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]