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 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 [pg 304] 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 [pg 305] 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. [pg 306] 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. [pg 307] 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 [pg 308] 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 [pg 309] 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 [pg 310] 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 [pg 311] 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 [pg 312] 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 [pg 313] 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 [pg 314] 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 [pg 315] 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 [pg 317] 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 [pg 318] 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.