries as ribbon-like
stretches, so to speak, extending parallel to one another
from the west towards the east. The whole of
Parnassus is esteemed as sacred, since it has caves
and other places that are held in honor and deemed holy.
Of these the best known and most beautiful is Corycium, a
cave of the nymphs bearing the same name as that in
Cilicia. Of the sides of Parnassus, the western is
occupied by the Ozolian Locrians and by some of the
Dorians and by the Aetolians who live near the Aetolian
mountain called Corax; whereas the other side is occupied
by Phocians and by the majority of the Dorians, who occupy
the Tetrapolis, which in a general way lies round
Parnassus, but widens out in its parts that face the east.
Now the long sides of each of the aforementioned countries
and ribbon-like stretches are all parallel, one side being
towards the north and the other towards the south; but as
for the remaining sides, the western are not parallel to
the eastern; neither are the two coastlines, where the
countries of these tribes end, I mean that of the Crisaean
Gulf as far as Actium and that facing Euboea as far as
Thessaloniceia, parallel to one another. But one should
conceive of the geometrical figures of these regions as
though several lines were drawn in a triangle parallel to
the base, for the figures thus marked off will be parallel
to one another, and they will have their opposite long
sides parallel, but as for the short sides this is no
longer the case. This, then, is my rough sketch of the
country that remains to be traversed and is next in order.
Let me now describe each separate part in order, beginning
with Phocis.
Strab.
9.3.2 Of Phocis two cities are the most famous, Delphi and Elateia.
Delphi, because of the temple of the Pythian Apollo, and because of the oracle, which is ancient,
since Agamemnon is said by the poet to have had an oracle given him from there; for the minstrel
is introduced as singing
"the quarrel of Odysseus and
Achilles, son of Peleus, how once they strove . . .,
and Agamemnon, lord of men, rejoiced at heart . . .,
for thus Phoebus Apollo, in giving response to him at
Pytho, had told him
that it should be."3
Delphi,
I say, is famous because of these things, but Elateia, because it is the largest of all the cities
there, and has the most advantageous position, because it
is situated in the narrow passes and because he who holds
this city holds the passes leading into Phocis and
Boeotia. For, first, there are the Oetaean Mountains; and
then those of the Locrians and Phocians, which are not
everywhere passable to invaders from Thessaly, but have
passes, both narrow and separated from one another, which
are guarded by the adjacent cities; and the result is,
that when these cities are captured, their captors
master the passes also.
But since the fame of the temple at Delphi has the priority of age, and since at the
same time the position of its places suggests a natural
beginning (for these are the most westerly parts of
Phocis), I should begin my description there.
[3] As I have already said, Parnassus is situated on the western boundaries of
Phocis. Of this mountain, then, the side towards the west
is occupied by the Ozolian Locrians, whereas the southern
is occupied by Delphi, a
rocky place, theatre-like,
having the oracle and the city on its summit, and filling
a circuit of sixteen stadia.
Situated above Delphi is Lycoreia, on
which place, above the temple, the Delphians were established in earlier times. But now
they live close to the temple, round the Castalian
fountain. Situated in
front of the city, toward the south, is Cirphis, a
precipitous mountain, which leaves in the intervening
space a ravine, through which flows the Pleistus River.
Below Cirphis lies Cirrha, an ancient city, situated by
the sea; and from it there is an ascent to Delphi of about
eighty stadia. It is situated opposite Sicyon. In front of
Cirrha lies the fertile Crisaean Plain; for again one
comes next in order to another city, Crisa, from which the
Crisaean Gulf is named. Then to Anticyra, bearing the same
name as the city on the Maliac Gulf near Oeta. And, in
truth, they say that it is in the latter region that the
hellebore of fine quality is produced, though that
produced in the former is better prepared, and on this
account many people resort thither to be purged and cured;
for in the Phocian Anticyra, they add, grows a sesame-like
medicinal plant with which the Oetaean hellebore is
prepared.
[4] Now Anticyra still endures, but Cirrha and Crisa
have been destroyed, the former earlier, by the Crisaeans,
and Crisa itself later,
by Eurylochus the Thessalian, at the time of the Crisaean
War.4 For the Crisaeans, already prosperous because of the
duties levied on importations from Sicily and Italy,
proceeded to impose harsh taxes on those who came to visit the temple,5 even contrary to the decrees of the
Amphictyons. And the same thing also happened in the case
of the Amphissians, who belonged to the Ozolian Locrians.
For these too, coming over, not only
restored Crisa and
proceeded to put under cultivation again the plain which
had been consecrated by the Amphictyons, but were worse in their dealings with
foreigners than the Crisaeans of old had been.
Accordingly, the Amphictyons punished
these too, and gave the territory back to the god: The
temple, too, has been much neglected, though in earlier
times it was held in exceedingly great honor. Clear proofs
of this are the treasure houses, built both by peoples and
by potentates, in which they deposited not only money
which they had dedicated to the god, but also works of the
best artists; and also the Pythian Games, and the great
number of the recorded oracles.
[5] They say that the seat of the
oracle is a cave that is
hollowed out deep down in the earth, with a rather narrow
mouth, from which arises breath
that inspires a divine frenzy;
and that over the mouth is placed a high
tripod,
mounting which the Pythian priestess receives the breath
and then utters oracles
in both verse and prose,
though the latter too are put into verse by poets
who are in the service of the temple.
They say that the first to become Pythian priestess was Phemonoe; and that both the prophetess and the city
were so called6 from the word pythesthai,"7
7 "To inquire of the
oracle." Other mythologers more plausibly derived the
two names from the verb pythesthai, "to rot"
(note the length of the vowel), because the serpent Python,
slain by Apollo, "rotted" at the place.
though the first syllable was
lengthened, as in athanatos, akamatos, and diakonos.8 Now the following is the idea which leads
to the founding of cities and to the holding of common
sanctuaries in high esteem: men came together by cities
and by tribes, because they naturally tend to hold things
in common, and at the same time because of their need of
one another;
and they met at the sacred places that
were common to them for the same reasons,
holding festivals and general
assemblies;
for everything of this kind tends to
friendship, beginning with eating at the same table, drinking
libations together, and
lodging under the same roof;
and the greater the number of the
sojourners and the greater the number of the places whence they came, the
greater was thought to be the use of their coming
together.
[6] Now although the greatest share of
honor was paid to this temple because of its oracle, since of all oracles
in the world it had the repute of being the most truthful,
yet the position of the place added something. For it is
almost in the center of Greece taken as a whole, between
the country inside the Isthmus and that outside it; and it
was also believed to be in the center of the inhabited
world, and people called it the navel of the earth,
in addition fabricating a myth, which
is told by Pindar,
that the two eagles (some say crows) which had been set
free by Zeus met there, one coming from the west and the
other from the east.
There is also a kind of navel to be seen in the temple; it is draped
with fillets, and on it are the two likenesses of the
birds of the myth.
[7] Such being the advantages of the
site of Delphi, the people easily came together there, and
especially those who lived near it. And indeed the Amphictyonic
League was organized from
the latter, both to deliberate concerning common affairs
and to keep the superintendence of the temple more in
common,
because much money and many votive
offerings were deposited
there, requiring great vigilance and holiness.
Now the facts of olden times are
unknown, but among the names recorded Acrisius is reputed
to have been the first to administer the Amphictyony and
to determine the cities that were to have a part in the
council and to give a vote to each city, to one city
separately or to another jointly with a second or with
several, and also to proclaim the Amphictyonic Rights--all
the rights that cities have in their dealings with cities.
Later there were several other
administrations, until this organization, like that of the
Achaeans,9 was dissolved. Now the first cities which came
together are said to have been twelve, and each sent a
Pylagoras,10 the assembly convening twice a year, in
spring and in late autumn; but later still more cities
were added. They called the assembly Pylaea, both that of
spring and that of late autumn, since they convened at
Pylae, which is also called Thermopylae; and the Pylagorae
sacrificed to Demeter. Now although at the outset only the
people who lived near by had a share both in these things
and in the oracle, later the people living at a distance
also came and consulted the oracle and sent gifts and
built treasure houses, as, for instance, Croesus, and his
father Alyattes, and some of the Italiotes, 11 and the
Sicilians.
[8] But wealth inspires envy, and is therefore difficult to guard, even
if it is sacred. At present, certainly, the temple at
Delphi is very poor, at least so far as money is
concerned; but as for the votive offerings, although some
of them have been carried off, most of them still remain.
In earlier times the temple was very wealthy, as Homer
states:
"nor yet all the things which the
stone threshold of the archer Phoebus
Apollo enclosed in
rocky Pytho."12
The treasure houses clearly indicate
its wealth, and also the
plundering done by the Phocians, which kindled the Phocian
War, or Sacred War, as it is called. Now this plundering
took place in the time of Philip, the son of Amyntas,
although writers have a notion of another and earlier
plundering, in ancient times, in which the wealth
mentioned by Homer was carried out of the temple. For,
they add, not so much as a trace of it was saved down to
those later times in which Onomarchus and his army, and
PhaΓψllus and his army,13 robbed the temple;
but the wealth then carried away was more recent than that
mentioned by Homer; for there were deposited in treasure
houses offerings dedicated from spoils of war, preserving inscriptions on which were
included the names of those who dedicated them; for
instance, Gyges, Croesus, the
Sybarites, and the Spinetae14 who lived
near the Adriatic, and so with the rest. And it would not
be reasonable to suppose that the treasures of olden times
were mixed up with these, as indeed is clearly indicated
by other places that were ransacked by these men. Some,
however, taking "aphetor"15 to mean "treasure-house," and
"threshold of the aphetor" to mean "underground repository
of the treasure-house," say that that wealth was buried in
the temple, and that Onomarchus and his army attempted to
dig it up by night, but since great earthquakes took place
they fled outside the temple and stopped their digging,
and that their experience inspired all others with fear of
making a similar attempt.
[9] Of the temples, the one "with wings"
must be placed among the myths; the second is said to be
the work of Trophonius and Agamedes; and the present
temple was built by the Amphictyons. In the sacred
precinct is to be seen the tomb of Neoptolemus, which was
made in accordance with an oracle, Machaereus, a Delphian,
having slain him because, according to the myth, he was
asking the god for redress for the murder of his father;16
but according to all probability it was because he had
attacked the temple.
Branchus, who presided over the temple at Didyma, is
called a descendant of Machaereus.
Hislop
225: As the true Messiah was prophesied of under
the title of the "Man whose name was the branch," he was celebrated not
only as the "Branch of Cush," but as the "Branch of
God," graciously given to the earth for healing all the
ills that flesh is heir to. *
As the prophets and
priests generally bore the names of the gods whom they
represented (Hesychius expressly tells us that the
priest who represented the great god under the name of the branch in the mysteries was
himself called by the name of Bacchus), this indicates one of
the ancient names
of the god of Delphi.
Iamblichus.III
The woman also
who delivers the oracles in verse at Branchidal, whether she is holding
the staff 30 which was first presented by a divinity and
becomes filled with the divine luminance, or whether she sits upon
a wheel and predicts what is to occur, or whether she
dips her feet or the border of her robe in the water, or
receives the god by inhaling vapor from the water,
she becomes by all these ways prepared for the
reception, and partakes of him from without. 31
30. The staff, rod,
wand, scepter, or baton, as the symbol or authority,
possesses the greatest antiquity. It appears in
mythology as the scepter of Zeus charged with lightning, the caduceus of Hermes that lulled to
sleep,
the staff of Asclepius with healing virtue, the
narthex or thyrsos of Bacchus, and the club of
Heracles. Every Roman Senator carried a wand. The rods
of Moses and Aaron, the staff of the prophet, the wand of Kirkκ [Circe], the
magic divining staff and the bishop's crosier belong
in the same category.
31. Branchidia or Didymea was situated near
Milletus in Ionia. The temple was very ancient. It was
twice burned by the Persians. The structure was of the
Ionic order, but a straight road, which led from it to
the sea, was bordered on each side with statues on charis of
a single block of stone with the feet close together
and the hands on the knees precisely as at the
avenues of the temples of Egypt. There was an
Egyptian influence in Asia Minor and the islands of
the Levant in very ancient times.
Strab.
9.3.10 As for the contests
at
Delphi, there was one in
early times between citharoedes, who sang
a paean in honor of the god; it was instituted by the
Delphians. But after the Crisaean war, in the time of
Eurylochus,17 the Amphictyons instituted equestrian and
gymnastic contests in which the prize was a crown, and
called them Pythian Games.
-Aeidτ
[compare the morphological problems with aeirτ]
1. c. acc. rei, sing of, chant, mēnin aeide Il.1.1;
paiēona 1.473; klea andrōn, noston, 9.189, Od.1.326;
ton Boiōtion nomon S.Fr.966:
c. gen. (sc. melos), sing an air of . ., Phrunikhou Ar.V.269,
cf. 1225:
abs., a. amphi tinos to sing in one's praise,
Od.8.266;
amphi tina Terp.2,
cf. E.Tr.513;
eis tina Ar.Lys. 1243:
later, simply = kalein, Ael.NA3.28:Pass.,
of songs, to be sung, Hdt.4.35;
ta lekhthenta kai asenta Pl.Ly.205e;
asma kalōs asthen, opp. logos kalōs rhētheis, X.Cyr.3.3.55;
adetai logos the story runs,
Ph.1.189.
-aeirō , Ep.
II. raise up, exalt, apo smikrou d' an areias megan A.Ch.262,
cf. 791; olbon <*>n Dareios ēren Id.Pers.164:esp.
of pride and passion, exalt, excite, hupsou ai. thumon grow excited,
S.OT914;
ai. tharsos pluck up
courage, E.IA1598:4.
take up and bear, as a BURDEN, moron A.Pers.547;
athlon S.Tr.80;
algos A.R.4.65.
Sing is USED WITH
kitharizo which confirms that there is no single word
in the Bible which includes BOTH singing and playing
the guitar.
-Paian , anos, ho, Ep. Paiēōn , onos, Att., Ion. Paiōn , ōnos (v. sub fin.), Aeol. Paōn , onos, Sapph.Supp.20c.5:Paean or Paeon,
the physician of the gods, Il.5.401,899, cf. Pi.P.4.270;
Paiēonos genethlē, i.e. physicians, Od.4.232. 2.
[select] title of Apollo (later as epith., Apollōni Paiani BCH11.94
(Hierocaesarea); ō basileu P. . . Apollon BMus.Inscr.1151);
iē Paiēon' aeidon
II.
[select] paian , Ep. paiēōn , Att., Ion. paiōn , paean,
i.e. choral song, addressed to Apollo or Artemis
(the BURDEN being iē or iō Paian,
-Mousa , ēs, hē, Aeol. Moisa Sapph.84, IG42(1).130.16,
etc.; Dor. Mōsa Alcm. 1, etc.; Lacon. Mōha (for Mōsa) Ar.Lys.1298,
cf. An. Ox.1.277:Muse,
II. mousa, as Appellat.,
music,
song,
m. stugera
A.Eu.308
(anap.);
euphamos
Id.Supp.695
(lyr.);
kanakhan . . theias antiluron mousas
S.Tr.643
(lyr.);
Aiakō moisan pherein
Pi.N.3.28;
tis hēde mousa; what
strain
is this ?
E.Ion757;
aluros m.
Id.Ph.1028
(lyr.);
dia mousas ēxa
Id.Alc.962
(lyr.): in Prose,
adein adokimon m.
Pl.Lg. 829d:
in pl.,
mousai Sphiggos, of the
Sphinx's riddle,
E.Ph.50;
esp.
liberal arts, accomplishments,
tas mousas aphanizōn
Ar.Nu.972;
apaideuton tōn peri tas numphikas m.
Pl.Lg.775b:
also in sg.,
tēs alēthinēs m. ēmelēkenai
Id.R.548b;
koinōnein mousēs ib.
411c.
Usually connected with Apollon and Dionysus.
Rev 18:14 And the fruits that thy
soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all
things which were dainty and goodly are departed from
thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.
Rev 18:20 Rejoice
over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and
prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
Rev 18:21 And a
mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone,
and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with
violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown
down, and shall be found no more at all.
Rev 18:22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians [Apollyon's muses or
locusts] and
of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at
all in thee; and no craftsman, [theater builders and
stage managers] of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found
any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone [called a pipe, made a
wistling sound to attract] shall be heard no more at
all in thee;
Rev 18:23 And the light of a
candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and
the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be
heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were
the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations
deceived.
Homer: XIV. TO THE
MOTHER OF THE GODS (6 lines)
(ll. 1-5) I prithee,
clear-voiced Muse, daughter of mighty
Zeus, sing of the mother of all gods and men. She is
well-pleased with the sound of rattles and of timbrels, with the voice of flutes and the outcry of WOLVES and bright-eyed LIONS, with echoing hills and
wooded coombes.
(l. 6) And so hail
to you in my song and to all goddesses as well!
"Now Rhea, as Ceres, in Hymn XIV, is
called 'brass-sounding' and 'drum-beating'. This has reference to the mystical
results of certain
sounds and rhythm, part and parcel of what the Hindus
call Mantravidyβ. I
remember reading a curious old French book in the
Bibliothθque de la Ville of Clermont-Ferrand, one of
the books confiscated from the Minime Monastery of the
same town, at the time of the Revolution.
-Melōd-ia , hē,
II. chant, choral song, melōdias poiētēs Pl.Lg.935e,
cf. 812d; lullaby,
ib.790e:
generally, music,
-Melpō , Il.1.474,
Lasus 1, etc.: Ep. impf.
And to the citharoedes18 they added both fluteplayers and citharists who played without singing,
who were to render a certain melody which is called the Pythian Nome. There are five parts of it: angkrousis,
ampeira, katakeleusmos, iambi and dactyli, and syringes. Now the melody was composed by
Timosthenes, the admiral of the second Ptolemy, who also
compiled
The Harbours, a work in ten books;19 and through this melody he means to celebrate the contest between
Apollo and the dragon, (Python)
setting forth the prelude as
anakrousis,
the first onset of the contest as ampeira,
the contest itself as katakeleusmos,
the triumph following
the victory as iambus and dactylus,
the rhythms being in
two measures, one of which, the dactyl, is appropriate
to hymns
of praise, whereas the
other, the iamb, is
suited to reproaches
(compare the word "iambize"),
and the expiration of the dragon as syringes, since with syringes (pipes) 20 players imitated the dragon as breathing its last
in hissings.21 (pipings)
The citharoedes sang to the accompaniment of
the cithara, and their contests must have had no
connection with those of the fluteplayers and the
citharists, whose performance (of the Pythian Nome) was a
purely instrumental affair.
[11] Ephorus, whom I a m using more than any other
authority because, as Polybius, a noteworthy writer,
testifies, he exercises great care in such matters, seems
to me sometimes to do the opposite of what he intended,
and at the outset promised, to do. At any rate, after
censuring those who love to insert myths in the text of
their histories, and after praising the truth, he adds to
his account of this oracle a kind of solemn promise,
saying that he regards the truth as best in all cases, but
particularly on this subject; for it is absurd, he says,
if we always follow such a method in dealing with every
other subject, and yet, when speaking of the oracle which
is the most truthful of all, go on to use the accounts
that are so untrustworthy and false.
Yet, though he says this, he adds
forthwith that historians take it for granted that Apollo, with Themis, devised the oracle because he
wished to help our race; and then, speaking of the
helpfulness of it, he says that Apollo challenged men to
gentleness and inculcated self control by giving out
oracles to some, commanding them to do certain things and
forbidding them to do other things, and by absolutely
refusing admittance to other consultants.
Men believe that Apollo directs all
this, he says, some believing that the god himself assumes
a bodily form, others
that he transmits to human beings a knowledge of his
own will.
[12] A little further
on, when discussing who the Delphians were, he says that
in olden times certain Parnassians who were called indigenous
inhabited Parnassus; and that at this time Apollo,
visiting the land, civilized the people by introducing
cultivated fruits and cultured
modes of life; and that when he set out from Athens to
Delphi he went by the road which the Athenians now take
when they conduct the Pythias;22 and that when he arrived
at the land of the Panopaeans he destroyed Tityus, a violent and lawless man
who ruled there; and that the Parnassians joined him and
informed him of another cruel man named Python and known as the Dragon,
and that when Apollo shot at him with his arrows the Parnassians shouted "Hie Paean" 23 to encourage him
23 A shout addressed to
Apollo in his capacity as Paean (Healer).
(the origin, Ephorus
adds, of the singing of the Paean
which has been
handed down as a custom for armies just before the clash of battle);
and that the tent of Python was burnt by the Delphians
at that time, just as they still burn it to this day in
remembrance of what took place at that time.
But what could be more
mythical than Apollo shooting with arrows and punishing Tityuses and Pythons, and travelling from
Athens to Delphi and visiting the whole earth?
But if Ephorus did not
take these stories for myths, by what right did he call
the mythological Themis a woman, and the mythological
Dragon a human being--unless he wished to confound the two
types, history and myth? Similar to these statements are
also those concerning the Aetolians; for after saying that
from all time their country had been unravaged, he at one
time says that Aeolians took up their abode there, having
ejected the barbarians who
were in possession of it, and at another
time that Aetolus together with the Epeii from Elis took
up their abode there, but that these were destroyed by the
Aeolians, and that these latter were destroyed by Alcmaeon
and Diomedes. But I return to the Phocians.
[13] On the seacoast after Anticyra, one
comes first to a town called Opisthomarathus; then to a cape called Pharygium, where there is an
anchoring-place; then to the harbor that is last, which,
from the fact in the case, is called Mychus; 24 and it
lies below Helicon and Ascre. And the oracle of Abae is
not far from this region, nor Ambrysus, nor Medeon, 25
which bears the same name as the Boeotian Medeon. Still
farther in the interior, after Delphi, approximately
towards the east, is a town Daulis, where Tereus the
Thracian is said to have held sway (the scene of the
mythical story of Philomela and Procne is laid there,
though Thucydides26 says at Megara). The place got its
name from the thickets, for they call thickets "dauli."
Now Homer called it Daulis, but later writers call it
Daulia. And "Cyparissus,"
in the words "held Cyparissus,"27
is interpreted by writers in two ways,
by some as bearing the same name as the tree,28 and by others, by a slight change in
the spelling, as a village below Lycoreia.29
[14] Panopeus, the Phanoteus of today,
borders on the region of Lebadeia, and is the native land
of Epeius. And the scene of the myth of Tityus is laid
here. Homer says that the Phaeacians "led" Rhadamanthys
into Euboea "to see Tityus, son of the Earth."30
And a cave called Elarium is to be seen
in the island, named after Elara the mother of Tityus; and
also a hero-temple of Tityus, and certain honors which are
paid to him. Near Lebadeia, also, is Trachin, a Phocian
town, which bears the same name as the Oetaean city; and
its inhabitants are called Trachinians.
[15] Anemoreia31 has been named from a
circumstance connected with it: squalls of wind sweep down
upon it from Catopterius,32 as it is called, a beetling
cliff extending from Parnassus. This place was a boundary
between Delphi and the Phocians when the Lacedaemonians
caused the Delphians to revolt from the common
organization of the Phocians,33 and permitted them to form
a separate State of their own. Some, however, call the
place Anemoleia. And then one comes to Hyampolis (later
called Hya by some), to which, as I have said,34 the
Hyantes were banished from Boeotia. This city is very far
inland, near Parapotamii, and is not the same as Hyampeia
on Parnassus; also far inland is Elateia, the largest city
of the Phocians, which is unknown by Homer, for it is more
recent than the Homeric age, and it is advantageously
situated in that it commands the passes from Thessaly.
Demosthenes35 clearly indicates the natural advantage of
its position when he speaks of the commotion that suddenly
took place at Athens when a messenger came to the Prytanes
with the report that Elateia had been captured.36
[16] Parapotamii is a settlement on the
Cephissus River near Phanoteus and Chaeroneia and Elateia.
Theopompus says that this place is distant from Chaeroneia
about forty stadia and marks the boundary of the
territories of the Ambryseans, the Panopeans and the
Daulians; and that it lies on a moderately high hill at
the pass which leads from Boeotia into Phocis, between the
mountains Parnassus and Hadylius, between which is left a
tract of about five stadia divided by the Cephissus River,
which affords a narrow pass on each side. The river, he
continues, has its beginnings in the Phocian city Lilaea
(just as Homer says,
"and those who held Lilaea, at the
fountains of Cephissus "37), and empties into Lake
Copais; and the mountain Hadylius extends over a
distance of sixty stadia as far as the mountain
Acontius,38 where Orchomenus is situated. And Hesiod, too, describes at considerable length the
river and the course of its flow, saying that it flows
through the whole of Phocis in a winding and serpentine
course;
"like a dragon it goes in tortuous
courses out past Panopeus and through strong Glechon
and through Orchomenus."
39 The narrow pass in the neighborhood of Parapotamii, or
Parapotamia (for the name is spelled both ways), was an
object of contention in the Phocian war, since the enemy
had here their only entrance into Phocis. There are,
besides the Phocian Cephissus, the one at Athens, the one
in Salamis, a fourth and a fifth in Sicyon and in Scyros,
and a sixth in Argos, which has its sources in Mt.
Lyrceius; and at Apollonia near Epidamnus there is a
fountain near the gymnasium which is called Cephissus.
[17] Daphnus is now razed to the ground.
It was at one time a city of Phocis, bordering on the
Euboean Sea; it divided the Epicnemidian Locrians into two
parts, one part in the direction of Boeotia, and the other
facing Phocis, which at that time reached from sea to sea.
And evidence of this is the Schedieium in Daphnus, which,
they say, is the tomb of Schedius; but as I have said,40
Daphnus "split"41 Locris on either side, so that the
Epicnemidian and Opuntian Locrians nowhere bordered on one
another; but in later times the place was included within
the boundaries of the Opuntians. Concerning Phocis,
however, I have said enough.
41 The Greek word for "split"
is "schidzo," which Strabo connects etymologically with
"Schedius" (see Hom. Il. 2.517).
1 In Greek, the "Hesperioi."
2 9. 2. 1.
3 Hom. Od. 8.75
4 About 595 B.C.
5 Of Appolo at Delphi.
6 i.e., "Pythia" and "Pytho."
7 "To inquire of the oracle." Other
mythologers more plausibly derived the two names from the
verb pythesthai, "to rot"
(note the length of the vowel), because the serpent
Python, slain by Apollo, "rotted" at the place.
8 But in "diakonos" it is the second
syllable that is long; and Homer does not use the word.
For his uses of the first two with long a see (e.g.) Hom.
Il. 6.108, 5.4.
9 See 8. 7. 3.
10 i.e., Pylae--assemblyman.
11 Greeks living in Italy.
12 Hom. Il. 9.404
13 352 B.C. Both were Phocian generals. For
an account of their robberies see Diod. Sic. 16. 31-61.
14 See 5. 1. 7.
15 The Greek word translated "archer" in
the above citation from Homer.
16 Achilles.
17 On the time, compare 9. 3. 4 and
footnote.
18 The citharoedes sang to
the accompaniment of the cithara, and their contests must have had no
connection with those of the fluteplayers and the
citharists, whose performance (of the Pythian Nome) was a
purely instrumental affair.
19 If the text of this sentence is
correct, Strabo must be referring to the melody played as the Pythian Nome in his own time or in that of some authority
whom he is quoting, earlier compositions perhaps having
been superseded by that of Timosthenes (fl. about 270
B.C.). But since the invention of the Pythian Nome has
been ascribed to Sacadas (Pollux 4.77), who was victorious
with the flute at the Pythian Games about three hundred
years before the time of Timosthenes (Paus. 6.14.9,
10.7.4), Guhrauer (Jahrb. fΓΊr Class. Philol., Suppl. 8,
1875-1876, pp. 311--351 makes a strong argument for a
lacuna in the Greek text, and for making Strabo say that
the melody was composed by Sacadas and later merely
described by Timosthenes in one of his numerous works. Cp.
also H. Riemann, Handb. der Musikgeschichte 1919, vol. i,
pp. 63-65.
20 "Pipes."
21 "Pipings."
22 A sacred mission despatched from Athens
to Pytho (Delphi). See 9. 2. 11.
23 A shout addressed to Apollo in his
capacity as Paean (Healer).
24 Inmost recess.
25 On the site of Medeon see Frazer's
Pausanias, note on Paus. 36.6.
26 But Thuc. 2.29 says: In that country
(Daulia) Itys suffered at the hands of Philomela and
Procne." Eustathius ad Iliad 2.520 repeats without
correction Strabo's erroneous reference.
27 Hom. Il. 2.519
28 Cyparissus is the word for cypress tree.
29 As the text stands, the meaning is
obscure. The scholiast on Ven. A, Hom. Il. 2.519, says
that Cyparissus was named after Cyparissus the brother of
Orchomenus, or after the
cypress trees that grew in it; and the scholiast on Ven. B
ibid., "Cyparissus, the present Apollonias, named after
Cyparissus." Paus. 10.36.3 says: "In earlier times the
name of the city was Cyparissus, and Homer, in his list of
the Phocians, purposely used this name, though the city
was even then called Anticyra" (see Frazer, note ad loc.).
On the position of Lycoreia, see 9. 3. 3.
30 Hom. Od. 7.324
31 "Wind-swept."
32 "The Look-out."
33 About 457 B.C. (see Thuc. 1.107-108).
34 9. 2. 3. Cf. 10. 3. 4.
35 Dem. 18.168.
36 By Philip in 338 B.C.
37 Hom. Il. 2.523
38 Cf. 9. 2. 42.
39 A fragment otherwise unknown.Hes. Fr. 37
(Rzach)
40 9. 3. 1.
41 The Greek word for "split" is "schidzo,"
which Strabo connects etymologically with "Schedius" (see
Hom. Il. 2.517).
Strabo in
Geography Secton 10
Classics
Index
Musical
Worship Index
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