The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race Volume I Part 8

3. Although we have thus dwelt upon the gloomy side of Apollo's character, it must not be supposed that he was considered in the light of a malevolent and destroying power. Thus Pindar declares that of all the G.o.ds "he is the most friendly to men."(1240) His t.i.tles, also, as connected with different temples, serve to remove that impression. Thus he was called the Healer at Elis,(1241) the a.s.sister at Phigaleia,(1242) the Defender, the Averter of Evil,(1243) at Athens, and in many oracles.(1244) Although some of these names were perhaps not introduced until the Peloponnesian war, and the restriction of his avenging power to physical evil is first perceptible in Pindar and the tragedians,(1245) yet the idea of the healing and protecting power of Apollo must have been of remote antiquity. Under all these names Apollo does not so much appear bestowing positive good as a.s.suaging and warding off evil; and in this character he was invoked (according to an oracle) to send health and good fortune.(1246)

4. The preceding arguments may perhaps receive confirmation from a description of the G.o.d PaeAN (?a????) in Homer. The name clearly betokens a healing deity, and though the poet indeed speaks of him as a separate individual, and the physician of Olympus,(1247) yet this division appears to have been merely poetical, without any reference to actual wors.h.i.+p; since from very early times the paean had, in the Pythian temple,(1248) been appointed to be sung in honour of Apollo.(1249) The song, like other hymns, derived its name from that of the G.o.d to whom it was sung. The G.o.d was first called paean, then the hymn, and lastly the singers themselves.(1250) Now we know that the paean was originally sung at the cessation of a plague, and after a victory, and generally, when any evil was averted, it was performed as a purification from the pollution.(1251) The chant was loud and joyous, as celebrating the victory of the preserving and healing deity.(1252) Besides the paeans of victory,(1253) however, there were others which were sung at the beginning of battle;(1254) and there was a tradition that the chorus of Delphian virgins had chanted "_Io Paean_" at the contest of Apollo with the Python.(1255) The paean of victory varied according to the different tribes; all Dorians, viz., Spartans, Argives, Corinthians, and Syracusans, had the same.(1256) This use of the paean, as a song of rejoicing for victory, sufficiently explains its double meaning; it bore a mournful sense in reference to the battle, and a joyous sense in reference to the victory. Apollo, under this name, was therefore either considered as a destroying (from pa??), or as a protecting and healing deity, who frees the mind from care and sorrow;(1257) and accordingly the tragedians, by an a.n.a.logical application of the word, also called Death, to whom both these attributes belonged, by the t.i.tle of Paean.(1258) And thus this double character of Apollo, by virtue of which he was equally formidable as a foe, and welcome as an ally,(1259) was authorized by the ambiguity of his name.

5. On the other hand, the t.i.tle AGYIEUS had a single signification.(1260) This appellation of Apollo was peculiar to the Dorians,(1261) and consequently of great antiquity at Delphi;(1262) from which place, however, it was brought over to Athens at a very early period, and indeed partly at the command of an oracle.(1263) His statue was erected in court-yards, and before the doors of houses; that is, at the boundary of private and public property, in order to admit the G.o.d as a tutelary deity, and to avert evil. The symbol or image of the G.o.d was most simple, being a conical block of stone. The ancients knew not whether to consider it as an altar or statue.(1264) The wors.h.i.+p consisted of a constant succession of trifling services and marks of adoration.(1265) Frankincense was burnt before the pillar;(1266) it was bedecked with wreaths of myrtle, garlands, &c. This was sufficient to remind, and at the same time to a.s.sure, the ancient Dorians of the protecting presence of their deity. The Athenians represented their Hermes in a similar manner. This G.o.d, although fundamentally distinct from Apollo, was invested by them with the same offices: thus the statues of both G.o.ds were placed, as protecting powers, in front of the houses: both G.o.ds were supposed to confer blessings on those who either entered or left the house: both were represented by simple columnar statues. With Apollo, however, this protection was rather of a spiritual and inward nature: while the phallic form, which always distinguished the Hermae of Athens, shows that this G.o.d was considered to afford, by increasing the fruitfulness of the fields and cattle, and generally all the products of nature, a more external and physical a.s.sistance.

6. To these t.i.tles may perhaps be added the name of APOLLO itself. That we must search for its etymology in the Greek language alone, and that it could have been derived from no other source, is evident from the preceding investigations. In the first place, then, we cannot derive it from the sun, ??????S,(1267) since the digamma is never changed into ?.

The derivation from ??O we have already rejected, as being founded on a partial and occasional attribute of the G.o.d.(1268) On the other hand, we may observe that the ancient Doric aeolian form of the name was not ?p?????

but ?p?????,(1269) which also obtained amongst the ancient Latins,(1270) and from which the Macedonian and Delphian month _Apellaeus_ evidently derived its name. Now if this is admitted to be the original form, ?p?????

simply means the _averter_ or _defender_,(1271) and belongs to the same cla.s.s as ??e???a???, ?p?t??pa???, and other names mentioned above.

7. All these names, however, only indicate the attributes and actions of the deity; but the name PHBUS expresses more nearly his peculiar nature.

From its original sense of "_bright_," "_clear_," its secondary sense of "_pure_," "_unstained_," is easily derived;(1272) and hence the term f????e?? (which perhaps is connected with the Latin _februare_), "to expiate." Phoebus therefore is the clear and spotless G.o.d, often emphatically called the "pure and holy" (????? ?e??).(1273) This name is particularly applied to him when he returns purified from Tempe.(1274) The same meaning is implied in the epithet ?a????, which also signifies "pure," and "clear;"(1275) hence the streams near the temples of Apollo in Troy and Lycia were called Xanthus,(1276) and amongst the Macedonians the expiatory festival of the army bore the t.i.tle of _Xanthica_.(1277) In allusion to Apollo as a G.o.d of joy and gladness, Aeschylus frequently forbids that he should be invoked in sorrow.(1278) Several other pa.s.sages from poets and grammarians might be adduced to support this idea.(1279)

8. We now come to the most enigmatical of all the t.i.tles of Apollo, viz., "LYCEUS." It was shown above, that Apollo Lycius was wors.h.i.+pped at Lycorea on mount Parna.s.sus, in Lycia at the foot of mount Cragus, in Lycia under mount Ida, at Athens, Argos, Sparta, and Sicyon. This religion must have been of greater antiquity than the Greek colonies in Asia Minor, having been carried over thither at the time of their establishment. Homer was also acquainted with this t.i.tle of Apollo.

In explanation of this epithet we every where find traditions concerning wolves. The descendants of Deucalion, who survived the deluge, following a wolf's roar, founded Lycorea on a ridge of mount Parna.s.sus. Latona came as a she-wolf from the Hyperboreans to Delos: she was conducted by wolves to the river Xanthus. Wolves protected the treasures of Apollo; and near the great altar at Delphi there stood an iron wolf with ancient inscriptions.(1280) The attack of a wolf upon a herd of cattle occasioned the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo Lyceus at Argos, where a brazen group of figures, commemorating the circ.u.mstance, was erected in the market-place.(1281) The Sicyonian tradition of Apollo "the destroyer of wolves" is certainly of less antiquity, as also the epithet ?????t???? (_Lupercus_), which occurs in Sophocles and other authors.(1282)

Now in inquiring into the meaning of the symbol of the wolf in this signification, it may be first remarked that it is a beast of prey. In this point of view it cannot but appear a remarkable coincidence that Apollo should in the Iliad a.s.sume the form of a hawk,(1283) and a species of falcon should be called his swift messenger.(1284) Thus also the tragedians frequently represented Apollo, in his character of a destroyer, under the t.i.tle of Lyceus.(1285) We are not, however, to suppose that it was this character of Apollo as a destroying power which gave a name, not only to innumerable temples, but even to whole countries; such a supposition would, contrary to history and a.n.a.logy, make the early state of this religion to have been one of the grossest barbarism and superst.i.tion. It is far more probable that the name Lyceus is connected with the ancient primitive word _lux_ (whence ?e????). The Greek word ????

is preserved most distinctly in ????a?, _i.e._ _course of the light_;(1286) and by the epithet ?????????, applied to Apollo by Homer,(1287) and probably taken from some ancient hymns, we should (from the idiom of the Greek language) rather understand _one born of light_, than _the Lycian G.o.d_. That light and splendour are frequently employed, both in the symbols of wors.h.i.+p and language of the poets, to express the attributes of Apollo, cannot be denied;(1288) and we only remind the reader of the belief that the fire which burnt on the altar of Apollo Lyceus at Argos had originally fallen from heaven:(1289) and thus the epithet Lyceus would seem to belong to the same cla.s.s as _aegletes_, _Phbus_, and _Xanthus_.(1290)

It is not to be supposed that the wolf was made use of as a symbol of Apollo merely from an accidental similarity of name; but it is difficult to discover what a.n.a.logy even the lively imagination of the Greeks could have found between the wolf and light. At a later period it was attempted to explain this symbol by the circ.u.mstance that all wolves produced their young within twelve days in the year, the precise time during which Latona was wandering as a she-wolf from the Hyperboreans to Delos.(1291) This physical interpretation was, however, grounded on the fable, and not the fable on it. Perhaps the sharp sight of the wolf(1292) (if we can trust the accounts of the ancients), or even the bright colour of the animal, may afford a better explanation.(1293)

In the ancient Grecian wors.h.i.+p, however, there is another example, and one in the highest degree remarkable, of the connexion between light and the wolf. On the lofty peak of Lycaeum, a mountain of Arcadia, above the ancient Lycosura, there stood (as Pindar says) a lofty and splendid altar of Zeus Lycaeus, with which were in some way connected all the traditions concerning Lycaon, who sacrificed his child to Zeus, and was in consequence transformed into a wolf. Now not only does the symbol of the wolf occur in this place,(1294) but there is also a reference to light.

There stood here a sacred shrine or _adytum_, supposed to be inaccessible; and the popular belief was, that whoever entered it cast no shadow; and in order to escape being sacrificed, the aggressor was obliged to escape as a deer: hence the pursuing G.o.d naturally appeared to the imagination as a wolf.(1295) We perceive that light was supposed to dwell within the sanctuary. Thus in this very ancient wors.h.i.+p of the Parrhasians, which in other respects has little in common with the Doric wors.h.i.+p of Apollo, we discover the same combination of ideas and symbols that exists in the latter, and cannot but consider it a vestige of some very ancient symbolical idea peculiar and general among the Greeks.

9. Having proceeded so far, we shall endeavour to unite and harmonize the different facts already collected. Apollo, as he is represented by Homer, exhibits the character of a destroying and avenging, as well as a delivering and protecting power. But he is the avenger of impiety and arrogance, and the punisher of injustice and sin, and not the author of evil to mankind for evil's sake. He was therefore always considered as attended with certain beings whose nature was contrary to his own; his character could only be shown in opposition with a system of hostile attributes and powers. As the _warring_ and _victorious_ G.o.d, he required enemies to combat and conquer: as the _pure_ and _bright_ G.o.d, he implies the existence of a dark and impure side of nature. In this manner the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo resembled those religions, such as the ancient Persian, which were founded on the doctrine of _two principles_, one of good, the other of evil. At the same time he is no deified personification of the creative or generative powers of nature, nor of any natural object or phenomenon; and he has therefore nothing in common with the deities of the elementary religions.

These ideas, which seem to be expressed with tolerable distinctness, in the most ancient epithets and symbols connected with the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo, as well as in the images and fictions of poets down to the time of Euripides, we will first examine with reference to the mythical history and adventures of Apollo, and secondly we will endeavour to point out the influence which these notions exercised upon the wors.h.i.+p itself.

Chapter VII.

-- 1. Zeus and Apollo originally the only two male deities of the Dorians. -- 2. Birth of Apollo. -- 3. Sanct.i.ty of the island of Delos. -- 4. Pains of Latona. -- 5. Spot of Apollo's birth. -- 6.

Battle with the Python. -- 7. Apollo sings the Pythian strain. -- 8.

Bondage of Apollo. -- 9. Combat with t.i.tyus. -- 10. Apollo's a.s.sumption of the oracular power.

1. Our present investigation renders it necessary to ascend to a period in which the primitive religion of the Dorians exhibited a distinct and original character, before it had been combined with the wors.h.i.+p of other deities. At that time this nation had only two male deities, Zeus and Apollo: for the existence of the latter everywhere supposes that of the former, and both were intimately connected in Crete, Delphi, and elsewhere; though the Doric Zeus did not receive great religious honours.

In the temple of Delphi, Zeus and Apollo were represented as Moiragetae, accompanied by two Fates.(1296) The supreme deity, however, when connected with Apollo, was neither born, nor visible on earth, and perhaps never considered as having any immediate influence upon men. But Apollo, who is often emphatically called the son of Zeus,(1297) acts as his intercessor, amba.s.sador, and prophet with mankind.(1298) And whilst the father of the G.o.ds appears, indistinctly and at a distance, dwelling in ether, and enthroned in the highest heavens, Apollo is described as a divine hero, whose office is to ward off evils and dangers, establish rights of expiation, and announce the ordinances of Fate. It is our purpose to investigate these latter attributes, more especially in the mythology of Delos and Delphi.

2. The legend of the birth of Apollo at Delos was indeed recognised by the Ionians and Athenians, but neither by the Delphians, Botians, nor Peloponnesians;(1299) as is plain from the indifference which they generally showed for the temple in that island. We also know that the Botians represented Tegyra as the birthplace of Apollo.

Apollo, says Pindar, was born with time;(1300)-alluding to the many obstacles and delays experienced at his birth. These had been occasioned by the influence of an hostile power, the same which produced Typhaon from the depths of Tartarus,(1301) called by the poets Here.

This power refused its a.s.sistance at the birth of Apollo, and compelled Latona to wander in the pains of childbirth over earth and sea until she arrived at the rocky island of Delos.

3. Hence the island of Delos itself became one of the subjects of mythology. Pindar, in an ode to Delos, addresses it as "_the daughter of the sea, the unshaken prodigy of the earth, which mortals call Delos, but the G.o.ds in Olympus the far-famed star of the dark earth_;"(1302) and related how "_the island, driven about by the winds and waves, as soon as Latona had placed her foot on its sh.o.r.e, became fast bound to the roots of the earth by four columns_."(1303) The fable of the floating island(1304) (which is, however, of a more recent date than the Homeric hymn to Apollo) indicated merely the restless condition which preceded the tranquillity and brightness introduced by the manifestation of the G.o.d. Henceforth Delos remained fixed and unshaken, immoveable, according to the belief of the Greeks, even by earthquakes; for which reason, the whole of Greece was alarmed when this phenomenon happened before the Persian war.(1305) By the words "_the star of the dark earth_," Pindar alludes to the idea that Delos (as the name shows) was considered as a pure and bright island, whose sh.o.r.es, too holy for pollution, were ever kept free from corpses, the sight of which is odious to the G.o.d. Hence also the tradition that Asteria, whose name is derived from ?st??, the offspring of the t.i.tans, had cast herself into the sea, and been petrified on the sh.o.r.e.

4. The birth of Apollo, being an epoch in mythology, was without doubt celebrated in ancient hymns, whose simplicity presented a striking contrast to the higher polish of the Homeric poems. A hymn of this description, ascribed to Olen, was addressed to Eileithyia, the wors.h.i.+p of which G.o.ddess, together with other religious ceremonies, was brought over (as has been above remarked)(1306) from Cnosus to Delos, and from thence to Athens.(1307) In calling Eileithyia the mother of the G.o.d of love,(1308) Olen exceeded the regular bounds of tradition respecting Apollo, by confusing the wors.h.i.+p of a strange G.o.d with that deity, and probably identified her with the ancient Aphrodite (?f??d?t? ???a?a), whose altar Theseus is said to have erected at Delos.(1309) In either case, the establishment of this ancient Attic wors.h.i.+p on the sacred island, and its connexion with the Delian rites, ill.u.s.trate the mention of Eros in the Delian hymn.

_Nine days and nine nights Latona writhed in hopeless pains of childbirth, surrounded by the benevolent t.i.tanidae, Dione, Rhea, Themis, and Amphitrite, who finally_ (according to the hymn of Homer) _prevailed upon Eileithyia by the promise of a golden necklace. Then the pains seized Latona; she cast her arms around the palm-tree, and brought forth her divine son._ The explanations of the bribe offered to Eileithyia are all too far-fetched: probably pregnant women at Delos consecrated their necklaces to that G.o.ddess.

5. The exact spot where the birth of Apollo took place was shown in Delos, since the least circ.u.mstance connected with so important an event could not fail to excite interest. It must be looked for in the place where the torrent Inopus flows from mount Cynthus.(1310) Here there was a circular pool (the ???? t????essa), the form of which is often carefully mentioned.(1311) By its side grew two sacred trees, the palm and the olive, which are not elsewhere reckoned among those sacred to Apollo; as in Greece Proper the first does not grow at all, and the second not without great care. The Delian temple alone could boast of the palm, the use of palm-branches at the games having also originated in Delos.(1312)

This island acquired so much sanct.i.ty by the birth of Apollo, that no living being was permitted either to be born or die within its boundary.(1313) Every pregnant woman was obliged to go over to the neighbouring island of Rheneia, in order to be delivered. One of the ideas of the Greeks respecting religious purity (which may in general be traced to the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo) was, that all intercourse with pregnant women polluted in the same manner as the touch of a corpse. The prohibition against keeping dogs had the same origin.(1314) On the whole, the Delian traditions are not to be considered as of very great antiquity or credit; they contain, indeed, hardly any original source of information respecting Apollo, being generally composed of descriptions of the sanct.i.ty of the island itself; several legends, as that of its having once floated on the ocean, &c., appear to have been the invention of the Ionians; this race, even in fiction, allowing itself far greater lat.i.tude than the Dorians.

6. Apollo, according to the Attic legend, pa.s.sed to Delphi from Delos through Attica and Botia; the Homeric Hymn to Apollo makes him come from the northern districts, but likewise through Botia: according to other traditions he came from the Hyperboreans. According to another, Latona was carrying the two babes, Apollo and Artemis, in her arms, when a.s.sailed by the Python,(1315) the mother seeking refuge on a sacred stone near the plane-tree at Delphi:(1316) in another, Apollo was a child at the time of this event;(1317) and, accordingly, a Delphian boy, both whose parents were alive, represented the actions of the deity at the great festival.

The destruction of the Python, however, always formed the chief event of the sacred fable. It was by this feat that Apollo gained possession of the oracular chasm, from which the G.o.ddess Earth had once spoken. It was not, however, without some resistance that she gave way to the claims of the youthful G.o.d, whom, according to Pindar, she even attempted to hurl down to Tartarus.(1318) The serpent Python is represented as the guardian of the ancient oracle of the Earth,(1319) and a son of the Earth itself, sprung from the warm clay that remained after the general deluge, and dwelling in a dark defile near a fountain, which was said to be supplied from the Styx.(1320) The serpent, as usual, represents an earthly being, by which is personified the rough and shapeless offspring of nature. It was supposed to be connected with the nature of water and the sea; and hence was called _Delphin_, or _Delphine_,(1321) like the fish of the same name, which was particularly sacred to Apollo, and in all probability was also conceived to have been subdued by him. After this, the serpent that watched the oracle remained, although conquered, as a memorial of the ancient struggle, and of the victory of the G.o.d, and was placed near the rocky chasm at the foot of the tripod, in the inner sanctuary.(1322)

7. The battle with the Python being finished,(1323) Apollo himself breaks the laurel, to weave a crown of victory.(1324) Here too he was said first to have sung the paean, as a strain of triumph. In the dramatic exhibition, by which the Delphians represented the adventures of Apollo, the Pythian strain (???? ??????) was here introduced. This air, which was originally nothing more than a simple melody, soon received all the embellishment of art; and, being raised by Timosthenes to the dignity of a great musical composition,(1325) was (contrary to the ancient custom) performed with flutes, lyres, and trumpets, without the accompaniment of the voice. The accounts concerning this festival are indeed copious, but unluckily of too late a date to give us an idea of its ancient and genuine character. In Plutarch's time(1326) it was not a hollow serpent's den, but an imitation of a princely house (?a????), that was erected in a court (????), at every octennial festival.(1327) Into this building the women of a Delphian family(1328) led the boy by a secret pa.s.sage (d????e?a) with lighted torches, and fled away through the door, overturning the table, and setting fire to the house.

8. Although the destruction of the Python is characterized as a triumph of the higher and divine power of the deity, yet the victorious G.o.d was considered as polluted by the blood of the monster, and obliged to undergo a series of afflictions and woes. Tradition represented him as going immediately after the battle by the sacred road to Tempe; which the boy, who personified Apollo, afterwards took as leader of the religious procession.(1329) The direction of this road has been accurately stated above. The chief circ.u.mstance in this wandering was the bondage ??te?s??

of Apollo under Admetus the Pheraean, to which the G.o.d subjected himself in order to expiate his guilt. This too was represented by the boy, who probably imitated the manner in which the G.o.d, as a herdsman and slave, submitted to the most degrading services.(1330) Perhaps it was the piety of Admetus, celebrated in tradition, which ent.i.tled him to the privilege of possessing such a slave; yet it must be doubted, whether, conformably to the spirit of the ancient mythology, an ideal being, and not a mortal hero, was not originally intended to be represented under this name.

?d?t?? is an usual name for the G.o.d of the infernal regions; to whom, according to the original idea, Apollo became enslaved. The wors.h.i.+p of this deity is connected with that of Hecate, who was called ?e? Fe?a?a, and the daughter of Admetus.(1331) Cannot we, in the rescuing of Alcestis from the infernal regions by Apollo(1332) and Hercules, find some clue which may lead us to suppose that the fable of Admetus refers to a wors.h.i.+p of the infernal deities? An ancient dirge, called the song of Admetus, was chanted in Greece, having, as was pretended, been first sung by Admetus at the death of his wife, originally perhaps addressed to ??de?

?d?t??.(1333) How well does it suit the sublime character of the religious poetry in question, that the G.o.d, who had been polluted by the combat with the impure being, should be obliged, in order to complete his penance, to descend into the infernal regions. In confirmation of this, there have been preserved some obscure traditions, which represent Apollo as actually dying, that is, descending into the infernal regions.(1334) However, after eight years, the appointed time of bondage, the G.o.d wanders to the ancient altar of Tempe, where, sprinkling with laurel-branches, and other expiatory rites, symbolically restore his purity,(1335) After this, the purified deity returns by the same road to Deipnias, near Larissa, and there breaks his long fast.

9. These Delphian traditions in very early times became the theme of epic poetry, in which however another cause was a.s.signed for the slavery of Apollo; it was represented as a punishment inflicted by Zeus for slaying the Cyclops, who forged the lightning with which Zeus struck his son aesculapius, because, not satisfied with recovering the sick, he even recalled the dead to life.(1336) Yet some of the poets also state that Pherae was the place of his servitude, alluding to the Pythian road, and mention a _great year_ (??a? ???a?t??) as the time of his bondage;(1337) by which they mean the Delphian period. We may perhaps find a trace of a more ancient tradition in the story of amber being a petrified tear, which Apollo shed during the time of his slavery in his ancient abode amongst the Hyperboreans, in the land of the Celts.(1338)

The combat with t.i.tyus is nearly allied to that with the Python. This earth-born monster, dwelling at Panopea, a town situated on the sacred road, and hostile to the Delphians, laid hands upon Latona when pa.s.sing through that place: but her children soon overcome the ravisher, and send him to the shades below; where a vulture incessantly preys upon his liver,(1339) the seat of inordinate desire.

10. The hostile part of nature now lying vanquished, and quiet having gained the victory over disturbance, Apollo begins to exercise the other office for which he was sent into the world. He mounts the tripod of the Delphian oracle, no longer to give utterance to the dark responses of the earth, but to proclaim the "unerring decree of Zeus."(1340) For it is evident that, in the language of this religion, fate was considered as the will of Zeus (???? ????, ???? a?sa), who was at Delphi called ????a??t??, "leader of fate;" whilst the epic poets, from their custom of making each G.o.d a separate individual, generally (though the glimmering of a more exalted idea may be sometimes traced) made Zeus, like all other individuals, subject to fate. The prophetic powers of Apollo will be more fully treated of in the following chapter.

Chapter VIII.

-- 1. Ritual wors.h.i.+p 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 paean 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 wors.h.i.+p 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 wors.h.i.+p of Apollo so agree and harmonize together, 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 princ.i.p.al temples a particular sanct.i.ty 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 Parna.s.sus are said to have brought the first-fruits of the year to Apollo, 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 G.o.d defends and preserves them. But as the pure deity was himself supposed to be stained with blood, so might the minds of his wors.h.i.+ppers 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 (?t?), 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 wors.h.i.+p, and formed a part of the ancient _jus sacrum._ It was soon however perceived that the usual routine of life sometimes needed the same ceremony, and hence expiatory _festivals_ were connected with the public wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.d; 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 (Fa?a???) 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 Phocaean colony of Ma.s.salia.(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 flute a strain (called ??ad???), 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_ (??as??), by which Apollo was first appeased, and his wrath averted, should, as it appears, be distinguished from the _purifications_ (?a?a???), 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 f???), 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 ??et???a, an olive-branch bound with white fillets of wool, into the Delphinium.(1356) This took place exactly one month before the Thargelia; and in all probability the peace-offerings and purifications (??as?? and ?a?a???) 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 cla.s.ses, 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._ ??????) at Delphi, Munychion at Athens, Apollo was supposed to come through the defile of Parna.s.sus to Delphi, and begin the battle with the Delphine. He next a.s.sumes the character of the wrathful G.o.d, 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 Ma.s.salia; we may likewise suppose that it was the same month which in aegina and Thera went under the name of Delphinius:(1358) on the seventh Apollo destroyed the Python.(1359) The paean was now sung. This too was the day on which, according to immemorial 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 t.i.thes of men were once despatched to Apollo in Crete.(1361)