Listed 31 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for destination: "DELOS Island KYKLADES".
A small island of the Cyclades (Od. 6.162), which was the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.
The Homer's (Odyss. 5.123) legend about Orion serves to confirm the identity of Ortygia and Delos. The name Ortygia occurs in several localities, but it is always connected with the worship of Artemis (cp. Soph. Trachin. 214); and the existence of a Syracusan Ortygia (which Volcker understands to be alluded to in this passage) seems only to mean that the Syracusan colonists (B. C. 734) introduced into their new home the cult of the Delian Artemis. In Od.15. 403 the island Surie is described as being Ortugies kathuperthen, which would sufficiently mark the position of the Cyclad Syros, west of Rhenaea, and this is confirmed by the statement in v. 410, that the island was under the joint protection of Artemis and Apollo. There is a further doubt whether Ortygia be a twin island to Delos, or identical with it. Strabo (10. 5. 5) identifies Ortygia with Rhenaea, onomazeto de (Rhenaia) kai Ortugia proteron, the confusion probably arising from the fact that originally Delos and Rhenaea (which was separated from it by a narrow channel about half a mile in breadth) were included under the same name. See Schol. on Theocr. 17. 10 nesos houto Rhenaia legomene hen kai Delon phasi. Ortygia and Delos are spoken of separately (h. Hom. Ap. 16) as the birth-places of Artemis and Apollo respectively, Leto having brought them forth, ten men en Ortugiei, ton de kranaei eni Deloi, see also Od.6. 162.The name Ortygia comes from ortux, ‘a quail;’ and Welcker mentions that from May to September large flights of these birds are seen in the islands of the Archipelago.
She was the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus (Il. 1.9, Od. 11.318). In the passage 5.447 of the Iliad Leto and her daughter healed Aeneas. While being pregnant, she was persecuted by Hera and wandered about till she came to Delos, where she gave birth.
Leto, called by the Romans Latona. According to Hesiod, a
daughter of the Titan Coeus and Phoebe, a sister of Asteria. She was the mother
of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus, to whom she was married before Here. Homer likewise
calls her the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus; he mentions her in the story
of Niobe, who paid so dearly for her conduct towards Leto, and he also describes
her as the friend of the Trojans in the war with the Greeks. In later writers
these elements of her story are variously embellished, for they do not describe
her as the lawful wife of Zeus, but merely as his mistress, who was persecuted
by Here during her pregnancy. All the world being afraid of receiving Leto on
account of their dread of Here, she wandered about till she came to Delos, which
was then a floating island, and bore the name of Asteria or Ortygia. When Leto
arrived there, Zeus fastened it by adamantine chains to the bottom of the sea,
that it might be a secure resting-place for his beloved, and here she gave birth
to Apollo and Artemis. The tradition is also related with various other modifications.
Some said that Zeus changed Leto into a quail (ortux), and that in this state
she arrived in the floating island, which was hence called Ortygia. Others related
that Zeus was enamoured of Asteria, but that she, being metamorphosed into a bird,
flew across the sea; that she was then changed into a rock, which, for a long
time, lay under the surface of the sea; and that this rock arose from the waters
and received Leto when she was pursued by Python. Leto was generally worshipped
only in conjunction with her children. Delos was the chief seat of her worship,
and in the sanctuary devoted to her honour she was represented by a shapeless
wooden image.
It is probable that the name of Leto belongs to the same class
of words as the Greek lethe and the lateo, as typifying night. Leto would therefore
signify “the obscure” or “concealed,” not as a physical power, but as a divinity
yet quiescent and invisible, from whom issued the visible divinity with all his
splendour and brilliancy. This view is supported by the account of her genealogy
given by Hesiod.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Leto, in Latin Latona, according to Hesiod (Theog. 406, 921), a daughter of the
Titan Coeus and Phoebe, a sister of Asteria, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis
by Zeus, to whom she was married before Hera. Homer, who likewise calls her the
mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus (Il. i. 9, xiv. 327, xxi. 499, Od. xi. 318,
580), mentions her as the friend of the Trojans in the war with the Greeks, and
in the story of' Niobe, who paid so dearly for her conduct towards Leto (Il. v.
447, xx. 40, 72, xxiv. 607; comp. xxi. 502, Od. xi. 580, Hymn. in Apoll. 45, &c.,
89, &c.). In later writers these elements of her story are variously worked out
and embellished, for they do not describe her as the lawful wife of Zeus, but
merely as a concubine, who was persecuted during her pregnancy by Hera (Apollod.
i. 4, 1; Callim. Hymn. in Del. 61, &c.; Schol. ad Eurip. Phoen. 232, &c.; Hygin.
Fab. 140). All the world being afraid of receiving her on account of Hera, she
wandered about till she came to the island of Delos, which was then a floating
island, and bore the name Asteria (Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 35, 37, 191); but when
Leto touched it, it suddenly stood still upon four pillars (Pind. Fragm. 38; Strab.
xi.). According to Hyginus (Fab. 93,140), Delos was previously called Ortygia,
while Stephanus Byzantinus (s. v. Korissos) mentions a tradition, according to
which Artemis was not born in Delos, but at Corissus. Servius (ad Aen. iii. 72)
relates the following legends: Zeus changed Leto into a quail (ortux), and in
this state she arrived in the floating island, which was hence called Ortygia;
or, Zeus was enamoured with Asteria, but she being metamorphosed, through her
prayers, into a bird, flew across the sea; she was then changed into a rock, which,
for a long time, lay under the surface of the sea; but, at the request of Leto,
it rose and received Leto, who was pursued by Python. Leto then gave birth to
Apollo, who slew Python (Comp. Anton. Lib. 35; Ov. Met. vi. 370; Aristot. Hist.
Anim. vi. 35; Athen. xv. 701; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 707; Iamblich. Vit. Pyth. 10;
Strab. xiv.: in each of these passages we find the tradition modified in a particular
way). But notwithstanding the many discrepancies, especially in regard to the
place where Leto gave birth to her children, most traditions agree in describing
Delos as the place (Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. init. 59, in Del. 206, 261; Aeschyl.
Eum. 9; Herod. ii. 170). After the birth of Apollo, his mother not being able
to nurse him, Themis gave him nectar and ambrosia; and by his birth the island
of Delos became sacred, so that henceforth it was not lawful for any human being
to be born or to die on the island; and every pregnant woman was conveyed to the
neighbouring island of Rheneia, in order not to pollute Delos (Strab. x.).
We shall pass over the various speculations of modern writers respecting
the origin and nature of this divinity, and shall mention only the most probable,
according to which Leto is " the obscure" or "concealed", not as a physical power,
but as a divinity yet quiescent and invisible, from whom is issued the visible
divinity with all his splendour and brilliancy. This view is supported by the
account of her genealogy given by Hesiod; and her whole legend seems to indicate
nothing else but the issuing from darkness to light, and a return from the latter
to the former. Leto was generally worshipped only in conjunction with her children,
as at Megara (Paus. i. 44. 2), at Argos (ii. 21. 10), at Amphigeneia (Strab. viii.),
in Lycia (ibid. xiv.), near Lete in Macedonia (Steph. Byz. s. v. Lete), in a grove
near Calynda in Caria (Strab. xiv.), and other places. (Comp. Hirt. Mythol. Bilderb.
Tab. v. 4)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Daughter of Zeus by Leto and sister of Apollo. She was the goddess of hunting (Il. 5.52, Od. 6.102) and also of the death of women (Il. 6.205 & 428, Od. 11.172 & 324, 15.410 & 478). In the Iliad, she and her brother were on the side of the Trojans. According to tradition, Artemis was born in the island of Delos.
Artemis. The virgin daughter of Zeus and Leto (Latona), by
the common account born a twin-sister of Apollo, and just before him, at Delos.
The Ortygia (see Asteria) named in another tradition as her birthplace was interpreted
to mean Delos, though several other places where the worship of Artemis had long
prevailed put forward pretensions to that name and its mythological renown, especially
the well-known island of Ortygia off Syracuse. She, as well as her mother, was
worshipped jointly with her brother at Delos, Delphi, and all the most venerable
spots where Apollo was honoured. She is armed, as he is, with bow and arrows,
which, like him, and often together with him, she wields against monsters and
giants; hence the paean was chanted to her as well as to him. Like those of Apollo,
the shafts of Artemis were regarded as the cause of sudden death, especially to
maidens and wives. But she was also a beneficent and helpful deity. As Apollo
is the luminous god of day, she with her torch is a goddess of light by night,
and in course of time becomes identified with all possible goddesses of moon and
night. Her proper domain is that of nature, with its hills and valleys, woods,
meadows, rivers, and fountains; there, amid her nymphs, herself the fairest and
tallest, she is a mighty huntress, sometimes chasing wild animals, sometimes dancing,
playing, or bathing with her companions. Her favourite haunt was thought to be
the mountains and forests of Arcadia, where, in many spots, she had sanctuaries,
consecrated hunting-grounds, and sacred animals. To her, as goddess of the forest
and the chase, all beasts of the woods and fields--in fact, all game--were dear
and sacred; but her favourite animal was held all over Greece to be the hind.
From this sacred animal and the hunting of it, the month which the other Greeks
called Artemision or Artemisios (March-April) was named by the Athenians Elaphebolion
(Elaphebolion), and her festival as goddess of game and hunting, at which deer
or cakes in the shape of deer were offered up, Elaphebolia. As goddess of the
chase, she had also some influence in war, and the Spartans before battle sought
her favour by the gift of a she-goat. Miltiades, too, before the battle of Marathon,
had vowed to her as many goats as there should be enemies fallen on the field;
but the number proving so great that the vow could not be kept, five hundred goats
were sacrificed at each anniversary of the victory in the month of Boedromion.
Again, she was much worshipped as the goddess of the moon. At Amarynthus in Euboea
the whole island kept holiday to her with processions and prize-fights. At Munychia
in Attica, at full moon in the month of Munychion (April-May), large round loaves
or cakes, decked all around with lights as a symbol of her own luminary, were
borne in procession and presented to her; and at the same time was solemnized
the festival of the victory of Salamis in Cyprus, because on that occasion the
goddess had shone in her full glory on the Greeks. An ancient shrine of the Moon-goddess
at Brauron in Attica was held in such veneration that the Brauronia, originally
a merely local festival, was afterwards made a public ceremony, to which Athens
itself sent deputies every five years, and a precinct was dedicated to "Artemis
of Brauron" on the Acropolis itself. At this feast the girls between five
and ten years of age, clad in saffron-coloured garments, were conducted by their
mothers in procession to the goddess and commended to her care; for Artemis is
also a protectress of youth, especially those of her own sex. As such she patronized
a nurses' festival at Sparta in a temple outside the town, to which little boys
were brought by their nurses; while the Ionians at their Apaturia presented her
with the hair of boys. Almost everywhere young girls revered the virgin goddess
as the guardian of their maiden years, and before marriage they offered up to
her a lock of their hair, their girdle, and their maiden garment. She was also
worshipped in many parts as the goddess of good repute, especially in youths and
maidens, and was regarded as an enemy of all disorderly doings. With her attributes
as the goddess of the moon, and as the promoter of healthy development, especially
in the female frame, is connected the notion of her assisting in childbirth. In
early times human sacrifices had been offered to Artemis. A relic of this was
the yearly custom observed at Sparta of flogging the boys till they bled at the
altar of a deity not unknown elsewhere and named Artemis Orthia (the upright),
probably from her stiff posture in the antiquated wooden image. At Sparta, as
in other places, the ancient image was looked upon as the same which Iphigenia
and Orestes brought away from Tauris (the Crimea)--viz., that of the Tanric Artemis,
a Scythian deity who was identified with Artemis because of the human sacrifices
common in her worship. The Artemis of Ephesus, too, so greatly honoured by all
the Ionians of Asia, is no Greek divinity, but Asiatic. Ancient Representation
of the Ephesian Artemis. This is sufficiently shown by the fact that eunuchs were
employed in her worship-- a practice quite foreign to Greek ideas. The Greek colonists
identified her with their own Artemis, because she was goddess of the moon and
a power of nature, present in mountains, woods, and marshy places, nourishing
life in plants, animals, and men. But, unlike Artemis, she was not regarded as
a virgin, but as a mother and foster-mother, as is clearly shown by the multitude
of breasts in the effigy. Her worship, frantic and fanatical after the manner
of Asia, was traced back to the Amazons. A number of other deities native to Asia
were also worshipped by the Greeks under the name of Artemis.
Artemis appears in works of art as the ideal of austere maiden
beauty--tall of stature, with bow and quiver on her shoulder, or torch in her
hand, and generally leading or carrying a hind, or riding in a chariot drawn by
hinds. Her commonest character is that of a huntress. In earlier times the figure
is fuller and stronger and the clothing more complete; in later works she is represented
as more slender and lighter of foot, the hair loose, the dress girt high, the
feet protected by the Cretan shoe. The most celebrated of her existing statues
is the Diana of Versailles, from Hadrian's villa at Tibur.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Artemis, one of the great divinities of the Greeks. Her name is usually derived
from artemes, uninjured, healthy, vigorous; according to which she would be the
goddess who is herself inviolate and vigorous, and also grants strength and health
to others (Plat. Cratyl.; Strab. xiv.). According to the Homeric account and Hesiod
(Theog. 918) she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, whence Aeschylus (Sept. 148)
calls her letogeneia. She was the sister of Apollo, and born with him at the same
time in the island of Delos. According to a tradition which Pausanias (viii. 37.3)
found in Aeschylus, Artemis was a daughter of Demeter, and not of Leto, while
according to an Egyptian story (Herod. ii. 156) she was the daughter of Dionysus
and Isis, and Leto was only her nurse. But these and some other legends are only
the results of the identification of the Greek Artemis with other local or foreign
divinities. The place of her birth is for the same reason not the same in all
traditions: some say that it was the grove of Ortygia near Ephesus (Tacit. Annal.
iii. 61), others that it was Crete (Diod. v. 72), and others again, that she was
the sister of Apollo, but born somewhat earlier, so that she was able to assist
Leto in giving birth to Apollo (Orph Hymn. 34. 5). In the description of the nature
and character of this goddess, it is necessary to distinguish between the different
points of view from which the Greeks regarded her, and also between the really
Greek Artemis and certain foreign divinities, who for some resemblance or another
were identified by the Greeks with their own Artemis,
Artemis as the sister of Apollo, is a kind of female Apollo, that is, she as a
female divinity represented the same idea that Apollo did as a male divinity.
This relation between the two is in many other cases described as the relation
of husband and wife, and there seems to have been a tradition which actually described
Artemis as the wife of Apollo. In the character of sister of Apollo, Artemis is
like her brother armed with a bow, quiver, and arrows, and sends plague and death
among men and animals: she is a Dea apollousa. Sudden deaths, but more especially
those of women, are described as the effect of her arrows (Hom. Il. vi. 205, 427,
&c., xix. 59, xxi. 483, &c.; Od. xi. 172, &c., 324, xv. 478, xviii. 202, xx. 61,
&c., v. 124, &c.). She also acts sometimes in conjunction with her brother (Od.
xv. 410; Il. xxiv. 606). As Apollo was not only a destructive god, but also averted
the evils which it was in his power to inflict, so Artemis was at the same time
a Dea soteira; that is, she cured and alleviated the sufferings of mortals. Thus,
for instance, she healed Aeneas, when he was wounded and carried into the temple
of Apollo (Il. v. 447). In the Trojan war she sided, like Apollo, with the Trojans.
The man whom she looked graciously upon was prosperous in his fields and flocks,
his household was thriving, and he died in old age (Callim. Hymn. in Dian. 129,
&c.). She was more especially the protectress of the young, whence the epithets
paidotrophos, kourotrophos, and philomeirax (comp. Diod. v. 73); and Aeschylus
(Agam. 142) calls her the protectress of young sucking-animals, and of the game
ranging through the forests of the mountains. Artemis thus also came to be regarded
as the goddess of the flocks and the chase: she is the huntress among the immortals;
she is called the stag-killer (elaphebolos), the lover of the tumult connected
with the chase (keladeine), and agrotera (Il. xxi. 511, 485, &c.; Hom. Hymn. in
Dian. 10). Artemis is moreover, like Apollo, unmarried; she is a maidendivinity
never conquered by love (Soph. Elect. 1220). The priests and priestesses devoted
to her service were bound to live pure and chaste, and trangressions of their
vows of chastity were severely punished (Paus. vii. 19.1. viii. 13.1). She was
worshipped in several places together with her brother; and the worship of both
divinities was believed to have come from the Hyperboreans, and Hyperborean maidens
brought sacrifices to Delos (Herod. ii. 32, 35). The laurel was sacred to both
divinities, and both were regarded as the founders and protectors of towns and
streets (Paus. i. 38.6, iii. 24.6, viii. 36, in fin.; Aeschyl. Sept. 450; Callim.
Hymn. in Dian. 34).
There are, however, some points also, in which there is no resemblance
between Artemis and Apollo: she has nothing to do with music or poetry, nor is
there any trace of her having been regarded as an oracular divinity like Apollo.
Respecting the real and original character of Artemis as the sister of Apollo,
we encounter the same difficulties as those mentioned in the article Apollo, viz.
as to whether she was a purely spiritual and ethical divinity, as Mueller thinks,
or whether she was the representative of some power in physical nature; and the
question must be decided here in the same manner as in the case of Apollo. When
Apollo was regarded as identical with the sun or Helios, nothing was more natural
than that his sister should be regarded as Selene or the moon, and accordingly
the Greek Artemis is, at least in later times, the goddess of the moon. Buttmann
and Hermann consider this idea of Artemis being the moon as the fundamental one
from which all the others are derived. But, at any rate, the idea of Artemis being
the goddess of the moon, must be confined to Artemis the sister of Apollo, and
is not applicable to the Arcadian, Taurian, or Ephesian Artemis.
The Arcadian Artemis is a goddess of the nymphs, and was worshipped as such in
Arcadia in very early times. Her sanctuaries and temples were more numerous in
this country than in any other part of Greece. There was no connexion between
the Arcadian Artemis and Apollo, nor are there any traces here of the ethical
character which is so prominent in Artemis, the sister of Apollo. These circumstances,
together with the fact, that her surnames and epithets in Arcadia are nearly all
derived from the mountains, rivers, and lakes, shew that here she was the representative
of some part or power of nature. In Arcadia she hunted with her nymphs on Taygetus,
Erymanthus, and Maenalus; twenty nymphs accompanied her during the chase, and
with sixty others, daughters of Oceanus, she held her dances in the forests of
the mountains. Her bow, quiver, and arrows, were made by Hephaestus, and Pan provided
her with dogs. Her chariot was drawn by four stags with golden antlers (Callim.
Hymn. in Dian. 13, 81, 90, &c.; Apollod. ii. 5.3; Pind. Ol. iii. 51). Her
temples and sanctuaries in Arcadia were usually near lakes or rivers, whence she
was called limnetis or limnaia (Paus. ii. 7.6, iii. 23.6, iv. 4.2, 31.3, viii.
53.5). In the precincts of her sanctuaries there were often sacred wells, as at
Corinth (Paus. ii. 3.5, iii. 20.7). As a nymph, Artemis also appears in connexion
with river gods, as with Alpheius, and thus it is intelligible why fish were sacred
to her (Diod. v. 3).
The Taurian Artemis. The legends of this goddess are mystical, and her worship
was orgiastic and connected, at least in early times, with human sacrifices. According
to the Greek legend there was in Tauris a goddess, whom the Greeks for some reason
identified with their own Artemis. and to whom all strangers that were thrown
on the coast of Tauris, were sacrificed (Eurip. Iph. Taur. 36). Iphigeneia and
Orestes brought her image from thence, and landed at Brauron in Attica, whence
the goddess derived the name of Brauronia (Paus. i. 23.9, 33.1, iii. 16, in fin).
The Brauronian Artemis was worshipped at Athens and Sparta, and in the latter
place the boys were scourged at her altar in such a manner that it became sprinkled
with their blood. This cruel ceremony was believed to have been introduced by
Lycurgus, instead of the human sacrifices which had until then been offered to
he. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Brauronia and Diamastigosis). Her name at Sparta was
Orthia, with reference to the phallus, or because her statue stood erect. According
to another tradition, Orestes and Iphigeneia concealed the image of the Taurian
goddess in a bundle of brushwood, and carried it to Aricia in Latium. Iphigeneia,
who was at first to have been sacrificed to Artemis, and then became her priestess,
was afterwards identified with the goddess (Herod. iv. 103; Paus. i. 43.1), who
was worshipped in some parts of Greece, as at Hermione, under the name of Iphigeneia
(Paus. ii. 35.1). Some traditions stated, that Artemis made Iphigeneia immortal,
in the character of Hecate, the goddess of the moon. A kindred divinity, if not
the same as the Taurian Artemis, is Artemis tauropolos, whose worship was connected
with bloody sacrifices, and who produced madness in the minds of men, at least
the chorus in the Ajax of Sophocles, describes the madness of Ajax as the work
of this divinity. In the legends about the Taurian Artemis, it seems that separate
local traditions of Greece are mixed up with the legends of some Asiatic divinity,
whose symbol in the heaven was the moon, and on the earth the cow.
The Ephesian Artemis was a divinity totally distinct from the Greek goddess of
the same name. She seems to have been the personification of the fructifying and
all-nourishing powers of nature. It is an opinion almost universally adopted,
that she was an ancient Asiatic divinity whose worship the Greeks found established
in Ionia, when they settled there, and that, for some resemblance they discovered,
they applied to her the name of Artemis. As soon as this identity of the Asiatic
goddess with the Greek Artemis was recognised, other features, also originally
peculiar to the Greek Artemis, were transferred to her; and thus she is called
a daughter of Leto, who gave birth to her in the neighbourhood of Ephesus. Her
original character is sufficiently clear from the fact, that her priests were
eunuchs, and that her image in the magnificent temple of Ephesus represented her
with many breasts (polumastos). The whole figure of the goddess resembled a mummy:
her head was surmounted with a mural crown (corona muralis), and the lower part
of her body, which ended in a point, like a pyramid upside down, was covered with
figures of mystical animals (Strab. xiv.; Paus. iv. 31.6, vii. 5.2). The symbol
of this divinity was a bee, and her highpriest bore the name of king (essen).
Her worship was said to have been established at Ephesus by the Amazons (Paus.
ii. 7.4, viii. 12.1; Hesych. and Suid. s. v. essen).
Respecting some other divinities, or attributes of divinities, which were likewise
regarded as identical with Artemis in Greece, see Britomaris, Dictynna, and Eileithyia.
The Romans identified their goddess Diana with the Greek Artemis, and at a comparatively
early time they transferred to their own goddess all the peculiar features of
the Greek Artemis. The worship of Artemis was universal in all Greece, in Delos,
Crete, Sicily, and southern Italy, but more especially in Arcadia and the whole
of the Peloponnesus. The sacrifices offered to the Brauronian Artemis consisted
of stags and goats; in Thrace dogs were offered to Artemis. Among the animals
sacred to the Greek Artemis we may mention the stag, boar, dog, and others; the
fir-tree was likewise sacred to her.
It is impossible to trace the various relations in which Artemis appears
to us to one common source, or to one fundamental idea : the very manner in which
such a complicated mythus was formed renders the attempt futile, or, to say the
least, forced. In the case of Artemis, it is evident, that new elements and features
were added in various places to the ancient local mythus; the worship of one divinity
is identified with that of another, and the legends of the two are mixed up into
one, or those of the one are transferred to the other, whose legends then sink
into oblivion.
The representations of the Greek Artemis in works of art are different
accordingly as she is represented either as a huntress, or as the goddess of the
moon; yet in either case she appears as a youthful and vigorous divinity, as becomes
the sister of Apollo. As the huntress, she is tall, nimble, and has small hips;
her forehead is high, her eyes glancing freely about, and her hair tied up behind
in such a manner, that some locks float down her neck; her breast is covered,
and the legs up to the knees are naked, the rest being covered by the chlamys.
Her attributes are the bow, quiver, and arrows, or a spear, stags, and dogs. As
the goddess of the moon, she wears a long robe which reaches down to her feet,
a veil covers her head, and above her forehead rises the crescent of the moon.
In her hand she often appears holding a torch.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Locheia, the protectress of women in childbed, occurs as a surname of Artemis. (Plut. Sympos. iii. 10; Orph. Hymn. 35. 3.)
Lygodesma (Lugodesma), a surname of Artemis whose statue had been found by the brothers Astrabacus and Alopecus under a bush of willows (lugos), by which it was surrounded in such a manner that it stood upright. (Paus. iii. 16. 7.)
The god of light, son of Zeus by Leto and brother of Artemis. He was on the side of the Trojans and guardian of the city of Ilion as well as other Trojan cities such as Cilla and Chryse (Il. 1.37, 4.507). In Homer, Apollo is presented as a punisher and avenger, who spreads death with his arrows on mankind, and also as the god of the art of foreseeing the future (Il. 1.72 & 86, 9.405, Od. 8.79, 15.252) and of poetry, who entertained the gods with his guitar (Il. 1.602) and taught the art of song, such as the Muse (Od. 8.488). According to tradition, Apollo was born in the island of Delos.
Apollo (Apollon). Son of Zeus by Leto (Latona), who, according
to the legend most widely current, bore him and his twin-sister Artemis at the
foot of Mt. Cynthus, in the island of Delos. Apollo appears originally as a god
of light, both in its beneficent and its destructive effects; and of light in
general, not of the sun only, for to the early Greeks the deity that brought daylight
was Helios, with whom it was not till afterwards that Apollo was identified. While
the meaning of his name Apollo is uncertain, his epithets of Phoebus and Lycius
clearly mark him as the bright, the life-giving, the former also meaning the pure,
the holy; for, as the god of pure light, he is the enemy of darkness, with all
its unclean, unhallowed brood. Again, not only the seventh day of the month, his
birthday, but the first day of the month, i. e. of each new-born moon, was sacred
to him, as it was to Ianus, the Roman god of light; and according to the view
that prevailed in many seats of his worship, he withdrew in winter time either
to Lycia, or to the Hyperboreans who dwell in perpetual light in the utmost north,
and returned in spring to dispel the powers of winter with his beams. When the
fable relates that immediately after his birth, with the first shot from his bow
he slew the dragon Python (or Delphyne), a hideous offspring of Gaea and guardian
of the Delphic oracle, what seems to be denoted must be the spring-god's victory
over winter, that filled the land with marsh and mist. As the god of light, his
festivals are all in spring or summer, and many of them still plainly reveal in
certain features his original attributes. Thus the Delphinia, held at Athens in
April, commemorated the calming of the wintry sea after the equinoctial gales,
and the consequent reopening of navigation. As this feast was in honour of the
god of spring, so was the Thargelia, held at Athens the next month, in honour
of the god of summer. That the crops might ripen, he received first-fruits of
them, and at the same time propitiatory gifts to induce him to avert the parching
heat, so hurtful to fruits and men. About the time of the sun's greatest altitude
(July and August), when the god displays his power, both for good and for harm,
the Athenians offered him hecatombs, whence the first month of their year was
named Hecatomboeon, and the Spartans held their Hyacinthia. In autumn, when the
god was ripening the fruit of their gardens and plantations, and preparing for
departure, they celebrated the Pyanepsia, when they presented him with the first-fruits
of harvest.
Apollo gives the crops prosperity, and protection not only
against summer heat, but against blight, mildew, and the vermin that prey upon
them, such as field-mice and grasshoppers. Hence he was known by special titles
in some parts of Asia. He was also a patron of flocks and pastures, and was worshipped
in many districts under a variety of names referring to the breeding of cattle.
In the story of Hermes stealing his oxen, Apollo is himself the owner of a herd,
which he gives up to his brother in exchange for the lyre invented by him. Other
ancient legends speak of him as tending the flocks of Laomedon and Admetus, an
act afterwards represented as a penalty for a fault. As a god of shepherds he
makes love to the nymphs, to Daphue, to Coronis, and to Cyrene, the mother of
Aristaeus, likewise a god of herds. Some forms of his worship and some versions
of his story imply that Apollo, like his sister Artemis, was regarded as a protector
of tender game and a slayer of rapacious beasts, especially of the wolf, the enemy
of flocks, and himself a symbol of the god's power, that now sends mischief, and
now averts it. Apollo promotes the health and well-being of man himself. As a
god of prolific power, he was invoked at weddings; and as a nurse of tender manhood
and trainer of manly youth, to him (as well as the fountain-nymphs) were consecrated
the first offerings of the hair of the head. In gymnasia and palaestrae he was
worshipped equally with Hermes and Heracles; for he gave power of endurance in
boxing, with adroitness and fleetness of foot. As a warlike god and one helpful
in fight, the Spartans paid him peculiar honours in their Carneia, and in a measure
the Athenians in their Boedromia. Another Athenian festival, the Metageitnia,
glorified him as the author of neighbourly union. In many places, but above all
at Athens, he was worshipped as Agyieus, the god of streets and highways, whose
rude symbol, a conical post with a pointed ending, stood by streetdoors and in
court-yards, to watch men's exit and entrance, to let in good and keep out evil,
and was loaded by the inmates with gifts of honour, such as ribbons, wreaths of
myrtle or bay, and the like.
At sea, as well as on land, Apollo was a guide and guardian,
and there especially under the name Delphinius, taken from his friend and ally
the dolphin, the symbol of the navigable sea. Under this character he was widely
worshipped, for the most part with peculiar propitiatory rites, in seaports and
on promontories, as that of Actium, and particularly at Athens, being also regarded
as a leader of colonies. While he was Alexikakos (averter of ills) in the widest
sense, he proved his power most especially in times of sickness; for, being god
of the hot season, and himself the sender of most epidemics and the dreaded plague,
sweeping man swiftly away with his unerring shafts, he could also lend the most
effectual aid; so that he and his son Asclepius were revered as the chief gods
of healing. As a saviour from epidemics mainly, but also from other evils, the
paean was sung in his honour.
In a higher sense also, Apollo was a healer and preserver.
From an early time an ethical tinge was given to his purely physical attributes,
and the god of light became a god of mental and moral purity, and therefore of
order, justice, and legality in human life. As such, he, on the one hand, smote
and spared not the insolent offender, Tityus, for instance, the Aloidae, the presumptuous
Niobe, and the Greeks before Troy; but, on the other hand, to the guilt-laden
soul, turning to him in penitence and supplication, he granted purification from
the stain of crime (which was regarded as a disease clouding the mind and crushing
the heart), and so he healed the spirit, and readmitted the outcast into civic
life and religious fellowship. Of this he had himself set the pattern, when, after
slaying the Delphian dragon, he fled from the land, did seven years' menial service
to Admetus in atonement for the murder, and, when the time of penance was past,
had himself purified in the sacred grove of bay-trees by the Thessalian temple;
and not until then did he return to Delphi and enter on his office as prophet
of Zeus. Therefore he exacts from all a recognition of the atoning power of penance,
in the teeth of the old law of vengeance for blood, which only bred new murders
and new guilt. The atoning rites propagated by Apollo's worship, particularly
from Delphi, contributed largely to the spread of milder maxims of law, affecting
not only individuals, but whole towns and countries. Even without special prompting,
the people felt from time to time the need of purification and expiation; and
hence certain expiatory rites had from of old been connected with his festivals.
As the god of light who pierces through all darkness, Apollo
is the god of divination, which, however, has in his case a purely ethical significance;
for he, as prophet and minister of his father Zeus, makes known his will to men,
and helps to further his government in the world. He always declares the truth;
but the limited mind of man cannot always grasp the meaning of his sayings. He
is the patron of every kind of prophecy, but most especially of that which he
imparts through human instruments, chiefly women, while in a state of ecstasy.
Great as was the number of his oracles in Greece and Asia, all were eclipsed in
fame and importance by that of Delphi.
Apollo exercises an elevating and inspiring influence on the
mind as god of music, which, though not belonging to him alone any more than atonement
and prophecy, was yet pre-eminently his province. In Homer he is represented only
as a player on the lyre, while song is the province of the Muses; but in course
of time he grows to be the god, as they are the goddesses, of song and poetry,
and is therefore Mousagetes (leader of the Muses) as well as master of the choral
dance, which goes with music and song. And as the friend of all that beautifies
life he is intimately associated with the Graces.
Standing in these manifold relations to nature and man, Apollo
at all times held a prominent position in the religion of the Greeks; and as early
as Homer his name is coupled with those of Zens and Athene, as if between them
the three possessed the sum total of divine power. His worship was diffused equally
over all the regions in which Greeks were settled; but from remote antiquity he
had been the chief god of the Dorians, who were also the first to raise him into
a type of moral excellence. The two chief centres of his worship were the island
of Delos, his birthplace, where, at his magnificent temple standing by the sea,
were held every five years the festive games called Delia, to which the Greek
states sent solemn embassies; and Delphi, with its oracle and numerous festivals.
Foremost among the seats of his worship in Asia was Patara in Lycia, with a famous
oracle.
To the Romans, Apollo became known in the reign of their last
king, Tarquinius Superbus, the first Roman who consulted the Delphic oracle, and
who also acquired the Sibylline Books. By the influence of these writings the
worship of Apollo soon became so naturalized among them that in B.C. 431 they
built a temple to him as god of healing, from which the expiatory processions
prescribed in the Sibylline Books used to set out. In the Lectisternia, first
instituted in B.C. 399, Apollo occupies the foremost place. In B.C. 212, during
the agony of the Second Punic War, the Ludi Apollinares were, in obedience to
an oracular response, established in honour of him. He was made one of the chief
gods of Rome by Augustus, who believed himself to be under his peculiar protection,
and ascribed the victory of Actium to his aid; hence he enlarged the old temple
of Apollo on that promontory, and decorated it with a portion of the spoils. He
also renewed the games held near it, previously every two years, afterwards every
four, with gymnastic and artistic contests and regattas on the sea. At Rome he
reared a splendid new temple to him near his own house on the Palatine, and transferred
the Ludi Saeculares to him and Diana.
The manifold symbols of Apollo correspond with the multitude
of his attributes. The commonest is either the lyre or the bow, according as he
was conceived as the god of song or as the far-hitting archer. The Delphian diviner,
Pythian Apollo, is indicated by the tripod, which was also the favourite offering
at his altars. Among plants, the bay, used for purposes of expiation, was early
sacred to him. It was planted round his temples, and plaited into garlands of
victory at the Pythian Games. The palm-tree was also sacred to him, for it was
under a palm-tree that he was born in Delos. Among animals, the wolf, the dolphin,
the snow-white and musical swan, the hawk, raven, crow, and snake were under his
special protection; the last four in conuection with his prophetic functions.
In ancient art he was represented as a longhaired but beardless
youth, of tall yet muscular build, and handsome features. Images of him were as
abundant as his worship was extensive: there was scarcely an artist of antiquity
who did not try his hand upon some incident in the story of Apollo. The ideal
type of this god seems to have been fixed chiefly by Praxiteles and Scopas. The
most famous statue preserved of him is the Apollo Belvedere in the Vatican, which
represents him either as fighting with the Pythian dragon, or with his aegis frightening
back the foes who threaten to storm his sanctuary. Other great works, as the Apollo
Musagetes in the Vatican, probably from the hand of Scopas, show him as a Citharoedus
in the long Ionian robe, or nude. The Apollo Sauroctonus (lizard-killer), copied
from a bronze statue by Praxiteles, is especially celebrated for its beauty. It
represents a delicate youthful figure leaning against a tree, dart in hand, ready
to stab a lizard that is crawling up the tree. It is preserved in bronze at the
Villa Albani in Rome, and in marble at Paris.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Apollo (Apollon), one of the great divinities of the Greeks, was, according to
Homer (Il. i. 21, 36), the son of Zeus and Leto. Hesiod (Theog. 918) states the
same, and adds, that Apollo's sister was Artemis. Neither of the two poets suggests
anything in regard to the birth-place of the god, unless we take Lukegenes (Il.
iv. 101) in the sense of "born in Lycia," which, however, according to others,
would only mean "born of or in light". Several towns and places claimed the honour
of his birth, as we see from various local traditions mentioned by late writers.
Thus the Ephesians said that Apollo and Artemis were born in the grove of Ortygia
near Ephesus (Tacit. Annal. iii. 61); the inhabitants of Tegyra in Boeotia and
of Zoster in Attica claimed the same honour for themselves (Steph. Byz. s.v. Tegura).
In some of these local traditions Apollo is mentioned alone, and in others together
with his sister Artemis. The account of Apollo's parentage, too, was not the same
in all traditions (Cic. de Nat. Deor. iii. 23), and the Egyptians made out that
he was a son of Dionysus and Isis (Herod. ii. 156). But the opinion most universally
received was, that Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto, was born in the island of
Delos, together with his sister Artemis; and the circumstances of his birth there
are detailed in the Homeric hymn on Apollo, and in that of Callimachus on Delos
(Comp. Apollod. i. 4.1; Hygin. Fab. 140). Hera in her jealousy pursued Leto from
land to land and from isle to isle, and endeavoured to prevent her finding a resting-place
where to give birth. At last, however, she arrived in Delos, where she was kindly
received, and after nine days labour she gave birth to Apollo under a palm or
an olive tree at the foot of mount Cynthus. She was assisted by all the goddesses,
except Hera and Eileithyia, but the latter too hastened to lend her aid, as soon
as she heard what was taking place. The island of Delos, which previous to this
event had been unsteady and floating on or buried under the waves of the sea,
now became stationary, and was fastened to the roots of the earth (Comp. Virg.
Aen. iii. 75). The day of Apollo's birth was believed to have been the seventh
of the month, whence he is called hebdomagenes (Plut. Sympos. 8). According to
some traditions, he was a seven months' child (heptamenaios). The number seven
was sacred to the god; on the seventh of every month sacrifices were offered to
him (hebdomagetes, Aeschyl. Sept. 802; comp. Callim. Hymn. in Del. 250, &c.),
and his festivals usually fell on the seventh of a month. Immediately after his
birth, Apollo was fed with ambrosia and nectar by Themis, and no sooner had he
tasted the divine food, than he sprang up and demanded a lyre and a bow, and declared,
that henceforth he would declare to men the will of Zeus. Delos exulted with joy,
and covered herself with golden flowers (Comp. Theognis, 5, &c.; Eurip. Hecub.
457, &c.)
Apollo, though one of the great gods of Olympus, is yet represented
in some sort of dependence on Zeus, who is regarded as the source of the powers
exercised by his son. The powers ascribed to Apollo are apparently of different
kinds, but all are connected with one another, and may be said to be only ramifications
of one and the same, as will be seen from the following classification.
Apollo is:
1. The god who punishes and destroys (oulios) the wicked and overbearing, and
as such he is described as the god with bow and arrows, the gift of Hephaestus
(Hom. Il. i. 42, xxiv. (605, Od. xi. 318, xv. 410, &c.; comp. Pind. Pyth. iii.
15, &c.). Various epithets given to him in the Homeric poems, such as hekatos,
hekaergos, hekebolos, ekatebolos, klutotoxos, and argurotoxos, refer to him as
the god who with his darts hits his object at a distance and never misses it.
All sudden deaths of men, whether they were regarded as a punishment or a reward,
were believed to be the effect of the arrows of Apollo; and with the same arrows
he sent the plague into the camp of the Greeks. Hyginus relates, that four days
after his birth, Apollo went to mount Parnassus, and there killed the dragon Python,
who had pursued his mother during her wanderings, before she reached Delos. He
is also said to have assisted Zeus in his contest with the giants (Apollod, i.
6.2). The circumstance of Apollo being the destroyer of the wicked was believed
by some of the ancients to have given rise to his name Apollo, which they connected
with apollumi, "to destroy" (Aeschyl. Agam. 1081). Some modern writers, on the
other hand, who consider the power of averting evil to have been the original
and principal feature in his character, say that Apollon, i. e. Apellon, (from
the root pello), signifies the god who drives away evil, and is synonymous with
alexikakas, Acesius, Acestor, soter, and other names and epithets applied to Apollo.
2. The god who affords help and wards off evil. As he had the power of visiting
men with plagues and epidemics, so he was also able to deliver men from them,
if duly propitiated, or at least by his oracles to suggest the means by which
such calamities could be averted. Various names and epithets which are given to
Apollo, especially by later writers, such as akesios, akestor, alexikakos, soter,
apotropaios, epikourios, iatromantis, and others, are descriptive of this power
(Paus. i. 3.3, vi. 24.5, viii. 41.5; Plut. de Ei ap. Delph. 21, de Defect. Orac.
7; Aeschyl. Eum.. 62). It seems to be the idea of his being the god who afforded
help, that made him the father of Asclepius, the god of the healing art, and that,
at least in later times, identified him with Paeeon, the god of the healing art
in Homer.
3. The god of prophecy. Apollo exercised this power in his numerous oracles (see
Oraculum), and especially in that of Delphi. The source of all his
prophetic powers was Zeus himself (Apollodorus states, that Apollo received the
mantike from Pan), and Apollo is accordingly called "the prophet of his father
Zeus" (Aeschyl. Eum. 19); but he had nevertheless the power of communicating
the gift of prophecy both to gods and men, and all the ancient seers and prophets
are placed in some relationship to him (Hom. Il. i. 72, Hymn. in Merc. 3, 471).
The manner in which Apollo came into the possession of the oracle of Delphi (Pytho)
is related differently. According to Apollodorus, the oracle had previously been
in the possession of Themis, and the dragon Python guarded the mysterious chasm,
and Apollo, after having slain the monster, took possession of the oracle. According
to Hyginus, Python himself possessed the oracle; while Pausanias (x. 3.5) states,
that it belonged to Gaea and Poseidon in common. (Comp. Eurip. Iphig. Taur. 1246,
&c.; Atlen. xv. p. 701; Ov. Met. i. 439; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 706).
4. The god of song and music. We find him in the Iliad (i. 603) delighting the
immortal gods with his play on the phorminx during their repast ; and the Homeric
bards derived their art of song either from Apollo or the Muses (Od. viii. 488,
with Eustath.). Later traditions ascribed to Apollo even the invention of the
flute and lyre (Callim. Hymn. in Del. 253; Plut. de Mus.), while the more common
tradition was, that he received the lyre from Hermes. Ovid Heroid. xvi. 180) makes
Apollo build the walls of Troy by playing on the lyre, as Amphion did the walls
of Thebes. Respecting his musical contests, see Marsyas,
Midas.
5. The god who protects the flocks and cattle (nomios Deos, from nomos or nome,
a meadow or pasture land). Homer (Il. ii. 766) says, that Apollo reared the swift
steeds of Eunlelus Pheretides in Pieria, and according to the Homeric hymn to
Hermes (22, 70, &c.) the herds of the gods fed in Pieria under the care of
Apollo. At the command of Zeus, Apollo guarded the cattle of Laomedon in the valleys
of mount Ida (ll. xxi. 488). There are in Homer only a few allusions to this feature
in the character of Apollo, but in later writers it assumes a very prominent form
(Pind. Pyth. ix. 114; Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. 50, &c.); and in the story of
Apollo tending the flocks of Admetus at Pherae in Thessaly, on the banks of the
river Amphrysus, the idea reaches its height. (Apollod. i. 9. &sec; 15; Eurip.
Alcest. 8; Tibull. ii. 3. 11; Virg. Georg. iii. 2).
6. The god who delights in the foundation of towns and the establishment of civil
constilutions. His assistance in the building of Troy was mentioned above; respecting
his aid in raising the walls of Megara, see Alcathous.
Pindar (Pyth. v. 80) calls Apollo the archegetes, or the leader of the Dorians
in their migration to Peloponnesus; and this idea, as well as the one that he
delighted in the foundation of cities. seems to be intimately connected with the
circumstance, that a town or a colony was never founded by the Greeks without
consulting an oracle of Apollo, so that in every case he became, as it were, their
spiritual leader. The epithets ktistes and oikistes refer to this part in the
character of Apollo.
These characteristics of Apollo necessarily appear in a peculiar light, if we
adopt the view which was almost universal among the later poets, mythographers,
and philosophers, and according to which Apoilo was identical with Helios, or
the Sun. In Homer and for some centuries after his time Apollo and Helios are
perfectiy distinet. The question which here presents itself, is, whether the idea
of the identity of the two divinities was the original and primitive one, and
was only revival in later times, or whether it was the result of later speeulations
and of foreign, chiefly Egyptian, influence. Each of these two opinions has had
its able advocates. The former, which has been maintained by Buttmann and Hermann,
is supported by strong arguments. In the time of Callimachus, some persons distinguished
between Apollo and Helios, for which they were censulred by the poet. Pausanias
(vii. 23. &sec; 6) states, that he met a Sidonian who declared the two gods to
be identical, and Pausanias adds that this was quite in accordance with the belief
of the Greeks (Comp. Strab. xiv.; Plut. de Ei ap. Delph. 4, de Def.Orae. 7). It
has further been said, that if Apollo be regarded as the Sun, the powers and attributes
which we have enumerated above are easily explained and accounted for; that the
sursname of Phoibos (the shining or brilliant), which is frequently applied to
Apollo in the Homeric poems, points to the sun; and lastly, that the traditions
concerning the Hyperboreans and their worship of Apollo bear the strongest marks
of their regarding the god in the same light (Alcaeus, ap. Himer. xiv. 10; Diod.
ii. 47.) Still greater stress is laid on the fact that the Egyptian Horus was
regarded as identical with Apollo (Herod. ii. 144, 156; Diod. i. 25; Plut. de
Is. et Os. 12, 61; Aelian, Hist. An. x. 14), as Horus is usually considered as
the god of the burning sun. Those who adopt this view derive Apollo from the East
or from Egypt, and regard the Athenian Apollon patroios as the god who was brought
to Attica by the Egyptian colony under Cecrops. Another set of accounts derives
the worship of Apollo from the very opposite quarter of the world -from the country
of the Hyperboreans, that is, a nation living beyond the point where the north
wind rises, and whose country is in consequence most happy and fruitful. According
to a fragment of an ancient Doric hymn in Pausanias (x. 5.4), the oracle of Delphi
was founded by Hyperboreans and Olenus; Leto, too, is said to have come from the
Hyperboreans to Delos, and Eileithyia likewise (Herod. iv. 33, &c.; Paus. i. 18.4;
Diod. ii. 47). The Hyperboreans, says Diodorus, worship Apollo more zealously
than any other people; they are all priests of Apollo; one town in their country
is sacred to Apollo, and its inhabitants are for the most part players on the
lyre (Comp. Pind. pyth. x. 55, &c.).
These opposite accounts respecting the original seat of the worship
of Apollo might lead us to suppose, that they refer to two distinct divinities,
which were in the course of time united into one, as indeed Cicero (de Nat. Deor.
iii. 23) distinguishes four different Apollos. Muller has rejected most decidedly
and justly the hypothesis, that Apollo was derived from Egypt; but he rejects
at the same time, without very satisfactory reasons, the opinion that Apollo was
connected with the worship of nature or any part of it; for, according to him,
Apollo is a purely spiritual divinity, and far above all the other gods of Olympus.
As regards the identity of Apollo and Helios, he justly remarks, that it would
be a strange phenomenon if this identity should have fallen into oblivion for
several centuries, and then have been revived. This objection is indeed strong,
but not insurmountable if we recollect the tendency of the Greeks to change a
peculiar attribute of a god into a separate divinity; and this process, in regard
to Helios and Apollo, seems to have taken place previous to the time of Homer.
Muller's view of Apollo, which is at least very ingenious, is briefly this. The
original and essential feature in the character of Apollo is that of "the averter
of evil" (Apellon); he is originally a divinity peculiar to the Doric race; and
the most ancient seats of his worship are the Thessalian Tempe and Delphi. From
thence it was transplanted to Crete, the inhabitants of which spread it over the
coasts of Asia Minor and parts of the continent of Greece, such as Boeotia and
Attica. In the latter country it was introduced during the immigration of the
Ionians, whence the god became the Apollon patrpsos of the Athenians. The conquest
of Peloponnesus by the Dorians raised Apollo to the rank of the principal divinity
in the peninsula. The Apollon nomios was originally a local divinity of the shepherds
of Arcadia, who was transformed into and identified with the Dorian Apollo during
the process in which the latter became the national divinity of the Peloponnesians.
In the same manner as in this instance the god assumed the character of a god
of herds and flocks, his character was changed and modified in other parts of
Greece also : with the Hyperboreans he was the god of prophecy, and with the Cretans
the god with bow and darts. In Egypt he was made to form a part of their astronomical
system, which was afterwards introduced into Greece, where it became the prevalent
opinion of the learned.
But whatever we may think of this and other modes of explaining the
origin and nature of Apollo, one point is certain and attested by thousands of
facts, that Apollo and his worship, his festivals and oracles, had more
influence upon the Greeks than any other god. It may safily be asserted,
that the Greeks would never have become what they were, without the worship of
Apollo: in him the brightest side of the Grecian mind is reflected. Respecting
his festivals, see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Apollonia, Thargelia, and others.
In the religion of the early Romans there is no trace of the worship
of Apollo. The Romans became acquainted with this divinity through the Creeks,
and adopted all their notions and ideas about him from the latter people. There
is no doubt that the Romans knew of his worship among the Greeks at a very early
time, and tradition says that they consulted his oracle at Delphi even before
the expulsion of the kings. But the first time that we hear of the worship of
Apollo at Rome is in the year B. C. 430, when, for the purpose of averting a plague,
a temple was raised to him, and soon after dedicated by the consul, C. Julius
(Liv. iv. 25, 29). A second temple was built to him in the year B. C. 350. One
of these two (it is not certain which) stood outside the porta Capena. During
the second Punic war, in B. C. 212, the ludi Apollinares were instituted in honour
of Apollo (Liv. xxv. 12; Macrob. Sat. i. 17; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Ludi Apollinares).
The worship of this divinity, however, did not form a very prominent part in the
religion of the Romans till the time of Augustus, who, after the battle of Actium,
not only dedicated to him a portion of the spoils, but built or embellished his
temple at Actium, and founded a new one at Rome on the Palatine, and instituted
quinquennial games at Actium (Suet. Aug. 31, 52; Dict. of Ant. s. v. Aktia)
Apollo, the national divinity of the Greeks, was of course represented
in all the ways which the plastic arts were capable of. As the ideas of the god
became gradually and more and more fully developed, so his representations in
works of art rose from a rude wooden image to the perfect ideal of youthful manliness,
so that he appeared to the ancients in the light of a twin brother of Aphrodite
(Plin. H. N. xxxvi. 4.10). The most beautiful and celebrated among the extant
representations of Appllo are the Apollo of Belvedere at Rome, which was discovered
in 1503 at Rettuno, and the Apollino at Florence. In the Apollo of Belvedere,
the god is represented with commanding but serene majesty; sublime intellect and
physical beauty are combined in it in the most wonderful manner. The forehead
is higher than in other ancient figures, and on it there is a pair of locks, while
the rest of his hair flows freely down on his neck. The limbs are well proportioned
and harmonious, the muscles are not worked out too strongly, and at the hips the
figure is rather thin in proportion to the breast.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
From the book:
Old Greek Stories by James Baldwin
Bringing Yesterday's Classics to Today's Children
Acersecomes (Akersekomes), a surname of Apollo expressive of his beautiful hair which was never cut or shorn. (Hom. Il. xx. 39; Pind. Pyth. iii. 26.)
Acestor (Akestor), a surname of Apollo which characterises him as the god of the healing art, or in general as the averter of evil, like akesios. (Eurip. Androm. 901.)
Aegletes (Aigletes), that is, the radiant god, a surname of Apollo. (Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1730; Apollod. i. 9.26; Hesych. s. v.)
Carneius (Karneios), a surname of Apollo under which he was worshipped in various parts of Greece, especially in Peloponnesus, as at Sparta and Sicyon, and also in Thera, Cyrene, and Magna Graecia (Paus. iii. 13.2, &c., ii. 10.2, 11.2; Pind. Pyth. v. 106; Plut. Sympos. viii. 1; Paus. iii. 24.5, iv. 31.1, 33.5). The origin of the name is explained in different ways. Some derived it from Carnus, an Acarnanian soothsayer, whose murder by Hippotes provoked Apollo to send a plague into the army of Ilippotes while he was on his march to Peloponnesus. Apollo was afterwards propitiated by the introduction of the worship of Apollo Carneius (Paus. iii. 13.3; Schol. ad Theocrit. v. 83). Others believed that Apollo was thus called from his favourite Carnus or Carneius, a son of Zeus and Europa, whom Leto and Apollo had brought up (Paus. l. c. ; Hesych. s. v. Karneios). Several other attempts to explain the name are given in Pausanias and the Scholiast on Theocritus. It is evident, however, that the worship of the Carneian Apollo was very ancient, and was probably established in Peloponnesus even before the Dorian conquest. Respecting the festival of the Carneia see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Carneia.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hebdomagetes, a surname of Apollo, which was derived, according to some, from the fact of sacrifices being offered to him on the seventh of every month, the seventh of some month being looked upon as the god's birthday. Others connect the name with the fact that at the festivals of Apollo, the procession was led by seven boys and seven maidens. (Aeschyl. Sept. 804; Herod. vi. 57)
Hecaergus, (Hekaergos), a surname of Apollo, of the same meaning as Hecaerge in the case of Artemis. (Hom. Il. i. 147.) Here too tradition has metamorphosed the attribute of the god into a distinct being, for Servius (ad Aen. xi. 532, 858) speaks of one Hacaergus as a teacher and priest of Apollo and Artemis.
Intonsus, i. e. unshorn, a surname of Apollo and Bacchus, alluding to the eternal youth of these gods, as the Greek youths allowed their hair to grow until they attained the age of manhood, though in the case of Apollo it may also allude to his being the god of the sun, whence the long floating hair would indicate the rays of the sun. (Hom. Il. xx. 39, Hymn. in Apoll. 134; Horat. Epod. xv. 9; Tibull. i. 4. 34; Ov. Met. iii. 421, Amor. i. 14. 31; Martial, iv. 45.)
Loxias, a surname of Apollo, which is derived by some from his intricate and ambiguous oracles (loxa), but it is unquestionably connected with the verb Legein, and describes the god as the prophet or interpreter of Zeus. (Herod. i. 91, viii. 136; Aeschyl. Eum. 19; Aristoph. Plut. 8; Eustath. ad Hom.; Macrob. Sat. i. 17.)
Lyceius (Lukeios), a surname of Apollo, the meaning of which is not quite certain, for some derive it from lukos, a wolf, so that it would mean "the wolf-slayer;" others from luke, light, according to which it would mean "the giver of light;" and others again from the country of Lycia. There are indeed passages in the ancient writers by which each of these three derivations may be satisfactorily proved. As for the derivation from Lycia, we know that he was worshipped at mount Cragus and Ida in Lycia; but he was also worshipped at Lycoreia on mount Parnassus, at Sicyon (Paus. ii. 9.7), Argos (ii. 19.3), and Athens (i. 19.4). In nearly all cases, moreover, where the god appears with this name, we find traditions concerning wolves. Thus the descendants of Deucalion, who founded Lycoreia, followed a wolf's roar; Latona came to Delos as a she-wolf, and 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 inscriptions. (Paus. x. 14.4). The attack of a wolf upon a herd of cattle occasioned the worship of Apollo Lyceius at Argos (Plut. Pyrrh. 32; comp. Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. ii. 124); and the Sicyonians are said to have been taught by Apollo in what manner they should get rid of wolves (Paus. ii. 19.3). In addition to all this, Apollo is called lukoktonos. (Soph. Elect 7; Paus. ii. 9.7; Hesych. s. v.) Apollo, by the name of Lyceius, is therefore generally characterised as the destroyer. (Muller, Dor. ii. 6.8)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cynthia and Cynthius (Kunthia and Kunthios), surnames respectively of Artemis and Apollo, which they derived from mount Cynthus in the island of Delos, their birthplace. (Callim. Hymn. in Del. 10; Hor. Carm. i. 21. 2, iii. 28. 12; Lucan, i. 218.)
Daphnaea and Daphnaeus (Daphnaia and Daphnaios), surnames of Artemis and Apollo respectively, derived from daphne, a laurel, which was sacred to Apollo. In the case of Artemis it is uncertain why she bore that surname, and it was perhaps merely an allusion to her statue being made of laurel-wood (Paus. iii. 24.6; Strab. xvi.; Philostr. Vit. Apollon. i. 16; Eutrop. vi. 11; Justin. xv. 4.)
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