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which had probably been offered by way of expiatory sacrifice: and it is remarkable that this idolatry continued among the pagan population of that country even down to the seventh century. But to return to the oracles, and

more particularly that at Delphi.

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It was one of those which enjoyed the greatest reputation; and was, by some, thought to equal in antiquity the grove of Dodona. It was situated at the foot of Mount Parnassus, and near the Castalian fountain, with awful precipices on three sides of it. In the midst of the sacred enclosure grew a lofty laurel, under which the Pythia delivered her prophetic answers, seated upon a Tripos, while the tree nodded over her head. Before speaking, she gathered the fruit or devoured the leaves, while waiting for the inspiration, which affected her whole frame in such a manner as to make her foam at the mouth, tear her hair, and utter the most distracting cries. The Tripos is worthy of notice; the same was not always used, but the one most famous was made of brass, wrought by Vulcan himself, and presented to Apollo by Pelops when he married Hippodamia.* It

* Pott. Arch. Græc. lib. ii, cap. 9. 276. Nat. Com. lib. v. 2. pp. 133 and 183.

was adorned with the heads of different animals, and altogether may be considered as a distorted representation of the Cherubim, derived by tradition from the antediluvian heathen, probably through means of Ham and his posterity. Homer has preserved for us a fuller description of Vulcan at work upon these Tripods, as well as of the machines themselves;

Εστάμεναι περι τοιχον ευστάθεος μεγάροιο
Χρυσέα δε σφ' υπο κυκλα εκαστω πυθμένι θηκεν,
Οφρα οι αυτοματοι θειον δυσαιατ' αγωνα
Ηδ' αυτις προς δωμα νεοιατο θαυμα ιδέσθαι.
The Tripods, placed in living wheels of gold,
Wondrous to tell, instinct with spirit roll'd
From place to place around the blest abodes,
Self-moy'd, obedient to the beck of gods.

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The reader may remark considerable similarity, in this description, to what Ezekiel has related by inspiration in his vision of the Che rubim." The spirit of the living creatures was "in the wheels; when those went, these went; "and when those stood, these stood; and when "those were lifted up, the wheels were lifted

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up over against them, for the spirit of the "living creatures was in the wheels:" and it is

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added afterwards; "I knew they were the “Cherubim.”* Homer mentions that the Tripods had Ovara, or handles, which might have been wings, such as are seen upon some ancient Tripods yet in existence. The whole was said to have been covered with the skin of the serpent Python, who was there overcome and slain by Apollo. From this name of the former, the place in which the oracles were delivered was termed Pythium, and the priestess who uttered them was called the Pythia, or Pythonissa. Before she ascended the Tripos, she washed her whole body in the fountain of Castalia, or Castalis; while underneath her, as she sat, there often appeared a serpent, which supplied her with the answers, and on one occasion is reported to have destroyed her; a tradition perhaps of the fatal effects of his temptation on the first woman. Eusebiust reports "Spakovra δρακοντα σε εἰλεῖσθαι περι τ' τριποδα that a serpent rolled itself "around the Tripod." In fact the signification of the term Tripos, or Tur-ops, is "the tower "or temple of the serpent."

Whoever went to consult the oracle, previously offered sacrifices to Apollo; and the

* Ezekiel i. 15-20.

+ Cited by Potter in the Arch. Græc. vol. i. lib. 2. cap. 9.

priests who assisted on these occasions were in number five, all of whom were called "Oto the

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holy ones," and these were supposed to be descendants of Deucalion, the Noah of Greece.* There was one who presided over these, called "Oornp the purifier;" answering in signification at least to the n Berith of Shechem, mentioned in an early part of this dissertation. No impure person was admitted to any part of the solemn rites, and all persons, in any manner engaged about the oracle, were frequently obliged to purify themselves by lustration and sacrifice. The answers of the serpent, both at Delphi and Dodona, (for his they most frequently were,) seem to have been as ambiguous as his primeval delusion offered to the great parents of all mankind, in Eden. The mixture of truth, it appears, was combined with sufficient fraud and error, generally speaking, to expose the source from whence they came, namely, the father of lies, "more subtle than any beast of the field, which "the Lord God had made."

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They had a remarkable tradition of the sabbath at Delphi. For we are told that in the temple of Apollo, every seventh day was

* Νωέ ος κεκληται υπο ενιων Autol. lib. ii. p. 106. lib. iii. 129.

Δευκαλίων. Theoph. ad

Philo. Jud. de pr. et pæn.

vol. ii. p. 370. Justin Martyr. i. Apolog, pro Christ. p. 45.

a solemn festival, on which the priestesses chaunted pæans in honour of the serpent.* These priestesses are said to have been the daughters of Triopus; or, in other words, the persons who attended upon the Tur-ops or

* Prol. in Carm. Pyth. Pind. Philo says that the sabbath is a festival common to the whole world. Josephus, in his second book against Appion, declares that not a city or nation was ever known to exist, wherein some trace of the institution of the seventh day was not discernible. Aristobulus, cited by Eusebius, Prep. Evang. xiii. 12. quotes Homer and Hesiod, speaking of this seventh day, as eminently sacred and venerable. Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. v. cites similar passages from the ancients, and to the same purport. Seven, of old, was always looked upon as a sacred and mysterious number; see a curious fragment of Linus cited by Bryant, and others:

Εβδομη ειν αγαθοις, και εβδομη εστι γενεθλη
Εβδομη εν πρωτοισι, και εβδομη εστι τελειη
Εβδοματη δη οι τετελεσμενα παντα τετυκται :
Επτα δε παντα τετυκται εν ουρανω αστερόεντι.

Fragm. Lini. Poes. Philos. Steph. p. 112. The arbitrary, but generally prevailing division of time into weeks, in contradistinction to the natural periods of a month, and a year, has been ably touched upon by several writers, as affording good proof of the authenticity of the account given by Moses of the institution of the sabbath. See further Cal. Rhodig. Lect. Ant. xxii. 12. Ptolem. Hephæst. Nov. Hist. lib. vii. Also Grotius de Ver. Rel. Chr. i. 16. Cooke's Inq. Pat. and Druid. Rel. pp. 4 and 5. Leland's Advantage and Necessity of Chr. Rev. p. 74.

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