Apollo/Apóllōn

Apollo

Apollo (in greco antico: Ἀπόλλων, Apóllōn; in latino: Apollo) è una divinità della religione greca.
Dio del Sole (di cui traina il carro), di tutte le arti, della musica, della profezia, della poesia, delle arti mediche (il dio della medicina è infatti suo figlio Asclepio), delle pestilenze e della scienza che illumina l'intelletto, il suo simbolo principale è il Sole o la Lira. In seguito fu venerato anche nella Religione romana.
In quanto Dio della poesia, è il capo delle Muse. Viene anche descritto come un provetto arciere in grado di infliggere, con la sua arma, terribili pestilenze ai popoli che lo osteggiavano. In quanto protettore della città e del tempio di Delfi, Apollo è anche venerato come Dio oracolare capace di svelare, tramite la sacerdotessa, detta Pizia, il futuro agli esseri umani; anche per questo era adorato nell'antichità come uno degli dei più importanti del Dodekatheon.

Apollo del Belvedere, copia romana di età ellenistica (350 a.C), Musei Vaticani

Wknight94 e un altro autore - Opera propria

Culto di Apollo

Apollo in Grecia

Apollo era uno degli Dèi più celebri ed influenti nell'antica Grecia; ed erano due le città che si contendevano il titolo di luoghi di culto principali del dio: Delfi, sede del già citato oracolo, e Delo. L'importanza attribuita al dio è testimoniata anche da nomi teoforici come Apollonio o Apollodoro, comuni nell'antica Grecia, e dalle molte città che portavano il nome di Apollonia. Il Dio delle arti veniva inoltre adorato in numerosi siti di culto sparsi, oltre che sul territorio greco, anche nelle colonie disseminate sulle rive africane del Mediterraneo, nell'esapoli dorica in Caria, in Sicilia e in Magna Grecia.
Come divinità greca, Apollo è figlio di Zeus e di Leto (Latona per i Romani) e fratello gemello di Artemide (per i Romani Diana), dea della caccia e più tardi una delle tre personificazioni della Luna (Luna crescente), insieme a Selene (Luna piena) ed Ecate (Luna calante).
Nella tarda antichità greca Apollo venne anche identificato come dio del Sole, ed in molti casi soppiantò Helios quale portatore di luce e auriga del cocchio solare. Nella Religione romana, non aveva nessuna controparte, ed il suo culto venne introdotto a Roma circa nel 421 a.C. In ogni caso, presso i Greci Apollo ed Helios rimasero entità separate e distinte nei testi letterari e mitologici dell'epoca, ma non nel culto, dove Apollo era ormai stato assimilato con Helios.

Apollo del Tevere, copia romana, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme

Copy after Phidias (Greek, 5th century BC) - Jean-Pol GRANDMONT (2011)

"Apollo del Tevere". Marmo, copia romana di un originale greco del 450 aC circa. AC, regno di Adriano e di Antonino (117-195 aC.).

Apollo a Roma

A differenza di altri Dèi, Apollo non aveva un equivalente romano diretto: il suo culto venne importato a Roma dal mondo greco, ma fu mediato anche dalla presenza nei pantheon etrusco di un dio analogo, Apulu. Ciò avvenne in tempi piuttosto antichi nella storia romana, infatti fonti tradizionali riferiscono che il culto era presente già in epoca regia. Nel 431 a.C. ad Apollo fu intitolato un tempio in una località dove già sorgeva un sacello od un'area sacra di nome Apollinar come scrive Livio III, 63, 7, in occasione di una pestilenza che afflisse la città. Durante la seconda guerra punica, invece, vennero istituiti i Ludi Apollinares, giochi in onore del Dio. Il culto venne incentivato poi, in epoca imperiale, dall'imperatore Augusto, che per consolidare la propria autorità asserì di essere un protetto del dio, che avrebbe anche lanciato un fulmine nell'atrio della sua casa come presagio fausto per la sua lotta contro Antonio; tramite la sua influenza Apollo divenne uno degli Dèi romani più influenti. Dopo la battaglia di Azio l'imperatore fece rinnovare e ingrandire l'antico tempio di Apollo Sosiano, istituì dei giochi quinquennali in suo onore e finanziò anche la costruzione del tempio di Apollo Palatino sull'omonimo colle dove fu conservata la raccolta di oracoli detta Libri Sibillini. In onore del Dio, e per compiacere il suo imperatore, il poeta romano Orazio compose inoltre il celebre carmen saeculare.

 Apollo in un mosaico romano del II secolo, cinto da un'aureola rappresentante il sole.

Apollo author-Maciej Szczepańczyk-user:Mathiasrex Apollo on the Roman mosaic El-Jem, Tunisia

Apollo presso gli Etruschi

Nella religione etrusca è possibile trovare un corrispettivo di Apollo nel Dio dei tuoni Aplu o Apulo. Tuttavia non è ancora chiaro se l'immagine del Dio etrusco sia derivata dal Dio greco. Quale dio della profezia presso gli Etruschi però trovava un corrispettivo anche in Suri.

Origini del culto

Le origini del culto apollineo si perdono nella notte dei tempi. È comunque opinione comune e consolidata tra gli studiosi che il culto del Dio sia relativamente recente e che, precedentemente ad Apollo, il santuario di Pito avesse una sua antichissima religione ctonia, legata al culto della Dea Madre. Lo stesso racconto di Eschilo su Apollo che riceve il santuario da Gea, Febe e Temi, tenderebbe a confermarlo. Una teoria però, basata sulla decifrazione degli enigmatici e tanto discussi documenti greci di Glozel (Vichy, Francia), tenderebbe ad ampliare il quadro mitico-storico interessante l'oracolo e collegherebbe la nuova, non identificata divinità, alla vicenda cadmea di Europa e a quella dell'alfabeto portato dallo stesso Cadmo in Beozia in periodo premiceneo. Divinità semitica che di quell'alfabeto, di provenienza siro-palestinese, era l'assoluta detentrice. Il santuario ctonio di Pito era stato dunque occupato, in qualche modo, da una divinità non greca (yh: da cui il noto successivo grido di IE, per Apollo "IEIOS") ^{[senza fonte]} la quale però, a sua volta, venne grecizzata, secondo quanto fa intendere il noto racconto erodoteo (Historiae, I,61-62) sulla cacciata dei Cadmei, ovvero dei semiti, da parte degli Argivi. Tuttavia la divinità inglobata nella sfera della cultura greca manteneva alcuni dei caratteri orientali della divinità, come ad esempio l'ineffabilità, la figura androgina, l'aspetto di Dio cacciatore ed inseguitore del lupo (da cui Apollo Liceo), le qualità di Dio ambiguo od obliquo (Lossia) ma, per chi sapeva capirlo rettamente, salvatore e liberatore. Con la calata dei Dori (XII -XI secolo a.C.), una volta annientati i Micenei, il santuario, verosimilmente, subì l'umiliazione e la distruzione dei vincitori e solo verso il IX - VIII secolo a.C. fu riaperto e si risollevò, ma con un Lossia del tutto trasformato e in linea con la nuova Religione. Il potentissimo Dio androgino di origine semitica entrerebbe così a far parte della sacra famiglia olimpica, sdoppiandosi in Apollo e Artemide e diventando figlio di Zeus e di Leto. Sempre secondo questa teoria, supportata da accertati documenti, la famosa E apud Delphos (la lettera alfabetica epsilon posta tra le colonne nell'ingresso del santuario apollineo) di cui scrive Plutarco, la "E" che stava alla base dell'epifonema esprimente 'acuto dolore' (Esichio) dei fedeli, potrebbe fornire la prova che il nome di Apollo (mai sufficientemente compreso e spiegato dagli studiosi: Farnell, Kern, Hrozny, Nilsson, Cassola, ecc.) fosse derivato da un A/E -pollòn (il grido di dolore "ah!,eh!" esclamato più volte, così come testimoniano la letteratura greca tragica e paratragica).
Nell'età del bronzo greca non esistono attestazioni (almeno nelle tavolette di lineare B note) ad Apollo. Ne esistono invece numerose per il dio Paean (Παιών-Παιήων), un epiteto di Apollo in età classica, noto in Acheo come  pa-ja-wo-ne (e collegato con numerosi santuari antichi di Apollo). Paean è il guaritore degli Dèi, ed il Dio della magia e del canto (da cui peana) magico-profetico. Come Dio della cura Paean compare anche nell'Iliade, dove, significativamente, non è completamente sovrapposto con Apollo (che parteggia esclusivamente per i troiani).
Infatti esisteva un importante Dio anatolico, (forse connesso con l'antica religione indoeuropea, e simile al Dio vedico Rudra o meglio alla coppia Rudra-Shiba) noto come Aplu (stranamente lo stesso nome dell'Apollo etrusco) che è un Dio terribile, legato alla malattia, ma anche alla cura, ed un potente arciere, forse anche un protettore della caccia e degli animali selvatici. Per gli Ittiti e gli Hurriti Aplu era il Dio della peste e della fine della pestilenza (come nell'Iliade). Per gli Hurriti soprattutto andava collegato agli Dèi mesopotamici Nergal e Šamaš. Molti culti anatolici sono legati alla profezia ed alle sacerdotesse (od anche ai sacerdoti) che cadono in trance mistica per profetizzare, proprio come le sacerdotesse di Apollo a Delfi. Apollo, come già ricordato, è uno degli Dèi che parteggiano per l'asiatica ed anatolica città di Troia nell'Iliade, forse elemento che nasconde una reminiscenza micenea, ovvero un Dio che durante la fine dell'età del bronzo non sarebbe ancora greco, ma decisamente anatolico, e sarebbe aggiunto agli olimpi solo in un momento successivo a quella guerra (si veda anche di seguito).
Sempre in età arcaica, con probabili connessioni al periodo miceneo, esistono dei riferimenti ad Apollo Smintheus, il Dio "ratto" legato all'agricoltura (forse una divinità pre-indeuropea, assunta a epiteto del Dio Apollo), ed in particolare ad Apollo Delfino. Questo epiteto di Apollo, molto venerato a Creta ed in alcune isole egee, potrebbe essere un Dio marino minoico. Ma Apollo poteva trasformarsi in tutti gli animali, fra cui proprio nei delfini, sovente raffigurati nell'arte minoica. Delfino (Delphinios) è un'etimologia alternativa a grembo (Delphyne) per il principale santuario del dio a Delfi. Sempre nella, per ora pressoché sconosciuta, Religione minoica esisteva una signora degli animali, collegabile ad Artemide-Diana, od anche a Britomarti/Diktynna (nome a sua volta presumibilmente di etimologia minoica), che presumibilmente avrebbe dovuto avere un doppio maschile. E se la divinità femminile è antesignana di Artemide, quella maschile è da porsi in riferimento ad Apollo. Inoltre i sacerdoti di Apollo a Delfi si definivano Labryaden, nome che a sua volta rimanda alla doppia ascia ed al labirinto, simboli religiosi importanti per i Cretesi. Tutti questi riferimenti secondo questa meticolosa ma discutibile analisi portano ad ipotizzare che nell'Apollo classico siano confluiti uno o più Dèi minoici o comunque pre-indeuropei della Grecia ed almeno un Dio anatolico.

L'Apollo di Veio, particolare con la testa

Attributi ed epiteti

Apollo è normalmente raffigurato coronato di alloro, pianta simbolo di vittoria, sotto la quale alcune leggende volevano che il Dio fosse nato e anche in virtù dell'epilogo del suo infatuamento per Dafne (che in greco significa lauro, alloro). Suoi attributi tipici sono l'arco, con le sue portentose frecce, e la cetra. Altro suo emblema caratteristico è il tripode sacrificale, simbolo dei suoi poteri profetici. Animali sacri al dio sono i cigni (simbolo di bellezza), i lupi, le cicale (a simboleggiare la musica ed il canto), ed ancora i falchi, i corvi, i delfini, in cui spesso il dio amava trasformarsi ed i serpenti, questi ultimi con riferimento ai suoi poteri oracolari. E ancora il gallo, come simbolo dell'amore omosessuale, diversi, infatti, gli uomini di cui il Dio s'innamorò. Altro simbolo di Apollo è il grifone, animale mitologico di lontana origine orientale.
Come molti altri Dèi greci, Apollo ha numerosi epiteti, atti a riflettere i diversi ruoli, poteri ed aspetti della personalità del Dio stesso. Il titolo di gran lunga maggiormente attributo ad Apollo (e spesso condiviso dalla sorella Artemide) era quello di Febo, letteralmente "splendente" o "lucente", riferito sia alla sua bellezza sia al suo legame con il sole (o con la luna nel caso di Artemide). Quest'appellativo venne mutuato ed utilizzato anche dai Romani.
Altri epiteti del Dio sono:

• Akesios o Iatros, dal comune significato di guaritore e riferiti al suo ruolo di protettore della medicina, in quanto padre di Esculapio. In questo senso, i Romani gli diedero invece l'epiteto di Medicus, ed un tempio della Roma antica era dedicato appunto all'Apollo Medico.
• Alexikakos' o Apotropaeos, entrambi significanti "colui che scaccia - o tiene lontano - il male". Un simile significato ha anche l'appellativo di Averruncus che gli diedero i Romani. Questi appellativi si riferivano, oltre che al suo già citato ruolo di patrono dei medici, al suo potere di scatenare - e dunque anche di tener lontane - malattie e pestilenze.
• Aphetoros (dio dell'arco) ed Argurotoxos (dio dall'arco d'argento), in quanto patrono degli arcieri e provetto tiratore lui stesso. I Romani lo definivano invece Articenens, "colui che porta l'arco".
• Archegetes, "colui che guida la fondazione", in quanto patrono di molte colonie greche oltremare.
• Lyceios e Lykegenes, che possono essere sia un riferimento al lupo, animale a lui sacro, che alla terra di Licia, la regione nella quale alcune leggende riportavano che Apollo fosse nato.
• Loxias (l'oscuro) e Coelispex (colui che scruta i cieli) con riferimento alle sue capacità oracolari.
• Musagete (guida delle Muse) in quanto fu lui a convincerle ad abbandonare la loro antica dimora, il monte Elicona, portandole a Delfi e divenendo il loro protettore.

 Apollo con in mano una lira, uno dei suoi simboli tipici, in una statua del primo secolo.

Unknown, restorer: Ippolito Buzzi (Italian, 1562–1634) - Jastrow (2006)

Apollo citaredo. Marmo, parti originali (torso e gamba destra): copia romana della prima metà di I sec. d.C. da un originale ellenistico. Molto restorato nel XVII sec. : testa (da tipo Apollo Belvedere), colle, spalla destra, braccio sinistro e lira, gamba sinistra e mantello.

Mitologia

Vengono di seguito riportati i fatti più rilevanti riferiti ad Apollo dai miti tradizionali greci.

Nascita

Apollo nacque, come sua sorella gemella Artemide, dall'unione extraconiugale di Zeus con Leto. Quando Era seppe di questa relazione, desiderosa di vendetta proibì alla partoriente di dare alla luce suo figlio su qualsiasi terra, fosse essa un continente od un'isola. Disperata, la donna vagò fino a giungere sull'isola di Delo, appena sorta dalle acque e, stando al mito, ancora galleggiante sulle onde e non ancorata al suolo. Essendo perciò Delo non ancora una vera isola, Leto poté darvi alla luce Apollo ed Artemide, precisamente ai piedi del Monte Cinto.
Altri miti riportano che la vendicativa Era, pur di impedirne la nascita, giunse a rapire Ilizia, dea del parto. Solo l'intervento degli altri Dèi, che offrirono alla regina dell'Olimpo una collana di ambra lunga nove metri, riuscì a convincere Era a desistere dal suo intento. I miti riportano che Artemide fu la prima dei gemelli a nascere, e che abbia in seguito aiutato la madre nel parto di Apollo. Questi nacque in una notte di plenilunio, che fu da allora il giorno del mese a lui consacrato, nel momento in cui nacque il dio, cigni sacri vennero a volare sopra l'isola, facendone sette volte il giro, poiché era il settimo giorno del mese.
Ancora altri dicono che Era avesse mandato un serpente sulla Terra per seguire Leto tutta la vita impedendo così a chiunque di ospitarla e darle un rifugio. Leto vagò per molto tempo ma Poseidone, impietosito dalla sua situazione, lasciò che si rifugiasse in mare (dato che letteralmente non era terra) visto che lui, essendo il fratello di Zeus, poteva permettersi di sfidare Era.

 Marcantonio Franceschini, Nascita di Apollo e Artemide, Liechtenstein Palace Vienna
18 giugno 1692

Giovinezza: L'uccisione di Pitone e istituzione dell'Oracolo di Delfi

Poco più che bambino, Apollo si cimentò nell'impresa di uccidere il drago Pitone, colpevole di aver tentato di stuprare Leto mentre questa era incinta del dio. Partito da Delo, Apollo subito si diresse verso il monte Parnaso, dove si celava il serpente Pitone, nemico di sua madre, e lo ferì gravemente con le sue frecce forgiate da Efesto. Pitone si rifugiò presso l'oracolo della Madre Terra a Delfi, città così chiamata in onore del mostro Delfine, compagna di Pitone; ma Apollo osò inseguirlo anche nel tempio e lo finì dinanzi al sacro crepaccio. La Madre Terra, oltraggiata, ricorse a Zeus che non soltanto ordinò ad Apollo di farsi purificare a Tempe, ma istituì i giochi Pitici in onore di Pitone, e costrinse Apollo a presiederli per penitenza. Apollo, invece di recarsi a Tempe, andò a Egialia in compagnia della sorella Artemide, per purificarsi; e poiché il luogo non gli piacque, salpò per Tarra in Creta, dove re Carmanore eseguì la cerimonia di purificazione. Al suo ritorno in Grecia, Apollo andò a cercare Pan, il dio arcade dalle gambe di capra e dalla dubbia reputazione, e dopo avergli strappato con blandizie i segreti dell'arte divinatoria, si impadronì dell'oracolo delfico e ne costrinse la sacerdotessa, detta pitonessa o la Pitia, a servirlo.

Apollo e Tizio

Leto si era recata con Artemide a Delfi, dove si appartò in un sacro boschetto per adempiere a certi riti. Era, per vendicarsi di Leto suscitò un forte desiderio al gigante Tizio, che stava tentando di violentarla, quando Apollo e Artemide, udite le grida della madre, accorsero e uccisero Tizio con nugolo di frecce: una vendetta che Zeus, padre di Tizio, giudicò atto di giustizia. Nel Tartaro Tizio fu condannato alla tortura con le braccia e le gambe solidamente fissate al suolo e due avvoltoi gli mangiavano il fegato.

Apollo e Marsia

Altre azioni che gli sono state attribuite dai miti durante la giovinezza, non furono così nobili: il Dio sfidò il satiro Marsia (o, secondo altre fonti, venne da questi sfidato) in una gara musicale di flauto; in seguito alla vittoria, per punire l'ardire del satiro, che si era impudentemente vantato di essere più bravo di lui, lo fece legare a un albero e scorticare vivo. Un altro mito racconta invece come si vendicò terribilmente di Niobe, regina di Tebe, la quale, eccessivamente fiera dei suoi quattordici figli (sette maschi e sette femmine), aveva deriso Leto per averne avuti solo due. Per salvare l'onore della madre, Apollo, insieme a sua sorella Artemide, utilizzò il suo terribile arco per uccidere la donna ed i suoi figli, risparmiandone solo due.

Apollo ed Admeto

Quando Zeus uccise Asclepio, figlio di Apollo, come punizione per aver osato resuscitare i morti con il suo talento medico, il dio per vendetta massacrò i ciclopi, che avevano forgiato i fulmini di Zeus. Stando alla tragedia di Euripide Alcesti, come punizione per questo suo gesto Apollo venne costretto dal padre degli dèi a servire l'umano Admeto, re di Fere, per nove anni. Apollo lavorò dunque presso il re come pastore, e venne da costui trattato in modo tanto gentile che, allo scadere dei nove anni, gli concesse un dono: fece sì che le sue mucche partorissero solo figli gemelli. In seguito, il Dio aiutò Admeto a ottenere la mano di Alcesti, che per volere del padre sarebbe potuta andare in sposa solo a chi fosse riuscito a mettere il giogo a due bestie feroci: Apollo gli regalò dunque un carro trainato da un leone ed un cinghiale.

Apollo ed Orfeo

Orfeo era un suonatore di cetra. Perse sua moglie Euridice, per cui tentò di salvarla dagli Inferi e ci riuscì. Sedusse Persefone con la sua musica e in cambio chiese di riportare in vita Euridice e lei acconsentì ad un solo prezzo: non dovette guardare sua moglie finché non fossero stati all'uscita degli Inferi. Ma lui, quasi alla fine del corridoio che conduceva alla salvezza, si girò e lei morì per sempre. Disperato tentò il suicidio e distrusse la sua cetra. Così Apollo, lo prese con sé e lo portò sull'Olimpo.

Apollo ed Ermes

Un mito degli inni omerici racconta dell'incontro tra il giovane Ermes e Apollo. Il Dio dei ladri, appena nato, sfuggì infatti alla custodia della madre Maia ed iniziò a vagabondare per la Tessaglia, fino a imbattersi nel gregge di Admeto, custodito da Apollo. Ermes riuscì con uno stratagemma a rubare gli animali e, dopo essersi nascosto in una grotta, usò gli intestini di alcuni di essi per confezionarsi una lira; un'altra leggenda a questo proposito parla invece di un guscio di tartaruga. Quando Apollo, infuriato, riuscì a rintracciare Ermes e a pretendere, con l'appoggio di Zeus, la restituzione del bestiame, non poté fare a meno di innamorarsi dello strumento e del suo suono, ed accettò infine di lasciare ad Ermes il maltolto, in cambio della lira, che sarebbe diventata da allora uno dei suoi simboli sacri. Divenne quindi il Dio della musica, mentre Ermes venne considerato anche come il Dio del commercio. La lira poi passò a Orfeo; alla morte di questi, Apollo decise di tramutarla in cielo nell'omonima costellazione.

Apollo ed Oreste

Apollo ordinò a Oreste, tramite il suo oracolo di Delfi, di uccidere sua madre Clitennestra; per questo suo crimine Oreste venne a lungo perseguitato dalle Erinni.

Apollo durante la guerra di Troia

L'inizio del'Iliade di Omero vede Apollo schierato a fianco dei Troiani, durante la guerra di Troia. Il Dio era infatti infuriato con i Greci, ed in particolare con il loro capo Agamennone, per il rapimento da questi perpetrato di Criseide, giovane figlia di Crise, sacerdote di Apollo. Per vendicare l'affronto, il Dio decimò le schiere achee con le sue terribili frecce, fino a che il capo dei greci non acconsentì a rilasciare la prigioniera, pretendendo in cambio Briseide, schiava di Achille. Questo fatto provocò l'ira dell'eroe mirmidone, che è uno dei temi centrali del poema.
Apollo continuò comunque a parteggiare per i Troiani durante la guerra: in un'occasione salvò la vita a Enea, ingaggiato in duello da Diomede. Da non dimenticare, infine, l'importantissimo aiuto che il Dio offrì ad Ettore e ad Euforbo nel combattimento che li vedeva avversari del potente Patroclo, amico intimissimo ed allievo del valoroso Achille; il Dio infatti, oltre ad aver stordito il giovane, che i Troiani avevano scambiato per il re mirmidone, vista l'armatura che indossava, lo privò di quest'ultima sciogliendola come neve al sole. Distrusse perfino la punta della lancia con cui Patroclo stava mietendo vittime tra le file troiane. Fu infine Apollo a guidare la freccia scoccata da Paride che colpì Achille al tallone, l'unico suo punto debole, uccidendolo.

Apollo scaglia le frecce mortali contro l'accampamento acheo, penna e carboncino su carta, 10 x 12,5 cm, proprietà privata.

Stanisław Wyspiański - 1897

Apollo bringing down arrows of plague upon the Greeks, pencil drawing on paper, 10 x 12,5 cm, private property.

Amori di Apollo

Apollo e Daphne

Un giorno, Cupido, stanco delle continue derisioni di Apollo, che vantava il titolo di dio più bello, dio della poesia nonché un arciere migliore di lui, colpì il dio con una delle sue frecce d'oro, facendolo cadere perdutamente innamorato della ninfa Daphne. Allo stesso tempo però, colpì anche la ninfa con una freccia di piombo arrugginita e spuntata in modo che rifiutasse l'amore di Apollo ed addirittura rabbrividisse per l'orrore alla sua vista. Perseguitata dal dio innamorato, la ninfa, piangendo e gridando, chiese aiuto al padre Penéo, dio del fiume omonimo, che la tramutò in una pianta di lauro, od alloro. Apollo pianse abbracciando il tronco di Daphne che ormai era un albero. Per questo il lauro divenne la pianta prediletta da Apollo con la quale era solito far ornare i suoi templi ed anche i suoi capelli. 

 Apollo insegue Dafne, opera di Giovambattista Tiepolo
Creato: tra il 1755 e il 1760 circa

Apollo e Giacinto

Uno dei miti più conosciuti riferiti al Dio è quello della sua triste storia d'amore con il principe spartano Giacinto, mito narrato, fra gli altri, da Ovidio nelle sue Metamorfosi. I due si amavano profondamente, quando un giorno, mentre si stavano allenando nel lancio del disco, il giovane venne colpito alla testa dall'attrezzo lanciato da Apollo, spintogli contro da Zefiro, geloso dell'amore fra i due. Ferito a morte, Giacinto non poté che accasciarsi tra le braccia del compagno che, impotente, lo trasformò nel rosso fiore che porta il suo nome, e con le sue lacrime tracciò sui suoi petali le lettere άί (ai), che in greco è un'esclamazione di dolore. Saputo che Tamiri, un pretendente "scartato" da Giacinto, reputava di superare le muse nelle loro arti, il Dio andò dalle sue allieve per riferire tali parole. Le muse, allora, privarono Tamiri, reo di presunzione, della vista, della voce e della memoria.

Apollo e Cassandra

Per sedurre Cassandra, figlia del re di Troia Priamo, Apollo le promise il dono della profezia. Tuttavia, dopo aver accettato il patto, la donna si tirò indietro, rimangiandosi la parola data. Il Dio allora, sputandole sulle labbra, le diede sì il dono di vedere il futuro, ma la condannò a non venir mai creduta per le sue previsioni. La previsione più tragica ed inascoltata di Cassandra fu la caduta di Troia.

Apollo e Marpessa

Apollo amò anche una donna chiamata Marpessa, che era contesa fra il Dio e l'umano chiamato Ida. Per dirimere la contesa tra i due intervenne addirittura Zeus che decise di lasciare la donna libera di decidere; questa scelse Ida, perché consapevole del fatto che Apollo, essendo immortale, si sarebbe stancato di lei quando l'avesse vista invecchiare.

Apollo e Melissa

Secondo un altro mito, Apollo s'innamorò della ninfa Melissa. Fu un amore profondo ed incondizionato, ed il dio lasciò spazio soltanto alla fedele e totale devozione per la fanciulla piuttosto che adempiere i suoi doveri da divinità del Sole. Il carro del Sole venne quindi sempre meno guidato e trasportato, e il mondo cadeva sempre più nelle tenebre. Allora, per un decreto di entità superiori, Apollo venne punito e la ninfa venne trasformata in un'ape regina. Fu così che la meschina ragione infranse il cuore del dio.

La morte di Giacinto, dipinto di Jean Broc

The Death of Hyacinthos

Hyacinth is the figure on the left of the frame being supported by his lover Apollo

Creato: 1801

Figli di Apollo

Come tutti gli Dèi greci, le leggende riportano come Apollo ebbe molti figli, da unioni con donne mortali e non.
Da Cirene, ebbe un figlio di nome Aristeo.
Da Ecuba, moglie di Priamo e regina di Troia, ebbe un figlio di nome Troilo, che venne ucciso da Achille
Il figlio più noto di Apollo è però certamente Asclepio, Dio della medicina presso i Greci. Asclepio nacque dall'unione fra il dio e Coronide; quest'ultima però, mentre portava in grembo il bambino, si innamorò di Ischi e fuggì con lui. Quando un corvo andò a riferire l'accaduto ad Apollo, questi dapprima pensò a una menzogna, e fece diventare il corvo nero come la pece, da bianco che era. Scoperta poi la verità, il dio chiese a sua sorella Artemide di uccidere la donna. Apollo salvò comunque il bambino, e lo affidò al centauro Chirone, perché lo istruisse alle arti mediche. Come ricompensa per la sua lealtà, il corvo divenne animale sacro del dio e venne dotato da Apollo del potere di prevedere le morti imminenti. In seguito Flegias, padre di Coronide, per vendicare la figlia diede fuoco al tempio di Apollo a Delfi, e venne per questo ucciso dal Dio e scaraventato nel Tartaro.

 Apollo istruisce le Muse Euterpe e Urania, olio su tela di Pompeo Batoni,ca. 1741, Varsavia, Museo Nazionale

Amanti e figli di Apollo

1. Acacallide - Figlia di Minosse
   1. Nasso - Insediato nell'isola
   2. Mileto - Fondatore della città
   3. Anfitemi - Pastore libico
2. Azia maggiore - Donna romana
   1. Augusto - Imperatore romano
3. Calliope - Musa della Poesia epica
   1. Orfeo - Celebre musico
   2. Ialemo - Dio del canto nuziale
   3. Imeneo - Dio del matrimonio
4. Cirene - Ninfa tessala
   1. Aristeo - Custode di mandrie
5. Coricia - Ninfa del Parnaso
   1. Licoreo - Re di Licorea
6. Coronide - Ninfa Lapita
   1. Asclepio - Dio della medicina
7. Creusa - Violentata dal dio
   1. Ione - Sacerdote di Delfi
8. Danaide - Ninfa
   1. Cureti - Popolo Etolo
9. Dia - Figlia di Licaone
   1. Driope - Re dell'Arcadia
10. Driope - Amadriade
    1. Anfisso - Fondatore di Ela
11. Ecuba - Regina troiana
    1. Ettore - Eroe troiano
    2. Polidoro - Ucciso da Polimestore
    3. Troilo - ucciso da Achille
12. Ftia - Eponima della regione
    1. Doro
    2. Laodoco
    3. Polipete - Ucciso da Etolo
13. Manto - Indovina, figlia di Tiresia
    1. Mopso - Celebre indovino
14. Procleia - Troiana
    1. Tenete - Eroe di Tenedo
    2. Emitea - Principessa di Tenedo
15. Psamate - Principessa di Argo
    1. Lino - Sbranato da cani
16. Reo - Discendente di Dioniso
    1. Anio - Sovrano di Delfi
17. Rodope - Ninfa
    1. Cicone - Capostipite dei Ciconi
18. Talia - Musa della Commedia
    1. Coribanti - Seguaci di Dioniso
19. Tiria - Figlia di Anfinomo
    1. Cicno - Abitante dell'Etolia
20. Urania - Musa dell'Astronomia e della geometria
    1. Lino - Notevole musico
    
    
    
     Apollo e la Musa Urania, opera di Charles Meynier
    Apollo, God of Light, Eloquence, Poetry and the Fine Arts with Urania, Muse of Astronomy - Charles Meynier
    Creato: 29 giugno 1789
    
    

    Influenza culturale

    Il celebre progetto spaziale Apollo della NASA, che negli anni sessanta portò l'uomo sulla luna, deve il suo nome proprio al dio greco, in quanto protettore delle colonie e dei pionieri.
    Famosa è la filastrocca dedicata ad Apollo e al suo fantomatico "figlio" Apelle (tra l'altro, un pittore realmente esistito):
    

    « Apelle, figlio di Apollo, fece una palla di pelle di pollo, tutti i pesci vennero a galla per vedere la palla di pelle di pollo fatta da Apelle, figlio di Apollo. »

    (Anonimo)

    
    Busto del tipo "Apollo di Anzio", copia romana di un originale greco del IV secolo a.C. Conservata ai musei capitolini a Roma e già facente parte della collezione Albani.
    sconosciuto - Jastrow (2006)
    Head of Apollo of the Anzio type. Marble, Roman copy of a Greek original of the 4th century.

    
    

    La figura di Apollo nelle arti è un tema comune sia nell'arte greca sia nell'arte romana, ma anche nell'arte rinascimentale. La prima parola che gli antichi Greci hanno utilizzato per indicare una statua è ἄγαλμα-agalma, che significa "ornamento del tesoro, simulacro del divino, immagine informe". Gli scultori arcaici e classici hanno cercato di creare forme che avessero ispirato una tale visione guida, quella cioè di un'immagine divina che facesse da ornamento.
    La scultura greca mette fin dal principio Apollo, il dio della luce, della guarigione e della poesia, al più alto livello di potenza estetica che si potesse immaginare, dovendo egli rappresentar il concetto esemplare della Bellezza del "dio giovane" per eccellenza. Gli artisti hanno derivato le proprie figure a partire da osservazioni compiute sugli esseri umani, ma anche giungendo ad incorporare in forma concreta i concetti più ideali, le questioni della filosofia e della religione che rimanevano al di là del pensiero ordinario.
    

    
    

    

    Apollo con la lira, frammento di affresco dalle vicinanze della casa di Augusto, al Museo Palatino di Roma.

    Sailko - Opera propria

    Antiquarium del Palatino (Rome)

    
    

    Nudità divina

    I corpi nudi delle statue sono stati presto associati con un effettivo culto del corpo, del fisico giovane maschile, soprattutto in campo sportivo  ma anche militare ; tutte attività ricollegate in qualche modo alla "moralità" della Polis: aveva di fatto una funzione essenzialmente religiosa.
    I petti e gli arti muscolosi in combinazione con una vita sottile indicano il desiderio Greco per la salute e le capacità fisiche in senso lato, qualità necessarie nel duro ambiente di vita del mondo antico. Le statue di Apollo desiderano incarnare la perfezione assoluta data dall'armonia e dall'equilibrio, fino al punto da ispirar soggezione di fronte al "senso del Bello" che emanano.
    

    Arte e filosofia

    Il terzo degli inni omerici è dedicato espressamente ad Apollo.
    L'evoluzione dell'arte ellenica sembra andare in parallelo con le concezioni della filosofia greca, che si è trasformata dall'iniziale filosofia naturale di Talete alla teoria più metafisica di Pitagora. Talete era alla ricerca di una semplice forma materiale direttamente percepibile dai sensi, quale principio del mondo che sta dietro l'apparenza delle cose; teoria ricollegabile in certo qual modo all'ancestrale animismo. Questo si è verificato parallelamente anche nell'arte della scultura la quale va dalla rappresentazione massima della vira vigorosa attraverso forme innaturalmente semplificate.
    Pitagora credeva che dietro all'apparenza delle cose vi fosse il principio permanente della matematica e che le forme si basavano pertanto su una relazione matematica trascendentale. Le forme terrene sono imitazioni imperfette (εἰκόνες, eikones-immagini) di un mondo sovraterreno composto dai numeri e dalle loro leggi. Le sue idee hanno avuto una grande influenza sull'arte post-arcaica,con gli architetti e gli scultori nella perenne ricerca di trovare la relazione matematica esatta interna alle cose materiali, un canone estetico il quale avrebbe portato alla perfezione realizzativa delle opere.
    Anassagora ha affermato che una ragione divina, una mente superiore, ha prodotto i semi dell'universo, in seguito Platone ha esteso la credenza greca nei riguardi delle forme ideali nella sua teoria metafisica, la dottrina dell'idea: le forme terrene, nessuna esclusa, sono duplicati imperfetti delle idee celesti intellettuali. I termini οἶδα, oida-sapere, ed εἶδος-eidos, hanno la stessa radice della parola ἰδέα-idea, il che indica come la mente Greca ne abbia via via spostato il significato dai sensi ai principi che stanno oltre ad essi.
    Gli artisti del tempo di Platone si allontanarono presto dalle sue teorie, creando opere che sono una miscela di naturalismo e stilizzazione; gli scultori greci hanno considerato esser i sensi molto più importanti delle idee e le proporzioni sono state usate per unire il sensibile con l'intellettuale.
    

    
    

    

    Bronzetto di Apollo, scuola veneta del XVI secolo. Conservato a palazzo Bonacossi a Ferrara.

    Sailko - Opera propria
    

    
    

    Storia

    L'evoluzione della scultura, dalla scultura greca arcaica alla scultura ellenistica può anche essere osservata nelle raffigurazioni del dio solare, dal tipo formale e quasi statico, ieratico, del Kouros (κοῦρος-ragazzo) del primo periodo arcaico, fino alla rappresentazione del movimento in un insieme maggiormente armonico del periodo successivo dato stile severo.
    Nella Grecia classica l'enfasi non è più data alla realtà immaginativa illusoria rappresentata dalle forme più ideali, bensì dalle analogie ed interazioni delle varie parti prese singolarmente col tutto; una metodologia di lavorazione che risale alla scuola di Policleto e tramandata tramite il celebre canone di Policleto sulle proporzioni dell'anatomia umana.
    Infine Prassitele sembra aver liberato definitivamente la forma artistica (quindi anche e soprattutto le immagini degli Déi) dalla conformità religiosa, con opere che sono una miscela di naturalismo e stilizzazione.
    

    Scultura arcaica

    "Kouroi-giovani maschi" è il termine collettivo moderno che viene dato a quelle raffigurazioni di giovani maschi nudi in piedi che appaiono nel primo periodo arcaico greco. Questa tipologia di statuaria serviva ad alcuni bisogni religiosi ed è stato proposto che fossero inizialmente pensate per essere raffigurazioni di Apollo. Già nei loro primi esempi, la formalità della posizione sembra essere correlata con la precedente arte egizia (braccia penzoloni lungo i fianchi e gambe divaricate) e ciò è accettato come esser stato fatto di proposito.
    Gli scultori hanno avuto in mente chiara l'dea di ciò che rappresentasse al meglio la giovinezza, incarnandolo con lo stile ieratico della statuaria faraonica, aggiungendovi di proprio il cosiddetto sorriso arcaico indice di buone maniere, il passo fermo ed elastico, l'equilibrio del corpo che emana la dignità e felicità giovanile caratteristiche di Apollo; quando hanno cercato di descrivere le qualità più stabili dell'uomo, lo hanno fatto per mostrare le radici comuni con gli Déi immortali ed immutabili.
    L'adozione di un tipo riconoscibile standard per un lungo periodo di tempo, si è probabilmente verificata in quanto in natura sopravvive di preferenza chi si adatta maggiormente e più favorevolmente al proprio ambiente di appartenenza, ma anche a causa della credenza generale greca che il mondo tutto si esprima in forme ideali che si possano immaginare ed attraverso ciò venir rappresentate. Le forme esprimono immortalità/immutabilità, equilibrio ed ordine, tutti ideali apollinei; il suo principale santuario di Delfi, che condivideva con Dioniso durante la stagione invernale, aveva nel suo frontone d'ingresso le iscrizioni che recitavano γνῶθι σεαυτόν (gnōthi seautón-conosci te stesso); μηδὲν ἄγαν (mēdén ágan-niente in eccesso) e ἐγγύα πάρα δ'ἄτη (eggýa pára d'atē-fare una promessa è quasi malizia).
    Nelle prime raffigurazioni su larga scala durante il periodo arcaico precoce (640-580 a.C.) gli artisti hanno cercato di attirare l'attenzione dello spettatore verso uno sguardo per così dire interno del viso e del corpo i quali non erano mai rappresentati come semplici masse di materia prive di vita, bensì come esseri che ne erano ricolmi. Gli antichi Greci hanno mantenuto, fino alla loro civiltà più tarda, un'idea quasi animistica nei confronti delle statue, che in un certo senso consideravano vive: questo incarnava la convinzione che l'immagine era in qualche modo a realtà spirituale dell'uomo o del dio stesso.
    Un bell'esempio di tali convinzioni è costituito dal cosiddetto kouros della porta sacra, ritrovato nel cimitero nei pressi di Dipylon, il futuro Ceramico ad Atene; la statua viene qui ad essere la "cosa in sé", il suo viso magro con gli occhi profondi esprime una sorta di "eternità intellettuale". Secondo la tradizione greca il ceramografo e vasaio detto maestro del Dipylon era conosciuto anche sotto il nomignolo di Dedalo in quanto nelle figure da egli realizzate gli arti parevano quasi librarsi liberati dal resto del corpo, dando così la netta impressione che potessero muoversi; si ritiene inoltre sia stato lui a creare l'esemplare conservato a New York il quale è la più antica statua del tipo kouros conservatasi integralmente e che pare esser l'incarnazione stessa del dio.
    L'idea animistica di rappresentazione della realtà immaginativa è ufficializzata sa nell'opera poetica di Omero che della totalità della mitologia greca, ma anche nei miti relativi alla civiltà minoica, quelli del dio Efesto (realizzatore delle armature divine) e di Dedalo (il costruttore del labirinto) i quali avrebbero dato vita alle immagini create . Questo tipo di arte risale ad un periodo in cui il tema principale è stato la rappresentazione del movimento in un dato momento; queste statue, in una posizione eretta e senza alcun sostegno di sorta, erano solitamente in marmo, ma la loro forma poteva esser ben resa anche in pietra calcarea, bronzo, avorio e terracotta.
    I primi esempi di statue a grandezza naturale di Apollo, possono essere considerati le due immagini presenti all'interno del santuario del dio sull'isola di Delo.
    

    Scultura classica

    Frontoni e fregi

    Ellenismo

    Durante il periodo ellenistico Apollo viene spesso raffigurato come un bel giovane ancora del tutto imberbe con un arco o una cetra tra le mani, solitamente appoggiato al tronco di un albero; si tratta della tipologia detta dell'Apollo citaredo, conosciuto anche attraverso le sue varianti di Apollo sauroctono e Apollo Licio.
    Il celebre Apollo del Belvedere è una scultura marmorea rinvenuta nella seconda metà del '400; per secoli ha riassunto gli ideali dell'antichità classica per gli europei, dal Rinascimento fino a tutto il XIX secolo: la statua di marmo è una copia romana di epoca ellenistica di un originale in bronzo eseguito da Leocare tra il 350 e il 325 a.C.
    

    Nella modernità

    Apollo è stato un soggetto rappresentato spesso nell'arte e nella letteratura post-classica.
    

    Scultura e incisione

    Il David-Apollo è una scultura marmorea di Michelangelo Buonarroti risalente a circa il 1530, ma rimasta incompiuta.

    Jacopo Caraglio ha creato alcune incisioni su alcuni episodi della vita del dio, come quello riguardante il suo amore nei confronti del principe spartano adolescente Giacinto.
    Nel 1591 l'artista fiorentino Pietro Francavilla realizza "Apollo vittorioso su Pitone" raffigurante la prima vittoria del dio quando uccise a colpi di freccia il temibile serpe Pitone che infestava i dintorni di Delfi, intravisto mentre giace morto ai suoi piedi.
    Nel 1623 Gian Lorenzo Bernini scolpisce il suo Apollo e Dafne.
    William Blake nel 1809 illustrò l'ode di John Milton On the Morning of Christ's Nativity ("Mattina del Natale di Cristo", 1629) con un acquerello che ritrae "Il rovesciamento di Apollo e dei pagani"; la figura del dio è una combinazione tra l'Apollo Belvedere e il personaggio di Laocoonte.
    
    

    

    "Apollo e Giacinto" di Jacopo Caraglio.
    

    
    

    Pittura

    Pittura

    Del 1470-80 circa è Apollo e Dafne attribuito a Piero del Pollaiolo o in alternativa al fratello Antonio del Pollaiolo.
    Del 1483 è Apollo e Dafni (titolo tradizionale Apollo e Marsia) del Perugino.
    Del 1508 è l'affresco Apollo e Marsia di Raffaello Sanzio e facente parte della decorazione della volta della Stanza della Segnatura nei Musei Vaticani.
    Del 1507-09 è il Giudizio di Mida tra Apollo e Marsia di Cima da Conegliano.
    Il tramonto del sole di François Boucher (1752).
    

    Poesia e musica

    Apollo et Hyacinthus un'operina di Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
    Il poeta inglese esponente della letteratura romantica Percy Bysshe Shelley compose nel 1820 un "Inno rivolto ad Apollo", mentre le istruzioni del dio alle Muse è stato oggetto dell'opera di Igor Stravinsky intitolata Apollon musagète, un balletto in stile neoclassico.
    

    Filosofia e psicologia

    In una discussione più generale sulle arti, talvolta vene fatta una distinzione tra l'apollineo e dionisiaco; il primo si occupa d'imporre una qual certo ordine intellettuale agli impulsi umani, mentre il secondo li utilizza ancor grezzi per produrre una creatività maggiormente caotica. Il filosofo tedesco Friedrich Nietzsche, nella sua riflessione sullo spirito dionisiaco, sosteneva che una fusione delle due concezioni di vita fosse più che mai desiderabile.
    Per Carl Gustav Jung l'"archetipo di Apollo" rappresenta quello che viene inteso come disposizione delle persone ad un'iper-intellettualizzazione, mantenendo al contempo una forte distanza emotiva.
    
    

    

    "Il rovesciamento di Apollo e dei pagani", illustrazione di William Blake.

    Art by William Blake - Creato: 1809

    Watercolor Illustration to Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, by William Blake

    
    

    

    Studio per la testa di Apollo (1630), di Diego Velázquez.

     Estudio para la cabeza de Apolo, by Diego Velázquez

    
    

    Apollo (Attic, Ionic, and Homeric Greek: Ἀπόλλων, Apollōn (GEN Ἀπόλλωνος); Doric: Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn; Arcadocypriot: Ἀπείλων, Apeilōn; Aeolic: Ἄπλουν, Aploun; Latin: Apollō) is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.
    As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the god's custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musegetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans.
    In Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios, Titan god of the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene, Titan goddess of the moon. In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the 1st century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE.
    

    
    

    

    Parnaso

    Raffaello Sanzio
    

    Creato: tra il 1509 e il 1510

    Etymology

    The name Apollo—unlike the related older name Paean—is generally not found in the Linear B (Mycenean Greek) texts, although there is a possible attestation in the lacunose form ]pe-rjo-[ (Linear B: ]𐀟𐁊-[) on the KN E 842 tablet.
    The etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων (pronounced [a.pól.lɔːn] in Classical Attic) had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era, but the Doric form, Apellon (Ἀπέλλων), is more archaic, as it is derived from an earlier *Ἀπέλjων. It probably is a cognate to the Doric month Apellaios (Ἀπελλαῖος), and the offerings apellaia (ἀπελλαῖα) at the initiation of the young men during the family-festival apellai (ἀπέλλαι). According to some scholars, the words are derived from the Doric word apella (ἀπέλλα), which originally meant "wall," "fence for animals" and later "assembly within the limits of the square." Apella (Ἀπέλλα) is the name of the popular assembly in Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia (ἐκκλησία). R. S. P. Beekes rejected the connection of the theonym with the noun apellai and suggested a Pre-Greek proto-form *Apal^yun.
    Several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated Apollo's name with the Greek verb ἀπόλλυμι (apollymi), "to destroy". Plato in Cratylus connects the name with ἀπόλυσις (apolysis), "redemption", with ἀπόλουσις (apolousis), "purification", and with ἁπλοῦν ([h]aploun), "simple", in particular in reference to the Thessalian form of the name, Ἄπλουν, and finally with Ἀειβάλλων (aeiballon), "ever-shooting". Hesychius connects the name Apollo with the Doric ἀπέλλα (apella), which means "assembly", so that Apollo would be the god of political life, and he also gives the explanation σηκός (sekos), "fold", in which case Apollo would be the god of flocks and herds. In the ancient Macedonian language πέλλα (pella) means "stone," and some toponyms may be derived from this word: Πέλλα (Pella, the capital of ancient Macedonia) and Πελλήνη (Pellēnē/Pallene).
    A number of non-Greek etymologies have been suggested for the name, The Hittite form Apaliunas (^dx-ap-pa-li-u-na-aš) is attested in the Manapa-Tarhunta letter, perhaps related to Hurrian (and certainly the Etruscan) Aplu, a god of plague, in turn likely from Akkadian Aplu Enlil meaning simply "the son of Enlil", a title that was given to the god Nergal, who was linked to Shamash, Babylonian god of the sun. The role of Apollo as god of plague is evident in the invocation of Apollo Smintheus ("mouse Apollo") by Chryses, the Trojan priest of Apollo, with the purpose of sending a plague against the Greeks (the reasoning behind a god of the plague becoming a god of healing is of course apotropaic, meaning that the god responsible for bringing the plague must be appeased in order to remove the plague).
    The Hittite testimony reflects an early form *Apeljōn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων.
    A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo "The One of Entrapment", perhaps in the sense of "Hunter".
    
    

    

     Apollo & Daphne September 2a

    Alvesgaspar e un altro autore - Opera propria

    Greco-Roman epithets

    Apollo's chief epithet was Phoebus (/ˈfiːbəs/ FEE-bəs; Φοῖβος, Phoibos [pʰó͜i.bos]), literally "bright". It was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollo's role as the god of light. Like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature.
    

    Sun

    • Aegletes (/əˈɡliːtiːz/ ə-GLEE-teez; Αἰγλήτης, Aiglētēs), from αἴγλη, "light of the sun"
    • Helius (/ˈhiːliəs/ HEE-lee-əs; Ἥλιος, Helios), literally "sun"
    • Lyceus (/laɪˈsiːəs/ ly-SEE-əs; Λύκειος, Lykeios, from Proto-Greek *λύκη) "light". The meaning of the epithet "Lyceus" later became associated with Apollo's mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia (Λυκία) and who was identified with the wolf (λύκος).
    • Phanaeus (/fəˈniːəs/ fə-NEE-əs; Φαναῖος, Phanaios), literally "giving or bringing light"
    • Phoebus (/ˈfiːbəs/ FEE-bəs; Φοῖβος, Phoibos), literally "bright", his most commonly used epithet by both the Greeks and Romans
    • Sol (Roman) (/ˈsɒl/ SOL), "sun" in Latin

    Wolf

    • Lycegenes (/laɪˈsɛdʒəniːz/ ly-SEJ-ə-neez; Λυκηγενής, Lukēgenēs), literally "born of a wolf" or "born of Lycia"
    • Lycoctonus (/laɪˈkɒktənəs/ ly-KOK-tə-nəs; Λυκοκτόνος, Lykoktonos), from λύκος, "wolf", and κτείνειν, "to kill"

    Origin and birth

    Apollo's birthplace was Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos.
    

    • Cynthius (/ˈsɪnθiəs/ SIN-thee-əs; Κύνθιος, Kunthios), literally "Cynthian"
    • Cynthogenes (/sɪnˈθɒdʒɪniːz/ sin-THOJ-i-neez; Κυνθογενής, Kynthogenēs), literally "born of Cynthus"
    • Delius (/ˈdiːliəs/ DEE-lee-əs; Δήλιος, Delios), literally "Delian"
    • Didymaeus (/dɪdɪˈmiːəs/ did-i-MEE-əs; Διδυμαῖος, Didymaios) from δίδυμος, "twin") as Artemis' twin

    Place of worship

    Delphi and Actium were his primary places of worship.
    

    • Acraephius (/əˈkriːfiəs/ ə-KREE-fee-əs; Ἀκραίφιος,^{[clarification needed]} Akraiphios, literally "Acraephian") or Acraephiaeus (/əˌkriːfiˈiːəs/ ə-KREE-fee-EE-əs; Ἀκραιφιαίος, Akraiphiaios), "Acraephian", from the Boeotian town of Acraephia (Ἀκραιφία), reputedly founded by his son Acraepheus.
    • Actiacus (/ækˈtaɪ.əkəs/ ak-TY-ə-kəs; Ἄκτιακός, Aktiakos), literally "Actian", after Actium (Ἄκτιον)
    • Delphinius (/dɛlˈfɪniəs/ del-FIN-ee-əs; Δελφίνιος, Delphinios), literally "Delphic", after Delphi (Δελφοί). An etiology in the Homeric Hymns associated this with dolphins.
    • Pythius (/ˈpɪθiəs/ PITH-ee-əs; Πύθιος, Puthios, from Πυθώ, Pythō), from the region around Delphi
    • Smintheus (/ˈsmɪnθjuːs/ SMIN-thews; Σμινθεύς, Smintheus), "Sminthian"—that is, "of the town of Sminthos or Sminthe" near the Troad town of Hamaxitus

    
    

    

     Il tramonto del sole è un dipinto a olio su tela (318x261 cm) realizzato nel 1752 dal pittore francese François Boucher.
    È conservato nella Wallace Collection di Londra.
    
    

    Healing and disease

    • Acesius (/əˈsiːʒəs/ ə-SEE-zhəs; Ἀκέσιος, Akesios), from ἄκεσις, "healing". Acesius was the epithet of Apollo worshipped in Elis, where he had a temple in the agora.
    • Acestor (/əˈsɛstər/ ə-SES-tər; Ἀκέστωρ, Akestōr), literally "healer"
    • Culicarius (Roman) (/ˌkjuːlɪˈkæriəs/ KEW-li-KARR-ee-əs), from Latin culicārius, "of midges"
    • Iatrus (/aɪˈætrəs/ eye-AT-rəs; Ἰατρός, Iātros), literally "physician"
    • Medicus (Roman) (/ˈmɛdɪkəs/ MED-i-kəs), "physician" in Latin. A temple was dedicated to Apollo Medicus at Rome, probably next to the temple of Bellona.
    • Paean (/ˈpiːən/ PEE-ən; Παιάν, Paiān),physician, healer 
    • Parnopius (/pɑːrˈnoʊpiəs/ par-NOH-pee-əs; Παρνόπιος, Parnopios), from πάρνοψ, "locust"

    Founder and protector

    • Agyieus (/əˈdʒaɪ.ɪjuːs/ ə-JY-i-yoos; Ἀγυιεύς, Aguīeus), from ἄγυια, "street", for his role in protecting roads and homes
    • Alexicacus (/əˌlɛksɪˈkeɪkəs/ ə-LEK-si-KAY-kəs; Ἀλεξίκακος, Alexikakos), literally "warding off evil"
    • Apotropaeus (/əˌpɒtrəˈpiːəs/ ə-POT-rə-PEE-əs; Ἀποτρόπαιος, Apotropaios), from ἀποτρέπειν, "to avert"
    • Archegetes (/ɑːrˈkɛdʒətiːz/ ar-KEJ-ə-teez; Ἀρχηγέτης, Arkhēgetēs), literally "founder"
    • Averruncus (Roman)(/ˌævəˈrʌŋkəs/ AV-ər-RUNG-kəs; from Latin āverruncare), "to avert"
    • Clarius (/ˈklæriəs/ KLARR-ee-əs; Κλάριος, Klārios), from Doric κλάρος, "allotted lot"
    • Epicurius (/ˌɛpɪˈkjʊriəs/ EP-i-KEWR-ee-əs; Ἐπικούριος, Epikourios), from ἐπικουρέειν, "to aid"
    • Genetor (/ˈdʒɛnɪtər/ JEN-i-tər; Γενέτωρ, Genetōr), literally "ancestor"
    • Nomius (/ˈnoʊmiəs/ NOH-mee-əs; Νόμιος, Nomios), literally "pastoral"
    • Nymphegetes (/nɪmˈfɛdʒɪtiːz/ nim-FEJ-i-teez; Νυμφηγέτης, Numphēgetēs), from Νύμφη, "Nymph", and ἡγέτης, "leader", for his role as a protector of shepherds and pastoral life

    Prophecy and truth

    • Coelispex (Roman) (/ˈsɛlɪspɛks/ SEL-i-speks), from Latin coelum, "sky", and specere "to look at"
    • Iatromantis (/aɪˌætrəˈmæntɪs/ eye-AT-rə-MAN-tis; Ἰατρομάντις, Iātromantis,) from ἰατρός, "physician", and μάντις, "prophet", referring to his role as a god both of healing and of prophecy
    • Leschenorius (/ˌlɛskɪˈnoʊriəs/ LES-ki-NOHR-ee-əs; Λεσχηνόριος, Leskhēnorios), from λεσχήνωρ, "converser"
    • Loxias (/ˈlɒksiəs/ LOK-see-əs; Λοξίας, Loxias), from λέγειν, "to say", historically associated with λοξός, "ambiguous"
    • Manticus (/ˈmæntɪkəs/ MAN-ti-kəs; Μαντικός, Mantikos), literally "prophetic"

    Music and arts

    • Musagetes (/mjuːˈsædʒɪtiːz/ mew-SAJ-i-teez; Doric Μουσαγέτας, Mousāgetās), from Μούσα, "Muse", and ἡγέτης "leader"
    • Musegetes (/mjuːˈsɛdʒɪtiːz/ mew-SEJ-i-teez; Μουσηγέτης, Mousēgetēs), as the preceding

    Archery

    • Aphetor (/əˈfiːtər/ ə-FEE-tər; Ἀφήτωρ, Aphētōr), from ἀφίημι, "to let loose"
    • Aphetorus (/əˈfɛtərəs/ ə-FET-ər-əs; Ἀφητόρος, Aphētoros), as the preceding
    • Arcitenens (Roman) (/ɑːrˈtɪsɪnənz/ ar-TISS-i-nənz), literally "bow-carrying"
    • Argyrotoxus (/ˌɑːrdʒɪrəˈtɒksəs/ AR-ji-rə-TOK-səs; Ἀργυρότοξος, Argyrotoxos), literally "with silver bow"
    • Hecaërgus (/ˌhɛkiˈɜːrɡəs/ HEK-ee-UR-gəs; Ἑκάεργος, Hekaergos), literally "far-shooting"
    • Hecebolus (/hɪˈsɛbələs/ hi-SEB-ə-ləs; Ἑκηβόλος, Hekēbolos), "far-shooting"
    • Ismenius (/ɪzˈmiːniəs/ iz-MEE-nee-əs; Ἰσμηνιός, Ismēnios), literally "of Ismenus", after Ismenus, the son of Amphion and Niobe, whom he struck with an arrow

    
    

    

    Igor Stravinskij  1927
     Fotografia dei Balletti russi per la prima esecuzione parigina (1928). Serge Lifar, Danilova, Chernysheva, Dubrovska, Petrova
    Ballets Russes, scene from Apollon musagète. Dancers: Serge Lifar, Danilova, Chernysheva, Dubrovska, Petrova
    
    

    Celtic epithets and cult titles

    Apollo was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire. In the traditionally Celtic lands he was most often seen as a healing and sun god. He was often equated with Celtic gods of similar character.
    

    • Apollo Atepomarus ("the great horseman" or "possessing a great horse"). Apollo was worshipped at Mauvières (Indre). Horses were, in the Celtic world, closely linked to the sun.
    • Apollo Belenus ('bright' or 'brilliant'). This epithet was given to Apollo in parts of Gaul, Northern Italy and Noricum (part of modern Austria). Apollo Belenus was a healing and sun god.
    • Apollo Cunomaglus ('hound lord'). A title given to Apollo at a shrine at Nettleton Shrub, Wiltshire. May have been a god of healing. Cunomaglus himself may originally have been an independent healing god.
    • Apollo Grannus. Grannus was a healing spring god, later equated with Apollo.
    • Apollo Maponus. A god known from inscriptions in Britain. This may be a local fusion of Apollo and Maponus.
    • Apollo Moritasgus ('masses of sea water'). An epithet for Apollo at Alesia, where he was worshipped as god of healing and, possibly, of physicians.
    • Apollo Vindonnus ('clear light'). Apollo Vindonnus had a temple at Essarois, near Châtillon-sur-Seine in present-day Burgundy. He was a god of healing, especially of the eyes.
    • Apollo Virotutis ('benefactor of mankind?'). Apollo Virotutis was worshipped, among other places, at Fins d'Annecy (Haute-Savoie) and at Jublains (Maine-et-Loire).

    
    

    

     Apollo Victorious over the Python by the Florentine Pietro Francavilla (dated 1591) depicting Apollo's first triumph, when he slew with his bow and arrows the serpent Python, which lies dead at his feet (The Walters Art Museum).

    Saw1998 - Taken. By me. On vacation.

    Statue of Greek god Apollo on display in the Walters Art Museum.

    Origins

    The cult centers of Apollo in Greece, Delphi and Delos, date from the 8th century BCE. The Delos sanctuary was primarily dedicated to Artemis, Apollo's twin sister. At Delphi, Apollo was venerated as the slayer of Pytho. For the Greeks, Apollo was all the Gods in one and through the centuries he acquired different functions which could originate from different gods. In archaic Greece he was the prophet, the oracular god who in older times was connected with "healing". In classical Greece he was the god of light and of music, but in popular religion he had a strong function to keep away evil. Walter Burkert discerned three components in the prehistory of Apollo worship, which he termed "a Dorian-northwest Greek component, a Cretan-Minoan component, and a Syro-Hittite component."
    From his eastern origin Apollo brought the art of inspection of "symbols and omina" (σημεία και τέρατα : semeia kai terata), and of the observation of the omens of the days. The inspiration oracular-cult was probably introduced from Anatolia. The ritualism belonged to Apollo from the beginning. The Greeks created the legalism, the supervision of the orders of the gods, and the demand for moderation and harmony. Apollo became the god of shining youth, the protector of music, spiritual-life, moderation and perceptible order. The improvement of the old Anatolian god, and his elevation to an intellectual sphere, may be considered an achievement of the Greek people.
    

    Healer and god-protector from evil

    The function of Apollo as a "healer" is connected with Paean (Παιών-Παιήων), the physician of the Gods in the Iliad, who seems to come from a more primitive religion. Paeοn is probably connected with the Mycenean pa-ja-wo-ne (Linear B: 𐀞𐀊𐀍𐀚), but this is not certain. He did not have a separate cult, but he was the personification of the holy magic-song sung by the magicians that was supposed to cure disease. Later the Greeks knew the original meaning of the relevant song "paean" (παιάν). The magicians were also called "seer-doctors" (ἰατρομάντεις), and they used an ecstatic prophetic art which was used exactly by the god Apollo at the oracles.
    In the Iliad, Apollo is the healer under the gods, but he is also the bringer of disease and death with his arrows, similar to the function of the Vedic god of disease Rudra. He sends a plague (λοιμός) to the Achaeans. The god who sends a disease can also prevent it; therefore, when it stops, they make a purifying ceremony and offer him a hecatomb to ward off evil. When the oath of his priest appeases, they pray and with a song they call their own god, the Paean.
    Some common epithets of Apollo as a healer are "paion" (παιών, literally "healer" or "helper") "epikourios" (ἐπικουρώ, "help"), "oulios" (οὐλή, "healed wound", also a "scar" ) and "loimios" (λοιμός, "plague"). In classical times, his strong function in popular religion was to keep away evil, and was therefore called "apotropaios" (ἀποτρέπω, "divert", "deter", "avert") and "alexikakos" (from v. ἀλέξω + n. κακόν, "defend from evil"). In later writers, the word, usually spelled "Paean", becomes a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a god of healing.
    Homer illustrated Paeon the god, and the song both of apotropaic thanksgiving or triumph.^{[citation needed]} Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo, and afterwards to other gods: to Dionysus, to Apollo Helios, to Apollo's son Asclepius the healer. About the 4th century BCE, the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. It was in this way that Apollo had become recognised as the god of music. Apollo's role as the slayer of the Python led to his association with battle and victory; hence it became the Roman custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won.
    
    

    

    Apollo (left) and Artemis. Brygos (potter signed), tondo of an Attic red-figure cup c. 470 BC, Musée du Louvre.

    Marie-Lan Nguyen and one more author - Own work
    

    Dorian origin

    The connection with the Dorians and their initiation festival apellai is reinforced by the month Apellaios in northwest Greek calendars . The family-festival was dedicated to Apollo (Doric: Ἀπέλλων). Apellaios is the month of these rites, and Apellon is the "megistos kouros" (the great Kouros). However it can explain only the Doric type of the name, which is connected with the Ancient Macedonian word "pella" (Pella), stone. Stones played an important part in the cult of the god, especially in the oracular shrine of Delphi (Omphalos). The "Homeric hymn" represents Apollo as a Northern intruder. His arrival must have occurred during the "Dark Ages" that followed the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization, and his conflict with Gaia (Mother Earth) was represented by the legend of his slaying her daughter the serpent Python.
    The earth deity had power over the ghostly world, and it is believed that she was the deity behind the oracle. The older tales mentioned two dragons who were perhaps intentionally conflated. A female dragon named Delphyne (δελφύς, "womb"), and a male serpent Typhon (τύφειν, "to smoke"), the adversary of Zeus in the Titanomachy, who the narrators confused with Python. Python was the good daemon (ἀγαθὸς δαίμων) of the temple as it appears in Minoan religion, but she was represented as a dragon, as often happens in Northern European folklore as well as in the East.
    Apollo and his sister Artemis can bring death with their arrows. The conception that diseases and death come from invisible shots sent by supernatural beings, or magicians is common in Germanic and Norse mythology. In Greek mythology Artemis was the leader (ἡγεμών, "hegemon") of the nymphs, who had similar functions with the Nordic Elves. The "elf-shot" originally indicated disease or death attributed to the elves, but it was later attested denoting stone arrow-heads which were used by witches to harm people, and also for healing rituals.
    The Vedic Rudra has some similar functions with Apollo. The terrible god is called "The Archer", and the bow is also an attribute of Shiva. Rudra could bring diseases with his arrows, but he was able to free people of them, and his alternative Shiba is a healer physician god. However the Indo-European component of Apollo does not explain his strong relation with omens, exorcisms, and with the oracular cult.
    
    
    
    

    

     Marble Bust of Apollo after the Apollo Belvedere. Circa 1675

    Rauantiques - Own work

    Marble Bust of Apollo after the Apollo Belvedere. Circa 1675

    Minoan origin

    It seems an oracular cult existed in Delphi from the Mycenaean age. In historical times, the priests of Delphi were called Labryaden, "the double-axe men", which indicates Minoan origin. The double-axe, labrys, was the holy symbol of the Cretan labyrinth. The Homeric hymn adds that Apollo appeared as a dolphin and carried Cretan priests to Delphi, where they evidently transferred their religious practices. Apollo Delphinios or Delphidios was a sea-god especially worshiped in Crete and in the islands. Apollo's sister Artemis, who was the Greek goddess of hunting, is identified with Britomartis (Diktynna), the Minoan "Mistress of the animals". In her earliest depictions she is accompanied by the "Mister of the animals", a male god of hunting who had the bow as his attribute. His original name is unknown, but it seems that he was absorbed by the more popular Apollo, who stood by the virgin "Mistress of the Animals", becoming her brother.
    The old oracles in Delphi seem to be connected with a local tradition of the priesthood, and there is not clear evidence that a kind of inspiration-prophecy existed in the temple. This led some scholars to the conclusion that Pythia carried on the rituals in a consistent procedure through many centuries, according to the local tradition. In that regard, the mythical seeress Sibyl of Anatolian origin, with her ecstatic art, looks unrelated to the oracle itself. However, the Greek tradition is referring to the existence of vapours and chewing of laurel-leaves, which seem to be confirmed by recent studies.
    Plato describes the priestesses of Delphi and Dodona as frenzied women, obsessed by "mania" (μανία, "frenzy"), a Greek word he connected with mantis (μάντις, "prophet"). Frenzied women like Sibyls from whose lips the god speaks are recorded in the Near East as Mari in the second millennium BC. Although Crete had contacts with Mari from 2000 BC, there is no evidence that the ecstatic prophetic art existed during the Minoan and Mycenean ages. It is more probable that this art was introduced later from Anatolia and regenerated an existing oracular cult that was local to Delphi and dormant in several areas of Greece.
    
    

    

     Artemis and Apollo Piercing Niobe's Children with their Arrows by Jacques-Louis David, Dallas Museum of Art
     1772
    

    Anatolian origin

    A non-Greek origin of Apollo has long been assumed in scholarship. The name of Apollo's mother Leto has Lydian origin, and she was worshipped on the coasts of Asia Minor. The inspiration oracular cult was probably introduced into Greece from Anatolia, which is the origin of Sibyl, and where existed some of the oldest oracular shrines. Omens, symbols, purifications, and exorcisms appear in old Assyro-Babylonian texts, and these rituals were spread into the empire of the Hittites. In a Hittite text is mentioned that the king invited a Babylonian priestess for a certain "purification".
    A similar story is mentioned by Plutarch. He writes that the Cretan seer Epimenides purified Athens after the pollution brought by the Alcmeonidae, and that the seer's expertise in sacrifices and reform of funeral practices were of great help to Solon in his reform of the Athenian state. The story indicates that Epimenides was probably heir to the shamanic religions of Asia, and proves, together with the Homeric hymn, that Crete had a resisting religion up to historical times. It seems that these rituals were dormant in Greece, and they were reinforced when the Greeks migrated to Anatolia.
    Homer pictures Apollo on the side of the Trojans, fighting against the Achaeans, during the Trojan War. He is pictured as a terrible god, less trusted by the Greeks than other gods. The god seems to be related to Appaliunas, a tutelary god of Wilusa (Troy) in Asia Minor, but the word is not complete. The stones found in front of the gates of Homeric Troy were the symbols of Apollo. The Greeks gave to him the name ἀγυιεύς agyieus as the protector god of public places and houses who wards off evil, and his symbol was a tapered stone or column. However, while usually Greek festivals were celebrated at the full moon, all the feasts of Apollo were celebrated at the seventh day of the month, and the emphasis given to that day (sibutu) indicates a Babylonian origin.
    The Late Bronze Age (from 1700 to 1200 BCE) Hittite and Hurrian Aplu was a god of plague, invoked during plague years. Here we have an apotropaic situation, where a god originally bringing the plague was invoked to end it. Aplu, meaning the son of, was a title given to the god Nergal, who was linked to the Babylonian god of the sun Shamash. Homer interprets Apollo as a terrible god (δεινὸς θεός) who brings death and disease with his arrows, but who can also heal, possessing a magic art that separates him from the other Greek gods. In Iliad, his priest prays to Apollo Smintheus, the mouse god who retains an older agricultural function as the protector from field rats. All these functions, including the function of the healer-god Paean, who seems to have Mycenean origin, are fused in the cult of Apollo.
    
    

    

     Apollo with his lyre. Statue from Pergamon Museum, Berlin.

    Matt Mechtley - originally posted to Flickr as Apollo with his lyre
    

    Oracular cult

    Unusually among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that had widespread influence: Delos and Delphi. In cult practice, Delian Apollo and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that they might both have shrines in the same locality. Apollo's cult was already fully established when written sources commenced, about 650 BCE. Apollo became extremely important to the Greek world as an oracular deity in the archaic period, and the frequency of theophoric names such as Apollodorus or Apollonios and cities named Apollonia testify to his popularity. Oracular sanctuaries to Apollo were established in other sites. In the 2nd and 3rd century CE, those at Didyma and Clarus pronounced the so-called "theological oracles", in which Apollo confirms that all deities are aspects or servants of an all-encompassing, highest deity. "In the 3rd century, Apollo fell silent. Julian the Apostate (359 - 61) tried to revive the Delphic oracle, but failed."
    

    Oracular shrines

    Apollo had a famous oracle in Delphi, and other notable ones in Clarus and Branchidae. His oracular shrine in Abae in Phocis, where he bore the toponymic epithet Abaeus (Ἀπόλλων Ἀβαῖος, Apollon Abaios), was important enough to be consulted by Croesus. His oracular shrines include:
    

    • Abae in Phocis.
    • Bassae in the Peloponnese.
    • At Clarus, on the west coast of Asia Minor; as at Delphi a holy spring which gave off a pneuma, from which the priests drank.
    • In Corinth, the Oracle of Corinth came from the town of Tenea, from prisoners supposedly taken in the Trojan War.
    • At Khyrse, in Troad, the temple was built for Apollo Smintheus.
    • In Delos, there was an oracle to the Delian Apollo, during summer. The Hieron (Sanctuary) of Apollo adjacent to the Sacred Lake, was the place where the god was said to have been born.
    • In Delphi, the Pythia became filled with the pneuma of Apollo, said to come from a spring inside the Adyton.
    • In Didyma, an oracle on the coast of Anatolia, south west of Lydian (Luwian) Sardis, in which priests from the lineage of the Branchidae received inspiration by drinking from a healing spring located in the temple. Was believed to have been founded by Branchus, son or lover of Apollo.
    • In Hierapolis Bambyce, Syria (modern Manbij), according to the treatise De Dea Syria, the sanctuary of the Syrian Goddess contained a robed and bearded image of Apollo. Divination was based on spontaneous movements of this image.
    • At Patara, in Lycia, there was a seasonal winter oracle of Apollo, said to have been the place where the god went from Delos. As at Delphi the oracle at Patara was a woman.
    • In Segesta in Sicily.

    Oracles were also given by sons of Apollo.
    

    • In Oropus, north of Athens, the oracle Amphiaraus, was said to be the son of Apollo; Oropus also had a sacred spring.
    • in Labadea, 20 miles (32 km) east of Delphi, Trophonius, another son of Apollo, killed his brother and fled to the cave where he was also afterwards consulted as an oracle.

    
    

    

    Marsyas under Apollo's punishment, İstanbul Archaeology Museum

    Eric Gaba, Wikimedia Commons user Sting

    Statue of the satyr Marsyas, Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, Turkey. Roman copy of an original from the 3rd century BC.

    
    

    Temples of Apollo

    A lot of temples dedicated to Apollo were built in Greece and in the Greek colonies, and they show the spread of the cult of Apollo, and the evolution of the Greek architecture, which was mostly based on the rightness of form, and on mathematical relations. Some of the earliest temples, especially in Crete, don't belong to any Greek order. It seems that the first peripteral temples were rectangle wooden structures. The different wooden elements were considered divine, and their forms were preserved in the marble or stone elements of the temples of Doric order. The Greeks used standard types, because they believed that the world of objects was a series of typical forms which could be represented in several instances. The temples should be canonic, and the architects were trying to achieve the esthetic perfection. From the earliest times there were certain rules strictly observed in rectangular peripteral and prostyle buildings. The first buildings were narrow to hold the roof, and when the dimensions changed, some mathematical relations became necessary, in order to keep the original forms. This probably influenced the theory of numbers of Pythagoras, who believed that behind the appearance of things, there was the permanent principle of mathematics.
    The Doric order dominated during the 6th and the 5th century BC, but there was a mathematical problem regarding the position of the triglyphs, which couldn’t be solved without changing the original forms. The order was almost abandoned for the Ionic order, but the Ionic capital also posed an insoluble problem at the corner of a temple. Both orders were abandoned for the Corinthian order gradually during the Hellenistic age, and under Rome.
    The most important temples are:
    

    Greek temples

    • Thebes, Greece: The oldest temple probably dedicated to Apollo Ismenius was built in the 9th century B.C. It seems that it was a curvilinear building. The Doric temple was built in the early 7th century B.C., but only some small parts have been found  A festival called Daphnephoria was celebrated every ninth year in honour of Apollo Ismenius (or Galaxius). The people held laurel branches (daphnai), and at the head of the procession, walked a youth (chosen priest of Apollo), who was called "daphnephoros".
    • Eretria: According to the Homeric hymn to Apollo, the god arrived to the plain, seeking for a location to establish its oracle. The first temple of Apollo Daphnephoros, "Apollo, laurel-bearer", or "carrying off Daphne", is dated to 800 B.C. The temple was curvilinear hecatombedon (a hundred feet). In a smaller building were kept the bases of the laurel branches which were used for the first building. Another temple probably peripteral was built in the 7th century B.C., with an inner row of wooden columns over its Geometric predecessor. It was rebuilt peripteral around 510 B.C., with the stylobate measuring 21,00 x 43,00 m. The number of pteron column was 6 x 14.
    • Dreros (Crete). The temple of Apollo Delphinios dates from the 7th century B.C., or probably from the middle of the 8th century B.C. According to the legend, Apollo appeared as a dolphin, and carried Cretan priests to the port of Delphi. The dimensions of the plan are 10,70 x 24,00 m and the building was not peripteral. It contains column-bases of the Minoan type, which may be considered as the predecessors of the Doric columns.
    • Gortyn (Crete). A temple of Pythian Apollo, was built in the 7th century B.C. The plan measured 19,00 x 16,70 m and it was not peripteral. The walls were solid, made from limestone, and there was single door on the east side.
    • Thermon (West Greece): The Doric temple of Apollo Thermios, was built in the middle of the 7th century B.C. It was built on an older curvilinear building dating perhaps from the 10th century B.C., on which a peristyle was added. The temple was narrow, and the number of pteron columns (probably wooden) was 5 x 15. There was a single row of inner columns. It measures 12.13 x 38.23 m at the stylobate, which was made from stones.

    • Corinth: A Doric temple was built in the 6th century B.C. The temple's stylobate measures 21.36 x 53.30 m, and the number of pteron columns was 6 x 15. There was a double row of inner columns. The style is similar with the Temple of Alcmeonidae at Delphi. The Corinthians were considered to be the inventors of the Doric order.
    • Napes (Lesbos): An Aeolic temple probably of Apollo Napaios was built in the 7th century B.C. Some special capitals with floral ornament have been found, which are called Aeolic, and it seems that they were borrowed from the East.
    • Cyrene, Libya: The oldest Doric temple of Apollo was built in c. 600 B.C. The number of pteron columns was 6 x 11, and it measures 16.75 x 30.05 m at the stylobate. There was a double row of sixteen inner columns on stylobates. The capitals were made from stone.
    • Naukratis: An Ionic temple was built in the early 6th century B.C. Only some fragments have been found and the earlier, made from limestone, are identified among the oldest of the Ionic order.

    • Syracuse, Sicily: A Doric temple was built at the beginning of the 6th century B.C. The temple's stylobate measures 21.47 x 55.36 m and the number of pteron columns was 6 x 17. It was the first temple in Greek west built completely out of stone. A second row of columns were added, obtaining the effect of an inner porch.
    • Selinus (Sicily):The Doric Temple C dates from 550 B.C., and it was probably dedicated to Apollo. The temple's stylobate measures 10.48 x 41.63 m and the number of pteron columns was 6 x 17. There was portico with a second row of columns, which is also attested for the temple at Syracuse.
    • Delphi: The first temple dedicated to Apollo, was built in the 7th century B.C. According to the legend, it was wooden made of laurel branches. The "Temple of Alcmeonidae" was built in c. 513 B.C. and it is the oldest Doric temple with significant marble elements. The temple's stylobate measures 21.65 x 58.00 m, and the number of pteron columns as 6 x 15. A fest similar with Apollo's fest at Thebes, Greece was celebrated every nine years. A boy was sent to the temple, who walked on the sacred road and returned carrying a laurel branch (dopnephoros). The maidens participated with joyful songs.
    • Chios: An Ionic temple of Apollo Phanaios was built at the end of the 6th century B.C. Only some small parts have been found, but the capitals had floral ornament.
    • Abae (Phocis). The temple was destroyed by the Persians in the invasion of Xerxes in 480 B.C., and later by the Boeotians. It was rebuilt by Hadrian. The oracle was in use from early Mycenaean times to the Roman period, and shows the continuity of Mycenaean and Classical Greek religion.

    
    

    • Bassae (Peloponnesus):A temple dedicated to Apollo Epikourios ("Apollo the helper"), was built in 430 B.C. and it was designed by Iktinos.It combined Doric and Ionic elements, and the earliest use of column with a Corinthian capital in the middle. The temple is of a relatively modest size, with the stylobate measuring 14.5 x 38.3 metres containing a Doric peristyle of 6 x 15 columns. The roof left a central space open to admit light and air.*Delos: A temple probably dedicated to Apollo and not peripteral, was built in the late 7th century B.C., with a plan measuring 10,00 x 15,60 m. The Doric Great temple of Apollo, was built in c. 475 B.C. The temple's stylobate measures 13.72 x 29.78 m, and the number of pteron columns as 6 x 13. Marble was extensively used.
    • Ambracia: A Doric peripteral temple dedicated to Apollo Pythios Sotir was built in 500 B.C., and It is lying at the centre of the Greek city Arta. Only some parts have been found, and it seems that the temple was built on earlier sanctuaries dedicated to Apollo. The temple measures 20,75 x 44,00 m at the stylobate. The foundation which supported the statue of the god, still exists.

    
    

    • Didyma (near Miletus): The gigantic Ionic temple of Apollo Didymaios started around 540 B.C. The construction ceased and then it was restarted in 330 B.C. The temple is dipteral, with an outer row of 10 x 21 columns, and it measures 28.90 x 80.75 m at the stylobate.
    • Clarus (near ancient Colophon): According to the legend, the famous seer Calchas, on his return from Troy, came to Clarus. He challenged the seer Mopsus, and died when he lost. The Doric temple of Apollo Clarius was probably built in the 3rd century B.C., and it was peripteral with 6 x 11 columns. It was reconstructed at the end of the Hellenistic period, and later from the emperor Hadrian but Pausanias claims that it was still incomplete in the 2nd century B.C.
    • Hamaxitus (Troad): In Iliad, Chryses the priest of Apollo, addresses the god with the epithet Smintheus (Lord of Mice), related with the god’s ancient role as bringer of the disease (plague). Recent excavations indicate that the Hellenistic temple of Apollo Smintheus was constructed at 150–125 B.C., but the symbol of the mouse god was used on coinage probably from the 4th century B.C. The temple measures 40,00 x 23,00 m at the stylobate, and the number of pteron columns was 8 x 14.

    Etruscan and Roman temples

    • Veii (Etruria): The temple of Apollo was built in the late 6th century B.C. and it indicates the spread of Apollo’s culture (Aplu) in Etruria. There was a prostyle porch, which is called Tuscan, and a triple cella 18,50 m wide.
    • Falerii Veteres (Etruria): A temple of Apollo was built probably in the 4th-3rd century B.C. Parts of a teraccotta capital, and a teraccotta base have been found. It seems that the Etruscan columns were derived from the archaic Doric. A cult of Apollo Soranus is attested by one inscription found near Falerii.

    • Pompeii (Italy): The cult of Apollo was widespread in the region of Campania since the 6th century B.C. The temple was built in 120 B.V, but its beginnings lie in the 6th century B.C. It was reconstructed after an earthquake in A.D. 63. It demonstrates a mixing of styles which formed the basis of Roman architecture. The columns in front of the cella formed a Tuscan prostyle porch, and the cella is situated unusually far back. The peripteral colonnade of 48 Ionic columns was placed in such a way that the emphasis was given to the front side.
    • Rome: The temple of Apollo Sosianus and the temple of Apollo Medicus. The first temple building dates to 431 B.C., and was dedicated to Apollo Medicus (the doctor), after a plague of 433 B.C.. It was rebuilt by Gaius Sosius, probably in 34 B.C. Only three columns with Corinthian capitals exist today. It seems that the cult of Apollo had existed in this area since at least to the mid-5th century B.C.
    • Rome:The temple of Apollo Palatinus was located on the Palatine hill within the sacred boundary of the city. It was dedicated by Augustus on 28 B.C. The façade of the original temple was Ionic and it was constructed from solid blocks of marble. Many famous statues by Greek masters were on display in and around the temple, including a marble statue of the god at the entrance and a statue of Apollo in the cella.
    • Melite (modern Mdina, Malta): A Temple of Apollo was built in the city in the 2nd century A.D. Its remains were discovered in the 18th century, and many of its architectural fragments were dispersed among private collections or reworked into new sculptures. Parts of the temple's podium were rediscovered in 2002

    
    

    

    Head of Apollo, marble, Roman copy of a Greek original of the 4th century BCE, from the collection of Cardinal Albani

    Unknown - Jastrow (2006)
    

    Mythology

    Birth

    When Zeus' wife Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on terra firma. In her wanderings, Leto found the newly created floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island. She gave birth there and was accepted by the people, offering them her promise that her son would be always favourable toward the city. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. This island later became sacred to Apollo.
    It is also stated that Hera kidnapped Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods tricked Hera into letting her go by offering her a necklace of amber nine yards (8 m) long. Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and subsequently assisted with the birth of Apollo, or that Artemis was born one day before Apollo on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo. Apollo was born on the seventh day (ἑβδομαγενής, hebdomagenes⁾ of the month Thargelion —according to Delian tradition—or of the month Bysios—according to Delphian tradition. The seventh and twentieth, the days of the new and full moon, were ever afterwards held sacred to him.
    

    Youth

    Four days after his birth, Apollo killed the chthonic dragon Python, which lived in Delphi beside the Castalian Spring. This was the spring which emitted vapors that caused the oracle at Delphi to give her prophecies. Hera sent the serpent to hunt Leto to her death across the world. To protect his mother, Apollo begged Hephaestus for a bow and arrows. After receiving them, Apollo cornered Python in the sacred cave at Delphi. Apollo killed Python but had to be punished for it, since Python was a child of Gaia.
    Hera then sent the giant Tityos to rape Leto. This time Apollo was aided by his sister Artemis in protecting their mother. During the battle Zeus finally relented his aid and hurled Tityos down to Tartarus. There, he was pegged to the rock floor, covering an area of 9 acres (36,000 m²), where a pair of vultures feasted daily on his liver.
    .

    

    Gold stater of the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter (reigned 281–261 BCE) showing on the reverse a nude Apollo holding his key attributes: two arrows and a bow

    Rani nurmai

    Trojan War

    Apollo shot arrows infected with the plague into the Greek encampment during the Trojan War in retribution for Agamemnon's insult to Chryses, a priest of Apollo whose daughter Chryseis had been captured. He demanded her return, and the Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the anger of Achilles, which is the theme of the Iliad.
    In the Iliad, when Diomedes injured Aeneas, Apollo rescued him. First, Aphrodite tried to rescue Aeneas but Diomedes injured her as well. Aeneas was then enveloped in a cloud by Apollo, who took him to Pergamos, a sacred spot in Troy.
    Apollo aided Paris in the killing of Achilles by guiding the arrow of his bow into Achilles' heel. One interpretation of his motive is that it was in revenge for Achilles' sacrilege in murdering Troilus, the god's own son by Hecuba, on the very altar of the god's own temple.
    

    Admetus

    When Zeus struck down Apollo's son Asclepius with a lightning bolt for resurrecting Hippolytus from the dead (transgressing Themis by stealing Hades's subjects), Apollo in revenge killed the Cyclopes, who had fashioned the bolt for Zeus. Apollo would have been banished to Tartarus forever for this, but was instead sentenced to one year of hard labor, due to the intercession of his mother, Leto. During this time he served as shepherd for King Admetus of Pherae in Thessaly. Admetus treated Apollo well, and, in return, the god conferred great benefits on Admetus.
    Apollo helped Admetus win Alcestis, the daughter of King Pelias and later convinced the Fates to let Admetus live past his time, if another took his place. But when it came time for Admetus to die, his parents, whom he had assumed would gladly die for him, refused to cooperate. Instead, Alcestis took his place, but Heracles managed to "persuade" Thanatos, the god of death, to return her to the world of the living.
    
     Apollo Citharoedus ("Apollo with a kithara"), Musei Capitolini, Rome
    

    Ricardo André Frantz (User:Tetraktys) - taken by Ricardo André Frantz

    Detail of Apollo citharoedus or Apollo with the griffin, Musei Capitolini, Rome.

    Niobe

    Niobe, the queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. Apollo killed her sons, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions of the myth, a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing revenge.
    A devastated Niobe fled to Mount Sipylos in Asia Minor and turned into stone as she wept. Her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone and so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.
    

    Consorts and children

    Love affairs ascribed to Apollo are a late development in Greek mythology. Their vivid anecdotal qualities have made some of them favorites of painters since the Renaissance, the result being that they stand out more prominently in the modern imagination.
    

    Female lovers

    Daphne was a nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus, who had scorned Apollo. The myth explains the connection of Apollo with δάφνη (daphnē), the laurel whose leaves his priestess employed at Delphi. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Phoebus Apollo chaffs Cupid for toying with a weapon more suited to a man, whereupon Cupid wounds him with a golden dart; simultaneously, however, Cupid shoots a leaden arrow into Daphne, causing her to be repulsed by Apollo. Following a spirited chase by Apollo, Daphne prays to her father Peneus for help and he changes her into the laurel tree, sacred to Apollo.
    Artemis Daphnaia, who had her temple among the Lacedemonians, at a place called Hypsoi in Antiquity, on the slopes of Mount Cnacadion near the Spartan frontier, had her own sacred laurel trees. At Eretria the identity of an excavated 7th- and 6th-century temple to Apollo Daphnephoros, "Apollo, laurel-bearer", or "carrying off Daphne", a "place where the citizens are to take the oath", is identified in inscriptions.
    Leucothea was daughter of Orchamus and sister of Clytia. She fell in love with Apollo who disguised himself as Leucothea's mother to gain entrance to her chambers. Clytia, jealous of her sister because she wanted Apollo for herself, told Orchamus the truth, betraying her sister's trust and confidence in her. Enraged, Orchamus ordered Leucothea to be buried alive. Apollo refused to forgive Clytia for betraying his beloved, and a grieving Clytia wilted and slowly died. Apollo changed her into an incense plant, either heliotrope or sunflower, which follows the sun every day.
    Marpessa was kidnapped by Idas but was loved by Apollo as well. Zeus made her choose between them, and she chose Idas on the grounds that Apollo, being immortal, would tire of her when she grew old.
    Castalia was a nymph whom Apollo loved. She fled from him and dove into the spring at Delphi, at the base of Mt. Parnassos, which was then named after her. Water from this spring was sacred; it was used to clean the Delphian temples and inspire the priestesses. In the last oracle is mentioned that the "water which could speak", has been lost for ever.
    By Cyrene, Apollo had a son named Aristaeus, who became the patron god of cattle, fruit trees, hunting, husbandry and bee-keeping. He was also a culture-hero and taught humanity dairy skills, the use of nets and traps in hunting, and how to cultivate olives.
    Hecuba was the wife of King Priam of Troy, and Apollo had a son with her named Troilus. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated as long as Troilus reached the age of twenty alive. He was ambushed and killed by Achilleus.
    Cassandra, was daughter of Hecuba and Priam, and Troilus' half-sister. Apollo fell in love with Cassandra and promised her the gift of prophecy to seduce her, but she rejected him afterwards. Enraged, Apollo indeed gave her the ability to know the future, with a curse that she could only see the future tragedies and that no one would ever believe her.
    Coronis, was daughter of Phlegyas, King of the Lapiths. Pregnant with Asclepius, Coronis fell in love with Ischys, son of Elatus. A crow informed Apollo of the affair. When first informed he disbelieved the crow and turned all crows black (where they were previously white) as a punishment for spreading untruths. When he found out the truth he sent his sister, Artemis, to kill Coronis (in other stories, Apollo himself had killed Coronis). As a result, he also made the crow sacred and gave them the task of announcing important deaths. Apollo rescued the baby and gave it to the centaur Chiron to raise. Phlegyas was irate after the death of his daughter and burned the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Apollo then killed him for what he did.
    In Euripides' play Ion, Apollo fathered Ion by Creusa, wife of Xuthus. Creusa left Ion to die in the wild, but Apollo asked Hermes to save the child and bring him to the oracle at Delphi, where he was raised by a priestess.
    Acantha, was the spirit of the acanthus tree, and Apollo had one of his other liaisons with her. Upon her death, Apollo transformed her into a sun-loving herb.
    According to the Biblioteca, the "library" of mythology mis-attributed to Apollodorus, he fathered the Corybantes on the Muse Thalia.
    

    Consorts and children: extended list

    1. Acacallis
       1. Amphithemis (Garamas)
       2. Naxos, eponym of the island Naxos
       3. Phylacides
       4. Phylander
    2. Acantha
    3. Aethusa
       1. Eleuther
    4. Aganippe
       1. Chios
    5. Alciope
       1. Linus (possibly)
    6. Amphissa / Isse, daughter of Macareus
    7. Anchiale / Acacallis
       1. Oaxes
    8. Areia, daughter of Cleochus / Acacallis / Deione
       1. Miletus
    9. Astycome, nymph
       1. Eumolpus (possibly)
    10. Arsinoe, daughter of Leucippus
        1. Asclepius (possibly)
        2. Eriopis
    11. Babylo
        1. Arabus
    12. Bolina
    13. Calliope, Muse
        1. Orpheus (possibly)
        2. Linus (possibly)
        3. Ialemus
    14. Cassandra
    15. Castalia
    16. Celaeno, daughter of Hyamus / Melaina / Thyia
        1. Delphus
    17. Chione / Philonis / Leuconoe
        1. Philammon
    18. Chrysorthe
        1. Coronus
    19. Chrysothemis
        1. Parthenos
    20. Coronis
        1. Asclepius
    21. Coryceia
        1. Lycorus (Lycoreus)
    22. Creusa
        1. Ion
    23. Cyrene
        1. Aristaeus
        2. Idmon (possibly)
        3. Autuchus
    24. Danais, Cretan nymph
        1. The Curetes
    25. Daphne
    26. Dia, daughter of Lycaon
        1. Dryops
    27. Dryope
        1. Amphissus
    28. Euboea (daughter of Macareus of Locris)
        1. Agreus
    29. Evadne, daughter of Poseidon
        1. Iamus
    30. Gryne
    31. Hecate
        1. Scylla (possibly)
    32. Hecuba
        1. Troilus
        2. Hector (possibly⁾
    33. Hestia (wooed her unsuccessfully)
    34. Hypermnestra, wife of Oicles
        1. Amphiaraus (possibly)
    35. Hypsipyle^[153]
    36. Hyria (Thyria)
        1. Cycnus
    37. Lycia, nymph or daughter of Xanthus
        1. Eicadius
        2. Patarus
    38. Manto
        1. Mopsus
    39. Marpessa
    40. Melia
        1. Ismenus
        2. Tenerus
    41. Ocyrhoe
    42. Othreis
        1. Phager
    43. Parnethia, nymph
        1. Cynnes
    44. Parthenope
        1. Lycomedes
    45. Phthia
        1. Dorus
        2. Laodocus
        3. Polypoetes
    46. Prothoe
    47. Procleia
        1. Tenes (possibly)
    48. Psamathe
        1. Linus
    49. Rhoeo
        1. Anius
    50. Rhodoessa, nymph
        1. Ceos, eponym of the island Ceos
    51. Rhodope
        1. Cicon, eponym of the tribe Cicones
    52. Sinope
        1. Syrus
    53. Stilbe
        1. Centaurus
        2. Lapithes
        3. Aineus
    54. Syllis / Hyllis
        1. Zeuxippus
    55. Thaleia, Muse / Rhetia, nymph
        1. The Corybantes
    56. Themisto, daughter of Zabius of Hyperborea
        1. Galeotes
        2. Telmessus (?)
    57. Thero
        1. Chaeron
    58. Urania, Muse
        1. Linus (possibly)
    59. Urea, daughter of Poseidon
        1. Ileus (Oileus?)
    60. Wife of Erginus
        1. Trophonius (possibly)
    61. Unknown consorts
        1. Acraepheus, eponym of the city Acraephia
        2. Chariclo (possibly)
        3. Erymanthus
        4. Marathus, eponym of Marathon
        5. Megarus
        6. Melaneus
        7. Oncius
        8. Phemonoe
        9. Pisus, founder of Pisa in Etruria
        10. Younger Muses
            1. Cephisso
            2. Apollonis
            3. Borysthenis

     

    

    The Louvre Apollo Sauroctonos, Roman copy after Praxiteles (360 BC)

    After Praxiteles - Baldiri (10-04-2005)

    Roman copy from the 1st–2nd centuries AD after a Greek original from the 4th century BC.

    Male lovers

    Hyacinth or Hyacinthus was one of Apollo's male lovers. He was a Spartan prince, beautiful and athletic. The pair was practicing throwing the discus when a discus thrown by Apollo was blown off course by the jealous Zephyrus and struck Hyacinthus in the head, killing him instantly. Apollo is said to be filled with grief: out of Hyacinthus' blood, Apollo created a flower named after him as a memorial to his death, and his tears stained the flower petals with the interjection αἰαῖ, meaning alas. The Festival of Hyacinthus was a celebration of Sparta.
    Another male lover was Cyparissus, a descendant of Heracles. Apollo gave him a tame deer as a companion but Cyparissus accidentally killed it with a javelin as it lay asleep in the undergrowth. Cyparissus asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo granted the request by turning him into the Cypress named after him, which was said to be a sad tree because the sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.
    Other male lovers of Apollo include:
    

    • Admetus
    • Atymnius, otherwise known as a beloved of Sarpedon
    • Branchus (alternately, a son of Apollo)
    • Carnus
    • Clarus
    • Hippolytus of Sicyon (not the same as Hippolytus, the son of Theseus)
    • Hymenaios
    • Iapis
    • Leucates, who threw himself off a rock when Apollo attempted to carry him off
    • Phorbas (probably the son of Triopas)
    • Potnieus

    
    

    

    Sacred Gate Kouros, marble (610–600 BC), Kerameikos Archaeological Museum in Athens

    Marsyas - Own work

    So-called "Sacred Gate kouros". Marble, ca. 600-590 BC. Found in 2002 by the German Archaeological Institute in Athens. Kerameikos Archaeological Museum in Athens.

    
    

    Apollo's lyre

     Hermes was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. The story is told in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. His mother, Maia, had been secretly impregnated by Zeus. Maia wrapped the infant in blankets but Hermes escaped while she was asleep.
    Hermes ran to Thessaly, where Apollo was grazing his cattle. The infant Hermes stole a number of his cows and took them to a cave in the woods near Pylos, covering their tracks. In the cave, he found a tortoise and killed it, then removed the insides. He used one of the cow's intestines and the tortoise shell and made the first lyre.
    Apollo complained to Maia that her son had stolen his cattle, but Hermes had already replaced himself in the blankets she had wrapped him in, so Maia refused to believe Apollo's claim. Zeus intervened and, claiming to have seen the events, sided with Apollo. Hermes then began to play music on the lyre he had invented. Apollo, a god of music, fell in love with the instrument and offered to allow exchange of the cattle for the lyre. Hence, Apollo then became a master of the lyre.
    

    Apollo in the Oresteia

    In Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, Clytemnestra kills her husband, King Agamemnon because he had sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to proceed forward with the Trojan war, and Cassandra, a prophetess of Apollo. Apollo gives an order through the Oracle at Delphi that Agamemnon's son, Orestes, is to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, her lover. Orestes and Pylades carry out the revenge, and consequently Orestes is pursued by the Erinyes or Furies (female personifications of vengeance).
    Apollo and the Furies argue about whether the matricide was justified; Apollo holds that the bond of marriage is sacred and Orestes was avenging his father, whereas the Erinyes say that the bond of blood between mother and son is more meaningful than the bond of marriage. They invade his temple, and he says that the matter should be brought before Athena. Apollo promises to protect Orestes, as Orestes has become Apollo's supplicant. Apollo advocates Orestes at the trial, and ultimately Athena rules in favor of Apollo.
    

    Other stories

    Apollo killed the Aloadae when they attempted to storm Mt. Olympus.
    Callimachus sang that Apollo rode on the back of a swan to the land of the Hyperboreans during the winter months.
    Apollo turned Cephissus into a sea monster.
    Another contender for the birthplace of Apollo is the Cretan islands of Paximadia.
    
    

    

    
    

    New York Kouros, Met. Mus. 32.11.1, marble (620–610 BC), Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Wikipedia Loves Art participant "Futons_of_Rock" - Uploaded from the Wikipedia Loves Art photo pool on Flickr

    Musical contests

    Pan

    Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo and to challenge Apollo, the god of the kithara, the mountain-god Tmolus was chosen to umpire. Pan blew on his pipes, and with his rustic melody gave great satisfaction to himself and his faithful follower, Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but Midas agreed with the judgment. He dissented and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer, and caused them to become the ears of a donkey.
    
     The statue of the "Piraeus Apollo" in the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus (Athens). This is an archaic-style bronze (ranking among the very few such bronzes survived till us) dating from the 6th century BC, possibily from the years 530/520s BC. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, November 14 2009.

    Marsyas

    Apollo has ominous aspects aside from his plague-bringing, death-dealing arrows: Marsyas was a satyr who challenged Apollo to a contest of music. He had found an aulos on the ground, tossed away after being invented by Athena because it made her cheeks puffy. The contest was judged by the Muses.
    After they each performed, both were deemed equal until Apollo decreed they play and sing at the same time. As Apollo played the lyre, this was easy to do. Marsyas could not do this, as he only knew how to use the flute and could not sing at the same time. Apollo was declared the winner because of this. Apollo flayed Marsyas alive in a cave near Celaenae in Phrygia for his hubris to challenge a god. He then nailed Marsyas' shaggy skin to a nearby pine-tree. Marsyas' blood turned into the river Marsyas.
    Another variation is that Apollo played his instrument (the lyre) upside down. Marsyas could not do this with his instrument (the flute), and so Apollo hung him from a tree and flayed him alive.

    Cinyras

    Apollo also had a lyre-playing contest with Cinyras, his son, who committed suicide when he lost.
    
    

    

    Apollo of the "Mantoua type", marble Roman copy after a 5th-century BCE Greek original attributed to Polykleitos, Musée du Louvre

    English: Copy after Polykleitos (?) - Jastrow (2004)

    Apollo of the “Mantua Apollo” type, detail. Marble, Roman copy from the 1st–2nd century BC after a 5th century BC Greek original attributed to Polykleitos.

    
    

    Roman Apollo

    The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks. As a quintessentially Greek god, Apollo had no direct Roman equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred to him as Phoebus. There was a tradition that the Delphic oracle was consulted as early as the period of the kings of Rome during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.
    On the occasion of a pestilence in the 430s BCE, Apollo's first temple at Rome was established in the Flaminian fields, replacing an older cult site there known as the "Apollinare". During the Second Punic War in 212 BCE, the Ludi Apollinares ("Apollonian Games") were instituted in his honor, on the instructions of a prophecy attributed to one Marcius. In the time of Augustus, who considered himself under the special protection of Apollo and was even said to be his son, his worship developed and he became one of the chief gods of Rome.
    After the battle of Actium, which was fought near a sanctuary of Apollo, Augustus enlarged Apollo's temple, dedicated a portion of the spoils to him, and instituted quinquennial games in his honour. He also erected a new temple to the god on the Palatine hill. Sacrifices and prayers on the Palatine to Apollo and Diana formed the culmination of the Secular Games, held in 17 BCE to celebrate the dawn of a new era.
    

    Festivals

    The chief Apollonian festivals were the Boedromia, Carneia, Carpiae, Daphnephoria, Delia, Hyacinthia, Metageitnia, Pyanepsia, Pythia and Thargelia.
    
    

    

     Apollo, West Pediment Olympia. Munich, copy from original, 460 BCE at the Temple of Zeus, Olympia, Greece.

    English: Plaster cast of a sculpture by the Olympia Master - User:Bibi Saint-Pol, own work, 2007-02-10

    Apollo, figure of the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. Plaster reproduction of original in the Olympia Museum (see below).

    Attributes and symbols

    Apollo's most common attributes were the bow and arrow. Other attributes of his included the kithara (an advanced version of the common lyre), the plectrum and the sword. Another common emblem was the sacrificial tripod, representing his prophetic powers. The Pythian Games were held in Apollo's honor every four years at Delphi. The bay laurel plant was used in expiatory sacrifices and in making the crown of victory at these games.
    The palm tree was also sacred to Apollo because he had been born under one in Delos. Animals sacred to Apollo included wolves, dolphins, roe deer, swans, cicadas (symbolizing music and song), hawks, ravens, crows, snakes (referencing Apollo's function as the god of prophecy), mice and griffins, mythical eagle–lion hybrids of Eastern origin.
     As god of colonization, Apollo gave oracular guidance on colonies, especially during the height of colonization, 750–550 BCE. According to Greek tradition, he helped Cretan or Arcadian colonists found the city of Troy. However, this story may reflect a cultural influence which had the reverse direction: Hittite cuneiform texts mention a Minor Asian god called Appaliunas or Apalunas in connection with the city of Wilusa attested in Hittite inscriptions, which is now generally regarded as being identical with the Greek Ilion by most scholars. In this interpretation, Apollo's title of Lykegenes can simply be read as "born in Lycia", which effectively severs the god's supposed link with wolves (possibly a folk etymology). In literary contexts, Apollo represents harmony, order, and reason—characteristics contrasted with those of Dionysus, god of wine, who represents ecstasy and disorder. The contrast between the roles of these gods is reflected in the adjectives Apollonian and Dionysian. However, the Greeks thought of the two qualities as complementary: the two gods are brothers, and when Apollo at winter left for Hyperborea, he would leave the Delphic oracle to Dionysus. This contrast appears to be shown on the two sides of the Borghese Vase.
    Apollo is often associated with the Golden Mean. This is the Greek ideal of moderation and a virtue that opposes gluttony.
    
    

    

    Part of the Bassae Frieze at the British Museum. Apollo and Artemis in the northeast corner.

    Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net).

    Part of the Bassae Frieze at the British Museum. Description is "Apollo as god of the temple takes part in the battle. As he aims an arrow, he is driven by his sister Artemis in a chariot drawn by deer. The position of this block is confirmed by the vertical cut for it in the adjoining block on the right. The subject, however, seems awkwardly placed, with Apollo firing into a corner, and may suggest that the frieze was not fitted as originally planned." Numbers from left-to-right: GR 1815.10-20.1 (Sculpture 528); GR 1815.10-20.11 and 283 (Sculpture 523 plus); GR 1815.10-20.16 (Sculpture 540).

    Apollo in the arts

    Apollo is a common theme in Greek and Roman art and also in the art of the Renaissance. The earliest Greek word for a statue is "delight" (ἄγαλμα, agalma), and the sculptors tried to create forms which would inspire such guiding vision. Greek art puts into Apollo the highest degree of power and beauty that can be imagined. The sculptors derived this from observations on human beings, but they also embodied in concrete form, issues beyond the reach of ordinary thought.
    The naked bodies of the statues are associated with the cult of the body that was essentially a religious activity. The muscular frames and limbs combined with slim waists indicate the Greek desire for health, and the physical capacity which was necessary in the hard Greek environment. The statues of Apollo embody beauty, balance and inspire awe before the beauty of the world.
    The evolution of the Greek sculpture can be observed in his depictions from the almost static formal Kouros type in early archaic period, to the representation of motion in a relative harmonious whole in late archaic period. In classical Greece the emphasis is not given to the illusive imaginative reality represented by the ideal forms, but to the analogies and the interaction of the members in the whole, a method created by Polykleitos. Finally Praxiteles seems to be released from any art and religious conformities, and his masterpieces are a mixture of naturalism with stylization.
    

    Art and Greek philosophy

    The evolution of the Greek art seems to go parallel with the Greek philosophical conceptions, which changed from the natural-philosophy of Thales to the metaphysical theory of Pythagoras. Thales searched for a simple material-form directly perceptible by the senses, behind the appearances of things, and his theory is also related to the older animism. This was paralleled in sculpture by the absolute representation of vigorous life, through unnaturally simplified forms.
    Pythagoras believed that behind the appearance of things, there was the permanent principle of mathematics, and that the forms were based on a transcendental mathematical relation. The forms on earth, are imperfect imitations (εἰκόνες, eikones, "images") of the celestial world of numbers. His ideas had a great influence on post-Archaic art, and the Greek architects and sculptors were always trying to find the mathematical relation, that would lead to the esthetic perfection. (canon).
    In classical Greece, Anaxagoras asserted that a divine reason (mind) gave order to the seeds of the universe, and Plato extended the Greek belief of ideal forms to his metaphysical theory of forms (ideai, "ideas"). The forms on earth are imperfect duplicates of the intellectual celestial ideas. The Greek words oida (οἶδα, "(I) know") and eidos (εἶδος, "species"), a thing seen, have the same root as the word idea (ἰδέα), a thing ἰδείν to see. indicating how the Greek mind moved from the gift of the senses, to the principles beyond the senses. The artists in Plato's time moved away from his theories and art tends to be a mixture of naturalism with stylization. The Greek sculptors considered the senses more important, and the proportions were used to unite the sensible with the intellectual.
    
    

    
    

    

    Head of the Apollo Belvedere
    Marie-Lan Nguyen and one more author - Own work
    

    Archaic sculpture

    Kouros (male youth) is the modern term given to those representations of standing male youths which first appear in the archaic period in Greece. This type served certain religious needs and was first proposed for what was previously thought to be depictions of Apollo. The first statues are certainly still and formal. The formality of their stance seems to be related with the Egyptian precedent, but it was accepted for a good reason. The sculptors had a clear idea of what a young man is, and embodied the archaic smile of good manners, the firm and springy step, the balance of the body, dignity, and youthful happiness. When they tried to depict the most abiding qualities of men, it was because men had common roots with the unchanging gods. The adoption of a standard recognizable type for a long time, is probably because nature gives preference in survival of a type which has long be adopted by the climatic conditions, and also due to the general Greek belief that nature expresses itself in ideal forms that can be imagined and represented. These forms expressed immortality. Apollo was the immortal god of ideal balance and order. His shrine in Delphi, that he shared in winter with Dionysius had the inscriptions: γνῶθι σεαυτόν (gnōthi seautón="know thyself") and μηδὲν ἄγαν (mēdén ágan, "nothing in excess"), and ἐγγύα πάρα δ'ἄτη (eggýa pára d'atē, "make a pledge and mischief is nigh").
    In the first large-scale depictions during the early archaic period (640–580 BC), the artists tried to draw one's attention to look into the interior of the face and the body which were not represented as lifeless masses, but as being full of life. The Greeks maintained, until late in their civilization, an almost animistic idea that the statues are in some sense alive. This embodies the belief that the image was somehow the god or man himself. A fine example is the statue of the Sacred gate Kouros which was found at the cemetery of Dipylon in Athens (Dipylon Kouros). The statue is the "thing in itself", and his slender face with the deep eyes express an intellectual eternity. According to the Greek tradition the Dipylon master was named Daedalus, and in his statues the limbs were freed from the body, giving the impression that the statues could move. It is considered that he created also the New York kouros, which is the oldest fully preserved statue of Kouros type, and seems to be the incarnation of the god himself.
    The animistic idea as the representation of the imaginative reality, is sanctified in the Homeric poems and in Greek myths, in stories of the god Hephaestus (Phaistos) and the mythic Daedalus (the builder of the labyrinth) that made images which moved of their own accord. This kind of art goes back to the Minoan period, when its main theme was the representation of motion in a specific moment. These free-standing statues were usually marble, but also the form rendered in limestone, bronze, ivory and terracotta.
    The earliest examples of life-sized statues of Apollo, may be two figures from the Ionic sanctuary on the island of Delos. Such statues were found across the Greek speaking world, the preponderance of these were found at the sanctuaries of Apollo with more than one hundred from the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios, Boeotia alone^. The last stage in the development of the Kouros type is the late archaic period (520–485 BC), in which the Greek sculpture attained a full knowledge of human anatomy and used to create a relative harmonious whole. Ranking from the very few bronzes survived to us is the masterpiece bronze Piraeus Apollo. It was found in Piraeus, the harbour of Athens. The statue originally held the bow in its left hand, and a cup of pouring libation in its right hand. It probably comes from north-eastern Peloponnesus. The emphasis is given in anatomy, and it is one of the first attempts to represent a kind of motion, and beauty relative to proportions, which appear mostly in post-Archaic art. The statue throws some light on an artistic centre which, with an independently developed harder, simpler, and heavier style, restricts Ionian influence in Athens. Finally, this is the germ from which the art of Polykleitos was to grow two or three generations later.
    
    

    

     Left: Surya on a quadriga, Bodh Gaya relief, India. Right: Classical example of Phoebus Apollo on quadriga.

    Photo: anonymous, 19th century. Drawing: Alexander Cunningham (1814-1893) - Photograph from . Drawing from Alexander Cunningham, Report For The Year 1871-72 Volume III, Plate XXVII, and description p.97.

    Bodh Gaya quadriga relief of Surya and Classical example of Phoebus Apollo on quadriga

    Classical sculpture

    In the next century which is the beginning of the Classical period, it was considered that beauty in visible things as in everything else, consisted of symmetry and proportions. The artists tried also to represent motion in a specific moment (Myron), which may be considered as the reappearance of the dormant Minoan element. Anatomy and geometry are fused in one, and each does something to the other. The Greek sculptors tried to clarify it by looking for mathematical proportions, just as they sought some reality behind appearances. Polykleitos in his Canon wrote that beauty consists in the proportion not of the elements (materials), but of the parts, that is the interrelation of parts with one another and with the whole. It seems that he was influenced by the theories of Pythagoras. The famous Apollo of Mantua and its variants are early forms of the Apollo Citharoedus statue type, in which the god holds the cithara in his left arm. The type is represented by neo-Attic Imperial Roman copies of the late 1st or early 2nd century, modelled upon a supposed Greek bronze original made in the second quarter of the 5th century BCE, in a style similar to works of Polykleitos but more archaic. The Apollo held the cythara against his extended left arm, of which in the Louvre example, a fragment of one twisting scrolling horn upright remains against his biceps.
    Though the proportions were always important in Greek art, the appeal of the Greek sculptures eludes any explanation by proportion alone. The statues of Apollo were thought to incarnate his living presence, and these representations of illusive imaginative reality had deep roots in the Minoan period, and in the beliefs of the first Greek speaking people who entered the region during the bronze-age. Just as the Greeks saw the mountains, forests, sea and rivers as inhabited by concrete beings, so nature in all of its manifestations possesses clear form, and the form of a work of art. Spiritual life is incorporated in matter, when it is given artistic form. Just as in the arts the Greeks sought some reality behind appearances, so in mathematics they sought permanent principles which could be applied wherever the conditions were the same. Artists and sculptors tried to find this ideal order in relation with mathematics, but they believed that this ideal order revealed itself not so much to the dispassionate intellect, as to the whole sentient self. Things as we see them, and as they really are, are one, that each stresses the nature of the other in a single unity.
    
    

    

     The Overthrow of Apollo and the Pagan Gods, watercolour from William Blake's illustrations of On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (1809)

    Art by William Blake - Found on internet, but is PD-ART

    Watercolor Illustration to Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, by William Blake

    Pediments and friezes

    In the archaic pediments and friezes of the temples, the artists had a problem to fit a group of figures into an isosceles triangle with acute angles at the base.
    The Siphnian Treasury in Delphi was one of the first Greek buildings utilizing the solution to put the dominating form in the middle, and to complete the descending scale of height with other figures sitting or kneeling. The pediment shows the story of Heracles stealing Apollo's tripod that was strongly associated with his oracular inspiration. Their two figures hold the centre. In the pediment of the temple of Zeus in Olympia, the single figure of Apollo is dominating the scene.
    These representations rely on presenting scenes directly to the eye for their own visible sake. They care for the schematic arrangements of bodies in space, but only as parts in a larger whole. While each scene has its own character and completeness it must fit into the general sequence to which it belongs. In these archaic pediments the sculptors use empty intervals, to suggest a passage to and fro a busy battlefield. The artists seem to have been dominated by geometrical pattern and order, and this was improved when classical art brought a greater freedom and economy.
    
    

    

     Temple of the Delians at Delos, dedicated to Apollo (478 BC). 19th-century pen-and-wash restoration.
    

    Hellenistic Greece-Rome

    Apollo as a handsome beardless young man, is often depicted with a kithara (as Apollo Citharoedus) or bow in his hand, or reclining on a tree (the Apollo Lykeios and Apollo Sauroctonos types). The Apollo Belvedere is a marble sculpture that was rediscovered in the late 15th century; for centuries it epitomized the ideals of Classical Antiquity for Europeans, from the Renaissance through the 19th century. The marble is a Hellenistic or Roman copy of a bronze original by the Greek sculptor Leochares, made between 350 and 325 BCE.
    The life-size so-called "Adonis" found in 1780 on the site of a villa suburbana near the Via Labicana in the Roman suburb of Centocelle is identified as an Apollo by modern scholars. In the late 2nd century CE floor mosaic from El Djem, Roman Thysdrus, he is identifiable as Apollo Helios by his effulgent halo, though now even a god's divine nakedness is concealed by his cloak, a mark of increasing conventions of modesty in the later Empire.
    

    Another haloed Apollo in mosaic, from Hadrumentum, is in the museum at Sousse. The conventions of this representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed, curling hair cut in locks grazing the neck, were developed in the 3rd century BCE to depict Alexander the Great. Some time after this mosaic was executed, the earliest depictions of Christ would also be beardless and haloed.
    
    

    

    "Apollo and Diana," engraving, by the German artist and engraver Albrecht Dürer. 116 mm x 72 mm. Courtesy of the British Museum, London.

    Albrecht Dürer - British Museum 1502
    

    Modern reception

    Apollo has often featured in postclassical art and literature. Percy Bysshe Shelley composed a "Hymn of Apollo" (1820), and the god's instruction of the Muses formed the subject of Igor Stravinsky's Apollon musagète (1927–1928). In 1978, the Canadian band Rush released an album with songs "Apollo: Bringer of Wisdom"/"Dionysus: Bringer of Love".
    In discussion of the arts, a distinction is sometimes made between the Apollonian and Dionysian impulses where the former is concerned with imposing intellectual order and the latter with chaotic creativity. Friedrich Nietzsche argued that a fusion of the two was most desirable. Carl Jung's Apollo archetype represents what he saw as the disposition in people to over-intellectualise and maintain emotional distance.
    Charles Handy, in Gods of Management (1978) uses Greek gods as a metaphor to portray various types of organisational culture. Apollo represents a 'role' culture where order, reason and bureaucracy prevail.
    In spaceflight, the NASA program for landing astronauts on the Moon was named Apollo.