Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 38

Apollo is also the protector of cattle and herds, hence _Poimnius_ ("G.o.d of flocks"), _Tragius_ ("of goats"), _Kereatas_ ("of horned animals").

_Carneius_ (probably "horned") is considered by some to be a pre-Dorian G.o.d of cattle, also connected with harvest operations, whose cult was grafted on to that of Apollo; by others, to have been originally an epithet of Apollo, afterwards detached as a separate personality (Farnell, _Cults_, iv. p. 131). The epithet _Maleatas_, which, as the quant.i.ty of the first vowel (a) shows,[2] cannot mean G.o.d of "sheep" or "the apple-tree," is probably a local adjective derived from Malea (perhaps Cape Malea), and may refer to an originally distinct personality, subsequently merged in that of Apollo (see below). Apollo himself is spoken of as a keeper of flocks, and the legends of his service as a herdsman with Laomedon and Admetus point in the same direction. Here probably also is to be referred the epithet _Lyceius_, which, formerly connected with [Greek: luk-] ("s.h.i.+ne") and used to support the conception of Apollo as a light-G.o.d, is now generally referred to [Greek: Lukos] ("wolf") and explained as he who keeps away the wolves from the flock (cf. [Greek: Lukoergos, Lukoktonos]). In accordance with this, the epithet [Greek: Lukogenes] will not mean "born of" or "begetting light," but rather "born from the she-wolf," in which form Leto herself was said to have been conducted by wolves to Delos.

The consecration of the wolf to Apollo is probably the relic of an ancient totemistic religion (Farnell, _Cults_, i. 41; W. Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, new ed., 1894, p. 226).

With the care of the fruits of the earth and the lower animals is a.s.sociated that of the highest animal, man, especially the youth on his pa.s.sage to manhood. As such Apollo is [Greek: kourotrophos] ("rearer of boys") and patron of the palaestra. In many places gymnastic contests form a feature of his festivals, and he himself is proficient in athletic exercises ([Greek: enagonios]). Thus he was supposed to be the first victor at the Olympic games; he overcomes Hermes in the foot-race, and Ares in boxing.

The transition is easy to Apollo as a warlike G.o.d; in fact, the earlier legends represent him as engaged in strife with Python, t.i.tyus, the Cyclopes and the Aloidae. He is _Boedromios_ ("the helper"), _Eleleus_ ("G.o.d of the war-cry"), and the Paean was said to have been originally a song of triumph composed by him after his victory over Python. In Homer he frequently appears on the field, like Ares and Athene, bearing the aegis to frighten the foe. This aspect is confirmed by the epithets _Argyrotoxos_ ("G.o.d of the silver bow"), _Hecatebolos_ ("the shooter from afar"), _Chrysaoros_ ("wearer of the golden sword"), and his statues are often equipped with the accoutrements of war.[3]

The fame of the Pythian oracle at Delphi, connected with the slaying of Python by the G.o.d immediately after his birth, gave especial prominence to the idea of Apollo as a G.o.d of prophecy. Python, always represented in the form of a snake, sometimes nameless, is the symbol of the old chthonian divinity whose home was the place of "enquiry" ([Greek: pythesthai]). When Apollo Delphinius with his wors.h.i.+ppers from Crete took possession of the earth-oracle Python, he received in consequence the name Pythius. That Python was no fearful monster, symbolizing the darkness of winter which is scattered by the advent of spring, is shown by the fact that Apollo was considered to have been guilty of murder in slaying it, and compelled to wander for a term of years and expiate his crime by servitude and purification. Possibly at Delphi and other places there was an old serpent-wors.h.i.+p ousted by that of Apollo, which may account for expiation for the slaying of Python being considered necessary. In the solar explanation, the serpent is the darkness driven away by the rays of the sun. (On the Delphian cult of Apollo and its political significance, see AMPHICTYONY, DELPHI, ORACLE; and Farnell, _Cults_, iv. pp. 179-218.) Oracular responses were also given at Claros near Colophon in Ionia by means of the water of a spring which inspired those who drank of it; at Patara in Lycia; and at Didyma near Miletus through the priestly family of the Branchidae. Apollo's oracles, which he did not deliver on his own initiative but as the mouthpiece of Zeus, were infallible, but the human mind was not always able to grasp their meaning; hence he is called _Loxias_ ("crooked," "ambiguous"). To certain favoured mortals he communicated the gift of prophecy (Ca.s.sandra, the c.u.maean sibyl, Helenus, Melampus and Epimenides).

Although his favourite method was by word of mouth, yet signs were sometimes used; thus Calchas interpreted the flight of birds; burning offerings, sacrificial barley, the arrow of the G.o.d, dreams and the lot, all played their part in communicating the will of the G.o.ds.

Closely connected with the G.o.d of oracles was the G.o.d of the healing art, the oracle being frequently consulted in cases of sickness. These two functions are indicated by the t.i.tles _Iatromantis_ ("physician and seer") and _Oulios_, probably meaning "health-giving" (so Suidas) rather than "destructive." This side of Apollo's character does not appear in Homer, where Paieon is mentioned as the physician of the G.o.ds. Here again, as in the case of Aristaeus and Carneius, the question arises whether Paean (or Paeon) was originally an epithet of Apollo, subsequently developed into an independent personality, or an independent deity merged in the later arrival (Farnell, _Cults_, iv. p.

234). According to Wilamowitz-Mollendorff in his edition of Isyllus, the epithet Maleatas alluded to above is also connected with the functions of the healing G.o.d, imported into Athens in the 4th century B.C. with other well-known health divinities. In this connexion, it is said to mean the "gentle one," who gave his name to the rock Malion or Maleas (O. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, ii. 1442) on the Gortynian coast.

Apollo is further supposed to be the father of Asclepius (Aesculapius), whose ritual is closely modelled upon his. The healing G.o.d could also prevent disease and misfortune of all kinds: hence he is [Greek: alexikakos] ("averter of evil") and [Greek: apotropaios]. Further, he is able to purify the guilty and to cleanse from sin (here some refer the epithet [Greek: iatromantis], in the sense of "physician of the soul").

Such a task can be fitly undertaken by Apollo, since he himself underwent purification after slaying Python. According to the Delphic legend, this took place in the laurel grove of Tempe, and after nine years of penance the G.o.d returned, as was represented in the festival called Stepterion or Septerion (see A. Mommsen, _Delphika_, 1878). Thus the old law of blood for blood, which only perpetuated the crime from generation to generation, gave way to the milder idea of the expiatory power of atonement for murder (cf. the court called [Greek: to epi Delphinio] at Athens, which retained jurisdiction in cases where justifiable homicide was pleaded).

The same element of enthusiasm that affects the priestess of the oracle at Delphi produces song and music. The close connexion between prophecy and song is indicated in Homer (_Odyssey_, viii. 488), where Odysseus suggests that the lay of the fall of Troy by Demodocus was inspired by Apollo or the Muse. The metrical form of the oracular responses at Delphi, the important part played by the paean and the Pythian nomos in his ritual, contributed to make Apollo a G.o.d of song and music, friend and leader of the Muses ([Greek: mousagetes]). He plays the lyre at the banquets of the G.o.ds, and causes Marsyas to be flayed alive because he had boasted of his superior skill in playing the flute, and the ears of Midas to grow long because he had declared in favour of Pan, who contended that the flute was a better instrument than Apollo's favourite, the lyre.

A less important aspect of Apollo is that of a marine deity, due to the spread of his cult to the Greek colonies and islands. As such, his commonest name is _Delphinius_, the "dolphin G.o.d," in whose honour the festival Delphinia was celebrated in Attica. This cult probably originated in Crete, whence the G.o.d in the form of a dolphin led his Cretan wors.h.i.+ppers to the Delphian sh.o.r.e, where he bade them erect an altar in his honour. He is _Epibaterius_ and _Apobaterius_ ("embarker"

and "disembarker"), _Nasiotas_ ("the islander"), _Euryalus_ ("G.o.d of the broad sea"). Like Poseidon, he looks forth over his watery kingdom from lofty cliffs and promontories ([Greek: aktaios], and perhaps [Greek: akritas]).

These maritime cults of Apollo are probably due to his importance as the G.o.d of colonization, who accompanied emigrants on their voyage. As such he is [Greek: agetor] ("leader"), [Greek: oikistes] ("founder"), [Greek: domat.i.tes] ("G.o.d of the home"). As _Agyieus_ ("G.o.d of streets and ways"), in the form of a stone pillar with painted head, placed before the doors of houses, he let in the good and kept out the evil (see Farnell, _Cults_, iv. p. 150, who takes Agyieus to mean "leader"); on the epithet _Prostaterius_, he who "stands before the house," hence "protector," see G.M. Hirst in _Journal of h.e.l.lenic Studies_, xxii.

(1902). Lastly, as the originator and protector of civil order, Apollo was regarded as the founder of cities and legislation. Thus, at Athens, Apollo _Patroos_ was known as the protector of the lonians, and the Spartans referred the inst.i.tutions of Lycurgus to the Delphic oracle.

It has been mentioned above that W.H. Roscher, in the article "Apollo"

in his _Lexikon der Mythologie_, derives all the aspects and functions of Apollo from the conception of an original light-and sun-G.o.d. The chief objections to this are the following. It cannot be shown that on _Greek_ soil Apollo originally had the meaning of a sun-G.o.d; in Homer, Aeschylus and Plato, the sun-G.o.d Helios is distinctly separated from Phoebus Apollo; the constant epithet [Greek: Phoibos], usually explained as the brightness of the sun, may equally well refer to his physical beauty or moral purity; [Greek: lykegenes] has already been noticed. It is not until the beginning of the 5th century B.C. that the identification makes its appearance. The first literary evidence is a fragment of Euripides (_Phaethon_), in which it is especially characterized as an innovation. The idea was taken up by the Stoics, and in the Roman period generally accepted. But the fact of the gradual development of Apollo as a G.o.d of light and heaven, and his identification with foreign sun-G.o.ds, is no proof of an original Greek solar conception of him. Apollo-Helios must be regarded as "a late by-product of Greek religion" (Farnell, _Cults_, iv. p. 136; Wernicke in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencydopadie_). For the manner in which the solar theory is developed, reference must be made to Roscher's article, but one legend may here be mentioned, since it helps to trace the spread of the cult of the G.o.d. It was said that Apollo soon after his birth spent a year amongst the Hyperboreans, who dwelt in a land of perpetual suns.h.i.+ne, before his return to Delphi. This return is explained as the second birth of the G.o.d and his victory over the powers of winter; the name Hyperboreans is explained as the "dwellers beyond the north wind."

This interpretation is now, however, generally rejected in favour of that of H.L. Ahrens,--that Hyperborei is identical with the Perpherees ("the carriers"), who are described as the servants of Apollo, carriers of cereal offerings from one community to another (Herodotus iv. 33).

This would point to the fact that certain settlements of Apolline wors.h.i.+p along the northernmost border of Greece (Illyria, Thrace, Macedonia) were in the habit of sending offerings to the G.o.d to a centre of his wors.h.i.+p farther south (probably Delphi), advancing by the route from Tempe through Thessaly, Pherae and Doris to Delphi; while others adopted the route through Illyria, Epirus, Dodona, the Malian gulf, Carystus in Euboea, and Tenos to Delos (Farnell, _Cults_, iv. p. 100).

The most usual attributes of Apollo were the lyre and the bow; the tripod especially was dedicated to him as the G.o.d of prophecy. Among plants, the bay, used in expiatory sacrifices and also for making the crown of victory at the Pythian games, and the palm-tree, under which he was born in Delos, were sacred to him; among animals and birds, the wolf, the roe, the swan, the hawk, the raven, the crow, the snake, the mouse, the gra.s.shopper and the griffin, a mixture of the eagle and the lion evidently of Eastern origin. The swan and gra.s.shopper symbolize music and song; the hawk, raven, crow and snake have reference to his functions as the G.o.d of prophecy.

The chief festivals held in honour of Apollo were the Carneia, Daphnephoria, Delia, Hyacinthia, Pyanepsia, Pythia and Thargelia (see separate articles).

Among the Romans the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks.

There is a tradition that the Delphian oracle was consulted as early as the period of the kings during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, and in 430 a temple was dedicated to Apollo on the occasion of a pestilence, and during the Second Punic War (in 212) the _Ludi Apollinares_ were inst.i.tuted in his honour. But it was in the time of Augustus, who considered himself under the special protection of Apollo and was even said to be his son, that his wors.h.i.+p developed and he became one of the chief G.o.ds of Rome. After the battle of Actium, Augustus enlarged his old temple, dedicated a portion of the spoil to him, and inst.i.tuted quinquennial games in his honour. He also erected a new temple on the Palatine hill and transferred the secular games, for which Horace composed his _Carmen Saeculare_, to Apollo and Diana.

Apollo was represented more frequently than any other deity in ancient art. As Apollo Agyieus he was shown by a simple conic pillar; the Apollo of Amyclae was a pillar of bronze surmounted by a helmeted head, with extended arms carrying lance and bow. There were also rude idols of him in wood (_xoana_), in which the human form was scarcely recognizable. In the 6th century, his statues of stone were naked, stiff and rigid in att.i.tude, shoulders square, limbs strong and broad, hair falling down the back. In the riper period of art the type is softer, and Apollo appears in a form which seeks to combine manhood and eternal youth. His long hair is usually tied in a large knot above his forehead. The most famous statue of him is the Apollo Belvidere in the Vatican (found at Frascati, 1455), an imitation belonging to the early imperial period of a bronze statue representing him, with aegis in his left hand, driving back the Gauls from his temple at Delphi (279 B.C.), or, according to another view, fighting with the Pythian dragon. In the Apollo Citharoedus or Musagetes in the Vatican, he is crowned with laurel and wears the long, flowing robe of the Ionic bard, and his form is almost feminine in its fulness; in a statue at Rome of the older and more vigorous type he is naked and holds a lyre in his left hand; his right arm rests upon his head, and a griffin is seated at his side. The Apollo Sauroctonus (after Praxiteles), copied in bronze at the Villa Albani in Rome and in marble at Paris, is a naked, youthful, almost boyish figure, leaning against a tree, waiting to strike a lizard climbing up the trunk. The gigantic statue of Helios (the sun-G.o.d), "the colossus of Rhodes," by Chares of Lindus, celebrated as one of the seven wonders of the world, is unknown to us. Bas-reliefs and painted vases reproduce the contests of Apollo with t.i.tyus, Marsyas, and Heracles, the slaughter of the daughters of Niobe, and other incidents in his life.

AUTHORITIES.--F.L.W. Schwartz, _De antiquissima Apollinis Natura_ (Berlin, 1843); J.A. Schonborn, _uber das Wesen Apollons_ (Berlin, 1854); A. Milchhofer, _uber den attischen Apollon_ (Munich, 1873); T.

Schreiber, _Apollon Pythoktonos_ (Leipzig, 1879); W.H. Roscher, _Studien zur vergleichenden Mythologie der Griechen und Romer_, i.

(Leipzig, 1873); R. Hecker, _De Apollinis apud Romanos Cultu_ (Leipzig, 1879); G. Colin, _Le Culte d'Apollon pythien a Athenes_ (1905); L. Dyer, _The G.o.ds in Greece_ (1891); articles in Pauly-Wissowa's _Realencyclopadie_, W.H. Roscher's _Lexikon der Mythologie_, and Daremberg and Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquites_; L. Preller, _Griechische und romische Mythologie_ (4th ed. by C.

Robert); J. Marquardt, _Romische Staalsverwaltung_, iii.; G. Wissowa _Religion und Kultus der Romer_ (1902); D. Ba.s.si, _Saggio di Bibliografia mitologica_, i. _Apollo_ (1896); L. Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, iv. (1907); O. Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, ii. (1906). In the article GREEK ART, fig. 9 represents a bearded Apollo, playing on the lyre, in a chariot drawn by winged horses; fig. 55 (pl. ii.) Apollo of the Belvidere; fig. 76 (pl. v.) a nude and roughly executed colossal figure of the G.o.d.

(J. H. F.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Hesychius; who also gives the explanation [Greek: sekos]

("fold"), in which case Apollo would be the G.o.d of flocks and herds.

[2] The authority for the quant.i.ty is Isyllus.

[3] Hence some have derived "Apollo" from [Greek: apollunai], "to destroy."