Set III-3-pyt-001. In Greek mythology, Python was the chthonic serpent of Delphi. He dwelled at the oracle and cult center of his mother Gaia at the locale called Pytho. The site was considered to be the center of the earth, marked by a stone omphalos. Infant Apollo chased Python from the Mount Parnassus, slew him with his arrow, placed his bones into a tripod cauldron and deposited them into his new temple. The priestess of the oracle became known as the Pythia and the commemorative funeral Pythian games were established.
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“ There was a spring nearby, flowing beautifully, and there the lord, son of Zeus, killed the great fat she-dragon [δράκαινα] with his mighty bow, a wild monster who practised many evils on the people of the earth, both on the people themselves and on their sheep with slender feet. For she was a calamity of blood. {...} Whoever went to meet the she-dragon [δράκαινα] the day of death would carry him off, until the lord Apollo, who works from afar, let fly at her his strong arrow. Then, heavily, she lay there, racked with bitter pain, gasping for breath and rolling about on the ground. An unspeakable scream came into being, a more than mortal sound. All over the wood she writhed incessantly, now here, now there, and then she gave up her spirit, breathing out blood. The Phoebus Apollo boasted over her: "Now you rot right here upon the soil that feeds mortals. You at least shall live no more to be a monstrous evil to mortals who eat the fruit of the earth that feeds so many and who will bring here perfect hecatombs Typhoeus will not save you from a painful death, neither will the infamous Chimaira, but black Gaia and flaming Hyperion will rot you right here." Phoebus said this, gloating over her, and darkness covered her eyes. Then the sacred power of Helios made her rot away there, and this is why the place is called Pytho and why the people give the lord the name of Pythian, because it was in this place that the piercing power of Helios made the monster rot away. „
● Anonymous (600s-500s BC), Homeric Hymns III: To Pythian Apollo, 300-304, 357-374 | Translated by Jules Cashford. Copyright © 2003.
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“ Latona bore one day a golden Child, brother of Artemis, Phoebus, the Darling of the vales of Delos - Whose little fingers hovered on the harp and pulled at archery. Up from His birthplace, to Parnassus' top The Mother brought Her Boy - Where Dionysos vaults the waterfall. There, hidden coiling in the leafy laurels, a serpent [δράκων] with bright scales and blood-red eyes, a creature born of Earth, guarded the cave that held Earth's oracle. Phoebus, beholding it, leaped up out of His Mother's arms, a little Child, and struck the serpent [Ø] dead - And on that day began His prophecies. O Phoebus, having won the golden throne and tripod of the truth, out of the very center of the Earth, thou couldst hear wisdom; and Thy voice conveyed, accompanied by all the run and ripple of Castalian springs, the deepest prophecies that ever Earth heard whispered out of Heaven. „
● Euripides (480-406 BC), Iphigenia in Tauris: 1234-1258 | Translated by Witter Bynner. Copyright © 1956.
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“ {...} once upon a time beneath Parnassus' rocky ridge the god killed monstrous Delphynes [Δελφύνη] with his arrows, when he was still a naked boy, still delighting in his long locks - be gracious, lord, may your hair always remain unshorn, always unharmed, for such is right {...} „
● Apollonius Rhodius (200s BC), Argonautica II: 705-709 | Translated by William H. Race. Copyright © 2008.
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“ Regarding the contests at Delphi, in antiquity there was one of cithara singers, who sang the paean to the god, which the Delphians established. {...} In addition to the cithara singers, there were flute and cithara players who did not sing but played a certain musical number called the Pythian Melody. It has five parts: the prelude, trial, encouragement, iamboi and dactyls, and the pipes. Timosthenes [Timosthenes of Rhodes, fl. 270 BC], the naval commander of the second Ptolemaios [Ptolemy II Philadelphos, r. 285-246 BC], composed this melody, and he also wrote On Harbors in ten books. He wished in the melody to commemorate the contest between Apollo and the serpent [δράκων], having the prelude as a preface, the first attack of the contest as the trial, the contest itself as the encouragement, and the singing of the paean at the victory as the iambos and dactyl, with appropriate rhythms. One was suitable for hymns and the other, the iambos, for blaming, as in "to lampoon" [iambizein]. The pipes [syringes] imitate the death of the serpent [Ø], as if ending its life with its final hissing [syrigmos]. {...} discussing who the Delphians were, he [Ephoros of Cyme, 400-330 BC] says that certain ancient Parnassians, those called the Dytochthonians, lived on Parnassos, and that at this time Apollo, coming into the land, civilized the peoples ... from cultivated fruits and life. Setting forth from Athens to Delphi he went by the same road on which the Athenians today send the Pythais. When he came to the Panopea he destroyed Tityos, a violent and lawless man who possessed the place. The Parnassians joined with him and informed him about another dangerous man named Python, who was also called Drakon [Δράκων], and when he was shot at with arrows they gave encouragement with "Hie, paean!" from which comes the singing of the paean that has been handed down as a custom for those about to join the battle line. At that time the tent of Python was burned by the Delphians, just as is still done today, creating a reminder of what happened then. But what would be more mythical than Apollo shooting arrows and punishing Tityoses and Pythons, and traveling from Athens to Delphi and visiting the entire earth? If he [Ephoros] did not take these as myths, how could he say that he was calling the mythological Themis a woman and the mythological Drakon [Δράκων] a human being, unless he wished to confuse the types of history and myth? „
● Strabo (64/63 BC-24 AD), Geography IX: 3, 10, 12 | Translated by Duane W. Roller. Copyright © 2014.
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“ So at the time straight after the flood, when the earth was muddy and heated again from above by the rays of the sun, it produced an infinite number of species. Some of the forms which emerged were familiar before, but others were new and amazing creations. Amongst these forms was an unknown serpent [serpens], the monstrous Python, also brought forth by Earth at the time, though she cannot have wished for it. Sprawling over Parnassus, it horribly frightened the new-born peoples, until it was killed by the deadly shafts of Apollo, whose only targets before were the timid gazelles and the roe deer. The snake [Ø] was transfixed by a thousand arrows (the quiver was almost emptied) and out of its wounds there spewed black gushes of venom. In order that time should never destroy the fame of this exploit, Apollo established the sacred games, attended by huge crowds, the Pythian Games, called after the serpent [serpens] he vanquished, Python. {...} Phoebus, still in the flush of his victory over the serpent [serpens], had noticed the love-god bending his bow and drawing the string to his shoulder, and asked him: "What are you doing with grown-up weapons, you mischievous boy? That bow would better be carried by me. When I fire my shafts at my foes or beasts, they're unfailingly wounded. My numberless arrows have just destroyed the venomous Python, which filled whole acres of mountainside with its bellys' infections. You be content with your torch and use it to kindle some passion or other; but don't usurp any honours belonging to me!" „
● Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC - 17/18 AD), Metamorphoses I: 434-447, 454-462 | Translated by David Raeburn. Copyright © 2004.
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“ Who was "Charilla" among the Delphians? The Delphians celebrate three festivals one after the other which occur every eight years, the first of which they call Septerion, the second Herois, and the third Charilla. Now the Septerion seems to be a representation of Apollo's fight with the Python and the flight to Tempe and pursuit that followed the battle. some indeed affirm that Apollo fled because he desired purification as a consequence of the slaughter he had done, others that he was following the wounded Python as he fled along the road which we now call the Sacred Way, and was only a little late for the monster's death; for he overtook him when he had just died from the effects of the wound and had been buried by his son, whose name, as they say, was Aix [!]. The Septerion, then, is a representation of these matters or certain matters of a similar nature. „
● Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (46-120 AD), Moralia IV, 293 B-C: The Greek Questions, 12 | Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Copyright © 1936.
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“ Some say that the Locrians are called Ozolian because of Nessus; others say that it is because of the serpent [δράκων] Python, since their bodies were washed up by the sea and rotted away in the country of the Locrians. But some say that these men wear fleeces and goatskins and for the most part spend their time with herds of goats, and thus became evil-smelling. „
● Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (46-120 AD), Moralia IV, 294 F: The Greek Questions, 15 | Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Copyright © 1936.
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“ {...} the stubborn resistance of Python against Apollo {...} „
● Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (46-120 AD), Moralia V, 360 F: Isis and Osiris, 25 | Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Copyright © 1936.
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“ But the greatest error in regard to the truth is that of the theologians of Delphi who think that the god once had a battle here with a serpent [ὄφις] for the possession of the oracle,and they permit poet and prose-writers to tell of this in their competitions in the theatres, whereby they bear specific testimony against the most sacred of the rites that they perform. {...} the structure which is erected here near the threshing-floor every eight years is not a nest-like serpent's [δράκων] den, but a copy of the dwelling of a despot or king. „
● Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (46-120 AD), Moralia V, 417 F-418 A: The Obsolescence of Oracles, 15 | Translated by Frank Cole Babbitt. Copyright © 1936.
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“ {...} the Pythoness [ὄφις] who fought with Apollo for the oracle at Delphi. „
● Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (46-120 AD), Moralia XII, 988 A: Beasts Are Rational, 4 | Translated by William Clark Helmbold. Copyright © 1957.
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“ Apollo learned the art of divination from Pan, son of Zeus and Hybris, and went to Delphi where, at that time, the oracles were delivered by Themis; and when the guardian of the oracle, the serpent [ὄφις] Python, tried to prevent him from approaching the chasm, he killed it and took possession of the oracle. „
● Pseudo-Apollodorus (100s AD?), Bibliotheca I: 4, 022 | Translated by Robin Hard. Copyright © 1997.
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“ From Earth came Python, a prophetic serpent [draco]. „
● Hyginus (100s AD?), Fabulae: Theogony | Translated by Stephen M. Trzaskoma. Copyright © 2007.
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“ Python son of Earth was a huge serpent [draco]. This serpent [draco] gave forth responses from the oracle on Mount Parnassus before the arrival of Apollo. Python was fated to meet his death at the hands of one of Latona's offspring. At that time Jupiter slept with Latona, Polus' daughter. When Juno found out about this, she brought it about that Latona would give birth where the sun's rays did not reach the earth. When Python realized that Latona was pregnant with Jupiter's child, he went in pursuit to kill her, but the North Wind at Jupiter's behest picked her up and carried her to down to the island of Ortygia and covered it with waves. When Python could not find her, he returned to Mount Parnassus. Neptune made the island of Ortygia reappear on the surface, and this island would later be called Delos. There Latona, while grasping an olive tree, gave birth to Apollo and Diana. Vulcan gave both of them bows and arrows as a gift. The fourth day after their birth, Apollo gained revenge for the wrongs committed against his mother; he went to Parnassus, slew Python with arrows (this is why Apollo is called Pythian), tossed his bones in a tripod, and put it in his own temple. Then Apollo established funeral games in his honor, which are called the Pythian Games. „
● Hyginus (100s AD?), Fabulae: 140, Python | Translated by Stephen M. Trzaskoma. Copyright © 2007.
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“ On the way into the market-place is a sanctuary of Persuasion which has no statue either. The story of how they cam to worship Persuasion is that when Apollo and Artemis had murdered the Python they came to Aigialeia for purification: panic fell on them at the place still called Fear, so they went away to Karmanor in Crete, but everyone in Aigialeia was gripped by a disease. The soothsayers gave orders to placate Apollo and Artemis, and seven boys and seven girls were sent to pray at the river Sythas; the gods were persuaded, and came into the akropolis of those days, and the place where they first entered is consecrated to Persuasion. Something similar is done even now: the boys go to the Sythas on the feast of Apollo, they bring the gods into the sanctuary of Persuasion and then take them off to Apollo's temple. „
● Pausanias (110-180 AD), Description of Greece II Corinth: 7, 7 | Translated by Peter Levi. Copyright © 1971.
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“ After a time the people of the place called the city not just Delphi but Pytho as well, as Homer calls it in his list of Phokians. Those who want to reduce everything to genealogy believe Pythes was the son of Delphos, and the city took its name from his reign as king. The story most people know is that the beast Apollo shot died here of gangrene, so the city was called Pytho, the word in those days for anything gangrenous. {...} Poets say what Apollo killed was a serpent [δράκων] appointed by Earth to be guardian of the oracle, but another story is that Krios the Euboian lord had an insolent son, who plundered the god's sanctuary and the houses of prosperous men. When he attacked the second time the Delphians begged Apollo to fight off the threat, and Phemonoe who was prophetess at the time answered them in hexameters: "Phoibos will let go his heavy arrow close range at the robber of Parnassos; Cretans shall purify his hands from blood, and his glory shall never die anyway." „
● Pausanias (110-180 AD), Description of Greece X Phokis: 6, 3 | Translated by Peter Levi. Copyright © 1971.
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“ The Pythian Flute-Nome has five parts, the Triad, the Challenge, the Iambics, the Spondaics, and the Dance of Triumph. It is a representation (in music) of the fight between Apollo and the Serpent [δράκων]. In the Triad Apollo looks about him to see if the place is suitable for the struggle, in the Challenge he calls the Serpent [δράκων] to come on, in the Iambics he fights him. The Iambics include passages for the trumpet and one to be played through the teeth, this representing the gnashing of the Serpent [δράκων] when he is pierced with the arrows. The Spondaics depict the victory of the God, and in the last of the five parts he dances triumphant. „
● Julius Pollux (fl. 170s AD), Onomasticon (Vocabulary) IV: 79 (in Lyra Graeca II, LCL) | Translated by John Maxwell Edmonds. Copyright © 1922-1927.
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“ The people of Epirus and all strangers sojourning there, beside any other sacrifice to Apollo, on one day in the year hold their chief festival in his honour with solemnity and great pomp. There is a grove dedicated to the god, and round about it a precinct, and in the enclosure are serpents [δράκων], and these self-same serpents [Ø] are the pets of the god. Now the priestess, who is a virgin, enters unaccompanied, bringing food for the serpents [δράκων]. And the people of Epirus maintain that the serpents [Ø] are sprung from the Python at Delphi. If, as the priestess approaches, they look graciously upon her and take the food with eagerness, it is agreed that they are indicating a year of prosperity and of freedom from sickness. If however they scare her and refuse the pleasant food she offers, then the serpents [Ø] are foretelling the reverse of the above, and that is what the people of Epirus expect. „
● Claudius Aelianus (175-235 AD), On the Characteristics of Animals XI: 2 | Translated by Alwyn F. Scholfield. Copyright © 1958-1959.
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“ Well now, let us give an account of the Thessalian region called Tempe and create a picture of it. {...} Here, as the people of Thessaly report, Pythian Apollo purified himself on the orders of Zeus, when he had slaughtered the snake [δράκων] Pytho that still guarded Delphi, the oracle still being in the control of Earth. He made himself a crown from the laurel of Tempe, and carrying a branch (from the same laurel) in his right hand he went to Delphi to take over the oracle as the son of Zeus and Leto. There is an altar at the very spot where he put on the crown and removed the branch. Even now, every eight years the Delphians send here the children of noble families accompanied by someone to head the delegation. They arrive, make a lavish sacrifice in Tempe, and return with crowns woven from the same laurel from which the god took branches for his crown on the earlier occasion. They take the route known as the Pythian which carries them through Thessaly, Pelasgia, Oeta, and the territory of the Aenianes, the Melieis, the Dorians, and the Western Locrians. The latter escort them with respect and honour equal to that accorded to the delegation bringing sacred offerings to this same god from the Hyperboreans. In addition the crowns given to victors at the Pythian games are from this laurel. „
● Claudius Aelianus (175-235 AD), Historical Miscellany III: 1 | Translated by Nigel G. Wilson. Copyright © 1997.
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“ It suffices the lyrist Simonides [Simonides of Ceos, 556-468 BC] for praise of Apollo to call the God Ἔκατος or Far-Shooter and to adorn him with that title instead, as it were, of another sacred mark - because, as he says, he slew the serpent [δράκων] Python with a hundred (ἑκατόν) arrows. „
● Julian (331/332-363 AD), Letters: 24, 395d (in Lyra Graeca II, LCL) | Translated by John Maxwell Edmonds. Copyright © 1922-1927.
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“ Ino, unhappy wife, escaped from the chamber and fled, rushing unshod over the rough mountains and searching for a trace of Dionysos, but without tidings. The nymph wandered passing from hill to hill, until she entered the ravine of Delphian Pytho. At last after intolerable wanderings she turned her step into the dragon-breeding [δράκων] copse. She tore the shift from her naked breast in token of mourning, and roamed madly about: the shepherd trembled to hear her distracted lamentation in a language he did not now. Often she seized the serpent [ὄφις] which coiled thrice around the divine tripod-seat, and wreathed it in spirals on her squalid hair, fastening the long tresses about the delicate head with a snaky [δρακόν] ribbon. She drove away the maidens of the temple service: no more libations, no more public worship, no man of Delphoi danced near the temple - the women were scourged with limb-scoring tangles of long-plaited ivy. {...} The Pythian prophetess herself choked down the foreign sounds of the underworld voice and ran into the mountains, with her customary Panopeian laurel shaking upon her head: she plunged between the deep-kneed peaks of the ravine, and took refuge in the Delphic cavern, in her fear of maddened Ino. „
● Nonnus of Panopolis (late 300s-400s AD), Dionysiaca IX: 247-264; 270-274 | Translated by William H. D. Rouse. Copyright © 1940.
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“ Apollo mastered Delphine, and then he came to live in the sky. „
● Nonnus of Panopolis (late 300s-400s AD), Dionysiaca XIII: 028 | Translated by William H. D. Rouse. Copyright © 1940.
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“ The Pytho slain by Apollo and Artemis, because it appeared and prevented Leto from approaching the oracle at Delphi which she went to occupy. Leto in utter loathing is turning away from the earthborn Pytho, a creeping thing [ἑρπετόν], all confusedly coiled; for it wishes to annoy the wise goddess: but Phoebus, shooting from the height, lays it low in its blood. He shall make the Delphian tripod inspired, but the Pytho shall yield up its life with groans and bitter hisses. „
● Attalus and Eumenes (Uncertain dates), The Cyzicene Epigrams: 6 (in The Greek Anthology I: III, LCL) | Translated by William Roger Paton. Copyright © 1915-1918.
| Editorial notes: {...} - Omitted text; [...] - Translation back to the original, clarification, or curator's commentary. |
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