THE DECLINE OF SERPENT-WORSHIP. 429

fable that the Zabeans took possession of theDracontium of Delphi, and substituted theirown rites for those of the Ophites. But whetherthe country was still favourably disposed towardsthe old religion, or whether the usurpers desiredto innovate gradually without too much violenceto the prejudices of the votaries of the serpent,they preserved the general form and figure ofthe temple, together with some of its peculiarcustoms. The serpentine avenue was thereforeonly so far disturbed as to admit a centralcircular temple in honour of the Sun 1 ; thePythoness still gave her oracles from the dracontictripod ; and live serpents were still kept in thesubterranean recesses. A similar policy wasobserved by the triumphant children of the sunin other parts of Europe .

11. The idolatry of the serpent lost itsintegrity in Thrace, Macedonia , and Epirus,in a more peaceable manner. It graduallysubsided into the mysteries of Dionusus. Thereis a mention of an attempt to unite it with theidolatry of the sun by a reformer whom historyhas agreed to call “ Orpheus .'’ The real mean-

1 See ch. vi.