Unorthodox Hiring Practices? Apollo’s Choice of the Cretan Sailors in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (original) (raw)
Related papers
172. 700-550, Apollo at Delphi and Didymaion .pdf
Joan, Eahr Amelia. Re-Genesis Encyclopedia: Synthesis of the Spiritual Dark– Motherline, Integral Research, Labyrinth Learning, and Eco–Thealogy. Part I. Revised Edition II, 2018. CIIS Library Database. (RGS.)
Apollo is said to have replaced the mother goddess/es at Olympia and Delphi in Greece–and–Didymaion in Anatolia, neither of which were fortress sites. Quite the contrary as both Didymaion and Delphi were sacred oracle sites. At Didymaion, or present Didyma, Apollo’s 650-555 BCE temple was built over the ancient oracle room known as the Chresmographeion. At Delphi, Apollo slays the mother goddess as serpent or dragon and assumes the title and power over this ancient Gaian/Gaean site (MGA: 30-38; MG: 303-310). This is discussed in Aeschylus’ Eumenides and the Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo. Given this account, Apollo appears to have eclipsed the Titans, thought to be ‘descendants of the Idean Daktyls’ or those in service to the Cretan goddesses and young gods. (Of further interest is the Sumerian myth of Marduk slaying his mother Tiamat, which bears strong similarities to the Greek Apollo myth.) (MG: 420; CDBL: 63; GOH: 250, 274; T: 453-453; ROG: 63; MHE: 154.)
How to Run a State Cult: The Organisation of the Cult of Apollo Delphinios in Miletos
The cult of Apollo Delphinios was the main state cult of Ionian Miletos, from the seventh century BC until Late Antiquity. His cult association, the so-called Molpoi, controlled access to citizenship. Their executive board formed the governing body of the prytaneis and supplied the aisymnetes-stephanephoros, the eponymous magistrate. At the beginning of every new year, the rituals of the city’s most important festival of Apollo Delphinios, including officers’ oaths, sacrifices, dining, competitions, and citizen initiations were performed. The sanctuary of Apollo, the Delphinion, incorporated the prytaneion of Miletos. It thus functioned not only as a religious, but also as a political centre of the polis, a role that is emphasized by its position in the agora. The ritualization of public space, signifying the firm bond between religion and politics, manifests itself in the New Year procession to the extra-urban sanctuary of Apollo in Didyma. This ‘bipolarity’ of the Milesian Apollo cult can also be detected in Miletos’ colonial enterprises, sanctioned by the oracle of Apollo Didymeus Milesios.
This paper aims to illustrate the significance of contemporary religious practices for Callimachus' poetry, by focusing on his Hymn to Apollo and reading it in the context of metrical and prose sacred regulations such as programmata, oracular responses, the Cyrenaean purity regulation, and the inscriptional hymns of Isyllus and Philodamos from Scarpheia. Each of these classes of text resonates in Callimachus' poetry and contributes to its rich tapestry of influences and allusions. Finally, the paper considers the Cyrenaean context of Callimachus' Hymn to Apollo as well as the connection of Callimachus' family to the cult of Apollo in Cyrene, arguing that the personal relationship Callimachus forges with Apollo in this hymn resembles the subscriptions accompanying hymns inscribed in sanctuaries. These texts also record divine approbation of the poets and list and various honors the sanctuaries have bestowed on them.