14. HP OC ANTINOOC-Head of Antinous-rev. AEAPON—

tripod.

15. OEA PATCTINA-Head of Faustina-rev. AEAPON—figure of Diana-a dog at her feet.

16. OEA ATCTEINA CEB-Head of Faustina-rev. ПтOIA-a table with five balls, a branch and a crow upon it.1

17. Head of Caracalla-rev. AEAOON-naked Apollo leaning on a column, holding a lyre with his left hand, and a patera with the right. All these coins are second brass.

In the British Museum are some small silver coins, found at Delphi, and which are attributed to that place.

1. A ram's head, and under it a dolphin-rev. AAA, in an indented square, and a head of a goat, with a dolphin suspending from each horn.2

2. Similar in every respect, except in one letter, AEA.3

3. Similar, but uninscribed.

4. Head, with the features of a negro, or rather a deformed countenance, perhaps representing Æsop; for the Delphians repented of his unjust punishment-rev. goat's head in an indented square.*

1 The crow was sacred to Apollo, and was an auspicious bird.

2 See Essai sur les Med. ant. des Iles de Cephalonie et d'Ithaque, by Colonel de Bosset,

3 In the collection of Colonel Leake.

+ See Colonel de Bosset's Essai.

Goats were sacrificed to Apollo, and perhaps were represented on the coins of Delphi from their having been the cause of discovering the prophetic cavern.

The goat's head is sometimes represented on the confederate Phocian coins, and the dolphin was sacred to Apollo. It may also be represented on the coins of this town, as allusive to the name of Delphi, as the rose was to Rhodes, the pomegranate to Melos, the harpe to Arpi, the phoca to Phoceæ, and the parsley to Selinus, &c.

In the Museum at Paris there is a sculptured marble representing the Delphic tripod, ornamented with the lyre, the laurel, the serpent, with griffins and with dolphins.1 We are informed by the scholiast of Euripides, that the dragon or serpent killed by Apollo at Delphi, was called Ax. Homer,3 in his Hymn to Apollo, relates that the god transformed himself into a dolphin, and jumped aboard a Cretan vessel, in order to guide it towards Delphi. The coins in question may allude to one or all of these circumstances.

No coins have been found belonging to any town of Phocis, except Delphi. The Phocian coins which have come down to us, were struck by the general confederacy of that country.

These Phocian coins have already been published, but they are given in this place to shew the difference between the Archaic style and that of the fine period of the art.

1 See Museo Pio Clem. vol. 7. It was found at Ostia.

3 Pheniss. v. 239. The serpent of Delphi was also called Δελφύνη, Δελφύνης, Δρακαινα, and Όφις.

3 V. 399. et seq.

CHAPTER VII.

From Kastri to Distomo-sepulchres near the Kastalian spring-sacred way-sepulchral monument. Village of Arakoba. Remains of an ancient city. The Triodos and tomb of Laios. Distomo, anciently Ambrysos. To Daulis-ruins of the city. Mount Parnassos. To Agios-Blasios, anciently Panopeus-ruins of the city. To Libadea. Description of an Archon's house. Locusts. Oracular cavern of Trophonios. To Kapourna, anciently Charoneia-ruins of the city.

TO DISTOMO, AMBRYSOS.

We quitted Delphi on the 5th of March, with five horses, three of which we hired from the Agha, and two from the Papas. One of the sons of the Papas attended us on foot, to take care of his father's horses, and to return with them after we had arrived at Libadea.

We passed near the Kastalian spring. Kadmos here found the heifer which, in obedience to the oracle, he followed through Phocis, to the land of the Phlegyai, where it reposed on that spot on which Kadmeia was accordingly founded, in conformity to the direction of Apollo.1

Shortly after we had passed the Kastalian spring, and the monastery of Kalogeroi, we came to some sepulchres, cut in the rock on the left hand side of the road; they are of the Spelaia or Kruptai kind, similar to those on the opposite side of Delphi already mentioned. The sarcophagi which are contained in some of them are still covered; and no doubt contain vases of great antiquity and interest. I shall ever repent the not having opened them, and I strongly recommend it to future travellers. One of the sepulchres has been very magnificent.

1 Ovid. Metam. b. 3. v. 1, &c. Statius Theb. b. 7.

The rock, which is close to the road, is flattened, and cut in the form of a folding door, similar to the sepulchres of many places in Asia Minor, particularly Telmessos, in Caria. Doors of a similar kind are frequently represented on the sarcophagi of Greece and Italy. There is a large perpendicular fissure in the rock, which was probably occasioned by an earthquake. The Kastriotes have a tradition that, at the birth of Christ, a priest of Apollo, who was sacrificing at this place, suddenly stopped the sacrificial ceremonies, and declared to the surrounding multitude that the son of a god was at that moment born, whose power would equal that of Apollo; but that the Delphian god would ultimately triumph over the new-born divinity. The words were scarcely finished, when the rock was rent in two by a clap of thunder, and the priest consumed to ashes by a flash of lightning. "The oracle concerning the birth of our Saviour Christ, which was delivered, in heroic verse, to Augustus, is mentioned by Eusebius, Zonaras, and others."

We proceeded on the sacred way; and, about a mile from Kastri, came to the ruins of a small square edifice, strongly built of large stones, the masonry nearly regular; a few paces from it are the remains of a large stone sarcophagus, with the cover lying on the ground. This must have been the sepulchre of some distinguished person; and it is surprising that it is unnoticed by Pausanias, as its appearance indicates much higher antiquity than the time of that author. The entrance into the building is by a door diminishing almost imperceptibly towards the top; the interior is a mass of ruins. We proceeded by rough and narrow ways, formed in the rocky side of Parnassos, which rises, in abrupt projections, and shattered masses on the left; to the right, the eye overlooks the deep hollow of the Pleistos, which is cultivated with corn and vines, reaching far

1 Potter's Antiq.

up the hills. In two hours we passed by a fountain, and arrived at the village of Arakŏba, inhabited by Greeks, and situated on the sloping side of Parnassos.

Here is a cavern, with a small church in the interior, and a mag

nificent evergreen

oak near its mouth.

This place does not contain the smallest traces of antiquity, and the few bits of marble which were observed by Spon, by no means furnish satisfactory evidence that it was once a city; much less that it was the site of Ambrysos, which is ten or twelve miles distant.

From Arakoba, the view extends over the flat summit of Kirphis to the Corinthian Gulph, and the mountains of Achaia, overtopped by those of Arcadia, which at this season are covered with snow.

A short way from Arakŏba, we passed by a fountain called Kokoŭra, and in an hour and a half arrived at the ruins of an ancient city, situated on a hill, with a stream at its base; the place is called Ziměno, or Palaia-Arakŏba. The walls of the Acropolis are in some places well preserved, and are of the fourth style of masonry ; but the ruins are so overgrown with shrubs and bushes, particularly the impenetrable lentiscus, that many things may be concealed which might lead to the discovery of its pristine name, and remove various difficulties and contradictions, which occur in ancient, as well as in modern authors who have written upon Phocis.

Strabo mentions no place between Delphi and Daulis; and it is rather an unfortunate combination, that whenever there is an omission, or an obscurity, in that author respecting any place, there is generally the same in Pausanias; and Spon, Wheler, and Chandler, have been too complaisant to differ from ancient authors, or even to rectify their mistakes, or supply their omissions! Pausanias,1 in his way from Daulis to Delphi, notices only the Phocicon, and

1 B. 10. c. 5.