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[80] Πυθώ was the oldest name of the place in Phocis where Apollo's oracle was established. In h. Hom. Ap. 362 foll. the name was derived from “πύθεσθαι” because of the ‘rotting’ carcase of the Python which lay there, “ἐνταυθοῖ νῦν πύθευ ἐπὶ χθονὶ βωτιανείρῃ .. ἐξ οὗ νῦν Πυθὼ κικλήσκεται”. Others derive it from “πυ^θέσθαι”, where the quantity of the vowel suggests a difficulty. “Δελφοί” was properly the name of the people; the word first occurs h. Hom. 28. 14 “Δελφῶν ἐς πίονα δῆμον”. Voss (says Nitzsch) dates it from about B.C. 620. O. Müller would explain λάινος οὐδός of a subterranean treasure-house, see the description of the building of the temple by Trophonius, h. Hom. Ap. 295 foll., from which Nitzsch dissents.

Homer's Odyssey. W. Walter Merry. James Riddell. D. B. Monro. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1886-1901.

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