ApolloApollo

God of Music, Medicine and God of Music, Medicine and ProphecyProphecy

IconographyIconography

Apollo of Piombino: detail - head and torso - ca. 480 B.C. bronze

I shall not forget far-shooting Apollo but remember him before whom the gods tremble when he comes to the home of Zeus . . . Homeric Hymn to Apollo

Like many of the gods, Apollo is “god of” a wide and sometimes contradictory range of things. Many of them fit the overall category, “mysterious and difficult knowledge & ways of knowing.”

Some of his provinces:

•poetry

•prophecy

•medicine & plague

DelphiDelphi

Apollo’s prophetic powers were shared with humans in an number of ways, but most prominently at the site of Delphi, his biggest sanctuary, where the Pythia gave oracles.

Apollo at Delphi

At Delphi, people from all over Greece came to ask the Pythia their questions.

After sacrificing and ascertaining that the god would receive them, they asked the priestess their questions.

Sitting on a tripod, she gave an answer inspired by the god.

The Delphic Oracle

Sometimes she is portrayed as frenzied, sometimes as calm.

Some oracles are riddling and hard to understand. Others are a simple “yes” or “no.” The oracle itself is mythologized.

Delphi

Apollo at Delphi

To honor Apollo, many nations dedicated monuments at Delphi, sent offerings which were kept in their own treasuries in the precinct.

Apollo at Delphi

Apollo at Delphi

Delphi was the navel of the world, and contained an object called the “omphalos” or navel. Here Apollo is depicted sitting on it, in a silver coin of the Amphyctionic league.

Apollo at Delphi

Delphi is an important site in many myths: the stories of Croesus, Oedipus, and Orestes all have significant Delphic content. Here, Apollo purifies Orestes from murdering his mother.

The verse scratched in a horseshoe-shape over this figure's legs is one of the earliest inscriptions in Greek. It reads: "Mantiklos offers me as a tithe to Apollo of the silver bow; do you, Phoibos, give some pleasing favor in return".

As at many other sanctuaries, there were games at Delphi every four years, as well as spectacles like drama.

This sculpture of a charioteer was dedicated to Apollo by a victor.

It seems to embody the two mottoes that were inscribed at Delphi:

Apollo at Delphi

meden agan: nothing in excess.

gnothi seauton: know yourself.

Rome, Terme Museum. Credits: Barbara McManus, 1982

“Know yourself” is not a new-agey get in touch with your feelings thing.

It means, “look at yourself hard, know your abilities and your status, and don’t get arrogant and step out of place.”

If you’re humble, act that way. If you’re one of the elite, live up to expectations.

The Romans adopted the saying with a morbid touch: we’re all mortal, get used to it . . .

Temple of Apollo, Corinth

Medicine Medicine and Plagueand Plague

Phoebus Apollo came down from the peaks of Olympus, angered in his heart, wearing on his shoulders his bow and closed quiver. He sat down a little apart from the Greek ships and shot one of his arrows; terrible was the clang made by his silver bow. First he attacked the mules and the swift hounds, but then he let go his piercing shafts against the men themselves and struck them down. The funeral pyres with their corpses burned thick and fast.

God of Plague

Apollo’s son, Asclepius, was a god of medicine. Sick people flocked to his sanctuaries all over Greece.

Asclepius, God of Healing

Asclepius, God of Healing

Some dedications to Asclepius in Thessalonika

Asclepius and his daughter Hygeia (Health) with the helping serpent (Agathos daimon)

Music and Music and PoetryPoetry

Apollo was also the god of music, frequently shown with the lyre or kithara.

This associated him with another kind of special knowledge – divine inspiration.

And also with history and the maintenance of culture, which epic poetry sustained.

He was therefore central to the values of civilization.

God of Music

God of Music

Here Apollo appears as the victor in a music contest, pouring a libation with winged Nike. Music contests were part of the athletic games at his sanctuaries.

In this wall painting from an inn probably built for him, the emperor Neor’s face appears on this representation of Apollo. (After all, Nero fiddled while Rome burned . . .)

Unusual Iconography

LovesLoves

Yet as a lover he was far from successful.

Daphne rejected him, preferring to be turned into a laurel tree, to accepting the god’s advances.

The laurel became Apollo’s tree.

Marpessa rejected him for a human lover, preferring a real man to the temporary attentions of a god.

Apollo as Lover

Apollo as Lover

A Renaissance Daphne

Apollo as Lover

His priestess Cassandra rejected him, so he gave her the gift of prophecy, with the curse that no one would believe her. Despite her foreknowledge, she could not keep her city from destruction.

Hyacinthus, a male lover, accepted him, but was killed by the jealous wind god Zephyros.

Apollo’s lack of success as a lover, or rather the tragedies that arose, highlight his distance and unapproachability on ordinary human terms.

Apollo as Lover

The Divine Twins

Apollo and Artemis are shown together in this coin from Selinus, c. 450 BCE. She drives the chariot while he aims with the bow.

MercilessMerciless

[Phidias]* Apollo Parnopios (modern reconstruction after lost original - ca. 450 B.C.) gilt bronze

Modern interpretations

Apollo can be understood as a “god of reason” in contrast to his brother Dionysus, the “god of madness.” Although the Greeks didn’t make this distinction, since Nietzsche we often speak of “the Apolline” and “the Dionysiac” to refer to different realms of experience and values.

finis

This Attic vase was painted by the "painter of Berlin"

The god Apollo is seated on a winged tripod riding over the sea (hyperpontios), which is denoted by fish and an octopus. Two dolphins leaping over the waves accompany him. Apollo plays the lyre.

Unusual Iconography