Brilliant APOLLO

Απόλλων

Dr. Guillermo Calvo Soriano

 The Brilliant APOLLO, tutelary God of Hellenistic Culture,
after ZEUS, is the most important of the Olympian Gods,
the Patron of the Arts, of Music (of the Harmony that enchants),
the lover of the Nymphs and the Muses,
Patron of Medicine, Prophecy and Livestock.

APOLLO enjoys a special consideration, when he entered,

the Assembly of the Gods rose as a sign of respect.
 The genesis of a God
is very interesting because
it helps us to capture the
religious genius of his faithful.
The Greek gods are the result
of a grandiose synthesis, of
a long process of confrontation,
symbiosis and convergence.
APOLLO is the Hellenic god
par excellence, manifesting
all the virtualities of him,
incorporating the most
characteristic aspects and
attributes of the Greek Spirit.
 In many of his Mythical feats
he seems to go against
those Virtues, allowing himself
to be carried away many times
by the Desire for Vengeance,
Jealousy and even Rancor.
But these weaknesses
will quickly lose their
anthropomorphic character
and reveal one
of the multiple Dimensions
of the Godhead.
 He met the saddest fate of the most
unfortunate of Mortals:
he was denied the right to be born.
Leto, his Mother,
became pregnant by ZEUS,
so his wife HERA gave the Order
to Forbid him to give birth
where the SUN shone,
so in vain he traveled islands
and continents fleeing from her,
for fear of the Elder's Wife of the gods.
Furthermore, PYTHON,
the Great Serpent Dragon of Delphi
followed in his footsteps.
 At last he reached Ortigia
Island or Asteria,
an islet that floated
wandering through
the Sea, where
he found asylum.
POSIDÓN made a Water
Vault that did not allow
the Sun's Rays to pass,
circumventing
the prohibition.
The labor pains
lasted 9 days until Ilitia,
the Goddess of Childbirth,
came to attend to her
at the request
of the other Goddesses.
 The Parturition took place
at the foot of Monte Cinto,
Leto leaning
on the only Palm Tree,
with his knees on the ground.
Two Twins were born:
ARTEMIS and APOLLO.
Since then the Island took
the Name of Dhilos
“The Shining One”,
as it was covered
with a GOLDEN Cloak
at the moment of Divine Birth.
 On the 7th Day
of the 1st Month of Spring,
between the 2nd half of March
and the 1st of April,
there were 7 Laps
that the Sacred Swans
made flying,
celebrating and singing
such an event.
 As soon as he was born,
APOLLO shouted:
“Give me my LIRA
and my Curved Bow,
I am going to announce
to Men the Inflexible
Will of ZEUS”.
This explains his devotion
to Order, Law and Law.
He Represented
in the Classical Age
first of all the Legal Aspect
of Religion.
 He fed with Nectar and Ambrosia, remaining soon, turned into
a beautiful Young Man. Mounted on a Chariot of Swans, a gift from
his Father, he left Delos towards the Country of the Hyperboreans,
in the North, on the shores of the Ocean, beyond the Homeland
of the North Wind, with an always Pure sky, where he spent a year.

He returned looking for a place to establish an Oracle, liking

a Fountain inhabited by the Nymph Telfusa, who, in order not to be
displaced, convinced him to go to Delphi, where the waters are more
crystalline, even knowing that Danger would run there. He arrived
in the middle of Summer in the middle of Fiestas and Songs.
Nature celebrates him: Cicadas and Nightingales sing in his honor.
 One of the first feats
of APOLLO
consisted in punishing
the Great Serpent
or Python Dragon,
Guardian of
the Sacred Precinct
of Delphi.
Knowing that
he had threatened
his Mother,
he gave her Death
with his Arrows,
thus seizing
his future Abode.
 He is the ideal type of Hero.
He is represented as Young,
with a beautiful
and arrogant posture, full of virile
attractiveness and grace,
with abundant blond hair,
with long curls, like the petals
of thought, the crowned head
of LAUREL or golden Rays,
carrying in his hand a Quiver
already times a LIRA. A beauty
full of energy and strength.
“The God was similar to a Man No God has been reproduced
full of sap and vigor, in the as much as He.
splendor of the first youth, APOLLO from Piraeus
a floating hair ran down of 520 BC. C., 142 cm. Bronze.
the broad shoulders of him.” work of a sculptor from Nasso.
Hymn to APOLLO Pythicus. The Peloponnese.
At the request of ZEUS,he was
the Driver of the Chariot
of the SUN, towards the High
of Heaven. With the Name
of FEBO, “The Bright One”,
God of the SUN and
of LIGHT, thus the Day
dawned and Clarity invaded
every corner. He carried
the Attributes of Undefeated,
Eternal, Divine. In the
Gymnasiums and Palestras,
accompanied by HERAKLÉS
and HERMES, he was a Model
of Vigor, of Beauty
and of Eternal Youth.
Chariot of the Sun
by Giovanni Battista Crosatto.
The Personification of the SUN in APOLLO agrees wonderfully with
the Mythical Theory of the Origin of the SUN. It is not precisely
the SUN, but a Being that represents it in the Spiritual World, who
by his will exerts the same influence as the Material Star through
the Energy of his Rays. The Young had a particular devotion to him.
They offered his Hair, Solar Symbol, when cutting them the 1st
time.

Palace of Versailles
 APOLLO is the only Greek God related especially to the Number 7
and the Seventh day of the Month, which refers us to the Eastern
Week of 7 days, compared to the Greek Lunar Calendar based on
10. The most important Delphic Festivities were celebrated every
8 or every 4 years, indicating the Year of 99 Lunations had been
adopted, that is, 8 Solar Years. Year created by Astronomers of
Babylony as a closer approximation between Lunar and Solar Time.
 APOLLO is the Divinity
that presides over
the Measurement of Time.
The main days of the Year were
called Apollonian, as well as the
New Moons and the Full Moon.
It was therefore not by chance that
it was an Apollo Ship
that landed on the Moon.
Other days that were dedicated
to him were the 29th of the Month
and the beginning
of the Solar Year.

The Solar Rites of him were not celebrated in Delphi during

the 3 months of Winter and when the Day of the Birth of God
was solemnized, it was related to the Renewal of the Year.
 APOLLO's Loves
were many, he was related
to various beautiful young
women, mostly to attribute
the Paternity
of certain Characters.
With the Nymph Cyrene
he had the Hero Aristeo,
with others Miletus,
Laódoco and Polipetes,
Anio the king of Delos,
etc.
 Others of his descendants
are those who had an essential
link with their Sanctuaries or
with the Arts that he presides:
Centauro and Lapites,
the famous
Musicians ORPHEUS and Lino,
and the Coribantes, demons
of the Courtship of DIONYSOS
with the Muses Urania and Talia
among many others.

ORPHEUS
 There are other Myths in which
the Seductive Mania of the God
meets stubborn resistance:
in the legend of Daphne, Nymph
daughter of the river god Peneus
in Thessaly, inspired by
the rancor of Eros irritated
by the taunts of APOLLO at
seeing him exercise with the Bow.
She seen in distress she invoked
GEA, the Earth, who opened,
and swallowed her transformed
into LAUREL,
before being reached.

APOLLO and Daphne,

by Bernini
The Borghese Gallery Rome.
 Castalia, the Nymph of Delphi,
threw herself into the Fountain
of Sacred Waters that would later
be called the Kastalian Fountain.
Marpesa preferred the love
of the mortal Idas.
Cassandra received from God the gift
of Divination, but when she did not give
in to her claims, she withdrew from him
the gift of inspiring Confidence
in her Predictions, despite being correct.
Acanta, Nymph in love with APOLLO
was transformed into Acanthus Flower.
 The LAUREL, Sacred Plant of APOLLO, is his Emblem.
It had various cultic applications. It also had other trees
and flowers: the Palm, the Olive, the Tamarind, the Cypress, etc.
The Peasants came to APOLLO in search of Protection.
In many localities his Cult was referred to Agriculture.
 Because of his relationship with the Harvests, he is identified with
Jacinto, a pre-Hellenic god of Fertility. The Jacintas Festivities were
celebrated in honor of APOLLO-Jacinto, APOLLO unintentionally
killed him by throwing a Disc, which was deflected by Zephyr,
the West Wind, at his head. From his blood sprouted the wild
Hyacinth Flower that would recall the Forbidden Loves. His Death
and Transformation would symbolize the Life-Death Cycle of Nature
 Cipariso, Ciprés was a young
man of extraordinary beauty,
loved by APOLLO, one day
he involuntarily killed a Raven
that he had raised and highly
esteemed, so he begged God
to allow him to cry eternally
for the lost bird, for which
he was turned
into a Cypress tree,
which is a Symbol of Sadness.
These loves with Nymphs
and Mancebos changed
into Flowers and Trees
intimately unite him
with Vegetation and Nature. Rotunda of the Cypresses,
Villa d´ Este in Tivoli.
When ZEUS struck down his son
Asklepius for having dared to
Raise the Dead, APOLLO
furiously killed the Cyclops
makers of the Rays of ZEUS,
and was about to be plunged
into Tartarus. Thanks to Leto's
pleas, he only ordered him,
to humiliate him, to work
in the service of a mortal King
Admetus of Feras, one year.

Asklepius
He rewarded his Patron by making his Cows always have Twins.
Little HERMES stole them and had to return them giving away
the LIRA that he had just made with the shell of a Tortoise
and the guts of an Ox. HERMES later made the first Syrinx,
Flute of various reeds of different lengths, which he exchanged
with the Caduceus, Rod with which APOLLO guided his Cows.
It explains the Consecration of God to Music and Poetic Arts.
The APOLLO Aukelos, Lobuno, is the protector of the Flocks.The
Bow and the Arrows that he carries as attributes were the
instrument with which he killed the Wolves, an animal that was
sometimes offered to him in Sacrifice, whose image is frequently
associated with his on the Coins. The Swan, Vulture,
Raven, Rooster, Hawk, Cicada, Snake, Deer, Roe deer and Dolphin
were other animals consecrated to him, Symbols of the Sun God.
 APOLLO Cárneo
is the Divine Shepherd
who presides over
the Fertility of the Cattle.
The character
of the Musician must have
been in solidarity with that
of the Pastor,
since Music appears
in the Myth
as his favorite Occupation,
playing the Flute
and the Syringa.
 While the 7-String LIRA is characteristic of POETS. APOLLO
was the God of Music, Song and Verse Exameter. In his Cult one
of the main Elements was the Dance accompanied by the Zither
or the Lyre. “He strums the Zither or the concave Lyre deftly,
radiating splendor around him among the Immortal Gods
covered with divine perfumed Vestments”. Homer.
 In the Work “Parnaso” by Raffaello Sanzio in the Stanza della
Segnatura APOLLO in the center is the focus of attention.
All bear their eyes on the image of God, the Muses with their
expressive faces, the attitudes of their bodies and even the folds
of their garments follow him. A group of Poets ascend the Sacred
Mount of the Muses, together with the great Minds of Antiquity,

the Giants of
the Renaissance:
Anacreon, Ennio,
Dante, Homer,
Virgilio,
Sannazzaro,
Horacio,
among others.
This is how
POETRY
is celebrated.
 The MUSES, incarnation of the Arts, had the ability to inspire
all kinds of POETRY, then all forms of Art, finally presiding over all
Manifestation of INTELLIGENCE. Together with APOLLO
they enliven the Banquet of the Gods with the Song of him.
Initially there were only 3, those that guard the Sanctuary
of APOLLO in Delphi for possessing Prophetic Virtues.
 By presiding over the Choir
of the MUSES.
It is called APOLLO Musagettes.
The MUSES were initially
conceived as an inseparable
Ensemble, then each had
a specific Art: Calliope
the Eloquence or Epic Poetry,
Clío the History,
Erato the Choral Lyric,
the Elegy or the Erotic Poetry,
Melpómene the Tragedy, Polymnia
the Pantomime,
the Lyric Poetry and the Festive
and Solemn Song,
Talía the Comedy,
Terpsichore the Dance
and Urania the Astronomy.
 In Delos APOLLO
was associated with
the CHARITES, images
of the dazzling Rays
of the Rising Sun,
divinities related to Music,
Greek goddesses
of Donaire and Grace. There
were almost
always 3 :
Aglia the Shining,
Euphrosyne the Good Humor
and Talea
the Flourishing.
The Roman Graces
were his equivalent.
 Midas, king of Phrygia, considered in a Musical Contest that Pan
was a better musician than APOLLO, but APOLLO was declared
the Winner by the majority vote of the MUSES. In punishment
he made Donkey Ears grow, so he used a Cap to hide the Secret from
him, threatening his Barber with Death if he revealed it. Burdened
by such weight, he made a hole in the Earth,
in order to tell the Truth, that some Reeds spread
every time the wind moved them ...

Judgment of Midas - Andrea Schiavone - Gallery of Fine Arts Venice

 Marsyas old Satyrus, one day
found the Flute that ATENA
threw because when using it
her face was deformed,
by herself she played
a beautiful melody. Thus
deceived he challenged
APOLLO to a Contest where
the Winner would have the
loser. APOLLO ordered it
to be played in an inverted
position. Unable to do so,
he was hanged from
a pine tree where
he was skinned alive.
Those who mourned
his death formed a river
Titian Marsias that bears his name.
 POSIDON, god of the Sea
and of Reasoning, and APOLLO,
God of Hidden Things,
appeared before Laomedon,
Priam's father, as Bricklayers.
They raised the Walls of Troy.
In other words, they established
the Trojan Religion,
a way of symbolizing the
Constructions of Moral Meaning.
APOLLO also helped Alcatoo
rebuild the Megara Walls.

APOLLO - Hermitage Museum

 The oldest and most important
factor of it is
HEALTH and MEDICINE,
Corporal and Spiritual Purity, which
is recognized in the Hippocratic Oath
that still today
we doctors devoutly pronounce.
“I swear by APOLLO Physician,
by Asklepius, Higia and Panacea,
and by all the Gods and Goddesses
whom I put
as Witnesses of the Observance
of the following Oath
that I force myself to fulfill,
what I offer,
with all my Strength and Will ...”
 He is the God of Disease,
Plagues, Epidemics,
the Conjurer of Evils
in his various forms.
Protector of Men,
Animals and Crops.
Presented as an Archer,
he receives the Titles
of “Bearer of the Bow”,
“Arrowhead”,
“The One with the Silver Bow”,
but not as God of War
or Hunting, since his Arrows are
the Symbolic Agent
of Disease, only explains the
relationship between the Power
of APOLLO and his Attribute.
 Originally, Epidemics and certain Diseases were considered
as external manifestations of the State of Spiritual Impurity
of the Individual or the Community due to a Sacrificial Conduct,
which could be averted by means of certain Purifying Rites.
Thus the God of Diseases is also the Purifying Dod:
APOLLO Kavapolos o Katharsios.

Temple
of APOLLO.
Pompeii
 In the Precipitation to the Sea, the Papyaxós, the individual who
delivered Evil to the Community, was expelled, since he symbolically
assumed All the Sins and Impurities of him
in the Ionian Feasts called Targelias.
Orestes killed his mother as punishment for having killed his father
Agamemnon. APOLLO defended him at the trial, being acquitted by
ATENA. She converted the ERINIAS, symbols of the telluric and
material Forces, which could not leave without Vengeance the most
terrible of Crimes, she made them beneficial, entrusting them to
nourish and sustain Life. APOLLO is an opponent of destruction
of Life, for which
he disavowed
the practice of Vindicta,
replacing it with Justice,
after Purification
of the Murderer,
to clean the Miasma
or Maleficent Stain,
through the Sacrifice
of a Pig,
an animal of the Chthonic
and Infernal Powers.
 APOLLO is the God
of Sudden Death,
the one he provoked through
his Darts.
He was thus both Loving
and Vengeful,
bearing the native mark
of the Ancient Beliefs
that somewhat obscure
and tarnish
the Brightness of his Legend
and the Glory of him.
As Head of the MOIRAS, Greek goddesses of DESTINY, the Delphic
God receives the epithet of APOLLO Moraigetes. With their
respective actions, the Daughters of the Night symbolize
the Fatality of Destiny: Clotho, the one who spins the Thread of Life;
Lachesis the one that winds it, is the one that distributes the destiny;
Atropo the Unyielding is the one that Cuts Him.
 Niobe boasted of being more fertile than Leto. Her Twins APOLLO
and ARTEMIS, darts killed her children and
left the talkative transformed into Rock…
On Mount Sípilo de Lidia there was a Rock
with the figure of a woman: “Get close,
Stranger, and contemplate weeping the
infinite sorrows of Níobe, the loquacious
Tantálide, whose sons and daughters,
the twelve, falling to the ground are under
the Darts of Phoebus and those of Artemis.
And she, taking a stone, already perishes
as a mixture of flesh and rock, and the cold
Sypilo groans. Traitor is the Evil that hides
in the tongue of man: Unbridled Folly
often brings mourning”.
The Twins attacked the Giants Oto and Efialtes for trying to rape
HERA or ARTEMIS herself, they also killed the Giant Ticio
for trying to do the same with Leto.
 During the Trojan War,
Laocoon, Priest of the Temple
of APOLLO, opposed the entry
of the Traitor Horse,
stating that he contained
enemy Warriors, for which
he even threw a Spear at him.
He dedicated a Sacrifice
to POSIDON by unleashing
a Tempest against the fleeing
Achaean Fleet. During
this Ceremony, 2 huge
Serpents came out of the Sea,
strangling the Priest
and his children.

The Trojans mistakenly saw in it a Divine Punishment.

 To celebrate the famous Delias Festivities, the Priests, Choristers
and Singers left Athens on a 4-day journey in Galeras de 30 Remos,
arriving on a Pilgrimage along the Via de la Procession in Delos,
singing the Pean Apollonian.
 They passed by the Terrace of the 9 Monumental Lionesses,
marble works from the 7th century BC. C., with a long body, which
retain a great hieratism, giving the impression of a retained Force ...
 In front of the Altar of
the Temple of APOLLO
made with the Horns of Wild
Goats by him slain in Delos,
the Sacred Dances were
practiced to proceed to t
he Hecatomb or Sacrifice
of 100 Oxen in Honor
of the Divinity.
Then he proceeded
to the Athletic, Musical
and Dramatic Contest,
to culminate with
the Distribution of Prizes
and the Grand Banquet.
 As a result of the Epidemic
of the year 443 a. C., the Romans
dedicated a Temple Outside
the Walls to him, The Apollinare
in a place near the Capitol.
During the Campaigns against
Aníbal, the help of APOLLO
was enlisted, which is why some
Games were created in his honor:
the Ludi Apollinares. Later,
the Emperor Augustus ordered
him to build a magnificent
Temple on the Palatine
in gratitude
for his victory in Accio.
Accio Terracotta Ballast.
 “APOLLO is the Triumph
of Plastic Art, he is the Genius
of the Principle of Individuation.
APOLLO triumphs over the suffering
of the Individual with the help of the
Radiant Glorification of Appearance.
Beauty transports the Individual over
the inherent Evil of Life.
Pain is in a certain sense illusory
suppressed from
the features of Nature”

Nietzche

APOLLO from Michelangelo

 Temple of APOLLO in Corinth, Doric building from 540 BC. C.,
near Mount Olympus. Corinth is at the junction of the Peloponnese
with Central Greece. In the Sanctuary a Priestess served as Speaker
of APOLLO, identifying herself with him. This experience had
the form of Sexual Union, which did not happen among the Greeks,
since their Priests were of the same sex.
 The Oracle of APOLLO is famous in Didymus, El Didimaion, near
Miletus. Other recognized oracles are those of Claro near Ephesus,
the islands of Delos, Lesbos and Chios. In Continental Greece: from
Thessaly, several in Boeotia and that of APOLLO Pitio in Arejas.
 The most important Sanctuary of APOLLO is the famous Oracle
of Delphi, the best known in the Ancient World, in Boeotia,
on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, the Mansion of the Muses.
The OMPHALOS or Navel of the World, identifies it as the Center
of the Earth. This Oracle served to link all the Hellenes,
characterized by its special political significance.

OMPHALOS
 The LIRA is one of the attributes
of APOLLO Patron of Fine Arts
and Sciences, god of Harmony.
The Lyre is a symbol and instrument
of Cosmic Harmony, a preferred means of
expressing measured expressions of mind,
of a serene character.
The Measure regulates the movements
of the body, the Harmony of the Voice.
The 7 strings correspond to the 7 Planets,
they agree with their vibrations like
those in their Cosmic Revolutions.
MUSIC is an incorporeal Art that can
lead Man beyond the limits of the Finite
...
 The LIRA or Zither is the Attribute of APOLLO, the main
characteristic of him, when touched It enchants the Gods, beasts and
even the stones, for which it presides over Divination, establishing
the Direct Contact of the Seer with the Divinity. There is a close
connection between Poetry and Prophecy, neither of them is possible
without some form of Divine Revelation. The Obtaining of the
Hidden Knowledge is always associated with an Exaltation of the
Spirit, explaining the capital importance of Music and Poetry here.
The BOW, the second main Attribute
of APOLLO has a Ritual Use,
with its universally diffused
symbolism. APOLLO is “the one
who throws his Darts from Afar”.
The Greek genius brilliantly revalued
this archaic theme, revealing
other spiritual situations:
- The Domain of Distance,
whose consequence is Detachment
from the Immediate,
from the Viscosity of the Concrete.
- And the Calm and Serenity
that all Effort of Concentration
implies Intellectual.
 Heraclitus affirmed that
“HARMONY is the result
of a tension between Opposites,
such as those of the Bow and
the Lyre”. In APOLLO they are
assumed and integrated
into a new configuration, thus
reconciling with DIONYSOS.
The Demonic Dimension that
all Knowledge of WHAT implies
HIDDEN is thus exorcised.
It is significant that this discovery
of the Spirit appears after
a Series of Conflicts,
a Reconciliation
and with the Mastery of Ecstatic
and Oracular Techniques.
 APOLLO is certainly something more than a tutelary God
of the Ecstatics, he is a Knower of the HIDDEN and of the FUTURE.
The VISIONS, Gift par excellence of APOLLO, given by God incite
to Think and incline to Meditation and ultimately propel
the individual along the Path of WISDOM.
APOLLO is the Highest Exponent
of the Apollonian Virtues,
Serenity, Respect for Law
and Order and Divine Harmony.
The Cult of APOLLO was very
favorable to Civilization because
of his great influence
on Human Life and Society,
in a way as broad and beneficial
as that of the SUN itself
in the Universe.
His Positive attitudes
are for Us generators of Hope.
 The Apollonian Tripod, symbol of the drives, base of Harmony rests
on two wings of an eagle or swan, its handles welded to the Cup are
shaped like a Circle. APOLLO seated and bent with Bow and Lyre
in hand, crosses Space. He perhaps he is going to the Country
of the Hyperboreans. His Wings indicate the Elevation of the Spirit,
the Circles the Sun and Perfection, the 3 of the Tripod a Divine
Manifestation, the Cup the receptacle of Celestial Communications,
Hydria of the Arc and and the Arrows
the Vatican the Sun and the Rays of him,
the Lyre the Harmony.
He is the image of
a wonderful and calm Flight
towards Ecstasy and
Perfection, above Earthly
Thoughts and Desires,
Symbol of the Sun God,
of the Delphic Oracles, of
Apollonian Contemplation
 The Apollonian Lesson par excellence is expressed in the famous
Delphi Formula “KNOW YOURSELF”, but in the others Intelligence,
Knowledge, Knowledge are considered the Divine Models
established by the Gods, first by APOLLO.
The Apollonian Serenity becomes for the Greek and for Us,
the Emblem of the SPIRITUAL PERFECTION that we long for ...
 Poem “Brilliant APOLLO”
in Exámeter Verses
by Dr. Guillermo Calvo Soriano

APOLLO Beautiful
Lord of the Arts
The Lyre and the Muses
That you Life sweeten
With your Poetry
Of Enchantment
and Music.
 SUN Arrow
Your Bow is the Iris
Of infinite tones
Divine Justice
Fight with Us
Against Cruel Death.
Physician APOLLO
You who reconcile
The Contradictions
of Knowledge
You bring
everything closer
Well you move
everything away..
 Purifying
Straightens the Course
of our Paths
And between Darkness
May your LIGHT
Lead Our SPIRITS.
 May your
Generous Vision
allow us
The hidden SUN
So that under
its protection
we Raise
the WISDOM Temple.
 Brilliant APOLLO
Give the World
Health and Purity,
Love and the Strength
That Gives Beauty.
Peace among Men…!

SAVE APOLLO !!!