Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/249

 APOLLO, self (Apollodorus states, that Apollo received the uavTiidi from Pan), and Apollo is accordingly called "the prophet of his father Zeus." (Aeschyl. J^Jutn. 19); but ho had nevertheless the power of communicating the gift of prophecy both to gods and men, and all the ancient seers and prophets are placed in some relationship to him. (Hom. //. i. 72, Hymn, in Merc. 3, 471.) The manner in which Apollo came into the possession of the oracle of Delphi ( Pytho) is related differently. According to Apollodorus, the oracle had previously been in the possession of Themis, and the dragon Python guarded the mysterious chasm, and Apollo, after having slain the monster, took possession of the oracle. According to Hyginus, Python himself possessed the oracle ; while Pausanias (x. 3. § 5) states, that it belonged to Gaea and Poseidon in common. (Comp. Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 1246, &c. ; Athen. XV. p. 701 ; Ov. Met. i. 439 ; Apollon. Ilhod. ii. 706.) . The god of song and music. We find him in the Iliad (i. 603) delighting the immortal gods with his play on the phonninx during their re- past ; and the Homeric bards derived their art of song either from Apollo or the Muses. {Od. viii. 488, with Eustath.) Later traditions ascribed to Apollo even the invention of the flute and l}Te (Callira. Hymn, in Bel. 253 ; Plut. de Mus.), while the more common tradition was, that he received the lyre from Hermes. Ovid {Heroid. xvi. 180) makes Apollo build the walls of Troy by playing on the lyre, as Amphion did the walls of Thebes, Respecting his musical contests, see Marsyas, Midas. . Tlie god tclio protects the flochs and cattle {v6y.ios dfos, from vo/j-os or vofrr}, a meadow or pasture land). Homer (//. ii. 766) says, that Apollo reared the swift steeds of Eumelus Phere- tiudes in Pieria, and according to the Homeric hymn to Hermes (22, 70, &c.) the herds of the gods fed in Pieria under the care of Apollo. At the command of Zeus, Apollo guarded the cattle of Laomedon in the valleys of mount Ida. (//. xxi. 488.) There are in Homer only a few allusions to this feature in the character of Apollo, but in later writers it assumes a very prominent form (Pind. PytL ix. 114 ; Callim. Hymn, in Apoll. 50, &c.); and in the story of Apollo tending the flocks of Admetus at Pherae in Thessaly, on the banks of the river Amphrvsus, the idea reaches its height. ( Apollod. i. 9. § 15 ; Eurip. Alcest. 8 ; TibuU. ii. 3. 11; Virg. Georg. iii. 2.) . The god who delights in the foundation oftoums and the establishment of civil constitutions. His assistance in the building of Troy was mentioned above ; respecting his aid in raising the walls of Megara, see Alcathous. Pindar (Pyth. v. 80) calls ApoUo the dpxTJTeVrjs, or the leader of the Dorians in their migration to Peloponnesus; and this idea, as well as the one that he delighted in the foundation of cities, seems to be intimately connected with the circumstance, that a town or a colony was never founded by the Greeks without consulting an oracle of Apollo, so that in every case he became, as it were, their spiritual leader. The epithets ktioti^s and ot/ctcrTTjs (see Bockh, ad Pind. I.e.) refer to this part in the character of Apollo. These characteristics of Apollo necessarily ap- pear in a peculiar light, if we adopt the view which was almost universal among the later poets, mytlio- APOLLO. .31 graphers, and philosophers, and according to which Apollo was identical with Helios, or the Sun. In Homer and for some centuries after his time Apollo and Helios arc perfectly distinct. The question which here presents itself, is, whether the idea of the identity of the two divinities was the original and primitive one, and was only revived in later times, or whether it was the result of later specu- lations and of foreign, chiefly Egyptian, influence. Each of these two opinions has had its able advo- cates. The former, which has been maintained by Buttmann and Hermann, is supported by strong arguments. In the time of Callimachus, some per- sons distinguished between Apollo and Helios, for which they were censured by the poet. {Fragm. 48, ed. Bentley.) Pausanias (vii. 23. § 6) states, that he met a Sidonian who declared the two gods to be identical, and Pausanias adds, that this was quite in accordance with the belief of the Greeks. (Comp. Strab. xiv. p. 635 ; Plut. de Et ap. Delph. 4, de Def. Orac. 7.) It has further been said, that if Apollo be regarded as the Sun, the powers and attributes which we have enumerated above are easily explained and accounted for ; that the sur- name of ^o76os (the shining or brilliant), which is frequently applied to Apollo in the Homeric poems, points to the sun; and lastly, that the traditions concerning the Hyperboreans and their worship of ApoUo bear the strongest marks of their regarding the god in the same light. (Alcaeus, ap. Himer. xiv. 10 ; Diod, ii. 47.) Still greater stress is laid on the fact that the Egyptian Horus was regarded as identical with Apollo (Herod, ii. 144, 156; Diod. i. 25 ; Plut. de Is. et Os. 12, 61 ; Aelian, Hist. An. X. 14), as Horus is usually considered as the god of the burning sun. Those who adopt this view derive Apollo from the East or from Egypt, and regard the Athenian 'AttSWwv Trarp^os as the god who was brought to Attica by the Egyptian colony under Cecrops. Another set of accounts derives the worship of Apollo from the very opposite quarter of the world — from the coun- try of the Hyperboreans, that is, a nation living beyond the point where the north wind rises, and whose country is in consequence most happy and fruitful. According to a fragment of an ancient Doric hymn in Pausanias (x. 5. § 4), the oracle of Delphi was founded by Hyperboreans and Olenus ; Leto, too, is said to have come from the Hyperbo- reans to Delos, and Eileithyia likewise. (Herod, iv. 33, &c. ; Pans. i. 18. § 4 ; Diod. ii. 47.) The Hyperboreans, says Diodonis, worship Apollo more zealously than any other people ; they are all priests of Apollo ; one town in their country is sacred to Apollo, and its inhabitants are for the most part players on the lyre. (Comp. Pind. Pyth. X. 55, &c.) These opposite accounts respecting the original seat of the worship of Apollo might lead us to suppose, that they refer to two distinct divinities, which were in the course of time united into one, as indeed Cicero {de Nat. Deor. iii. 23) distin- guishes four different Apollos. Mliller h<is re- jected most decidedly and justly the hypothesis, that Apollo was derived from Eg}'pt ; but he re- jects at the same time, without very sjitisfactory reasons, the opinion that Apollo ^N'as connected with the worship of nature or any part of it ; for, according to him, Apollo is a purely spiritual divi- nity, and far above all the other gods of Olympus. As regards the identity of Aim)11o and Helios, he