Apollo

One of the most widely worshiped deities in the Greek world, Apollo is nevertheless a relative latecomer to the pantheon. The Mycenaeans probably did not know him, though their healing god Paian, who appears in a Linear B tablet from Knossos, survived as one facet of Apollo’s complex character.1 Early dedications in Apollo’s sanctuaries include bronzes of Near Eastern “smiting gods” such as the Semitic Reshep, who shared Apollo’s function as a sender of plague, while Apollo’s bow may be a borrowing from the Hittite archer-god Irra.2 In keeping with his Near Eastern associations, and like his sister Artemis, Apollo is a temple deity. While temples and images were not indispensable to his cults, they were characteristic of his worship. Among the sanctuaries described in this chapter, those at Eretria, Dreros, and Thermon are noted for the wealth of information they provide about the origins of the Greek temple and the range of cult practices during the eighth and seventh centuries.

Several etymologies have been proposed for Apollo’s name, but it probably derives from the Dorian Greek word for an annual tribal gathering, apella. At such gatherings, young men were admitted to membership and received political status as adults; thus the presiding god is almost always depicted as a beardless youth.3 Patronage of youths approaching manhood was one of Apollo’s key functions, but he is best known as the oracular god who interpreted the will of Zeus and gave advice on everything from war and colonization to private dilemmas about marriage and family. Apollo’s role as the god of prophetic inspiration was closely tied to other aspects of his character, including his interests in purification, poetry, and music. The only Olympian to possess a musical instrument, the lyre, as an attribute, he regularly appears in poetry with the Muses and other divine choruses. Comparatively few cults focused specifically on Apollo’s patronage of poets and musicians, but hymns and music are everywhere essential to his worship.

Figure 7.1 Youthful Apollo in bronze. Possibly produced as a cult statue, originally with a bow in the left hand and an offering bowl in the right, c. 520. Ht 1.91 m. Peiraieus Museum. Scala/Art Resource.