πόλιν δὲ ἀρχαιοτάτην οἰκισθῆναί φασιν ἐνταῦθα ὑπὸ Παρνασσοῦ, Κλεοδώρας δὲ εἶναι νύμφης παῖδα αὐτόν· καί οἱ πατέρας, καθάπερ γε καὶ ἄλλοις τῶν καλουμένων ἡρώων, Ποσειδῶνά τε θεὸν καὶ Κλεόπομπον ἄνδρα ἐπονομάζουσιν. ἀπὸ τούτου δὲ τοῦ Παρνασσοῦ τῷ τε ὄρει τὸ ὄνομα τεθῆναι λέγουσι καὶ Παρνασσίαν ὀνομασθῆναι νάπην· τῶν πετομένων τε ὀρνίθων τὴν ἀπʼ αὐτῶν μαντείαν γενέσθαι Παρνασσοῦ τὸ εὕρημα.
ταύτην μὲν οὖν κατακλυσθῆναι τὴν πόλιν ὑπὸ τῶν ὄμβρων τῶν κατὰ Δευκαλίωνα συμβάντων· τῶν δὲ ἀνθρώπων ὅσοι διαφυγεῖν τὸν χειμῶνα ἠδυνήθησαν, λύκων ὠρυγαῖς ἀπεσώθησαν ἐς τοῦ Παρνασσοῦ τὰ ἄκρα ὑπὸ ἡγεμόσι τῆς πορείας τοῖς θηρίοις, πόλιν δὲ ἣν ἔκτισαν ἐκάλεσαν ἐπὶ τούτῳ Λυκώρειαν.
λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἄλλος διάφορος λόγος τῷ προτέρῳ, Ἀπόλλωνι ἐκ νύμφης Κωρυκίας γενέσθαι Λύκωρον, καὶ ἀπὸ μὲν Λυκώρου πόλιν Λυκώρειαν, τὸ ἄντρον δὲ ὀνομασθῆναι τὸ Κωρύκιον ἀπὸ τῆς νύμφης. λέγεται δὲ καὶ τάδε, Κελαινὼ θυγατέρα Ὑάμῳ τῷ Λυκώρου γενέσθαι, Δελφὸν δέ, ἀφʼ οὗ τῇ πόλει τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἐστι, Κελαινοῦς τε αὐτὸν τῆς Ὑάμου καὶ Ἀπόλλωνος εἶναι.
οἱ δὲ Καστάλιόν τε ἄνδρα αὐτόχθονα καὶ θυγατέρα ἐθέλουσιν αὐτῷ γενέσθαι Θυίαν, καὶ ἱερᾶσθαί τε τὴν Θυίαν Διονύσῳ πρῶτον καὶ ὄργια ἀγαγεῖν τῷ θεῷ· ἀπὸ ταύτης δὲ καὶ ὕστερον ὅσαι τῷ Διονύσῳ μαίνονται Θυιάδας καλεῖσθαι σφᾶς ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπων· Ἀπόλλωνος δʼ οὖν παῖδα καὶ Θυίας νομίζουσιν εἶναι Δελφόν. οἱ δὲ μητρὸς Μελαίνης φασὶν αὐτόν, θυγατρὸς Κηφισοῦ.
χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον καὶ Πυθὼ τὴν πόλιν, οὐ Δελφοὺς μόνον ἐκάλεσαν οἱ περιοικοῦντες, καθὰ καὶ Ὁμήρῳ πεποιημένα ἐν καταλόγῳ Φωκέων ἐστίν. οἱ μὲν δὴ γενεαλογεῖν τὰ πάντα ἐθέλοντες παῖδα εἶναι Δελφοῦ Πύθην καὶ ἀπὸ τούτου βασιλεύσαντος γενέσθαι τῇ πόλει τὸ ὄνομα ἥγηνται· λόγος δὲ ὃς ἥκει τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐς τοὺς πολλούς, τὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος τοξευθέντα σήπεσθαί φησιν ἐνταῦθα, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὄνομα τῇ πόλει γενέσθαι Πυθώ· πύθεσθαι γὰρ δὴ τὰ σηπόμενα οἱ τότε ἔλεγον, καὶ τοῦδε ἕνεκα Ὅμηρος πεποίηκεν ὡς ἡ τῶν Σειρήνων νῆσος ἀνάπλεως ὀστῶν εἴη, ὅτι οἱ τῆς ᾠδῆς αὐτῶν ἀκούοντες ἐπύθοντο ἄνθρωποι.
τὸν δὲ ἀποθανόντα ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ποιηταὶ μὲν δράκοντα εἶναι καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ μαντείῳ φύλακα ὑπὸ Γῆς τετάχθαι φασί· λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς Κριοῦ δυναστεύοντος ἀνδρὸς περὶ Εὔβοιαν παῖς γένοιτο ὑβριστής, καὶ ἐσύλησε μὲν τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ ἱερόν, ἐσύλησε δὲ καὶ οἴκους ἀνδρῶν εὐδαιμόνων. ὡς δὲ ἐπεστράτευε καὶ δεύτερον, ἐνταῦθα οἱ Δελφοὶ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα ἱκέτευον ἀμῦναί σφισι τὸν ἐπιόντα κίνδυνον·
καὶ ἡ Φημονόη πρόμαντις τηνικαῦτα οὖσα ἐν ἑξαμέτρῳ σφίσιν ἔχρησεν· ἀγχοῦ δὴ βαρὺν ἰὸν ἐπʼ ἀνέρι Φοῖβος ἐφήσει / σίντῃ Παρνησσοῖο· φόνου δέ ἑ Κρήσιοι ἄνδρες / χεῖρας ἁγιστεύςουσι· τὸ δὲ κλέος οὔ ποτʼ ὀλεῖται. /
They say that the oldest city here was founded by Parnasus, son of a nymph Cleodora. Like other heroes, as they are called, he is credited with a divine and a human father, his divine father being Poseidon, his human father being Cleopompus. They say that Mount Parnassus and the Parnassian glen were named after him. Further, the taking of auguries from the flight of birds is said to have been an invention of Parnasus.
This city is said to have been flooded by the rains that fell in Deucalion’s time; but the people who were able to escape the storm were led safe to the peaks of Parnassus by the howlings of wolves, these beasts acting as their guides, and therefore they called the city which they founded Lycorea. A different legend is that Apollo had a son Lycorus by a nymph Corycia, and that the city of Lycorea was named after Lycorus, and the Corycian cave after the nymph. Another legend is that Hyamus, son of Lycorus, had a daughter Celaeno, and that Delphus, from whom the present name of the city is derived, was a son of Celaeno and Apollo. Some will have it that there was a man Castalius, an aboriginal, who had a daughter Thyia, and that she was the first priestess of Dionysus, and held orgies in honour of the god ; and they say that afterwards all women who rave in honour of Dionysus have been called Thyiads after her. At any rate, Delphus is believed by them to have been a son of Apollo and Thyia. Others say his mother was Melaena, a daughter of Cephisus.
In after time the people round about called the city Pytho as well as Delphi, as Homer has done in the list of the Phocians. Those who would find genealogies for everything think that Pythes was a son of Delphus, and that from his reign the city got the name of Pytho. But the prevalent tradition is that he whom Apollo shot with his arrows rotted away here, and that hence the city got the name of Pytho, for the word meaning to rot was in those days puthesthai; and therefore Homer represented the island of the Sirens as full of bones, because the men who listened to their song rotted away (eputhonto). He whom Apollo slew is said by the poets to have been a dragon set by Earth to guard the oracle. But it is also said that he was an over-bearing son of Crius, a chieftain of Euboea, and that he rifled the sanctuary of the god and the houses of wealthy men. But when he marched against Delphi the second time the Delphians besought Apollo to ward off the impending danger, and Phemonoe, who was then the prophetess, gave them the following oracle in hexameter verse :— At close quarters Phoebus will shoot a grievous shaft at the man Who robs Parnassus ; and men of Crete Shall cleanse his hands from blood ; and the glory shall never die.
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