DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0471
CRETAN RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION AT DELPHI 841
Not of their own willing,1 but moved by a divine impulse, the Cretan Cretan
band set sail from ' Minoan Knossos '—which in the Hymn receives from founda-
Apollo the title of ' many tree'd ',2 pointing to the recovery here of the old jL°" *'
forest growth. Guided by Apollo in the form of a dolphin, the ship is borne scribed by
past the Taenaron promontory—where the crew had wished to land—to Hymn"
Crisa—the ' Cretan town ' 3 in the ' holy haven' of Delphi. It would appear
indeed that one of the Kuretes was credited with the actual discovery of the
Mantic Chasm.4
' Apollo of the Dolphin', playing on his cithara the while, leads the band
—stamping the ground with their feet in the manner of the nrjSiKTbs x°P°*
still danced by Cretan youths—and singing their native paeans in honour of
his victory over the dragon Pytho 5—itself, we may believe, the reflection of
that which Ra had gained over the serpent Apef.6
All this, and the setting up of an altar to Apollo Delphinios on the
Delphian shore by his Cretan worshippers, does not of course affect the
question of his original divine personality, whether it is to be regarded
as European or Anatolian. But it may certainly be taken to indicate that
his was not the earliest cult at Delphi and that certain aspects of it were taken
over from a Minoan religious foundation that had preceded it on the spot—
derived—as so much converging evidence tends to show—from Minoan Knos-
sos. It is quite possible, of course, that this very early connexion may have
been renewed by some religious implantation from Crete of a later date, due
to the abiding connexion attested at Knossos by the cult of Apollo Delphinios.
Towards adjusting the strongly developed male side of the indigenous Youthful
Greek divinity with the Minoan religion, in which the Goddess occupied such consor^of
a dominant position, certain aspects of the Cretan worship were no doubt of Minoan
,.,, ... _ . , r Goddess.
sreat assistance. 1 he Minoan Goddess, as we have seen, was often asso-
1 Ovk ZBiXovTO.'S. Olot T£ KptJTW iruu/ores, oltTL T€ Moi-tra
2 Apollo thus addresses the Cretans on eV a-ryOto-a-iv e#>;k£ 6ea /iMyrjftvv aoiSyv.
their arrival {Hymn to Apollo, 1. 475) : ln the L. M. Ill terra-cotta group from Palai-
fcutu, toi Kvwo-ov vo\v&iv8p€ov d/i<£«'c/xeo-0£. kastro we see a female lyre player—at first
3 KpXa-a understood by the Greeks to be taken for the Snake Goddess—and a ring dance
equivalent to Kpyra-a. Cf. L. Preller, Ausge- ;n which women only take part {B.S.A., Suppl.i,
wahlte Aufsiilze (ed. Koehler), Delphica, p. 88, Fig. 71, &c).
p. 227. « The influence of Egyptian religion on that
4 The shepherd Ko/n/ras, Plutarch, De defec- 0f prehistoric Crete, of which so many indica-
tu orac. 42 and 46 ; cf. PreUer, op. at., p. 229. tjons ilave been given in this book, makes it by
5 Hymn to Apollo, 1. 516 seqq. : no means improbable that the story of Horus
Oi 8t prjo-o-ovTis iirovro and the serpent Apophis may have been already
Kp>jT« 7rpos Uv6i> Kal Irj-rrourjov' cLuSov, commemorated in Minoan hymns.
Not of their own willing,1 but moved by a divine impulse, the Cretan Cretan
band set sail from ' Minoan Knossos '—which in the Hymn receives from founda-
Apollo the title of ' many tree'd ',2 pointing to the recovery here of the old jL°" *'
forest growth. Guided by Apollo in the form of a dolphin, the ship is borne scribed by
past the Taenaron promontory—where the crew had wished to land—to Hymn"
Crisa—the ' Cretan town ' 3 in the ' holy haven' of Delphi. It would appear
indeed that one of the Kuretes was credited with the actual discovery of the
Mantic Chasm.4
' Apollo of the Dolphin', playing on his cithara the while, leads the band
—stamping the ground with their feet in the manner of the nrjSiKTbs x°P°*
still danced by Cretan youths—and singing their native paeans in honour of
his victory over the dragon Pytho 5—itself, we may believe, the reflection of
that which Ra had gained over the serpent Apef.6
All this, and the setting up of an altar to Apollo Delphinios on the
Delphian shore by his Cretan worshippers, does not of course affect the
question of his original divine personality, whether it is to be regarded
as European or Anatolian. But it may certainly be taken to indicate that
his was not the earliest cult at Delphi and that certain aspects of it were taken
over from a Minoan religious foundation that had preceded it on the spot—
derived—as so much converging evidence tends to show—from Minoan Knos-
sos. It is quite possible, of course, that this very early connexion may have
been renewed by some religious implantation from Crete of a later date, due
to the abiding connexion attested at Knossos by the cult of Apollo Delphinios.
Towards adjusting the strongly developed male side of the indigenous Youthful
Greek divinity with the Minoan religion, in which the Goddess occupied such consor^of
a dominant position, certain aspects of the Cretan worship were no doubt of Minoan
,.,, ... _ . , r Goddess.
sreat assistance. 1 he Minoan Goddess, as we have seen, was often asso-
1 Ovk ZBiXovTO.'S. Olot T£ KptJTW iruu/ores, oltTL T€ Moi-tra
2 Apollo thus addresses the Cretans on eV a-ryOto-a-iv e#>;k£ 6ea /iMyrjftvv aoiSyv.
their arrival {Hymn to Apollo, 1. 475) : ln the L. M. Ill terra-cotta group from Palai-
fcutu, toi Kvwo-ov vo\v&iv8p€ov d/i<£«'c/xeo-0£. kastro we see a female lyre player—at first
3 KpXa-a understood by the Greeks to be taken for the Snake Goddess—and a ring dance
equivalent to Kpyra-a. Cf. L. Preller, Ausge- ;n which women only take part {B.S.A., Suppl.i,
wahlte Aufsiilze (ed. Koehler), Delphica, p. 88, Fig. 71, &c).
p. 227. « The influence of Egyptian religion on that
4 The shepherd Ko/n/ras, Plutarch, De defec- 0f prehistoric Crete, of which so many indica-
tu orac. 42 and 46 ; cf. PreUer, op. at., p. 229. tjons ilave been given in this book, makes it by
5 Hymn to Apollo, 1. 516 seqq. : no means improbable that the story of Horus
Oi 8t prjo-o-ovTis iirovro and the serpent Apophis may have been already
Kp>jT« 7rpos Uv6i> Kal Irj-rrourjov' cLuSov, commemorated in Minoan hymns.