8. Although the destruction of the Python is characterized as a triumph of the higher and divine power of the deity, yet the victorious god was considered as polluted by the blood of the monster, and obliged to undergo a series of afflictions and woes. Tradition represented him as going immediately after the battle by the sacred road to Tempe; which the boy, who personified Apollo, afterwards took as leader of the religious procession.(1329) The direction of this road has been accurately stated above. The chief circumstance in this wandering was the bondage θήτευσις of Apollo under Admetus the Pheræan, to which the god subjected himself in order to expiate his guilt. This too was represented by the boy, who probably imitated the manner in which the god, as a herdsman and slave, submitted to the most degrading services.(1330) Perhaps it was the piety of Admetus, celebrated in tradition, which entitled him to the privilege of possessing such a slave; yet it must be doubted, whether, conformably to the spirit of the ancient mythology, an ideal being, and not a mortal hero, was not originally intended to be represented under this name. Ἄδμητος is an usual name for the god of the infernal regions; to whom, according to the original idea, Apollo became enslaved. The worship of this deity is connected with that of Hecate, who was called θεὰ Φεραία, and the daughter of Admetus.(1331) Cannot we, in the rescuing of Alcestis from the infernal regions by Apollo(1332) and Hercules, find some clue which may lead us to suppose that the fable of Admetus refers to a worship of the infernal deities? An ancient dirge, called the song of Admetus, was chanted in Greece, having, as was pretended, been first sung by Admetus at the death of his wife, originally perhaps addressed to Αἵδες ἄδμητος.(1333) How well does it suit the sublime character of the religious poetry in question, that the god, who had been polluted by the combat with the impure being, should be obliged, in order to complete his penance, to descend into the infernal regions. In confirmation of this, there have been preserved some obscure traditions, which represent Apollo as actually dying, that is, descending into the infernal regions.(1334) However, after eight years, the appointed time of bondage, the god wanders to the ancient altar of Tempe, where, sprinkling with laurel-branches, and other expiatory rites, symbolically restore his purity,(1335) After this, the purified deity returns by the same road to Deipnias, near Larissa, and there breaks his long fast.