Apollo: The Wind, the Spirit, and the God: Four Studies

by Karl Kerényi

Apollo's temple servant -- The spirit -- Apollonian epiphanies --
Immortality and Apollonian religion.

Genres: Mythology, History, Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Literary Criticism

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Károly (Carl, Karl) Kerényi, Ph.D., (University of Budapest, 1919), was one of the founders of modern studies in Greek Mythology, and professor of classical studies and history of religion at the Universities of Szeged and Pécs, Hungary.

Karl Kerenyi is also published under the names Carl Kerenyi and Károly Kerényi, in French as Charles Kerényi and in Italian as Carlo Kerényi.

Reviews

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sempre bom ler sobre Apolo, esse querido deus solar. ☀️

[Rex · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the Greeks, Apollo was something quite special, more than son of the celestial body, and even more than the mature, paternal sun God. Like all the great Olympians, he is, so to speak, the center of the world from which the whole of existence seems to have a different appearance. Apollo’s? It is bright and dark, transparent but also abundant in dangers and misfortunes, the source of which is the “spirit.”

This quote epitomizes Kerényi's symbolistic approach in these four essays, "representative," the translator notes, "of Kerényi's work in Apollonian studies." Though brief, each essay is animated both by thoughtful literary scholarship and by a striking, beautifully-expressed vision of the psychic forces manifested in the deity.

[Agustín · Rating 3 out of 5]

The translation was very hit or miss. In one instance, there was an out-of-place sentence that was just ‘Apollo.’ with no reason as to why it was formatted this way, not even a footnote to indicate if this had been intentional by the Kerényi. The quality definitely picked up near the end as Kerényi had started to get into the meat of it, but then it was finished too quickly.

Kerényi posits that Pythagoras had actually fused two distinct ‘Apollos’ (one being the wolf-Apollo, a more chthonic version of Apollo, but this is not really elaborated on; the other being swan-Apollo which is the more traditionally known form of Apollo). The significance of these two ‘Apollos’ depend on their relation to the spirit (wolf to the unspiritual, and swan to the spiritual), however there’s no real definition of the spirit. I would be willing to accept a broad and general usage, but Kerényi insists on a difference between that and a Dionysian soul which is also not elaborated upon. In fairness, this may be unclear because these English translations are selected essays from a larger volume, Apollon und Niobe. The fault may not be with Kerényi himself (as he proves to be consistently quality).

I also feel obligated to contest the idea that is presented at the end of the book that Augustus is given Apollo’s license to promote peace on Earth and fight against “demonic licentiousness.” The Early Roman Empire was marked for its moral decay and would fail any ‘purity tests’