g and strong is made
the priest of Apollo, _for the space of a year_. The title given
him is Laurel-Bearer (Daphnephoros), for these boys wear wreaths
made of laurel."

We know for certain now what these yearly priests are: they are the Kings
of the Year, the Spirits of the Year, May-Kings, Jacks-o'-the-Green.
The name given to the boy is enough to show he carried a laurel branch,
though Pausanias only mentions a wreath. Another ancient writer gives us
more details.[46] He says in describing the festival of the
Laurel-Bearing:

"They wreathe a pole of olive wood with laurel and various flowers.
On the top is fitted a bronze globe from which they suspend
smaller ones. Midway round the pole they place a lesser globe,
binding it with purple fillets, but the end of the pole is decked
with saffron. By the topmost globe they mean the sun, to which they
actually compare Apollo. The globe beneath this is the moon; the
smaller globes hung on are the stars and constellations, and the
fillets are the course of the year, for they make them 365 in
number. The Daphnephoria is headed by a boy, both whose parents are
alive, and his nearest male relation carries the filleted pole. The
Laurel-Bearer himself, who follows next, holds on to the laurel; he
has his hair hanging loose, he wears a golden wreath, and he is
dressed out in a splendid robe to his feet and he wears light
shoes. There follows him a band of maidens holding out boughs
before them, to enforce the supplication of the hymns."

This is the most elaborate maypole ceremony that we know of in ancient
times. The globes representing sun and moon show us that we have come to
a time when men know that the fruits of the earth in due season depended
on the heavenly bodies. The year with its 365 days is a Sun-Year. Once
this Sun-Year established and we find that the times of the solstices,
midwinter and midsummer became as, or even more, important than the
spring itself. The date of the _Daphnephoria_ is not known.

At Delphi itself, the centre of Apollo-worship, there was a festival
called the _Stepteria_, or festival "of those who make the wreathes," in
which "mystery" a Christian Bishop, St. Cyprian, tells us he was
initiated. In far-off Tempe--that wonderful valley that is still the
greenest spot in stony, barren Greece, and where the laurel trees still
cluster--there was an altar, and