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Apollon Hymns to Apollon Homeric Hymn 21 - To Apollon by Miguel Blessing: Apollo's blessings are beauty, healing, justice, strength, artistic and athletic skill, as well as prophecy. He helps people to find ways to become better than they are. He heals all ailments - spiritual as well as physical. He punishes unjust acts, yet helps those who have committed them to find redemption and purification. He inspires the best work by poets and sculptors, atheletes and scientists.. He communicates to man the will of his father, Zeus, making known what was hidden. Above all he preaches the Hellenic ideal of moderation and nothing to excess. Epithets: Agonios (who helps in contests/struggles), Agreus (hunter), Aguieus (protector of streets and public places), Aigletes (radiant), Akersekomes (of beautiful unbound hair), Akesios (averter of evil), Akestor (of healing arts or averter of evil), Aktios (of the foreshore), Alexicalos (averter of healing or plague healer), Amazonios (of the Amazons), Apotropaios (averter of evil), Aristaios (the best), Arkhegetes (leader of colonies), Boedromios (who helps/saves in war), Chrusaor (of the golden harms of golden sword), Daphnaios (of the laurel), Daphnephoros (bay-bearer), Deiradiotes (of the ridge), Dekatephoros (to whom a tenth of the booty belongs), Delphinius (of Delphi or of the dolphins), Dionysodotes (who gives Dionysus), Epibaterios (who conducts men aboard a ship), Epikourios (helper, ally or healer), Eruthibios (of the mildew), Genetor (begetter or ancestor), Hebdomagetes (leader of the seven), Hekatos (who shoots from afar), Hersos (new born, divine child), Horios (of the boundaries), Hyperborean (of the Hyperboreans), Iatros (doctor), Intonsus (unshorn, of eternal youth), Isodetes (who binds all equal), Karneios (of the Karneia), Kataibates (who grants a happy return), Kitharodos (singer to the lyre), Kledones (of omens in sound and words), Klerios (distributing by loot), Kourotrophos (protector of youth), Latoios (son of Leto), Leukatas (of the light), Loimios (deliverer from plague), Loxias (the oblique, of oblique oracles), Lukegenos (born in light of Lycia), Lukeios (of the wolf, of the light, or destroyer), Maleatas (healer), Marmarinos (of the marble), Meliai (of the ash trees), Moiragetes (leader of the Moiroi), Musagetes (leader of the Muses), Nomios (herdsman), Nymphegetes (leader of the Nymphs), Oulios (of formidable health), Paian (healer), Parrastos (the helper), Paruopios (of the locust), Patroos (ancestral), Phoibos (shinning one), Phuzios (protector of fugitives), Platonistios (of the plane-tree), Proopios (foreseer), Prostaterios (standing before the entrance), Pythios (slayer of the Python), Smintheus (of the mouse, prophet), Spodios (of the ashes, who receives great sacrifices), Thanatos (death-bringer, striker), Thearios (of the oracle), Theoxenios (of the Theoxenia, protector of strangers), Thermios (of the lupine flowers); several other epithets connect with a city or location where he is worshiped or where a temple stands Apollon, God of: Light and the Sun Purification, Redemption, Healing and Plagues Music, Poetry, Arts and Sciences Prophecy and Oracles Youth, Protector of Young Boys Perfection, Beauty and Moderation Death, Darkness and Destruction Protector of the House Protector of Sailors Sports, Archery, Competitions, Victory and the Laurel Philosophy and Meditation Colonies, Foreign Countries, Civilization Herdsmen, Wolfs and Shamanism Symbols: golden lyre, silver bow, tripod, the sun, golden sword, golden ribbons, laurel crown, eiresione (olive branch with fruits, olive oil pots and wool hanging from it) Animal(s): crow, wolf, dolphin, mouse, locust, grasshopper, lion, falcon, rabbit, reindeer, deer, ram, snake Sacrifices: bay, laurel, vine, rush, sunflower, amber, hyacinth, frankincense, olibanum, aloe, plane-tree, ash-tree, cypress, locks of hair, honey, lupine flowers, goats, goat horns, donkey Primary Cult Center(s): Delos, Delphi, Oracle of Dydima Festivals: Boedromia: 7 Boedromion (September-October) - a celebration of Apollon as a God of battle and who helps in battle Delphinia: 6 Mounikhion (April-May) - opening of the sailing season, celebration Apollon as a God having influence over the sea, saviour of sailors and of Theseus Metageitnia: 7 Metageitnion (August-September) - celebration of Apollon as a god of politics and "foreign affairs" Hyakinthia: during Hekatombaion (July-August) - celebration of the hero/God Hyakinthos Karneia: 7-15 Metageitnion (August-September) - celebration of Apollon of the ram and of colonization Nymphegetes: 8 Gamelion (January-February) - festival of Apollon and the Nymphs Puanepsia: 7 Puanepsion (October-November) - festival of purification and protection Pythian Games: Metageitnion, 3rd year of the Olympiad - Pan-Hellenic games in honour of Apollon of Delphi, slayer of the Python Thargelia: 6-7 Thargelion (May-June) - birthday of Apollon and Artemis, first fruits offerings and purification festival Daphnephoria: held every nine years at Thebes, a celebration of Apollon Daphnephoros with a majestic procession 7th day of the month Ways to honor: Live excellently. Don't shirk your responsibilities, or do things you know are wrong. Put your core values into practice: don't just preach it, live it. Cultivate the arts. Write, draw, paint, dance, play an instrument, sculpt or support those who do. Read philosophers, and try to think outside the box. Learn and practice a form of divination. Live healthfully. Exercize. Take an interest in what you eat and how it affects your body. Visit the sick. Donate time or money to AIDS or cancer research and treatment or other health concerns. For more information: Aeschylus' Agamemnon 1202-1212 Aeschylus' Eumenides Apollodorus' Library 1.3.2-4, 1.4.1-2, 1.7.8-9, 1.9.15, 2.5.9, 2.6.2, 3.10.1-4, 3.12.5 Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica 2.500-520, 2.946-953, 4.6.11-618 Euripides' Orestes, Electra, Iphigeneia among the Taurians, Ion Hesiod's Catalogues of Women 63-64, 83, 88-93, 98 Hesiod's Shield of Heracles 68-69, 477-480 Hesiod's Theogony 94-95, 346-348 Homer's Iliad 1.10, 1.33, 5.430, 7.270, 7.445, 21.435, 22.200, Homer's Odyssey 8.226-228, 15.243-253 Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3a, 3b, 21, 25 Homeric Hymn to Hermes 4 Hyginus' Fabulae 9-10, 28, 32, 49-51, 107, 135, 140, 165, 191, 200, Ovid's Metamorphoses 1.438-567, 1.750-2.400, 2.535-632, 6.204-266, 6.382-400, 11.153-171, 11.303-345, 14.129-153, 10.162-219, 10.106-142 Papyri Graeci Magicae 1.262-347, 4.1-47 Pausanias' Description of Greece 1.30.3, 1.42.2, 1.43.7-8, 2.26.4-7, 2.30.3, 2.33.2, 2.7.7, 5.14.8, 7.23.8, 8.20.4, 8.30.3-4, 9.10.5-6, 10.5.6, 10.6.7, Pindar's Pythian Odes 3, 5, 9 Links: Kyklos Apollon Temple of Apollwn Thiasos Apollon Wildvine - Apollon About Apollon by El Sharra God of Sunlight and Music Encyclopedia Mythica Apollo and Musical Compositions Apollon Reconsidered Etymology of "Apollon" Apollon and Lycia Apollon Epikurios at Bassai Experiences at Bassai Apollon at Didyma Didyma HTAZP Temple of Apollon and Asklepios Prairie Sun Temple of Apollo Temple of Apollo Spiric Temple of Apollo

Hymns to Apollon

Hymn to Pythios

Musegetes turn favorable regard upon me as I sing of the gods this day,
For I sing of you great Apollon who bears the instruments of purification.
And there beneath your golden foot disease and plague does lay,
There the mighty serpent lies bloodied, dead and slain.
Vanquisher of the foul I sing to you, who drive plague from the door,
A sacrifice that renews, the blood of the dead becomes the living speaking river.
Hail Apollon, mighty is the sword, the bow and the flying arrow,
And those shafts of light that devoured the torn flesh of Python,
May they consume and bring to waste the ills harbored within men alike.

That which you touch you do strip bare before you,
That which you see is completely revealed in your emanation,
Maddened pestilence, bringer of foul offerings, lays exposed.
Your hand does wield the arrow and sword which drives it forth,
And your light penetrates all, to rot and decay the bloated venomous serpent.
And there the voices rise to sing from the throats of women and men, ie paean!
To Pythios, destroyer of the predator pestilence that feasts with many mouths upon us.
Rejoice in the death of the plague to men and his beasts, the sickness and gossipy tongue,
The devourer has been shorn of his teeth and claws and lies now as dust beneath you.

By Samantha Frye
Thargelia 2007

Hymn of Morning

Muses, beloved daughters of Zeus, lend me your sweet voices
To sing of Apollon, the shining, --on swift feet he approaches.
Nyx gathers her mantle over the slumbering land,
And the ravens sing to her depature as Intonsus gleams in the heavens.
Hie away darkness, flee the heavenly abode
For Apollon comes with his light and serpent arrow.

Golden is the god, and bright his gleaming eyes
Who chases away the dark tressed Night.
With bow and lyre he announces the rising flushed sun,
In the fair company of rosey cheeked Aurora.
The song of the sparrow meets the hounds eerie cry
Away Hekate with her spirited company in the waxing light.

Aphrodite chases away the lovers from their shadowy bed,
Her handmaiden departed, gone is the time of entwined bliss.
The gold-armed goddess changes into her heavenly gown,
Jewels adorn and glitter her fair arms and pearly neck.
Her tender kiss a flower of sweet warm light descends
And lo Hermes arises from the hidden lands.

The manes of the mares flame the sky bright,
As they arise the golden chariot in the virtuous east.
The song of Apollon shakes the heavens, sang with a traveling voice,
The bright birds alight from their nests and deliver the song of dawn.
Hail to Apollon who vanquished the night, his light caresses the world;
And dark-plumed raven close at hand, watches from aloft the renewal born.

By Samantha Frye
June 13, 2007

To Apollon God of Light

Apollon lend me the aid of your Muse, so that I may best sing of you.
I sing of the beloved child of Leto, whose youthful face shone bright in radiance.
Lykaeos you chase away the darkness, a ravenous wolf,
For fearsome darkness shelters the unknown and hides the world within its mantle.
I sing first of your divine light that illuminates all, emanating from your brow.
All things are penetrated with your all-seeing eyes that look near and afar,
And the night predator flees before you, for your light spoils the hunt.
Phoibos you are the shaper of realities, for your light reveals the world to our eyes.
In your palm you carry truth, a friend of honest men and women
For deceit and illusion can not hide within your emanation.
Friendly is your light that kisses upon those that dwell on the earth,
Light feeds life with its vital rays, the leaves drink it in and the blossoms track its path,
And feeds the fertile minds of humanity, that which yearns for knowledge and discovery.
Knowledge strips away ignorance, and superstition yields to logic.
We step out of darkness and enter another world.
Radiant Apollon, crowned and armed in gold, you track across the heavens
And birds lift their voices to you, for your light expands the sky.
I sing of you, and pray that you continue to bless us with your light
Dispelling the dark night throughout the ages

By Samantha Frye
Spring 2007

Homeric Hymn 21 - To Apollon
by Miguel

Phoibos, of you even the crying swan sings to flopping wings
as it swoops down upon the bank of the eddying river
Peneios. And of you the sweet-singing bard ever sings
first and last with his high-tuned lyre.

And so hail to you, o Lord! I propitiate you with my song.

This is how Athanassakis brilliantly translates the Homeric Hymn number 21 "To Apollon" (Eis Apóllona). It is a simple yet beautiful image, that of a singing swan swooping down, his voice paired with the sweet song of an ever singing bard. However, there is much more to the hymn than one may first see. Let's read it sentence by sentence and discuss a little.

FOIBE, SE MEN KAI KUKNOS UPO PTERUGWN LIG AEIDEI
OCQH EPIQRWSKWN POTAMON PARA DINHENTA
PHNEION:

Assuming Phoibe as the epithet of Apollon (Brilliant One), let's see the last few words of the first line, widely analysed. "Of you even the swan sings loudly to the sound of his wings" or "as it flaps its wings". Actually, UPO can mean both "at the sound of" or "towards" or "from below", so this could theoretically be read as "of you even the swan sings loudly from bellow its flapping wings". Either way the effect would still be the same: the sound of the song of the swan blends with the sound of its wings.

This reminds us of the myth of Marsyas, whom competed with the God by playing the flute. Both Marsyas and Pan are wonderful musicians, however Apollo wins them both because not only can he play the lyre as he can sing at the same time, just like the swan plays with its wings and sings with its voice.

There is also certain equivalence to the sound of the grasshopper, sacred to Apollo. The Ancients assumed, correctly, that the song of the insect was produced by his wings.

In truth, common believe in Ancient Greece was that what this line meant was that the sound of the swan came from his wings. Only a few of the intellectual elite compared it to singing and playing at the same time.

Whatever the case, there is a certain epiphany-like image of the God descending upon the banks of the river Peneios, a famous cult place of Apollo, and singing.

KUKNOS means swan but it is also the name of a son of Ares said to have sacrificed pilgrims on their way to Delphi in order to build a temple out of their skulls and dedicate it to Apollo. As is common in Ancient myth, it is possible that Kyknos eventually became mixed with Apollo, as if he was a part of Apollo, until later, when the myth was changed to Kyknos wanting to build a temple to Ares out of the myth being incompatible with the sparkly Apollo.

So, in a rather huge leap that any scholar would frown upon I have reached the conclusion that this can also be a form of evocation of the shiny aspect of Apollon in the sense that "of the Brigh One even Kyknos, the killer, sings loudly". This is to say that Apollo's light can change and purify anything.

It is also curious to note that Peneus was the river-God said to be either father of Daphne or to have changed her into a bay tree. I also find the suggested sound of the eddying (DINHENTA) waters blending with the song of the swan and his wings a lovely image.

SE D AOIDOS ECWN FORMIGGA LIGEIAN
HDUEPHS PRWTON TE KAI USTATON AIEN AEIDEI.

Of Apollo the bard sings without stopping in an ever flowing song (AIEN AEIDEI), first and last or from the beginning to the end (PRWTON TE KAI USTATON). This line can also be understood as "all his songs are yours".

In fact, the bard that holds his whistling lyre (FORMIGGA LIGEIAN) is very similar to both the God and the swan. It is fun how all the hymn seems to focus solely on Apollo as the God of Music, repeating the marvel of the song, but actually can be taken much further to include other aspects of Apollo not so evident in the text.

In fact the sweet tong of the bard may either be singing of Apollo from the beginning to the end or just at the beginning and the end. If we identify the bard with Apollo, than this means that Apollo may only be a singer at the beginning and the end, because in between he has far darker aspects than that. The swan that sings loudly at the sound of its wings only as he descends upon the river Peneios also reminds us that either the swan or Kyknos did not sing before. Kyknos too had a far darker aspect before the singing passion.

Peneus, the river God, seems to have this transforming power. When he turned Daphne into a tree he also tamed Apollo's raging passion that made him hunt the nymph without consideration for her feelings. When she was shape shifted, Apollo's darker aspect apparently became lighter and the God no longer was a hunter - he took a laurel crown and, becoming a grower, declared it to be sacred to him.

KAI SU MEN OUTW CAIRE, ANAX, ILAMAI DE S AOIDH

This is the traditional type of ending where the bard hopes to have pleased Apollo and salutes him. Particularly interesting here is anax, ANAX, which translates as master or lord, a title attributed, for example, to Agamemnon. This was a very common epithet of Apollo and, keeping in mind that it was the bards that used it, it probably means he is the lord or master of bards, again a reference to his musical characteristics.

So, I hope the next time you sing this Hymn to Apollo you keep in mind how profound simple works can actually be.