seventh century B.C.), the Pythian festival had as yet acquired
little eminence. The rich and holy temple of Apollo was then purely
oracular, established for the purpose of communicating to pious
inquirers "the counsels of the Immortals." Multitudes of visitors came
to consult it, as well as to sacrifice victims and to deposit costly
offerings; but while the god delighted in the sound of the harp as an
accompaniment to the singing of paeans, he was by no means anxious to
encourage horse-races and chariot-races in the neighborhood. Nay, this
psalmist considers that the noise of horses would be "a nuisance", the
drinking of mules a desecration to the sacred fountains, and the
ostentation of fine-built chariots objectionable, as tending to divert
the attention of spectators away from the great temple and its wealth.
From such inconveniences the god was protected by placing his sanctuary
"in the rocky Pytho"--a rugged and uneven recess, of no great
dimensions, embosomed in the southern declivity of Parnassus, and about
two thousand feet above the level of the sea, while the topmost
Parnassian summits reach a height of near eight thousand feet. The
situation was extremely imposing, but unsuited by nature for the
congregation of any considerable number of spectators; altogether
impracticable for chariot-races; and only rendered practicable by later
art and outlay for the theatre as well as for the stadium. Such a site
furnished little means of subsistence, but the sacrifices and presents
of visitors enabled the ministers of the temple to live in abundance,
and gathered together by degrees a village around it.

Near the sanctuary of Pytho, and about the same altitude, was situated
the ancient Phocian town of Crissa, on a projecting spur of
Parnassus--overhung above by the line of rocky precipice called the
Phaedriades, and itself overhanging below the deep ravine through which
flows the river Peistus. On the other side of this river rises the steep
mountain Cirphis, which projects southward into the Corinthian gulf--the
river reaching that gulf through the broad Crissoean plain, which
stretches westward nearly to the Locrian town of Amphissa; a plain for
the most part fertile and productive, though least so in its eastern
part immediately under the Cirphis, where the seaport Cirrha was placed.
The temple, the oracle, and the wealth of Pytho, belong to the very
earliest periods of Grecian antiquity. But the octennial solemnity i