The oldest religious amphictyonic league was known as "Anthelian" because it was centered on the cult of the chthonic goddess Demeter at Anthela. The twelve delegates were entitled "Pylagorai" (gate-assemblers), perhaps a reference to the local Gates of Hades, since Demeter was a chthonic goddess in her older local cults. The immediate dwellers-round were some small states and also Achaea-Phthiotis that probably paved the way for the entry of the body of the rest Boeotian tribes which were living around Thessaly ("perioikoi"). Boeotia and Phocis the remotest may have joined only during or after the "First Sacred War", which led to the defeat of the old priesthood and to a new control of the prosperity of the oracle at Delphi.