ἔνθ᾽ Ἑλλάνων “κ.τ.λ.” Meetings of the Amphictyonic Council were held at the town of Anthela, close to Thermopylae on the west,—where was the sacred precinct of “Δημήτηρ Ἀμφικτυονίς”, containing seats (“ἕδραι”) for the Council, and also a shrine of its legendary founder, Amphictyon ( Her.7. 200). Anachronisms were tolerated by Attic Tragedy, but this is hardly one, from the Greek point of view. The Thessalian and Dorian nucleus of what became the ‘Delphic’ Amphictyony was of immemorial age; Amphictyon was called the son of Deucalion; Acrisius of Argos figured in tradition as an early organiser of the league ( Strabo 9.420). Ἑλλάνων, implying a Panhellenic character, reflects the regular phraseology of the poet's day. The Delphic Amphictyony never actually represented the whole even of Greece Proper; thus it never included the Acarnanians, Arcadians, or Eleans. Yet Her.7. 214 speaks of “οἱ τῶν Ἑλλάνων Πυλαγόροι”: an Argive inscr., older than 416 B.C., calls the Council “τὸ συνέδριον τῶν Ἑλλάνων” (Lebas, Revue Archéol. XI. 577): and Hypereides Epitaph. c. 8. 25 describes those attending it as “οἱ Ἕλληνες ἅπαντες”. ἀγοραὶ Πυλάτιδες: “ἀγορὰ πυλᾶτις”= “πυλαία” (sc. “σύνοδος”), the name for a meeting of the Amphictyons, whether at Pylae or at Delphi,—one of several proofs that the former place was the League's older centre. κλέονται, not ‘are called together,’ but, ‘are famous’: cp. O.T. 1451 “ἔνθα κλῄζεται” | “οὑμὸς Κιθαιρών” (n.).—See Appendix.
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Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part V: The Trachiniae. Sir Richard C. Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1902.
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