The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2Müller, Karl Otfried
History
The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2
Müller, Karl Otfried
Dorians -- History; Greece -- Antiquities, Dorian; Greece -- History -- Dorian Invasions, approximately 1125-1025 B.C.
The Carnean festival took place, as it appears, in the following month to
the Hyacinthian, equally in honour of Apollo of Amyclæ. But the Doric
religion seems here to have preponderated, and to have supplanted the
elementary symbols so evident in the Hyacinthia. The Carnea was, as far as
we know, altogether a warlike festival, similar to the Attic Boëdromia. It
lasted nine days, during which time nine tents were pitched near the city,
in each of which nine men lived, for the time of the festival, in the
manner of a military camp. There is no reference to an elementary religion
except some obscure ceremonies of the priest Agetes and the
Carneatæ.(1488) This leads us to suppose that at the union of the Amyclæan
worship, introduced by the Ægidæ, with the Doric worship of Apollo at
Sparta, the Hyacinthia preserved more of the peculiarities of the former,
the Carnea of the latter, although the sacred rites of both were
completely united. At the same time we do not deny the difficulty of
inquiring into the origin and primitive form of ceremonies the history of
which is so complicated; and this alone must excuse the shortness of our
account respecting these two festivals.
16. Finally, the manner in which Apollo is represented in _sculpture_,
particularly by the ancient artists, may assist our investigation into the
ideas and sentiments on which his worship was founded. Apollo was a
subject peculiarly adapted for sculpture. Since his connexion with
elementary religion was slight, and there was nothing mystic in his
character, the sculptors were soon able to fix upon a regular cast of
features, to distinguish him from other deities: for Apollo, not only in
poetry, but in the fables most nearly connected with his worship, is
generally represented as a human god, and in all his actions and
sufferings more nearly connected with the heroes than any other divinity.
But before this perfection and conventional uniformity of the art, the
early sculptors were much assisted in characterizing the statues of Apollo
by his numerous and significant symbols, such as the bow, the cithara, the
laurel, &c.: and thus they were able, in some measure, to give an idea of
the power and properties of Apollo, though merely in stiff and rude images
of wood and stone.
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