6. Apollo, according to the Attic legend, passed to Delphi from Delos through Attica and Bœotia; the Homeric Hymn to Apollo makes him come from the northern districts, but likewise through Bœotia: according to other traditions he came from the Hyperboreans. According to another, Latona was carrying the two babes, Apollo and Artemis, in her arms, when assailed by the Python,(1315) the mother seeking refuge on a sacred stone near the plane-tree at Delphi:(1316) in another, Apollo was a child at the time of this event;(1317) and, accordingly, a Delphian boy, both whose parents were alive, represented the actions of the deity at the great festival. The destruction of the Python, however, always formed the chief event of the sacred fable. It was by this feat that Apollo gained possession of the oracular chasm, from which the goddess Earth had once spoken. It was not, however, without some resistance that she gave way to the claims of the youthful god, whom, according to Pindar, she even attempted to hurl down to Tartarus.(1318) The serpent Python is represented as the guardian of the ancient oracle of the Earth,(1319) and a son of the Earth itself, sprung from the warm clay that remained after the general deluge, and dwelling in a dark defile near a fountain, which was said to be supplied from the Styx.(1320) The serpent, as usual, represents an earthly being, by which is personified the rough and shapeless offspring of nature. It was supposed to be connected with the nature of water and the sea; and hence was called _Delphin_, or _Delphine_,(1321) like the fish of the same name, which was particularly sacred to Apollo, and in all probability was also conceived to have been subdued by him. After this, the serpent that watched the oracle remained, although conquered, as a memorial of the ancient struggle, and of the victory of the god, and was placed near the rocky chasm at the foot of the tripod, in the inner sanctuary.(1322)
7. The battle with the Python being finished,(1323) Apollo himself breaks the laurel, to weave a crown of victory.(1324) Here too he was said first to have sung the pæan, as a strain of triumph. In the dramatic exhibition, by which the Delphians represented the adventures of Apollo, the Pythian strain (νόμος Πύθιος) was here introduced. This air, which was originally nothing more than a simple melody, soon received all the embellishment of art; and, being raised by Timosthenes to the dignity of a great musical composition,(1325) was (contrary to the ancient custom) performed with flutes, lyres, and trumpets, without the accompaniment of the voice. The accounts concerning this festival are indeed copious, but unluckily of too late a date to give us an idea of its ancient and genuine character. In Plutarch’s time(1326) it was not a hollow serpent’s den, but an imitation of a princely house (καλιὰς), that was erected in a court (ἅλως), at every octennial festival.(1327) Into this building the women of a Delphian family(1328) led the boy by a secret passage (δολωνεία) with lighted torches, and fled away through the door, overturning the table, and setting fire to the house.