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Pausanias · Description of Greece §10.5.7-10.5.13

Origin of the Delphic Oracle and the Successive Temples

Passage 418 of 465 · Greek

Summary

Pausanias introduces the legends concerning the origin of the Delphic oracle (the roles of Phemone and Olen) and describes the historical succession and ultimate fates of its various temples (made of laurel, beeswax, bronze, and stone) up to the construction of the current one.

§10.5.7ἤκουσα δὲ καὶ ὡς ἄνδρες ποιμαίνοντες ἐπιτύχοιεν τῷ μαντείῳ, καὶ ἔνθεοί τε ἐγένοντο ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀτμοῦ καὶ ἐμαντεύσαντο ἐξ Ἀπόλλωνος.
I have heard also that shepherds happened upon the oracle, and became inspired by the vapor and prophesied from Apollo.
μεγίστη δὲ καὶ παρὰ πλείστων ἐς Φημονόην δόξα ἐστίν, ὡς πρόμαντις γένοιτο ἡ Φημονόη τοῦ θεοῦ πρώτη καὶ πρώτη τὸ ἑξάμετρον ᾖσεν.
The greatest reputation, and from the most people, is for Phemone, that Phemone became the first prophetess of the god, and first sang the hexameter.
Βοιὼ δὲ ἐπιχωρία γυνὴ ποιήσασα ὕμνον Δελφοῖς ἔφη κατασκευάσασθαι τὸ μαντεῖον τῷ θεῷ τοὺς ἀφικομένους ἐξ Ὑπερβορέων τούς τε ἄλλους καὶ Ὠλῆνα· τοῦτον δὲ καὶ μαντεύσασθαι πρῶτον καὶ ᾄσαι πρῶτον τὸ ἑξάμετρον.
But Boio, a local woman who composed a hymn for Delphi, said that the oracle was established for the god by those who arrived from the Hyperboreans, both others and especially Olen; and that he was the first to prophesy and the first to sing the hexameter.
§10.5.8πεποίηκε δὲ ἡ Βοιὼ τοιάδε· " ἔνθα τοι εὔμνηστον χρηστήριον ἐκτελέσαντο παῖδες Ὑπερβορέων Παγασὸς καὶ δῖος Ἀγυιεύς.
Boio has composed the following: "There indeed a memorable oracle was completed for you by the sons of the Hyperboreans, Pagasus and divine Agyieus.
" ἐπαριθμοῦσα δὲ καὶ ἄλλους τῶν Ὑπερβορέων, ἐπὶ τελευτῇ τοῦ ὕμνου τὸν Ὠλῆνα ὠνόμασεν· " Ὠλήν θʼ, ὃς γένετο πρῶτος Φοίβοιο προφάτας, πρῶτος δʼ ἀρχαίων ἐπέων τεκτάνατʼ ἀοιδάν.
"And enumerating also others of the Hyperboreans, at the end of the hymn she named Olen: "And Olen, who became the first prophet of Phoebus, and first crafted the song of ancient verses.
" οὐ μέντοι τά γε ἥκοντα ἐς μνήμην ἐς ἄλλον τινά, ἐς δὲ γυναικῶν μαντείαν ἀνήκει μόνων.
"However, what has come down to memory does not belong to any other, but only to the oracle-giving of women.
§10.5.9ποιηθῆναι δὲ τὸν ναὸν τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι τὸ ἀρχαιότατον δάφνης φασί, κομισθῆναι δὲ τοὺς κλάδους ἀπὸ τῆς δάφνης τῆς ἐν τοῖς Τέμπεσι· καλύβης δʼ ἂν σχῆμα οὗτός γε ἂν εἴη παρεσχηματισμένος ὁ ναός.
They say that the temple was built for Apollo in the most ancient times of laurel, and that the branches were brought from the laurel in Tempe; and this temple would have been fashioned in the shape of a hut.
δεύτερα δὲ λέγουσιν οἱ Δελφοὶ γενέσθαι ὑπὸ μελισσῶν τὸν ναὸν ἀπό τε τοῦ κηροῦ τῶν μελισσῶν καὶ ἐκ πτερῶν· πεμφθῆναι δὲ ἐς Ὑπερβορέους φασὶν αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος.
The Delphians say that the second temple was made by bees from the wax of bees and from wings; and they say it was sent to the Hyperboreans by Apollo.
§10.5.10λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἕτερος λόγος, ὡς τὸν ναὸν κατεσκευάσατο ἀνὴρ Δελφός, ὄνομα δὲ αὐτῷ Πτερᾶν εἶναι· κατὰ τοῦτο οὖν γενέσθαι καὶ τῷ ναῷ τοὔνομα ἀπὸ τοῦ οἰκοδομήσαντος· ἀπὸ τούτου δὲ τοῦ Πτερᾶ καὶ πόλιν Κρητικὴν προσθήκῃ γράμματος Ἀπτερεούς φασιν ὀνομάζεσθαι.
Another story is also told, that a Delphian man, whose name was Pteras, built the temple; and that according to this, the temple also got its name from its builder; and they say that from this Pteras a Cretan city is also named, with the addition of a letter, Aptereis.
τὸν γὰρ δὴ λόγον τὸν ἔχοντα ἐς τὴν ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν αὐξομένην πτέριν, ὡς ἐκ τῆς πόας ταύτης χλωρᾶς ἔτι διεπλέξαντο ναόν, οὐδὲ ἀρχὴν προσίεμαι τὸν λόγον τοῦτον.
For as for the story concerning the fern that grows in the mountains, how they wove a temple from this herb while it was still green, I do not accept this story at all from the beginning.
§10.5.11τὰ δὲ ἐς τὸν τρίτον τῶν ναῶν, ὅτι ἐγένετο ἐκ χαλκοῦ, θαῦμα οὐδέν, εἴ γε Ἀκρίσιος μὲν θάλαμον χαλκοῦν τῇ θυγατρὶ ἐποιήσατο, Λακεδαιμονίοις δὲ Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερὸν Χαλκιοίκου καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς ἔτι λείπεται, Ῥωμαίοις δὲ ἡ ἀγορὰ μεγέθους ἕνεκα καὶ κατασκευῆς τῆς ἄλλης θαῦμα οὖσα παρέχεται τὸν ὄροφον χαλκοῦν· οὕτω καὶ ναὸν τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι οὐκ ἂν ἄπο γε τοῦ εἰκότος εἴη γενέσθαι χαλκοῦν.
As for the third of the temples, that it was made of bronze is no wonder, seeing that Acrisius made a bronze chamber for his daughter, and for the Lacedaemonians the temple of Athena of the Bronze House remains even to our day, and for the Romans the forum, being a wonder because of its size and its other construction, has its roof of bronze; so for Apollo also, it would not be at all improbable that a bronze temple should have existed.
§10.5.12τὰ μέντοι ἄλλα με οὐκ ἔπειθεν ὁ λόγος ἢ Ἡφαίστου τὸν ναὸν τέχνην εἶναι ἢ τὰ ἐς τὰς ᾠδοὺς τὰς χρυσᾶς, ἃ δὴ Πίνδαρος ᾖσεν ἐπʼ ἐκείνῳ τῷ ναῷ· " χρύσειαι δʼ ἐξύπερθʼ αἰετοῦ ἄειδον Κηληδόνες.
However, the other things did not convince me, either that the temple was the work of Hephaestus, or the things about the golden singers, which indeed Pindar sang of concerning that temple: "And from above the pediment, golden Keledones were singing.
" οὗτος μὲν δὴ ταῦτα ἐς μίμησιν ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν τῶν παρʼ Ὁμήρῳ Σειρήνων ἐποίησεν· οὐ μὴν οὐδὲ τρόπον ὅντινα ἀφανισθῆναι συνέπεσε τῷ ναῷ, κατὰ ταὐτὰ εἰρημένα εὕρισκον· καὶ γὰρ ἐς χάσμα γῆς ἐμπεσεῖν αὐτὸν καὶ ὑπὸ πυρὸς τακῆναι λέγουσιν.
"This man indeed seems to me to have made these things in imitation of the Sirens in Homer; nor indeed did I find the manner in which it happened that the temple disappeared described in the same way, for they say that it both fell into a chasm of the earth and was melted by fire.
§10.5.13τέταρτος δὲ ὑπὸ Τροφωνίου μὲν εἰργάσθη καὶ Ἀγαμήδους, λίθου δὲ αὐτὸν ποιηθῆναι μνημονεύουσι· κατεκαύθη δὲ Ἐρξικλείδου μὲν Ἀθήνῃσιν ἄρχοντος, πρώτῳ δὲ τῆς ὀγδόης Ὀλυμπιάδος ἔτει καὶ πεντηκοστῆς, ἣν Κροτωνιάτης ἐνίκα Διόγνητος.
The fourth was built by Trophonius and Agamedes, and they record that it was made of stone; and it was burnt down when Erxicleides was archon at Athens, in the first year of the fifty-eighth Olympiad, which Diognetus of Croton won.
τὸν δʼ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν τῷ θεῷ ναὸν ᾠκοδόμησαν μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερῶν οἱ Ἀμφικτύονες χρημάτων, ἀρχιτέκτων δέ τις Σπίνθαρος ἐγένετο αὐτοῦ Κορίνθιος.
The temple to the god in our time was built by the Amphictyons from the sacred funds, and a certain Spintharus of Corinth was its architect.

Notes

  1. 10.5.7ὡς ... ἐπιτύχοιεν ... ἐγένοντο — In the ὡς clause governed by the past main verb (ἤκουσα), the first verb ἐπιτύχοιεν is in the oblique optative (optativus obliquus), whereas the subsequent verbs ἐγένοντο and ἐμαντεύσαντο remain in the past indicative. This demonstrates a transition between reported hearsay and the assertion of factual events, typical of the stylistic flexibility in Pausanias.
  2. 10.5.9ἂν ... ἂν εἴη — The modal particle ἂν is used twice (ἂν ... ἂν) in the same clause with the potential optative εἴη. This double use of ἂν serves to emphasize the potential force and to make it clear from an early stage in a relatively long sentence.
  3. 10.5.10τὸν γὰρ δὴ λόγον ... οὐδὲ ἀρχὴν προσίεμαι τὸν λόγον τοῦτον — The accusative phrase at the beginning, τὸν γὰρ δὴ λόγον τὸν ἔχοντα ... (for as for the story concerning...), is repeated at the end of the sentence as another accusative phrase, τὸν λόγον τοῦτον (this story), after a long intervening subordinate clause (ὡς ...). This is an example of anacoluthon and hyperbaton, where the object is duplicated for the sake of topic introduction and emphasis before the main verb οὐδὲ ἀρχὴν προσίεμαι.

Cite this passage

Pausanias, Description of Greece §10.5.7-10.5.13. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:10.5.7-10.5.13

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