therein. Now therefore return to your own, and inhabit your island[1].' He then offered 300 talents-weight of frankincense on the altar of Apollo. Just before this, his army had burned the Greek temples of Naxos. The host of Xerxes ten years later destroyed the temple of Apollo at Abae, and attacked Delphi. The special reason assigned by Datis for sparing Delos—that it had borne "the two gods"—appears rather Persian than Phoenician. So comprehensive were the claims to sanctity which interwoven traditions had concentrated on Delos. Outside of the Hellenic circle, the prestige of the Sacred Island could appeal to Aryan worshippers of Mithra and Homa no less than to Semitic votaries of Melcarth or Astarte.
Thus far the religious character of Delos has been joined to political independence; in the age which now opens we shall find them severed.
II. The Athenian Period: 478–322 B.C.
When, after the Persian Wars, the allies transferred the leadership from Sparta to Athens, the new Confederation took the solemn form of an amphictyony: that is, the federal obligations laid on the members were placed under a religious sanction, symbolized by common worship at a central shrine. For an Aegean amphictyony, this central shrine could be nowhere but at Delos, which therefore
- ↑ Her. vi. 97.
