Pausanias Analysis

Of the offerings which the Lydian kings had sent, none remained except only the iron stand of the bowl dedicated by Alyattes. This is the work of Glaucus of Chios, who invented the welding of iron. Each separate plate of the stand is attached to another not by rivets or nails, but solely by welding, and it is this welding alone which holds the iron together as a bond.

The form of the stand resembles especially a tower rising upward to a pointed shape from a broader base below. Each side of the stand is not enclosed throughout, but the side strips of iron lie horizontally like rungs on a ladder. The vertical iron plates are turned outward at their upper edges, thereby providing a seat for the bowl.

The object called the Omphalos ("Navel") by the Delphians, made of white stone, the Delphians themselves claim to be the center of the entire earth; and Pindar in one of his songs has composed words in agreement with their claim.

Here is an offering of the Lacedaemonians, a work by Kalamis, depicting Hermione, daughter of Menelaus. Hermione was married to Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, having previously been married to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. The Aetolians dedicated a statue of Eurydamus, who had served as commander of the Aetolians and led them against the army of the Gauls.

There still exists, even in my time, among the mountains of Crete, the city of Elyrus. The people there sent to Delphi a bronze goat, which is shown feeding milk to the infants Phylakides and Philandros. The Elyrians say that these children are the offspring of Apollo and the nymph Akakallis, and that Apollo lay with Akakallis in the city of Tarra, in the house of Karmanor.

The Carystians of Euboea likewise set up beside Apollo a bronze ox, dedicated from the spoils of the Persian war. The Carystians and the Plataeans erected oxen as votive offerings, it seems to me, because, having driven off the barbarian, they firmly acquired general prosperity and the right to plough their land in freedom. The Aetolian people sent statues of their generals and figures of Apollo and Artemis, after subjugating their neighbors, the Acarnanians.

I have learned of a most extraordinary event that occurred between the people of Lipara and the Tyrrhenians. The Pythian oracle had commanded the Liparians to engage the Tyrrhenian fleet with the fewest possible ships. Accordingly, they set sail against the Tyrrhenians with only five triremes. The Tyrrhenians, unwilling to appear inferior to the Liparians in naval capacity, in turn sent out an equal number of ships. The Liparians succeeded in capturing these ships, and then five additional vessels sent afterward against them, and then yet another squadron of five ships, and likewise a fourth squadron of five. Thus victorious, the Liparians dedicated at Delphi statues of Apollo equal in number to the captured ships.

Echecratides, a man from Larissa, dedicated the small image of Apollo; the Delphians say this was the very first votive offering set up there.