Such are the legends of Dêlos and Delphi, according to the Homeric Hymn
to Apollo. The specific functions of the god, and the chief localities
of his worship, together with the surnames attached to them, are
thus historically explained, being connected with his past acts and
adventures. Though these are to us only interesting poetry, yet to
those who heard them sung they possessed all the requisites of history,
and were fully believed as such, not because they were partially
founded in reality, but because they ran in complete harmony with the
feelings; and, so long as that condition was fulfilled, it was not
the fashion of the time to canvass truth or falsehood. The narrative
is purely personal, without any discernible symbolized doctrine or
allegory, to serve as a supposed ulterior purpose: the particular deeds
ascribed to Apollo grow out of the general preconceptions as to his
attributes, combined with the present realities of his worship. It is
neither history nor allegory, but simple mythe or legend.
The worship of Apollo is among the most ancient, capital, and strongly
marked facts of the Grecian world, and widely diffused over every
branch of the race. It is older than the Iliad or Odyssey, in the
latter of which both Pythô and Dêlos are noted, though Dêlos is not
named in the former. But the ancient Apollo is different in more
respects than one from the Apollo of later times. He is in an especial
manner the god of the Trojans, unfriendly to the Greeks, and especially
to Achilles; he has, moreover, only two primary attributes, his bow and
his prophetic powers, without any distinct connection either with the
harp, or with medicine, or with the sun, all which in later times he
came to comprehend. He is not only, as Apollo Karneius, the chief god
of the Doric race, but also (under the surname of Patrôus) the great
protecting divinity of the gentile tie among the Ionians:[106] he is
moreover the guide and stimulus to Grecian colonization, scarcely any
colony being ever sent out without encouragement and direction from the
oracle at Delphi: Apollo Archêgetês is one of his great surnames.[107]
His temple lends sanctity to the meetings of the Amphiktyonic assembly,
and he is always in filial subordination and harmony with his father
Zeus: Delphi and Olympia are never found in conflict. In the Iliad,
the warm and earnest patrons of the Greeks are Hêrê, Athênê, and
Poseidôn: here too Zeus and Apollo are seen in harmony, for Zeus is
decidedly well-inclined to the Trojans, and reluctantly sacrifices
them to the importunity of the two great goddesses.[108] The worship
of the Sminthian Apollo, in various parts of the Troad and the
neighboring territory, dates before the earliest periods of Æolic
colonization:[109] hence the zealous patronage of Troy ascribed to him
in the Iliad. Altogether, however, the distribution and partialities
of the gods in that poem are different from what they become in later
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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