Apollo

Apollo of the Hymn to Apollo

• Late 6th century

• Two major parts-

PART 1: “Delian” part

-Apollo’s birth on island of Delos

PART 2: “Pythian” part

-Apollo’s arrival in Delphi-establishment of

cult

“DELIAN” PART

• Leto wanders to find a place to give birth to her children. Why?

• Dialogue between Leto and Delos. Leto’s oath

• DELOS: “I welcome the birth of the lord who shoots from afar.

• Leto/childbirth motif/description of Apollo’s birth. Was Leto alone? NO, list of goddesses in line 94ff Homeric Hymn to Apollo (page 26). Eileithyia, daughter of Zeus and Hera, came after receiving the gift, a necklace (see in vase).

• Apollo’s cult on Delos

• Delight with music and dances. Long-robed Ionians with their children and wives. Delian maidens (DELIADES) sing in memory of men and women of old time, know how to mimic voices and rhythms of all men.

• Apollo to Olympus

Why wandering?

• What does wandering signify?

-gradual establishment of the myth.

Also the idea of the island taking credit for welcoming the god-it became the center for ancient Greek religion.

. The wandering then means that how rules and regulations and cult was formally established.

Wandering from the point of view of poetics: wandering Leto, wandering gods, wandering POETS.

READING THE HOMERIC HYMN to Apollo as a way of understanding performances of epic and lyric poetry.

Compare with Birth of Athena• Birth of Athena (who emerged from Zeus'

head) with Eileithyia on the right, red-figured

amphora, third quarter of the 6th century BC,

Louvre

LOUVRE- PARIS- Birth of

Athena. Attic “Exaleiptron”

(black-figured tripod), ca.

570–560 BC. Found in

Thebes

Temple of Leto in Delos

Remains of temple of Apollo in Delos

DELPHIAN PART• The making of an Olympian God

• New quest where to make the temple

• Dialogue between Apollo and Telphousa (a nymph of a spring in Boiotia, central Greece, north of Athens). Telphousa’s trick on the god. Over sovereignty? Urged him to go to Delphi

• Temple-oracle

• Pytho- monster. When Apollo decided to establish his temple at Delphi he found near a spring a dragon called Pytho (or Python in other sources).

• Hera gave birth to TYPHAON, on her own, in anger for Athena’s birth by Zeus. Typhaon was brought up by Pytho. IMPORTANCE OF BIRTH STORIES IN HOMERIC HYMN

• Feminist reading of this part. Dragon/Dragoness

• Pytho a child of Gaia, could pronounce oracles>rival to Apollo - Apollo killed Pytho.

• Pythian Apollo, from name of place Pytho, after the

dragon. Motif of heroism (triumph over monsters

becomes part of heroic identity)

• Punishment of Telphousa

• Finding priests-

• Cretan ship- Dialogue with the god

• Note: “dancing in his train the Cretans followed him

to Pytho, they were chanting paeans.

Delphi-Temple of Apollo

Delphi- view from the theater

Delphi- A “reconstruction”

Apollo, Athena and Hermes

Toledo Museum of Art

Apollo and Artemis attacking giants: Treasury of the Siphnians in

Delphi: Gigantomachy, ca 525 BC

Apollo and Artemis: Pan Painter, ca 490 BC

Apollo of Piombino: Late Archaic: ca 480 BC

Apollo and the Muses: Thasos: relief, ca 480 BC

Apollo and a Muse:

Attic kylix, ca 460 BC

Seated Apollo: Sotades workshop, ca 460 BC

Apollo before his temple: Painter of the Birth of Dionysos, ca

380-370 BC

Musical contest of Apollo and Marsyas: Praxiteles, ca 320 BC

Apollo: Sansovino, Andrea, 1502,

Apollo: Caraglio, Gian Jacopo, 1526

Apollo and Marsyas: Tintoretto, 1545

Apollo and Daphne: Bernini, Gian Lorenzo, 1622-1625

Apollo and Daphne

John W. Waterhouse

Apollo and Daphne

POLLAIOLO, Antonio del

Italian painter and sculptor, Florentine school (b. 1431/32, Firenze, d. 1498, Roma

Tempera on wood, 30 x 20 cm

National Gallery, London

Nicolas Poussin. Apollo and Muses. 1631-1632. Oil

on canvas. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.