Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

424 From Daimon to Olympian [ch.
was at first advisedly ignored, then forgotten. The religion of
Apollo with its ' Nothing too much ' may well have protested
against the religion of Dionysos with its inherent ecstasy and
possible licence.
We have seen Aguieus as the symbol of life standing on
the earth-mound. It is to the cult of Apollo as emerging from
that of Gaia and more and more sharply differentiated from
hers that we must now turn. We shall best understand it by
examining the myth of the slaying of the Python, and this
brings us to our third ennaeteric festival, the Stepterion.
The Slaying of the Python.
iEschylus, as already observed, will have none of the slaying
of the snake. Our chief literary source is the Homeric Hymn to
the Pythian Apollo. Art adds very little to our knowledge,
though coins frequently represent the slaying of the Python near
the tripod, and vases, though rarely, show the infant Apollo
shooting from his mother's arms at the huge monster issuing
from a rocky cave. One monument, however, the Pompeian fresco
in Fig. 127 1
, is of some religious interest because it shows us the
Fig. 127.
Python in relation to the omphalos. The beast, wounded and
bleeding, is still coiled round it. Moreover behind the omphalos
is a high pillar which gives a grave-like look to the whole complex.
On the pillar are hung, not wreaths, but the bow and quiver of the
1 From a photograph.