#delphian oracle

[rhianna]

The Delphic oracle, its early history, influence and fall, by Rev. T. Dempsey, with a prefatory note by R. S. Conway.

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Main AuthorDempsey, T.Language(s)English PublishedOxford, B.H. Blackwell, 1918. SubjectsDelphian oracle Delphian oracle. Physical Descriptionxxiii, 199, [1] p. 20 cm.

[apiswitchcraft]

orphic hymns to apollo and diana

i should mention that i did NOT write these!! they are from like the 1st century AD lol

APOLLO:

Blest Pæan, come, propitious to my prayer, illustrious power, whom Memphian tribes revere,

Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health, Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth.

Spermatic, golden-lyred, the field from thee receives it's constant, rich fertility.

Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing, Python-destroying, hallowed, Delphian king:

Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head, noble and lovely, armed with arrows dread:

Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine, power far diffused, and course oblique is thine.

O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye views all within, and all beneath the sky:

Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure, who, omens good reveals, and precepts pure:

Hear me entreating for the human kind, hear, and be present with benignant mind;

For thou surveys this boundless æther all, and every part of this terrestrial ball

Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight, extends beneath the gloomy, silent night;

Beyond the darkness, starry-eyed, profound, the stable roots, deep fixed by thee are found.

The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine, thyself all the source and end divine:

'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire, with various-sounding, harmonizing lyre;

Now the last string thou tuned to sweet accord, divinely warbling now the highest chord;

The immortal golden lyre, now touched by thee, responsive yields a Dorian melody.

All Nature's tribes to thee their difference owe, and changing seasons from thy music flow

Hence, mixed by thee in equal parts, advance Summer and Winter in alternate dance;

This claims the highest, that the lowest string, the Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring.

Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horned named, emitting whistling winds through Syrinx famed;

Since to thy care, the figured seal is consigned, which stamps the world with forms of every kind.

Hear me, blessed power, and in these rites rejoice, and save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

DIANA:

Hear me, Jove's daughter, celebrated queen, Bacchian and Titan, of a noble mien:

In darts rejoicing and on all to shine, torch-bearing Goddess, Dictynna divine;

Over births presiding, and thyself a maid, to labor-pangs imparting ready aid:

Dissolver of the zone and wrinkled care, fierce huntress, glorying in the Sylvan war:

Swift in the course, in dreadful arrows skilled, wandering by night, rejoicing in the field:

Of manly form, erect, of bounteous mind, illustrious dæmon, nurse of human kind:

Immortal, earthly, bane of monsters fell, 'tis thine; blest maid, on woody hills to dwell:

Foe of the stag, whom woods and dogs delight, in endless youth who flourish fair and bright.

O, universal queen, august, divine, a various form, Cydonian power, is thine:

Dread guardian Goddess, with benignant mind auspicious, come to mystic rites inclined

Give earth a store of beauteous fruits to bear, send gentle Peace, and Health with lovely hair,

And to the mountains drive Disease and Care.

Dividers by @vibeswithrenai

[thetelesterion]

Blest Pæan, come, propitious to my pray'r, illustrious pow'r, whom Memphian tribes revere, Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health, Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth . Spermatic, golden-lyr'd, the field from thee receives it's constant, rich fertility. Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing, Python-destroying, hallow'd, Delphian king: Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head, noble and lovely, arm'd with arrows dread: Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine, pow'r far diffused, and course oblique is thine. O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye views all within, and all beneath the sky: Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure, who, omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure: Hear me entreating for the human kind, hear, and be present with benignant mind; For thou survey'st this boundless æther all, and ev'ry part of this terrestrial ball Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight, extends beneath the gloomy, silent night; Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound, the stable roots, deep fix'd by thee are found. The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine, thyself all the source and end divine: 'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire, with various-sounding, harmonising lyre; Now the last string thou tun'ft to sweet accord, divinely warbling now the highest chord; Th' immortal golden lyre, now touch'd by thee, responsive yields a Dorian melody. All Nature's tribes to thee their diff'rence owe, and changing seasons from thy music flow Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts, advance Summer and Winter in alternate dance; This claims the highest, that the lowest string, the Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring . Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horn'd nam'd, emitting whistling winds thro' Syrinx fam'd; Since to thy care, the figur'd seal's consign'd, which stamps the world with forms of ev'ry kind. Hear me, blest pow'r, and in these rites rejoice, and save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

Orphic Hymn to Apollon, translated by Thomas Taylor.

[talonabraxas]

Servant of Delphian Apollo! Go to the Castalian spring; Wash in its silvery eddies, And return cleansed to the temple. Guard your lips from offence. To those who ask for oracles Let the god's answer come Pure from all private fault. -Euripides

Apollo - God of Prophesy, Medicine & the Arts Talon Abraxas

From his holy seat on the slopes of Parnassus, radiant Apollo gazed far out over the wine-dark sea. His long golden locks rippled round his noble head like tongues of a fiery corona, illuminating the mountain crags nearby, casting a glow that streamed down to Corinthian waters below. Far-reaching was the light that shone from that godly form and more far-reaching still the penetrating gaze that followed the distant progress of a small Cretan ship that set sail from Knossos on the Mediterranean Sea. To the ends of the earth those eyes could see and into the secret hearts of men. Looking thus on the small ship's crew, Apollo saw in them the priests he would need for his Delphic shrine. He suddenly transformed himself into the shape of a dolphin and, leaping aboard the vessel, he marshalled the south wind to blow them off course. Seized by forces they could not combat, the startled sailors found themselves swept along past the yawning cliffs of Taenaron where the entrance to Hades gaped. Past Messenia and up along the western Peloponnese they were driven until, at the bidding of the god, the west wind scuttled them into the Corinthian gulf and onto the bay near grape-laden Krissa. At this gentle shore Apollo leapt out of the ship as a shining god and bid the crew to mount up to Pytho and become his priests. Dazzled by his power and beauty, they willingly agreed and marched to the melody of his lyre as he took them up the rocky slopes to Delphi.

Six hundred years before the Christian era, the temple of Apollo at Delphi stood in pristine solitude on those rocky slopes. The stadium, theatre, club and round chamber and all the treasuries dedicated by city-states did not yet exist. Even earlier, before the coming of the great god to that place, there were Pythian rituals presided over by seeresses called Pythia who derived their power from the chthonic forces within the earth. There was said to have been a remoteness and dignity possessed by these early Pythia which was enriched during the early centuries that witnessed the flowering of Apollonian religion but was lost by Plutarch's time. After the coming of Christianity the oracle became silent, and Julian the Apostate, in a last effort to restore the finest pagan beliefs, sent a famous doctor, Oribasius, to see if he could revive the spirit of Delphi. For the last time the Pythia spoke, in poignant words to the world outside:

Tell the King the fair-wrought house has fallen. No shelter has Apollo, nor sacred laurel leaves; The fountains now are silent; the voice is stilled.

The last temple of Apollo was plundered and torn down about thirty-six years later, in A.D. 398, by the Christian emperor Arcadius, not to come to light again for over fifteen hundred years. It was fitting that Apollo should have come to Delphi, whose ancient name, Pytho, referred to the sacred function of the seeresses there. The Greeks and others before them considered him to be the personification of seership, appearing to his seers without being visible to other persons present. Cassandra of Troy was one on whom the spirit of Apollo descended, not without violence to her nature. Cursed with a gift of prophecy which none would believe, the poor girl saw the details of her own imminent murder and cried out as her last request to those who could credit her dire vision of death: "Remember me, and say I told the truth!" With this last effort to convey an essential statement about the meaning of her life, Cassandra asserted the primacy of true perception to a priestess of Apollo. Coming from Ilium, she was an example of those who had dedicated themselves to the god's worship along the eastern shores of the Aegean and in inner Anatolia as well. Temples dedicated to Apollo are older and more numerous in these regions, prompting many to assume that he came to the Greeks from Asia Minor. For this reason, they argue, Homer made him the champion of the Trojans, whose persecution of the Greeks is dramatically pictured in the Iliad.

Some scholars claim an Asian, some a northern (Hyperborean), origin for Apollo. Gilbert Murray suggested a compromise which might include both locales through an Asian mother and a Hyperborean father. Of course, in later Hellenic mythology, Apollo is depicted as a son of Zeus, though this may seem to be a somewhat contrived grafting of a foreign god onto an essentially Greek cosmogonical tree. All sources agree that he was a son of Leto, who seems to have had her origin in Lycia, where inscriptions concerning the Titaness are to be found. There is, however, an occult tradition that links up Leto (or Latona) with Hyperborea and with a period of gods much earlier than even the Titanic precursors of Zeus. But in the popular belief of classical times, Leto was associated with Apollo's birth on Delos, whose island inhabitants she promised would host the building of her newborn son's first temple. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes how, when his birth was nigh, "she gripped with both hands the palm trees that grew there, and with both feet she kneaded the soft meadowland. The soil laughed beneath her, the god sprang forth and the goddess cried aloud." Forthwith Apollo announced: "Dear to me shall be lyre and bow, and in my oracles I shall reveal to men the inexorable will of Zeus." It is said that swans circled seven times singing around the island at his birth, a mythical detail which marks the importance of the number 7 to the god but also suggests an origin further to the north. Singing swans and the amber associated with Apollo are elements of the northern climes, of that sacred Isle of the Blessed called not Delos, but Hyperborea.

Of this mysterious place the ancients said, "No ship and no traveller can reach that land." In spite of the importance of Delos as a centre of traditional Apollonian ritual, it was commonly asserted by many drawn to the Mysteries that only those whom Apollo chose could see that fabulous Hyperborea. There, it was said, "Phoebus' ancient garden" was located and thither he vanished with his swans every year. Occult tradition reveals an intimate relationship between the name Latona (Leto) and the long (six-month) night of the Hyperborean region which, it is suggested, is the place of her origin wherein all the inhabitants were priests of her son. This polar Hyperborea is said to be the Second Continent, associated with the Second Race, which enjoyed an ethereal state of development long before newer land masses arose to become the seats of more materially evolved Races. Some say Hyperborea was a garden-island that became lost beneath the ice-cap of a changing earth. Others assert that it never physically existed but floated, nay, still floats, in a more ethereal realm where the gods dwell.

There are many mysterious and seemingly scattered elements surrounding the birth of Apollo. The swans connected with it are symbolic of both fire and water, before the separation of the elements. Artemis, Apollo's twin sister, is always present at the time of his birth, as though she were simply a female aspect of himself. It has been asserted that the name Apollo means 'from the depths of the lion' and expresses the relationship of the sun with the fifth sign of the zodiac, Leo. Though this meaning is by no means universally endorsed, it is extremely provocative and reminds one of the passage of Leo 'into the pit', which takes place every sidereal cycle. This suggestively links up with the periodic renovation of the earth, involving the polar shifts associated with the rise and obscuration of land masses on this globe. It explains the tilt of the earth in relation to the zodiacal belt, at which point first Leo and then Astraea (Virgo) disappear below the earth's equator and descend, seemingly, towards its South Pole. It requires little imagination to envision Leto in the place of Virgo and to see her providing the birth channel through which the god of light (the Sun in Leo) can manifest into the grosser, more material world. This is made more intriguing when one recalls that in classical myth Tartarus was said to be a distance below the earth equal to nine days' fall of an anvil from its edge. Pondering the nine days of intense labour Leto underwent in order to bear forth her son, several intriguing connections present themselves and also intimate the difficulty of channelling the pure light of a high solar being into the world.

Equally suggestive is the fact that Leto was the daughter of Koios (Sphairos or 'Ball of Heaven') and would seem to have provided a link between an egg-shaped substance-ancestor and an androgynous deity. This line of generation is tangentially reminiscent of the description by Aristophanes of an earlier race of men whose "bodies were round, and the manner of their running was circular. They were terrible in force and strength and had prodigious ambition. Hence Zeus divided each of them into two, making them weaker; Apollo, under his direction, closed up the skin." H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine invites the reader to compare this with Ezekiel's vision of the four divine beings who "had the likeness of a man" and yet the appearance of a wheel, "for the support of the living creature was in the wheel". All this points to an immense evolution from etheric spheres of evolving intelligence to more fragmented and specialized forms involving the work of the lunar Pitris. The article on "Aquarian Civilization" (Hermes, December 1983) sketches in a few glowing lines a lofty overview of this process. It states that many of the gods of old belonged to the First Race of humanity, the demigods to the Second, until, in the Third Race, humanity emerged and passed through several stages from the androgynous to the dual-sexed condition of historic times.

Apollo expresses in his ancestry and nature many of the characteristics found at different levels of this evolution. He is, first and foremost, a high god who is 'Ever-Distant' and who stuns the other Olympian gods with his aloof and stern ways. In the Iliad he is called "the Greater God", said to have appeared in his own form four times in connection with the divine dynasties of the earlier unseparated Lemurians. In his role of solar deity he had thus spawned, as it were, races and lineages within races which themselves were known in the ancient world as solar dynasties. Just prior to Apollo's birth, Leto was pursued by jealous Hera, who sent Python to devour the babe. This 'dragon' represents the Naga of the North Pole who drives out the early Lemurians from a land which is withdrawing from the gradually concretizing world. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden who precipitates Eve's fall, Python forces the birth of serf-conscious godhood into the world. For the humans-to-be this will remain in potentia, whilst in the god it is full blown. In him is the Creative Fire of Life, acting through seven aspects (as with the Kabiri) upon matter. In myth, Apollo is made to seek revenge for his mother's abuse by going directly to Delphi, where the dragon Python has his lair.

This 'dragon' was sometimes called Delphyne and said to have been female and converted into an Apollonian serpent or Pythia, which was the name of the priestesses who acted as oracles for the god at Delphi. There is, in fact, much confusion about the various dragons and it seems apparent that an older and more profound teaching passed down through the ancient Mysteries had become diminished and popularized to suit a local set of circumstances. The egg of primordial substance – being identified with heaven – had become the omphalos guarded by the Delphian Python, and the wise dragon of the Sacred Isle had become identified with the chthonic powers of the earth and the delivery of her psychic prophecy. In the myths Apollo slew this Python with his arrows, which symbolize the rays of the sun, thus asserting the superiority of solar intelligence over the limited sensibilities of elemental powers. By this assertion Apollo proclaimed himself the archetypal god of the Mysteries. With the full sunlight of mind available through him, human beings could come to see clearly the inner nature of things. In this role Apollo appeared as a mason before Laomedon, Priam's father, and instructed him in the building of Ilium (which, in reality, involved the establishment of the Mysteries at that place and time).

As an archer, Apollo is called 'the Far-Darter'. He (like his sister, Artemis) shoots unerringly and unseen from afar. As he regularly withdraws to Hyperborean darkness, so Apollo ever withdraws from men and remains aloof. In this quality he has been called the most Greek of all gods. Though given to spasms of passionate intemperance, the Hellenes were inclined to subdue this tendency and embraced a measured mode more than the enthusiasm of Dionysiac expression. The Dionysiac temper connotes intoxication, suggesting proximity, whilst the Apollonian advocates clarity and form resultant from distance, an objectivity of cognition. Everything about Apollo rejects entangling things: the melting gaze, soulful mergings, mystical inebriation or ecstatic vision are all disdained. The Apollonian desires spirit rather than soul, purity rather than ardent worship. The upholding of purity is a manifest element in the cool aloofness of Apollo. Ever mindful of the proper order and balance of things, he is quick to punish those who break the sacred codes. Vivid passages in the Iliad portray his wrath as he strides into the path of Patroclus, shattering him in the midst of his charge. It is Apollo by whom Achilles will be vanquished, along with numberless other Greeks at Troy. Because Atrides of the Achaeans refused to return the captive Chryseis to her father Chryses, the god strode down in a fury from Olympus: "And the arrows clanged upon his shoulders in his wrath, as the god moved; and he descended like to night (quickly). Then he sate him aloof from the ships, and let the arrows fly; and there was heard a dread clanging of the silver bow."

So radiant and penetrating is the purity and sharp clarity of Apollo that his fire is too intense for the impure natures of this world. Any amalgamation of partial truths and delusions was doomed before the laser beam of his penetrating glance. Mortals, nymphs and demigods with whom he felt enamoured were in danger of losing their lives in the face of its too concentrated attention. The problem of how a high solar force might manifest in the world was resolved only in stages. Leto had to leave the ethereal purity of Hyperborea to bear him into the world, and,in giving him his lordly vesture, she had to struggle through the realm of Tartarus and back again to a worldly place. The darkness into which he was born was not that of the Blessed Isle but of the world, and yet, even clothed in these limiting vestures in which he manifested from time to time, he remained utterly pure and superior to all conditioned existence. Something of this is captured in the sculptured Apollo at the temple of Zeus at Olympia. One who sees it can never forget it. Outstretched arms enjoin calm. Loftiness shines out of his countenance, whose serenity combines the most delicate curve of jaw and chin with a powerfully regal brow and nose. About the strong and noble mouth there is a delicate, almost melancholy expression of superior knowledge. Virile strength and clarity are combined with the splendour of the sublime. He displays youth in its freshest bloom and purity. He embodies the compelling manifestation of the divine. Amidst the desolation, confusion and impurity of the world, he startles the earth-bound imagination and sends it soaring heavenward.

Such fiery brilliance and purity require a mediator through which it may flow in more moderated ways into the world. And so in the myths Apollo is given a seven-stringed lyre from Hermes, who accepts from the god in return his caduceus. Before this exchange, Apollo possessed but a three-stringed lyre capable of being heard in heaven alone. With the seven-stringed instrument he symbolically acquired the means of playing upon a scale which extended from the realm of the gods all the way to earth. In addition, Hermes became his envoy to the world, the rod upon which the fiery spirit wound downwards and upwards. The intense spiritual light of the solar god presiding atop the serpent-transmitters of its electric power shone from afar, sending its darts here and there but remaining in measured aloofness.

Apollo loves music but suffers no passion from its hearing. It is in the measure of the refrain that he delights, for he is the god of measured things. During the Battle of the Gods described in the Iliad, Apollo replies to Poseidon's polemical challenge: "You would have me be without measure and without prudence, if I am to fight for insignificant mortals, who now flourish like leaves of the trees and then fade away and are dead." This is the god depicted by Pindar, who calls him the promulgator of insight, self-knowledge, measure and intelligent order. "What are we?" he asks. "The shadow of a dream is man, no more. But when brightness comes, and God gives it, there is a shining light on men, and their life is sweet." This brightness which Pindar extols is that of clarity and moderation: the solar fire channelled perfectly and in proper proportion into the changing circumstances of conditioned existence. In music as in the establishment of cities and the sacred Mysteries themselves, Apollo demonstrates an unerring knowledge of the inner and essential order of things. At the god's approach the voices of the forests and grottoes were awakened and, as with singers and dancers, he caused them all to obey his measure. The moderation and sheer beauty of his music restrain all that is wild . . . even beasts are charmed . . . "even stones follow the sound of the lyre and take their place in the masonry walls". Playing his seven-stringed harp, Apollo sits like the solar orb surrounded by the music of the seven planetary spheres. Little wonder all Nature inclines to his rhythm.

Do not give out the great Truths that are the inheritance of future Races, to our present generation. Do not attempt to unveil the secret of being and non-being to those unable to see the hidden meaning of Apollo's heptachord – the lyre of the radiant god, in each of the seven strings of which dwelleth the Spirit, Soul and Astral body of the Kosmos, whose shell only has now fallen into the hands of Modern Science.

The Secret Doctrine, i 167

Spanning the whole nature of Kosmos with his adopted instrument, Apollo embodies the audible key, the tonic note running through all the Pythagorean melodies of manifestation. Emblematic of this are both his lyre and his bow, for are not the two strung with the same sinew? It may be argued that only the lyre is strung with silver strings, but in spanning the Kosmos both must be strung with silver and with animal parts, for their vibrating chords are heard on earth as well as in heaven. The verb ψαλλο (psallo) is used to convey both striking the lyre and snapping the bow-string. Both give off a sound. When Pandarus, under Apollo's guidance, discharged his arrow at Menelaus, "the bow twanged and the string sang aloud". Greeks as well as other peoples have been familiar with the musical bow and some, like Pindar, saw the true singer as a marksman, his song an arrow that never missed. In addition to this, the Greeks habitually pictured the recognition of what is right with the image of an accurate bow shot. Thus, the arrows of Apollo striking the Achaeans sang each their melodic note as they sprang from his bow, but they also signified a precisely accurate measure which, because of the disharmonious action of the Greeks, sang forth in notes of karmic retribution. "The song of the most alert of all gods does not arise dreamlike out of an intoxicated soul but flies directly towards a clearly seen goal" – the Truth. Disharmony and chaotic disturbance are ordered with measure. The wrong is put right. It was, after all, on the day of Apollo's festival that Odysseus returned home and slew the suitors who had desecrated his hospitality.

Measure is best. It is the highest manifest Truth, corresponding with the 'Spiritual Cast' of the Delphian god. Emanating light, order and reason, the arrows he carries are like the midday sun. Like shafts of clear, omnidirectional thinking, they shatter illusion and destroy the self-satisfied complacency of men and women. In his care for purification and retribution, Apollo stands as champion of the rules of occultism, which, as William Q. Judge wrote, "are of the most stringent character, the breaking of which is never wiped out save by expiation". As he did in the case of Orestes, Apollo advises those in distress of what is to be done and what left undone, where atonement and submission might be necessary, always involving an inward clarification of being. He is the exemplar of what the Greeks called σοφροσυνε (sophrosyne), self-control and self-knowledge. His injunction to visitors at his Delphic temple was "Know thyself, and through his oracle he pointed to Socrates as the wisest of all men (who rightly interpreted this to mean that he must devote his life to the pursuit of wisdom through examination of himself and his fellow men). Owing to the primacy of this measured sense of proportionality and self-control, Apollo acts to block the sacrilege of other gods or demigods. In the last book of the Iliad he rises with the pathos of restraining reason and magnanimity in order to put to an end the horrible twelve-day abuse of Hector's corpse. He charges Achilles with ruthlessness and hardness of heart, saying he lacks respect for the eternal laws of Nature and the self-restraint which is seemly for the noble in their bereavement. He admonishes the other gods who have tolerated this abuse:

Yet now you will not even go so far as to save his corpse for his wife and mother and his child to see, and for his father, Priam, and his people, who would burn it instantly and give him funeral honours. Know, it is the brutal Achilles whom you choose to support, Achilles, who has no decent feeling in him and never listens to the voice of mercy, but goes through life in his own savage way, like a lion who, when he wants his supper, lets his own strength and daring run away with him and pounces on the shepherd's flocks. Achilles like the lion has killed pity. And he cares not a jot for public opinion, to which most people bend the knee for better or for worse. He had better beware of our wrath, great man though he is. What is he doing in his fury but insulting senseless clay?

Iliad

Apollo rejects such passion and fury. They distort the measure of Truth. His view is from afar, a broad and extended perspective which causes him to seem oblivious to the worth of an individual as a separate soul. He constantly directs attention away from the state of the individual soul to a contemplation of eternal forms. The Christian may humble himself before God in order to become worthy of nearness, but Apollo, almost harshly, reminds man of his limitations and his finiteness. Only man's truly spiritual virtues (the essence of his perfections and creations) can prevail after death and persist from life to life, "for only the form belongs to the realm of the imperishable". This notion of form is Platonic. It refers to essential archetypal forms which are based on the highest and most abstract mathematics, embodying the noumenal levels of the manifesting Kosmos. Apollo, in accepting the seven-stringed lyre of Hermes, did not abandon his three-stringed instrument. Together they form the Pythagorean decad, but the original three expresses the unchanging, periodically manifest Eternal. The highest element of the classical Greek spirit was associated with Apollo and required a clear-eyed cognition, capable of looking upon all existence as form, "with a glance free alike of greed and of yearning for redemption". The elemental, momentary and individual aspects of the world are thus negated, whilst the essence is acknowledged and affirmed.

A serious consideration of the nature of Apollo should include an examination of the story of Orestes. Written by Aeschylus, who was an Initiate of the Mysteries at Eleusis and who was celebrated by Cicero as a Pythagorean and poet, the saga presents in dramatic form difficult questions concerning levels of right action. For killing his mother, Clytemnestra (to avenge her murder of his father, Agamemnon), Orestes is hounded by the Erinyes (the Eumenides, Furies and Moirai), the guardians of the holy ordinances of Nature. The shedding of his mother's blood is regarded as a violent crime against Nature. The spirits of the spilt blood cry out to heaven and pursue the perpetrator as though he were a wild beast. Madness comes over him. At every step they are near and stare at him with gruesome eyes. Apollo, who has ordered Orestes to avenge his father's murder, stands by him at his trial, where he is to be condemned or acquitted under the presidency of Athene, The prosecutors are the Erinyes, who represent the old feminine gods of the earth confronting the new order of the Olympian spirit. Apollo is repelled by the ghastly earth-spirits, whom he sees as brute and blind in their purpose and procedure. They are knowers of deeds only (not motives) and respond with mechanical inflexibility. They ask: "Have you slain your mother?" Orestes' admission decides the issue for them.

Apollo, as defender, asserts that the issue is not that blood has been shed. The worth of the victim and the indignity visited upon him determine the gravity of the deed. When one remembers the sacrifice of Iphigenia and his obtuse resumption of his kingly estate in Mycenae, it is difficult to see the worthiness in Agamemnon. But he was a noble warrior. His name means 'resolute', referring to his years of hard-fought battle. Apollo recognizes a deeper worth than the deeds that appear on the surface. He condemns the motives behind the seeming piety of Clytemnestra and recoils from the low cunning that guided her in the murder of her husband. He is equally unimpressed by the arguments of the Furies, who reflect the same maniacal passion as Clytemnestra herself. To the jury Apollo proclaims, "The mother is not progenitor of what is called her progeny, but nurse of the new-sown seed. He procreates it who impregnates her." Athene, retaining a vote for herself, also sides with the claims of the father over the mother. She gives her motherless birth as an explanation for defending the masculine spirit of reason against the earth's appeal for revenge.

In one sense, the Aeschylean tragedy celebrates the institution of reasonable authority supplanting the bloody expiation of the old order. The old magic of the seeresses, whose patron is Gaia herself, is put in its place very much like the Pythia of Delphi were incorporated as servants of the new god. But it would be an oversimplification to see Apollo as merely masculine. In his representation of order and clarity he defends his mother and finds his feminine counterpart in his twin. In his pursuit of Daphne he is driven by his love of feminine beauty and purity. When she is taken in by her mother (Earth) and becomes a laurel tree, the tree flourishes at the heart of Delphian religion and remains ever sacred to the god. The love Apollo showers on young boys who have not yet crossed the threshold leading to manhood is of the same essence. He rejoices in the delicate balance of their purity, when their hearts and minds are still clear and unsullied by gross desires. As a great solar deity, Apollo loves such purity not as something outside himself but as reflections of the truth he himself personifies. As it flickers and shines in others, he is quick to recognize it and become its ally. It is not a question of the masculine over the feminine but rather an unswerving embrace of a higher unconditional truth in whatever form it takes. The rights and wrongs of the world produce an endless tangle of accusation and retribution. The deeper measure of morality lies hidden within the mathematics of cosmic form. Always cleaving to this hidden measure, Apollo remains the ever-distant god, but his voice can yet be heard by one who listens intently with inner perception. Did he not promise Orestes, "I shall not fail thee. I shall be thy guide and guardian to the end"?

Apollo's voice speaks in the melodious twang of his unerring arrow, in the penetrating clarity of vision which he represents. His is the cool unsullied beam of Spirit which streams from the earliest Races, wherein the highest intelligence shrouded itself in the most ethereal levels of substance and became gods. From the 'Ball of Heaven', the ancestral substance of his mother, Apollo gained a further footing in the world. Appearing with each increasingly materialized Race, he would then withdraw into solitude where he watched from afar. If his mother is of Asia in origin, it is the East of Sacrifice which provides the means of his periodic manifestation, and he embraces his Hyperborean ancestry with each withdrawal into his Father-Spirit. Thus, as champion of solar intelligence, Apollo ever asserts its penetrating illumination over the limiting sensibilities of elemental powers. The victorious splendour of his clarity conquers all and startles the imagination, which, freed from its subjectivity, soars up to those Parnassian heights where the great god dwells. There, from the ruins of his worldly shrine, will it conquer Python and meet the Mysteries face to face.

Apollo, thy golden-framed beauty Floats along that rocky hill Floats along that rocky hill No Corinthian curve of soil Or hopeful wall of Ilium Could enclose thy brilliant symmetry. For thine is the pure Light of Truth Born at the cosmic dawn And sent like arrows, radiantly.

[hyakinthou-naos]

Theoxenia - 04.07.2025

All Gods Day

Theoxenia, also referred to as 'All Gods Day' within the Temple, is a day of celebration to honor all Hellenic deities and entities. This day, which occurs annually on Theoxenios 7, is a day where we acknowledge and honor all of The Theoi - even those outside of our regular worship and adoration.

This is also the first day of the year in which we celebrate Oracle Consultation - making it an excellent day for communing with the divine and engaging in divination.

Symbols & Decore

Hair Binding/Veiling:

Recommended

Jewelry/Adornments:

No Recommendation​

Foods of Significance:

Homemade Breads

Dishes That Utilize Olive Oil

Honey

Colors of Significance:

Gold​

Red

Blue

Green

Symbols of Significance:

​Imagery of Any of the Theoi

Imagery of Ancient or Modern Greece

Amphoras

History vs Modern Day

According to Pythio.Notion:

"The Theoxenia festival was a feast to welcome the gods into the home. It was often associated with the cult of the dead and may have served a purification purpose. The festival involved inviting various gods, such as Apollon, Leto and the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri), and offering them food at a banquet. The Delphians, in particular, made offerings for the benefit of all of Hellas (Greece) during their Theoxenia."

The Temple of Hyacinthus observes Theoxenia as 'All Gods Day' - a day in which we step out of our personal pantheons, practices, and households Gods and remember the vast and diverse nature of the Hellenic Pantheon.

Eirene - peace and farewell,

- Aön & The Temple of Hyacinthus

[likethestarsatnight]

Orphic Hymn to Apollo

Blest Paean, come, propitious to my pray'r,

Illustrious pow'r, whom Memphian tribes revere,

Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health,

Lycorian Phoebus, fruitful source of wealth .

Spermatic, golden-lyr'd, the field from thee

Rreceives it's constant, rich fertility.

Titanic, Grunion, Smynthian, thee I sing,

Python-destroying, hallow'd, Delphian king:

Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head,

Noble and lovely, arm'd with arrows dread:

Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine,

Pow'r far diffused, and course oblique is thine.

O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye

Views all within, and all beneath the sky:

Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure,

Who, omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure:

Hear me entreating for the human kind,

Hear, and be present with benignant mind;

For thou survey'st this boundless æther all,

And ev'ry part of this terrestrial ball

Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight,

Extends beneath the gloomy, silent night;

Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound,

The stable roots, deep fix'd by thee are found.

The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine,

Thyself all the source and end divine:

'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire,

With various-sounding, harmonising lyre;

Now the last string thou tun'ft to sweet accord,

Divinely warbling now the highest chord;

Th' immortal golden lyre, now touch'd by thee,

Responsive yields a Dorian melody.

All Nature's tribes to thee their diff'rence owe,

And changing seasons from thy music flow

Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts,

Advance Summer and Winter in alternate dance;

This claims the highest, that the lowest string,

The Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring .

Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horn'd nam'd,

Emitting whistling winds thro' Syrinx fam'd;

Since to thy care, the figur'd seal's consign'd,

Which stamps the world with forms of ev'ry kind.

Hear me, blest pow'r, and in these rites rejoice,

And save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

Queenie's verson which I love:

[aliciavance4228]

Photius, Bibliotheca excerpts, 190.33:

Dionysus was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations. The author speaks of the "Taraxippos" of Olympus and of the Myrtilloi, father and son. Neoptolemus the Makiotes was the only one to learn from a certain Aithos, a Delphian, the oracle of Phemonoe. It is of this Aithos that Herodotus says, in the first book of his Histories: "although I know his name I will not quote him".

Excuse me, WHAT?!

[imthepunchlord]

So out of the seven miraculous fairies in bugettes, which one is your favorite?

In terms of designs, I really like how Lucee came out.

A few times I tried to design a firefly kwami, I never got a design I would say, yes, I am super happy with this, no changes needed. Cause most, you can tell they were a firefly, but I just didn't reach that "I'm satisfied" in terms of design, until I got this going for Lucee.

You can look at her and tell she's a firefly, but with creative liberties, and there's the fun that she's a slight Umbreon reference too with glowing rings.

But in terms of over all, that'd be Pollen. When she was first revealed, she had my favorite design out of all bug kwamis. And may be my favorite design over all (though I also really like Trixx and Duusu too out of the 7).

And then I started my research into bees, their symbolism, mythology, how they appear in different cultures, and I was hit with so much potential and possibilities. There was so much to bees I had to wonder, why was Ladybug even the lead?

Mainly through Europe, bees were tied to...

Prophecy, having bee maidens that have ties to Apollo. The Oracle of Delphi was referred to as the Delphian bee.

Communication and spirituality, pops up in various European cultures, but it was thought that bees could travel to the spirit/otherworld and deliver messages to loved ones who passed on, keep them updated. It was such a tradition it was known as the telling of the bees. This also works off bees tied to community. Bees are also the only insect that domesticated themselves because they saw merit in working with humans, but they will straight up unionize and leave if they have an unfit beekeeper.

Bees in general were tied to Creation, Life, and Healing...

As bees are heavily tied to plants, probably the most iconic of pollinators, so there could've been a power related to plant manipulation, maybe even talking with plants too. Plants are a must for us all to live so bees are vital to keep in our life.

Bees make honey which can be consumed for healing.

Bees having the ability to mass restore feels natural given their healing and organized role.

Additionally, bees exist in a hive, having bug numbers, easily could've had the cloning power instead of Mouse, may even make more sense as presumably all clones work off a "hive mind" to secure they work for the same agenda. Which can work off bees tied to team work.

And there was just so much diversity in what bees could do, there's a lot of promise in their potential, so canon's route for Pollen's personality and power was a HUGE disappointment. All of these potential options and you go for the bee sting and eager servant bee, who are the ones who run the hive more than the actual queen bee (and will execute her if she's not a good queen).

I also didn't like the change to Pollen's eyes, I get it's more expressive to have pupils and irises, but like, why choose yellow irises? It's too much yellow. I think the dark blue against light blue would've been better, which is what I usually do when portraying Pollen.

So Bee over all is probably my fav, just by the sheer potential and diversity it can offer, and I like the themes and lessons it could've brought. Bee I now think is potentially could've been one of the better lead Miraculous to follow, and I just can't get over it's potential. One of the biggest missed opportunities I think.

[littlesparklight]

Focusing a bit on Troy, here's how I arranged things, starting with the first sack:

1270 BC; the first/"lesser" sack of Troy. Priam is 26. I use the myth (in Diodorus Siculus) where Priam helps Telamon out of Troy after Laomedon imprisons him when he's sent on embassy by Herakles to request/demand the horses and Hesione, so Priam would be no child. Considering that the sons of Laomedon aside from Priam named in the Bibliotheke are the same ones seated with Priam in the Iliad, I also ignore the "Herakles killed all of Laomedon's sons". He clearly didn't! 1267 BC - Priam sends a delegation to Delphi to ask the oracle when it might be the right time to request Hesione back [it's not specified what the oracular question was]; the delegation comes back with Panthoos, Delphian priest of Apollo, who has come along to "interpret the answer given"/explain it to Priam. He ends up staying in Troy and is given the same position in Troy as he'd had in Delphi. 1258 BC - Priam assists his future father in law Dymas and his sons against an Amazon incursion, meeting Hecuba (~21) and getting married to her. [He divorces Arisbe and either he or her father then marries her to Hyrtakos.] 1251 BC - Paris is born, and exposed. I don't have him be the second son, but he's among the earlier ones. (Hecuba is also in general giving birth to a lot of multiples to squeeze 19 sons and a handful of daughters into the years required!)

For Paris' return to Troy, I went and played freely with things. Because I wanted to. So Paris is ten (1241 BC) when he returns to Troy, using none of the more "established" myths for that. However! If I was going to use the funeral games version I'd probably have him be ~18 (so he returns then in 1233 BC). The reason for this, aside from still giving Paris at least two years in Troy prior to the Judgment, is that Hyginus says he was come to "young manhood" when the funeral games and murder attempt happened, and the hypothesis for Euripides' Alexandros play specifies he was twenty. And since it's always floating when the Judgment happens (before or after recognition) having the Judgment happen at 20 regardless seems like a good spot to me.

And since I wilfully ignore the part where Paris has ships built, or Aphrodite orders ships built for him, because Troy would already have ships, and it'd take years for such to be built, Paris then leaves for Sparta in 1231 BC.

I do go with there having been ~5 years between Paris and Helen reaching Troy and the war actually starting. It makes sense, even if one doesn't use the full ten as both the Iliad claims and the Bibliotheke accounts for. So that means the Trojan war properly starts in 1226 BC.

Originally I'd gone with the most usual date for the end of the war (1184 thereabouts), deeming the other, earlier dates, as too early. But when I wanted to lean more into the Bronze Age collapse, which means certain cities (like Mycenae) have already been destroyed by 1184 BC, I moved things up to still be close(er) to the 1184 BC date but not close enough I couldn't accommodate later events to align with a date around there for the destruction of Mycenae.

[sunnyapollonjabrigidotter]

Orphic Hymns

Hymn to Apollo

XXXIII. TO APOLLO [APOLLON]

The Fumigation from Manna.

Blest Pæan, come, propitious to my pray'r, illustrious pow'r, whom Memphian tribes revere,

Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health, Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth .

Spermatic, golden-lyr'd, the field from thee receives it's constant, rich fertility.

Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing, Python-destroying, hallow'd, Delphian king:

Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head, noble and lovely, arm'd with arrows dread:

Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine, pow'r far diffused, and course oblique is thine.

O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye views all within, and all beneath the sky:

Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure, who, omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure:

Hear me entreating for the human kind, hear, and be present with benignant mind;

For thou survey'st this boundless æther all, and ev'ry part of this terrestrial ball

Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight, extends beneath the gloomy, silent night;

Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound, the stable roots, deep fix'd by thee are found.

The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine, thyself all the source and end divine:

'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire, with various-sounding, harmonising lyre;

Now the last string thou tun'ft to sweet accord, divinely warbling now the highest chord;

Th' immortal golden lyre, now touch'd by thee, responsive yields a Dorian melody.

All Nature's tribes to thee their diff'rence owe, and changing seasons from thy music flow

Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts, advance Summer and Winter in alternate dance;

This claims the highest, that the lowest string, the Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring .

Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horn'd nam'd, emitting whistling winds thro' Syrinx fam'd;

Since to thy care, the figur'd seal's consign'd, which stamps the world with forms of ev'ry kind.

Hear me, blest pow'r, and in these rites rejoice, and save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

~~~~~☀️~~~~~🎶~~~~~🏹~~~~~✨️~~~~~ ...

♥️♣️♠️♦️

[finndiseicla]

Orphic Hymn XXXIII to Apollo:

Blest Pæan, come, propitious to my pray'r, illustrious pow'r, whom Memphian tribes revewre,

Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health, Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth .

Spermatic, golden-lyr'd, the field from thee receives it's constant, rich fertility.

Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing, Python-destroying, hallow'd, Delphian king:

Rural, light-bearer, and the Muse's head, noble and lovely, arm'd with arrows dread:

Far-darting, Bacchian, two-fold, and divine, pow'r far diffused, and course oblique is thine.

O, Delian king, whose light-producing eye views all within, and all beneath the sky:

Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure, who, omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure:

Hear me entreating for the human kind, hear, and be present with benignant mind;

For thou survey'st this boundless æther all, and ev'ry part of this terrestrial ball

Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight, extends beneath the gloomy, silent night;

Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound, the stable roots, deep fix'd by thee are found.

The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing are thine, thyself all the source and end divine:

'Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire, with various-sounding, harmonising lyre;

Now the last string thou tun'ft to sweet accord, divinely warbling now the highest chord;

Th' immortal golden lyre, now touch'd by thee, responsive yields a Dorian melody.

All Nature's tribes to thee their diff'rence owe, and changing seasons from thy music flow

Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts, advance Summer and Winter in alternate dance;

This claims the highest, that the lowest string, the Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring .

Hence by mankind, Pan-royal, two-horn'd nam'd, emitting whistling winds thro' Syrinx fam'd;

Since to thy care, the figur'd seal's consign'd, which stamps the world with forms of ev'ry kind.

Hear me, blest pow'r, and in these rites rejoice, and save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

It's gonna be such a funny mess when Donald Trump dies of a stroke on April 1st, 2024.

Naturally everybody will think it's fake because of the date only to lose their minds (both positively and negatively based on their opinion of trump) when realizing it's real

There will be massive celebrations in the streets and on social media and lots of predictable "don't speak ill of the dead" discourse about those celebrations

Weird evangelicals will pull some weird number trick talking about how Jesus was conceived on April 1st and that makes Trump a sort of messiah and people will make fun of that

The Republicans (after they're done with the faux-sadness and faux-outrage) will stomp over each other to be his successor but none of them will succeed. They'll tear each other apart and have no single nominee for the November elections.

There will be discourse about if Biden and the living former presidents should go to his funeral (they won't, he was a traitor insurrectionist)

The Ukraine-Russia War immediately goes in favor of Ukraine as morale in the Kremlin is reduced. China similarly backs off from its threats on Taiwan.

Ten thousand new memes are made, some sticking around for years to come.

Not a month later a bunch of unofficial biographies of Trump hit the bookshelves, many with new details about just how awful he was.

[father-of-the-void]

I count the grains of sand on the beach and measure the sea. I understand the speech of the dumb and hear the voiceless. The smell has come to my sense of a hard-shelled tortoise boiling and bubbling with lamb's flesh in a bronze pot: the cauldron underneath is of bronze, and of bronze the lid.

Herodotus quoting the Delphian oracle, whom conveyed Apollo’s divine message

[chthonichedgewitch]

Blessed Thargelia!

🌕Happy birthday Lady Artemis & Lord Apollon☀️

Orphic hymns⬇️

Artemis:

HEAR me, Jove's daughter, celebrated queen, Bacchian and Titan, of a noble mien:

In darts rejoicing, and on all to shine, Torch-bearing Goddess, Dictynna divine.

O'er births presiding, and thyself a maid, To labour pangs imparting ready aid:

Dissolver of the zone, and wrinkled care, Fierce huntress, glorying in the silvan war:

Swift in the course, in dreadful arrows skill'd, Wand' ring by night, rejoicing in the field:

Of manly form, erect, of bounteous mind, Illustrious demon, nurse of humankind:

Immortal, earthly, bane of monsters fell,

"Tis thine, blest maid, on woody mounts to dwell:

Foe of the stag, whom woods and dogs delight, In endless youth you flourish fair and bright.

O universal queen, august, divine,

A various form, Cydonian pow'r, is thine.

Dread guardian Goddess, with benignant mind, Auspicious come, to mystic rites inclin'd;

Give earth a store of beauteous fruits to bear, Send gentle Peace, and Health with lovely hair, And to the mountains drive Disease and Care.

Apollo:

BLEST Paan, come, propitious to my pray'r, Illustrious pow'r, whom Memphian tribes revere,

Slayer of Tityus, and the God of health, Lycorian Phœbus, fruitful source of wealth:

Spermatic, golden-lyr'd, the field from thee

Receives its constant rich fertility.

Titanic, Grunian, Smynthian, thee I sing,

Python-destroying, hallow d, Delphian king:

Rural, light-bearer, and the Muses' head, Noble and lovely, arm'd with arrows dread:

Far-darting, Bacchian, twofold, and divine,

Pow'r far diffus'd, and course oblique is thine.

O Delian king, whose light-producing eye Views all within, and all beneath the sky;

Whose locks are gold, whose oracles are sure, Who omens good reveal'st, and precepts pure;

Hear me entreating for the human kind, Hear, and be present with benignant mind;

For thou survey st this boundless ether all, And ev'ry part of this terrestrial ball Abundant, blessed; and thy piercing sight Extends beneath the gloomy, silent night;

Beyond the darkness, starry-ey'd, profound,

The stable roots, deep-fix'd by thee, are found.

The world's wide bounds, all-flourishing, are thine,

Thyself of all the source and end divine.

"Tis thine all Nature's music to inspire With various-sounding, harmonizing lyre:

Now the last string thou tun'st to sweet accord, Divinely warbling, now the highest chord;

Th' immortal golden lyre, now touch'd by thee,

Responsive yields a Dorian melody. All Nature's tribes to thee their diff'rence owe, And changing seasons from thy music flow:

Hence, mix'd by thee in equal parts, advance Summer and Winter in alternate dance;

This claims the highest, that the lowest string, The Dorian measure tunes the lovely spring:

Hence by mankind Pan royal, two-horn'd nam'd, Shrill winds emitting thro' the syrinx fam'd;

Since to thy care the figur'd seal's consign'd,

Which stamps the world with forms of every kind.

Hear me, blest pow'r, and in these rites rejoice, And save thy mystics with a suppliant voice.

[talonabraxas]

Servant of Delphian Apollo! Go to the Castalian spring; Wash in its silvery eddies, And return cleansed to the temple. Guard your lips from offence. To those who ask for oracles Let the god's answer come Pure from all private fault. -Euripides

Apollo Talon Abraxas Apollo was a powerful Greek god and one of the Twelve Olympians. He served as the divine patron of prophecy, healing, art, and culture, as well as the embodiment of masculine beauty.

Apollo belonged to the second generation of Olympians, along with his twin sister Artemis, goddess of the wild and hunting. He was commonly represented as a kouros—that is, as a young, beardless male. In ancient art, he could be seen carrying a lyre or a bow and arrow.

[transguyhawkeye]

gonna go outside and huff the air like some kind of delphian oracle <- ensconced by the vapours

[matriarca-inodora]

The stars at Delphi - Constellations and Oracular activity

The myth of Apollo leaving Delphi in his yearly travelling to Hyperborea for the three winter months  is well known. During this time, the god was said to be absent from Delphi and no consultations took place. Nonetheless, there might be more concrete elements to this story than first meets the eye: it might be linked to the night sky.

The constellations that are visible from Delphi in different times of the year might give us a clearer understanding of how important dates were determined. Three constellations seem to be of special importance here: Cygnus (the swan), Lyra (the lyre) and Delphinus (the dolphin). As one can see, those constellations are all very closely together.

Before we get into details as to how those constellations might have played a role in determining oracular dates, it´s worth mentioning that all of them are strongly related to Apollo. The lyre is one of  Apollo's most important symbols, this goes without saying. Also his transformation into a dolphin plays an important role in the founding of his Delphic oracle, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo:

[...] but they were encountered by Phoibos Apollo;

down on the sea he suddenly leapt, in his shape like a dolphin,

on the swift galley, and lay there, a monster enormous and fearful;

Swans are also strongly associated with him and with Hyperborea. Take, for example, Callimachus' Hymn to Delos:

...and with music the swans the gods’ own minstrels, left Maeonian Pactolus and circled seven times round Delos, and sang over the bed of child-birth, the Muses’ birds, most musical of all birds that fly.

Additionally, lyric poet Alcaeus tells us:

When Apollo was born, Zeus equipped him with golden headband and lyre and gave him also a chariot of swans to drive, and sent him to Delphi and the spring of Castalia, thence to declare justice and right for the Greeks; but when Apollo mounted the chariot he directed the swans to fly to the land of the Hyperboreans. Now when the Delphians learned this, they composed a paean and a tune and arranged dancing choirs of youths around the tripod and called on the god to come from the Hyperboreans.

It´s not hard to find imagery of Apollo associated with lyres, swans, sometimes dolphins, or even all of them at once:

The imagery is very intertwined, which makes a lot of sense if the idea of an astronomical background is true. 

Oracular Dates

During its early days, oracular activity took place only once a year, in the seventh day of the Delphic month of Bysos, likely equivalent to the Attic month Anthesterion, which in modern calendars might fall roughly in February/March. With time, this practice gave place to consultations once a month, always on the seventh day, according to the standard lunar calendar calculations. This was not all year round, however: as previously stated, there was no activity in the winter months, when the sanctuary.

How exactly might that be linked to the constellations above?

The landscape of Delphi is covered by mountains, which in many ways restricts the view of the sky. Interestingly, taking the Temple of Apollo as the point of reference for observation, the three constellations seem to vanish and return (in fact not being visible behind the rocky Faidriades) in a way that seems to align really well with the Hyperborean narrative: During January, February and March, it was not possible to observe them at their zenith, from Delphi. Around the 7th of Bysos, they reappear from the first time, and would only be absent again with the subsequent winter.

The geographical characteristics of Delphi also meant that it was likely that other locations in Greece could observe the changes in the stars and calculate the dates in which oracles would take place with enough anticipation so as to organize the travel all the way to Delphi. Heliacal rising of the constellation Delphinus would be visible two weeks earlier in a flat horizon, when compared to Delphi.

This was especially important in older times when the oracle was a once a year event, but, given the Panhellenic nature of the site and the localised calendars that were so common in Ancient Greece, the use of astronomical cues seems like a feasible and reliable solution.

This post was mostly informational but I do believe it holds interesting ideas that might inspire reconstructionists, Delphic or otherwise (upcoming 7th of Bysos I´m looking at you!)

Further reading:

Efrosyni Boutsikas. Landscape and the Cosmos in the Apolline Rites of Delphi, Delos and Eros. In: L Käppel and V Pothou. Human Development in Sacred Landscapes. 2015

Ioannis Liritzis and Belén Castro. Delphi and Cosmovision: Apollo´s absence at the land of the Hyperboreans and the time for consulting the Oracle. Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 2013.