QUADRAGENA. St. Paul uses this Word to denote the thirty-nine Lashes which were given in the Synagogues, to those that were convicted of certain Violations of 2 Cor. xi. 24.the Law. Quinquies quadragenas, una minus, accepi. Five times have I received forty Stripes, save one. ‘Twas in obedience to Moses’s Command, who ordered, that the Judges should condemn those to be whipped, who should deserve this Punishment. And it Deut. xxv.shall be, if the wicked Man be worthy to be 23.nor beyond the Number of thirty-nine Stripes. beaten, that the Judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his Face, according to his Fault, by a certain Number. Forty Stripes he may give him, and not exceed; lest if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many Stripes, then thy Brother should seem vile unto thee. They often went below this Number of Forty, because of the Weakness of the Offender, or the Smallness of his Crime. But they never went above it, others, they built her a kind of Stool with three Feet, upon which she might support herself, when she received the Vapour, had her Fits of Enthusiasm, and foretold future Events. This Machine was afterwards called a Tripos, and became a sacred Instrument at Sacrifices; and the Prophetess was called Pythian. Such was the Original of the Oracle at Delphos.
Apollodor. Bibli. l. 1. Ovid. Met. l. 1.‘Tis reported that the most antient Temple of Delphos was only composed of Branches of Laurel Trees. Afterwards it was made of Wax and Bees Wings; then it was made of Brass. The Mythologists pretend, that a Dragon call’d Python kept the Entrance, from whence Themis pronounced the Oracles. That Apollo came thither, and slew this Dragon with his Bow and Arrows, which gave him the Name of Pythian Macrob. Saturn. l. 1. c. 17.Apollo. Others say, that the Serpent Python was produced by the Earth, after the Flood of Deucalion. That Juno made use of this Dragon, to hinder the Delivery of Latona, the eldest Daughter of Jupiter, which obliged her to fly to the Island of Asteria, afterwards called Delos, where she was brought to Bed of Apollo and Diana. That the Python setting upon these two Infants in their Cradle, Apollo killed him with his Arrows, from whence he had the Name of Pythian; and in Memory of this Atchievement, the Pythian Games were instituted. From hence it was also, that they gave the Name of Pythoness to those Women, who undertook to foretel future Events.