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]