By Water & Blood

Chapter 17: Apollo Identified with the Sun

Here Avienus: "This indeed I have much and often pondered with myself — what it is that we venerate the sun now as Apollo, now as Liber, now under a variety of other appellations. And since the divine powers have wished you, Vettius Praetextatus, to be the president of all sacred things, proceed, I beg, to open to me the reason of so great a diversity in names under one divinity."

Then Vettius: "Beware of thinking, my Avienus, that the flock of poets, when they tell fables of the gods, do not for the most part borrow seeds from the shrines of philosophy. For that they refer nearly all the gods — at least those who are under heaven — to the sun is recommended not by empty superstition but by divine reason. For if the sun, as it pleased the ancients, is the leader and moderator of the remaining lights and alone excels the wandering stars, and the courses of those very stars dispose the order of human affairs according to their power, as it seems to some — or, as it is established that it pleased Plotinus, signify it — it is necessary that we confess the sun, who moderates those that moderate us, to be the author of all things that are done about us. And just as Maro, when he spoke of one Juno, 'by what divinity offended,' showed that the various effects of one god are to be reckoned as various divinities, so the diverse virtues of the sun have given names to the gods. Whence the chiefs of the wise have set forth that all is one. The virtue of the sun, therefore, which presides over divination and healing they have called Apollo; that which is author of speech has received the name of Mercury. For because speech interprets hidden thoughts, Hermes has been called by his proper appellation from interpreting. There is a virtue of the sun which is of fruits — of the same effect as he who presides over crops. And hence have been born the appellations of the gods like the rest who are referred to the sun by a certain and secret reason; and — lest bare assertion be offered for so great a secret — let us consult the authorities of the ancients on each.

"The name of Apollo is referred to the sun by manifold interpretation, the order of which I shall pursue. Plato writes that the sun was surnamed Apollo from thrusting forth the rays (apo tou apopallein tas aktinas), that is from the casting of rays. Chrysippus says Apollo as not being of the many and base substances of fire — for the first letter of the name retains the force of denying — or because he alone is and not many; for Latinity too has called him sol, because he alone has obtained so great brightness. Speusippus, that his force consists of many fires, as composed from many substances of fire; Cleanthes, as making his risings from other and other places, because from other and other declinations of places he makes his risings. Cornificius thinks Apollo was named from revolving back (apo tou anapolein), that is because within the circuit of the world which the Greeks call polos he is carried by impetus back to the east. Others think Apollo surnamed as destroying living beings (hos apollynta ta zoa); for he kills and destroys animals when he sends pestilence by intemperance of heat, as Euripides in the Phaethon: 'O gold-shining Helios, how you have destroyed me; whence a mortal openly calls you Apollo'; likewise Archilochus: 'Lord Apollo, do you too mark those who are guilty and destroy them as you destroy.' Finally those burned by disease they call Apollo-struck and sun-struck; and because the effects of the moon in helping and harming are like the effects of the sun, therefore women afflicted by certain diseases they call moon-struck and Artemis-struck.

"Hence it is that images of Apollo are adorned with bow and arrows, that by the arrows may be understood the force of rays sent forth, whence Homer: 'but then sending upon them a sharp arrow he struck.' The same is also author of public safety, which the sun is believed to afford living beings by tempering. But because he affords perpetual healthfulness and a pestilent mishap from him is rarer, therefore images of Apollo carry the Graces in the right hand, the bow with arrows in the left — because he is slower to harm, and the readier hand bestows health. Hence it is that the power of healing is also attributed to him, because tempered heat of the sun is the flight of all diseases. For they think him surnamed Apollo as driving away diseases (hos apelaunonta tas nosous), as if Apellon. Which opinion, agreeing also with the Latin utterance of the name, has brought it about that we do not translate this god's name, that you may understand Apollo as driving away evils — whom the Athenians call Alexikakos. But the Lindians also worship Apollo Loimios, named by this surname when a pestilence was ended. The same opinion of a saving and healing god is also cherished in our sacred rites. For the Vestal virgins thus invoke: 'Apollo the Healer, Apollo Paean.'

"Since therefore there are two greatest effects of this star, that is of the sun — one by which with tempered heat he helps the life of mortals, the other by which with casting of rays he sometimes sends a pestiferous poison — two and the same surnames mark each effect with proper utterances, calling the god Ieios and Paean. Which surnames are apt to either effect: that Ieios be from healing (apo tou iasthai), and Paean from making pains cease (apo tou pauein tas anias); and again Ieios from sending (apo tou hienai), from sending the sharp arrow, and Paean from striking (apo tou paiein). Yet it has obtained that when they pray that health be given them they utter ie Paian with the letter H, that is 'heal, Paean'; but when they say hie Paian with the letter E and aspiration of the first letter, they signify that this is said against someone in adverse prayer: 'strike, Paean,' that is send by striking. With which voice they say Latona used when she urged Apollo to attack the onset of Python with arrows — of which matter I shall render the natural reason in its place. This voice, that is hie Paian, the Delphic oracle is said to have confirmed for the Athenians seeking the god's aid against the Amazons in Theseus's reign. For it ordered those about to enter war to invoke and urge himself as helper with these very words. Apollodorus in the fourteenth book On the Gods writes that the sun is Ieios: that Apollo is so called from rushing and going through the cosmos, because the sun is carried by impetus through the orb. But Timotheus thus: 'And you, O Helios who forever strike the celestial pole with bright rays, send a far-shooting shaft upon your enemies from your bowstring, O hie Paian.'

"The same god, as excelling in healthful causes, they call Oulios, that is author of health, as Homer says: 'be healthy and rejoice greatly.' Maeandrius writes that the Milesians sacrifice to Apollo Oulios for their safety. Pherecydes relates that Theseus, when he was being led to Crete to the Minotaur, vowed for his safety and return to Apollo Oulios and Artemis Oulia. Nor is it strange if twin effects are celebrated by various names, since we also take other gods to be reckoned from contrary in the same matter with double power and name — as Neptune whom they call now Enosichthon, that is earth-mover, now Asphalion, that is stabilizer. Likewise Mercury both excites and lulls the minds or eyes of men, as the poet says: 'and he took the wand with which he charms the eyes of men, of whom he will, and again wakes those who sleep.' Whence we also adore Apollo, that is the sun, with surnames signifying now safety, now pestilence; yet when the pestilence which is sent by him upon the noxious openly signifies that this god fights for the good.

"Hence it is that at Pachynum, a promontory of Sicily, Apollo Libystinus is celebrated with extraordinary religion. For when the Libyans about to invade Sicily had put their fleet in to that promontory, Apollo, who is worshipped there, invoked by the inhabitants, having sent pestilence upon the enemy and almost all having been cut off by sudden death, was surnamed Libystinus. Our annals also contain a similar majesty of the same god's presence. For when games were being celebrated at Rome for Apollo from the prophecy of the seer Marcius and a Sibylline song, by sudden arrival of an enemy the people, stirred to arms, ran to meet the enemy, and at that time a cloud of arrows was seen to be carried against them and both put the enemy to flight and brought the victorious Romans back to the spectacles of the saving god. Hence it is understood that the games were instituted for the sake of battle, not of pestilence as some think. But this is the reason of that estimation: that then the sun shines over the very summit of our habitation. For Cancer is in the summer tropic, in which as the sun moves the rays do not from afar but from above, sent down with straight splendors, survey our tempered region. Whence it has been estimated by some that then especially Apollinarian sacrifices are offered to propitiate the god of heat. But I find in literature that these games were instituted for the sake of victory, not of health, as certain writers of annals record. For in the Punic War these games were first instituted from the Sibylline books at the persuasion of Cornelius Rufus the decemvir, who for that reason was surnamed Sibylla and afterward, the name corrupted, first began to be called Sylla.

"But it is related that in the songs of the seer Marcius, whose two volumes were brought into the senate, it was found written thus: 'Enemy, Romans, if you wish to drive from the field the boil that comes of nations from afar, I counsel that games be vowed to Apollo which yearly may be held courteously for Apollo. Over the holding of these games let that praetor preside who will give highest law to the people and the plebs. Let the decemviri make sacred rites with victims by Greek rite. If you do this rightly, you will always rejoice and the commonwealth will become better: for that divinity will extinguish your enemies who peacefully pasture your fields.' From this song, when for the sake of procuration one day had been spent on divine matters, afterward a decree of the senate was made that the decemviri, that they might be better instructed concerning holding games for Apollo and rightly performing the divine rite, should approach the Sibylline books. In which when it was reported that the same things had been found, the fathers decreed that games be vowed and held for Apollo, and for that matter twelve thousand of bronze be given to the praetor and two greater victims, and the decemviri were ordered to make the sacrifice by Greek rite with these victims: to Apollo a gilded ox and two white gilded she-goats, to Latona a gilded female ox. The people crowned were ordered to watch the games in the circus. This is especially handed down as the origin of the Apollinarian games.

"Now from other names also of this god let us prove that Apollo and the sun are the same. He is surnamed Loxias, as Oenopides says, because he goes forth the oblique circle moving from west to east; or, as Cleanthes writes, since he moves in spirals — for these too are oblique — because he pursues a winding path; or because being southern he sends oblique rays upon us who are northern, or because from midday he sends transverse rays upon us, since we are northern to him. He is surnamed Delios from making all things clear and manifest by light, because by illuminating he shows all things clear. He is called Phoebus, as Cornificius says, from going by force (apo tou phoitan bia), because he is carried by force; but most think him called Phoebus from appearance and brightness, that is pure and bright. Likewise they call him Phanes from shining (apo tou phainein), and Phaneos, since he appears young (epeide phainetai neos), because the sun renews himself daily, whence Virgil 'new morning.' The Camirenses, who inhabit an island sacred to the Sun, sacrifice to Apollo Aeigenetes, to him who is always becoming and always begetting, that is because always rising he is born and because he himself generates all things by sowing, fostering, producing, nourishing, and increasing.

"Of Apollo Lycius we receive several causes of the surname. Antipater the Stoic writes that Lycian Apollo was named from all things being whitened as the sun illuminates. Cleanthes notes that Lycian Apollo was so called because, just as wolves seize flocks, so he too snatches moisture with his rays. The earliest of the Greeks called the first light which precedes the sun's risings lyke from the white. That time they still today surname lykophos. Of which time the poet writes thus: 'when neither yet was dawn, and still was night of twilight'; the same Homer: 'pray to Apollo Lycegenes of the famous bow,' which signifies him who generates the lyke, that is who by his rising generates light. For the splendor of rays, preceding the approaching sun far and wide and gradually thinning the murk of darkness, begets light. Nor less do the Romans, as most other things from Greek, seem also to have fashioned lux from lyke. The year too the most ancient of the Greeks called lykabas, that traversed and measured by the wolf, that is by the sun. But that the sun is called wolf (lykos) the Theban city Lycopolis also is witness, which with equal religion worships Apollo and likewise the wolf, that is lykos, in either venerating the sun, because this animal seizes and consumes all things in the manner of the sun, and seeing most with the sharpness of its eyes overcomes the darkness of night. Some also think the wolves themselves named from lyke, that is from first light, because these beasts especially watch that time as apt for seizing flock, which before dawn after nocturnal hunger is driven out from the stalls to pasture.

"They have surnamed Apollo Patroos not by the proper religion of one nation or city but as author of the begetting of all things, because the sun, having dried up moisture, has afforded to all the cause for generating, as Orpheus says, 'having a father's mind and prudent counsel.' Whence we too call Janus father, venerating the sun under this appellation. They have surnamed Apollo Nomios not from the pastoral office and the fable by which he is feigned to have pastured the flocks of king Admetus, but because the sun pastures all things which the earth generates. Whence he is sung as shepherd not of one kind but of all flocks, as in Homer when Neptune says: 'Phoebus, you used to herd the rolling crooked-horned cattle'; and the same in the same poet is signified as shepherd of mares, as he says: 'which in Pheria silver-bowed Apollo reared, both female, bearing the terror of Ares.' Moreover temples as of a shepherd of sheep are among the Camirenses of Epimelios, among the Naxians of Poimnios, and likewise the god is worshipped as Arnokomes, and among the Lesbians as Napaios; and there are many surnames through diverse cities tending to the office of the shepherd god. Wherefore he is acknowledged as president of universal flock and truly shepherd. Apollo is called Eleleus from being rolled about the earth, because by eternal motion about the earth he seems as it were to be rolled, as Euripides says: 'Helios, whirling flame with swift horses'; or because with much fire gathered he goes round, as Empedocles says: 'because gathered he goes about great heaven.' Plato, from gathering and collecting men when he rises, because rising he leads men into assembly. Apollo is surnamed Chrysokomas from the gleam of rays, which they call golden locks of the sun, whence also Akersikomes, because rays can never be torn from the source of light; likewise Argyrotoxos, because rising through the highest circuit of the orb he is figured as a certain bow of white and silver appearance, from which bow rays flash forth in the manner of arrows. He is surnamed Smintheus because he runs boiling, since burning he is seen young; or because, while all things burning are consumed, he glowing with his own heat always stands new. Likewise Apollo Killaios, because he makes leftward motions, always running for us from the south. Thymbraios Apollo is he who sets the rains, because he is the rain-bringing god; Apollo Philesios, because we greet his rising light as lovable with most friendly veneration. Apollo Pythios is estimated by the natural philosophers not said from inquiry, that is not from consultation of oracles, but from rotting (apo tou pythein), that is corrupting, which is never effected without the force of heat. Hence therefore they estimate him called Pythios, although the Greeks fable that this name was put upon the god from the killing of the dragon — which fable yet does not shrink from the understanding of a natural secret, as will appear if the order is run through which is narrated of Apollo being born, as a little above I promised I would narrate.

"Juno is said to have opposed Latona about to bear Apollo and Diana, but when at length the birth was poured forth, they say a dragon, who was called Python, invaded the cradles of the gods and Apollo in first infancy finished the beast with arrows. Which natural reason demonstrates is to be understood thus. For after chaos, when first confused deformity began to shine forth into forms of things and into elements, and the earth still with moist substance wavered on a soft and unstable seat, as ethereal heat gradually grew strong and thence fiery seeds flowed down into her, these stars are believed to have been brought forth — and the sun indeed, seized into the upper regions by greatest force of heat, but the moon, pressed by a more moist and as it were feminine sex with a certain natural warmth, to have held the lower, as if he more consists of the father's substance, she of the mother's — since the natural philosophers wish Latona to be seen as the earth, to whom Juno long intervened lest the divinities we have said be brought forth: that is air, which then still moist and heavy opposed the aether lest the gleam of lights shine through the density of aerial moisture as from the progress of a certain birth. But the insistence of divine providence conquered, which is believed to have aided the birth. Therefore on the island of Delos, to confirm the faith of the fable, a temple of Providence, which they call the shrine of Pronoia Athena, is celebrated with fitting religion. For that reason they are said to have been born on an island, because they seem to us to rise from the sea. This island is therefore called Delos, because the rising and as it were birth of the lights makes all things dela, that is open to grow bright.

"But this is the natural reason of the killing of the dragon, as Antipater the Stoic writes. For the exhalation of the earth still moist, going into the upper regions with rolling impetus and thence, after it was heated, rolling itself back into the lower like a death-bringing serpent, corrupted all things by the force of putrefaction, which is generated only from heat and moisture, and by covering the sun itself with density of murk seemed somehow to take away its light: but at length thinned, dried, and slain by the divine fervor of rays as by arrows falling upon it, it made the fable of the dragon slain by Apollo. There is also another reason of the dragon destroyed. For although the sun's path never withdraws from the ecliptic line, yet by varying its path upward and downward with a certain deflection of the turns of the winds it winds as it were the bend of a dragon. Whence Euripides: 'and the fire-born dragon leads the way for the four-formed seasons, yoking with harmony of wealth a many-fruited chariot.' Under this appellation therefore of the celestial path, when the sun had finished its course, it was said to have finished the dragon. Thence arose the fable of the serpent's killing. But by the name of arrows nothing is shown but the casting of rays, which are understood longest at that time when the highest sun on the longest days at the summer solstice finishes the yearly course; thence called Hekebolos and Hekatebolos, casting rays from afar, sending rays down to earth from the longest and highest. Of the Pythian surname those things might have sufficed, had not this reason also of the same appellation thrust itself in. For when the sun in the sign of Cancer makes the summer solstice, in which is the bound of the longest day, and thence makes retreat toward the diminution of days, he is called Pythios at that time as running the last course. The same name suits him also when entering Capricorn again he is understood to have completed the last course of the shortest day, and therefore in either of the two signs, when the yearly space is finished, Apollo is recalled to have finished the dragon there, that is his winding path. Cornificius has reported this opinion in the Etymi. But therefore these names have befallen those two signs which are called the gates of the sun, Cancer and Capricorn, because the crab animal yields backward and obliquely, and by the same reason the sun in that sign begins as usual to make oblique retreat; but the she-goat's custom in pasture seems this, that she always seeks the height in feeding, and the sun too in Capricorn begins to return from the depths to the heights.

"They call Apollo Didymaios because he himself, by illuminating and forming the moon, presents a twin appearance of his divinity. For from one source of light with twin star he illuminates the spaces of day and night, whence the Romans also venerate the sun under the name and appearance of Janus by the appellation of Didymaean Apollo. They call Apollo Delphios because by brightness of light he shows what things are obscure, from making clear the unseen; or, as it pleases Numenius, as if one and alone. For he says in the old language of the Greeks delphos is called one. Whence also a brother, he says, is called adelphos as if already not one.

"Moreover the people of Hieropolis, who are of the Assyrian nation, reduce all the effects and virtues of the sun to the form of one bearded image and call him Apollo. His face is figured with a long beard shaped to a point, with a calathus standing out above the head. The image is fortified with a breastplate; the right hand holds an upright spear with a little sign of Victory standing upon it; the left holds forth the form of a flower; and from the tops of the shoulders a Gorgon veil wreathed with snakes covers the shoulder-blades. Eagles beside the head express the likeness of flight; before the feet is a female image, to whose right and left are signs of women; a dragon girds her with winding coil. The beard hanging down signifies rays cast upon the earth from above. The golden calathus rising on high shows the summit of the aether, whence the substance of the sun is believed to be. By the argument of spear and cuirass the image of Mars is joined, whom proceeding discourse will make plain to be the same as the sun. Victory testifies that all things are subjected to the power of this star. The form of a flower protests the flower of things which this god sows, generates, fosters, nourishes, and ripens. The female form is an image of the earth, which the sun illuminates from above. The two equally female signs by which she is surrounded signify matter and nature as fellow-servants, and the likeness of a dragon shows the winding path of the star. The eagles, because of the highest speed of flight, show the height of the sun. A Gorgon garment has been added, because Minerva, whom we take as his protectress, is a virtue of the sun, as Porphyry also testifies that Minerva is the virtue of the sun which supplies prudence to human minds. For therefore this goddess is recalled as born from Jupiter's head, that is brought forth from the highest part of the aether, whence is the origin of the sun."