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In
Greek and
Roman mythology, 'Apollo' (in
Greek, ''Ἀπόλλων'' — ''Apóllōn'' or ''Ἀπέλλων'' — ''Apellōn''), the ideal of the ''
kouros'' (a beardless youth), was the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a bringer of death-dealing
plague.
As the patron of Delphidia ("Pythian Apollo"), Apollo was an oracular god. He was the prophetic deity of the
Delphic Oracle, as well as one of the most important and many-sided of the
Olympian deities. Apollo also had dominion over
colonists, over
medicine (mediated through his son
Asclepius), and was the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the
Muses ('''Apollon Musagetes''') and director of their choir, he is a god of music and
poetry. Hymns sung to Apollo were called
paeans.
Apollo is son of
Zeus and
Leto, and the
twin brother of the chaste huntress
Artemis, who took the place of
Selene in some myths as goddess of the moon.
Apollo is known in Greek-influenced
Etruscan mythology as 'Apulu'. In Roman mythology he is known as 'Apollo'.
In Hellenistic times, especially during the
3rd century BC, as ''Apollo Helios'' he became identified among Greeks with
Helios,
god of the sun, and his sister similarly equated with
Selene,
goddess of the moon.
[1] In Latin texts, however, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with
Sol among the
Augustan poets of the first century, not even in the conjurations of
Aeneas and
Latinus in ''
Aeneid'' XII (161-215).
[2] Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third century CE.
Etymology
The etymology of ''Apollo'' is uncertain. It may have had an original meaning of "the destroyer", cognate to "destroy" (cf.
Apollyon, which is a form of .) This is not widely accepted in modern scholarship; the disappearance of υ is inexplicable.
Several instances of
popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus,
Plato in ''
Cratylus'' connects the name with "redeem", with "purification", and with "simple", in particular in reference to the Thessalian form of the name, , and finally with "ever-shooting". The ἁ suggestion is repeated by
Plutarch in ''
Moralia'' in the sense of "
unity".
Hesychius connects the name Apollo with the Doric απελλα, which means "assembly", so that Apollo would be the god of political life, and he also gives the explanation σηκος ("fold"), in which case Apollo would be the god of flocks and herds. It is also possible
[3] that ''apellai'' derives from an old form of Apollo which can be equated with Appaliunas, an Anatolian god whose name possibly means "father lion" or "father light". The Greeks later associated Apollo's name with the Greek verb απολλυμι (apollymi) meaning "to destroy".
[4]
It has also been suggested
[5][6] that Apollo comes from the
Hurrian and
Hittite divinity, Aplu, who was widely evoked during the "plague years". Aplu, it is suggested, comes from the Akkadian ''Aplu Enlil'', meaning "the son of Enlil", a title that was given to the god
Nergal, who was linked to
Shamash, Babylonian god of the sun.
Origins of cult
Apollo with a radiant
halo in a Roman floor mosaic,
El Djem, Tunisia, late 2nd century
It appears that both
Greek and
Etruscan Apollo came to the
Aegean during the
Archaic Period (i.e. from c.
1,100 BCE to c.
800 BCE) from
Anatolia.
Homer pictures him on the side of the
Trojans, against the
Achaeans, during the
Trojan War and he has close affiliations with a
Luwian deity, ''
Apaliuna'', who in turn seems to have traveled west from further east. The
Late Bronze Age (from
1,700 BCE -
1,200 BCE)
Hittite and
Hurrian ''Aplu'',
[7] like the Homeric Apollo, was a god of
plagues, and resembles the mouse god ''Apollo Smintheus''. Here we have an
apotropaic situation, where a god originally bringing the plague was invoked to end it, merging over time through fusion with the
Mycenaean "doctor" god Paieon (PA-JA-WO in
Linear B);
Paean, in Homer, was the Greek physician of the gods. In other writers, the word is a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a god of
healing, but it is now known from Linear B that Paean was originally a separate deity.
Homer left the question unanswered, whilst
Hesiod separated the two and, in later poetry Paean was invoked independently as a god of healing. It is equally difficult to separate Paean or Paeon in the sense of "healer" from Paean in the sense of "song." It was believed to refer to the ancient association between the healing craft and the singing of
spells, but here we see a shift from the concerns to the original sense of "healer" gradually giving way to that of "
hymn," from the phrase .
Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo, and afterwards to other gods (i.e.
Dionysus,
Helios,
Asclepius) associated with Apollo. About the
fourth century BCE, the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. It was in this way that Apollo became recognised as the god of music. Apollo's role as the slayer of the
Python led to his association with battle and victory; hence it became the Roman custom for a paean to be sung by an
army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won.
Apollo's links with oracles again seem to be associated with wishing to know the outcome of an illness. Apollo killed the Python of Delphi and took over that oracle, so he is vanquisher of unconscious terrors. He is golden-haired like the sun; he is an archer who shoots arrows of insight and/or death; he is a god of music and the lyre. Healing belongs to his realm: he was the father of Asclepius, the god of
medicine. The Muses are part of his retinue, so that music,
history,
dreams, poetry and
dance all belong to him.
Apollo (the "Adonis" of Centocelle), Roman after a Greek original (
Ashmolean Museum)
Cult sites
Unusual among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that had widespread influence:
Delos and
Delphi. In cult practice, Delian Apollo and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that they might both have shrines in the same locality.
[8] Theophoric names such as ''Apollodorus'' or ''Apollonios'' and cities named
Apollonia are met with throughout the Greek world. Apollo's
cult was already fully established when written sources commenced, about
650 BCE.
Oracular shrines
Apollo had a famous
oracle in Delphi, and other notable ones in
Clarus and
Branchidae. His oracular shrine in
Abae in
Phocis, where he was Apollo Abaeus (''Apollon Abaios'') was important enough to be consulted by
Croesus (
Herodotus, 1.46).
Looking at the ancient oracular shrines to Apollo from the oldest to the youngest we find:
★ In
Didyma, an oracle on the coast of
Anatolia, south west of
Lydian (
Luwian)
Sardis, in which priests from the lineage of the Branchidae received inspiration by drinking from a healing spring located in the temple.
★ In
Hieropolis, Asia Minor, priests breathed in vapors that for small animals were highly poisonous. Small animals and birds were cast into the Plutonium, named after
Pluto—the god of death and the underworld—as a demonstration of their power. Prophecy was by movements of an archaic aniconic wooden ''
xoanon'' of Apollo.
★ In
Delos, there was an oracle to the Delian Apollo, during summer. The
Heiron (Sanctuary) of Apollo adjacent to the Sacred Lake, was the place where the god was born.
★ In
Corinth, the Oracle of Corinth came from the town of
Tenea, from prisoners supposedly taken in the Trojan War
★ In
Bassae in the
Peloponnese
★ In
Abae in
Phocis
★ In
Delphi, the
Pythia became filled with the ''
pneuma'' of Apollo, said to come from a spring inside the
Adyton.
★ At
Patara, in
Lycia, there was a seasonal winter oracle of Apollo, said to have been the place where the god went from Delos. As at Delphi the oracle at Patara was a woman.
★ At
Clarus, on the west coast of
Asia Minor; as at Delphi a holy spring which gave off a ''pneuma'', from which the priests drank.
★ In
Segesta in
Sicily
Oracles were also given by sons of Apollo.
★ In
Oropus, north of
Athens, the oracle
Amphiaraus, was said to be the son of Apollo; Oropus also had a sacred spring.
★ in
Labadea, 20 miles east of Delphi,
Trophonius, another son of Apollo, killed his brother and fled to the cave where he was also afterwards consulted as an oracle.
Festivals
The chief Apollonian festivals were the
Boedromia,
Carneia,
Carpiae,
Daphnephoria,
Delia,
Hyacinthia,
Metageitnia,
Pyanepsia,
Pythia and
Thargelia.
Attributes and symbols
Apollo's most common attributes were the bow and
arrow. Other attributes of his included the
kithara (an advanced version of the common
lyre), the
plectrum and the sword. Another common emblem was the
sacrificial tripod, representing his prophetic powers. The
Pythian Games were held in Apollo's honor every four years at
Delphi. The
laurel bay plant was used in expiatory sacrifices and in making the
crown of victory at these games. The
palm was also sacred to Apollo because he had been born under one in
Delos. Animals sacred to Apollo included
wolves,
dolphins,
roe deer,
swans,
cicadas (symbolizing music and
song),
hawks,
ravens,
crows,
snakes (referencing Apollo's function as the god of prophecy),
mice and
griffins, mythical eagle-lion hybrids of Eastern origin.
As god of colonization, Apollo gave oracular guidance on colonies, especially during the height of colonization, 750–550 BCE. According to Greek tradition, he helped
Cretan or
Arcadian colonists found the city of
Troy. However, this story may reflect a cultural influence which had the reverse direction:
Hittite cuneiform texts mention a Minor Asian god called ''Appaliunas'' or ''Apalunas'' in connection with the city of ''Wilusa'', which is now regarded as being identical with the Greek
Illios by most scholars. In this interpretation, Apollo’s title of ''Lykegenes'' can simply be read as "born in Lycia", which effectively severs the god's supposed link with wolves (possibly a
folk etymology).
In literary contexts, Apollo represents harmony, order, and reason—characteristics contrasted with those of
Dionysus, god of wine, who represents ecstasy and disorder. The contrast between the roles of these gods is reflected in the adjectives
Apollonian and Dionysian. However, the Greeks thought of the two qualities as complementary: the two gods are brothers, and when Apollo at winter left for
Hyperborea, he would leave the Delphic oracle to Dionysus. This contrast appears to be shown on the two sides of the
Borghese Vase.
Apollo is often associated with the
Golden Mean. This is the Greek
ideal of
moderation and a
virtue that opposes
gluttony.
Roman Apollo
The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks. As a quintessentially
Greek god, Apollo had no direct Roman equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred to him as
Phoebus. There was a tradition that the Delphic oracle was consulted as early as the period of the
kings of Rome during the reign of
Tarquinius Superbus.
[9] On the occasion of a pestilence in the
430s BCE, Apollo's
first temple at Rome was established in the Flaminian fields, replacing an older cult site there known as the "Apollinare".
[10] During the
Second Punic War in
212 BCE, the ''
Ludi Apollinares'' ("Apollonian Games") were instituted in his honor, on the instructions of a prophecy attributed to one Marcius.
[11] In the time of
Augustus, who considered himself under the special protection of Apollo and was even said to be his son, his worship developed and he became one of the chief gods of Rome.
[12] After the
battle of Actium, which was fought near a sanctuary of Apollo, Augustus enlarged Apollo's temple, dedicated a portion of the spoils to him, and instituted
quinquennial games in his honour.
[13] He also erected
a new temple to the god on the
Palatine hill.
[14] Sacrifices and prayers on the Palatine to Apollo and
Diana formed the culmination of the
Secular Games, held in 17 BCE to celebrate the dawn of a new era.
[15]
In art
In art, Apollo is depicted as a handsome beardless young man, often with a
kithara (as
Apollo Citharoedus) or bow in his hand. The
Apollo Belvedere is a
marble sculpture that was rediscovered in the late
15th century; for centuries it epitomized the ideals of
Classical Antiquity for Europeans, from the
Renaissance through the
nineteenth century. The marble is a
Hellenistic or Roman copy of a bronze original by the Greek sculptor
Leochares, made between 350 and
325 BCE.
The lifesize so-called "
Adonis" found in 1780 on the site of a ''
villa suburbana'' near the
Via Labicana in the Roman suburb of Centocelle now in the
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, (''illustration, left'') is identified as an Apollo by modern scholars. It was probably never intended as a
cult object, but was a
pastiche of several fourth-century and later Hellenistic model types, intended to please a Roman connoisseur of the second century CE, and to be displayed in his villa.
In the late second century CE floor mosaic from
El Djem, Roman ''Thysdrus'' (''illustration, above right''), he is identifiable as
Apollo Helios by his effulgent
halo, though now even a god's divine
nakedness is concealed by his cloak, a mark of increasing conventions of modesty in the later
Empire. Another haloed Apollo in mosaic, from
Hadrumentum, is in the museum at
Sousse.
[16] The conventions of this representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed, curling
hair cut in locks grazing the neck, were developed in the third century BCE to depict
Alexander the Great (Bieber 1964, Yalouris 1980). Some time after this mosaic was executed, the earliest depictions of Christ will be beardless and haloed.
Mythology
Birth
When
Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on "
terra firma", or the mainland, or any
island. In her wanderings, Leto found the newly created
floating island of
Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island, and she gave birth there. The island was surrounded by swans. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. This island later became sacred to Apollo.
It is also stated that Hera kidnapped
Ilithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods tricked Hera into letting her go by offering her a
necklace, nine yards long, of
amber. Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo, or that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of
Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo. Apollo was born on the seventh day () of the month Thargelion —according to Delian tradition— or of the month Bysios— according to Delphian tradition. The seventh and twentieth, the days of the new and
full moon, were ever afterwards held sacred to him.
Youth
In his youth, Apollo killed the chthonic dragon
Python, which lived in
Delphi beside the
Castalian Spring because Python had attempted to rape Leto while she was pregnant with Apollo and Artemis. This was the spring which emitted vapors that caused the oracle at Delphi to give her prophesies. Apollo killed Python but had to be punished for it, since Python was a child of
Gaia.
Apollo has his ominous aspects, too.
Marsyas, a
satyr who dared challenge him to a music contest, was flayed after he lost. Apollo brought down arrows of plague upon the Greeks because they dishonored his priest
Chryses. Apollo's arrows of plague struck
Niobe, who, excessively proud of her seven sons and seven daughters, had disparaged Apollo's mother, Leto, for having only two children (Apollo and Artemis).
Admetus
When Zeus struck down Apollo's son Asclepius, with a lightning bolt for resurrecting the dead (transgressing
Themis by stealing
Hades's subjects), Apollo in revenge killed the
Cyclops, who had fashioned the bolt for Zeus. Apollo would have been banished to
Tartarus forever, but was instead sentenced to one year of
hard labor as punishment, thanks to the intercession of his mother,
Leto. During this time he served as shepherd for
King Admetus of
Pherae in
Thessaly. Admetus treated Apollo well, and, in return, the god conferred great benefits on Admetus.
Apollo helped Admetus win
Alcestis, the daughter of
King Pelias and later convinced the
Fates to let Admetus live past his time, if another took his place. But when it came time for Admetus to die, his elderly parents, whom he had assumed would gladly die for him, refused to cooperate. Instead, Alcestis took his place, but
Heracles managed to "persuade"
Thanatos, the god of death, to return her to the world of the living.
Trojan War
Apollo shot arrows infected with the plague into the Greek encampment during the
Trojan War in retribution for
Agamemnon's insult to
Chryses, a priest of Apollo whose daughter
Chryseis had been captured. He demanded her return, and the Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the anger of Achilles, which is the theme of the ''
Iliad''.
When
Diomedes injured
Aeneas (''
Iliad''), Apollo rescued him. First,
Aphrodite tried to rescue Aeneas but Diomedes injured her as well. Aeneas was then enveloped in a cloud by Apollo, who took him to
Pergamos, a sacred spot in
Troy.
Apollo aided
Paris in the killing of
Achilles by guiding the arrow of his bow into
Achilles' heel. One interpretation of his motive is that it was in revenge for Achilles' sacrilege in murdering
Troilus, the god's own son by
Hecuba, on the very altar of the god's own temple.
Niobe
A queen of
Thebes and wife of
Amphion,
Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (
Niobids), seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, with the last begging for his life, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions of the myth, a number of the Niobids were spared (
Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing revenge. A devastated Niobe fled to
Mount Sipylon in
Asia Minor and turned into stone as she wept. Her tears formed the river
Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone and so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.
Consorts and children
Female lovers
Apollo chased the nymph
Daphne, daughter of
Peneus, who had scorned him. His infatuation was caused by an arrow from
Eros, who was jealous because Apollo had made fun of his archery skills. Eros also claimed to be irritated by Apollo's singing. Simultaneously, however, Eros had shot a lead (hate) arrow into Daphne, causing her to be repulsed by Apollo. Following a spirited chase by Apollo, Daphne prayed to Mother Earth, or, alternatively, her father - a
river god - to help her and he changed her into a
Laurel tree, which became sacred to Apollo: see
Apollo and Daphne.
Apollo had an affair with a human princess named
Leucothea, daughter of
Orchamus and sister of
Clytia. Leucothea loved Apollo who disguised himself as Leucothea's mother to gain entrance to her chambers. Clytia, jealous of her sister because she wanted Apollo for herself, told Orchamus the truth, betraying her sister's trust and confidence in her. Enraged, Orchamus ordered Leucothea to be buried alive. Apollo refused to forgive Clytia for betraying his beloved, and a grieving Clytia wilted and slowly died. Apollo changed her into an incense plant, either heliotrope or sunflower, which follows the sun every day.
Marpessa was kidnapped by
Idas but was loved by Apollo as well.
Zeus made her choose between them, and she chose Idas on the grounds that Apollo, being immortal, would tire of her when she grew old.
Castalia was a
nymph whom Apollo loved. She fled from him and dived into the
spring at Delphi, at the base of
Mt. Parnassos, which was then named after her. Water from this spring was sacred; it was used to clean the Delphian temples and inspire poets.
By
Cyrene, Apollo had a son named
Aristaeus, who became the patron god of cattle,
fruit trees, hunting, husbandry and
bee-keeping. He was also a
culture-hero and taught humanity dairy skills and the use of nets and traps in hunting, as well as how to cultivate olives.
With
Hecuba, wife of King
Priam of
Troy, Apollo had a son named
Troilus. An
oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated as long as Troilus reached the age of twenty alive. He was ambushed and killed by
Achilles.
Apollo also fell in love with
Cassandra, daughter of Hecuba and Priam, and Troilus' half-sister. He promised Cassandra the gift of prophecy to seduce her, but she rejected him afterwards. Enraged, Apollo indeed gifted her with the ability to know the future, with a curse that she could only see the future tragedies and that no one would ever believe her.
Coronis, daughter of
Phlegyas, King of the
Lapiths, was another of Apollo's liaisons. Pregnant with
Asclepius, Coronis fell in love with
Ischys, son of
Elatus. A crow informed Apollo of the affair. When first informed he disbelieved the crow and turned all crows black (where they were previously white) as a punishment for spreading untruths. When he found out the truth he sent his sister, Artemis, to kill Coronis. As a result he also made the crow sacred and gave them the task of announcing important deaths. Apollo rescued the baby and gave it to the
centaur Chiron to raise. Phlegyas was irate after the death of his daughter and burned the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Apollo then killed him for what he did.
In
Euripides' play ''
Ion'', Apollo fathered
Ion by
Creusa, wife of
Xuthus. Creusa left Ion to die in the wild, but Apollo asked
Hermes to save the child and bring him to the oracle at
Delphi, where he was raised by a priestess.
One of his other liaisons was with
Acantha, the spirit of the
acanthus tree. Upon her death, Apollo transformed her into a sun-loving herb.
Male lovers
'Apollo and Hyacinthus'
Jacopo Caraglio; 16th c. Italian engraving
Apollo, the eternal beardless
kouros himself, had the most prominent male relationships of all the
Greek Gods. That was to be expected from a god who was god of the
palaestra, the athletic gathering place for youth who all competed
in the nude, a god said to represent the ideal educator and therefore the ideal
erastes, or lover of a boy (Sergent, p.102). All his lovers were younger than him, in the style of the
Greek pederastic relationships of the time. Many of Apollo's young beloveds died "accidentally", a reflection on the function of these myths as part of
rites of passage, in which the youth died in order to be reborn as an adult.
Hyacinth was one of his male lovers. Hyacinthus was a
Spartan prince, beautiful and athletic. The pair were practicing throwing the
discus when Hyacinthus was struck in the head by a discus blown off course by
Zephyrus, who was jealous of Apollo and loved Hyacinthus as well. When Hyacinthus died, Apollo is said in some accounts to have been so filled with grief that he cursed his own immortality, wishing to join his lover in mortal death and made Zephyrus into the wind so that he could never truly touch or speak to anyone again. Out of the blood of his slain lover Apollo created the
hyacinth flower as a memorial to his death, and his tears stained the flower petals with ''άί'' ''άί'', meaning alas. The Festival of Hyacinthus was a celebration of Sparta.
Another male lover was
Cyparissus, a descendant of
Heracles. Apollo gave the boy a tame deer as a companion but Cyparissus accidentally killed it with a
javelin as it lay asleep in the undergrowth. Cyparissus asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo turned the sad boy into a
cypress tree, which was said to be a sad tree because the sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.
Birth of Hermes
Hermes was born on
Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. The story is told in the
Homeric Hymn to
Hermes. His mother,
Maia, had been secretly impregnated by
Zeus. Maia wrapped the infant in blankets but Hermes escaped while she was asleep. Hermes ran to
Thessaly, where Apollo was grazing his cattle. The infant Hermes stole a number of his cows and took them to a cave in the woods near
Pylos, covering their tracks. In the cave, he found a
tortoise and killed it, then removed the insides. He used one of the cow's intestines and the tortoise shell and made the first
lyre. Apollo complained to Maia that her son had stolen his cattle, but Hermes had already replaced himself in the blankets she had wrapped him in, so Maia refused to believe Apollo's claim. Zeus intervened and, claiming to have seen the events, sided with Apollo. Hermes then began to play music on the lyre he had invented. Apollo, a god of music, fell in love with the instrument and offered to allow exchange of the cattle for the lyre. Hence, Apollo became a master of the lyre and Hermes invented a kind of pipes-instrument called a
syrinx.
Later, Apollo exchanged a
caduceus for a
syrinx from Hermes.
Other stories
Apollo gave the order through the Oracle at Delphi, for
Orestes to kill his mother,
Clytemnestra, and her lover,
Aegisthus. Orestes was punished fiercely by the
Erinyes (the
Furies,
female personifications of
vengeance) for this crime. Relentlessly pursued by the Furies, Orestes asked for the intercession of
Athena, who decreed that he be tried by a
jury of his
peers, with Apollo acting as his attorney.
In the
Odyssey,
Odysseus and his surviving crew landed on an island sacred to Helios the sun god, where he kept sacred cattle. Though Odysseus warned his men not to (as
Tiresias and
Circe had told him), they killed and ate some of the cattle and Helios had
Zeus destroy the ship and all the men save
Odysseus.
Apollo also had a
lyre-playing contest with
Cinyras, his son, who
committed suicide when he lost.
Apollo killed the
Aloadae when they attempted to storm
Mt. Olympus.
It was also said that Apollo rode on the back of a swan to the land of the
Hyperboreans during the winter months, a swan that he also lent to his beloved Hyacinthus to ride.
Apollo turned
Cephissus into a
sea monster.
Musical contests
Pan
Once
Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of the
kithara, to a trial of skill.
Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen to umpire. Pan blew on his pipes, and with his rustic melody gave great satisfaction to himself and his faithful follower,
Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but Midas agreed with the judgment. He dissented, and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer, and caused them to become the ears of a
donkey.
Marsyas
''The Flaying of Marsyas'' by
Titian, c.1570-76.
was a
satyr who challenged Apollo to a contest of music. He had found an
aulos on the ground, tossed away after being invented by
Athena because it made her cheeks puffy. Marsyas lost and was
flayed alive in a cave near
Calaenae in
Phrygia for his
hubris to challenge a god. His blood turned into the river Marsyas.
Another variation is that Apollo played his instrument (the lyre) upside down. Marsyas could not do this with his instrument (the
flute), and so Apollo hung him from a tree and flayed him alive. [taken from ''MAN MYTH & MAGIC'' by Richard Cavendish]
Graeco-Roman epithets and cult titles
Apollo, like other Greek deities, had a number of
epithets applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in
Latin literature, chief among them '
Phoebus' ("shining one"), which was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans in Apollo's role as the god of light.
In Apollo's role as healer, his appellations included 'Akesios' and 'Iatros', meaning "healer". He was also called 'Alexikakos' ("restrainer of evil") and 'Apotropaeus' ("he who averts evil"), and was referred to by the Romans as 'Averruncus' ("averter of evils"). As a plague god and defender against rats and locusts, Apollo was known as 'Smintheus' ("mouse-catcher") and 'Parnopius' ("grasshopper"). The Romans also called Apollo 'Culicarius' ("driving away
midges"). In his healing aspect, the Romans referred to Apollo as 'Medicus' ("the Physician"), and a
temple was dedicated to ''Apollo Medicus'' at Rome, probably next to the temple of
Bellona.
As a god of archery, Apollo was known as 'Aphetoros' ("god of the bow") and 'Argurotoxos' ("with the silver bow"). The Romans referred to Apollo as 'Articenens' ("carrying the bow") as well. As a pastoral shepherd-god, Apollo was known as 'Nomios' ("wandering").
Apollo was also known as 'Archegetes' ("director of the foundation"), who oversaw colonies. He was known as 'Klarios', from the Doric ''klaros'' ("allotment of land"), for his supervision over cities and colonies.
He was known as 'Delphinios' ("Delphinian"), meaning "of the womb", in his association with ''Delphoi'' (
Delphi). At Delphi, he was also known as 'Pythios' ("Pythian"). An
aitiology in the
Homeric hymns connects the epitheton to
dolphins. 'Kynthios', another common epithet, stemmed from his birth on Mt.
Cynthus. He was also known as 'Lyceios' or 'Lykegenes', which either meant "wolfish" or "of
Lycia", Lycia being the place where some postulate that his cult originated.
Specifically as god of prophecy, Apollo was known as 'Loxias' ("the obscure"). He was also known as 'Coelispex' ("he who watches the heavens") to the Romans. Apollo was attributed the epithet 'Musagetes' as the leader of the
muses, and 'Nymphegetes' as "
nymph-leader".
'Acesius' was a surname of Apollo, under which he was worshipped in
Elis, where he had a temple in the
agora. This surname, which has the same meaning as ''akestor'' and ''alezikakos'', characterized the god as the averter of evil.
["Acesius". ''Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology''. London, 1880. ]
Celtic epithets and cult titles
'Apollo' was worshipped throughout the
Roman Empire. In the traditionally
Celtic lands he was most often seen as a healing and sun god. He was often equated with
Celtic gods of similar character.
[17]
'
Apollo Atepomarus' ("the great horseman" or "possessing a great horse"). Apollo was worshipped at
Mauvrieres (Indre) under this name. Horses were, in the Celtic world, closely linked to the sun.
[18][19][20]
'
Apollo Belenus' ('bright' or 'brilliant'). This epithet was given to Apollo in parts of
Gaul, North
Italy and
Noricum (part of modern
Austria. Apollo Belenus was a healing and sun god.
[21][22][23][24][25]
'
Apollo Cunomaglus' ('hound lord'). A title given to Apollo at a shrine in
Wiltshire. Apollo Cunomaglus may have been a god of healing. Cunomaglus himself may originally have been an independent healing god.
[26]
'
Apollo Grannus'. Grannus was a healing spring god, later equated with Apollo
[27][Divinites et sanctuaires de la Gaule, E. Thevonat, 1968, Paris][La religion des Celtes, J. de Vries, 1963, Paris]
'Apollo Maponus'. A god known from inscriptions in Britain. This may a local fusion of Apollo and
Maponus.
'
Apollo Moritasgus' ('masses of sea water'). An epithet for Apollo at Alesia, where he was worshipped as god of healing and, possibly, of physicians.
[28]
'
Apollo Vindonnus' ('clear light'). Apollo Vindonnus had a temple at
Essarois, near
Chatillon-sur-Seine in
Burgundy. He was a god of healing, especially of the eyes.
'Apollo Virotutis' ('benefactor of mankind?'). Apollo Virotutis was worshipped, among other places, at Fins d'Annecy (Haute-Savoire) and at Jublains (Maine-et-Loire) [[29]]
Reception
Apollo has often featured in postclassical art and literature. Percy Bysshe Shelley composed a "Hymn of Apollo" (1820), and the god's instruction of the Muses formed the subject of Igor Stravinsky's ''Apollon musagète'' (1927–1928). Apollo also gave his name to NASA's Apollo Lunar program in the 1960s.
Media
★
Notes
1. For the iconography of the Alexander-Helios type, see H. Hoffmann, 1963. "Helios," in ''Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt'' '2', pp. 117-23; cf. Yalouris, no. 42.
2. Joseph Fontenrose, "Apollo and Sol in the Latin poets of the first century BC", ''Transactions of the American Philological Association'' '30' (1939), pp 439-55; "Apollo and the Sun-God in Ovid", ''American Journal of Philology'' '61' (1940) pp 429-44; and "Apollo and Sol in the Oaths of Aeneas and Latinus" ''Classical Philology'' '38'.2 (April 1943), pp. 137-138.
3. Burkert so holds; ''Greek Religion'' p.144
4. http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=apollo
5. de Grummond, Nancy Thomson (2006) "Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend". (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology)
6. Mackenzie, Donald A. (2005) "Myths of Babylonia and Assyria" (Gutenberg)
7. Bányai, Michael (2003) in "Ancient Near East" wrote "Apollo does not have a Greek provenance but an Anatolian one. Luwian Apaliuna seems to have travelled west from further East. Hurrian Aplu was a God of the Plague, and resembles the mouse God Apollo Smitheus. Hurrian Aplu itself seems derived from the Babylonian "Aplu" meaning a "son of" - a title that was given to the Babylonian plague God, Nergal (son of Enlil)"
8. Burkert 1985:143.
9. Livy 1.56.
10. Livy 3.63.7, 4.25.3.
11. Livy 25.12.
12. Continuity and Change in Roman Religion, J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, , , Oxford University Press, 1979,
13. Suetonius, ''Augustus'' ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#18.2 18.2; Cassius Dio ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#1 51.1.1–3.
14. Cassius Dio ★ class=wikiexternal target=_blank>.html#1.3 53.1.3.
15. ''Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae'' 5050, translated by Religions of Rome: Volume 2: A Sourcebook, Mary Beard, , , Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-521-45015-2 (hbk.); ISBN 0-521-45646-0 (pbk.)
16. http://www.tunisiaonline.com/mosaics/mosaic05b.html
17. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, Miranda J. Green, Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1997
18. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XIII, 1863-1986
19. Pagan Celtic Britain, A. Ross, 1967
20. The Gods of the Celts, M.J. Green, 1986, London
21. Fontes Historiae Religionis Celticae, J. Zwicker, 1934-36, Berlin
22. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum V, XI, XII, XIII
23. ''Le culte de Belenos en Provence occidentale et en Gaule'', Ogam (vol 6), J. Gourcest, 1954
24. ''Le cheval sacre dans la Gaule de l'Est'', Revue archeologique de l'Est et du Centre-Est (vol 2), E. Thevonot, 1951
25. ''Temoignages du culte de l'Apollon gaulois dans l'Helvetie romaine'', Revue celtique (vol 51), 1934
26. The Excavation of the Shrine of Apollo at Nettleton, Whilshire 1956-1971, Society of Antiquaries of London
27. The Celtic Heritage in Hungary, M. Szabo, 1971, Budapest
28. 29. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XIII
30. http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0239.html
References
★
Further reading
Primary sources
★ Homer, ''Iliad'' ii.595 - 600 (c. 700 BCE);
★ Palaephatus, ''On Unbelievable Tales'' 46. Hyacinthus (330 BCE);
★ Apollodorus, ''Library'' 1.3.3 (140 BCE);
★ Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'' 10. 162-219 (1 - 8 CE);
★ Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' 3.1.3, 3.19.4 (160 - 176 CE);
★ Philostratus the Elder, ''Images'' i.24 Hyacinthus (170 - 245 CE);
★ Philostratus the Younger, ''Images'' 14. Hyacinthus (170 - 245 CE);
★ Lucian, ''Dialogues of the Gods'' 14 (170 CE);
★ First Vatican Mythographer, 197. Thamyris et Musae;
★ Sophocles, Oedipus Rex;
Secondary sources
★ M. Bieber, 1964. ''Alexander the Great in Greek and Roman Art'' (Chicago)
★ Walter Burkert, 1985. ''Greek Religion'' (Harvard University Press) III.2.5 ''passim''
★ Robert Graves, 1960. ''The Greek Myths'', revised edition (Penguin)
★ Miranda J. Green, ''Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend'', Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1997
★ Karl Kerenyi, ''Apollon: Studien über Antiken Religion und Humanität'' rev. ed. 1953.
★ Karl Kerenyi , 1951 ''The Gods of the Greeks''
★ Pauly-Wissowa, ''Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft'': II, "Apollon". The best repertory of cult sites (Burkert).
★ Pfeiff, K.A., 1943. ''Apollon: Wandlung seines Bildes in der griechischen Kunst''. Traces the changing iconography of Apollo.
★ William Smith (lexicographer), ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'', 1870, article on Apollo,[30]
★ N. Yalouris, 1980. ''The Search for Alexander'' (Boston) Exhibition.
External links
★ Apollo at the Greek Mythology Link, by Carlos Parada
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