PYTHIAN GAMES (Lat. Pythia, from Gk.
llu$la). The second of the four great national festivals of the Greeks, held in the Crissamn Plain, near Delphi. Their origin was attributed to Apollo, in celebration of his destruction of the dragon Python. At first they were celebrated under the superintendence of the priests of Del phi every ninth year, i.e. once in each cycle, and consisted solely of a musical contest between singers to the cithara. After the first Sacred War, the character of the festival was changed, and the Amphietyons assumed charge. The first of the new series was held in B.C. 556, but it was not till the second celebration in B.C. 582 that the laurel wreath was given as a prize, and from this date the Pythian series was reckoned. They were from this time held in the summer of the third year of each Olympiad, probably in August, and seem usually to have occupied four days. The first day was occupied with the
musical contests which always held the chief place. Among them the most important was the Pythinu Nomos, a solo on the double flute, which represented the victory of Apollo over the dragon. On the second day came athletic games, much like those at Olympia (q.v.), and on the third the horse-racing. The latter contests were held in the Crissrean plain. On the fourth day seem to have conic the festival procession and sacrifices. The musical contests were increased in later times; even poets and historians competed. Con sult: Krause, Die Pythien. Yoncen um! Isth mien (Leipzig, 1841) ; Mommsen, Delphika 1STS) ; Sehffinann-Lipsius, Urieehische Alter tiimcr, vol. ii. (Berlin, 1902) ; Stengel, "Ode chische Kultus-Alterttimer," in Mffiler's Hand buch dcr klussischca Altertumsu-issenschaft, vol. v. (Munich, 1898).