)Eschines has left us much in the dark as to the usual mode of proceeding in the Amphictyonic session; and we shall look elsewhere in vain for certain inform ation. It should seem that all the Pyla Forte sat in the council and took part in its deliberations; but if the common opinion mentioned above, respecting the two votes allowed to each nation be cor rect, it is certain that they did not all vote. The regulations according to which the decisions of the twelve nations were made can only be conjectured. We know that the religious matters which fell under the jurisdiction of the Amphic tyonic body were managed principally, at least, by the Hieromnemons who ap pear, from a verse in Aristophanes (Nub. 613), to have been appointed by lot, but we are not as well informed respecting the limits which separated their duties from those of the Pylagorte, nor respe t. ing the relative rank which the:, held ,n the council. (iEschines, Contr. Ctea. p. 68 72 ; Fale. Leg. p. 43.) The little that is told is to be found for the most part in the ancient lexicographers and scholiasts, or commentators, who knew perhaps nothing about the matter, and whose accounts are sufficiently perplexing to give room for great variety of opinions among modern writers. Some have seemed to themselves to discover that the office of the Hiero mnemons was of comparatively late crea tion, that these new deputies were of higher rank than the Pylagorte., and that one of them always presided in the council ; others again have supposed—what, indeed, an ancient lexicographer has expressly asserted—that they acted as secretaries or scribes. Two Amphictyonic decrees are found at length in the oration of Demos thenes on the crown, both of which begin thus : " When Cleinagoras was priest, at the vernal Pyltea, it was resolved by the Pylagorte and the Synedri (joint coun cillors) of the Amphictyons, and the common body of the Amphictyons." Some have assumed that Cleinagoras the priest was the presiding Hieromnemon, and others that the Hieromnemons are comprehended under the general name of Pylagorte. /Eschines again has men tioned a decree in which the Hieromne mons were ordered to repair at an ap pointed time to a session at Pyhe. carry ing with them the copy of a certain de cree lately made by the council. Of the council, as it existed before the time of 2Eschines, a few notices are to be found in the ancient historians, some of which are not unimportant. According to Hero dotus (vii. 200) the council held its meetings near Thermopylle, in a plain which surrounded the village of Anthela, and in which was a temple dedicated to the Amphictyonic Ceres ; to whom, as Strabo tells us (ix. 429), the Amphic tyons sacrificed at every session. This temple, according to Callimachus (Ep. 41), was founded by Acrisius ; and hence arose, as Muller supposes in his history of the Dorians (vol. i. p. 289, English translation), the tradition mentioned above.
We are told by Strabo (ix. 418) that after the destruction of Crissa by an Am phictyonic army, under the command of Eurylochus, a Thessalian prince, the Amphictyons instituted the celebrated games, which from that time were called the Pythian, in addition to the simple musical contests already established by the Detphians. Pausamas also (a. 7) attributes to the Amphictyons both the institution and subsequent regulation of the games ; and it is supposed by the most skilful critics, that one occasion of the exercise of this authority, recorded by Pansanias, can be identified with the victory of Eurylochus mentioned by Strabo. According to this supposition, the Crisman and the celebrated Cir rhtean war are the same, and Eurylochus must have lived as late as B.c. 591. But the history of these matters is full of difficulty, partly occasioned by the fre quent confusion of the names of Crissa and Cirrha.
From the scanty materials left us by the ancient records, the following sketch of the history of this famous council is offered to the reader, as resting on some degree of probability :— The council was originally formed by a confederacy of Greek nations or tribes which inhabited a part of the country afterwards called Thessaly. In the lists which have come down to us of the con stituent tribes, the names belong for the most part to those hordes of primitive Greeks which are first heard of, and some of which continued to dwell north of the Malian bay. The bond of union was the common worship of Ceres, near whose temple at Anthela its meetings were held. With the worship of the goddess was afterwards joined that of the Delphic Apollo; and thenceforth the council met alternately at Delphi and Pylle. Its ori ginal seat and old connections were kept in remembrance by the continued use of the term Pyhea, to designate its sessions wherever held : though eventually the Delphic god enjoyed more than an equal share of consideration in the confederacy. It may be remarked that the Pythiau Apollo, whose worship in its progress southwards can be faintly traced from the confines of Macedonia, was the pe culiar god of the Dorians, who were of the Hellenic race ; whilst the worship of Ceres was probably of Pelasgic and appears at one time to have been placed in opposition to that of Apollo, and in great measure to have retired be fore it. There is no direct authority for
asserting that the joint worship was not coeval with the establishment of the council ; but it seems probable from facts, which it is not necessary to examine here, that an Amphictyonic confederacy ex isted among the older residents, the wor shippers of Ceres, in the neighbourhood of the Malian bay, before the hostile in truders with their rival deity were joined with them in a friendly coalition. The council met for religious purposes, the main object being to protect the temples and maintain the worship of the two deities. With religion were joined, ac cording to the customs of the tunas, poli tical objects ; and the jurisdiction of the Amphictyons extended to matters which concerned the safety and internal peace of the confederacy. Hence the Amphic tyonic laws, the provisions of which may be partly understood from the terms of the Amphictyonic oath. Confederacies and councils, similar to those of the Am phictyons, were common among the an cient Greeks. Such were those which united in federal republics the Greek colonists of Asia Minor, of the /Eolian, Ionian, and Dorian nations. Such also was the confederacy of seven states whose council met in the temple of Neptune in the island of Calauria, and which is even called by Strabo (viii. 374) an Amphic tyonic council.
The greater celebrity of the northern Amphictyons is attributable partly to the superiorfame and authority of the Delphic Apollo ; still more perhaps to their con nection with powerful states which grew into importance at a comparatively late period. The migrating hordes, sent forth from the tribes of which originally or in very early times the confederacy was composed, carried with them their Am phictyonic rights, and thus at every re move lengthened the arms of the council. The great Dorian migration especially planted Amphictyonic cities in the re motest parts of Southern Greece. But this diffusion, whilst it extended its fame, was eventually fatal to its political autho rity. The early members, nearly equal perhaps in rank and power, whilst they remained in the neighbourhood of Mounts (Eta and Parnassus, might be willing to submit their differences to the judgment of the Amphictyonic body. But the case was altered when Athens and Sparta became the leading powers in Greece. Sparta, for instance, would not readily pay obedience to the decrees of a distant council, in which the deputies of some in considerable towns in Doris sat on equal terms with their own. Accordingly in a most important period of Grecian his tory, during a long series of bloody con tests between Amphictyonic states, we are unable to discover a single mark of the council's interference. On the other hand, we have from Thucydides (i. 112) a strong negative proof of the insig nificance into which its authority had fallen. The Phocians (3.c. 448) pos sessed themselves by force of the temple of Apollo at Delphi ; were deprived of it by the Lacediemonians, by whom it was restored to the Delphians ; and were again replaced by the Athenians. In this, which is expressly called by the historian a sacred war, not even an allu sion is made to the existence of an Am phictyonic council. After the decay of its political power, there still remained its religious jurisdiction ; but it is not easy to determine its limits or the objects to which it was directed. In a treaty of peace made (B. c. 421) between the Pelo ponnesians and the Athenians (Thucydi des, v. 17), it was provided that the temple of Apollo at Delphi and the Delphians should be independent. This provision, however, appears to have had reference especially to the claims of the Phocians to include Delphi in the number of their towns, and not to have interfered in any respect with the superintendence of the temple and oracle, which the Amphic tyons had long exercised in conjunction with the Delphian. We have seen that the Amphictyons were charged in the earliest times with the duty of the temple and the worship of the But the right of superintendence, o re gulating the mode of proceeding in con sulting the oracle, in making the sacri fices, and in the celebration of the games, was apparently of much later origin, and may, with some probability, be dated from the victory gained by Eurylochus and the Amphictyouic army. The exer cise of this right had the effect of pre serving to the council permanently a con siderable degree of importance. In early times the Delphic god had enjoyed im mense authority. He sent out colonies, founded cities, and originated weighty measures of various kinds. Before the times of which we have lately been speak ing, his influence had been somewhat diminished ; but the oracle was still most anxiously consulted both on public and private matters. The custody of the temple was also an object of jealous in terest on account of the vast treasures contained within its walls.