Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/54

 40 GREEK AND ROMAN MYTHOLOGY elsewhere the festival of Karneia (' feast of the ram ') was celebrated in his honor ; and Aristaeus (' the best god ? ), the representative of agriculture, cattle raising, and bee culture, was called his son. For the same reason harvest festivals were celebrated in his honor: in Delos, the Delia; in Sparta, the Hyakintliia; in Athens, the Thar- gelia and Pyanepsia. At the Spartan festival the vege- tation, ripened and killed by the beams of the sun, was represented under the form of Hyacinthus, the personi- fied spring flower, and the legend was that Apollo, at play, had inadvertently killed this favorite of his by a throw of the discus, but had then caused the flower to spring forth out of his blood as it flowed to the ground. 51. Usually, however, the rays of the sun are regarded as arrows ; therefore Apollo carries as his weapons ar- rows and a silver bow. The ' far-shooter' (HeJcatos, HeJca- ergos, Hekatebolos) comes to be considered an aid in battle (Boedromios) ; but, on the other hand, since in the south the heat of the midsummer sun produces the much-dreaded pestilence and other sicknesses, he becomes the god of the plague. To propitiate him, feasts of atone- ment must be celebrated, and so at the TJiargelia in Athens even human beings are said to have been offered as vicarious sacrifices, that he might pardon the rest. Yet, as he sends sickness, so he can ward it off ; there- fore he is invoked as the defender from evil (Alexikdkos)^ savior (Soter), and healing physician (Paieon, Ulios) ; and the physician of the gods, Aesculapius, is considered his son. These characteristics, together with his gen- eral nature as a god of light, by being transferred from the realm of the physical to that of the spiritual, cause him to appear as a redeemer from all guilt and the chief