DELPHI. Drawn by C. Stanfield, A.R.A. from a Sketch by W. Page. Oh, thou! in Hellas deemed of heavenly birth, 66 Happier in this than mightiest bards have been, Sighs in the gale, keeps silence in the cave, And glides with glassy foot o'er yon melodious wave." Childe Harold, canto i. st. 1, 62. Of the magnificence of Delphi in the days of its glory and its power, it is difficult to present a picture even to the imagination. The origin of the Delphic oracle is almost lost in the obscurity of past ages; and the prophetic cavern has in vain been sought by every traveller to the stream of Castaly. It could not have been large, as the tripod stood over it and concealed it from view. "That spot was in the adytum of the temple, which was constructed of five stones, the work of Cyclopean architects." This description of the Delphic sanctuary, which was, no doubt, the most ancient part of the temple, would favour the supposition that it was originally of the class of rude gigantic lithic monuments, such as the cromlechs and circular sanctuaries of Celtic origin. When it became a temple of Apollo is beyond the traces of history; but it was celebrated, and its wealth had become proverbial, even in the time of Homer, in whose "Hymn to Apollo" its fabulous institution goes to prove the unknown period of its foundation. An ancient temple of Apollo, which had been destroyed by fire, was rebuilt by order of the Amphictyonic deputies, as early as 513 B. C., at an expense of three hundred talents, or nearly 67,000Z.; and the sculptor's art was lavished on its embellishment. Its enclosure contained treasuries, wherein the consecrated offerings of cities and of monarchs, the finest works of art, and the spoils of war, were pre DELPHI. served. Of the prodigious amount of these treasures, we may form some idea from the alleged fact, that the Phocians plundered the temple of gold and silver to the enormous amount of two millions sterling. The Persians under Xerxes, and afterwards the Gauls, were deterred by causes of alarm represented to have been supernatural. Sylla, wanting the aid of the holy treasury of Delphi, was not, however, to be terrified by the juggling tricks of its priests from his demands upon its resources. So great were the early deposits, or so constant the gifts and oblations to the temple, that it bore plundering eleven times before the reign of Nero, who is said to have taken five hundred bronze statues from the temple. Even in the time of Strabo, when the establishment was fast declining in wealth and credit, the offerings which still remained were numerous. Constantine was its fatal, if not its final enemy, when he removed the sacred tripod from Delphi to adorn the hippodrome of his new city on the shores of the Bosphorus. Gibbon says, "The space between the two metæ, or goals, were filled with obelisks; and we may still remark a very singular fragment of antiquity, the bodies of three serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple heads had once supported the golden tripod, which, after the defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by the victorious Greeks." From this tripod, in its day of power, S the priests of Apollo, as they were bribed or flattered, influenced the destinies of surrounding nations; and a single word dictated by them, and uttered by a senseless girl, excited bloody wars, and spread desolation through whole kingdoms: just as, in a later period, the impudent assumptions of the church of Rome dictated to, and involved in war, the powers of Europe. Now, so entirely has passed away all evidence of the grandeur and power which once gave celebrity to Delphi, that scarcely a vestige remains of the folly and superstition with which man had consecrated this spot; but the mountain and the stream are still there, to aid the indistinct traces of the locality of those objects of devotion which existed through so many ages. "The little village of Castri stands partly on the site of Delphi. Along the path of the mountain, from Chrysso, are the remains of sepulchres hewn in and from the rock. One,' said the guide, ' of a king who broke his neck hunting.' His majesty had certainly chosen the fittest spot for such an achievement. A little above Castri is a cave, supposed the Pythian, of immense depth; the upper part of it is paved, and now a cow-house. On the other side of Castri stands a Greek monastery, some way above which is the cleft in the rock, with a range of caverns difficult of ascent, and apparently leading to the interior of the mountain; probably to the Corycian Cavern mentioned by Pausa DELPHI. nias. From this part descend the fountain and the dews of Castalie.' We were sprinkled,' says Mr. Hobhouse, with the spray of the immortal rill, and here, if any where, should have felt the poetic inspiration we drank deep, too, of the spring; but—(I can answer for myself)—without feeling sensible of any extraordinary effect."—Note to Childe Harold, canto ii. A few yards to the east of the village (Castri) is the celebrated fount of inspiration—the Castalian spring. The water, as it issues from the rock, is received into a large, square shallow basin, with steps to it cut in the marble rock, supposed to be the Castalian bath, where the Pythia used to bathe before she placed herself upon the tripod in the temple of Apollo. Upon the opposite side is a stone seat, also hewn out of the rock. The face and sides of the precipice have been cut and flattened, and niches have been scooped, intended, Dr. Clarke thinks, to receive the votive offerings. Above the fountain is a kind of little chapel dedicated to St. John, who is here the successor to the Grecian Apollo. The fountain is ornamented with pendant ivy, moss, brambles, and flowering shrubs, and is overshadowed by a large fig-tree, the roots of which have penetrated the fissures of the rock, while its wide-spreading branches throw a cool and refreshing gloom over this most interesting spot. "Above the Phædriades," Mr. Dodwell " is a plain with a small lake, the waters of which says, |