doubt were originally distinct, a Delian hymn and a Pythian hymn.

The Delian hymn describes how Leto, in travail with Apollo,
sought out a place in which to bear her son, and how Apollo, born
in Delos, at once claimed for himself the lyre, the bow, and
prophecy. This part of the existing hymn ends with an encomium
of the Delian festival of Apollo and of the Delian choirs. The
second part celebrates the founding of Pytho (Delphi) as the
oracular seat of Apollo. After various wanderings the god comes
to Telphus, near Haliartus, but is dissuaded by the nymph of the
place from settling there and urged to go on to Pytho where,
after slaying the she-dragon who nursed Typhaon, he builds his
temple. After the punishment of Telphusa for her deceit in
giving him no warning of the dragoness at Pytho, Apollo, in the
form of a dolphin, brings certain Cretan shipmen to Delphi to be
his priests; and the hymn ends with a charge to these men to
behave orderly and righteously.

The Delian part is exclusively Ionian and insular both in style
and sympathy; Delos and no other is Apollo's chosen seat: but the
second part is as definitely continental; Delos is ignored and
Delphi alone is the important centre of Apollo's worship. From
this it is clear that the two parts need not be of one date --
The first, indeed, is ascribed (Scholiast on Pindar "Nem". ii, 2)
to Cynaethus of Chios (fl. 504 B.C.), a date which is obviously
far too low; general considerations point rather to the eighth
century. The second part is not later than 600 B.C.; for 1) the
chariot-races at Pytho, which commenced in 586 B.C., are unknown
to the writer of the hymn, 2) the temple built by Trophonius and
Agamedes for Apollo (ll. 294-299) seems to have been still