Apollo (Apollwn). Between the gods of the ancient Greek world AA is in the ethical sense of the most worked out, as it inspired. The cult of it, especially in the Dorian states, a lot of help to mitigate moral, consolidation and worship of the state order, but Alexander was not at first, as believed, incorrectly, especially Dorian deity, just as his nickname and Luceioz; does not give us the right to remove him from Lycia as it was done, although the Greeks, though very early already identified various non-Greek, especially Asia Minor, the deity of light with A.
A. Originally a god of light, and it is the sunlight, with all its beneficent and harmful effects, the first clearly indicate his nicknames: FoiboV; (ie, bright, shining rays) are often encountered in Homer, LuceioV (bright) and AiglethV (shiny). So he called the son of Zeus, the supreme celestial deity, and Latona, the goddess of darkness, which is the concubine of Zeus and a rival of Hera, after the latter became the lawful wife of Zeus.
God of Light was born under adverse circumstances. Latona, the myth tells us, pursued a jealous hero to ban all countries and islands to give her rival, shelter, after long wanderings Latona finally found refuge on a small island of Delos, which, at a time when Hera announced the above prohibition, presented himself as a rock, driven by stormy the waves here that Latona after difficult childbirth, collapsed from the burden of twins: A. and Artemis.
Newborn God, immediately in the full bloom of youthful beauty, snatched the bow and arrow, aims to cross the sea and fields and correct their arrows killed the dragon Python, the monster, devastated the area, where he later found Delphi or Pifo sanctuary with A. Thus it is immediately after birth its is already the winner of the forces that are harmful light, ie, the moral order of things, the winner of evil, as indicated by a number of epithet, depicting him as a savior, bringing help, rescue, as eg. AlexicacoV ApotropaioV EpicoupioV Swthr etc.
Similarly, the stories give us as A. punishes humanity who dared to cross the limit posed to him by the gods, so he and Artemis killing the giant Titiya, trying to inflict violence Latona, destroys, along with other gods, giants and kill again, along with Artemis children Niobe, which dared to put himself above Latona. So he sends in the Greek camp before Troy bringing plague arrows (arrows they originally meant the harmful effect of too strong sunlight), when Agamemnon not respectfully treated the priest his Chryse. Therefore, it is usually already in Homer's songs called Ecathboloz (ie, far mechuptsy) srebroluky (Argurotoxoz) and is usually depicted with a bow and arrows and quiver.
The initial value of A. It also appears a number of cults, especially in the Ionian and the Achaean states, which represent some of the lessons of his counsel, standing in close connection with the life of nature: as such. He called NomioV (shepherd, god of pastures), KarnetoV (actually A. sheep), ie defender stud, good condition which mainly depends on the warming rays of the sun and the proper seasons, then we find the name of A. DeljiniuV who rules the sea, protecting seafarers from the dangers of storms, it sends the winds that facilitate entry into the harbor ('EmbasioV) and therefore are particularly revered on the coasts and headlands (`ActioV); A. QarghlioV help on the maturation of field crops, fruits and protects them from all sorts of harmful influences, mainly from the locust (hence the VA ParnopioV in Athens) and mice (hence A. SminJeuV god of mice in Troas).
As the solar deity, and A. is a myth, for which he was supposedly known time to serve death, namely Admetus, King fereyskomu in Thessaly, as Admetus was none other than the unstoppable god of death, and service solar deity he had express, especially for popular representation in the East, the impotence of the sun during the winter, as if abiding nature of death.From this initial value of A., as the god of nature, god of light, explains the beautiful myth of Hyperborea, the people, who lived across the northern mountains, from which Boreas blows, and the people that live in the blissful quietude, and serves as holy, priestly people God, it will often visited; this same myth can be related to the notion of fabulous birds, vultures, who also lived though in the far north of guarding the treasures of gold, which the Greek imagination enriches these areas. Little by little all the deities, which were originally only the personification of the forces and phenomena of nature, began to understand more abstractly, they began to look from the moral point of view.
God is pure sunshine made by the representative and protector of all clear and pure in the field of spiritual and moral, the primary source of all the education and advancement in the social and political relations. Thus, it is primarily the god of singing and mitigate violent passions play the zither, why him, and was given other than a bow-lira (lura, ciJariV, jormigV). He pleases the gods of their art, is the head of the choir Moose (A. MoushgethV) and gives loved ones the gift of singing and poetry. As God is spiritual enlightenment, AA is the god of the predictions: on behalf and on behalf of his father, Zeus, it opens people hidden away in the present and the future in order to send them to the true path and to warn against the false, but he does so not in the clear words, but only hints and ambiguous speeches, so his nickname LoxiaV already made from ancient LoxoV, ie, the curve is ambiguous.
Many of its churches were at the same time, the famous oracles, so before all of Delphi, then Abaj in Phocis, the oracle of shy on the island of Euboea, and was not originally Greek, but belonged to the gods, whom the Greeks identified with their AA's sanctuary in Didim near Miletus (so-called sanctuary branhidov), in Clarus (near colophon in Ionia) and Patara (in Lycia).
Next, the god of light, as disgusting of all evil, is God the remission of sins, which are flocking to the altars all have the blood of his hands to cleanse here and receive forgiveness. On the other hand, he is in relation to bodily suffering, the god of healing (Paian, Paihwn); so it is primarily in the songs of Homer, while the later established view is that this gift he gave his son, Asclepius.
Finally, AA is the source and protector of all public and civic amenities, the founder of cities and legislator. So in Athens revered A. (PatrwoV) as a tribal god and the protector of all the Ionian tribe, so the Spartans data of Lycurgus (the name is borrowed from the cult of AA, and even is sometimes found among his nickname), the laws cited in connection with the VA and his oracle at Delphi, for the same oracle resorted Greek city for advice whenever he intended to found a colony somewhere in distant countries. The Romans adopted the cult of early AA in all likelihood already during the reign of Tarquin, and obviously this cult came to them from the Greek colonies of southern Italy, mainly from Qom, he soon became prominent in the Roman state religion.
As in the Greek god of the venerated in Rome as a source of purity, clarity, order, especially as the god of healing ailments, redemption, god of music and prophecy, and his revered in many churches between them especially. remarkable shrine, built on the Palatine hill, Augustus, after the victory at Actium, he gained over Antony and Cleopatra (1931 BC X.).
Even some of the north, especially the Celtic tribes, acquaintance with the language and culture, the Romans began to identify some of their indigenous deities with Greek-Roman Apollo, so that even now in the Roman inscriptions being found in areas which then inhabited by the Gauls and Germans, found name A. barbaric nicknames, eg. Belenns, Grannus etc. Wed Roscher "Studien zur vergleichemien Mythologie der Romer und Griechen. 1. Apollo P. Mars." (Leypts., 1873), Milhgefer, "Ueber den attischen A." (Munich, 1873). For Art
A. is an ideal male, youthful beauty, he is represented without a beard, long hair that falls onto her shoulders, then lifted up and linked node, slim, with an expression of pure, divine majesty in his face, he was usually, especially when, it arrow and quiver, depicted in one of only a short mantle thrown over his shoulders, and sometimes, when he played the zither.and leads the choir of Muses, he was wearing the drop-down to toe clothing.
His head is often adorned with a wreath of laurel branches dedicated to his tree next to him is often a tripod, as a symbol of prophecy, as such, stood in the sanctuary of Delphi temple over the hole of the seat and served for Pythia.
The animals were devoted to him than the neck, particularly the swan, the wolf, mouse, and lizard. Multiple images with AA ancient statues are found in O. Midler, "Denkmaler der alten Kunst" (2 treatments Vizelera in 2 Vols, Göttingen, 1860) to a "Heroen und Gottergestalten" (Vienna, 1874).
One of the most famous statues – Statue A. Belvedere in the Vatican, beautiful, dating from the first days of the Roman Empire, a copy of a bronze statue depicting the god as a savior in need (BohdromioV); she was found at the end of the XV century, the Porto d ' Anzio, ancient Antsiuma. The original was in all probability, is dedicated to AA and placed in the Delphian temple in memory of the assistance that the VA has sent in the form of storms and thunder against the invading Gauls (279 by R. X.). Found at the foot of the acropolis of Corinth statue A. Teneyskogo related to half of the VI century, is located in the Munich Glyptotek.