It is remarkable how seriously Homer (who otherwise speaks of the gods, and particularly of those friendly to Troy, with some levity of expression)(1225) describes the character of Apollo. He is never represented as hurried on by blind fury. He never opposes the Greeks without reason, or through caprice, but only when they disregard the sacred rights of priests and suppliants, or assume an unusual degree of arrogance. But when the gods separate into two bodies, and descend to the contest, he, unmoved by passion, shuns the combat, and speaks of the quick succession of the race of man in a manner which betokens the oracular deity of Pytho.(1226) A similar spirit is perceivable in his address to the daring Diomed: “_The race of the immortal gods resembles not that of mortals._” Thus Apollo appears as the minister of vengeance, the chastiser of arrogance. Consistently with this character he destroys the proud Niobe,(1227) the unruly Aloidæ,(1228) Tityus and the Python, the enemies of the gods. His contests with Eurytus of Œchalia, and with Phorbas the Phlegyan, were grounded on historical facts; the former alluded to the enmity between the Dorians and Œchalians, the latter to that between the Pythian sanctuary and the Phlegyans.(1229)
2. We will now examine the notions of other poets on the character of Apollo as a revenging and punishing deity, in which light he is introduced by Homer. Archilochus calls upon Apollo to “_punish and destroy the guilty as he is wont to destroy them_.”(1230) Hipponax, the successor of Archilochus in vituperative satiric poetry, prays that “Artemis and Apollo may destroy thee;”(1231) and Æschylus, with manifest allusion to the name, says, Ἀπόλλων ἀπώλεσας;(1232) which, however, can hardly entitle us to infer that the name of Apollo was really derived from ἀπολεῖν;(1233) for we should lose sight of one main point, viz., the object against which his destructive powers were directed, or be reduced to consider him an universal destroyer, a character which is ill adapted to mark the nature of a divine being of any kind whatsoever. Apollo slays, indeed, but only to inflict deserved punishment. At Megara was exhibited the tomb of Corœbus, who had slain the Fury sent by Apollo against that town, to punish the crimes of the fathers by destroying their children.(1234) After this action, Corœbus was ordered to carry in his arms a tripod from Pytho, and erect on the spot where he should fall down from exhaustion, a town (Tripodiscus) and a temple to the god. This explains why many sacred fines were at Corinth, Patara, and Amphipolis,(1235) paid into the temple of Apollo, who thus appears, in some measure, as enforcing his own judgments. Æschylus refers to his office of avenging murder, where he speaks of Apollo, Pan, and Zeus, as the gods who send the Furies;(1236) Zeus as ruler of the world, Pan as the dæmon that disorders the intellect, Apollo as the god of punishment. Hence it was not without reason that the Romans believed Apollo to be represented in a statue of the god Vejovis, a terrible god, equipped with arrows.(1237) At least there is some connexion between him and Apollo καταιβάσιος, “who darts down in the lightning;” to whom the Thessalians vowed every year a hecatomb of men.(1238) At Argos it was the custom immediately after death for the relations to sacrifice to Apollo as a god of death; the priest of Apollo (the amphipolus) offered up the victim, and for consuming the fragments of the sacrifice a new fire was always kindled. On the thirtieth day afterwards a sacrifice was offered to Hermes as the conductor of souls.(1239)