Chapter VIII.
§ 1. Ritual worship of Apollo. Bloodless offerings. § 2. Expiatory rites. § 3. Peace offerings. § 4. Festivals of Apollo. § 5. Traces of a festival calendar. § 6. Expiations for homicide. § 7. Rites of purification—use of the laurel therein. § 8. Prophetic character of Apollo. § 9. His modes of divination. § 10. Use of music in the worship of Apollo. § 11. Apollo represented as playing on the cithara. § 12. Contest of Apollo and Linus. Ancient plaintive songs. § 13. Ancient hymns to Apollo. § 14. The pæan and hyporcheme. § 15. The Hyacinthian and Carnean festivals. § 16. Apollo as represented by the sculptors. § 17. Ancient statues of Apollo. § 18. Apollo as represented by successive schools of sculptors. § 19. Political influence of the worship of Apollo. § 20. Its connexion with the Pythagorean philosophy.
1. Our intention in this chapter is to show that, besides the mythology, the ceremonies also of the worship of Apollo so agree and harmonize together, [pg 331] as to furnish a decisive proof of its regular and systematic development; after which we will endeavour to point out this agreement, and elucidate its relative bearings; although an attempt of this kind must necessarily be very imperfect, since the religion, which, in order to comprehend, we should regard with the ardour of devotion, is now merely the subject of cold and heartless speculation.
First, with regard to the sacrifices, it is remarkable, that in many of the principal temples a particular sanctity and importance was attributed to bloodless offerings. At Delphi cakes and frankincense were consecrated in holy baskets;[1341] at Patara, cakes in the form of bows, arrows, and lyres, emblems both of the wrath and placability of the deity.[1342] At Delos, an altar, called the altar of the pious, stood behind the altar built of horns, on which were deposited only cakes of wheat and barley; this, according to tradition, was the only one on which Pythagoras sacrificed.[1343] In this island also at festivals were offered mallows and ears of corn;[1344] the simplest food of man, in remembrance of primitive simplicity and temperance. At Delphi the young women of Parnassus are said to have brought the first-fruits of the year to Apollo, [pg 332] immediately after the destruction of the Python.[1345] The pious offerings of the Hyperboreans, as has been remarked above, were the same as those last enumerated. And perhaps we may add to our list the custom, at the Attic autumnal festival of the Pyanepsia, of hanging grapes, fruits, and small jars of honey and oil, to branches of olive or laurel bound with wool, and carrying them to the doors of a temple of Apollo;[1346] though perhaps this rite belonged rather to Bacchus, the Sun, and the Hours,[1347] who shared the honour of this festival with Apollo.
2. The above offerings doubtless express the existence of a pure and filial relation, like that in which the Hyperboreans stood to Apollo; it being quite sufficient for persons in so innocent a state to give a constant acknowledgment of the benevolence and power with which the god defends and preserves them. But as the pure deity was himself supposed to be stained with blood, so might the minds of his worshippers become tainted with sin, and lose their internal quiet. When in this state, being as it were under the influence of a fiendlike and corrupting power (Ἄτη), the mind naturally wishes to put an end to its unhappy condition by some specific and definite act. This is effected by the solemn expiation and purification of the religion of Apollo. Expiatory rites were thus introduced into the regular system of worship, and formed a part of the ancient jus sacrum. It was soon however perceived that the usual routine [pg 333] of life sometimes needed the same ceremony, and hence expiatory festivals were connected with the public worship of the god; by which not only individuals, but whole cities were purified. These festivals were naturally celebrated in the spring, when the storms of winter disappear, and nature bursts into fresh life.[1348] But in these the pious gifts of individuals no longer sufficed, nor even the sacrifice of animals; and the troubled mind seemed to require for its purification a greater sacrifice. At Athens, during the Thargelia, two men (or a man and a woman), adorned with flowers and fruits, having been rubbed over with fragrant herbs, were led in the most solemn manner, like victims, before the gate, and thrown with imprecations from the rock; but were in all probability taken up below, and carried beyond the borders. The persons used for these expiations (Φαρμακοὶ) were condemned criminals, whom the city provided for the purpose.[1349] This festival was common to all Ionians; it is particularly mentioned at Miletus[1350] and Paros;[1351] and the same rites were also practised in the Phocæan colony of Massalia.[1352] In Ionia the victims were beaten with branches of the fig-tree and with sea-onions; at the same time there was played on the [pg 334] flute a strain (called χραδίης), which, according to the testimony of Hipponax, was reduced by Mimnermus into elegiac measure.[1353] At Athens also the victims were crowned with figs and fig-branches, being probably the symbol of utter worthlessness. The antiquity of this manner of purification has been shown above, in our remarks upon the religious ceremonies of Leucadia.[1354]
3. The peace-offerings (ἱλασμοὶ), by which Apollo was first appeased, and his wrath averted, should, as it appears, be distinguished from the purifications (καθαρμοὶ), by which he was supposed to restore the mind to purity and tranquillity. At Sicyon (where the religion of Apollo flourished at a very early period) it was related, that Apollo and Artemis had, after the destruction of the Python, wished to be there purified, but that, being driven away by a phantom (whence in after-times a certain spot in the town was called φόβος), they proceeded to some other place. Upon this the inhabitants were attacked by a pestilence; and the seers ordered them to appease the deities. Seven boys and the same number of girls were ordered to go to the river Sythas and bathe in its waters, then to carry the statues of the two deities into the temple of Peitho, and from thence back to that of Apollo.[1355] The Attic festival of Delphinia (on the sixth of Munychion) had evidently the same meaning; in this seven boys and girls reverently conveyed the ἱκετηρία, an olive-branch bound with white fillets of wool, into [pg 335] the Delphinium.[1356] This took place exactly one month before the Thargelia; and in all probability the peace-offerings and purifications (ἱλασμοὶ and καθαρμοὶ) were celebrated at the same period throughout the whole of Greece.
4. By comparing and arranging the scattered fragments of information respecting the time of the festivals belonging to these two classes, we shall obtain the following clear and simple account.[1357]
In the commencement of the Apollinian year, in the first month of spring, called Bysius (i.e. Πύθιος) at Delphi, Munychion at Athens, Apollo was supposed to come through the defile of Parnassus to Delphi, and begin the battle with the Delphinè. He next assumes the character of the wrathful god, whom it was necessary to appease; and hence, on the sixth day of the month, the expiatory festival of Delphinia took place at Athens, and probably also at Miletus and Massalia; we may likewise suppose that it was the same month which in Ægina and Thera went under the name of Delphinius:[1358] on the seventh Apollo destroyed the Python.[1359] The pæan was now sung. This too was the day on which, according to immemorial [pg 336] custom, the oracle first broke silence; at a late period it was also esteemed at Delphi as the birthday of Apollo.[1360] Immediately after, the Delphian procession moved on to Tempe; and at the same time the tithes of men were once despatched to Apollo in Crete.[1361]
In the second month of spring, called by the Ionians Thargelion, Apollo was purified at the altar at Tempe, and probably on the seventh day of the month; for the great expiatory festival of both deities, Apollo and Artemis, was at Athens celebrated on the sixth and seventh days; and Delos was at the same time purified; this ceremony was immediately followed by a feast of thanksgiving in honour of the god of light. According to Delian tradition, Artemis and Apollo (ἑβδομαγέτης)[1362] were born on the sixth and seventh days of this month.[1363] On the same day however on which the Delphian boy broke the laurel and turned homewards, the purifying laurel-boughs (from which [pg 337] the festival of the Daphnephoria derived its name)[1364] were probably also carried round in Bœotia, and throughout the rest of Greece.[1365] Soon after this, the setting of the Pleiades took place (the day before the ides of May, according to the statement of Eudoxus);[1366] at which time Hesiod makes the harvest begin; then, as has been above remarked, on the testimony of Diodorus and ancient works of art,[1367] Apollo, having been presented with the first ears of corn, leaves the Hyperboreans, and appears in a milder and more noble character at Delphi.
If it was wished that the setting of the Pleiades should occur at a regular interval from the preceding festival, this could have been effected only by cycles, by which the lunar and sidereal years were made to agree. Now it was not difficult to observe, that, after ninety-nine lunar months, the setting of the Pleiades coincided pretty exactly with the same phase of the moon. From this circumstance arose the period of eight years, called by the Greeks ἐνναετηρὶς, in conformity with which the great festivals of Apollo at Delphi, Crete, and Thebes were from the earliest times arranged.[1368]
5. These data afford a sufficient proof of a remarkable and by no means fortuitous connexion between the expiatory festivals of Apollo: we may discover the vestiges of a sacred calendar, once, without doubt, preserved entire, but which, through the various combinations introduced into the Grecian worship, became disjointed and broken. This was particularly the case in the Attic festivals, where the same festival is frequently, as it were, doubled, and placed in different portions of the year. A remarkable instance, illustrative of the above remark, immediately occurs to us. As the months Munychion and Thargelion succeeded each other in the second half of the year, so did Boëdromion and Pyanepsion in the first. The sixth of Boëdromion was sacred to Artemis; the seventh, without doubt, to Apollo Boëdromius, the martial god; who therefore corresponds with the Delphinian Apollo, and the festival with the Delphinia. The Pyanepsia, however, were very similar to the Thargelia; the laurel-boughs wrapt with wool, carried round at the celebration of both, remind us of the Daphnephoria;[1369] only, as was above remarked, the worship of Bacchus, which Theseus is said to have established at Naxos, after his return from the islands, was mixed up with it, and is to be recognised in the carrying of boughs (ὀσχοφορία), which was introduced into this festival. Thus these four seventh days (ἑβδόμαι) correspond with each other as follows:
7th Munychion.
7th Thargelion.
7th Boëdromion.
7th Pyanepsion.
6. We turn from these expiatory festivals of universal occurrence to the expiations which the religion of Apollo enjoined for those who had incurred the guilt of homicide.[1370] We previously noticed some establishments of this nature connected with the temples at Tænarum, at Trœzen, and of Branchidæ: a similar one also existed at Delphi, as may be gathered from the fable of Orestes, related by Æschylus, in which Apollo appears at the same time as leader of the avenging Furies, and as purifier of the murderer. Immediately after this deed, the matricide takes an olive-branch bound with woollen fillets,[1371] and flies like a frightened stag[1372] to Delphi, where Apollo himself purifies his blood-stained hands by the sacrifice of swine and ablutions;[1373] and thus liberates him from the Furies, as a defence against whom he had (according to Stesichorus) also given him a bow and arrows.[1374] [pg 340] After the purification of Orestes at Delphi, the Athenian poets affirm that he went to Athens, and, under the protection of the god, placed himself before the Areopagus, where Cephalus had also stood in a similar situation.[1375]
At Athens likewise, as was remarked above, the expiatory rites of the worship of Apollo were connected with the criminal courts of justice, the aristocratic ephetæ being intrusted both with the ceremony of purification and the duties of judges. These were fifty-one men, of noble birth,[1376] who in early times had jurisdiction in five courts of justice (amongst which the Areopagus was of course included) over every description of homicide.[1377] Solon probably first separated the Areopagus from the other four courts; and in order to make it a timocratic tribunal, with cognizance over cases of wilful murder, he gave it great [pg 341] political, though not religious power; the latter he was not able to bestow. The jurisdiction of the ephetæ was now confined to cases of unintentional or justifiable homicide, and some others of no importance; thus remaining a singular remnant of the ancient judicial forms, in the midst of an universal change. We shall now describe the ceremonies in use at the expiation of homicides. It is necessary, however, in the first place, to distinguish the wilful murderer, who either left for ever his native land, losing all privileges and property therein, or who suffered the penalty of the laws, from the man who killed another without design, or with some good cause, to be approved by the sentence of the ephetæ. A person in the latter situation left his country by a particular road for a certain time; during which he also kept at a distance from places of public resort (ἀπενιαυτισμὸς).[1378] Afterwards, the reconciliation took place either with the kindred or certain chosen phratores; but only in case they were willing,[1379] and that it was only a homicide of the second description.[1380] The term used was αἰδέσασθαι, because an offender of this [pg 342] kind was an unfortunate person, and therefore, according to the opinion of the ancient Greeks, worthy of respect. Afterwards, the perpetrator was purified from all guilt by sacrifices and expiatory rites. In early times the purification probably always took place abroad, frequently in the ancient settlements of the injured family. At Athens it was performed after the return of the criminal; and there the cases of atoneable murders were of course less frequent than in the heroic age; since, under a less regular government, and with closer family ties, there were more incitements and excuses for that crime. Hence at that time those institutions must have been of double importance, which checked the fearful consequences of an unlucky act, quieted the workings of an uneasy conscience, and moderated the too eager thirst for revenge.[1381]
From this ancient connexion of the religious expiations and criminal jurisdiction, we easily perceive why at Athens Apollo should have presided over all the courts of justice;[1382] and why he was also represented at Tenedos as armed with a double hatchet,[1383] the instrument used in that island for the execution of adulterers.[1384]
7. Apollo was likewise supposed to preside over purifications of houses, towns, and districts;[1385] and accordingly they were performed by Tiresias, the prophet of the Ismenium, at Thebes;[1386] as also in later times by Epimenides, in his character of a Cretan worshipper of Apollo, at Athens (after Olymp. 46. 1.), and at Delos at a still earlier period.[1387] This is the first purification of Delos of which we have any account; the second is that instituted by Pisistratus (about the 60th Olympiad); the third, that set on foot by Athens (Olymp. 88. 3. 426 B.C.), when the island was entirely freed from the corpses so odious to Apollo.[1388]
In all these rites we find frequent use of the laurel (the δάφνη Ἀπολλωνιὰς),[1389] to which a power of warding off evil was ascribed, both when employed in sprinkling, and when merely carried round in procession.[1390] This tree also served several purposes in the delivery of oracles; a branch of it in ancient times distinguished the prophets,[1391] and even the god himself as such;[1392] hence his nurses were said by some to have been Κορυθάλεια,[1393] i.e. “the laurel itself;” and Ἀλήθεια, or “the fulfilment of oracles.”[1394] The reason why the [pg 344] laurel was supposed to have these powers is as obscure as the origin of the ancient symbolical language in general. Perhaps it was merely the appearance of the evergreen-tree, with its slender form and glittering leaves, that made it a symbol of Apollo. The laurel will bear a tolerably severe winter,[1395] and therefore nourished in the north of Greece; while the olive, the tree of Athene, belongs to its more southern regions. But, be this as it may, the situation of Tempe, where this shrub still grows with great luxuriance, certainly added much to the sanctity of the symbol:[1396] and for this reason the amour of the god with Daphne is often placed on the banks of the Peneus.[1397] Indeed Apollo was supposed to love all groves, particularly of forest-trees, laurels, wild-olives, &c. The freshening coolness and holy silence of such places were thought to be proper preparatives for entering the sanctuary.[1398]
8. It has appeared incomprehensible to many, why Apollo should be a god of prophecy, and how this office can be reconciled with his other attributes. Many have been satisfied with supposing an accidental association of music, prophecy, and archery, without being able to discover any principle of union. In the following pages we shall endeavour to account for the combination [pg 345] in the same deity of attributes apparently so unconnected.
Prophecy, according to the ideas of the ancients, is the announcement of fate (of μοῖρα, αἶσα). Now fate was considered to be the right order of things, the established physical and moral harmony of the world, in which every thing occupies the place fitted for its capacities and function. Fate therefore coincides with supreme Justice (Θέμις); which notion Hesiod expressed by saying that Zeus married Themis, who produced to him the Fates. The pious, religious mind could not separate Zeus and Destiny: Fate was the will and thought of the highest of the gods. A man whose actions agreed with this established harmony, and who followed the appointed course of things, acted justly (κατ᾽ αἶσαν, ἐναίσιμα); the violent and arrogant man endeavoured at least to break through the laws of Fate. Now it was this right order of events which the ancient oracles were supposed to proclaim; and hence they were called θέμιστες, ordinances or laws of justice.[1399] They were not imagined to be derived from a foreknowledge of futurity; but merely to declare that which, according to the necessary course of events, must come to pass. It cannot indeed fail to surprise us that the oracle was delivered by a woman in a state of ecstasy, and not as the result of serious reflection. But do we not find in the earlier period of Grecian philosophy (especially in the Ionic school) every new and profound discovery [pg 346] appearing as the work of sudden illumination and ecstasy, and indeed often accompanied with miraculous circumstances? And would not the mind in that age have naturally been raised to such an excited and rapturous state, when, endeavouring to escape from the narrow bounds of daily life, it recognised in the general course of events the influence of the gods? The means adopted to promote this inspiration, the vapour of the chasm, the chewing of the laurel-leaves, the drinking of the water of the well, are of the most innocent description. We do not however mean to deny that these ceremonies soon became an unmeaning form, the oracle being made subservient to political purposes.
The custom of a woman giving utterance to the decrees of the god originated partly from the peculiar estimation in which women were held by the Dorians, and partly from the natural tendency of the female sex (so often remarked by the ancients) to fits of ecstasy. Prophetesses were elsewhere also frequently connected with temples of Apollo; as, for instance, Manto, during the fabulous age, with the Ismenian and Clarian temples, and Cassandra with that of Thymbra, whose nature was nearly allied to that of the sibyls, who likewise were always connected with temples of the same god. As to the manner in which the responses of the Pythian priestess were delivered, Heracleitus of Ephesus says, that “the god, whose oracle is at Delphi, neither utters nor conceals any thing, but gives signs;”[1400] which at least serves to contradict [pg 347] the common idea of the designed ambiguity of this oracle.
This temple must however have lost much of its dignity, when it condescended, for the sake of rich offerings from the Lydian monarch, to answer enigmatically the insidious questions which Crœsus put to the Grecian oracles. In earlier times a Greek would not have dared, without the greatest faith in its responses, to approach the temple, which had regulated almost the whole political state of Greece, conducted its colonies, instituted the sacred armistices, and established by its authority the legislation of Lycurgus. For in general the god had not to announce what would, but what should take place; and he frequently declared events not as to happen independently of his injunction, but as the consequence of his answers. All Dorians were in a certain state of dependence on the Pythian temple; and as long as that race possessed the ascendency in Greece, the hearth in the centre of the earth (μεσόμφαλος ἑστία), with its eternal fire, at Pytho,[1401] was considered as the Prytaneum and religious centre of the whole of Greece.[1402]
9. In ancient Greece, however, prophecy was by no means derived altogether from Apollo, but merely that species of it which proceeded from a rapturous and entranced state of the soul. Nevertheless, the enthusiastic and imaginative frame of mind, in which cool grottos, with their flowing waters and hollow echoes, seemed to transport the votary into a former world, was derived from the Nymphs: and the Bacidæ, who were considered as under the influence of the Nymphs [pg 348] (νυμφόπληκτοι), have no more to do with Apollo than the σεληνιακοὶ, among whom Musæus is reckoned.
Of the various modes of divination from omens,[1403] only two or three were referred to this god, and that rather accidentally than in accordance with any fixed principle:[1404] for example, divination from lightning,[1405] from birds,[1406] from sacrifices,[1407] and from the drawing of lots, which, however, was either disdained by him, as below his dignity, or transferred to Hermes.[1408]
Connecting the idea of Apollo, which we have now acquired, with our preceding inquiries, we find the whole combine in an easy and natural manner. Apollo, as a divine hero, overcomes every obstacle to the order and laws of heaven; and those are heavenly regulations and laws which he proclaims as the prophet of Zeus. By these, also, tranquillity, brightness, and harmony, are every where established, and every thing destructive of them is removed. The belief in a fixed system of laws, of which Apollo was the executor, formed the foundation of all prophecy in his worship.
10. We have next to consider for what reason and to what extent music was included among the solemnities (τιμαὶ) in honour of Apollo. On this point, however, [pg 349] we must guard against inferring too much from the poets. By the ancients he was represented as playing on the cithara (φόρμιγξ), frequently in the midst of a chorus of Muses, singing and dancing;[1409] whose place in the Hymn to the Pythian Apollo is filled by ten goddesses, among whom “Ares and Hermes vault and spring” (perhaps like Cretan tumblers or κυβιστητῆρες), “whilst Apollo, in a beautifully woven garment, plays, and at the same time dances with quick motion of the feet;” for Apollo was not considered as merely a god of music; thus Pindar addresses him as the god of dance.[1410] But we are not warranted from this poetical fiction to infer a religious union of the Muses and Apollo, nor can such a connexion be any where traced; indeed the worship of these goddesses was, both in origin and locality,[1411] entirely different from that of Apollo. Besides, amongst the early writers, Apollo is never considered as the patron of poets, or invoked, as the Muses are, to grant poetical inspiration: players on the cithara alone were under his protection. The cithara was his attribute, both in many ancient statues[1412] and also on the coins of Delphi; it is his ancient and appropriate instrument; the deeper-toned lyre, with its arched sounding-board, Apollo received from Hermes:[1413] [pg 350] the instances in which he is represented as bearing it are very rare.
11. But for what reason is Apollo described as playing upon the cithara? for no other, assuredly, than that the music of the cithara was from times of remote antiquity connected with his worship; and that, because it appears best fitted to express a tranquil and simple harmony; the worship of Apollo, as we have frequently remarked, always endeavouring to produce a solemn quiet and stillness of the soul. Pindar beautifully says of this god that he “invented the citharis and bestows the muse on whom he wills, in order to introduce peaceful law into the heart.”[1414] To this also refer the golden κηληδόνες, which, according to the account of the same poet,[1415] were suspended from the roof of the brazen temple at Delphi; and they were without doubt intended as emblems of the mild and soothing influence of the god. This was naturally the chief object of music when used in purifications, and as an incantation (ἐπῳδὴ); when passions were to be overcome, and pain soothed; and in ancient times this was one of its most important applications.[1416] Chrysothemis, an ancient Pythian minstrel of mythology, was hence called the son of Carmanor, the expiatory priest of Tarrha;[1417] as also Thaletas, the Cretan poet, purified Sparta by music, when attacked with [pg 351] the plague.[1418] The Pythagoreans, who paid an especial honour to Apollo, went still further, and employed music as a charm to soothe the passions, attune the spirit to harmony, and cure both body and mind. Hence they much preferred the cithara to the flute,[1419] as, according to Grecian ideas, there was something in the sound of the flute wild, and at the same time gloomy; this, too, is the reason why Apollo disliked the music of that instrument.[1420] This also explains his contest with Marsyas, the Phrygian Silenus and flute-player, whose tough skin, having been stript off by the conqueror, always moved (according to the report of the inhabitants of Celænæ), with joy, as was believed, at the sound of flutes.[1421]
The flute was not an instrument of much antiquity among the Greeks; Homer only mentions it as used by the Trojans.[1422] In the time of Hesiod it had been introduced at the comus, the band of noisy revellers.[1423] But the cithara alone for a long time kept its place as the instrument for the chorus: even in the time of Alcman flute-players came mostly from Asia Minor; and their names (Sambas, Adon, Telos[1424]) frequently had, from this circumstance, a barbarous sound. This kind of music was principally adopted in places where [pg 352] Dionysus was worshipped; for instance, in Bœotia. It was of course also much used in the rites of the Phrygian Magna Mater, and of the Phrygian Pan:[1425] hence Pindar, who inherited the character of a flute-player from his father, dedicated a shrine to the mother of the gods, and to Pan.[1426] When, however, it had become common throughout Greece, it could not be excluded from a place so celebrated for music as Delphi, and Apollo's ear became less fastidious. Alcman and Corinna, indeed, were too partial to that art (the former as being a Lydian, the latter a Bœotian), when they represented Apollo himself playing on the flute.[1427] This instrument, however, had at that time been adopted even in the sacred exhibition of the Delphian worship: a dirge on the death of the Python[1428] (nominally the production of Olympus a Phrygian musician, contemporary with, or somewhat later than, Terpander),[1429] was played on the flute in the Lydian strain, and probably formed a part of that dramatic representation. Moreover, this instrument was used to accompany Prosodia (songs which were sung on the way to a temple) in the procession to Tempe, and in the Pentathlon at the gymnastic contests.[1430] A peculiar species of flute, from being used in pæans, obtained the name of the Pythian:[1431] yet the music of the flute, combined with singing (αὐλῳδία), in lyric and elegiac [pg 353] measures, was excluded from the Pythian games, after it had once been heard, as making too gloomy an impression:[1432] for all sadness, and therefore all plaintive strains, were every where excluded from the worship of Apollo; and the music in his temples was always intended to have an enlivening and tranquillizing effect upon the mind.
12. From this view of the subject we may explain the singular story of the contest of Apollo with Linus, and of the defeat and consequent death of the latter.[1433] For this purpose it will be necessary to state shortly my ideas respecting the real character of Linus. Linus, then, the subject of the song called by his name, was originally a god of an elementary religion (in which there were numerous symbols to signify the death of all animated life): he was nearly connected with Narcissus (i.e., the Torpid), whose tomb was shown at Thebes and Argos, at which last place matrons and maidens bewailed him in the month Arneius, as a boy brought up among lambs and torn in pieces by dogs.[1434] The song of lamentation for the untimely death of Linus, the much-loved boy,[1435] was sung to the [pg 354] harp in a low and subdued voice, and listened to with pleasure in the times of Homer and Hesiod,[1436] although then, perhaps, the air was not always very melancholy. But in after times this was its predominant character, as is proved by the names Αἴλινος and Οἰτόλινος.[1437] It was a great favourite with the husbandmen,[1438] who were generally aboriginal inhabitants. In this point there was a resemblance between the usages of ancient Greece and Asia Minor, where religious dirges of this description, different, indeed, in different districts, but having every where the same mournful tune, were customary.[1439] Such were, for instance, the lament of the tribe of Doliones;[1440] the Hylas, sung at fountains in the country of the Mysians and Bithynians[1441] (probably the same as the Mysian song);[1442] the song of the beautiful Bormus, whose watery death was deplored by the husbandmen of Mariandyne on the flute in the middle of summer;[1443] of Lityerses, whom the Phrygians bewailed yearly during the time of harvest at Celænæ, the native place of Marsyas;[1444] and which, with the melancholy Carian strain, was played to the Phrygian flute.[1445] Besides these there were the Gingras, or song of Adonis, and the Maneros, the rustic song of Pelusium in Egypt, which Herodotus compares [pg 355] with the Linus.[1446] And even at Cyprus the contest of the two opposite kinds of music was in some measure renewed; there being a tradition that Cinyras, the priest of Aphrodite, and composer of the mournful strains in honour of Adonis, had, like Marsyas and Linus, been overcome and put to death by Apollo.[1447]
Thus we behold Apollo the representative of the severe, even, and simple music of the Greeks, in contest with that impassioned spirit, alternating between the extremes of fury and apathy, which the professors of an elementary religion sought to represent even in their music; and consequently this fable also harmonizes with the fundamental principles of the religion of Apollo.
13. Having now ascertained the general character of the music employed in the worship of Apollo, we shall endeavour to obtain a more accurate knowledge of its varieties.
One of the most ancient species of composition (in which Chrysothemis the Cretan and Philammon were said to have contended at Delphi) was a hymn to Apollo;[1448] which we must suppose to have been composed in the ancient Doric dialect, and sung simply to the cithara. In reference to its musical execution, this hymn was also called a nome,[1449] the invention of which was ascribed to Apollo himself.[1450] At Delos [pg 356] also there were nomes, which were sung at the cyclic choral dances, and were attributed to Olen, another representative of the ancient poetry of hymns.[1451] The general character of these was composure and regularity;[1452] the measure was anciently (as we know from certain testimony) only hexameter:[1453] which agrees well with the fact that the origin of the hexameter was derived from Pytho.[1454] In the account that Philammon, the ancient composer of hymns, had placed choruses of young women round the altar, who sang the birth of Latona and her children in lyric measures (ἐν μέλεσι),[1455] the nomes of Philammon,[1456] as improved by Terpander the ancient lyric poet, appear to be confounded with the original ones; since these, after the fashion of the most ancient composers, contained only hexameters.[1457] The ancient religious poets mentioned in these accounts, Chrysothemis, Philammon, and Olen, may be looked on as Dorians with the same certainty as the founders of the temples of Tarrha, Delphi, and Patara, to which they particularly belonged.[1458] The language also of the poems ascribed to [pg 357] them must have been Doric; though indeed the fact of a poetical use of this dialect before the historic times will not agree with the predominant, though perhaps not well-grounded notions respecting the progress of poetry in Greece.
14. That the pæan was a song of thanksgiving for deliverance has been mentioned above. With respect, however, to the manner in which it was performed, we learn from Homer that it was sung after the sacrificial feast,[1459] when the goblets were carried round after the sacred libation; and this was also the case at Sparta and Athens.[1460] It was generally sung in a sitting posture, although in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo that god is represented as accompanying the Cretans who sing in a measured step.[1461] At Sparta it was danced in choruses.[1462] On the whole it required a regular and sedate measure,[1463] even when it assumed a more lively air, as for the nome, and the solemn σπονδειακὸν, sung at libations.[1464]
But the most lively dance which accompanied the songs used in the worship of Apollo, was that termed the hyporcheme.[1465] In this, besides the chorus of singers who usually danced around the blazing altar, [pg 358] several persons were appointed to accompany the action of the poem with an appropriate pantomimic display (ὑπορχεῖσθαι). Homer himself bears witness to the Cretan origin of this custom, since the Cnosian dance, represented by Hephæstus on the shield of Achilles, appears from the description to have been a kind of hyporcheme,[1466] and hence all dances of this description were called Cretan.[1467] From that island they passed at an early period over to Delos, where, even in Lucian's time, the wanderings of Latona and her island, with their final repose, were represented in the above manner.[1468] At the same time also probably took place the custom mentioned in the hymn to the Delian Apollo as characterizing the songs of the young women of that island; viz., that they represented the voices and gestures of every nation:[1469] perhaps they introduced the peculiar dances of the various countries which Latona visited in her wanderings. The ludicrous, and at the same time complicated dance (γέρανος) which Theseus is said first to have danced with his crew round the altar at Delos,[1470] was probably of the same description. All that can be clearly ascertained [pg 359] respecting the rhythm of these compositions is that the hexameter was altogether unfitted to their playful and joyous character.[1471] But both the hyporcheme and pæan were first indebted for their systematic improvement to the Doric musicians, Xenodamus of Sparta, and Thaletas of Elyrus in Crete (about 620 B.C.),[1472] who first brought the Cretic or Pæonic metre into general use; which names point out beyond doubt its Cretan origin, and its use in pæans.[1473] Cretics form a quick and lively, though a pleasing and by no means inharmonious[1474] rhythm, being particularly adapted to rapid motion. Thus a joyous and agreeable harmony was added, at the festivals of Apollo, to the serious and solemn music, although the softness and insipidity of several Ionian and Asiatic tunes were, without doubt, always rejected.
Thus, if we except the purifying and propitiatory rites, the festivals of Apollo bore the character of a serene and joyful mind, every other attribute of the deity being lost in those of victory and mercy. Hence in his statues at Delphi[1475] and Delos[1476] he was [pg 360] represented as bearing in his hand the Graces, who gave additional splendour and elegance to his festivals by the dance, music, and banquet.[1477]
15. We have as yet omitted the mention of two great national festivals celebrated at Amyclæ by the Spartans in honour of the chief deity of their race,[1478] viz., the Hyacinthia and the Carnea, from a belief that they do not properly belong to Apollo. That the worship of the Carnean Apollo, in which both were included, was derived from Thebes, whence it was brought over by the Ægidæ to Amyclæ, has been proved in a former work;[1479] our present object is to show, from the symbols and rites of this worship, that it was originally derived more from the ancient religion of Demeter than from that of Apollo. The youth Hyacinthus, whom the Carnean Apollo accidentally struck with a quoit,[1480] evidently took his name from the flower (a dark-coloured species of iris), which in the ancient symbolical language was an emblem of death; and the fable of his death is clearly a relic of an ancient elementary religion. Now the hyacinth most frequently occurs, in this sense, in the worship of Demeter; thus, for example, it was under the name Κοσμοσάνδαλος sacred to Demeter Chthonia at Hermione.[1481] We find further proof of this in the ancient sculptures with which the grave, and at the [pg 361] same time the altar of Hyacinthus, was adorned: the artists indeed appear to have completely comprehended the spirit of the worship. We find Demeter, Cora, Pluto, and the Cadmean Dionysus, with Ino and Semele, and Hyacinthus himself, together with a sister named Polybœa.[1482] Polybœa is hardly, if at all, distinct from Cora,[1483] whom Lasus of Hermione called Melibœa. To this may be added the sacrifices to the dead, and lamentations customary on the first day[1484] (which were forbidden at all other festivals of Apollo); nightly processions,[1485] and several other detached traces of the symbols of Demeter and Dionysus,[1486] which, by an attentive observer, may be easily distinguished from those of Apollo. The time of the festival was also different: it took place on the longest day of the Spartan month Hecatombeus, which corresponds to the Attic Hecatombæon,[1487] at the time when Hylas was invoked on the mountains of Bithynia, and the tender productions of nature droop their languid heads.
The Carnean festival took place, as it appears, in the following month to the Hyacinthian, equally in honour of Apollo of Amyclæ. But the Doric religion seems here to have preponderated, and to have supplanted the elementary symbols so evident in the Hyacinthia. The Carnea was, as far as we know, altogether a warlike festival, similar to the Attic Boëdromia. [pg 362] It lasted nine days, during which time nine tents were pitched near the city, in each of which nine men lived, for the time of the festival, in the manner of a military camp. There is no reference to an elementary religion except some obscure ceremonies of the priest Agetes and the Carneatæ.[1488] This leads us to suppose that at the union of the Amyclæan worship, introduced by the Ægidæ, with the Doric worship of Apollo at Sparta, the Hyacinthia preserved more of the peculiarities of the former, the Carnea of the latter, although the sacred rites of both were completely united. At the same time we do not deny the difficulty of inquiring into the origin and primitive form of ceremonies the history of which is so complicated; and this alone must excuse the shortness of our account respecting these two festivals.
16. Finally, the manner in which Apollo is represented in sculpture, particularly by the ancient artists, may assist our investigation into the ideas and sentiments on which his worship was founded. Apollo was a subject peculiarly adapted for sculpture. Since his connexion with elementary religion was slight, and there was nothing mystic in his character, the sculptors were soon able to fix upon a regular cast of features, to distinguish him from other deities: for Apollo, not only in poetry, but in the fables most nearly connected with his worship, is generally represented as a human god, and in all his actions and sufferings more nearly connected with the heroes than any other divinity. But before this perfection and conventional uniformity of the art, the early sculptors were much assisted in [pg 363] characterizing the statues of Apollo by his numerous and significant symbols, such as the bow, the cithara, the laurel, &c.: and thus they were able, in some measure, to give an idea of the power and properties of Apollo, though merely in stiff and rude images of wood and stone.
17. The simple Cippus of Apollo Agyieus did not represent any particular attribute, but was merely intended as a memorial of the presence of the protecting god.[1489] In endeavouring more fully to express his character, the symbols of power would naturally come next. His attributes of vengeance doubtless preceded those of mercy, although both, in fact, harmonized together: it must, however, have been long, before the surpassing beauty of the god (celebrated even in the Theogony of Hesiod) could be the subject of sculpture. The attribute, then, of strength, as also that of omniscience, the ancient Lacedæmonians wished to represent by the Apollo with four hands and four ears at Amyclæ.[1490] But the chief statue on the above spot was an image, which, besides the bow, bore a helmet and lance: of the same nature was also the statue on mount Thornax, the face of which had been gilded by the Lacedæmonians.[1491] The Megarians also consecrated at Delphi a statue of Apollo bearing a lance;[1492] and at Tenedos he was armed with the double hatchet,[1493] like [pg 364] the Labrandenian Zeus of the Carians.[1494] In a very ancient bas-relief, discovered by Dodwell on the mouth of a well at Corinth, and which we shall hereafter examine further, Apollo holds the cithara in his hand;[1495] his whole form too, as in all the ancient sculptures, is stouter and more manly than usual.
18. On inquiring concerning the artists of the most ancient symbolical statues of Apollo, we find that the Cretans were the first sculptors, as well as musicians, of that worship. From Crete, an ancient wooden statue of Apollo, of the rudest style of workmanship, was brought to Delphi:[1496] from hence, too (about Olymp. 50, 580 B.C.), there came Dipœnus and Scyllis the Dædalidæ, who made for the Sicyonians statues of Apollo, Artemis, Hercules, and Athene, of which we will speak hereafter. The Pythian oracle greatly interested itself in the labours of these artists; for when the envy of the native artists had driven them from Sicyon, it compelled the inhabitants to recall them. The managers of the temple of Delphi appear indeed to have been, from very early times, great [pg 365] patrons of the art of sculpture, particularly in brass. The subterranean temple at Pytho (the existence of which has been doubted, but, in my opinion, without sufficient grounds) was covered with brass, as were several treasuries of the ancient princes of Greece. The temples and courts were fitted with numerous tripods; caldrons, goblets, and arms of brass were there arranged promiscuously, from periods of the highest antiquity. There was also a knife used in sacrifice called the Delphian knife,[1497] nor do the singing golden Κηληδόνες, which Pindar represents as suspended from the roof of the brazen temple, seem to be a mere poetical fiction.
But the Cretan school of sculpture produced Tectæus and Angelion, who erected the celebrated, and probably colossal statue of Apollo at Delos, which (as was before mentioned) held the Graces in one hand and a bow in the other. With the same school also, though in a more distant degree, was connected Canachus of Sicyon, who, about the seventy-third Olympiad, made a famous bronze statue for the Didymæum,[1498] and one of wood for the Ismenium. From the accounts and various imitations of this work of art we are enabled to form some idea of its character. The god was represented with a manly form, his breast broad and prominent, the trunk square, the legs almost like pillars, and in a firm position, the left leg being a little advanced. The hair, encircled with a fillet, lay in [pg 366] slender twisted curls over the forehead; over each shoulder were three platted tresses, and behind the hair fell in a broad cluster down the back. The countenance nearly resembled those in the marbles of Ægina. In the right hand, which was stretched straight forward, was a fawn (an obscure symbol which we shall not here attempt to explain); the left, not quite so much elevated, grasped a bow. The whole must have had an awful and imposing appearance, conveying the idea of sublimity and dignity far more than of grace or loveliness.[1499] We cannot suppose the style of the colossal statue of Apollo to have been very different which, several Olympiads later, was modelled in brass by Calamis for Apollonia on the Pontus, and which was afterwards brought to Rome by Lucullus:[1500] nor that of Apollo Alexicacus, erected at Athens by the same artist at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.[1501] The Apollo which Onatas of Ægina, the contemporary of Calamis, executed for the inhabitants of Pergamus, was a colossal statue displaying great beauty of form, and, as it appears, of a more youthful appearance than was common for statues of Apollo at that time.[1502] In this, Apollo was represented [pg 367] as καλλίτεκνος, as the beautiful son of Latona; under which name he was worshipped at Pergamus.[1503] It is not improbable that the union of strength and beauty so conspicuously exhibited in the ideal forms of the two children of Latona was suggested by the peculiar character of the Doric education; and that the artist represented the god as an Ephebus, whose skill in the chorus and on the field of battle was exactly equal.
But the figure which we are accustomed to consider as properly belonging to Apollo did not originate even in the school of Polycletus and Myron,[1504] but was the creation of a later period; since both the coins of a date prior to the time of Alexander,[1505] and single heads, which must be referred to the same period,[1506] do not indeed preserve the features ascribed to the work of Canachus, but still are quite different from the most celebrated of the statues now extant, having broader cheeks, a shorter and thicker nose; in a word, the proportions are what the ancients termed quadrate, or square. It was not till the times of Scopas, Leochares, Praxiteles, and Timarchides, that the Apollo appeared whom we may call the twin-brother of Venus, so similar are the forms of both deities. The expression of inspiration and ecstasy, which several of the best statues exhibit, may also be shown to have first originated in the school of Scopas, since the earlier artists aimed rather at producing the appearance of tranquillity and composure [pg 368] than of transient excitement; and the exquisite taste with which these sculptors were able to express inspiration without extravagance, deserves the highest praise. Without detailing the particular productions of these and later artists, we shall only show how they may be best classified. The Apollo Callinicus of Belvedere stands by itself, swelling with the pride of victory:[1507] next comes the Apollo resting from the fight, with the right arm bent over the head, the left leaning on a pillar, holding the bow, which has evidently been used, or a cithara: being evidently a statue of the resting Apollo (Ἀπόλλων ἀναπαυόμενος); but from the circumstance that a statue of this kind stood in the Lyceum at Athens[1508] it is usually called the “Apollo of the Lyceum:” then follows the Apollo Citharœdus (playing on the harp), either naked, in different positions, or covered with the Pythian stola, and in an almost theatrical attitude.[1509] It would be foreign to our [pg 369] subject to enter into details respecting this class of statues, and those derived from them, as the Sauroctonus, Nomius, &c.
19. Finally, we would endeavour to trace the influence of the worship of Apollo on the policy and philosophy of Greece, if the question did not embrace so wide a field, lying, as it does in great measure, beyond the confines of history. We may, however, select, from what has been already said, as proofs of the influence of this worship on political concerns, the armistice connected with the festivals of Apollo, the truce observed in the sacred places and roads, the soothing influence of the purifications for homicide, together with the idea of the punishing and avenging god, and the great influence of the oracles in the regulation of public affairs.[1510] It has, moreover, been frequently remarked how by its sanctity, by the dignified and severe character of its music, by all its symbols and rites, this worship endeavoured to lull the minds of individuals into a state of composure and security, consistently, however, with an occasional elevation to a state of ecstatic delight.
20. Lastly, the worship of Apollo was so nearly connected with a branch of Grecian philosophy that the one frequently established and explained scientifically that which the other left merely to the feeling; I mean the Pythagorean system. Pythagoras possessed hereditary rites of Apollo; he dwelt at Croton, where that god received such various honours;[1511] he lived mostly among Dorians, who were everywhere [pg 370] partial to that worship; and a Delphian priestess, by name Aristocleia, is mentioned among his followers.[1512] Thus it is not without reason that the Pythagorean philosophy has in modern times been considered as Doric: in its political doctrines it followed Doric principles, and with the Doric religion it was united both externally and internally: besides which, the attempt to realize and disseminate national ideas and opinions may perhaps illustrate the rapid growth of the power of the Pythagorean league. The recondite principle of this philosophy always is, that the essence of things lies in their due measure and proportion, their system and regularity; that everything exists by harmony and symmetry alone; and that the world itself is an union of all these proportions (κόσμος, or order). The same abstraction from materiality also belonged to the religion of Apollo; for this too suggests the idea of order, harmony, and regularity, and in these it makes the nature and actions of the Deity to consist. Hence, too, music was one chief ingredient of the Pythagorean philosophy, as well as a necessary element of the worship of Apollo, as best expressing the harmony on which both were founded. In both the soothing and appeasing of the passions was aimed at and effected, that the mind might be quieted and strengthened at the same time.[1513] But we must leave the full investigation [pg 371] of this subject to those who have acquired a profounder knowledge of the philosophy of Pythagoras.