138 THE CLASSICAL PLANTS OF SICILY. 
ancients. It was an emblem of victory, and of peace. For 
the beautiful fable of Daphne, see Ovid Met. lib. i. fab. 10. 
The victors in the Pythian games were crowned with laurel, 
which Pindar calls, I1 Wagvaoia. The bearing of boughs of 
this tree, in honour of Apollo, was agreat festival, and named 
Aapyygiga. It was sacred to Apollo, as we learn from 'Theo- 
critus, Epigram, i. v. 3, ro] ò uekápgoMXor Adgvas tiv, Tibbs 
Hery, Claudian calls the laurel Prophetic, Venturi præscia; 
it was also accounted conducive to inspiration ; hence Homer 
(Hymn in Apol. v. 394.) 
ayyerrover Oemsoras 
Qo/Sou AwArAwvos youcudgov, TTI AEV HTNy 
Xegeiov £x. Ados ylarav Uro Iago. 
Prophets used to have a rod of laurel, see Hesiod Theog. v. 
30; they did even eat the leaves, Augyygéya; and Tibullus 
says of the Sybil, 
ras innoxia Laurus 
Vescar.——— 
Aagynuavréie, the divination by Laurel-leaves, was likewise 
practised in Greece and in Sicily, therefore Theocritus begins 
the second Idyl called Pharmaceutria, thus, Me joi val 
Adgvai; and the noise, or crackling in burning was carefully 
observed, as is explained at v. 23, &c., of the same Idyl. 
Ad&pyay 
+ » "e > A , z 
Alla” x ws dura NAXE wiya, xamrugionoe, 
K7farivas &oðn. 
Confer also Virgil, Ecl. viii. v. 82; and Lucretius, vi. 153, 
states the same thing, 
Nec res ulla magis quam Phoebi Delphica Laurus, 
Terribili sonità flammá crepitante crematur. 
It was a coronary plant, and supposed never to be struck 
by lightning. Tiberius used to wear a crown of laurel 25 
