The archetype of Apollo
Extracts from chapter twenty-four of "Primitive Materialism".
There is no Apollo attested in Linear B,[1] so he is not a named Mycenaean-Minoan deity. The main sanctuaries of Apollo are at Delos, which is in his mythology his birthplace, alongside Artemis, and Delphi. At Delos the original “mistress” is Artemis, who has there the earliest temple (constructed c.700) and her famous Horn Altar. “Apollo’s temple lies at the periphery, though it did contain the monumental gilded image.”[2] We are told that the central temenos of Delphi always belonged to Apollo, but it was founded in C8, and “that the neighbouring precinct of the Earth is older, is something known only to mythology.”[3]
In Dorian-northwest Greek the pre-Homeric form apellai named annual gatherings of the tribal or phratry organization, for which there is evidence at Delphi and Laconia, and a month name was derived from this of Apellaios for “the entire Dorian-northwest Greek area”. An early temple of Apollo at Thermos was the centre of the annual gatherings of Aetolians called apellai, “youths who have come of age”. At the Apellon “the ephebos stands accordingly on the threshold of manhood, but still with the long hair of the boy akersekomas, with unshorn hair, has been an epithet of Apollo since the Iliad.”[4]
This implies that Apollo originated with the Dorians[5] and was imported into Greece with the Dorian migration, which may explain why Delphi, close to the Dorian homeland, became an early important centre of the worship of Apollo.
[1] Walter Burkert, Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Basil Blackwell, English translation, 1985, p.144.
[2] Ibid., p.144.
[3] Ibid. p. 144.
[4] Ibid., p.145.
[5] Burkert rejects the theory that the name Apollo has a Lycian origin.
In Dorian-northwest Greek the pre-Homeric form apellai named annual gatherings of the tribal or phratry organization, for which there is evidence at Delphi and Laconia, and a month name was derived from this of Apellaios for “the entire Dorian-northwest Greek area”. An early temple of Apollo at Thermos was the centre of the annual gatherings of Aetolians called apellai, “youths who have come of age”. At the Apellon “the ephebos stands accordingly on the threshold of manhood, but still with the long hair of the boy akersekomas, with unshorn hair, has been an epithet of Apollo since the Iliad.”[4]
This implies that Apollo originated with the Dorians[5] and was imported into Greece with the Dorian migration, which may explain why Delphi, close to the Dorian homeland, became an early important centre of the worship of Apollo.
[1] Walter Burkert, Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Basil Blackwell, English translation, 1985, p.144.
[2] Ibid., p.144.
[3] Ibid. p. 144.
[4] Ibid., p.145.
[5] Burkert rejects the theory that the name Apollo has a Lycian origin.
Questions
1. What is the significance of the fact that Apollo is not named as a Mycenaean deity?
2. Did Apollo originate with the Dorians?
2. Did Apollo originate with the Dorians?
Second extract
Spartan religion. The archaeological record for Laconia is scanty, and very few sites have been investigated. Classical Sparta was not a Mycenaean site, but nearby Amyklai was. Amyklai was one of the few Mycenaean cities not to have been destroyed c.1200. An inference is that Amyklai remained religiously conservative. We have no idea what happened between 1200 and 1000.[1] Yet, by 1000 the religion even at Sparta was predominantly matriarchal in form. The earliest temple is of Artemis Orthia, dating back to 1000. The cult image was a pre-anthropomorphic image, the one that Orestes is alleged to have brought back with him from Taurus in the myth that Euripides wrote about. Pausanias tells us:
"I will give other evidence that the Orthia in Lacedaemon is the wooden image from the foreigners. Firstly, Astrabacus and Alopecus, sons of Irbus, son of Amphisthenes, son of Amphicles, son of Agis, when they found the image straightway became insane. Secondly, the Spartan Limnatians, the Cynosurians, and the people of Mesoa and Pitane, while sacrificing to Artemis, fell to quarrelling, which led also to bloodshed; many were killed at the altar and the rest died of disease.
Whereat an oracle was delivered to them, that they should stain the altar with human blood. He used to be sacrificed upon whomsoever the lot fell, but Lycurgus changed the custom to a scourging of the ephebos, and so in this way the altar is stained with human blood. By them stands the priestess, holding the wooden image."[2]
This palpably demonstrates the religious transformation taking place within the Dark Age. The practice of human sacrifice eventually provoked a civil war, which lead to a reform in which the sprinkling of blood on the altar was transmuted to the famous Spartan custom of scourging, and these are associated with the reforms of Lycurgus that most historians date as late as 650.
[1] W. G. Forrest tells us that “Spartans traced the ancestry of their kings back through the eponymous founders of the two royal houses, Agis and Eurypon, to their fathers, Eurysthenes and Prokles, to Aristodemos and ultimately to Herakles”. Calculation based on this gives 960 – 930 for Eurysthenes and Prokles and c. 930 – 900 for Agis and Eurypon “who as eponyms must be the real founders of the dynasties”. W. G. Forrest, A History of Sparta 950 – 192 BC, Hutchinson University Library, London, 1968, Chapter 2, 2. The Arrival of the Dorians.
[2] Pausanias, Description of Greece III, 16, 9–11.
"I will give other evidence that the Orthia in Lacedaemon is the wooden image from the foreigners. Firstly, Astrabacus and Alopecus, sons of Irbus, son of Amphisthenes, son of Amphicles, son of Agis, when they found the image straightway became insane. Secondly, the Spartan Limnatians, the Cynosurians, and the people of Mesoa and Pitane, while sacrificing to Artemis, fell to quarrelling, which led also to bloodshed; many were killed at the altar and the rest died of disease.
Whereat an oracle was delivered to them, that they should stain the altar with human blood. He used to be sacrificed upon whomsoever the lot fell, but Lycurgus changed the custom to a scourging of the ephebos, and so in this way the altar is stained with human blood. By them stands the priestess, holding the wooden image."[2]
This palpably demonstrates the religious transformation taking place within the Dark Age. The practice of human sacrifice eventually provoked a civil war, which lead to a reform in which the sprinkling of blood on the altar was transmuted to the famous Spartan custom of scourging, and these are associated with the reforms of Lycurgus that most historians date as late as 650.
[1] W. G. Forrest tells us that “Spartans traced the ancestry of their kings back through the eponymous founders of the two royal houses, Agis and Eurypon, to their fathers, Eurysthenes and Prokles, to Aristodemos and ultimately to Herakles”. Calculation based on this gives 960 – 930 for Eurysthenes and Prokles and c. 930 – 900 for Agis and Eurypon “who as eponyms must be the real founders of the dynasties”. W. G. Forrest, A History of Sparta 950 – 192 BC, Hutchinson University Library, London, 1968, Chapter 2, 2. The Arrival of the Dorians.
[2] Pausanias, Description of Greece III, 16, 9–11.
Questions
1. Was Sparta originally a matriarchy? Did Sparta originally worship the Goddess as Artemis?
2. If Sparta did undergo a transformation from matriarchy to patriarchy, when did this occur? What impact would this have on our understanding of the history of Sparta?
3. What Spartan institutions reflect continuing presence of a matriarchal layer to their religious history?
2. If Sparta did undergo a transformation from matriarchy to patriarchy, when did this occur? What impact would this have on our understanding of the history of Sparta?
3. What Spartan institutions reflect continuing presence of a matriarchal layer to their religious history?