DELPHINIA

delphinia, a festival of apollo delphinius held annually on the 6th (or 7th) of the month munychion (april) at athens. all that is known of the ceremonies is that a number of girls proceeded to his temple (delphinium) carrying suppliants' branches and seeking to propitiate apollo, probably as a god having influence on the sea. it was at this time of year that navigation began again after the storms of winter. according to the story in plutarch (_theseus_, 18), theseus, before setting out to crete to slay the minotaur, repaired to the delphinium and deposited, on his own behalf and that of his companions on whom the lot had fallen, an offering to apollo, consisting of a branch of consecrated olive, bound about with white wool; after which he prayed to the god and set sail. the sending of the maidens to propitiate the god during the delphinia commemorates this event in the life of theseus. see a. mommsen, _festeder stadt athen_ (1898); l. preller, _griechische mythologie_ (4th ed., 1887); p. stengel, _die griechische kultusaltertumer_ (1898); daremberg and saglio, _dictionnaire des antiquites_; g. f. schomann, _griechische altertumer_ (4th ed., 1897-1902). delphinus ("the dolphin"), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, mentioned by eudoxus (4th century b.c.) and aratus (3rd century b.c.); and catalogued by ptolemy (10 stars), tycho brahe (10 stars), and hevelius (14 stars), [gamma] _delphini_ is a double star: a yellowish of magnitude 4, and a bluish of magnitude 5. delta (from the shape of the gr. letter [delta], delta, originally used of the mouth of the nile), a tract of land enclosed by the diverging branches of a river's mouth and the seacoast, and traversed by other branches of the stream. this triangular tract is formed from the fine silt brought down in suspension by a muddy river and deposited when the river reaches the sea. when tidal currents are feeble, the delta frequently advances some distance seawards, forming a local prolongation of the coast.