5. The most ancient temple of Apollo in THRACE was also founded by Cretans, as well as that at Ismarus or Maroneia;(962) Maron its priest being, according to tradition, a Cretan adventurer.(963) With this sanctuary was probably connected the ancient oracular temple of Apollo at Deræa near Abdera,(964) alluded to in the device on the coins of Abdera; on one side of which Apollo is seen with the arrow in his hand; and on the reverse is a griffin, a symbol which appears to have been adopted by the Teians in consequence of their having resided for some time in their colony of Abdera.
6. The Cretan worshippers of Apollo also established some considerable temples on the Ionian coast. The principal of these was the Didymæum, in the territory of Miletus. Before the Ionic migration, Miletus was a Cretan fortress, on the coast, in a country at that time called Caria.(965) The disagreement of traditions as to whether Sarpedon or Miletus (the Cretan) was the founder, confirms, rather than weakens, the principal fact of its settlement from Crete, both traditions describing the same fact in a different manner. With the founding of this stronghold was connected that of a temple, which is ascribed to Branchus, an expiatory priest(966) of Delphi, whose name (which was well fitted for a prophet),(967) moulded into a patronymic form, was afterwards adopted by the priests of the temple;(968) the temple itself, and even the place (which was also called Didyma). Thus we here again see a fresh connexion between the Delphians and Cretans, there being indeed hardly any distinction between them before they were dispersed by the different migrations of the Doric race. The worship at Didyma was in fact the same with that of Crete and Delphi; expiatory ceremonies and prophecies being united, and the latter delivered with rites very similar to those observed at the Pythian oracle. Apollo was here called _Philesius_ and _Delphinius_, which names were afterwards adopted by other Ionians;(969) with him was connected Zeus, both, according to Callimachus, being the ancestors of Didyma; and also Artemis, who, in an ancient hymn ascribed to Branchus, is with Apollo addressed under the titles of ἑκάεργος and ἑκαέργη.(970) The ruins of this temple, so highly honoured in Asia, still bear witness to its ancient fame and splendour. From the temple to the harbour(971) Panormus there was a sacred road adorned on both sides with more than sixty statues in a very ancient style of workmanship: amongst these, an Egyptian lion attests the connexion of king Necho with the oracle.(972) The Ionians of Miletus, however, acknowledged the god of Branchidæ as the principal deity in their town, and introduced him into their numerous colonies, from Naucratis(973) to Cyzicus,(974) Parium,(975) Apollonia Pontica,(976) and the distant Taurica: the coins and inscriptions of which place agree in representing him as the guardian deity (προστάτης).(977)