Amongst other Delian rites the worship of Eilithyia was also at that time brought over to Athens, probably from the island of Crete, where an ancient cavern of the goddess, near Amnisus, has been already mentioned.(1048) One point at which the procession from Attica to Crete touched was the borough town and harbour of Prasiæ, on the eastern coast of Attica, where, besides the temple of Apollo, was the tomb of Erysichthon, the Delian and Athenian hero; and tradition represented the gifts of the Hyperboreans to have been transported from this port to that sacred island.(1049)
Lastly, the origin of the Delphinian expiatory festival from Delphi and Crete is as evident as its introduction by the Ionian princes; for Ægeus dwelt in the Delphinium, and was there buried. To him was also ascribed the establishment of the Delphinian tribunal. Theseus, previously to his expedition to Crete, here placed the olive-branch, bound with wool, on the sixth day of Munychion,(1050) and purified himself from the murder of the Pallantidæ.(1051)
15. The political situation of the worship of Apollo at Athens still requires to be noticed. From our previous observations it is clear that the Ionians had adopted it from the Dorians; hence Ion himself is called the son of the Pythian god. The paternal deity of Athens was, as Demosthenes says, no other than the Pythian Apollo.(1052) We may then assert, without hesitation, that the Ionians were the only race who had gentilitious rites of Apollo, and that they alone could properly be called γενῆται Ἀπόλλωνος πατρῴου. Thus, when the archons at the scrutiny swore, that besides Zeus Herceus, the household god, they worshipped also Apollo πατρῷος;(1053) this form of oath originated at a time when the Eupatridæ, that is, the noble Ionic and Hellenic families, were alone eligible to the dignity of the archonship. Nor was it till, by the timocracy of Solon and democracy of Aristides, the richer class in general and the whole people were admitted to this office, that Apollo πατρῷος was considered as a deity common to all families.(1054) The democratical judges of Athens also yearly took an oath before this deity:(1055) this ceremony was at first perhaps only required of the criminal judges of aristocratical descent, viz., the Ephetæ. It is however clear that originally the religion of Apollo was adapted for the military caste alone, the ancient Hopletes; hence he was not a god of artisans and husbandmen, but of warriors. Hence also Ion or Xuthus adopted him as the Athenian god of war (πολέμαρχος) at the festival of Boedromia,(1056) the name of which is derived from the onset of armed troops in battle.