will I tell thee, and do thou lay it up in thine heart. The never-ending
din of swift steeds will be a weariness to thee, and the watering of
mules from my sacred springs. There men will choose rather to regard the
well-wrought chariots, and the stamping of the swift-footed steeds, than
thy great temple and much wealth therein. But an if thou--that art
greater and better than I, O Prince, and thy strength is most of might--if
thou wilt listen to me, in Crisa build thy fane beneath a glade of
Parnassus. There neither will goodly chariots ring, nor wilt thou be
vexed with stamping of swift steeds about thy well-builded altar, but
none the less shall the renowned tribes of men bring their gifts to
Iepaeon, and delighted shalt thou gather the sacrifices of them who dwell
around."

Therewith she won over the heart of the Far-darter, even that to Telphusa
herself should be honour in that land, and not to the Far-darter.

Thenceforward didst thou fare, far-darting Apollo, and camest to the city
of the overweening Phlegyae, that reckless of Zeus dwelt there in a
goodly glade by the Cephisian mere. Thence fleetly didst thou speed to
the ridge of the hills, and camest to Crisa beneath snowy Parnassus, to a
knoll that faced westward, but above it hangs a cliff, and a hollow dell
runs under, rough with wood, and even there Prince Phoebus Apollo deemed
well to build a goodly temple, and spake, saying: "Here methinketh to
stablish a right fair temple, to be a place oracular to men, that shall
ever bring me hither goodly hecatombs, both they that dwell in rich
Peloponnesus, and they of the mainland and sea-girt isles, seeking here
the word of sooth; to them all shall I speak the decree unerring,
rendering oracles within my wealthy shrine."

So speaking, Phoebus Apollo marked out the foundations, right long and