Pythios and Pythion: The spread of a cult title

The epithet Pythios/Pythion, unequivocally denoting the cult of Apollo of Delphi, came to have a very widespread distribution throughout the Greek world, comparable only to that of Zeus Olympios. Pre-Hellenistic attestations are summarily reported, showing concentrations (e.g., Attika, Argolis, Thessaly, Aegean islands, Krete), significant vacua (e.g., Boiotia, north-western Greece), and overlaps with the epithets Delphinios and Pythaieus. Likely periods and mechanisms of its spread are sketched, as are possible explanations (colonization, oracles, purification), though without overt preference for any one model of network-formation. © 2007, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC