hictyonic convocations must be referred. The
belief of AEschines (perhaps also the belief general in his time) was,
that it commenced simultaneously with the first foundation of the
Delphian temple--an event of which we have no historical knowledge; but
there seems reason to suppose that its original establishment is
connected with Thermopylae and Demeter Amphictyonia, rather than with
Delphi and Apollo. The special surname by which Demeter and her temple
at Thermopylae was known--the temple of the hero Amphictyon which stood
at its side--the word _Pyloea_, which obtained footing in the language
to designate the half-yearly meeting of the deputies both at Thermopylae
and at Delphi--these indications point to Thermopylae (the real central
point for all the twelve) as the primary place of meeting, and to the
Delphian half-year as something secondary and superadded. On such a
matter, however, we cannot go beyond a conjecture.

The hero Amphictyon, whose temple stood at Thermopylae, passed in
mythical genealogy for the brother of Hellen. And it may be affirmed,
with truth, that the habit of forming Amphictyonic unions, and of
frequenting each other's religious festivals, was the great means of
creating and fostering the primitive feeling of brotherhood among the
children of Hellen, in those early times when rudeness, insecurity, and
pugnacity did so much to isolate them. A certain number of salutary
habits and sentiments, such as that which the Amphictyonic oath
embodies, in regard to abstinence from injury as well as to mutual
protection, gradually found their way into men's minds: the obligations
thus brought into play acquired a substantive efficacy of their own, and
the religious feeling which always remained connected with them, came
afterward to be only one out of many complex agencies by which the later
historical Greek was moved. Athens and Sparta in the days of their
might, and the inferior cities in relation to them, played each their
own political game, in which religious considerations will be found to
bear only a subordinate part.

The special function of the Amphictyonic council, so far as we know it,
consisted in watching over the safety, the interests, and the treasures
of the Delphian temple. "If any one shall plunder the property of the
god, or shall be cognizant thereof, or shall take treacherous counsel
against the things in the temple, we will punish him with foot, and
hand, and voice, and by every mea