tiadæ." The town was believed to derive its name from Cyrenè, a Thessalian nymph beloved of Apollo, who had been conveyed by her lover to Libya, and established there as queen of the continent of Africa, "the third part of Earth's expanse." But this tale of the origin of Cyrenè seems wholly unconnected, and, indeed, inconsistent with another, which tells how the country was originally peopled by Dorian immigrants from the island of Thera in the Ægean Sea, under the leadership of one Battus, whose descendants, named alternately Battus and Arcesilas, had ever since handed down the sovereignty of the colony from father to son in unbroken succession.
The name "Battus" signifies in Greek a "stammerer;" and it was said that the original founder of the colony had suffered from some impediment to speech, that he had consulted the Delphian oracle in hopes of a cure, and had been directed by the god to proceed to Libya, a country at that time hardly known to the most adventurous mariners of Greece. He obeyed the direction, and his faith was rewarded by a miracle. A lion met him in the deserts, and the sudden fright broke the string of his tongue. Thenceforth he spoke plain. According to this legend, then, the foundation of Cyrenè took place under the auspices of the Delphian oracle, and the Delphian god Apollo was supposed to view with especial favour the prosperity of the city, and the athletic and other distinctions of its citizens. Apollo was always considered as the chief patron-deity of Cyrenè. His temple occupied a conspicuous site in the town; processions in
