APOLLON CULT 2

APOLLON was the Olympian god of music, poetry, prophecy, youth, healing, and the aversion of plague and harm.

This page describes his cult in the central and southern Peloponnese. His most important shrine in the region was the Spartan temple at Amyklai (Amyclae), site of the celebrated Hyakinthia festival.

The statues presented on this page portray Apollon in the forms Cithaeroedus "Cithar-Player" and Musagetes "Leader of the Muses".

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

CULT IN ARGOLIS (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. ARGOS Main City of Argolis

Callimachus, Aetia Fragment 1. 2 (from Papryus Rylands 13 Frag 471-3) (trans. Trypanis) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
"[The legend behind the festival of Apollon Arneios at Argos :] There is a month named Arneios after him and the days thereof are named the Arneis days. And Linos died torn by dogs: and his untimely fate as sung by minstrel men and the wandering of Krotopos ((lacuna)) . . I sing right on as I received it. Nor did Apollon remain unheeding forever of his bride of hapless fate, but to expiate a child's death by the death of children Poine, and avenger of grievous wrath came against the Argives, who leapt upon their homes and made empty-armed the mothers and lightened the burden of the nurses."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 19. 3 - 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The most famous building in the city of Argos is the sanctuary of Apollo Lykios (Wolf-god). The modern image was made by the Athenian Attalos, but the original temple and wooden image were the offering of [the mythical king] Danaus. I am of opinion that in those days all images, especially Egyptian images, were made of wood. The reason why [the mythical Argive king] Danaos founded a sanctuary of Apollo Lykios was this. On coming to Argos he claimed the kingdom against Gelanor, the son of Sthenelas. Many plausible arguments were brought forward by both parties, and those of Sthenelas were considered as fair as those of his opponent; so the people, who were sitting in judgment, put off, they say, the decision to the following day. At dawn a wolf fell upon a herd of oxen that was pasturing before the wall, and attacked and fought with the bull that was the leader of the herd. It occurred to the Argives that Gelanor was like the bull and Danaos like the wolf, for as the wolf will not live with men, so Danaos up to that time had not lived with them. It was because the wolf overcame the bull that Danaos won the kingdom. Accordingly, believing that Apollon had brought the wolf on the herd, he founded a sanctuary of Apollo Lykios. Here is dedicated the throne of Danaos, and here is placed a statue of [the hero] Biton, in the form of a man carrying a bull on his shoulders . . .
Next to this statue is a fire which they keep burning, calling it the fire of Phoroneos. For they do not admit that fire was given to mankind by Prometheus, but insist in assigning the discovery of fire to Phoroneos.
As to the wooden images of Aphrodite and Hermes, the one they say was made by Epeios, while the other is a votive offering of Hypermnestra. She was the only one of the daughters of Danaos who neglected his command, and was accordingly brought to justice by him, because be considered that his life was in danger so long as Lynkeus was at large, and that the refusal to share in the crime of her sisters increased the disgrace of the contriver of the deed. On her trial she was acquitted by the Argives, and to commemorate her escape she dedicated an image [in the shrine of Apollon Lykios] of Aphrodite Nikephoros (the Bringer of Victory).Within the temple is a statue of Ladas, the swiftest runner of his time, and one of Hermes with a tortoise which he has caught to make a lyre. Before the temple is a pit with a relief representing a fight between a bull and a wolf, and with them a maiden throwing a rock at the bull. The maiden is thought to be Artemis. Danaos dedicated these, and some pillars hard by and wooden images of Zeus and Artemis.
Here are graves; one is that of [the infant] Linos, the son of Apollon by Psamathe, the daughter of Krotopos; the other, they say, is that of Linos the poet . . .
After these is an image of Apollon Agyieus (God of Streets), and an altar of Zeus Heutios (God of Rain), where those who were helping Polyneikes in his efforts to be restored to Thebes swore an oath together that they would either capture Thebes or die. As to the tomb of Prometheus [also located within the sanctuary of Apollon Lykis], their account seems to me to be less probable than that of the Opountians, but they hold to it nevertheless."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 24. 1 :
"The citadel [of Argos] they call Larisa, after the daughter of Pelasgos . . . As you go up the citadel you come to the sanctuary of Hera Akraia (of the Height), and also a temple of Apollon, which is said to have been first built by Pythaios when he came from Delphoi. The present image is a bronze standing figure called Apollon Deiradiotes, because this place, too, is called Deiras (Ridge). Oracular responses are still given here, and the oracle acts in the following way. There is a woman who prophesies, being debarred from intercourse with a man. Every month a lamb is sacrificed at night, and the woman, after tasting the blood, becomes inspired by the god."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 40. 5 :
"They [the Olympic referees] gave the victory to the dead Kreugas [killed in a boxing match], and had a statue of him made in Argos. It still stood in my time in the sanctuary of Apollon Lykeios [in Argos]."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 8. 46. 3 :
"The Argives down to the present still retain the images they took from Tiryns [during the Persian Wars]; one, a wooden image, is by the Hera, the other is kept in the sanctuary of Apollon Lykeios."

II. MT. LYCONE (LYKONE) Mountain in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 24. 5 :
"[Near the city of Argos] is Mount Lykone, which has trees on it, chiefly cypresses. On the top of the mountain is built a sanctuary of Artemis Orthia (of the Steep), and there have been made white-marble images of Apollon, Leto, and Artemis, which they say are works of Polykleitos."

III. EPIDAURUS (EPIDAUROS) Town in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 27. 6 :
"A Roman senator, Antoninos, made in our own day [in Epidauros] . . . a temple to Hygeia (Health), Asklepios, and Apollon, the last two surnamed Aigyptios (Egyptian)."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 27. 7 :
"[By Epidauros, Argolis there is] mountain called Kynortion; on the latter is a sanctuary of Apollon Maleatos. The sanctuary itself is an ancient one, but among the things [the Roman senator] Antoninos made for the Epidaurians are various appurtenances for the sanctuary of [Apollon] Maleatos, including a reservoir into which the rain-water collects for their use."

IV. TROEZEN (TROIZENOS) Town in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 31. 6 :
"The sanctuary of Apollon Thearios [in Troizenos, Argolis], they told me, was set up by [the mythical king] Pittheus; it is the oldest I know of. Now the Phokaians, too, in Ionia have an old temple of Athena . . . and the Samians also have an old one of Apollon Pythios; these, however, were built much later than the sanctuary at Troizenos. The modern image was dedicated by Auliskos, and made by Hermon of Troizenos."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 32. 2 :
"Within this enclosure is a temple of Apollon Epibaterios (Disembarking on a Sea-Voyage) [at Troizenos, Argolis], an offering of Diomedes for having weathered the storm that came upon the Greeks as they were returning from Troy. They say that Diomedes was also the first to hold the Pythian Games in honor of Apollon."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 34. 6 :
"As you go along the mountain road [from Troizenos to Hermione, in the Argolis] you reach a temple of Apollon surnamed Platanistios (God of the Plane-tree Grove)."

V. HERMIONE Town in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 35. 2 :
"Of Apollon there are three temples and three images [in the new city of Hermione, Argolis]. One has no surname; the second they call Pythaeus, and the third Horios (of the Borders). The name Pythaeus they have learned from the Argives, for Telesilla tells us that they were the first Greeks to whose country came Pythaeus, who was a son of Apollon. I cannot say for certain why they call the third Horios, but I conjecture that they won a victory, either in war or by arbitration, in a dispute concerning the borders (horoi) of their land, and for this reason paid honors to Apollon Horios."

VI. MT. COCCYGUS (KOKKYGOS) Mountain in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 36. 2 :
"At the foot of Mount Kokkygos [near Mases, Argolis] is a temple, but there are no doors standing, and I found it without a roof or an image inside. The temple was said to be Apollon's."

VII. DIDYMUS (DIDYMOS) Village in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 36. 3 :
"Didymos [near Mases, Argolis] is twenty stades distant from here. There is here a sanctuary of Apollon."

VIII. ASINE Village in Argolis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 36. 5 :
"The [historical] Argives, while levelling Asine [in Argolis] to the ground and annexing its territory to their own, left the sanctuary of Apollon Pythaios, which is still visible."

CULT IN LACEDAEMONIA (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. SPARTA Main City of Lacedaemonia (Lakedaimonia)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 11. 9 :
"On their market-place the Spartans have images of Apollon Pythaeus, of Artemis and of Leto. The whole of this region is called Khoros (Dancing), because at the Gymnopaidiai, a festival which the Lacedaemonians take more seriously than any other, the lads perform dances in honor of Apollon. Not far from them is a sanctuary of Ge (Earth) and of Zeus Agoraios . . . and likewise one of Apollon and of Hera."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 12. 8 :
"The Lakedaimonians [of Sparta] have an altar of Apollon Akrites, and a sanctuary, surnamed Gasepton, of Ge (Earth). Above it is set up [a statue of] Maleatian Apollon Maleatos."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 13. 4 - 5 :
"Karneios [Spartan demi-god or hero], whom they surname Oiketes (of the House), had honors in Sparta even before the return of the Herakleidai, his seat being in the house of a seer, Krios the son of Theokles. The daughter of this Krios was met as she was filling her pitcher by spies of the Dorians, who entered into conversation with her, visited Krios and learned from him how to capture Sparta. The cult of Apollo Karneios has been established among all the Dorians ever since Karnos, an Akarnanian by birth, who was a seer of Apollon. When he was killed by Hippotes the son of Phylas, the wrath of Apollon fell upon the camp of the Dorians Hippotes went into banishment because of the bloodguilt, and from this time the custom was established among the Dorians of propitiating the Akarnanian seer. But this Karnos is not the Lakedaimonian Karneios Oiketes (of the House), who was worshipped in the house of Krios the seer while the Akhaians were still in possession of Sparta. The poetess Praxilla represents Karneios as the son of Europa, Apollon and Leto being his nurses. There is also another account of the name; in Trojan Ida there grew in a grove of Apollon cornel-trees, which the Greeks cut down to make the Wooden Horse. Learning that the god was wroth with them they propitiated him with sacrifices and named Apollon Karneios from the cornel-tree (kraneia), a custom prevalent in the olden time making them transpose the r and the a."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 14. 6 :
"Farther away from the [race] Course [of Sparta] are sanctuaries of the Dioskouroi, of the Kharites (Graces), of Eileithyia, of Apollon Karneios, and of Artemis."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 16. 1 :
"[In Sparta, Lakedaimonia] is a sanctuary of Hilaeira and of Phoibe. The author of the poem Kypria calls them daughters of Apollon. Their priestesses are young maidens, called, as are also the goddesses, Leukippides . . . Each year the women weave a tunic for the Apollon at Amyklai, and they call Tunic the chamber in which they do their weaving."

Suidas s.v. Gymnopaideia (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek lexicon C10th A.D.) :
"Gymnopaidia, choruses of children in Sparta in Lakonike, singing hymns to the gods [Apollon] in honour of the Spartiates who died at Thyraiai."

II. AMYCLAE (AMYKLAI) Town in Lacedaemonia

Strabo, Geography 7. 1. 2 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"The festival Hyakinthia in the Amyklaion when the games were being celebrated."

Strabo, Geography 8. 5. 1 :
"Amyklai [in Lakedaimonia], where is the temple of Apollon."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 10. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"[The historical Spartan king] Agesilaos again marched with an army against Korinthos, and, as the festival Hyakinthia was at hand, he gave the Amyklaians leave to go back home and perform the traditional rites in honor of Apollon and Hyakinthos."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 18. 9 - 19. 6 :
"Bathykles of Magnesia, who made the throne of [Apollon] Amyklaios (God of Amyklai) [for the shrine of the god at Amyklai, Lakedaimonia], dedicated, on the completion of the throne, Kharites and an image of Artemis Leukophryene. Whose pupil this Bathykles was, and who was king of Lakedaimon when he made the throne, I pass over; but I saw the throne and will describe its details [a wide variety of myths are probably represented since Apollon is the god of bards and story-tellling]. It is supported in front, and similarly behind, by two Kharites (Graces) and two Horai (Seasons). On the left stand [the serpent-tailed] Ekhidna and Typhos, on the right [the fish-tailed] Tritons. To describe the reliefs one by one in detail would have merely bored my readers; but to be brief and concise (for the greater number of them are not unknown either) Poseidon and Zeus are carrying Taygete, daughter of Atlas, and her sister Alkyone. There are also reliefs of Atlas, the single combat of Herakles and Kyknos, and the battle of the Kentauroi at the cave of Pholos. I cannot say why Bathykles has represented the so-called Minotauros (Bull of Minos) bound, and being led along alive by Theseus. There is also on the throne a band of Phaiakian dancers, and Demodokos singing. Perseus, too, is represented killing Medousa. Passing over the fight of Herakles with the giant Thourios and that of Tyndareus with Eurytos, we have next the rape of the daughters of Leukippos. Here are Dionysos, too, and Herakles; Hermes is bearing the infant Dionysos to heaven, and Athena is taking Herakles to dwell henceforth with the gods. There is Peleus handing over Akhilleus to be reared by Kheiron, who is also said to have been his teacher. There is Kephalos, too, carried off by Hemera (Day) because of his beauty. The gods are bringing gifts to the marriage of Harmonia. There is wrought also the single combat of Akhilleus and Memnon , and Herakles avenging himself upon Diomedes the Thrakian, and upon Nessos at the river Euenus. Hermes is bringing the goddesses to Alexandros to be judged. Adrastos and Tydeus are staying the fight between Amphiaraos and Lykourgos the son of Pronax. Hera is gazing at Io, the daughter of Inakhos, who is already a cow, and Athena is running away from Hephaistos, who chases her. Next to these have been wrought two of the exploits of Herakles - his slaying the hydra, and his bringing up the Hound of Hell. Anaxias and Mnasinous are each seated on horseback, but there is one horse only carrying Megapenthes, the son of Menelaos, and Nikostratos. Bellerophontes is destroying the beast in Lykia, and Herakles is driving off the cows of Geryones. At the upper edge of the throne are wrought, one on each side, the sons of Tyndareus [the Dioskouroi] on horses. There are sphinxes under the horses, and beasts running upwards, on the one side a leopard, by Polydeukes a lioness. On the very top of the throne has been wrought a band of dancers, the Magnesians who helped Bathykles to make the throne. Underneath the throne, the inner part away from the Tritones contains the hunting of the Kalydonian boar and Herakles killing the children of Aktor. Kalais and Zetes are driving the Harpyai away from Phineus. Peirithous and Theseus have seized Helene, and Herakles is strangling the lion. Apollon and Artemis are shooting Tityos. There is represented the fight between Herakles and Oreios the Kentauros, and also that between Theseus and the Bull of Minos. There are also represented the wrestling of Herakles with Akhelous, the fabled binding of Hera by Hephaistos, the games Akastos held in honor of his father, and the story of Menelaus and the Egyptian Proteus from the Odyssey. Lastly there is Admetos yoking a boar and a lion to his chariot, and the Trojans are bringing libations to Hektor.
The part of the throne where the god would sit is not continuous; there are several seats, and by the side of each seat is left a wide empty space, the middle, whereon the image stands, being the widest of them. I know of nobody who has measured the height of the image, but at a guess one would estimate it to be as much as thirty cubits. It is not the work of Bathykles, being old and uncouth; for though it has face, feet, and hands, the rest resembles a bronze pillar. On its head it has a helmet, in its hands a spear and a bow. The pedestal of the statue is fashioned into the shape of an altar and they say that Hyakinthos is buried in it, and at the Hyakinthia, before the sacrifice to Apollon, they devote offerings to Hyakinthos as to a hero into this altar through a bronze door, which is on the left of the altar. On the altar are wrought in relief, here an image of Biris, there Amphitrite and Poseidon. Zeus and Hermes are conversing; near stand Dionysos and Semele, with Ino by her side. On the altar are also Demeter, Kore, Plouton, next to them Moirai (Fates) and Horai (Seasons), and with them Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis. They are carrying to heaven Hyakinthos and Polyboia, the sister, they say, of Hyakinthos, who died a maid . . . Wrought on the altar is also Herakles; he too is being led to heaven by Athena and the other gods. On the altar are also the daughters of Thestios [Althaia and Leda], the Mousai (Muses) and Horai (Seasons). As for Zephryos (the West Wind), how Apollon unintentionally killed Hyakinthos, and the story of the flower, we must be content with the legends, although perhaps they are not true history. Amyklai was laid waste by the Dorians, and since that time has remained a village . . . The natives worship [Apollon] Amyklaios (the Amyklaian god) and Dionysos."

III. THORNAX Village in Lacedaemonia

Herodotus, Histories 1. 69 (trans. Godley) (Greek historian C5th B.C.) :
"The Lakedaimonians had sent to Sardis to buy gold, intending to use it for the statue of Apollon which now stands on Thornax in Lakonia; and [the historic Lydian king] Kroisos, when they offered to buy it, made them a free gift of it."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 10. 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"In Thornax [in Lakedaimonia], which you will reach as you go along, is an image of Apollon Pythaeus, made after the style of the one at Amyklai; the fashion of it I will describe when I come to speak of the latter. For in the eyes of the Lakedaimonians the cult of Amyklaios is the more distinguished, so that they spent on adorning the image in Amyklai even the gold which Kroisos the Lydian sent for Apollon Pythaeus."

IV. CYTHIUM (KYTHION) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 21. 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The people of Kythion [in Lakedaimonia] say that their city had no human founder, but that Herakles and Apollon, when they were reconciled after their strife for the possession of the tripod, united to found the city. In the market-place they have images of Apollon and of Herakles, and a Dionysos stands near them. In another part of the city is [a sanctuary of] Apollon Karneios."

V. GERONTHRAE (GERONTHRAI) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 22. 7 :
"On the citadel [of Geronthrai, Lakedaimonia] is a temple of Apollon with the head of an ivory image. The rest of the image was destroyed by fire along with the former temple."

VI. DELIUM - EPIDELIUM (DELION - EPIDELION) Village in Lacedaemonia

Strabo, Geography 8. 6. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"Among the places belonging to the Lakonians [of Lakedaimonia] is Delion, which is sacred to Apollon and bears the same name as the place in Boiotia."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 23. 3 - 5 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"After doubling the point of Malea and proceeding a hundred stades, you reach a place on the coast within the frontier of the Boiatai [in Lakedaimonia], which is sacred to Apollon and called Epidelion. For the wooden image which is now here, once stood in Delos . . . [the historical Persian] Menophanes, an officer of Mithridates, attacked it [Delos] with a fleet . . . [and] razed Delos itself to the ground. As it was being sacked and pillaged, one of the barbarians wantonly flung this image into the sea; but the wave took it and brought it to land here in the country of the Boiatai. For this reason they call the place Epidelion."

VII. ZARAX Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 24. 1 :
"There is nothing worth seeing in Zarax [in Lakedaimonia] except a temple of Apollon, with a statue holding a lyre, at the head of the harbor."

VIII. MT. CNACADIUM (KNAKADION) Mountain in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 24. 8 :
"On [Mount] Knakadion [near Las, Lakedaimonia] is a [sanctuary of] Apollon called Karneios."

IX. PYRRHICHUS (PYRRHIKHOS) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 25. 3 :
"At Pyrrhikhos [in Lakedaimonia] . . . the sanctuaries of the gods, that they have in the country, are of Artemis, called Astrateia, because the Amazones stayed their advance (strateia) here, and an Apollon Amazonios. Both gods are represented by wooden images, said to have been dedicated by the women from Thermodon [the Amazones]."

X. OETYLUS (OITYLOS) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 25. 10 :
"In Oitylos [in Lakedaimonia] . . . in the market-place a wooden image of Apollon Karneios are worth seeing."

XI. LEUCTRA (LEUKTRA) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 26. 5 :
"[In Leuktra, Lakedaimonia] a temple and statue have been erected to Kassandra the daughter of Priamos, called Alexandra by the natives. There are wooden images of Apollon Karneios according to the same custom that prevails among the Lakedaimonians of Sparta."

XII. CARDAMYLE (KARDAMYLE) Village in Lacedaemonia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 26. 7 :
"In the town [of Kardamyle, Lakedaimonia] is a sanctuary of Athena, and an Apollon Karneios according to the local Dorian custom."

CULT IN MESSENIA (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. MESSENE Main Town of Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 31. 10 :
"The most numerous statues [in Messene, Messenia] and the most worth seeing are to be found in the sanctuary of Asklepios. For besides statues of the god and his sons, and besides statues of Apollon, the Mousai (Muses) [and other gods]."

II. PHARAE (PHARAI) Village in Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 31. 1 :
"Not far from Pharai [in Messenia] is a grove of Apollon Karneios and a spring of water in it."

III. OECHALIA (OIKHALIA) Village in Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 33. 4 :
"Facing the plain is a site anciently called Oikhalia [in Messenia], in our time the Alsos Karnasion (Carnasian grove), thickly grown with cypresses.There are statues of the gods Apollon Karneios and Hagne [Persephone], also Hermes carrying a ram. [N.B. Mysteries of Demeter and Kore were held in the grove.]"

IV. CORONE (KORONE) Village in Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 34. 7 :
"Some eighty stades beyond Korone [in Messenia] is a sanctuary of Apollon on the coast, venerated because it is very ancient according to Messenian tradition, and the god cures illnesses. They call him Apollon Korynthos. His image is of wood, but the statue of Apollo Argeotas, said to have been dedicated by the Argonautoi, is of bronze."

V. ASINE Village in Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 34. 11 :
"But the men of Asine [in Messenia] take the greatest pleasure in being called Dryopes [a tribe who once lived between Mt Parnassos and Mount Oita near Malis], and clearly have made the most holy of their sanctuaries in memory of those which they once had, established on Parnassos. For they have both a temple of Apollon and again a temple and ancient statue of Dryops, whose rites they celebrate every year, saying that he is the son of Apollon."

VI. CYPARISSIA (KYPARISSIA) Village in Messenia

Pausanias, Description of Greece 4. 36. 7 :
"There is a shrine of Apollon in Kyparissia [in Messenia]."

CULT IN ELIS (SOUTHERN GREECE)

I. ELIS Main Town of Elis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 24. 6 :
"The most notable things that the Eleans have in the open part of the market-place [of the city of Elis, in Elis] are a temple and image of Apollon Akesios (Healer). The meaning of the name would appear to be exactly the same as that of Alexikakos (Averter of Evil), the name current among the Athenians."

II. OLYMPIA Town & Sanctuary in Elis

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 7. 10 :
"[Zeus] held the [first Olympic] games in honor of his victory over Kronos. The record of victors include Apollon, who outran Hermes and beat Ares at boxing. It is for this reason, they say, that the Pythian flute-song is played while the competitors in the pentathlon are jumping; for the flute-song is sacred to Apollon, and Apollon won Olympic victories."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 14. 8 :
"[Amongst the altars at Olympia in Elis there is] an altar of Apollon and Hermes in common, because the Greeks have a story about them that Hermes invented the lyre and Apollon the lute."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 15. 4 :
"Before what is called the Front Seats [of Olympia in Elis] stands an altar of Apollon surnamed Pythios."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 15. 7 :
"After re-entering the Altis [at Olympia in Elis] by the processional gate there are behind the Heraion altars of the river Kladeos and of Artemis; the one after them is Apollon's, the fourth is of Artemis surnamed Kokkoka, and the fifth is of Apollon Thermios (Of the Lupines). As to the Elean surname Thermios, the conjecture occurred to me that in the Attic dialect it would be thesmios (god of laws)."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 5. 17. 3 :
"[In the temple of Hera at Olympia are statues of] Apollon and Artemis stand opposite each other."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 2. 5 :
"The [official] diviners [of Olympia, Elis] called Iamidai are descended from Iamos, who, Pindaros says in an ode, was a son of Apollon and received the gift of divination from him."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 6. 19. 6 :
"[Amongst the contents of the Treasuries at Olympia :] There stands also a box-wood image of Apollon with its head plated with gold. The inscription says that it was dedicated by the Lokrians who live near the Western Cape, and that the artist was Patrokles of Krotona, the son of Katillos."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Callimachus, Fragments - Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
• Strabo, Geography - Greek Geography C1st B.C. - C1st A.D.
• Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.

BYZANTINE

• Suidas, The Suda - Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.