Note 439 — Chapter III · MEMBERS OF THE HELLENIC AGGREGATE, SEPARATELY TAKEN.—GREEKS NORTH OF PELOPONNESUS.

Skylax, Peripl. c. 65. Hesychius (v. Παγασίτης Ἀπόλλων) seems to reckon Pagasæ as Achæan.

About the towns in Thessaly, and their various positions, see Mannert, Geograph. der Gr. und Römer, part vii. book iii. ch. 8 and 9.

There was an ancient religious ceremony, celebrated by the Delphians every ninth year (Ennaëtêris): a procession was sent from Delphi to the pass of Tempê, consisting of well-born youths under an archi-theôr, who represented the proceeding ascribed by an old legend to Apollo; that god was believed to have gone thither to receive expiation after the slaughter of the serpent Pytho: at least, this was one among several discrepant legends. The chief youth plucked and brought back a branch from the sacred laurel at Tempê, as a token that he had fulfilled his mission: he returned by “the sacred road,” and broke his fast at a place called Δειπνιὰς, near Larissa. A solemn festival, frequented by a large concourse of people from the surrounding regions, was celebrated on this occasion at Tempê, in honor of Apollo Tempeitês (Ἀπλοῦνι Τεμπείτᾳ, in the Æolic dialect of Thessaly: see Inscript. in Boeckh, Corp. Ins. No. 1767). The procession was accompanied by a flute-player.

See Plutarch, Quæst. Græc. ch. xi. p. 292; De Musicâ, ch. xiv. p. 1136, Ælian, V. II. iii. 1: Stephan. Byz. v. Δειπνιάς.

It is important to notice these religious processions as establishing intercourse and sympathies between the distant members of Hellas: but the inferences which O. Müller (Dorians, b. ii. 1, p. 222) would build upon them, as to the original seat of the Dorians and the worship of Apollo, are not to be trusted.