chapter 7 myths of the great god apollo ©2012 pearson education inc

Chapter 7

Myths of the Great God Apollo

©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

APOLLO THE FAR-DARTER, GOD OF PROPHECY

Apollo guided men to higher knowledge.


God of Prophecy

• From Lycia (Asia Minor) < his epithet "Lycian"?• Has elements from the north with the

Hyperboreans.• Mother Leto is perhaps a mother-earth

goddess from Lycia or Crete.– Originally having nothing to do with Apollo or his

sister Artemis


God of Prophecy

• Sometimes he's the sun god.– Hence his association with Artemis (the moon

goddess)• His arrows bring plague and disease.

– He's the god of mice and plagues the first time we see him in Homer

Fig. 7.1Apollo and Dionysus at Delphi.

(© The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

©2012 Pearson Education Inc. ©2012 Pearson Education Inc.

God of Prophecy

• His epithet shows his origin• Lycia or Lycus• Delian (Twin of Artemis)• Other stories associate him with the north –

swans carried him to the land of the Hyperboreans – and thereafter he spent the winters there.


Fig. 7.2 Temple of Apollo at Bassae


University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

THE BIRTH OF APOLLO ON DELOSThe island that's "not on the earth."


Birth of Apollo on Delos

• Two Homeric Hymns to Apollo– One tells of his birth

• Leto and Zeus• Leto is persecuted by Hera

– No land that sees the sun may let her give birth• Delos not covered by the command.


Birth of Apollo on Delos

• Iris gets Eileithyia to help with the delivery– She clutches a palm tree during the delivery– Delos becomes his sacred island as per the

agreement


Fig. 7.3 The Palm Tree on Delos


Author’s photo

APOLLO AT DELPHI

The great sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi was one of the major Pan-Hellenic sites.


Apollo at Delphi

• Apollo welcomed in Olympus• He searches for a place for his cult.• Telephusa's trick.• Python and the serpent combat.


Fig. 7.4The temple of Apollo at Delphi.


V. Papaioannou; University of Wisconsin–Madison Photo Archive

Apollo at Delphi

• Apollo and the Cretan ship– Delphi < delphis "dolphin."

• Expiated the miasma at the Vale of Tempê.– Others, including Orestes, came to him for

expiation and cleansing


Fig. 7.5Orestes is purified at Delphi.


Erich Lessing / Art Resource, New York

OBSERVATIONS: THE DELPHIC ORACLE

The mechanisms of the prophecies are not well known.


The Delphic Oracle

• Pan-Hellenic, even world site 800 BC – AD 394• Center of the world, marked by the omphalos• Apollo spoke through a prophetess, the Pythia,

seated on a tripod in the temple• Obscurity: e.g., Croesus's prophecy, and the

“the wooden walls” prophecy.


The Delphic Oracle

• Also had moral overtones:– Nothing in excess– Know thyself


Fig. 7.6The priestess sat on or near a caldron on a tripod.


Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, New York

APOLLO’S UNHAPPY LOVES

Apollo may have been the epitome of male beauty, but he was unlucky in love: Cassandra, Sibyl, Daphnê


Apollo's Unhappy Loves

• Hyacinthus• Coronis

– Their son is the healing god Asclepius


Fig. 7.8The healing god, Asclepius, a son of Apollo.


Epidaurus Museum

PERSPECTIVE 7.1

Bernini’s Apollo and Daphnê


Perspective 7.1Gianlorenzo Bernini (Italian,1598–1680), Apollo and Daphnê.


Villa Borghese, Rome; © Alinari/Art Resource, New York

OBSERVATIONS: APOLLO, GOD OF SHAMANS

Like a shaman, Apollo can read the signs of nature.


Apollo and Shamans

• Apollo resembles in many ways the traditional shaman ("he who knows")– He bridges the human and divine world, brings

divine wisdom and prophecies, and heals• He possess men and women, though in

different ways.


Fig. 7.9Apollo intervenes in the battle between the centaurs and the Lapiths. His aristocratic calm, captured on the temple to Zeus, was an idealized image of the Hellenic spirit.


Olympia Museum; Alinari/Art Resource, New York

Apollo and Shamans

• His oracle lost much of its prestige after recommending surrender to the Persians, but it remained important for personal matters.– "Who is the wisest of men?"– "There is none wiser than Socrates."

• Closed down in AD 390 by the Roman Emperor Theodosius.


End


chapter 7 myths of the great god apollo ©2012 pearson education inc

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