DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0327
PHOCIS
301
"ausanias devotes not a little space to a descrip-
tion of the invasion by the Gauls, 279 B. C, and their
repulse by the Greeks. It is a curious coincidence
that more than twenty-one centuries later the Gauls
should invade Delphi again with the deliberate pur-
pose of removing the whole town and uncovering
with reverent hands the temples which their remote
and barbaric forefathers sought to destroy. With a
large force of men with picks and shovels, and small
cars running on rails to carry the debris to a long
distance, these enterprising Gauls were industriously
unearthing the Delphi of the past, and had already
laid bare the terrace of the temple of Apollo. One
°f their most remarkable and significant discoveries
Was yet to be made. Pausanias speaks of the hymns
sung in honor of Apollo and of the contests that grew
°ut of them. Such songs, like the voice of the priest-
ess, have long since died away on the air, and who
could have supposed that the echoes of this music
would come back to our ears? I scarce imagined
that beneath the ground I trod were stones whose
mute music after twenty centuries of silence would
hurst into song. A few months after my visit the
French School discovered two stones containing a
hymn to Apollo, with the Greek musical notation at-
tached. It is a hymn of praise to the god, to the
slayer of the hostile dragon, for beating back the
Gauls. That the name of the Gauls should have been
inscribed on this very stone which their modern succes-
sors unearthed completes the remarkable coincidence,
to the triumph of uncovering the stones was added
the triumph of the directors and associates of the
French School in deciphering them. It was fitting
301
"ausanias devotes not a little space to a descrip-
tion of the invasion by the Gauls, 279 B. C, and their
repulse by the Greeks. It is a curious coincidence
that more than twenty-one centuries later the Gauls
should invade Delphi again with the deliberate pur-
pose of removing the whole town and uncovering
with reverent hands the temples which their remote
and barbaric forefathers sought to destroy. With a
large force of men with picks and shovels, and small
cars running on rails to carry the debris to a long
distance, these enterprising Gauls were industriously
unearthing the Delphi of the past, and had already
laid bare the terrace of the temple of Apollo. One
°f their most remarkable and significant discoveries
Was yet to be made. Pausanias speaks of the hymns
sung in honor of Apollo and of the contests that grew
°ut of them. Such songs, like the voice of the priest-
ess, have long since died away on the air, and who
could have supposed that the echoes of this music
would come back to our ears? I scarce imagined
that beneath the ground I trod were stones whose
mute music after twenty centuries of silence would
hurst into song. A few months after my visit the
French School discovered two stones containing a
hymn to Apollo, with the Greek musical notation at-
tached. It is a hymn of praise to the god, to the
slayer of the hostile dragon, for beating back the
Gauls. That the name of the Gauls should have been
inscribed on this very stone which their modern succes-
sors unearthed completes the remarkable coincidence,
to the triumph of uncovering the stones was added
the triumph of the directors and associates of the
French School in deciphering them. It was fitting