Many gods possessed sacred groves, but they are especially characteristic of Apollo, whose major shrines were often located outside the cities. At Kour-ion, his most important sanctuary in Cyprus, he was known as Hylates (He of the Grove).34 Apollo’s special tree was the laurel or bay (daphne), and he was worshiped particularly in central Greece as Apollo Daphnephoros (the Laurel-Carrier). The laurel had a purifying effect because of its sweet aromatic leaves, and in Euripides’ Ion (102-6) we hear how the title character, an orphan raised at Delphi, sweeps the temple entrance with laurels and hangs up garlands every morning. Processions of laurel-carriers may have served a similar purpose of purification long before the advent of Apollo in Greece. We are best informed about the celebration of the Daphnephoria at Thebes, the leading city of Boiotia. In his discussion of ancient hymns, Pro-clus says that it involved a procession led by a boy with both parents living. His nearest male relative carried an olive log adorned with laurel branches, small bronze globes, and purple fillets. A man or boy designated as the daphnephoros and a chorus of girls carrying branches followed this group. Such festivals of “bringing in the tree” to symbolize prosperity are found in connection with other deities including Hera and Dionysos; the ritual, not the god, is primary.35
A sanctuary of Apollo Daphnephoros has been discovered in Eretria, where a very early, apsidal hekatompedon was constructed about 740. (The cultic function of an even older building, which may have been a chieftain’s house, is disputed.) In addition to its early date, the Eretria temple is noted for the find of a bronze horse’s blinker, inscribed in Aramaic to a ninth-century Syrian ruler. This was part of an heirloom set of horse trappings, dedicated piecemeal by some ancient traveler, and it is the earliest example of a West Semitic script to appear in Greece so far. Even more amazing, a forehead piece from this set, with the same inscription, has been found in the Heraion on Samos. Other finds at the sanctuary, including gold ornaments, bronzes, faience amulets, scarabs, and amber beads, further illustrate the wide trading contacts of the Geometric Eretrians and the prominence of Apollo Daphne-phoros in their city.36
One of the most important gods of Thebes was Apollo Ismenios, named for the Ismenos river running through the city. Visitors to his temple were impressed by the numerous dedications of tripods, including one of gold dedicated by Kroisos of Lydia. Others were reputed to date to the heroic age. Writing in the fifth century, Herodotus (5.59-61) attributed some of the tripods he saw to the time of King Oedipus. He says they were inscribed with “Kadmean letters,” a reference to the Phoenician immigrant Kadmos who settled in Thebes, bringing with him the alphabet. The tripods were probably early gifts to the sanctuary, which was founded at the end of the eighth century. Other tripods were dedicated by youths after they served as daphne-phoroi. Apollo’s oracles here were delivered through omens, as priests observed sacrificial animals burning in the flames on the altar. A number of subsidiary heroes and heroines were venerated at the Ismenion, including Teneros, the first seer at the shrine.37
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