Pausanias, Phocis

CHAPTER XXIV.

In the vestibule of the temple at Delphi are written up several wise sayings for the conduct of life by those whom the Greeks call The Seven Wise Men, These were Thales of Miletus and Bias of Priene (both from Ionia), and (of the Aeolians in Lesbos) Pittacus of Mitylene, and (of the Dorians in Asia Minor) Cleobulus of Lindus, and Solon of Athens, and Chilo of Sparta, and the seventh Plato (the son of Aristo) makes 1 Myson of Chenae, a village on Mount (Oeta, instead of Periander the son of Cypselus. These Seven Wise Men came to Delphi, and offered to Apollo those famous sayings. Know thyself, and Not too much of anything. And they inscribed those sayings in the vestibule of the temple.

You may also see a brazen statue of Homer on a pillar, and read the oracle which they say was given to him, which runs as follows :

" Fortunate and unfortunate, for you are born to both destinies, you inquire after your fatherland. But you have no fatherland, only a motherland. Your mother's country is the island los, which shall receive your remains. But be on your guard against the riddle of young boys." 2

The inhabitants of los still shew the tomb of Homer, and in another part of the island the tomb of Clymene, who they say was Homer's mother. But the people of Cyprus, for they too claim Homer as their own, and say that Themisto (one of the women of their country) was his mother, cite the following prophetical verses of Euclus touching Homer's birth ;

" In sea-girt Cyprus shall a great poet one day be born, whom divine Themisto shall give birth to in the country, a poet whose fame shall spread far from wealthy Salamis. And he leaving Cyprus and sailing over the sea shall first sing the woes of spacious Hellas, and shall all his days be immortal and ever fresh."

These oracles I have heard and read, but I have no thing private to write either about the country or age of Homer.

And in the temple is an altar of Poseidon, for the most ancient oracle belonged to Poseidon, and there are also statues of two Fates, for in the place of the third Fate is Zeus the Arbiter of the Fates, and Apollo the Arbiter of the Fates, You may also see here the altar at which the priest of Apollo slew Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, as I have stated elsewhere. And not far from this altar is the iron Chair of Pindar, on which they say he used to sit and sing Hymns to Apollo, whenever he came to Delphi. In the interior of the temple, to which only a few have access, is another statue of Apollo all gold.

As one leaves the temple and turns to the left, there are precincts in which is the grave of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, to whom the people of Delphi ofer funeral rites annually. And not far from this tomb is a small stone on which they pour oil daily, and on which at every festival they lay raw wool : and they have a tradition about this stone, that it was the one which was given to Cronos instead of a son, and that he afterwards voided it.

And if, after looking at this stone, you return to the temple, you will come to the fountain Cassotis, which is walled in, and there is an ascent to it through the wall. The water of this fountain goes they say underground, and inspires the women in the sanctuary of the god with prophetical powers : they say the fountain got its name from one of the Nymphs of Parnassus.

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