From the meter, we move on to the story of
Apollo. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the one we are
going to read a longer more extended one is interesting, when one looks at it right
just looking at its, its very outlines. You'll see that our translator, Sarah
Ruden has decided to actually have two separate means inside of this Homeric hymn
to Apollo, one of which is the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo.
The other is the Homeric hymn to Pythian Apollo.
Those are legitimate moves by our translator, but they're not there in the
original manuscript. We don't know for sure that these were
thought of as two separate hymns, but it probably is the case that they were.
What we've got is a story about Apollo that begins, has a lot of action in it.
And then seems to end after a couple of hundred lines where the poet says,
Goodbye, Apollo. Then all of a sudden, we jump into a new
story about Apollo that begins, moves through here a more extended story about
Apollo, and then we hear a goodbye Apollo come out again.
From this, most of us have concluded that this Homeric, single Homeric Hymn to
Apollo is actually two hymns sewn together this is a decision that Ruden has
expressed in a very legitimate move in getting the two pieces of this separate
titles. But remember, in the manuscript, they're
all one. It's helpful for us to remember that,
because there's some explaining that has to do for a poet that would present this
as a single hymn to Apollo. And I think that, that, well, that
question will be interesting for us to answer in just a few moments. But let's
take a look at this first piece of it and see how this Hymn to Apollo works.
Apollo is a very powerful god. He is frightening.
So, frightening that when Leto is trying to find a place to give birth to him, most
places turned her down and say no, we don't want that god to be associated with
us. It's a terrifying god that's about to
emerge. We hear of Leto's journey as she goes
place to place to place trying to find a place to give birth to Apollo.
We talked about lists in our introduction to the Homeric Hymns.
We've talked about them already in respect to Hesiod.
Its interesting to note that the locations that get mentioned in this Homeric Hymn to
Apollo has points where Leto is trying to find a birth place for him, all are places
that give cultic worship and have cultic connections with Apollo.
So, the hymnic author is giving us a way, All of us out there in the Greek world, to
understand, yes, that's the connection that this place has with Apollo.
It, it harkens back to them being a place that Leto considered as a place to try to
give birth to her son. We have some further reference that gets
built into this of Leto trying to find this spot for her to give birth.
Artemis emerges from her at the same time. The twins come out of her.
Apollo is the one that we hear about in this story.
But the linkage between Apollo and Artemis and Leto is strong, rich and well-attested
throughout the tradition. When Apollo arrives after he's or sorry,
when Leto has found her birth place for Apollo to arrive Delos.
She has to make kind of bribery and promises.
Listen, Delos, you're going to be famous, we're going to do good things for you so
please just let me have birth here. Delos then, relents after the, the promise
of riches and fame. And allows that the birth should happen
there. The island being personified.
At that point Leto enters into nine days of labor.
Nine days of labor. The number nine showing up again as
indicative of a very long time. We'll recall that nine showed up in our
Homeric and in the Demeter again in the context of something very long connected
to the Eleusinian mysteries the rites of the Eleusinian mysteries.
Here the labor stretches out over nine days.
Unbelievable. Apollo then emerges, declares his purview.
He's going to say what he's all about and what his specialties are.
He has the overlook the overview over prophecy.
One of the important pieces of the world that Apollo keeps an eye on is prophecy.
He's careful to say, though, he will be a prophetic view, or he will have a
prophetic view of the will of Zeus. Apollo's relationship with Zeus is
interesting. Apollo's extremely strong, powerful god.
There's some aspects in, in the tradition that suggest that Apollo may have been, at
some point, thought of as the very top of all the gods.
The, They're very small and very subtle, built
into this Hymn to Apollo. One of them is his def, his, his explicit
mentioning of Zeus as he's declaring his purview and talking about himself as,
yeah, I'm going to fit right there beneath this
God. He's declaring, he's being careful not to
make a challenge of Zeus. No, no such thing ever exist, that we hear
a direct challenge of Zeus. But we'll pull out as we see some of the
aspects of Apollo that lead us to think, well,
Wow, He really was extremely powerful in the
Pantheon and maybe even suggest so powerful that he could have been the most
important one. He then jumps right into it.
Initiation of, of his cultic practice, finding his place in the world and having
humans worship him. This is what I'm going to want.
Lays things down. We hear about the famous Delian maidens
and the song that they sing. That gets us a right up to speed on we,
What we, Greeks, would know of as a very famous ritual activity that happens on the
Island of Delos. The Delian maiden singing in Apollo's
honor. That gets us to this beautiful site.
Thank you to one of our co-teachers who's figured out who's, who's helped us with
beautiful photos that she's taken. Caitlin Gillespie.
Here's Delos. I mean, can you imagine?
Beautiful. there are beautiful wild flowers.
Apollo's birthplace being here immortalized in natural beauty.
So, we make it to Delos things are we hear about this establishment of a cult there.
We've got the, what seems very much like a conclusion.
Goodbye and off we go be nice to me, gods. These, this is the way hymns end.
Now, as I said, in the, in the, in the tradition the manuscript that appears in
the Greek, there is no distinction, between these two. One line flows right
into the next. We've drawn from the clear motif of ending
here and then into what seems like a new beginning.
The conclusion what we got here is two hymns put together.
Most likely that what's happened. we've got these two hymns put together but it
could also be the case that we, we have to [UNKNOWN] when did that sewing together
happen. It could be the case that it happened well
after any performent of context so that we had a, a one hand from one religious
festival survived, another hymn did. Over many generations copying the manuscript
happened. And the two hymns just got sewn together
by a copyist at a much later period. It could also be the case that a single
hymnist decided to take what were traditionally two hymns to Appollo.
Sew them together and present them as one single Hymn to Apollo to an audience.
Some of what would have presented some difficulties are over are, are papered
over. So, for example, what is the most important location that Apollo has a
connection with? Well, some will say it's Delos.
We've got a huge and very wealthy temple that's located there.
Others are going to say, my gosh that's crazy, it's not Delos.
Apollo clearly is most associated with Delphi, this very famous site where we
have the Delphic shrine to Apollo. Now, a hymnus that wanted to kind of make
both parties happy, some of whom claim that Delos was the rightful place to
understand as Apollo's main site of connection in his in, in his life, and
some wanted to claim the Delphi was. Well, this hymnus gives us a way to think,
well, both are. We've got the birth happening at Delos,
that's very important, and then we have the long, extended establishment of
himself much more extended establishment of himself happening at Delphi in the
second part of this hymn, as a way to make sure that those at Delphi feel like
they're included as well. I think what's.
Probably, or what's, what's possible in this in this double hymn to Apollo is that
we've got a hymnist who's very skilled at making sure his audience think that,
thinks that this hymn, his hymn is going to be the best.
He's trying to give us both together so that all parties feel like they've done
something that contributed to Apollo's