Shut in
on all sides by stupendous cliffs, among which flow the inspiring
waters of the Castalian Spring, thousands of feet above which frowns
the summit of Parnassus, on which Deucalion is said to have landed
after the deluge, this romantic valley makes a deep impression on the
mind of the visitor, and it is not strange that at an age when signs
and wonders were looked for in every direction, it should have become
the home of a sibyl.
[Illustration: THE RAVINE OF DELPHI]
The king's messengers to Delphi were his two sons and a nephew named
Lucius Junius Brutus, a young man who had saved his life by taking
advantage of the fact that a madman was esteemed sacred by the Romans,
and assuming an appearance of stupidity [Footnote: _Brutus_ in
Latin means irrational, dull, stupid, brutish, which senses our word
"brute" preserves.] at a time when his tyrannical uncle had put his
brother to death that he might appropriate his wealth. Upon hearing the
question of the king, the oracle said that the portent foretold the
fall of Tarquin. The sons then asked who should take his throne, and
the reply was: "He who shall first kiss his mother." Brutus had
propitiated the oracle by the present of a hollow stick filled with
gold, and learned the symbolical meaning of this reply.
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