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What do you know about Apollo? (A to Z)
January 29, 2008 at 11:40 am by mahud
I’d like to try something new. Every week or so, I’ll pick a Deity (in alphabetical order), and from memory write all I can remember from myth, archaeology, experience, or elsewhere, relating to that Deity. It would be great if you could play along in the comments. Also, feel free to add or correct any of the given info.
Here’s my attempt…
Apollo
Artemis’ twin and son of Zeus and Leto, who gave birth to both of them beneath a tree on an island somewhere in Greece. Apollo Killed the Python who guarded the Oracle at Delphi and claimed it as his own. I think the dictum “Know thyself” hung above the entrance to the oracle. I imagine that Apollo has a symbolic mirror, which is the sun, the indestructible face of divinity that reflects back upon his devotees, although I’m unaware of any tradition claiming that Apollo had a mirror or it was a cult object associated with Apollo. Animals associated with Apollo are mice and serpents. I think in classical sculpture he is depicted holding a serpent staff (Caduceus), like his son Aesculapius (the divine physician), who, Zeus blasted with a thunder bolt, for practicing the art of physical resurrection. Apollo got his own back by slaying the Cyclops who forged the bolt, but had to pay penance of some kind
In the Iliad, Apollo inflicts plagues upon the Greek armies because Agamemnon refused to return Apollo’s priest’s daughter. I’m uncertain of Apollo’s origins but at some point he upgraded as a sun God. It was at the feast of Apollo (winter solstice I think), that Odysseus finally returned to the Island of Ithaca. Hermes stole Apollo’s cattle, and in recompense created the five-stringed tortoiseshell lyre, which he gave to Apollo.
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses he falls in love with a nymph called Daphne. He chases her, but to escape his advances, she changes herself into a laurel tree.
I’m sure a mortal challenged Apollo to a contest with the lyre. I can’t recall the details, but the mortal lost and, I think, was hung on a tree and flayed alive. nasty.
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