Apollo

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Apollo of the Belvedere, c. 140 - 130 BC, Vatican Museums; Roman copy after a Greek bronze original attributed to Leochares (c. 330 - 320 BC)
Apollo with cithara (fresco, House of Augustus, today in the Palatine Antiquarium in Rome, ca. 20 BC)

Apollo (Latin; Greek: Ἀπόλλων Apollon) was one of the twelve Olympian gods of Greek and Roman mythology. He was considered the god of light, moral purity, healing and divination, as well as the patron of the arts and many oracle sites. In particular, the Oracle of Delphi, the most important oracle site of antiquity, was dedicated to him. As Phoibos (Greek: Φοῖβος; Latin: Phoebus "the shining one") he was equated with the sun god Helios, while his twin sister Artemis was equated with the moon goddess Semele or the Egyptian Isis. The origin of his name is uncertain. The Pythagoreans and Platonists, who particularly revered Apollo, interpreted his name as A-pollon (the "not-many" or meaning "the one", from ἀ- a- "not" and πολλόν pollón "much, very") and thus pointed to the highest, the absolute. This is also said to have been the subject of Plato's unwritten teaching.

Mythology

According to Greek mythology, Zeus fathered Apollo and his twin sister Artemis with his lover Leto, the daughter of the Titans Koios and Phoibe[1]. Hera, Zeus' jealous wife, wanted to prevent the birth of the two children because the earth mother Gaia had prophesied to her that they would be greater and more powerful than her own children. So she sent the serpentine dragon Python[2] to devour Leto, but Zeus prevented this. Hera then took an oath from Gaia that she would not allow the pregnant Leto a place on earth to give birth to her children.

Then Poseidon caused the floating island of Delos to rise from the sea.[3] Leto was taken there by Hermes on Zeus' orders. Hera now put so much pressure on her daughter Eileithyia, the goddess of birth, that she did not dare to stand by Leto. The other gods, however, were on Leto's side and bought the moon from heaven (Uranos) and gave it to Hephaestus to forge the most beautiful necklace. With this they bribed Eileithyia and Leto was finally able to give birth to her twins. Under a palm tree she gave birth first to Artemis and then, with her help, to Apollo. Meanwhile, the Curetes, who had already protected the newborn Zeus from his father Kronos, were making noise all around with their weapons so that Hera could not hear Leto's cries during labour.[4]

The first act of Apollo, just four days old, was to kill Python. Badly hit by Apollo's arrow, Python fled to the oracle site of the Mother Earth in Delphi, which was originally called Phytho, but from the 5th century BC had been named after Python's wife or female manifestation Delphyne, a daughter of Gaia. Apollo followed Python into the sanctuary and killed him next to the sacred rift. Python's clairvoyant and divination powers thus passed to Apollo, which is why he was also called Apollo Pythios and why the Pythian Games were celebrated in his honour. Nevertheless, the killing of Python was a sacrilege for which Apollo had to go to Tarrha on Crete and undergo ritual purification.

Apollo was also the patron of the arts and the muses were among his followers. He masterfully played the kithara and was victorious in the musical contest with Pan.[5]

With the onset of winter, Apollo flew back on his chariot drawn by swans to the "land beyond the north wind", the land of the Hyperboreans.

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. ↑ Hesiod, Theogony 404-406
  2. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 53 and 140
  3. ↑ Later, Delos was fixed to the seabed by Poseidon, or according to other stories by Zeus, with four diamond pillars.
  4. ↑ Homeric Hymn to Apollo 14-119; Kallimachos, Hymn to Delos 36-274
  5. ↑ Ovid, Metamorphoses 11, 150-193
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