#apollo info

[my-name-is-apollo]

Shoutout to the neoclassical arts that depict Hyacinthus being resurrected

Gotta be one of my favourite genders

1. Hyacinthus Borne to the Heavens by Apollo by Annibale Carracci

2. Hyacinthus and Polyboia by Johann Martin von Wagner

3. Apollo and Hyacinthus by Giovanni Maria Morandi

[sunwitchbitch]

☀️Apollo's Altar Update!☀️

🔮Crystals🔮

Lava stone

Carnelian

Dragon stone

Tigers eye

Tigers iron

Goldstone x2

Honey calcite tower

🕯️Candles🕯️

Giant sunset candle

Iced coffee candle

Orange pillar candle x2

🐝Trinket Bowl🐝

Gold glitter

Veil Pin

Light up bee

Crow keychain

Sun sigil

Sunflower charm

Music note charm

🎲Miscellaneous🎲

Dolphin crystal

More gold glitter

Bee spoon

Gold dice

Gold pen

Mini wine glass (with strawberry juice in it)

Bandaids

Trinket box (empty)

Crow painting! (Made by @a-groovy-metaphor)

[my-name-is-apollo]

Imagine being pregnant, in labor, and having to travel to all these places in hopes that you can give birth on one of them, only to get rejected by most of them because they were all afraid of your son who is not even born yet.

[my-name-is-apollo]

Having a "I've connected the dots" moment on why Zeus is so affectionate with Apollo, and I don't know why I'd never considered it before that Apollo's youth could be a reason.

Iamblichus, The Life Of Pythagoras (trans. Guthrie)

So there was this sentiment that young boys are the dearest to the gods, and the gods are especially attentive towards their requests. And since Apollo is a perpetual young boy himself, with Zeus being the one to grant him this gift in one version, it makes sense that Zeus has granted so many of Apollo's wishes. He spared Prometheus and Periphas upon Apollo's request even though he was personally offended by them. He agreed to suppress Gaia and Athena upon Apollo's request when it came to the oracular business. He even revived Asclepius to console Apollo despite Apollo's frankly disrespectful reaction to Asclepius' death.

Apollo might be fearsome, powerful, and even reckless at times but when he kneels down in supplication, all Zeus sees is his little boy that he loves so much, and he can't help but give in to his requests (well, most of his requests at least). And as far as the text is concerned, and if I'm interpreting this correcltly, Apollo's youth is interestingly tied to his helpful nature because besides using his own powers to help the humans, Apollo can also help them by supplicating to Zeus on their behalf, as Zeus is more likely to grant a request when it's coming from him.

[my-name-is-apollo]

So, Apollo and jewellery!!

I want to start off by saying that Apollo (or any male god, really) wearing jewellery is not a common occurrence in the ancient greco-roman art forms. So there's not a lot you can get, but I've put together whatever I've found so far.

On the vase paintings, you'll find body chains across his chest and there's bracelets too:

^ He also has a leg bracelet in this one

In this painting, along with a body chain and a bracelet, there's a thigh band and a finger ring as well.

Then we have waist belts. I did entertain the possibility of this being an embroidered belt. However in the first image, the belt is gilded with gold, so imo it's meant to be a belt with gilded gold, if not made entirely of gold.

In this Etruscan painting representing Apollo going to/coming back from Hyperborea on a swan, he's wearing necklaces.

Apollo wearing a necklace and an arm band seems to be a fairly common sight in the Etruscan art (so Aplu, technically ig), as seen in these two statuettes:

and some Etruscan mirror arts:

Now moving onto the diadems! A diadem referred to something you could tie your hair with - it could be a ribbon, a wreath of fresh leaves, or a jewelled wreath/head piece - it's the last one that I'm counting as jewellery. Diadems like the one Apollo is wearing below were usually worn by noblewomen.

You can also find depictions of Apollo with a jewelled wreath on his head. They resemble a laurel wreath, but they're made of gold, and have gems embedded. Here's a statue for example:

There are also Roman frescos and mosaics that show you what it actually looks like in color.

And here, you can see not just a gold diadem, but also bracelets on both his hands as well as anklets on his legs:

And there's what seems to be earrings as well? But honestly I'm not that sure, it could just be a damage on the fresco (even if that's the case, we can still appreciate the winged eyeliner amirite)

There's also this fresco of Apollo judging a beauty contest between Venus and Hesperus. Here he is not wearing a gold wreath, but there is a gold band upon his head:

And unlike other pieces of jewellery, you'll find literary references as well for Apollo's diadem:

"When Apollo was born, Zeus equipped him with golden headband and lyre and gave him also a chariot of swans to drive" – Alcaeus, Hymn to Apollo (trans. David A. Campbell)

"Apollo puts his hair in order by shaping his flowing locks with soft foliage and braiding it with a golden diadem." – Virgil, Aeneid 4 (trans. Ingo Gildenhard)

"...he fastens bay about his lyre and the woven brilliance of his coronet, and ungirds his breast of the pictured girdle..." – Statius, Thebaid 6 (trans. J. H. Mozley)

"But you will say, Phoibos has a goldgleaming diadem." – Nonnus, Dionysiaca 4 (trans. William Henry Denham Rouse)

[Inscription]: "Apollo the mighty, Lord incomparable of the Diadem, who hath set up statues of the Gods in this kingdom" – Ammianus Marcellinus, History 17 (trans. John Carew Rolfe)

[Inscription]: "Mighty Apollo, seated upon truth, Lord of the Diadem, who hath gloriously honoured Egypt as his peculiar possession" – Ammianus Marcellinus, History 17 (trans. John Carew Rolfe)

And that's pretty much everything I've come across so far. I was a bit surprised at the lack of literary references for the effeminate gods. Not just Apollo, even Dionysus' effeminacy is described by his fair face and long hair and perfumed garments, and there are no mentions of jewellery afaik. But of course, just like with Apollo, you can find jewellery on Dionysus in the visual arts.

[my-name-is-apollo]

Martial's epigram on the statue of Apollo Sauroktonos (lizard-slayer):

The way this statue was seen as child Apollo playing with a lizard is adorable

Though, according to Pliny the elder this statue represented Apollo as an adolescent (as usual), not a child.

But like, this is such a child-like activity to do. Apollo was totally the type of kid to grab tiny creatures and examine them with fascination. I am mentally visualising lil Apollo running to Artemis in high spirits and proudly showing her the lizard he just caught.

[my-name-is-apollo]

Dark-haired Apollo

I know everyone likes blonde Apollo, and for good reasons! A lot of poets seemed to have been fond of imagining him with long, beautiful golden hair. But dark-haired Apollo, though quite rare in the poems, also exists and I honestly like that too.

• From the Erythrean paean to Asclepius (which then continues into a paean to king Seleucus):

"Over the libations, sing of Seleucus, son of dark-haired Apollo, whom the god of the golden lyre himself begot..." – (Trans. P.A.LeVen)

> κυανοπλοκάμου (kyanoplokámou) - dark-haired is used to describe Apollo's hair here.

• From Limenius' paean to Apollo (also known as the second Delphic hymn):

"But you, O god who owns the oracular tripod, come to this ridge of Parnassus where the gods tread, and where divine possession is welcomed. Weave a crown of bay about your wine-dark hair, and drawing with your hand . . . you encountered the monstrous child of Gaia . . ." (Trans. J.G.Landels)

>It was a bit difficult for me to figure what word is used here for his hair because the original Greek text is fragmented and I'm not knowledgeable about the language - I rely on the online translations - so a disclaimer. But from what I've put together, the word used to describe the color of the hair is οἰνῶ̣πα (oinõpa) which translates to "dark", "ruddy complexioned". Also, the same hymn calls Apollo "golden-haired" in the beginning lol.

In Deipnosophists by Athenaeus, a comment is made on the poets' imagination of Apollo's hair vs the painters' preference:

"And you do not either like the poet who spoke of the golden-haired Apollo; for if a painter were to represent the hair of the god as actually golden, and not black, the picture would be all the worse." – (Trans. Charles Burton Gulick)

> according to this, the painters liked to represent Apollo with black (μελαίνας) hair. Or rather that making his golden will make the painting look worse.

And if the Roman paintings and mosaics are any proof, these painters did actually seem to prefer representing Apollo with dark hair.

So yeah, while in the myths he's often called golden-haired, dark-haired Apollo is a more common sight in the paintings.

[my-name-is-apollo]

The males who've crossdressed had certain reasons to do so - Dionysus and Achilles to hide their identity, Heracles because he was a slave - but I've not yet come across any reason given for Apollo to have done that too. Hyginus mentions that Apollo wore women's gown, but he doesn't tell us why.

Just an observation.