§ 1. The Apollo of Tempe, Delphi, Delos, Crete, Lycia, Troy,
Athens, and Peloponnesus, the same deity. § 2. Apollo Nomius of
Arcadia rightly distinguished from the preceding. § 3. Apollo the
father of Æsculapius likewise a distinct deity. § 4 and 5. Apollo
not originally an elementary deity, or god of the sun. § 6. Origin
of this idea. § 7. Rites of Apollo unlike those of the elementary
deities.
1. Having treated of the extension and propagation of the worship of
Apollo, and some of the most remarkable legends and fables connected with
it, we next turn our attention to the nature and character of the religion
itself.
In the first place, then, we shall remind the reader of a position
sufficiently established by the foregoing inquiries; that the Apollo of
Tempe, Delphi, Delos, Crete, Lycia, Troy, Athens, and Peloponnesus, is the
same god, and not, as was very frequently the case in the religions of
Greece, a combination of several deities under one name. This conclusion
we supported as well by historical accounts respecting the foundation of
his numerous temples, as by the evidence derived from a recurrence of the
same names, rites, and symbols; such, for example, as the titles of Lycius
and Lycia, Delphinius and Pythius; the oracles and sibyls; the
purifications and expiations; the custom of leaping from rocks;
decimations; the golden summer, and bloodless oblations; the
laurel-berries; the legend of the Hyperboreans, and the cycle of eight
years. Hence the theologians mentioned by Cicero(1188) were wrong in
endeavouring without any authority to distinguish between the Athenian,
Cretan, and Hyperborean Apollo.
2. It appears, however, that they were warranted in distinguishing from
the rest the Apollo Nomius of Arcadia; although in their etymology of the
name,(1189) which made him a divine _lawgiver_, they by no means followed
the most authentic sources of religious history. The correct account is
without doubt that given by Pindar,(1190) who calls Aristæus, conjointly
with Zeus and Apollo, a protector of flocks, and guardian of huntsmen. In
fact, Aristæus and his son Actæon were ancient deities of the early
Pelasgic inhabitants of Greece.(1191) That god also protected agriculture
and pasturing, warded off the scorching heat of summer, charmed by
incantations the mild Etesian winds, and loved hunting and the care of
bees. His chief haunts were the plains under mount Pelion and Iolcus—from
which place his worship was introduced into Cyrene—the fertile valley of
Thebes, Parrhasia in Arcadia,(1192) and the Parrhasian island of
Ceos;(1193) at Cyrene, Apollo and Cyrene were called his parents.(1194)
The genealogy attributed to Aristæus varied considerably in different
places; through the prevalence of Greek worship in Arcadia he was
considered identical with Apollo. It was remembered that the Delphian god
had also tended the herds of Admetus; and perhaps the national worship of
Aristæus at Pheræ had partly contributed to the formation of this
fable.(1195) Deities, whose worship at an early period fell into disuse,
were adapted and modified in various ways to suit the ruling powers: and
even if a complete and consistent system of mythology was eradicated and
destroyed as a whole, yet particular portions of it would combine
themselves with the prevailing religion, and thus obtain a new existence.
Thus also the ancient elementary deity, which had received the name of
Apollo Nomius, was called the son of the ancient Silenus,(1196) because
his attributes seemed to resemble those of the attendants of
Bacchus.(1197) I shall take occasion hereafter to explain the connexion
between the Carnean Apollo and this deity.(1198)
3. It should also be observed that Apollo and Æsculapius were connected in
fable and mythology; and this at an early period, for Hesiod called
Æsculapius the son of Apollo;(1199) but, as it appears, only in mythology,
and not in any religious worship. Thus neither at Tricca, Lebadea,
Epidaurus, nor Cos, were Apollo Pæan and Æsculapius intimately connected;
nor do we ever find that they had altars, festivals, or sacrifices in
common, except perhaps in a temple at the modern town of
Megalopolis.(1200) This practical difference may be accounted for by the
national origin of the two worships. For Phlegyas, the ancestor of
Æsculapius, and the sons of Æsculapius mentioned in the Homeric Catalogue,
belonged to races which were hostile both to the Dorians and the temple of
Delphi; and the dispersion of the schools of the Asclepiadæ through Greece
had nothing in common with the foundation of the temples of Apollo.
4. Having made these distinctions, we now return to the principal position
established by the preceding inquiries; viz., that it was the Dorians
among whom the religion of Apollo was the most ancient, important, and
truly national worship.
The Dorians being an active and heroic people, it is natural that their
peculiar religious feelings should have had a like tendency. Hence, as
they displayed a perpetual aversion to the innocent employments of
husbandry, and a love for active and military exertion, their national god
was exactly the reverse of the elementary deities worshipped by the
agricultural races.
But this inference seems to be invalidated by an opinion entertained by
many at least of the later Greeks, and by most modern writers on
mythology, that Apollo was an elementary deity, the deified
personification of the sun. On the whole of this difficult and doubtful
subject it is not my intention now to enter; but I shall be satisfied with
laying before the reader the principal arguments on both sides, and
afterwards stating my own views on the subject.
5. In the first place, then, the accounts above given of Apollo returning
from the Hyperboreans with the ripe ears of corn, and the tribute of the
golden ears, certainly suggest the idea of a guardian of
agriculture.(1201) On the coins of Metapontum we frequently see these ears
of corn, with the grasshopper, or mouse both in the act of creeping, upon
the reverse. The same explanation is applicable to both symbols. The mouse
and grasshopper are animals hurtful to the corn, which the god was
supplicated to protect from their attacks. In like manner the Cretan
Apollo Σμίνθειος was doubtless a destroyer of field mice (σμίνθοι);(1202)
and his statue was represented with one foot upon a mouse.(1203)
Again, in Rhodes he was called ἐρυθίβιος, “the averter of mildew;”(1204)
which attribute was peculiarly suitable to him, as being one of the
Triopian deities, one of whom was Demeter, the destroyer of Erysichthon.
These are probably the chief reasons which can be adduced in favour of the
position that Apollo was an elementary deity; reasons which are founded on
the symbols and ceremonies of the real worship, and not on the opinions of
later philosophers. But, first, the argument that Apollo was an elementary
god, because he was a patron and protector of agriculture, is
inconclusive; for he performs this office in his character of guardian and
averter of misfortune generally. The case indeed would be otherwise, had
Apollo been supposed either to call forth the seed from the earth or bring
it to maturity; no trace however of these functions being attributed to
him ever occurs. It is therefore unnecessary on this account to identify
him with the sun. And it may be remarked likewise, that the chief
festivals of Apollo were not connected with any remarkable epochs of the
sun’s course, but rather with the rising of the stars, particularly of the
pleiads, and with the phases of the moon. Thus the new moon was sacred to
Apollo, who hence received the name of Νεομήνιος;(1205) and so likewise
the first quarter, or the seventh day; and, finally, the full moon
(διχομηνία), particularly in the island of Zacynthus.(1206) From these
circumstances, however, no one will infer that Apollo was a god of the
moon.
We do not, however, deny that Apollo and the god of the sun admitted in
particular points of a comparison and parallel with each other; the source
of external light might be a symbol of the “bright and pure” god; and
indeed the Platonists favoured this supposition,(1207) which is not,
however, supported by any historical authority. The worship of the sun was
practised in the Acropolis of Corinth, at Rhodes, Athens, and in earlier
times also at Calauria and Tænarum; but in none of these places was it
connected with the rites of Apollo.(1208)
6. This naturally leads us to inquire how any ideal connexion between
Apollo and the sun, if it really existed, should have been entirely
overlooked for so many centuries; how was it that these deities were not
identified till the Grecian mythology had ceased to have any influence
upon the ideas and feelings of mankind? Even when the Egyptian
interpreters identified Horus with Apollo, they were in all probability
guided only by the resemblance between the destroyer of the Python and the
vanquisher of Baby (Typhon in Greek).(1209) The Persian magi, however, in
discovering a connexion between the worship of Apollo and their religion
(on which account Xerxes preserved from injury the island where Apollo and
Artemis were born),(1210) were influenced by a well-grounded comparison,
which we shall find occasion to confirm in a subsequent chapter;(1211)
yet, in all probability, it was not the sun, but Ormuzd, whom they
supposed to be Apollo. It was not until the philosophers of the Ionic
school identified the deities of the popular creed partly with material
powers and objects, and partly with the attributes of the universal
intellect (νοῦς), that the doctrine was advanced of Apollo being the sun.
From them Euripides, who called Zeus the air, and Vesta the earth, was
naturally among the first to receive it. In the tragedy of Phaethon, the
mother of the unfortunate youth complained against his father Helius as
follows; “_Rightly does he who knows the secret names of the gods call
thee Apollo_” (the destroyer);(1212) referring, without doubt, not to any
doctrine connected with, or revealed in the mysteries, but to a
philosophical interpretation. This opinion, thus adopted by Euripides,
became still more general at Alexandria; and Callimachus blames those “who
separate Apollo from the sun, and Artemis from the moon.”(1213) Soon
afterwards it was said to have originated in very early times; and the
author of the astronomical treatise attributed to Eratosthenes(1214)
relates, that Orpheus the Thracian had from the top of a mountain, at
break of day, prayed to the sun, whom he also called Apollo, as the
greatest of all the deities.(1215) Nevertheless, this statement does not
authorize us to infer, that in the ancient Orphic Hymns, previous to
Herodotus, Apollo and the sun were identified. For this system of
religious speculation was chiefly concerned about Bacchus; and in all the
Orphic fragments of any antiquity Apollo is hardly ever noticed.(1216)
7. It seems, therefore, that whatever might have been the poetical
attributes of Apollo in late times, in his religious character he was
never an elementary deity, the essence of whose godhead is a
personification of the creative powers of nature. None of the
characteristic marks of such a religion are discoverable in his worship.
So far from being a god of generation(1217) and production, he remains
unmarried and youthful; for it is easy to see that his poetical amour with
the nymph Daphne, and his sons, mentioned in poetry and prophecy, have no
connexion with his worship. In his sacred rites and symbols there is no
trace of the adoration of the generative powers, like those occurring in
the ancient Arcadian worship of Hermes, the Argive fables of Here, or the
Attic legends of Hephæstus and Athene. The worship of Apollo is even still
more widely removed from the boisterous and frantic orgies so conspicuous
in the Thracian rites of Dionysus. And although this latter worship
flourished by the side of Helicon and Parnassus, near the Pythian temple,
and both kinds of religious worship were practised in the immediate
neighbourhood of each other,(1218) yet the religious feelings and rites
which distinguished the services of the two gods always remained
dissimilar.
In the subsequent discussion we shall accordingly take for granted the
original diversity of Apollo and the sun; and though the rites of the
worship of Apollo, as preserved and recorded in later times, are doubtless
of greater antiquity than any written documents which either we or the
Greeks possessed, it will be convenient first to state the clearer and
more intelligible accounts of Homer on the subject of Apollo, his divine
character and worship.