The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race Volume I Part 7

7. The princ.i.p.al places to be mentioned in Italy besides Rhegium are Croton and Metapontum. The former was an Achaean and Lacedaemonian colony; in the founding of which, according to tradition, the oracle had an important share;(1138) the memory of which is preserved by temples of Apollo Pythius, Hyperboreus,(1139) and Alaeus,(1140) within, and close to the town. Croton was peculiarly subject to the influence of Apollo, whose worship operated to an unusual extent on the character and customs of its inhabitants. On the founding of Metapontum our information is scanty. The inhabitants generally supposed themselves to be of Achaean origin; yet Ephorus has preserved a remarkable, though confused tradition, that Daulius the tyrant of Crissa was the founder of that town.(1141) It seems, then, that inhabitants of Daulis, in the narrow valley of Parna.s.sus, and Crissaeans, from the coast, had pa.s.sed over to Italy in very early times.

The inhabitants of Metapontum, as ancient subjects of Apollo, sent him golden ears of corn (???s??? ?????) as a t.i.the of their harvest; we find on their coins the full ears of barley, which were paid as tribute, and on the reverse the G.o.d himself, armed with his helmet, arrow and bow, as a conqueror, and holding a branch of laurel; exactly coinciding with the symbols used in the temple of Delphi.(1142) Thus historical tradition and religious symbols both point to the same conclusion.(1143)

During the period of which we are treating, the regulation of colonies by the Delphian oracle was the chief instrument which extended the worship of Apollo on the coast of the Mediterranean. In honour of this deity the Chalcideans who founded Naxos, the first Greek colony in Sicily (Olymp. 5.

2. 759 B.C.), erected on the coast an altar of Apollo Archegetas, upon which the Sicilian Theori always sacrificed when they sailed to the temple of Apollo in their mother-country.(1144)

Apollonia, the Corinthian settlement on the Ionian sea, was also supposed to have been founded by Apollo;(1145) hence the above-mentioned custom of sending "_the golden summer_" to Delphi prevailed in this town.(1146) We have in a former work(1147) shown that the worship at Thera and Cyrene was paid to the deity of the Theban aegidae, viz., the Carnean Apollo; who, however, at the founding of the colony (Olymp. 37), was already considered as the same with the Dorian G.o.d; hence the fountain of Apollo at Cyrene, its colony of Apollonia, &c. Mythology, which often first clothes the events of history in a fabulous garb, and then refers them to an early and unknown time, expressed the founding of Cyrene, under the guidance of the temple of Apollo, in the following elegant personification-That Cyrene, a Thessalian nymph, the favourite of Apollo, was carried by her divine lover to Africa, in his chariot drawn by swans.(1148)

We shall abstain from bringing down the colonization of this religion to a later period, since in after-times the lively principle which at first actuated the worshippers of Apollo was lost; and, instead of considering their actions as the effect of supernatural compulsion, men were rather disposed to regulate their conduct according to the dictates of reason and free-will.

Chapter IV.

-- 1. Connexion of the fable of the Hyperboreans with the worship of Apollo. -- 2. Its connexion with the temples at Delphi; -- 3. and Delos. -- 4. Original locality of the Hyperboreans. -- 5. Localities subsequently a.s.signed by Poets and Geographers. -- 6. The Hyperboreans considered a sacred people.

1. Wearisome as it is to follow up the chain of remote events which gave rise to the wide diffusion of the worship of Apollo, nevertheless the fable of the Hyperboreans, by referring a number of particular circ.u.mstances to one head, is very well qualified to arrest and fix our attention.

We a.s.sert, then, the connexion of this tradition with the original worship of Apollo. No argument to the contrary can be drawn from its not being mentioned either in the Iliad or Odyssey; these poems not affording any opportunity for its introduction. Moreover, the Hyperboreans were spoken of in the poem of the Epigoni, and by Hesiod.(1149) The fable, indeed, may not have come till late within the province of poetical mythology; as a local tradition, it must have arisen whilst that primitive connexion between the temples of Tempe, Delphi, and Delos (which was afterwards entirely dissolved) still existed in full vigour.

2. According to a Doric hymn of Bo, a poetess of Delphi, quoted by Pausanias,(1150) Pagasus, and the G.o.dlike Agyieus, the sons of the Hyperboreans, founded the celebrated oracle at Delphi. Agyieus is merely another name for Apollo himself. Pagasus refers to the Pagasaean temple on the sacred road.(1151) With them came Olen, the first prophet and bard of Apollo. Two other Hyperborean heroes, Hyperochus and Laodicus, a.s.sisted in the slaughter of the Gauls at Delphi;(1152) and, in accordance with similar traditions, Mnaseas of Patara called all the inhabitants of Delphi descendants of the Hyperboreans.(1153)

Alcaeus,(1154) in a hymn to Apollo, related how "Zeus adorned the new-born G.o.d with a golden fillet and lyre, and sent him, in a chariot drawn by swans, to Delphi, in order to introduce justice and law amongst the Greeks. Apollo, however, ordered the swans first to fly to the Hyperboreans. The Delphians, missing the G.o.d, inst.i.tuted a paean and song, ranged choruses of young men around the tripod, and invoked him to come from the Hyperboreans. The G.o.d remained an entire year with that nation, and at the appointed time, when the tripods of Delphi were destined to sound, he ordered the swans to resume their flight. The return of Apollo takes place exactly in the middle of summer; nightingales, swallows, and gra.s.shoppers sing in honour of the G.o.d; and even Castalia and Cephisus(1155) heave their waves to salute him."

If Alcaeus consecrated this paean, as Pindar did his paean, to the worship of the Delphian G.o.d, he would hardly have dared to do more than embellish the local traditions. Supposing, however, that this was not the case, he would still have taken the princ.i.p.al event (viz., the arrival of Apollo from the Hyperboreans) rather from a fable universally acknowledged, than the unauthorized fictions of poetry. The whole account, and even the time, are clearly drawn from the mysteries of the worship. According to the tradition of Delphi, Apollo, at the expiration of the great period, visited the beloved nation of the Hyperboreans, and danced and played with them from the vernal equinox to the early setting of the Pleiades; and when the first corn was cut in Greece, he returned to Delphi, as I suppose, with the full ripe ears, the offerings of the Hyperboreans.(1156) Even the story of the swans was no addition of Alcaeus; for the painted vases in the south of Italy (the extremity of the Grecian world) represent the same fiction as the Lesbian poet; nay, so exactly do they correspond, that we do not indeed recognise Alcaeus, but the traditions upon which the account was founded, as they were perhaps related at Metapontum and Croton. The boy Apollo, the sceptre and goblet in one hand, and full ears of barley in the other (which allude to the offerings of the Hyperboreans, and the "golden summer"), is seated, with a mild aspect, on a car, the axles of which are bound with swans' feathers. Hyperborean women, with torches, and pitchers for sacred libations, conduct him.(1157) The swans, with which Apollo here comes, occur elsewhere in the legends of Delphi, which refer to the Hyperboreans. The most ancient temple of Delphi, according to the a.s.sertion of the priests, was merely a low hut, built with branches of the sacred laurel of Tempe; the second was a tent, which either the Hyperboreans or Pteras of Crete formed of swans' feathers and wax.(1158) The Peneus flowed by the altar of Tempe; the notes of the swans on the banks of this river are mentioned in a short hymn attributed to Homer.(1159) And allowing that these birds were here particularly numerous, it is evident that their brilliant colour and majestic motion peculiarly adapted them for symbols of Apollo.

3. We find the same tradition, with merely a few local alterations, at Delos.(1160) Latona, in the first place, is said to have arrived in that island from the country of the Hyperboreans as a she-wolf, having completed the whole journey, pursued by Here, in twelve days and nights.(1161) Afterwards the young virgins, Arge and Opis, came with Apollo and Artemis; a lofty tomb was erected to their memory at Delos, upon which sacrifices were offered; an ancient hymn, which was attributed to the ancient minstrel Olen, celebrated their appearance.(1162) Afterwards the Hyperboreans sent two other virgins, Hyperoche and Laodice, the same names as occur above, and with them five men, who are called _perpherees_(1163) (from their bringing the sacred gifts enveloped in wheaten straw): this exactly corresponds with "the golden summer" of the Delphians. The perpherees received great honours at Delos; and the Delian maidens before marriage laid on the tomb of the two Hyperborean virgins a spindle, the young men a branch, both entwined with locks of hair. The offering, however, of the Hyperborean women was, it was said, really intended for Ilithyia, the protectress of women in labour, in order to fulfil a vow made to that G.o.ddess for the birth of Apollo and Artemis. Now these missions, according to Delian traditions, always continued to be carried on. The Hyperboreans were supposed to pa.s.s them on to their neighbours the Scythians; from them they were transmitted through a chain of nations on the coast of the Adriatic, by Dodona,(1164) through Thessaly, Euba, and the island of Tenos, and came accompanied with flutes and pipes,(1165) to Delos.(1166) This story cannot have been a mere poetical fiction; it doubtless originated in the active connexion kept up by means of sacred missions with the ancient settlements of the worship of Apollo in the north of Thessaly.(1167) In Delos also, as at Delphi, there was a story of the G.o.d resting for some time amongst the Hyperboreans; though the scene was generally changed to Lycia.(1168) A painted vase exhibits the G.o.d with a lyre in his hand, alighting near the palm-tree of Delos: a young woman, representing a whole chorus, receives him, playing upon a stringed instrument.(1169)

As the temple at Olympia was connected with Delphi, we find also here some traditions respecting the country of the Hyperboreans, as the native land of the wild olive-tree which flourished in the grove of Zeus.

4. Thus much concerning the places where the fable of the Hyperboreans really existed; we must next notice the situation generally a.s.signed to that sacred nation. In this the name is our chief guide. In the first place it indicates a _northern_ nation; which idea is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that the worship of Apollo came from the most northern part of Greece, from the district of Tempe;(1170) and although the actual distance was not great, yet the imagination might have been moved by this circ.u.mstance to conceive Apollo as coming from the most remote regions of the north. But, in the second place, the Hyperboreans are said to dwell _beyond_ Boreas; so that this happy nation never felt the cold north wind: in the same manner that Homer represents the summit of Olympus as rising above the storms, nor ever covered with snow, but surrounded by an atmosphere of cloudless and undisturbed serenity.

5. This is nearly the whole of our information on the origin of this fabulous people. Poets, however, and geographers, dissatisfied with such accounts, attempted to a.s.sign to it a fixed habitation in the catalogue of nations: and for this purpose connected multifarious and foreign accounts of the northern regions of the world with the religious fable of the Hyperboreans, and moulded the whole into an imaginary picture of a supposed real people.

Among these stories the most remarkable is that which connects the Hyperboreans with the Scythians. Herodotus found them mentioned in the Arimaspea of Aristeas the Proconnesian, in which poem his ideas of the worship of Apollo were interspersed with obscure accounts of the northern regions.(1171) He came, led by the spirit of Apollo, through Scythia to the Issedones,(1172) the one-eyed Arimaspians, the Griffins that kept watch over the gold, and thus at last reached the Hyperboreans who inhabited the sh.o.r.es on the further side of the ocean. Now Aristeas must have collected the tradition concerning these nations and monsters from the same sources as Herodotus; viz., from the Greeks dwelling on the Pontus and Borysthenes, and through these from the Scythians.

In the list of the fabulous nations of the north, the ancient Damastes exactly agrees with the Arimaspea of Aristeas.(1173) Beyond the Scythians he places the Issedones, then the Arimaspians, then the Rhipaean mountains, from which the north wind blows, and on the other side of these, on the sea-coast, the Hyperboreans.(1174) Without doubt this geographer placed the Issedones in the districts to the north of the Euxine sea, and rather to the east of Greece.(1175) And indeed neither Issedones, Arimaspians, nor Griffins could be placed in any other region than that which lies to the north of the Euxine sea, as all this tract had become known to the Greeks by means of the Scythians, who dwelt in these parts; it was only in this district that the Greeks heard of Arimaspians. The case is entirely different with respect to the Hyperboreans and Rhipaeans. Of the former the Scythians, as Herodotus tells us, knew nothing; and the latter are a mere political fiction of Greece, since they derived their names from _hurricanes_ (??pa?), issuing from a cavern, which they warded off from the Hyperboreans, and sent to more southern nations. For this reason the Hyperboreans could also be placed in another part, remote from Scythia; still however they kept their original position in the _north_. Thus Pindar,(1176) and also aeschylus in the Prometheus Unbound,(1177) place the Hyperboreans at the source of the Ister. Now, if, with Herodotus, the Ister is conceived to be a river which runs through all Europe from its _western_ extremity, the Hyperboreans, in spite of their name, must be placed in the regions of the _west_.(1178) But there was in ancient times also an idea that the Ister was a vast stream descending from the extreme _north_;(1179) and this notion was evidently entertained by the two poets just mentioned; thus aeschylus, in the Prometheus Unbound, represented Hercules as penetrating to the place where Boreas rushes from the mountains; and with this the Rhipaean mountains, the Hyperboreans, and the Ister were doubtless mentioned. Sophocles also placed the "_ancient garden of Phbus_" _i.e._, the country of the Hyperboreans, at the extremity of the earth, and near the dwelling of Boreas.(1180) This natural conception of the Hyperboreans, and agreeing so well with the origin of the legend, is universal among the early poets; it is only in the works of later writers that we find certain traces of a translation of the Hyperboreans to Italy and other western countries, and of a confusion of the Rhipaeans with the Alps and Pyrenees.

6. We see then that notwithstanding the arbitrary license a.s.sumed by poets, the religious ideas respecting the Hyperboreans were every where preserved without the slightest variation. They were represented as a pious nation, abstaining from the flesh of animals, and living in perpetual serenity, in the service of their G.o.d, for a thousand years.(1181) "The muse," says Pindar, "is not estranged from their manners. The choruses of virgins and sweet melody of the lyre or pipe resound on every side; and, twining their hair with the glittering laurel, they feast joyfully. Neither disease nor old age is the lot of this sacred race; while they live apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the revengeful Nemesis."(1182)

Respecting their festivals, which were supposed to take place in the open air,(1183) it was related by Hecataeus the younger, of Abdera, that these were celebrated by three gigantic Boreadae, whose songs and dances were accompanied by innumerable flocks of swans.(1184) But the strangest account is that of Pindar, that whole hecatombs of a.s.ses were sacrificed at these festivals:(1185) this however is borrowed from the real worship, from one of the sacred rites of Delphi, where a.s.ses were sacrificed at the Pythian festival.(1186) Lastly, the account given of the death of the Hyperboreans strongly reminds us of the rites of the Thargelia, and the leap at Leucate; we are told that, tired of a long existence, they leapt, crowned with garlands, from a rock into the sea.(1187)

Chapter V.

-- 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 aesculapius likewise a distinct deity. -- 4 and 5. Apollo not originally an elementary deity, or G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 t.i.tles 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 Aristaeus, conjointly with Zeus and Apollo, a protector of flocks, and guardian of huntsmen. In fact, Aristaeus and his son Actaeon were ancient deities of the early Pelasgic inhabitants of Greece.(1191) That G.o.d 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 Aristaeus 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 G.o.d had also tended the herds of Admetus; and perhaps the national worship of Aristaeus at Pherae 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 aesculapius were connected in fable and mythology; and this at an early period, for Hesiod called aesculapius 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 Paean and aesculapius 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 aesculapius, and the sons of aesculapius 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 Asclepiadae through Greece had nothing in common with the foundation of the temples of Apollo.

4. Having made these distinctions, we now return to the princ.i.p.al 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 G.o.d 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 princ.i.p.al 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 gra.s.shopper, or mouse both in the act of creeping, upon the reverse. The same explanation is applicable to both symbols. The mouse and gra.s.shopper are animals hurtful to the corn, which the G.o.d was supplicated to protect from their attacks. In like manner the Cretan Apollo S???e??? was doubtless a destroyer of field mice (s?????);(1202) and his statue was represented with one foot upon a mouse.(1203)

Again, in Rhodes he was called ????????, "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 G.o.d, 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 ?e??????;(1205) and so likewise the first quarter, or the seventh day; and, finally, the full moon (d??????a), particularly in the island of Zacynthus.(1206) From these circ.u.mstances, however, no one will infer that Apollo was a G.o.d of the moon.

We do not, however, deny that Apollo and the G.o.d 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" G.o.d; 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 Taenarum; 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 (????), 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.dhead 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 G.o.d 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 Hephaestus 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 Parna.s.sus, 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 G.o.ds 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 doc.u.ments 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.

Chapter VI.

-- 1. Homer's Conception of Apollo. -- 2. Apollo as a punishing deity. -- 3. Apollo as a beneficent deity. -- 4. Explanation of the name Paean. -- 5. Of the name Agyieus. -- 6. Of the name Apollo. -- 7.

Of the name Phbus. -- 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 circ.u.mstance of the G.o.d acting as a friend to the Trojans and an enemy to the Greeks, although both equally honour him with sacrifices and paeans. 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 G.o.d;(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 aegis 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 G.o.ds. Even when he appears amongst the G.o.ds, "_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 G.o.ds, 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 a.s.sume an unusual degree of arrogance. But when the G.o.ds separate into two bodies, and descend to the contest, he, unmoved by pa.s.sion, 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 G.o.ds 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 Aloidae,(1228) t.i.tyus and the Python, the enemies of the G.o.ds. His contests with Eurytus of chalia, and with Phorbas the Phlegyan, were grounded on historical facts; the former alluded to the enmity between the Dorians and chalians, 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 aeschylus, with manifest allusion to the name, says, ?p????? ?p??esa?;(1232) which, however, can hardly ent.i.tle us to infer that the name of Apollo was really derived from ?p??e??;(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 Corbus, 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, Corbus 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 G.o.d. 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.

aeschylus refers to his office of avenging murder, where he speaks of Apollo, Pan, and Zeus, as the G.o.ds who send the Furies;(1236) Zeus as ruler of the world, Pan as the daemon that disorders the intellect, Apollo as the G.o.d of punishment. Hence it was not without reason that the Romans believed Apollo to be represented in a statue of the G.o.d Vejovis, a terrible G.o.d, equipped with arrows.(1237) At least there is some connexion between him and Apollo ?ata??s???, "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 G.o.d 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)