Description

Apollos history is a confusing one said the renowned poet and mythologist Robert Graves This notion is also illustrated in the above quote from the 6th century BCE Homeric Hymn to Apollo which gives the reader a brief glimpse into the confusion surrounding Apollos multifaceted nature The quote comes from the end of an episode in which Apollo is traversing the known world looking for a place to build a temple to himself Once he lands upon a place of his liking however he realizes that he needs to populate it with priests who would guard and care for its ceremonies Rather than depend upon those glorious tribes to supply his temple with sycophants Apollo has no patience for chance and flies down to a Cretan merchant ship landing on it in the form of a timbershaking dolphin After terrifying the merchants he tells them that their lives in the sea trade are over and they are to be priests at his temple from then on Cautioning the merchants to eschew piracy and keep righteousness in their hearts while simultaneously confronting and sequestering them captures the youthful gods capricious character quite well