Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

Apollon and Artemis 457
pany with Wilamowitz in regard to the alleged Lycian character of
Apollon and his namei. Meyer believes that Apollon was originally a
deity of flocks and herds, common to all the Greek stems, and that
later he became an oracle-giver, when identified with one or another
native oracular god on the western and southern coasts of Asia Minor
—an identification which entailed certain foreign elements in his cults
and myths, especially the story of his birth. A. L. Frothingham
(191
1)=^ conceives that Apollon, a sun-god, originated in Crete,
being none other than Chrysaor, the offspring of Medousa^ who is to
be identified with Artemis—and, for that matter, with Rhea, Kybele,
Demeter, etc.—as a form of the Great Mother^ Apollon came from
Crete to Delphoi, returning later to Crete again as Apollon Pytkios^.
Artemis too, a goddess of nature and fertility, was Cretan, if not in
her origin, at least in her development as mistress of mountains and
lions, of snakes, of doves or birds'^. In Asia Minor, between c. looo
and 6cxD B.C.', she took on the typical form of Medousa, her wings
being derived from Hittite divinities, her hideous face from the
Egyptian Bes*. The resultant Gorgoneion, a solar effigy, appears in
connexion with Artemis at Sparta^ and in Korkyra^", with Apollon
at Miletos^' and Delphoi 'I Latterly scholars have shown a distinct
tendency to return to C. O. Muller's belief in the northern origin of
Apollon, even if they do not with Muller regard him as an essentially
' Dorian god^^ L. R. Farnell (1907)" writes : We discern that Apollo
came into Hellas with the invaders from the North, and aided by the
^ Id. ibr i. 2. 64011.: 'dass der Name Apollon fremden Ursprungs sei, kann ich nicht
fiir richtig halten. Er ist uberall ein Hauptgott der Griechen, audi in den Kultformeln
bei Homer ; gerade bei den Doriern, bei denen wir am wenigsten Kleinasiatisches er-
warten durfen, ist er geradezu der Stamnigott ; und ein grosser Teil der apollinischen
Kulte und Mytheii hat mit dem Orakelgott gar nichts zu tun. Andrerseits ist der Name
Apollon in Lykien nicht nur nicht nachweisbar—das wiirde wenig beweisen, da wir
lykische Gotternamen aus den Inschriften iiberhaupt nicht kennen— , sondern der Name
' ATToWufiS-ris wird lykisch durch pulenida wiedergegeben (C I Lye. 6), ist also aus dem'
Griechischen entlehnt, was gewiss nicht der Fall sein wiirde, wenn Apollo ein altlykisches
Aquivalent gehabt hatte.
^ A. L. Frothingham 'Medusa, Apollo, and the Great Mother' in the Am. Journ.
Arch. 191 1 XV. 349—377, cp. id. ' Medusa II ' id. 1915 xix. 13—23.
^ /d. id. 191 1 XV. 357.
^ Id. id. 191 1 XV. 355.
" Id. id. igii XV. 377.
^ /d. id. 191 1 XV. 370 ff.
^1 Id. id. 191 1 XV. 355 f.
* Id. id. 191 1 xv. 349, 364.
" /d. id. 191 1 xv. 358 ff.
• ^ /d. id. 191 1 xv. 364 ff.
'" 7d. id. 191 1 xv. 356 f.
'^ /d. id. 191 1 xv. 352 ff.
^^ C. O. Muller TAe History and Antiquities of the Doric Race trans. H. Tufnell and
G. C. Lewis Oxford 1830 i. 227 ff. (p. 230 :
' The most ancient settlements of the Doric
race, of which any historical accounts are extant, were... the country at the foot of Olympus
and Ossa, near the valley of TEMPE'—p. 300: 'the worship of Apollo came from the
most northern part of Greece, from the district of Tenipe ').
^"' Farnell Cults of Gk. States iv. 99 f., 1 1 1 f.