ABSTRACT

Immediately after his birth, while still on Delus among the goddesses who helped him into life, Apollo defined his spheres of influence: “Let the lyre and curving bow be possessions to call my own, and for humans let me proclaim the unerring counsel of Zeus” (Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 131f.). Music – or rather, to a Greek, mousikē, the combination of instrumental music, song, and dance –, archery and divination are the fields in which the singer of the Hymn sees Apollo’s power at work. We touched upon archery in the first chapter, we will treat divination in the third: in this chapter, I shall look at the lyre, while being aware that it is tricky to segment the complex world of Apollo. The Hymn itself treats all three together. The foundation of Apollo’s main oracle at Delphi – or rather, in the Hymn’s perspective, his first, foremost and almost unique oracular shrine – is its second main topic, together with his birth. But the bow and the lyre are nearly as prominent. Twice, the singer presents his audience with the image of Apollo entering Olympus, and both times he insists upon the strong impression Apollo made on his fellow Olympians. In the opening scene of the Hymn, Apollo joins the assembly of the Olympian gods, his bow ready: the gods, alarmed and frightened, “all leap up from their seats,” but Leto serenely “shuts the quiver and takes the bow from his strong shoulders, to hang it from a peg of gold against his father’s column.” This is a timeless scene of Apollo’s epiphany, told to impress the audience with the power of the god who is both addressee and theme of the Hymn, and it prepares for the triumph of the young god who will easily shoot and kill the monstruous snake that lives in the mountains of Delphi. This first appearance in the Hymn contrasts sharply with the second Olympic scene, the young god’s first arrival on Olympus shortly after his birth on Delus. As soon as he enters the assembly, “the minds of the immortals turn to lyre and song” (188), and the Muses sing a hymn about gods and men. “The fair-tressed Graces and joyful Seasons, with Harmony, Youth, and Aphrodite the daughter of Zeus, hold hands by the wrist and dance” (192-194), and Artemis, Ares, and Hermes join them. “But Phoibos Apollo plays on the lyre, stepping fine and high” (200).