I shall recall, nor let me forget, Apollo who shoots from afar,
At whom the gods in Zeus's dwelling tremble as he goes.
μνήσομαι οὐδὲ λάθωμαι Ἀπόλλωνος ἑκάτοιο,
ὅντε θεοὶ κατὰ δῶμα Διὸς τρομέουσιν ἰόντα
-Homeric Hymn to Apollo (no. 3), lines 1-2
Coin minted from electrum (a naturally occurring gold-silver alloy) by the Sicilian polis of Syracuse between ca. 310 and 305 BCE, when it was under the sway of the expansionist tyrant Agathocles. On the obverse, the head of Apollo, shown with his characteristic long hair; on the reverse, the Delphic tripod, atop which the Pythia sat when delivering oracles. Photo credit: CGB Numismatique Paris.
#classics#tagamemnon#Ancient Greece#Magna Graecia#Sicily#Ancient Sicily#Hellenistic period#ancient history#Greek religion#Ancient Greek religion#Hellenic polytheism#Apollo#God Apollo#art#art history#ancient art#Greek art#Ancient Greek art#Hellenistic art#Sicilian art#coins#ancient coins#electrum#Greek coins#Ancient Greek coins#numismatics#ancient numismatics
The battle for the Delphic tripod. Heracles, readily identifiable by his lionskin, attempts to make off with the tripod, while Apollo, crowned with laurel and holding his bow, tries to stop him. At the left, Athena observes the struggle. Attic red-figure amphora by the potter Andokides and the so-called Andokides Painter; ca. 530-525 BCE. Found at Vulci, Italy; now in the Antikensammlung Berlin. Photo credit: Sailko/Wikimedia Commons.
Head of a marble statue of Apollo. Artist unknown; 2nd cent. CE (Roman Imperial period). Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
On the Augustan Temple of Apollo on the Palatine
Propertius II.31 You ask why I’ve come to you late? The golden portico Of Phoebus had been opened by great Caesar. So great a sight it was divided into by Punic columns – Among them, the daughter-crowd of old Danaus. Here marble Phoebus seemed to gape in song to the silent lyre (More handsome, it seemed to me, than the god himself); Around the altar stood a herd of Myron’s: four Crafted cows, statues that looked alive. Then the temple (shining marble) rose in the middle, Even dearer to Phoebus than Ortygia his homeland: On which, atop the roof-pole, was the chariot of the Sun, And doors, a noble work of Libyan ivory – The one mourned Gauls cast down from Parnassus’ peak, The other, the deaths of Tantalus’s daughter. Last, the Pythian god, between his mother and sister, In a long garment, rings out with song.
Quaeris, cur veniam tibi tardior? aurea Phoebi porticus a magno Caesare aperta fuit. tantam erat in speciem Poenis digesta columnis, inter quas Danai femina turba senis. hic equidem Phoebus visus mihi pulchrior ipso marmoreus tacita carmen hiare lyra; atque aram circum steterant armenta Myronis, quattuor artifices, vivida signa, boves. tum medium claro surgebat marmore templum, et patria Phoebo carius Ortygia: in quo Solis erat supra fastigia currus; et valvae, Libyci nobile dentis opus, altera deiectos Parnasi vertice Gallos, altera maerebat funera Tantalidos. deinde inter matrem deus ipse interque sororem Pythius in longa carmina veste sonat.
The remains of Apollo's temple on the Palatine Hill, Rome. Photo credit: Antmoose/Wikimedia Commons.
Apollo in Love
Ovid, Metamorphoses I.512-524
“But ask after whom it is you please: I am no mountain-dweller, I’m no shepherd; I do not, hairy, keep watch here over herds And flocks. Rash one, you do not know, you do not, Whom you flee, and that is why you flee. The Delphic land obeys me, Claros too, And Tenedos, and the palace of Patara; Jupiter’s my father; through me’s revealed What will be, what has been, and what now is; Through me songs make their harmony with strings. My arrow’s sure, but there’s one arrow surer, Which has made a wound within my empty breast. Medicine’s my discovery, and I’m called Help-Bringer throughout the world – the power of herbs Has been set under me…alas for me, That love cannot be cured by any herbs, Nor are the arts that are a boon to all Any boon to him who is their lord!”
"Cui placeas, inquire tamen. Non incola montis, non ego sum pastor, non hic armenta gregesque horridus observo. Nescis, temeraria, nescis quem fugias, ideoque fugis. Mihi Delphica tellus et Claros et Tenedos Patareaque regia servit, Iuppiter est genitor; per me quod eritque fuitque estque patet; per me concordant carmina nervis. Certa quidem nostra est, nostra tamen una sagitta certior, in vacuo quae vulnera pectore fecit. Inventum medicina meum est, opiferque per orbem dicor, et herbarum subiecta potentia nobis: ei mihi, quod nullis amor est sanabilis herbis nec prosunt domino, quae prosunt omnibus, artes.”
Apollo and Daphne, Piero del Pollaiolo, 1470s
Triobol of Metapontum, a Greek polis located in the southern Italian region of Lucania. On the obverse, the laureate head of Apollo Karneios, a manifestation of the god worshiped by Doric Greeks. On the reverse, a five-grained barley ear (the region was known for the fertility of its grain crops) with the inscription META. Artist unknown; minted ca. 430-400 BCE. Photo credit: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com
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Homeric Hymn 21, "To Apollo"
Phoebus, the swan sings of you with clear voice As he beats his wings and alights on the bank Of that eddying river, Peneios; And the bard, sweet of utterance, holding his clear-voiced Lyre, sings of you both first and last. So then farewell, lord! I in turn Seek your good graces with my song. Φοῖβε, σὲ μὲν καὶ κύκνος ὑπὸ πτερύγων λίγ᾽ ἀείδει, ὄχθῃ ἐπιθρώσκων ποταμὸν πάρα δινήεντα, Πηνειόν: σὲ δ᾽ ἀοιδὸς ἔχων φόρμιγγα λίγειαν ἡδυεπὴς πρῶτόν τε καὶ ὕστατον αἰὲν ἀείδει. καὶ σὺ μὲν οὕτω χαῖρε, ἄναξ, ἵλαμαι δέ σ᾽ ἀοιδῇ.
Head of Apollo. Roman copy (ca. 120-140 CE) after a Hellenistic original. Found at Rome; now in the British Museum. Photo credit: © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons.
A gathering of deities: Apollo (riding a griffin), Artemis, Leto (seated), and Hermes. Attic red-figure bell-krater in the manner of the Dinos Painter; ca. 420-410 BCE. Found at Agrigento, Sicily; now in the Altes Museum, Berlin. Photo credit: ArchaiOptix/Wikimedia Commons.
Apollo and Heracles wrestle over the Delphic tripod. Side B of an Attic black-figure neck-amphora, perhaps by the Chiusi Painter; ca. 510-500 BCE. Now in the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI.
Head of Apollo. Roman copy after a Greek bronze original (460-455 BCE) attr. to Phidias. Now in the Centrale Montemartini, Rome. Photo credit: Carole Raddato.
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Hyacinthus, in a chariot drawn by two swans, arrives to meet Apollo. Etruscan red-figure oinochoe (wine-jug), name-vase of the Painter of Vatican G111; ca. 380-360 BCE. Now in the Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, Vatican City. Photo credit: © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 2.5.
The Birth of Apollo
Theognidea 5-10 Lord Phoebus, when she bore you – the goddess, Lady Leto, Grabbing with her slender hands hold of a palm tree – You, most comely of immortals, by a lake shaped like a wheel, The odor of ambrosia filled all of boundless Delos, The vast earth laughed, the deep abyss of the gray salt-sea rejoiced. Φοῖβε ἄναξ, ὅτε μέν σε θεὰ τέκε πότνια Λητώ, φοίνικος ῥαδινῇς χερσὶν ἐφαψαμένη, ἀθανάτων κάλλιστον, ἐπὶ τροχοειδέϊ λίμνῃ, πᾶσα μὲν ἐπλήσθη Δῆλος ἀπειρεσίη ὀδμῆς ἀμβροσίης, ἐγέλασσε δὲ γαῖα πελώρη, γήθησεν δὲ βαθὺς πόντος ἁλὸς πολιῆς.
Latona Giving Birth to Apollo and Diana on the Island of Delos, Diana Scultori (b. 1535) after Giulio Romano
Apollo and Python, Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1811
Happy birthday, J.M.W. Turner (April 23, 1775 - December 19, 1851).
Apollo and Two Muses (Urania and Euterpe), Pompeo Batoni, ca. 1741
Apollo Kitharoidos (Lyre-Player). Marble Roman copy (Hadrianic period) after a Hellenistic Greek original, heavily restored in the 17th century by Ippolito Buzzi (1562-1634). Now in the Museo nazionale romano di palazzo Altemps, Rome.