Apollo

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Apollo

• God of Music, Medicine and Prophecy

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I shall not forget far-shooting Apollo but
remember him before whom the gods tremble when he
comes to the home of Zeus . . . Homeric Hymn to
Apollo
Like many of the gods, Apollo is god of a wide
and sometimes contradictory range of things.
Many of them fit the overall category,
mysterious and difficult knowledge ways of
knowing.
Apollo of Piombino detail - head and torso - ca.
480 B.C. bronze
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• Some of his provinces
• poetry
• prophecy
• medicine plague

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Apollo at Delphi
Apollos prophetic powers were shared with humans
in an number of ways, but most prominently at the
site of Delphi, his biggest sanctuary, where the
Pythia gave oracles.
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Apollo at Delphi
Delphi
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Apollo at Delphi
To honor Apollo, many nations dedicated monuments
at Delphi, sent offerings which were kept in
their own treasuries in the precinct.
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The Delphic Oracle
At Delphi, people from all over Greece came to
ask the Pythia their questions. After sacrificing
and ascertaining that the god would receive them,
they asked the priestess their questions. Sitting
on a tripod, she gave an answer inspired by the
god.
Sometimes she is portrayed as frenzied, sometimes
as calm.
Some oracles are riddling and hard to understand.
Others are a simple yes or no. The oracle
itself is mythologized.
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Apollo at Delphi
Delphi was the navel of the world, and contained
an object called the omphalos or navel. Here
Apollo is depicted sitting on it, in a silver
coin of the Amphyctionic league.
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Apollo at Delphi
Delphi is an important site in many myths the
stories of Croesus, Oedipus, and Orestes all have
significant Delphic content. Here, Apollo
purifies Orestes from murdering his mother.
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Apollo at Delphi
As at many other sanctuaries, there were games at
Delphi every four years, as well as spectacles
like drama. This sculpture of a charioteer was
dedicated to Apollo by a victor. It seems to
embody the two mottoes that were inscribed at
Delphi
meden agan nothing in excess. gnothi seauton
know yourself.
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Know yourself is not a new-agey get in touch
with your feelings thing. It means, look at
yourself hard, know your abilities and your
status, and dont get arrogant and step out of
place. If youre humble, act that way. If
youre one of the elite, live up to expectations.
The Romans adopted the saying with a morbid
touch were all mortal, get used to it . . .
Rome, Terme Museum. Credits Barbara McManus, 1982
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Temple of Apollo, Corinth
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God of Plague
Phoebus Apollo came down from the peaks of
Olympus, angered in his heart, wearing on his
shoulders his bow and closed quiver. He sat down
a little apart from the Greek ships and shot one
of his arrows terrible was the clang made by his
silver bow. First he attacked the mules and the
swift hounds, but then he let go his piercing
shafts against the men themselves and struck them
down. The funeral pyres with their corpses
burned thick and fast.
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Asclepius, God of Healing
Apollos son, Asclepius, was a god of medicine.
Sick people flocked to his sanctuaries all over
Greece.
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Asclepius, God of Healing
Some dedications to Asclepius in Thessalonika
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Asclepius and his daughter Hygeia (Health) with
the helping serpent (Agathos daimon)
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God of Music
Apollo was also the god of music, frequently
shown with the lyre or kithara. This associated
him with another kind of special knowledge
divine inspiration. And also with history and the
maintenance of culture, which epic poetry
sustained. He was therefore central to the values
of civilization.
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God of Music
Here Apollo appears as the victor in a music
contest, pouring a libation with winged Nike.
Music contests were part of the athletic games at
his sanctuaries.
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Apollo as Lover
Yet as a lover he was far from successful. Daphne
rejected him, preferring to be turned into a
laurel tree, to accepting the gods advances. The
laurel became Apollos tree. Marpessa rejected
him for a human lover, preferring a real man to
the temporary attentions of a god.
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Apollo as Lover
A Renaissance Daphne
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Apollo as Lover
His priestess Cassandra rejected him, so he gave
her the gift of prophecy, with the curse that no
one would believe her. Despite her
foreknowledge, she could not keep her city from
destruction.
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Apollo as Lover
Hyacinthus, a male lover, accepted him, but was
killed by the jealous wind god Zephyros. Apollos
lack of success as a lover, or rather the
tragedies that arose, highlight his distance and
unapproachability on ordinary human terms.
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The Divine Twins
Apollo and Artemis are shown together in this
coin from Selinus, c. 450 BCE. She drives the
chariot while he aims with the bow.
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Unusual Iconography
This Attic vase was painted by the "painter of
Berlin" The god Apollo is seated on a winged
tripod riding over the sea (hyperpontios), which
is denoted by fish and an octopus. Two dolphins
leaping over the waves accompany him. Apollo
plays the lyre.
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Unusual Iconography
In this wall painting from an inn probably built
for him, the emperor Neors face appears on this
representation of Apollo. (After all, Nero
fiddled while Rome burned . . .)
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Modern interpretations
Apollo can be understood as a god of reason in
contrast to his brother Dionysus, the god of
madness. Although the Greeks didnt make this
distinction, since Nietzsche we often speak of
the Apolline and the Dionysiac to refer to
different realms of experience and values.
Phidias Apollo Parnopios (modern
reconstruction after lost original - ca. 450
B.C.) gilt bronze
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finis
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The verse scratched in a horseshoe-shape over
this figure's legs is one of the earliest
inscriptions in Greek. It reads "Mantiklos
offers me as a tithe to Apollo of the silver bow
do you, Phoibos, give some pleasing favor in
return".
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