DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14696#0282
Pythagoras as Apollon reborn 221
doubt the accuracy of Philochoros' account. It may even be that
in the fifth-century type of Apollon seated on the tripod (fig. 142)1
we should regard the stepped base beneath his feet as a representa-
tion of Dionysos' tomb2.
Other legends of death and resurrection clung about the Delphic
tripod. Writers of the Roman age maintained that the bones and
the teeth of Python were kept in its caldron, and even tried to
derive the word cortina, 'caldron,' from corium, 'skin,' on the ground
that the tripod was covered or surrounded with Python's skin3.
Perhaps the pebbles, which for purposes of divination were really
kept in the bowl of the tripod4, had been explained as the relics of
Python, and the metallic sides of the lebes as plates from his coppery
skin. The local cicerone would be equal to both inventions.
(t) Pythagoras as Apollon reborn.
But the strangest of the stories attaching to the tripod remains
to be told. Porphyrios (233—c. 304 A.D.) in his Life of Pythagoras
writes :
' Later, when Polykrates became tyrant of Samos, Pythagoras thought it
unseemly for a philosopher to live under a tyranny, and resolved to sail for Italy.
In the course of his voyage he put in at Delphoi and inscribed on the tomb of
Apollon an elegiac couplet, stating therein that Apollon was the son of Silenos,
that he had been slain by Python, and that he had been buried in the so-called
tripod, which had got this name from the fact that three maidens, the daughters
of Triopas, had here made lamentation for Apollon5.'
line. If Dionysos had the priority, his tomb might have borne some such inscription as
<Z>5e Qa.vwv kcltm Lep.e\riy everts Aiovvaos. But?
1 Supra p. 202.
2 This conclusion hardly squares with F. Courby's tentative reconstruction of the
Pythian chapel [infra p. 239). But it is by no means certain that the block of limestone
{Fouilles de Delphes ii. 1. 67 fig. 59), believed by Courby to have supported the tomb of
Dionysos and an adjoining altar, really served that purpose, or even came from the chapel
at all.
3 Hyg- fab- I40' Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 92, 6. 347, interp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 360,
schol. Lucan. 5. 152, Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 1. 509, Myth. Vat. 3. 8. 5, cp. Eustath.
in Dionys. per. 441.
4 Eudok. viol. 265, Souid. s.v. Iluflw, Nonnos in Greg. Naz. in Iulian. imp. invert.
2. 13 p. 165 (printed in A. Westermann MT90rPA<i>0I Scriptores poeticae historiae
Graeci Brunsvigae 1843 p. 384 Append, narr. no. 67).
5 Porph. v. Pyth. 16 (quoted by Kyrill. Al. c. Julian. 10. 342 (lxxvi. 1025 f. Migne))
fxira 8e ravra ttjs UoXvKpdrovs TVpavvLoos 1.afiiovs Kara\aj3ovarjs, ov irpiirov rjyov/xevos 6
llvdayopas iv roLavry TroXireia {3lovv avdpi (ptXocrdcptp, dievorjdT) els 'lraXiav iwaiptiv. tos de
wXewv Ae\(pols Trpoo~e'o-xeTO> eXeyelov ti2 tov 'AttSWwvos rdcpip iireypatpe, 5i ov idrjXov ws
SiXtjvoO fxev t)v vios 6 'AiroWwv, avr/pedr] Se vtt6 Ylvdwvos, (KrjSevdTj 5i ev rip KcCkov/xevip
Tp'nroSi, 6s ravTrjs 'irvxe TV* e'iruvvp.ias dta to rpeis fc6pas ras TpLOTrov dvyartpas euravda
Qpi)vf\aa.l 'AttoWwvo.. F. Wieseler Ueber den delphischen Dreifuss (extr. from the Abh. d.
gott. Gesellsch. d. VViss. Phil.-hist. Classe xv) Gottingen 1871 p. 17 cj. rpiotri for Tp'nrodL
(cp. supra p. 178 n. 1). One could imagine—if a moment's play be allowed to fancy—
doubt the accuracy of Philochoros' account. It may even be that
in the fifth-century type of Apollon seated on the tripod (fig. 142)1
we should regard the stepped base beneath his feet as a representa-
tion of Dionysos' tomb2.
Other legends of death and resurrection clung about the Delphic
tripod. Writers of the Roman age maintained that the bones and
the teeth of Python were kept in its caldron, and even tried to
derive the word cortina, 'caldron,' from corium, 'skin,' on the ground
that the tripod was covered or surrounded with Python's skin3.
Perhaps the pebbles, which for purposes of divination were really
kept in the bowl of the tripod4, had been explained as the relics of
Python, and the metallic sides of the lebes as plates from his coppery
skin. The local cicerone would be equal to both inventions.
(t) Pythagoras as Apollon reborn.
But the strangest of the stories attaching to the tripod remains
to be told. Porphyrios (233—c. 304 A.D.) in his Life of Pythagoras
writes :
' Later, when Polykrates became tyrant of Samos, Pythagoras thought it
unseemly for a philosopher to live under a tyranny, and resolved to sail for Italy.
In the course of his voyage he put in at Delphoi and inscribed on the tomb of
Apollon an elegiac couplet, stating therein that Apollon was the son of Silenos,
that he had been slain by Python, and that he had been buried in the so-called
tripod, which had got this name from the fact that three maidens, the daughters
of Triopas, had here made lamentation for Apollon5.'
line. If Dionysos had the priority, his tomb might have borne some such inscription as
<Z>5e Qa.vwv kcltm Lep.e\riy everts Aiovvaos. But?
1 Supra p. 202.
2 This conclusion hardly squares with F. Courby's tentative reconstruction of the
Pythian chapel [infra p. 239). But it is by no means certain that the block of limestone
{Fouilles de Delphes ii. 1. 67 fig. 59), believed by Courby to have supported the tomb of
Dionysos and an adjoining altar, really served that purpose, or even came from the chapel
at all.
3 Hyg- fab- I40' Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 92, 6. 347, interp. Serv. in Verg. Aen. 3. 360,
schol. Lucan. 5. 152, Lact. Plac. in Stat. Theb. 1. 509, Myth. Vat. 3. 8. 5, cp. Eustath.
in Dionys. per. 441.
4 Eudok. viol. 265, Souid. s.v. Iluflw, Nonnos in Greg. Naz. in Iulian. imp. invert.
2. 13 p. 165 (printed in A. Westermann MT90rPA<i>0I Scriptores poeticae historiae
Graeci Brunsvigae 1843 p. 384 Append, narr. no. 67).
5 Porph. v. Pyth. 16 (quoted by Kyrill. Al. c. Julian. 10. 342 (lxxvi. 1025 f. Migne))
fxira 8e ravra ttjs UoXvKpdrovs TVpavvLoos 1.afiiovs Kara\aj3ovarjs, ov irpiirov rjyov/xevos 6
llvdayopas iv roLavry TroXireia {3lovv avdpi (ptXocrdcptp, dievorjdT) els 'lraXiav iwaiptiv. tos de
wXewv Ae\(pols Trpoo~e'o-xeTO> eXeyelov ti2 tov 'AttSWwvos rdcpip iireypatpe, 5i ov idrjXov ws
SiXtjvoO fxev t)v vios 6 'AiroWwv, avr/pedr] Se vtt6 Ylvdwvos, (KrjSevdTj 5i ev rip KcCkov/xevip
Tp'nroSi, 6s ravTrjs 'irvxe TV* e'iruvvp.ias dta to rpeis fc6pas ras TpLOTrov dvyartpas euravda
Qpi)vf\aa.l 'AttoWwvo.. F. Wieseler Ueber den delphischen Dreifuss (extr. from the Abh. d.
gott. Gesellsch. d. VViss. Phil.-hist. Classe xv) Gottingen 1871 p. 17 cj. rpiotri for Tp'nrodL
(cp. supra p. 178 n. 1). One could imagine—if a moment's play be allowed to fancy—