# Chapter 20
On the other hand, inside the holy Temple of Apollo. Those who paid tribute all returned to their accommodations outside the religious building; only Pythia, Apollo’s priestess, was left inside, putting enough wood into the hearth until dawn to keep the fire burning. Eight carts of firewood dried well from the Delos area came in. Pythia was very satisfied. The offerings and tribute placed on the altar in the assembly hall were left intact overnight, then stored in the vault to support the temple for a year.
When the priestess also left, only the sound of the fire burning in the hearth quietly resonated in the space. Dionysus, looking down at the place from the throne on Olympus, smiled like a clown and jumped up from his seat. His golden sandals stepped on the goddess of the night’s hair slippingly. Without the muses whom he always accompanied, Dionysus covered the surface under his feet with grapevine leaves and entered the temple.
