VI
HEAD OF THE APOLLO BELVEDERE
Phœbus Apollo was the Greek god of day, who drove the great chariot of the sun across the sky from dawn to sunset. As the sun's rays pierce the air with darts of fire, so Apollo is an archer god carrying a quiver full of arrows. The old Homeric hymn calls him—
"Heaven's far darter, the fair king of days
Whom even the gods themselves fear when he goes
Through Jove's high house; and when his goodly bows
He goes to bend, all from their thrones arise
And cluster near t' admire his faculties." [15]
[15] In Chapman's translation.
If we count up all the gifts which the sunlight brings us, we shall have a list of the offices of Apollo. He brought the spring and the summer, and ripened the grain for harvest. He warded off disease and healed the sick. One of his earliest adventures was to slay the serpent Python lurking in the caves of Mt. Parnassus. Like the legend of St. George and the Dragon, the story is an allegory of the triumph of light over darkness, health over disease, the power of good over the power of evil.
Apollo was also the patron of music, having received from Hermes the gift of the lyre. He was wont to play at the banquets of the gods, and the poet Shelley describes his music in these words:—
"And then Apollo with the plectrum strook
The chords, and from beneath his hands a crash
Of mighty sounds rushed up, whose music shook
The soul with sweetness, and like an adept
His sweeter voice a just accordance kept." [16]