This little volume is the outgrowth of several years of inter-
mittent browsing in many books, and of a superficial scanning
of many more as the quest for the Delphic maxims in literature
has become increasingly absorbing. It was γνω + ̑θι σεαυτὸν and
its meaning for the Greeks of old that started the quest; and
when the results of that study had taken shape in the form of a
dissertation on "'Know Thyself' in Greek and Latin Litera-
ture," there remained an awakened curiosity regarding what
the Greeks and Romans had had to say about each of the other
two maxims on the Delphic temple, and regarding the thoughts
which the generations since A.D. 500 have expressed in con-
nection with all three. The results of an investigation of μηδὲν
ἄγαν and of ἐγγύα, πάρα δ̓ ἄτη in classical literature have been
published in Classical Philology for 1926 and 1927, respectively.
The results of the further query form the main body of the
present work--that is, the greater part of chapter iii and
the whole of chapters v-xi. Chapter i contains much of the
material of the Introduction to "'Know Thyself' in Greek and
Latin Literature," revised and brought up to date; and chapter
iv consists of a résumé of the remainder of that work; while
chapter ii and the first few pages of chapter iii are merely
skeleton condensations of the above-named articles on the
other two maxims. This earlier material is included here partly
as a background for the later chapters, and partly for the pur-
pose of gathering within the compass of one convenient little
volume all that we know of consequence regarding the Delphic
inscriptions and the thoughts to which they have given rise in
men's minds.

-v-