“If that is the center of the world,” said young Apollo, “then I will make my home there, and I will build a house in that place, so that my light may be seen in all lands.”

So Apollo went down to Parnassus, and looked about for a spot in which to lay the foundations of his house.  The mountain itself was savage and wild, and the valley below it was lonely and dark.  The few people who lived there kept themselves hidden among the rocks as if in dread of some great danger.  They told Apollo that near the foot of the mountain where the steep cliff seemed to be split in two there lived a huge serpent called the Python.  This serpent often seized sheep and cattle, and sometimes even men and women and children, and carried them up to his dreadful den and devoured them.

“Can no one kill this beast?” said Apollo.

And they said, “No one; and we and our children and our flocks shall all be slain by him.”

Then Apollo with his silver bow in his hands went up towards the place where the Python lay.  The monster had worn great paths through the grass and among the rocks, and his lair was not hard to find.  When he caught sight of Apollo, he uncoiled himself, and came out to meet him.  The bright prince saw the creature’s glaring eyes and blood-red mouth, and heard the rush of his scaly body over the stones.  He fitted an arrow to his bow, and stood still.  The Python saw that his foe was no common man, and turned to flee.  Then the arrow sped from the bow—­and the monster was dead.

“Here I will build my house,” said Apollo.

Close to the foot of the steep cliff, and beneath the spot where Jupiter’s eagles had fallen, he laid the foundations; and soon where had been the lair of the Python, the white walls of Apollo’s temple arose among the rocks.  Then the poor people of the land came and built their houses near by; and Apollo lived among them many years, and taught them to be gentle and wise, and showed them how to be happy.  The mountain was no longer savage and wild, but was a place of music and song; the valley was no longer dark and lonely, but was filled with beauty and light.

“What shall we call our city?” the people asked.

“Call it Delphi, or the Dolphin,” said Apollo; “for it was a dolphin that carried my mother across the sea.”

III.  DAPHNE.

In the Vale of Tempe, which lies far north of Delphi, there lived a young girl whose name was Daphne.  She was a strange child, wild and shy as a fawn, and as fleet of foot as the deer that feed on the plains.  But she was as fair and good as a day in June, and none could know her but to love her.

Daphne spent the most of her time in the fields and woods, with the birds and blossoms and trees; and she liked best of all to wander along the banks of the River Peneus, and listen to the ripple of the water as it flowed among the reeds or over the shining pebbles.  Very often she would sing and talk to the river as if it were a living thing, and could hear her; and she fancied that it understood what she said, and that it whispered many a wonderful secret to her in return.  The good people who knew her best said: