Delphinius

As surname of Apollo, derived either from his slaying the dragon Delphine or Delphyne (usually called Python) who guarded the oracle at Pytho, or from his having shown the Cretan colonists the way to Delphi, while riding on a dolphin or metamorphosing himself into a dolphin.1

Under this name Apollo had temples at Athens, Cnossus in Crete, Didyma, and Massilia.2 A similar surname is Delphicus (Δελφικός).

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References

Notes

  1. Tzetzes on Lycophron, 208.
  2. Pausanias. Description of Greece x, 19.1; Plutarch. Theseus, 14; Strabo. Geography iv, p. 179; Müller. Aegineticorum Liber, p. 154.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.