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Apollo: The Origins and History of the Greek God
*Includes pictures
*Includes ancient descriptions of Apollo
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
“Foolish mortals and poor drudges are you, that you seek cares and hard toils and straits! Easily will I tell you a word and set it in your hearts. Though each one of you with knife in hand should slaughter sheep continually, yet would you always have abundant store, even all that the glorious tribes of men bring here for me. But guard you my temple and receive the tribes of men that gather to this place, and especially show mortal men my will, and do you keep righteousness in your heart.”
“Apollo’s history is a confusing one,” said the renowned poet and mythologist Robert Graves. This notion is also illustrated in the above quote from the 6th century BCE Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which gives the reader a brief glimpse into the confusion surrounding Apollo’s multi-faceted nature. The quote comes from the end of an episode in which Apollo is traversing the known world, looking for a place to build a temple to himself. Once he lands upon a place of his liking, however, he realizes that he needs to populate it with priests who would ‘guard’ and care for its ceremonies. Rather than depend upon those ‘glorious tribes’ to supply his temple with sycophants, Apollo has no patience for chance, and flies down to a Cretan merchant ship, landing on it in the form of a timber-shaking dolphin. After terrifying the merchants, he tells them that their lives in the sea trade are over, and they are to be priests at his temple from then on. Cautioning the merchants to eschew piracy and ‘keep righteousness’ in their hearts, while simultaneously confronting and sequestering them captures the youthful god’s capricious character quite well.
Of course, the rest of the ancient Greek gods were certainly not above hypocrisy — the adultery of Zeus alone demonstrates that — but Apollo was a brash contrarian in the face of all divine order. Unlike many of the other Olympian gods, Apollo’s nature changed dramatically at the closing of his adolescence. His twin sister Artemis, in direct comparison with Apollo, immediately leapt to her mother’s aide as midwife to her brother after she was born. Artemis would continue to be a goddess of midwives, while Apollo’s “role” would continue to evolve over centuries.
Naturally, there are many approaches to Greek myth and many variant opinions and strategies for unearthing “truths” in the mythological canon. For the purpose of unveiling the origins, development, and contemporary views of Apollo, it is necessary to see his myths firstly as remnants of the movements and actions of ancient peoples. This “Memory of Myth” can provide the modern reader with an analogous view of the history of a place and of a character. Much of Greek mythology is politico-religious history , and exploring how the episodes in these myths tie in with episodes in the historical record can reveal certain fascinating aspects of an often frustratingly murky past.
Ultimately, any 21st century study of a mythological being must gather together as many strands of learning as possible in order to formulate a useful hypothesis. In the case of Apollo, these strands are expansive, permeative, and international, and at first blush, they can seem very confusing indeed. An important thing to bear in mind when approaching Apollo is that his role in the ancient Greek pantheon was eclectic, even by contemporary standards, and the expansion of Greek culture to other parts of the Mediterranean only served to compound his identity even further. The story of Apollo is an excellent example of how stories and characters can change when they’re beloved across centuries, and it is for this reason that reading about the god is so enjoyable.
*Includes ancient descriptions of Apollo
*Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading
“Foolish mortals and poor drudges are you, that you seek cares and hard toils and straits! Easily will I tell you a word and set it in your hearts. Though each one of you with knife in hand should slaughter sheep continually, yet would you always have abundant store, even all that the glorious tribes of men bring here for me. But guard you my temple and receive the tribes of men that gather to this place, and especially show mortal men my will, and do you keep righteousness in your heart.”
“Apollo’s history is a confusing one,” said the renowned poet and mythologist Robert Graves. This notion is also illustrated in the above quote from the 6th century BCE Homeric Hymn to Apollo, which gives the reader a brief glimpse into the confusion surrounding Apollo’s multi-faceted nature. The quote comes from the end of an episode in which Apollo is traversing the known world, looking for a place to build a temple to himself. Once he lands upon a place of his liking, however, he realizes that he needs to populate it with priests who would ‘guard’ and care for its ceremonies. Rather than depend upon those ‘glorious tribes’ to supply his temple with sycophants, Apollo has no patience for chance, and flies down to a Cretan merchant ship, landing on it in the form of a timber-shaking dolphin. After terrifying the merchants, he tells them that their lives in the sea trade are over, and they are to be priests at his temple from then on. Cautioning the merchants to eschew piracy and ‘keep righteousness’ in their hearts, while simultaneously confronting and sequestering them captures the youthful god’s capricious character quite well.
Of course, the rest of the ancient Greek gods were certainly not above hypocrisy — the adultery of Zeus alone demonstrates that — but Apollo was a brash contrarian in the face of all divine order. Unlike many of the other Olympian gods, Apollo’s nature changed dramatically at the closing of his adolescence. His twin sister Artemis, in direct comparison with Apollo, immediately leapt to her mother’s aide as midwife to her brother after she was born. Artemis would continue to be a goddess of midwives, while Apollo’s “role” would continue to evolve over centuries.
Naturally, there are many approaches to Greek myth and many variant opinions and strategies for unearthing “truths” in the mythological canon. For the purpose of unveiling the origins, development, and contemporary views of Apollo, it is necessary to see his myths firstly as remnants of the movements and actions of ancient peoples. This “Memory of Myth” can provide the modern reader with an analogous view of the history of a place and of a character. Much of Greek mythology is politico-religious history , and exploring how the episodes in these myths tie in with episodes in the historical record can reveal certain fascinating aspects of an often frustratingly murky past.
Ultimately, any 21st century study of a mythological being must gather together as many strands of learning as possible in order to formulate a useful hypothesis. In the case of Apollo, these strands are expansive, permeative, and international, and at first blush, they can seem very confusing indeed. An important thing to bear in mind when approaching Apollo is that his role in the ancient Greek pantheon was eclectic, even by contemporary standards, and the expansion of Greek culture to other parts of the Mediterranean only served to compound his identity even further. The story of Apollo is an excellent example of how stories and characters can change when they’re beloved across centuries, and it is for this reason that reading about the god is so enjoyable.
54 pages, Paperback
First published March 12, 2017
26 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 30, 2019
For a completely free download on my Kindle for iPad, Apollo: The Origins and History of the Greek God is a pretty decent, well actually, even a rather amazing offering (well researched, with the presented information penned in a writing style that is both readable, approachable and surprisingly fluidly evocative).
That being said and personally, I do have to admit that with Apollo: The Origins and History of the Greek God, I did not really and truly discover and learn all that much new to and for me, but indeed I also did not really expect this, as I was basically and right from the onset reading about a Greek (and also Roman) deity whom I have always considered very much appealing since we intensely covered Greek mythology in high school English (and have therefore independently researched) and was thus reading mainly for refreshment of my recollection, my memory and to see how the authors, how Charles River Editors have presented the material at hand, the information about Apollo both historical and more recent. And yes, I do very much appreciate the details about the depictions and representations of Apollo in especially Medieval and Renaissance European art, since much of that information is indeed rather new to and for me, never having taken courses in art history (and when we focussed on Greek mythology in high school as well as when I attended an undergraduate university course in classical Greek and Roman mythology, we of course, or rather our teachers/professors naturally focussed more on the Greek and Roman deities, including Apollo, in myth and literature and not so much in Western European art).
Highly recommended, with the listed online resources and the detailed bibliography at the back being both an appreciated and added bonus (although as someone not so much as yet used to utilising Kindle tomes for academic purposes, I do tend to find the footnotes of Apollo: The Origins and History of the Greek God rather user-unfriendly and actually would both appreciate and even prefer if the latter, if the “book” were to become available as a traditional paper copy as well).
That being said and personally, I do have to admit that with Apollo: The Origins and History of the Greek God, I did not really and truly discover and learn all that much new to and for me, but indeed I also did not really expect this, as I was basically and right from the onset reading about a Greek (and also Roman) deity whom I have always considered very much appealing since we intensely covered Greek mythology in high school English (and have therefore independently researched) and was thus reading mainly for refreshment of my recollection, my memory and to see how the authors, how Charles River Editors have presented the material at hand, the information about Apollo both historical and more recent. And yes, I do very much appreciate the details about the depictions and representations of Apollo in especially Medieval and Renaissance European art, since much of that information is indeed rather new to and for me, never having taken courses in art history (and when we focussed on Greek mythology in high school as well as when I attended an undergraduate university course in classical Greek and Roman mythology, we of course, or rather our teachers/professors naturally focussed more on the Greek and Roman deities, including Apollo, in myth and literature and not so much in Western European art).
Highly recommended, with the listed online resources and the detailed bibliography at the back being both an appreciated and added bonus (although as someone not so much as yet used to utilising Kindle tomes for academic purposes, I do tend to find the footnotes of Apollo: The Origins and History of the Greek God rather user-unfriendly and actually would both appreciate and even prefer if the latter, if the “book” were to become available as a traditional paper copy as well).
April 8, 2017
Excellent overview, nicely packed with information and analysis.
January 17, 2024
beginnings
A great beginning book for Apollo. Very informative and interesting! Covers birth and changes in Apollo’s life and links to Horus.
A great beginning book for Apollo. Very informative and interesting! Covers birth and changes in Apollo’s life and links to Horus.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews