1. Homer, as we have already seen, had, both from hearsay and personal observation, acquired a very accurate knowledge of the Cretan worship of Apollo in the Smintheum, in the citadel of Troy, in Lycia near mounts Ida and Cragus, as well as of Pytho and the Delian palm-tree. His picture of Apollo is, however, considerably changed by the circumstance of the god acting as a friend to the Trojans and an enemy to the Greeks, although both equally honour him with sacrifices and pæans. Yet he generally appears to the Greeks in a darker and more unfavourable view. “_Dread the son of Zeus_,” says the priest of Chryse to the Greeks, “_he walks dark as night; the sure and deadly arrows rattle on his shoulders_.” His punishments are sudden sickness, rapid pestilence, and death, the cause and occasion of which is generally unseen; yet sometimes he grants death as a blessing.(1219) His arrows are said to wound from afar, because they are unforeseen and unexpected. He is called the far-darting god;(1220) his divine vengeance never misses its aim. He appears in the terror of his might when from the heights of the citadel he stimulates the Trojans with a loud war-cry to the combat;(1221) and leads them on, a cloud around his shoulders, and the ægis in his hand, into the thick of the battle,(1222) like Ares himself,(1223) though far from showing the boisterous confidence of that deity. Achilles, to whom he is indeed particularly hostile, calls him the most pernicious of all the gods. Even when he appears amongst the gods, “_all tremble before him in the palace of Zeus, and rise from their seats; while Latona alone rejoices that she has produced so strong a son and so powerful an archer_.”(1224) It is remarkable how seriously Homer (who otherwise speaks of the gods, and particularly of those friendly to Troy, with some levity of expression)(1225) describes the character of Apollo. He is never represented as hurried on by blind fury. He never opposes the Greeks without reason, or through caprice, but only when they disregard the sacred rights of priests and suppliants, or assume an unusual degree of arrogance. But when the gods separate into two bodies, and descend to the contest, he, unmoved by passion, shuns the combat, and speaks of the quick succession of the race of man in a manner which betokens the oracular deity of Pytho.(1226) A similar spirit is perceivable in his address to the daring Diomed: “_The race of the immortal gods resembles not that of mortals._” Thus Apollo appears as the minister of vengeance, the chastiser of arrogance. Consistently with this character he destroys the proud Niobe,(1227) the unruly Aloidæ,(1228) Tityus and the Python, the enemies of the gods. His contests with Eurytus of Œchalia, and with Phorbas the Phlegyan, were grounded on historical facts; the former alluded to the enmity between the Dorians and Œchalians, the latter to that between the Pythian sanctuary and the Phlegyans.(1229)