Transcript Apollo, Athena and Hermes Toledo Museum of Art

Apollo and Artemis
• Children of Zeus and Leto
• Apollo god of prophecy and healing, referred to as
Phoebus (=who shines?)
• Roman name for Artemis-Diana
• Leto was a Titaness, daughter of Coeus and
Phoebe.
• Birth of the twins. Leto persecuted by Hera.
Apollo born on Delos and Artemis on Ortygia,
floating islands. Then islands anchored.
Apollo of the Hymn to Apollo
• Late 6th century
• Two major parts> PART 1: “Delian” part
-Apollo’s birth on island of Delos
PART 2: “Pythian” part
-Apollo’s arrival in Delphiestablishment of cult
“DELIAN” PART
• Leto wanders to find a place to give birth to her
children. Why?
• Dialogue between Leto and Delos. Leto’s oath
• DELOS: “I welcome the birth of the lord who
shoots from afar.
• Leto/childbirth motif/description of Apollo’s birth.
Was Leto alone? NO, list of goddesses in line 94ff
Homeric Hymn to Apollo (page 26). Eileithyia,
daughter of Zeus and Hera, came after receiving
the gift, a necklace (see in vase).
• Apollo’s cult on Delos
• Delight with music and dances. Long-robed
Ionians with their children and wives.
Delian maidens (DELIADES) sing in
memory of men and women of old time,
know how to mimic voices and rhythms of
all men.
• Apollo to Olympus
Why wandering?
• What does wandering signify?
-gradual establishment of the myth.
Also the idea of the island taking credit for welcoming the
god>it became the center for ancient Greek religion.
. The wandering then means that how rules and regulations
and cult was formally established.
Wandering from the point of view of poetics: wandering
Leto, wandering gods, wandering POETS.
READING THE HOMERIC HYMN to Apollo as a way of
understanding performances of epic and lyric poetry.
Compare with Birth of Athena
• Birth of Athena (who emerged from Zeus'
head) with Eileithyia on the right, redfigured amphora, third quarter of the 6th
century BC, Louvre
LOUVRE- PARISBirth of Athena.
Attic “Exaleiptron”
(black-figured
tripod), ca. 570–560
BC. Found in
Thebes
Temple of Leto in Delos
Remains of temple of Apollo in
Delos
DELPHIAN
PART
The making of an Olympian God
•
• New quest where to make the temple
• Dialogue between Apollo and Telphousa (a nymph of a
spring in Boiotia, central Greece, north of Athens).
Telphousa’s trick on the god. Over sovereignty? Urged
him to go to Delphi
• Temple-oracle
• Pytho- monster. When Apollo decided to establish his
temple at Delphi he found near a spring a dragon called
Pytho (or Python in other sources).
• Hera gave birth to TYPHAON, on her own, in anger for
Athena’s birth by Zeus. Typhaon was brought up by
Pytho. IMPORTANCE OF BIRTH STORIES IN
HOMERIC HYMN
• Feminist reading of this part. Dragon/Dragoness
• Pytho a child of Gaia, could pronounce oracles>rival to
Apollo - Apollo killed Pytho.
• Pythian Apollo, from name of place Pytho, after
the dragon. Motif of heroism (triumph over
monsters becomes part of heroic identity)
• Punishment of Telphousa
• Finding priests• Cretan ship- Dialogue with the god
• Note: “dancing in his train the Cretans followed
him to Pytho, they were chanting paeans.
Delphi-Temple of Apollo
Delphi- view from the theater
Delphi- A “reconstruction”
Apollo, Athena and Hermes
Toledo Museum of Art
Apollo and Artemis attacking giants: Treasury of the
Siphnians in Delphi: Gigantomachy, ca 525 BC
Apollo and Artemis: Pan Painter, ca 490
BC
Apollo of Piombino: Late Archaic: ca 480 BC
Apollo and the Muses: Thasos: relief, ca 480 BC
Apollo and a Muse:
Attic kylix, ca 460 BC
Seated Apollo: Sotades workshop, ca 460 BC
Apollo before his temple: Painter of the Birth
of Dionysos, ca 380-370 BC
Musical contest of Apollo and Marsyas:
Praxiteles, ca 320 BC
Apollo: Sansovino, Andrea, 1502,
Apollo: Caraglio, Gian Jacopo, 1526
Apollo and Marsyas: Tintoretto, 1545
Apollo and Daphne: Bernini, Gian Lorenzo, 16221625
Apollo and Daphne
John W. Waterhouse
Apollo and Daphne
POLLAIOLO, Antonio del
Italian painter and sculptor, Florentine school (b. 1431/32, Firenze, d. 1498, Roma
Tempera on wood, 30 x 20 cm
National Gallery, London
Nicolas Poussin. Apollo and Muses. 1631-1632. Oil
on canvas. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.