Cults of Gods: Apollon, Sternness confined in Beauty

Able to make other gods tense, his arrows fly in straight line bringing plague, leading Muses, Apollon "the most Greek of the Greek gods", in my opinion, bringer of order even more than Zeus.

Apollon is the Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, music, song and poetry, archery, healing, plague and disease, and the protection of the young. He was pictured as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and attributes such as a wreath and branch of laurel, bow and quiver of arrows, raven, and lyre.

As with most Greek deities, the etymology of the name “Apollon” has mysterious origins. It is not present in the Linear B tablets, the earliest surviving texts of Greek civilization, written in a syllabic script during the Greek Bronze Age (ca. 1600–1100 BCE). But, this does not necessarily mean that Apollon was a late addition to the Greek pantheon: the name Paean, one of Apollon’s most common alternate names, does show up in Linear B.

Some scholars have posited that the name “Apollon” is a derivation from apella, a word in the Doric dialect of ancient Greek that means “public assembly.” In this interpretation, "Apollon” translates to “he who assembles” or “he of the assembly,” possibly referring to his reputation as the bringer of civilized order and the source of civil constitutions.

Gregory Nagy, on the other hand, has argued that “Apollon” was derived from the words apeilē, a noun meaning “promise, boast, or threat,” and apeilein, a verb meaning “to make a promise, boast, or threat.” Such an etymology would render Apollon “the god of authoritative speech, the one who presides over all manner of speech-acts, including the realms of songmaking in general and poetry in particular.”

Apollon’s diverse functions were reflected in his many epithets. In addition to titles such as Paean (The Healing), Phoebus (Shining), Loxias, and Lyceus, which sometimes served as alternative names for the god, Apollon was also called hekēbolos (“far-shooter”), hekaergos (“far-worker”), epikourios (“assisting”), oulious (“healer”), loimios (“pestilential”), and alexikakos (“ill-deterring”).

Other epithets, such as Dēlios (“Delian”), Pythios (“Pythian”), and Smintheus (“Sminthian”) refer to sites and places of worship considered sacred to Apollon.

Apollon was the ultimate expression of Greek culture as the Greeks envisioned it: youthful and vital, powerful and wise, peaceful (with the occasional outburst of righteous fury), full of light, poetry, music, and civilization. It was this positive cultural representation that made Apollon so widely loved and admired throughout the Greek world. Even his fluid sexuality suggests a culture that embraced the erotic pleasures of both sexes. With so many temples, statues, and other monuments built in Apollon’s honor, admiration for the deity cannot be overstated.

The most important of Apollon’s festivals were the Pythian Games, held every four years at Delphi. Events included both athletic contests (wrestling, running, horse and chariot racing, etc.) and artistic contests (music, poetry, and even painting). Uniquely for the ancient Greek world, women were allowed to compete in most events. Winners were crowned with a wreath of laurel leaves.

According to legend, the Pythian Games were instituted by Apollon himself after he vanquished the monster Python and made Delphi his oracle. Historians, however, generally agree that the Pythian Games began around 582 BCE.

Another important festival of Apollon was the Delia, celebrated on the sacred island of Delos(where he and his sister Artemis were born) every four years. During the Delia, visitors and pilgrims from all over Greece would gather on Delos for musical performances, sacrifices, and feasting.

There were countless other festivals of Apollon that were celebrated throughout the cities of ancient Greece. In Athens, annual festivals of Apollon included the Boedromia, Metageitnia, Pyanepsia, and Thargelia. In Sparta, annual festivals included the Carneia and Hyacinthia (the latter named for Apollon’s lover Hyacinthus, said to have been a Spartan prince). In Thebes, the Daphnephoria, a great festival in honor of Apollo, was celebrated every nine years.

Apollon had numerous temples, sanctuaries, and shrines throughout Greece. Temple worship of Apollon is attested from an early date: some of the god’s temples can be traced back as far as the ninth century BCE. Many of these ancient temples, moreover, were actually built over cult sites in use since the Mycenaean Period (ca. 1600–1100 BCE).

In the Greek world, Apollon was first and foremost a god of prophecy and divination. Indeed, almost all of Apollon’s major temples in ancient Greece highlighted his prophetic function, with the exception of the temple on Delos. But Apollon was also widely worshipped as the god of music and the arts, colonization, and healing and medicine.

Perhaps the most important of Apollon’s temples was his temple and oracle at Delphi. Here, a priestess called a pythia delivered Apollon’s prophecies and advice. It was said that the pythia became inspired by breathing vapors arising from a spring that flowed underneath the temple. Scholars have long been divided over the veracity of this claim, and archaeological and geological investigation into possible fumes arising from faultlines beneath Delphi continues to this day.

Apollon had other major oracles scattered throughout the Greek world: at Thebes and Mount Ptoos in Boeotia; at Abae in Phocis; and at Didyma, Claros, and Pergamum in Asia Minor. Apollon also had important temples at Gortyn and Dreros in Crete and at Syracuse and Selinus in Sicily.

Apollon was worshipped widely in Italy, especially at Magna Graecia and Etruria. However, he was virtually unheard of in Rome until relatively late, and his first temples there only appear around the fifth century BCE. In the Roman world, Apollon was worshipped primarily in his capacity as a healer. His oracular priestesses in Italy were called sibyls.

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