The Glory That Was Greece: a survey of Hellenic culture and civilisationStobart, J. C. (John Clarke)
History
The Glory That Was Greece: a survey of Hellenic culture and civilisation
Stobart, J. C. (John Clarke)
Art, Greek; Greece -- Civilization -- To 146 B.C.
is the lyre, which in shape and construction resembles the modern
mandoline, for the body was made from the shell of a tortoise, an
indigenous Greek creature, with a sounding-board of parchment stretched
over it. Apollo properly plays on the cithara, or Northern harp. The
popularity of Hermes persisted throughout because he became identified
with Luck, and Luck is the one god we all worship. He is also associated
with commerce; he it is who drives a sharp bargain; and, as we saw, the
aboriginal stratum of Greece provided the trading element in the
Hellenic races. This attribute the trade-despising warriors of the
dominant race turned to his discredit, for poor Hermes in Homer, and
generally in literature, becomes a sharper of the worst description. If
you ask “Who stole the cows?” the answer is, “Hermes.” He is the
messenger of Zeus, but he is also his spy. Hermes, then, was much too
strongly planted to be uprooted by the intruding Apollo. But it seems
that some male god of the older race was swallowed up and bodily
incorporated under that name. For in classical Greece there are two
rival Apollos, one the Delian or Cynthian Apollo, the centre of whose
cult was the island of Delos, the other the true Dorian god, called
Pythian Apollo, and worshipped above all at Delphi. The Delian shrine
was a centre of the Ionians, and Delos afterwards became the
headquarters of the maritime league of Athens and the Ionian States.
Delos boasted itself to have been the god’s birthplace, and mythology
presented an elaborate nativity for this Apollo and his sister Artemis.
“Homeric” hymns to both Apollos are preserved, and it is interesting to
notice how the Ionian bard who is praising the Apollo of Delos mentions
all the centres of his worship in a longish list which tallies closely
with the list of Athenian allies in the Delian confederacy. But this
Delian Apollo is not the important one; in many respects he is only a
pale reflection of the other, and his vogue principally depended on the
extreme sanctity of the little island of Delos.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account