§ 1. Homer’s Conception of Apollo. § 2. Apollo as a punishing
deity. § 3. Apollo as a beneficent deity. § 4. Explanation of the
name Pæan. § 5. Of the name Agyieus. § 6. Of the name Apollo. § 7.
Of the name Phœbus. § 8. Of the name Lyceus. § 9. Religious
Attributes of Apollo.
1. Homer, as we have already seen, had, both from hearsay and personal
observation, acquired a very accurate knowledge of the Cretan worship of
Apollo in the Smintheum, in the citadel of Troy, in Lycia near mounts Ida
and Cragus, as well as of Pytho and the Delian palm-tree. His picture of
Apollo is, however, considerably changed by the circumstance of the god
acting as a friend to the Trojans and an enemy to the Greeks, although
both equally honour him with sacrifices and pæans. Yet he generally
appears to the Greeks in a darker and more unfavourable view. “_Dread the
son of Zeus_,” says the priest of Chryse to the Greeks, “_he walks dark as
night; the sure and deadly arrows rattle on his shoulders_.” His
punishments are sudden sickness, rapid pestilence, and death, the cause
and occasion of which is generally unseen; yet sometimes he grants death
as a blessing.(1219) His arrows are said to wound from afar, because they
are unforeseen and unexpected. He is called the far-darting god;(1220) his
divine vengeance never misses its aim. He appears in the terror of his
might when from the heights of the citadel he stimulates the Trojans with
a loud war-cry to the combat;(1221) and leads them on, a cloud around his
shoulders, and the ægis in his hand, into the thick of the battle,(1222)
like Ares himself,(1223) though far from showing the boisterous confidence
of that deity. Achilles, to whom he is indeed particularly hostile, calls
him the most pernicious of all the gods. Even when he appears amongst the
gods, “_all tremble before him in the palace of Zeus, and rise from their
seats; while Latona alone rejoices that she has produced so strong a son
and so powerful an archer_.”(1224)
It is remarkable how seriously Homer (who otherwise speaks of the gods,
and particularly of those friendly to Troy, with some levity of
expression)(1225) describes the character of Apollo. He is never
represented as hurried on by blind fury. He never opposes the Greeks
without reason, or through caprice, but only when they disregard the
sacred rights of priests and suppliants, or assume an unusual degree of
arrogance. But when the gods separate into two bodies, and descend to the
contest, he, unmoved by passion, shuns the combat, and speaks of the quick
succession of the race of man in a manner which betokens the oracular
deity of Pytho.(1226) A similar spirit is perceivable in his address to
the daring Diomed: “_The race of the immortal gods resembles not that of
mortals._” Thus Apollo appears as the minister of vengeance, the chastiser
of arrogance. Consistently with this character he destroys the proud
Niobe,(1227) the unruly Aloidæ,(1228) Tityus and the Python, the enemies
of the gods. His contests with Eurytus of Œchalia, and with Phorbas the
Phlegyan, were grounded on historical facts; the former alluded to the
enmity between the Dorians and Œchalians, the latter to that between the
Pythian sanctuary and the Phlegyans.(1229)
2. We will now examine the notions of other poets on the character of
Apollo as a revenging and punishing deity, in which light he is introduced
by Homer. Archilochus calls upon Apollo to “_punish and destroy the guilty
as he is wont to destroy them_.”(1230) Hipponax, the successor of
Archilochus in vituperative satiric poetry, prays that “Artemis and Apollo
may destroy thee;”(1231) and Æschylus, with manifest allusion to the name,
says, Ἀπόλλων ἀπώλεσας;(1232) which, however, can hardly entitle us to
infer that the name of Apollo was really derived from ἀπολεῖν;(1233) for
we should lose sight of one main point, viz., the object against which his
destructive powers were directed, or be reduced to consider him an
universal destroyer, a character which is ill adapted to mark the nature
of a divine being of any kind whatsoever. Apollo slays, indeed, but only
to inflict deserved punishment. At Megara was exhibited the tomb of
Corœbus, who had slain the Fury sent by Apollo against that town, to
punish the crimes of the fathers by destroying their children.(1234) After
this action, Corœbus was ordered to carry in his arms a tripod from Pytho,
and erect on the spot where he should fall down from exhaustion, a town
(Tripodiscus) and a temple to the god. This explains why many sacred fines
were at Corinth, Patara, and Amphipolis,(1235) paid into the temple of
Apollo, who thus appears, in some measure, as enforcing his own judgments.
Æschylus refers to his office of avenging murder, where he speaks of
Apollo, Pan, and Zeus, as the gods who send the Furies;(1236) Zeus as
ruler of the world, Pan as the dæmon that disorders the intellect, Apollo
as the god of punishment. Hence it was not without reason that the Romans
believed Apollo to be represented in a statue of the god Vejovis, a
terrible god, equipped with arrows.(1237) At least there is some connexion
between him and Apollo καταιβάσιος, “who darts down in the lightning;” to
whom the Thessalians vowed every year a hecatomb of men.(1238) At Argos it
was the custom immediately after death for the relations to sacrifice to
Apollo as a god of death; the priest of Apollo (the amphipolus) offered up
the victim, and for consuming the fragments of the sacrifice a new fire
was always kindled. On the thirtieth day afterwards a sacrifice was
offered to Hermes as the conductor of souls.(1239)
3. Although we have thus dwelt upon the gloomy side of Apollo’s character,
it must not be supposed that he was considered in the light of a
malevolent and destroying power. Thus Pindar declares that of all the gods
“he is the most friendly to men.”(1240) His titles, also, as connected
with different temples, serve to remove that impression. Thus he was
called the Healer at Elis,(1241) the Assister at Phigaleia,(1242) the
Defender, the Averter of Evil,(1243) at Athens, and in many oracles.(1244)
Although some of these names were perhaps not introduced until the
Peloponnesian war, and the restriction of his avenging power to physical
evil is first perceptible in Pindar and the tragedians,(1245) yet the idea
of the healing and protecting power of Apollo must have been of remote
antiquity. Under all these names Apollo does not so much appear bestowing
positive good as assuaging and warding off evil; and in this character he
was invoked (according to an oracle) to send health and good
fortune.(1246)
4. The preceding arguments may perhaps receive confirmation from a
description of the god PÆAN (Παιήων) in Homer. The name clearly betokens a
healing deity, and though the poet indeed speaks of him as a separate
individual, and the physician of Olympus,(1247) yet this division appears
to have been merely poetical, without any reference to actual worship;
since from very early times the pæan had, in the Pythian temple,(1248)
been appointed to be sung in honour of Apollo.(1249) The song, like other
hymns, derived its name from that of the god to whom it was sung. The god
was first called pæan, then the hymn, and lastly the singers
themselves.(1250) Now we know that the pæan was originally sung at the
cessation of a plague, and after a victory, and generally, when any evil
was averted, it was performed as a purification from the pollution.(1251)
The chant was loud and joyous, as celebrating the victory of the
preserving and healing deity.(1252) Besides the pæans of victory,(1253)
however, there were others which were sung at the beginning of
battle;(1254) and there was a tradition that the chorus of Delphian
virgins had chanted “_Io Pæan_” at the contest of Apollo with the
Python.(1255) The pæan of victory varied according to the different
tribes; all Dorians, viz., Spartans, Argives, Corinthians, and Syracusans,
had the same.(1256) This use of the pæan, as a song of rejoicing for
victory, sufficiently explains its double meaning; it bore a mournful
sense in reference to the battle, and a joyous sense in reference to the
victory. Apollo, under this name, was therefore either considered as a
destroying (from παίω), or as a protecting and healing deity, who frees
the mind from care and sorrow;(1257) and accordingly the tragedians, by an
analogical application of the word, also called Death, to whom both these
attributes belonged, by the title of Pæan.(1258) And thus this double
character of Apollo, by virtue of which he was equally formidable as a
foe, and welcome as an ally,(1259) was authorized by the ambiguity of his
name.
5. On the other hand, the title AGYIEUS had a single signification.(1260)
This appellation of Apollo was peculiar to the Dorians,(1261) and
consequently of great antiquity at Delphi;(1262) from which place,
however, it was brought over to Athens at a very early period, and indeed
partly at the command of an oracle.(1263) His statue was erected in
court-yards, and before the doors of houses; that is, at the boundary of
private and public property, in order to admit the god as a tutelary
deity, and to avert evil. The symbol or image of the god was most simple,
being a conical block of stone. The ancients knew not whether to consider
it as an altar or statue.(1264) The worship consisted of a constant
succession of trifling services and marks of adoration.(1265) Frankincense
was burnt before the pillar;(1266) it was bedecked with wreaths of myrtle,
garlands, &c. This was sufficient to remind, and at the same time to
assure, the ancient Dorians of the protecting presence of their deity. The
Athenians represented their Hermes in a similar manner. This god, although
fundamentally distinct from Apollo, was invested by them with the same
offices: thus the statues of both gods were placed, as protecting powers,
in front of the houses: both gods were supposed to confer blessings on
those who either entered or left the house: both were represented by
simple columnar statues. With Apollo, however, this protection was rather
of a spiritual and inward nature: while the phallic form, which always
distinguished the Hermæ of Athens, shows that this god was considered to
afford, by increasing the fruitfulness of the fields and cattle, and
generally all the products of nature, a more external and physical
assistance.
6. To these titles may perhaps be added the name of APOLLO itself. That we
must search for its etymology in the Greek language alone, and that it
could have been derived from no other source, is evident from the
preceding investigations. In the first place, then, we cannot derive it
from the sun, ΑϜΕΛΙΟΣ,(1267) since the digamma is never changed into Π.
The derivation from ΟΛΩ we have already rejected, as being founded on a
partial and occasional attribute of the god.(1268) On the other hand, we
may observe that the ancient Doric Æolian form of the name was not Ἀπόλλων
but Ἀπέλλων,(1269) which also obtained amongst the ancient Latins,(1270)
and from which the Macedonian and Delphian month _Apellæus_ evidently
derived its name. Now if this is admitted to be the original form, Ἀπέλλων
simply means the _averter_ or _defender_,(1271) and belongs to the same
class as Ἀλεξίκακος, Ἀποτροπαῖος, and other names mentioned above.
7. All these names, however, only indicate the attributes and actions of
the deity; but the name PHŒBUS expresses more nearly his peculiar nature.
From its original sense of “_bright_,” “_clear_,” its secondary sense of
“_pure_,” “_unstained_,” is easily derived;(1272) and hence the term
φοιβάζειν (which perhaps is connected with the Latin _februare_), “to
expiate.” Phoebus therefore is the clear and spotless god, often
emphatically called the “pure and holy” (ἁγνὸς θεός).(1273) This name is
particularly applied to him when he returns purified from Tempe.(1274) The
same meaning is implied in the epithet ξανθὸς, which also signifies
“pure,” and “clear;”(1275) hence the streams near the temples of Apollo in
Troy and Lycia were called Xanthus,(1276) and amongst the Macedonians the
expiatory festival of the army bore the title of _Xanthica_.(1277) In
allusion to Apollo as a god of joy and gladness, Aeschylus frequently
forbids that he should be invoked in sorrow.(1278) Several other passages
from poets and grammarians might be adduced to support this idea.(1279)
8. We now come to the most enigmatical of all the titles of Apollo, viz.,
“LYCEUS.” It was shown above, that Apollo Lycius was worshipped at Lycorea
on mount Parnassus, in Lycia at the foot of mount Cragus, in Lycia under
mount Ida, at Athens, Argos, Sparta, and Sicyon. This religion must have
been of greater antiquity than the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, having
been carried over thither at the time of their establishment. Homer was
also acquainted with this title of Apollo.
In explanation of this epithet we every where find traditions concerning
wolves. The descendants of Deucalion, who survived the deluge, following a
wolf’s roar, founded Lycorea on a ridge of mount Parnassus. Latona came as
a she-wolf from the Hyperboreans to Delos: she was conducted by wolves to
the river Xanthus. Wolves protected the treasures of Apollo; and near the
great altar at Delphi there stood an iron wolf with ancient
inscriptions.(1280) The attack of a wolf upon a herd of cattle occasioned
the worship of Apollo Lyceus at Argos, where a brazen group of figures,
commemorating the circumstance, was erected in the market-place.(1281) The
Sicyonian tradition of Apollo “the destroyer of wolves” is certainly of
less antiquity, as also the epithet Λυκοκτόνος (_Lupercus_), which occurs
in Sophocles and other authors.(1282)
Now in inquiring into the meaning of the symbol of the wolf in this
signification, it may be first remarked that it is a beast of prey. In
this point of view it cannot but appear a remarkable coincidence that
Apollo should in the Iliad assume the form of a hawk,(1283) and a species
of falcon should be called his swift messenger.(1284) Thus also the
tragedians frequently represented Apollo, in his character of a destroyer,
under the title of Lyceus.(1285) We are not, however, to suppose that it
was this character of Apollo as a destroying power which gave a name, not
only to innumerable temples, but even to whole countries; such a
supposition would, contrary to history and analogy, make the early state
of this religion to have been one of the grossest barbarism and
superstition. It is far more probable that the name Lyceus is connected
with the ancient primitive word _lux_ (whence λευκός). The Greek word λύκη
is preserved most distinctly in λυκάβας, _i.e._ _course of the
light_;(1286) and by the epithet Λυκηγένης, applied to Apollo by
Homer,(1287) and probably taken from some ancient hymns, we should (from
the idiom of the Greek language) rather understand _one born of light_,
than _the Lycian god_. That light and splendour are frequently employed,
both in the symbols of worship and language of the poets, to express the
attributes of Apollo, cannot be denied;(1288) and we only remind the
reader of the belief that the fire which burnt on the altar of Apollo
Lyceus at Argos had originally fallen from heaven:(1289) and thus the
epithet Lyceus would seem to belong to the same class as _Ægletes_,
_Phœbus_, and _Xanthus_.(1290)
It is not to be supposed that the wolf was made use of as a symbol of
Apollo merely from an accidental similarity of name; but it is difficult
to discover what analogy even the lively imagination of the Greeks could
have found between the wolf and light. At a later period it was attempted
to explain this symbol by the circumstance that all wolves produced their
young within twelve days in the year, the precise time during which Latona
was wandering as a she-wolf from the Hyperboreans to Delos.(1291) This
physical interpretation was, however, grounded on the fable, and not the
fable on it. Perhaps the sharp sight of the wolf(1292) (if we can trust
the accounts of the ancients), or even the bright colour of the animal,
may afford a better explanation.(1293)
In the ancient Grecian worship, however, there is another example, and one
in the highest degree remarkable, of the connexion between light and the
wolf. On the lofty peak of Lycæum, a mountain of Arcadia, above the
ancient Lycosura, there stood (as Pindar says) a lofty and splendid altar
of Zeus Lycæus, with which were in some way connected all the traditions
concerning Lycaon, who sacrificed his child to Zeus, and was in
consequence transformed into a wolf. Now not only does the symbol of the
wolf occur in this place,(1294) but there is also a reference to light.
There stood here a sacred shrine or _adytum_, supposed to be inaccessible;
and the popular belief was, that whoever entered it cast no shadow; and in
order to escape being sacrificed, the aggressor was obliged to escape as a
deer: hence the pursuing god naturally appeared to the imagination as a
wolf.(1295) We perceive that light was supposed to dwell within the
sanctuary. Thus in this very ancient worship of the Parrhasians, which in
other respects has little in common with the Doric worship of Apollo, we
discover the same combination of ideas and symbols that exists in the
latter, and cannot but consider it a vestige of some very ancient
symbolical idea peculiar and general among the Greeks.
9. Having proceeded so far, we shall endeavour to unite and harmonize the
different facts already collected. Apollo, as he is represented by Homer,
exhibits the character of a destroying and avenging, as well as a
delivering and protecting power. But he is the avenger of impiety and
arrogance, and the punisher of injustice and sin, and not the author of
evil to mankind for evil’s sake. He was therefore always considered as
attended with certain beings whose nature was contrary to his own; his
character could only be shown in opposition with a system of hostile
attributes and powers. As the _warring_ and _victorious_ god, he required
enemies to combat and conquer: as the _pure_ and _bright_ god, he implies
the existence of a dark and impure side of nature. In this manner the
worship of Apollo resembled those religions, such as the ancient Persian,
which were founded on the doctrine of _two principles_, one of good, the
other of evil. At the same time he is no deified personification of the
creative or generative powers of nature, nor of any natural object or
phenomenon; and he has therefore nothing in common with the deities of the
elementary religions.
These ideas, which seem to be expressed with tolerable distinctness, in
the most ancient epithets and symbols connected with the worship of
Apollo, as well as in the images and fictions of poets down to the time of
Euripides, we will first examine with reference to the mythical history
and adventures of Apollo, and secondly we will endeavour to point out the
influence which these notions exercised upon the worship itself.