Greek Texts & Translations

to the injunction of an oracle. Neoptolemus was killed by Machaereus, a Delphian, when, as the fable goes, he was seeking redress from the god for the murder of his father, but, probably, he was preparing to pillage the temple. Branchus, who presided over the temple at Didyma, is said to have been a descendant of Machaereus. 10

There was anciently a contest held at Delphi, of players on the cithara, who executed a paean in honour of the god. It was instituted by Delphians. But after the Crisaean war the Amphictyons, in the time of Eurylochus, established contests for horses, and gymnastic sports, in which the victor was crowned. These were called Pythian games. The players ^note on the cithara were accompanied by players on the flute, and by citharists, ^note who performed without singing. They performed a strain (Melos), ^note called the Pythian mood (Nomos). ^note It consisted of five parts; the anacrusis, the ampeira, cataceleusmus, iambics and dactyls, and pipes. ^note Timosthenes, the commander of the fleet of the Second Ptolemy, and who was the author of a work in ten books on Harbours, composed a melos. His object was to celebrate in this melos the contest of Apollo with the serpent Python. The anacrusis was intended to express the prelude; the ampeira, the first onset of the contest; the cataceleusmus, the contest itself; the iambics and dactyls denoted the triumphal strain on obtaining the victory, together with musical measures, of which the dactyl is peculiarly appropriated to praise, and the use of the iambic to insult and reproach; the syringes or pipes described the death, the players imitating the hissings of the expiring monster. ^note 11

Ephorus, whom we generally follow, on account of his exactness in these matters, (as Polybius, a writer of repute, testifies,) seems to proceed contrary to his proposed plan, and to the promise which he made at the beginning of his work. For after having censured those writers who are fond of intermixing fable with history, and after having spoken in praise of truth, he introduces, with reference to this oracle, a grave declaration, that he considers truth preferable at all