the month ILAEUS in the Delphic year." Upon a pillar in the same church we found another inscription. Here we have mention made of a High-Priestess of the Achæan Council, who is honoured by the Council of the Amphic tyons and Achæans..

ΑΓΑΘΗ ΤΥΧΗ.

ΤΙΒΚΠΟΛΥΚΡΑΤΕΙΑΝ ΝΑΥΣΙΚΑΛΙ

THNKPATICTHN KAIAPXIEPEIANTOYKOINOY
ΤΩΝ ΑΧΑΙΩΝ ΒΕΛΠΟΛΥΚΡΑΤΟΥ CAΡΧΙΕΡΕΩΣ
KAIWAɅAPXOYAIBIOYTOYKOINOYTWNAXAIWN

ΚΑΙΤΙΒΚΑ ΔΙΟΓΕΝΕΙΑΣΑΡΧΙΕΡΕΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΚΟΙΝΟΥΤΩΝ
ΑΧΑΙΩΝ ΟΥ ΓΑΤΕΡΑ
ΤΟ ΚΟΙΝΟΝΤΩΝ ΑΜΦΙ

KTYONWNKAITOKOINONTWNAXAIWN:

APETH CENEKEN

"THE COUNCIL OF AMPHICTYONS AND ACHEANS, IN HONOUR OF POLYCRATEA, HIGH-PRIESTESS OF THE ACHEAN COUNCIL, AND DAUGHTER OF POLYCRATES AND DIOGENEIA,"

We then went towards the CASTALIAN FOUNTAIN, which is on the eastern side of the village. It is situated beneath a precipice one hundred feet in height, upon the top of which a chasm in the rock separates it into two pointed crags; and these, towering above Delphi, and being a part of Parnassus, have been sometimes considered and erroneously described as the tops of that mountain, which has therefore been said to have a double summit3. There is nothing

(3) BICEPS PARNASSUS. Wheler calls it "the double-headed Cleft of Parnassus." These two tops, seen from Delphi, conceal all the rest of the mountain. Between them the water falling in great abundance, after rain or snow, hath worn the chasm which separates them. See Wheler's Journ. into Greece, p. 314. Lond. 1682.

CHAP. VI

Fountain
Custalius.

CHAP. VI.

Gorgon.

>

nothing in journeying through this country likely to affect
a literary traveller more than the view of this FOUNTAIN
CASTALIUS: its being so easily and surely identified with
the inspiring source of Grecian poetry, and at the same
time combining great picturesque beauty with all the
circumstances of local interest, added to the illustration
afforded by its present appearance of the manner in which it
was originally decorated and revered, render it one of the
most impressive sights it is possible to behold. Pausanias,
entering the city from Boeotia, found it upon his right
hand', exactly as it occurred to us upon our arrival, after
following the same road the evening before. It was
therefore now upon our left, and upon the east side of the
town. The Gymnasium mentioned by the same author stood
a little farther on, in this direction: the site of it is now
occupied by a monastery, called that of Panaja, being
sacred to the Virgin. As we drew nigh to the Castalian
fountain, we found, lying among the loose stones in the
road, one of the original marble vows formerly placed by the
side of the Via Sacra, leading from the fountain ́ to the
Temple, now trampled under foot by every casual passenger.
It was a representation of the Gorgonian visage, as it is seen
upon the most antient terra-cottas, gems, and coins of
Greece, generally with the features frightfully distorted,
and always with the tongue protruded'; derived perhaps,
originally,

(1) Ἔστιν ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς ὁδοῦ τὸ ὕδωρ τῆς Κασταλίας. Pausania Phocica, c. S. p. 817. Ed. Kuhnii.

(2) See No. 1. of the Vignette to this Chapter.

originally, from the appearance presented by the shadows
seen upon the Moon's disk; for when that planet is at full,
a rude figure of the human countenance may be imagined
as similarly displayed: and the superstitions respecting the
Fogyεin xepaλn being also those of the Diva triformis,
Γοργείη κεφαλή
constituted a part of that worship which was paid unto the
Moon'. The present example, as to the form of the stone,
exhibits a perfect circle: and when this image appears upon
antient coins, however irregular the form of the medal may
be, an evident design to circumscribe the whole symbol,
including the snakes of the hair, &c. by a circular line, may
be observed. This is particularly apparent upon certain
medals of Parium and Abydos'; in many of the pateras of
Grecian terra-cotta, where this figure may be noticed as
having been impressed with a mould or die in the bottom
of the vessel; and upon those Gorgonian heads of gilded
earthen-ware which were discovered by the Earl of
Aberdeen, connected by bronze wires, and forming a chaplet
round the scull of a dead person in a sepulchre near Athens".
That the meaning of this symbol had never been rightly
understood by our antiquaries, the author endeavoured to
prove by former observations upon the Earl of Aberdeen's

4

discovery.

CHAP. VI.

(3) Vide Euripid. in Phoen. 465. Homer. Odyss. X. 632, &c.

(4) See Tab. xli. No. 16. of Combe's Descript. of the Hunterian Collection. Lond. 1782.

(5) Ibid. Tab. i. No. 11.

(6). See the Vignette to this Chapter, No. 2. taken from an Engraving made by Evans, after the original in his Lordship's possession.

CHAP. VI.

discovery. The Gorgonian head has been believed to denote
lubricity, but its real signification is death; and it is one of
the most remarkable circumstances concerning this image,
that, long after its original signification (as a
86 memento
mori) was lost, it should have found its way, from the
oldest temples of the Pagan world, into Christian churches;
where it yet appears, either in their painted windows, or
Carved roofs; as it also does among heraldic ornaments.

The remains of THE FOUNTAIN CASTALIUS exhibit a large square shallow bason, with steps to it, cut in a rock of marble; once, no doubt, the Castalian Bath; wherein the Pythia used to wash her whole body, and particularly her hair, before she placed herself upon the Tripod, in the Temple of Apollo. Upon the opposite side is a stone seat, also hewn out of the same rock. This bason is filled with the water of the fountain. Above the bason rises the perpendicular precipice to its clefted summit before mentioned, which is at the height of about an hundred feet. In the face of this precipice are niches scooped in the rock, for the votive offerings; one very large recep'tacle of this kind being upon the right hand, and three smaller exactly in front of a person facing the precipice. Upon the left hand, a large wild fig-tree, sprouting above the water of the fountain upon that side of the bason, spread its branches over the surface of the rock; which was further

1

(1) See "Greek Marbles," Appendix, p. 69. Camb. 1809. (2) See Vignette to this Chapter, No. 3. taken from an image of Medusa's head, preserved, in stained glass, in the east window of Harlton Church, in Cambridgeshire.