Parnassus
Parnassus [1]
a mountain greatly celebrated among the ancients, and regarded by the Greeks as the central point of their country. It was in Phocis. It has three steep peaks, almost always covered with snow, and seen from a great distance, the highest being fully 8000 feet above the level of the sea; but as only two of them are visible from Delphi, it was customary among the Greeks to speak of the two-peaked Parnassus. On its southern slope lay Delphi, the seat of the famous oracle, and the fountain of Castalia. The highest peak of Mount Parnassus was the scene of the orgies of the worship of Dionysus (Bacchus); all the rest of the mountain was sacred to Apollo and the Muses, whence poets were said to "climb Parnassus," a phrase still thus employed.
