one of the four great national festivals of the Greeks, was held near Delphi, anciently called Pytho, in honour it is said of Apollo, who slew Python, a monstrous serpent, near that place. The Cissian plain, where these games were celebrated, contained a hippodromus, or race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in length, and a theatre where were held the musical contests, the most important part of the Pythia. According to most legends, these games were instituted by Apollo himself. Previous to Ol. 48 they had been celebrated at the end of every eighth year; but afterwards, like the Olympia, they were held at the end of every fourth year. According to Boëck, they were celebrated in the spring, in the month of Bucatius, which must have corresponded with the Attic Munychion. During the first Pythiad the victors received xoigasra as their reward, but in the second the reward was a laurel chaplet. The Pythian games were most probably held as long as the Olympic, that is, down to A.D. 394. (Krause, Die Pythien, Nemeen, und Isthmien.)