Delphinia

(Δελφινία), a surname of Artemis at Athens. (Pollux, 10.119.) The masculine form Delphinius is used as a surname of Apollo, and is derived either from his slaying the dragon Delphine or Delphyne (usually called Python) who guarded the oracle at Pytho, or front his having shewn the Cretan colonists the way to Delphi, while riding on a dolphin or metamorphosing himself into a dolphin. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 208.) Under this name Apollo had temples at Athens, Cnossus in Crete, Didyma, and Massilia. (Paus. 1.19.1; Plut. Tiles. 14; Strab. iv. p.179; Müller, Aeginet. p. 154.) [L.S]

(τὰ Δελφίνια). A festival of the same expiatory character as the Apollonia, which was celebrated in various towns of Greece, in honour of Apollo, surnamed Delphinius, who was considered by the Ionians as their θεὸς πατρῷος. The name of the god, as well as that of his festival, must be derived from the belief of the ancients that in the beginning of the month of Munychion (probably identical with the Aeginetan Delphinius) Apollo came through the defile of Parnassus to Delphi and began the battle with Delphyné. As he thus assumed the character of a wrathful god, it was thought necessary to appease him, and the Delphinia accordingly were celebrated at Athens, as well as at other places where his worship had been adopted, on the sixth of Munychion. At Athens seven boys and seven girls carried olive-branches, bound with white wool (called the ἱκετηρία), into the Delphinium (Plut. Thes. 18).