DEL 



600 



DEL 



Belof. from the Hyperboreans, bearing the first fruits of their 

 ■" "Y" - ' country. The site of that nation is not ascertained, but 

 we learn that the rights of hospitality having been vio- 

 lated with respect to their deputies, they thenceforward 

 employed an intermediate people to convey their offer- 

 ings. The decease of two priestesses is commemorated, 

 who were entombed at Rhenxa, or Great Delos; for it 

 was considered inconsistent with the sanctity of the 

 island that the dust of mortals should be mixed with 

 its soil, or that any one should be born upon it. Wo- 

 men whose term of parturition approached, were there- 

 fore carried to Rhenea, and likewise dying persons : It 

 appears, however, that there was some difficulty in the 

 latter case; for we find successive ordinances for the puri- 

 fication of the island, by transporting all the dead bodies 

 from it to Rhenea: and on one occasion of purifica- 

 tion, the Athenians, to whom the island belonged, ex* 

 pelled the whole inhabitants. " How can you call De- 

 los your native country," said a certain person to ano- 

 ther, " seeing you could neither be born there, nor can 

 you die on it ?" 



The great resort of strangers enriched the island ; it 

 was equally famed for wealth and merchandize, and the 

 ancients called it the treasury and emporium of Greece. 

 Cornelius Nepos, speaking of a contribution by the 

 states, uses these words : Quantum pecuniae quceque civi- 

 tas daret Aristides delectus est qui constitueret. Ejus 

 arbitrio quadraginta et sexaginta talenta quotannis De- 

 lum sunt collata. Id enim commune cerarium esse vo- 

 luerint. Cicero, in one of his orations, calls Delos " an 

 island whither all repair with cargoes and merchandize." 

 AndStrabo describes it as a great and opulent emporium, 

 of such importance, that a proverb passed current, 

 " Merchants freight a ship, dispatch her thither, and 

 every thing is sold." 



Delos, along with the revolutions of the surrounding 

 state, declined from its ancient splendour ; it experien- 

 ced disasters, and was plundered of its riches, whence 

 Pausanias, who lived in the second century of the 

 Christian aera, records its decay : " Delos, which was 

 formerly the emporium of Greece, is now so completely 

 deserted, that if the sacred deputations of the Athenians 

 were discontinued, the island would be almost destitute 

 of people, counting Delians only." 



It is now covered with ruins, among which the co- 

 lumns, altars, porticoes, and inscriptions, attest its for- 

 mer glory ; but whether the destruction of its magnifi- 

 cent edifices resulted from the hands of men, or from 

 the convulsions of the earth, so common in those regions, 

 has not been preserved in history. The names of ma- 

 ny distinguished characters of antiquity are disclosed 

 among the fragments, such as Philip king of Macedon, 

 Nicomedes Epiphanes king of Bithynia, Mithridates, 

 and the like. The theatre, which, from an ancient in- 

 scription, appears to have been situated within the city 

 of Delos, consisted of white marble, and is shewn by 

 its remains to have been about 250 feet in diameter and 

 500 in circuit. Not far from the sea, are also the re- 

 mains of the Naumachia, for naval exhibitions, an oval 

 basin 289 feet in length by 200 in breadth, and 4 feet 

 deep above the rubbish covering the bottom. The 

 whole has been plastered with a very thick cement to 

 confine the water, and it was encircled by a row of co- 

 lumns. Besides these, there are the ruins of a gymnasi- 

 um, where competitions took place for prizes, which, 

 to this day, is called " the schools," by the neighbour- 

 ing islanders. The stream Inopus, exaggerated by the 

 ancients as a river, is at present an inconsiderable brook 

 rising from a fountain. 



Delos is now totally deserted, except when occasion- 

 ally the resort of pirates, who are said to murder navi- 

 gators, and throw their bodies into the sea. Its nuns 

 are likewise a copious store of materials, either for form- 

 ing bullets for the unwieldy artillery of the Turks, or 

 for being employed in other edifices by the inhabitants 

 of the Archipelago. 



Great Delos is an island considerably larger than the 

 other, being fifteen or eighteen miles in circuit. The 

 soil is said to be peculiarly adapted for the culture of 

 vines and olives, and the Greeks of Myconi sow the 

 most fertile parts with grain, and pasture some flocks 

 upon it. Thus it is more favourable for population 

 than Little Delos, which consists universally of schist 

 or granite, and Mount Cynthus is entirely a hill of the 

 latter. Though the history of the lesser island is the 

 more celebrated, Great Delos appears, from the ruins 

 with which it is covered, to have scarcely been inferior 

 in splendour ; and the tombs which are spoken of by the 

 ancients still remain, some being of surprizing elegance. 

 A Greek historian observes, that in his time most of 

 them were occupied by the bodies of Carians and Phe- 

 nicians, which was ascertained by their armour and the 

 position wherein they lay. Tournefort counted 120 al- 

 tars, which were chiefly cylindrical, and ornamented by 

 sculptures. 



The Knights of Malta had an establisliment on 

 Great Delos, which afterwards fell to decay, and the 

 island is no longer inhabited. The inhabitants of 

 Myconi pay a small revenue to the Turkish govern- 

 ment for the privilege of occupying both for tem- 

 porary uses. See Spanheim Observationes in Hym- 

 num Callimachi in Delum, p. 316 — 525; Taylor Mar- 

 mor Sandvicense ; Corsinii Fasti Attici ; Spon Mis- 

 cellanea eruditce Antiquitatis ; Spon et Wheler Voyages, 

 torn. i. p. 172; Tournefort Voyages, torn. i. p. 342; 

 Choiseul Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, torn. 1. p. 50 ; 

 and Olivier Voyages, torn. 3. p. 305. (c) 



DELPHI. See Greece and Oracle. 



DELPHINIUM, a genus of plants of the class Poly- 

 andria, and order Trigynia. See Botany, p. 237. 



DELTA. See Egypt. 



DELUGE, in theology, signifies in general any great 

 inundation ; but more particularly that universal flood 

 by which the whole inhabitants of this globe were de- 

 stroyed, except Noah and his family. According to the 

 most approved systems of chronology, this remarkable 

 event happened in the year 1656 after the creation, or 

 about 2348 before the Christian aera. 



Of so general a calamity, from which only a single 

 family of all who lived then on the face of the earth was 

 preserved, we might naturally expect to find some memo- 

 rials in the traditionary records of Pagan history, as 

 well as in the sacred volume, where its peculiar cause, 

 and the circumstances which attended it, are so distinctly 

 and fully related. Its magnitude and singularity could 

 scarcely fail to make an indelible impression on the 

 minds of the survivors, winch would be communicated 

 from them to their children, and would not be easily 

 effaced from the traditions even of their latest posterity. 

 A deficiency in such traces of this awful event, though 

 perhaps it might not serve entirely to invalidate our 

 belief of its reality, would certainly tend considerably 

 to weaken its claim to credibility; it being scarcely 

 probable that the knowledge of it should be utterly lost 

 to the rest of the world, and confined to the documents 

 of the Jewish nation alone. What we might reasonably 

 expect, has, accordingly, been actually and completely 

 realised. The evidence which has been broueht, from 



Oelot 



il 

 Deluge. 



