that ancient prestige as cooks which led ungrateful gourmands to nickname them ἐλεοδύται, "scullions[1]." Delos was an active centre of the slave-trade. The site of an enclosure in which the human cattle were penned can still be traced at the north-east corner of the island; and this traffic, flourishing close to the altars of the god whose praise was to kindle a light for the prisoners of darkness and pain, must have made Delos a name of horror to thousands of miserable beings.
The glory of Hellenic worship in the island had already paled. Kings who felt or affected reverence for the Greek Apollo had been replaced by Roman officials, who were sceptical, avaricious, or both. But the administration of the temples—now once more controlled by Athens—seems to have been continued on the ancient lines. The new Athenian officials, who succeeded to the hieropoioi of free Delos, have no longer the specious name of amphictyones, as in
- ↑ Pliny, xxxiv. 4, xxxi. 2: Dioscorides, ii. 101: Athenaeus, iv. 173 A (who explains the nickname, διὰ τὸ τοῖς ἐλεοῖς ὑποδύεσθαι, διακονοῦντες ἐν ταῖς θοίναις). The preparation of sacrificial feasts had always been an engrossing occupation for the islanders: μαγείρων καὶ τραπεζοποιῶν παρείχοντο χρείας τοῖς παραγιγνομένοις πρὸς τὰς ἱερουργίας (l.c.). Besides the general appellative ἐλεοδύται, they had, says Athenaeus, many special soubriquets—such as Χοίρακοι, Ἀμνοί, Σήσαμοι, etc. Cp. Cic. Acad. 2, 26. Nothing is certain about the Δηλιάς of the comic poet Nicochares (in Aristot. Poet. 2, Castelvetro would read Δειλιάδα, poltroniad): but Philostephanus wrote a comedy called Δήλιος (Athen. vii. 293 A), and the Δηλιάδες of Cratinus is often cited (Meineke, Frag. I, p. 11). The Δηλία of Antiphanes is known only by name (ib. p. 364).
