Apollo

Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original (Louvre Museum)

In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων, Apóllōn; or Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), was the god of light, truth, archery, music, medicine and healing, and also a bringer of death-dealing plague. Further, he, as the patron of Delphi ("Pythian Apollo"), an oracular god. For his multifarious characterizations, it is not surprising that he was seen as one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities. In this context, Apollo was depicted as the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of the chaste huntress Artemis, who was generally seen as the goddess of the moon.

In classical times, he took the place of Helios as god of the sun. However, Apollo and Helios remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts.. Apollo also had dominion over colonists, over medicine (mediated through his son Asclepius), and was the patron defender of herds and flocks. Finally, as the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, he was seen as the god of music and poetry.

Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. In Roman mythology, he was initially known as Apollo, though he gradually became identified with Sol, the Sun.

Etymology

The etymology of the theonym is uncertain. It may have had an original meaning of "the destroyer", cognate to ἀπόλλυμι "destroy" (c.f. Apollyon).<reference?>

Several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, Plato in Cratylus connects the name with ἀπόλυσις "redeem", with ἀπόλουσις "purification", and with ἁπλοῦν "simple", in particular in reference to the Thessalian form of the name, Ἄπλουν, and finally with Ἀει-βάλλων "ever-shooting".<reference?> The ἁπλοῦν suggestion is repeated by Plutarch in Moralia in the sense of "unity".<reference?> 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.<reference?>

Mythology

Birth

After one of Zeus's frequent sexual conquests, Leto (the soon-to-be mother of Apollo and Artemis) found herself pregnant. When the jealous Hera became aware of the titaness's state, she vengefully banned Leto from giving birth on "terra firma", or the mainland, or any island. Condemned by the Queen of the Gods to wander the earth, Leto fortuitously found the newly created floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island, which allowed her to circumvent Hera's fiat and give birth there. Afterwards, Zeus, who may have been involved in the orchestration of such a geological improbability, secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. This island later became sacred to Apollo.<reference?>

In a parallel account, it is suggested that Hera kidnapped Ilithyia (the goddess of childbirth) in order to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods, sympathetic to her plight, tricked Hera into releasing the birthing-god by offering her an enormous amber necklace. Mythographers posit 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 assisted her mother in crossing the sea to Delos the next day to birth her twin. Apollo was born on the seventh day (ἡβδομαγενης) 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.<reference?>

Youth

File:The Flaying of Marsyas.jpg

The Flaying of Marsyas by Titian, c.1570-76.

Though Apollo came to be associated with music, magic and medicine, his youth was filled with violence and bloodshed. For instance, Apollo, while still a youth, killed the chthonic dragon Python that lived in Delphi beside the Castalian Spring. The young god was motivated by his prey's attempt to rape Leto (his mother) while she was pregnant. Though successful in combat, Apollo had to be punished for his victory, since Python was a child of Gaia.

More blatantly, the young Apollo was occasionally famed for his wanton cruelty. In one case, he ordered the flesh flayed from Marsyas, a satyr, who dared challenge him to a music contest. He also afflicted men with his arrows of plague, infecting the Greeks (who had dishonored his priest Chryses) and, in particular, Niobe, who had disparaged Apollo's mother, Leto, for having only two children (Apollo and Artemis) compared to her own brood of (twelve or) fourteen. In the latter case, Apollo and his sister also cold-bloodedly slay all of her children as well.<reference?>

Apollo and Admetus

After a feud with Zeus (culminating in Zeus's murder of Asclepius and Apollo's retaliatory killing of the Cyclops), Apollo was threatened with permanent banishment to the darkness of Tartarus. Fortunately for the god of Light, his mother intervened on his behalf, and convinced the King of the Gods to accept one year of hard labor as an alternate punishment. During this time, Apollo served as shepherd for King Admetus of Pherae (in Thessaly). Admetus treated Apollo well, and, in return, the god conferred great benefits on him. Specifically, 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.

Apollo during the Trojan War

Though Apollo was not a central player in the events surrounding the Trojan war, his intervention was decisive in turning the tide of battle on more than one occasion. In one case, the invading Greeks captured Chryseis (the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo) and refused to release her. The grief-stricken priest prayed to his patron, who responded by launching volley upon volley of plague arrows into the Greek encampment, decimating many of the invaders. Responding to this, Agamemnon agreed to return the girl to her father, but then confiscated Briseis (the prize of Achilles) to be his own. This singular act spawned the storied wrath of the slighted warrior, who then refused to fight for the Greek army, thus yielding one of the central events of the Iliad.

In a later Roman version of the conflict, Apollo is also credited with guiding Menelaüs's aim when the king fires the shot that ultimately kills Achilles.

Apollo's consorts and children

Despite the god's physical beauty, he was often depicted as tremendously unlucky in love. This theme was particularly well-developed in materials from the later classical period.

Female lovers

In an unfortunately typical account, Apollo advances on the the nymph Daphne, daughter of Peneus, were unilaterally rebuffed. Though the god did not know it, his infatuation had been caused by an arrow from Eros, who was piqued with Apollo for mocking his archery skills. To further savor his revenge, had also shot a lead (hate) arrow into Daphne, which caused her feelings of intense repulsion. Following a spirited chase, Daphne prayed to Mother Earth (or alternatively to her father, a river god) to help her, and she was transformed into a Laurel tree, which thereafter became sacred to Apollo.<reference?>

The catalogue of failed romances continues with Marpessa, who chose Idas (a mortal) over Apollo; Castilia, a nymph fled into a mountain spring rather than accept his advances; Cassandra, who he offered the gift of prophecy, rejected him anyway (and was resultantly cursed); Coronis, the human princess who bore the god's son Asclepius, cuckolded him with a human prince. Regardless of his numerous romantic failures, the god did succeeding in father several children, including Troilius, Asclepius, Aristaeus (the patron god of cattle), and Ion.

Male lovers

File:Hyacinthus.jpg

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 perhaps to be expected from the god of the palaestra, the athletic gathering place for youth (who, not incidentally, competed in the nude), a god said to represent the ideal educator and therefore the ideal erastes ("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. Further, he transformed 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, which commemorated these event, was an important celebration in Spartan religious life.<reference?>

One of his other liaisons was with Acantha, the spirit of the acanthus tree. Upon his death, he was transformed into a sun-loving herb by Apollo, and his bereaved sister, Acanthis, was turned into a thistle finch by the other gods.

Finally, an additional 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 despondent boy into a cypress tree, which associated with grief because the droplets of sap that form upon the trunk have the appearance of amber tears.<references?>

Apollo and the birth of Hermes

Apollo was also the first victim of Hermes, the god of thieves and tricksters. When the latter deity was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia, he was hidden in cave by his mother, Maia, who feared the wrath of Hera if she discovered the paternity of the new-born god. Thus, she wrapped the infant in blankets and stowed him aways, but the preternaturally clever Hermes escaped while she was asleep. Thereafter, 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 the elder god's accusation. Zeus intervened and, claiming to have seen the events, sided with Apollo. Before the god of music could demand restitution, Hermes began to play music on the lyre he had invented. Apollo immediately fell in love with the instrument and offered to simply exchange the cattle for the lyre, and to forgive the young god for his transgression. Hence, Apollo became a master of the lyre and Hermes invented a kind of pipes-instrument called a syrinx.

Musical contests

Pan

Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of the lyre, 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.<reference?>

Attributes and symbols

Apollo's most common attributes were the bow and arrow, the kithara (an advanced version of the common lyre), the plectrum and the sword. Other well-established emblems were the sacrificial tripod, representing his prophetic powers. and the Golden Mean. Animals sacred to Apollo included wolves, dolphins, roe deer, swans, grasshoppers (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).<reference?>

The Pythian Games, which were held every four years at Delphi, were conducted in the god's honor. The laurel bay plant, which was generally used in expiatory sacrifices, was used to construct the crown of victory at these games.

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.<reference?>

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 him. 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", for his association with the temple at Delphoi (Delphi). At Delphi itself, he was also known as Pythios ("Pythian"). 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.<reference?>

In his role as god of a 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.<you need a general reference for these terms>

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 both had shrines in some localities. The expansiveness of the god's cult is demonstrated by the incidence of theophoric names (such as Apollodorus or Apollonios) and toponyms (such as Apollonia), which were common in the Greek world. Apollo's cult was already fully established at the beginning of the historical period of Greek civilization (about 650 B.C.E.).

Oracular shrines

The most famous oracular shrine in the Greek world, located at Delphi, was dedicated to Apollo. Other notable temples could be found in Clarus and Branchidae. In addition, his oracular shrine in Abea (Phocis), was considered to be important enough that is was consulted by Croesus

The following is an annotated list of the various oracular shrines dedicated to Apollo throughout the Hellenic world:

• Didyma, on the coast of Anatolia, south west of Lydian (Luwian) Sardis, where priests from the lineage of the Branchidae received inspiration by drinking from a healing spring located in the temple.
• Hieropolis, Asia Minor, where priests breathed in vapors that for small animals were highly poisonous. Small animals and birds were cast into the Plutonium, a sacrificial pit 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.
• Delos, where there was an oracle to the Delian Apollo, during summer. The Heiron (Sanctuary) of Apollo was located adjacent to the Sacred Lake, which was revered as the deity's birthplace
• Corinth, at the town of Tenea
• Bassae, in the Peloponnese
• Abae, near Delphi
• Delphi, where the Pythia became filled with the pneuma (breath or fumes) of Apollo, said to come from a spring inside the Adyton. In the mythic past, Apollo is thought to have taken this temple from Gaia.
• Patara, in Lycia, where there was a seasonal winter oracle of Apollo, said to have been the place where the god went from Delos. As at Delphi, the Patarian oracle was a woman.
• Clarus, on the west coast of Asia Minor, where, as at Delphi, there was a holy spring that gave off a pneuma, from which the priests drank.
• Segesta]], in Sicily<references?>

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. Regardless, there exist traditions that the Delphic oracle was consulted as early as the period of the Roman Kingdom, during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus. In 430 B.C.E., a temple was dedicated to Apollo on the occasion of a pestilence. During the Second Punic War in 212 B.C.E., the Ludi Apollinares ("Apollonian Games") were instituted in his honor.

In the time of Augustus, who considered himself to be under the special protection of Apollo and was even said to be his son, the worship of Apollo developed and he became one of the chief gods of Rome. After the battle of Actium, Augustus enlarged the Temple of Apollo Sosianus, dedicated a portion of the spoils to the god, and instituted quinquennial games in his honour. He also erected Temple of Apollo in Palatine and transferred the secular games, for which Horace composed his Carmen Saeculare, to Apollo and Diana.

Apollo in art

In art, Apollo is depicted as a handsome beardless young man, often with a lyre (as Apollo Citharoedus) or bow in his hand. Depictions of him have survived among the most prized relics of the classical period. 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 B.C.E.<source?>

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, has now been identified as an Apollo by modern scholars. It was probably never intended as a cult object, but was instead 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. A notable difference with older depictions is that the god's divine nakedness is concealed by his cloak, a mark of increasing conventions of modesty in the later Roman Empire. Another haloed Apollo in mosaic, from Hadrumentum, is now preserved in the museum at Sousse. The conventions of this representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed, curling hair in locks grazing the neck, were developed in the third century B.C.E. to depict Alexander the Great (Bieber 1964, Yalouris 1980). Some time after this mosaic was executed, the earliest depictions of Christ followed suit, depicting him as both beardless and haloed.

<is some of this too specific? more general details?>

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 and was often equated with Celtic gods of similar character.

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.

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.

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.

Apollo Grannus. Grannus was a healing spring god, later equated with Apollo

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.

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)

Literature

Primary sources

• Homer, Iliad ii.595 - 600 (c. 700 B.C.E.);
• Palaephatus, On Unbelievable Tales 46. Hyacinthus (330 B.C.E.);
• Apollodorus, Library 1.3.3 (140 B.C.E.);
• Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 162-219 (AD 1 - 8);
• Pausanias, Description of Greece 3.1.3, 3.19.4 (AD 160 - 176); *Philostratus the Elder, Images i.24 Hyacinthus (AD 170 - 245);
• Philostratus the Younger, Images 14. Hyacinthus (AD 170 - 245);
• Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 14 (AD 170);
• First Vatican Mythographer, 197. Thamyris et Musae

Secondary sources

• D. Bassi, Saggio di Bibliografia mitologica, i. Apollo (1896)
• M. Bieber, 1964. Alexander the Great in Greek and Roman Art (Chicago)
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Walter Burkert, 1985. Greek Religion (Harvard University Press) III.2.5 passim
• Gaston Colin, Le Culte d'Apollon pythien à Athènes (1905)
• Daremberg and Saglio Dictionnaire des antiquités
• Louis Dyer, Studies of the Gods in Greece (1891)
• L. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iv. (1907)
• Robert Graves, 1960. The Greek Myths, revised edition (Penguin)
• Miranda J. Green, Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1997
• O. Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte, ii. (1906)
• R. Hecker, De Apollinis apud Romanos Cultu (Leipzig, 1879)
• Karl Kerenyi, Apollon: Studien über Antiken Religion und Humanität rev. ed. 1953.
• Kerenyi, Karl, 1953. Apollon: Studien über Antike Religion und Humanität, second edtion
• Karl Kerenyi , 1951 The Gods of the Greeks
• J. Marquardt, Römische Staalsverwaltung, iii.
• Arthur Milchhoefer, Über den attischen Apollon (Munich, 1873)
• 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.
• L. Preller, Griechische und romische Mythologie (4th ed. by C. Robert)
• W. H. Roscher, Studien zur vergleichenden Mythologie der Griechen und Romer, i. (Leipzig, 1873)
• W. H. Roscher, Lexikon der Mythologie
• F. L. W. Schwartz, De antiquissima Apollinis Natura (Berlin, 1843)
• J. A. Schönborn, Über das Wesen Apollons (Berlin, 1854)
• Theodor Schreiber, Apollon Pythoktonos (Leipzig, 1879)
• William Smith (lexicographer), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1870, article on Apollo,

• N. Yalouris, 1980. The Search for Alexander (Boston) Exhibition.

• Ando, Clifford (editor). Roman Religion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-74386-1566-0.
• Wissowa, Georg. Religion und Kultus der Romer. München: C. H. Beck, 1902.

See also

• 1. Apollo and Hyacinthus, read by Timothy Carter

External links

• Greek Mythology resource
• The Temple of Apollo, Rome
• The stories of Apollo and Hyacinthus; and Apollo and Cyparissus; and Apollo and Orpheus
• Apollo and the Romans

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