Such was the course of the war. In the fore temple at Delphi are written maxims useful for the life of men, inscribed by those whom the Greeks say were sages. These were: from Ionia, Thales of Miletus and Bias of Priene; of the Aeolians in Lesbos, Pittacus of Mitylene; of the Dorians in Asia, Kleoboulos of Lindus; Solon of Athens and Khilon of Sparta; the seventh sage, according to the list of Plato,1 the son of Ariston, is not Periandros, the son of Kypselos, but Myson of Chenae, a village on Mount Oitē. These sages, then, came to Delphi and dedicated to Apollo the celebrated maxims, “Know thyself,” and “Nothing in excess.”
Footnotes
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Plato Protagoras 343a.
So these men wrote what I have said, and you can see a bronze statue of Homer on a slab, and read the oracle that they say Homer received:
Blessed and unhappy, for to be both were you born.
You seek your fatherland; but no fatherland have you, only a motherland.
The island of Ios is the fatherland of your mother, which will receive you
When you have died; but be on your guard against the riddle of the young children.
The inhabitants of Ios point to Homer’s tomb in the island, and in another part to that of Clymene, who was, they say, the mother of Homer.
But the Cyprians, who also claim Homer as their own, say that Themisto, one of their native women, was the mother of Homer, and that Euklos foretold the birth of Homer in the following verses:
And then in sea girt Cyprus there will be a mighty singer,
Whom Themisto, lady fair, shall bear in the fields, A man of renown, far from rich Salamis.
Leaving Cyprus, tossed and wetted by the waves,
The first and only poet to sing of the woes of spacious Greece,
For ever shall he be deathless and ageless.
These things I have heard, and I have read the oracles, but express no private opinion about either the age or date of Homer.
In the temple has been built an altar of Poseidon, because Poseidon too possessed in part the most ancient oracle. There are also images of two Fates; but in place of the third Fate, there stand by their side Zeus, Guide of Fate, and Apollo, Guide of Fate. Here [inside the temple] you may behold the hearth [hestiā] on which the priest of Apollo killed Neoptolemos, the son of Achilles. The things concerning the end of Neoptolemos I have told elsewhere.1
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Pausanias 4.17.4.
Not far from the hearth [hestiā] has been dedicated a chair [thronos] of Pindar. The chair is of iron, and on it they say Pindar sat whenever he came to Delphi, and there composed his songs to Apollo. Into the innermost part of the temple [nāos] only a few may pass, and there is dedicated in it another statue [agalma] of Apollo, made of gold.
TOMB OF NEOPTOLEMUS AT DELPHI
Leaving the temple [nāos] and turning to the left, you will come to an enclosure [peribolos] in which is the tomb [taphos] of Neoptolemos son of Achilles. Every year, the Delphians sacrifice [enagizein] to him as to a hero. Coming further up from the tomb [mnēma], you reach a stone [lithos] of no large size. Over it every day they pour olive oil, and at each festival [heortē] they place on it unworked wool. There is also an opinion about this stone, that it was given to Kronos instead of his child and that Kronos vomited it up again.
SPRING OF KASSOTIS AT DELPHI
Returning to the temple [nāos] after seeing the stone [lithos], you come to the spring [pēgē] called Kassotis. Next to it is a wall of no great size, and the ascent to the spring [pēgē] is through the wall. It is said that the water of this Kassotis sinks under the ground and, inside the inner sanctum [aduton] of the god, it causes the women there to become inspired [mantikai]. She [= Kassotis] who gave her name to the spring [krēnē] is said to have one of the nymphs [numphai] of Parnassus.
PAINTINGS BY POLYGNOTUS AT DELPHI