Greek Mythology Exam 3: Apollo

Apollo

No name change between Roman and Greek mythology
"Apollo who shoots afar... as he bends his bright bow... archery... and the Father gives him nectar in a golden cup welcoming his dear son (Zeus and Leto are unmoved by his anger and calm him down but others are scared by his anger)

Sides of Apollo's Archery

Vengeance
Spread of disease

Birth

Born on Delos (delian section of the hymn (birth narrative)
Leto wanders for days and cannot find a place to give birth
Why? The islands tremble at the thought, and do not want anything to do with the birth because they are scared of Hera (because Zeus cheated on Hera with Leto)
Delos agress to let Apollo be born there
Shrine is built on Delos for Apollo in exchange for hosting his birth
There, Apollo claims the lyre and the bow to be his
Anytime Apollo does anyting significant there is a shrine (sanctuary, temple, etc.) built there

Delos

Have to have a ship to get there
Thematically makes sense in the sense of the birth story and justifies putting a sanctuary out in the middle of their world

Festival at Delos- Song and Dance

- Many are your temples and wooded groves, and all peaks and towering bluffs of lofty mountains and rivers flowing to the sea and dear to you, Phoebus, yet in Delos do you most delight your heart; for there the long robed lonians gather in your honor with their children and shy wives: mindful, they delight you with boxing and dancing and song, so often as they hold their gathering
- Kind of like a football game for us
- The different Grecian groups would compete with each other and do things that we would see as entertainment, such as dance competitions and songs.
- But this competition is somewhat unifying
- When we talk about panhellenic Greece, we talk about when they were unified and a huge cultural moment for the Greece, like the olympics
- Apollo is patron deity of this festival and moment, they were held at the places he was famous for, he was known for culture and civilization

Apollo and Music

-Associated with lyre, a stringed, harp-like instrument
-Delphic hymns (not Delian) to Apollo are one of the oldest surviving records of musical notation in Greece
-A hymn or song to Apollo is called a Paean

Delos

-Inhabited since 3rd millennium BCE
-Eventually became an important panhellenic site- a place intended for universal significance for the Greeks
-Came at a cost: was purged and rededicated severely times between the 6th and 5th c. BC

*To spread Greek culture: you build an amphitheater and a couple of temples

Apollo and Delphi

-First part of Homeric hymn to Apollo= Delian story
-Second part= to Pythian Apollo at Delphi
-Apollo leaves Delos, travels Greece to find a spot for oracle
-Finds Crisa, under Mt. Parnassus, lays out sanctuary
-Slays an ancestral dragon/snake there (Pytho), possibly earthborn child of Gaia) thus the site name (Pytho) and the oracle’s name (Pythia)
-Had a amphitheater and buildings that were treasuries for all the city-states of Greece at that time
-The story continues
-Once the sanctuary and oracle are established, he needs followers
-Appears as a dolphin (delphinos) to a group of Cretan sailors
-In awe, the sailors, with the help of Apollo sail to Crisa
-Apollo reveals self, a young boy, the men become the first attendants of the sanctuary

Panhellenic Shrine to Apollo at Delphi

-Sacred Panhellenic site that hosted games, religious activity, competitions, cultural activities
-Pythian games= every four years, people from all over Greece would come to compete, interact
-Oracle consulted by heads of state or anyone who came to the sanctuary, they were thought to be able to talk directly to Apollo.
-Oracles are the sacred being, what they say, and the actual site
-They spoke in poetry
-Expected that whoever listens from an oracle, it is expected that people are going to misunderstand
-Became a major Panhellenic center (universal place for all Greeks)
-Probably where things like the Iliad was agreed upon
-Housed a stone called the omphalos- the navel, or center of the universe
-Stone from the one Cronus ate?
-Temple known for its famous oracle
-The oracle uttered riddles or chants that would be interpreted by a priest
-Oracle sat upon a tripod- symbol of divine and prophetic power
-Gave oracles in poetic meter, claimed to channel apollo

Apollo Depiction

-Commonly depicted with a lyre
-Sometimes has a beard but usually depicted as a young man
-Usually more hot headed and out of control than older gods

-Archery, thus disease, thus medicine, more warfare
-The lyre (hence poetry, dance, art)
-The sun
-The oracle at Delphi
-Intelligence, civilization, restraint
-Protection of shepherds, the sheep are pretty vulnerable to attacks
-Not totally chaotic though

Apollo Four Loves

The Cumean Sibyl
Sibyl= a prophetess
Wishes for birthdays, forgets to wish for youth

Cassandra
Agrees to “give herself” to Apollo in exchange for prophecy
Changes her mind, given the ability to utter prophecy that no one believes
Knew the city of Troy would be destroyed but she could not warn anyone that it would happen.

Marpessa (will cover later)

Cyrene
Successful love story! Apollo admires her wrestling a lion, takes her to Libya, their son Aristaeus becomes a beekeeper

Apollo and Daphne

-Apollo boasts to Eros (Cupid) that his victory over Python was greater than Cupid’s ability with the bow and arrow (bad idea)
-Cupid shoots daphne with a leaden arrow, Apollo with a golden arrow
-Daphne becomes a chaste, Apollo becomes obsessed
-Apollo pursues Daphne, she prays to her father for deliverance, turned into a Laurel tree (etiology of why he is associated with a Laurel tree)
-In older versions, Apollo simply pursues Daphne and there is no transformation (did Ovid change this)
-Focus seems to be on a powerful god pursuing a local nymph
-Daphne associated with Apollo’s temple worship as early as the 7th BC

Apollo and Hyacinthus

-Hyacinthus, spartan youth, discus thrower
-Lover of Apollo
-Discus accident
-Apollo circumvents his death, transforms him into a flower- thus a symbol of rebirth
-Spartans celebrated a major festival, the Hyacinthia, to honor the death and rebirth of the hero

Asclepius

-Son of Apollo, god of healing
-Trained by the wise centaur, Chiron, known for training Greek heroes
-People would visit sanctuaries to Asclepius, sleep in them, and wait for visions, etc.
-Hippocrates, 5th c physician, was an Asclepiad (follower of Asclepius)
-Staff of Asclepius and Hermes caduceus and the symbol got confused (by the military?) and now it is the Hermes one used for medicine, but Hermes was used for guiding people in the underworld, where the Asclepus is for healing