9
The month Bysios, as many think, is the month of growth (physios); for it begins the spring and during it many plants spring up and come into bloom. But this is not the truth of the matter, for Delphians do not use b in place of ph (as Macedonians do who say Bilip and balacros and Beronicê), but in place of p; thus they naturally say broceed for proceed and bainful for painful. Accordingly Bysios is pysios, the month of oracular inquiry, in which men ask questions and obtain responses from the god; for this is the legitimate and traditional procedure. In this month, then, oracles used to be given and the seventh day of this month they consider the birthday of the god. Ibid. 717 d; for the connexion of the number seven with the birth of Apollo see Callimachus, Hymn iv. 251 ff. They call this day the day of Many Utterances (Polyphthoös) not because they then bake cakes (phthoïs), cf. Athenaeus, 647 d, 502 b. but because it is a day when many inquire of the god and receive many oracles. For only recently have monthly oracles been given out to inquirers; formerly the prophetic priestess was wont to give responses but once a year on this day, as Callisthenes cf. Jacoby, Frag. der griech. Hist. 124 f 49. and Anaxandrides have recorded.
10
What is the sheep-escaper?
10
It is one of the small plants that grow close to the ground, whose shoots the grazing animals attack, cutting off the tops and injuring them and so spoiling the growth. But when these plants grow up and gain some size and escape injury from the flocks which graze upon them, then they are called sheep-escapers. The evidence for this is Aeschylus.Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. p. 123, Aeschylus, Frag. 447.
11
Who are the Men repulsed by slings?
