Greek Seleucid Kingdom
King Antiochos III, (Molon) the Great - King: 223-187 B.C.
Bronze 12mm (2.03 grams) Sardes mint: 223-187 B.C.
Reference: SC 979; Newell, WSM 1114; SNG Spaer 615
Laureate head of Apollo right.
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ANTIOXOY above and below Elephant advancing left; upturned anchor before.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Apollo Belvedere , ca. 120–140 CE

Apollo  is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in ancient Greek and Roman religion , Greek and Roman mythology , and Greco –Roman Neopaganism . The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto , and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis . Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.

As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle . Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius , yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague . Amongst the god's custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists , and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musegetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo . Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans .

 

Apollo (left) and Artemis . Brygos (potter signed), Tondo of an Attic red-figure cup c. 470 BC, Musée du Louvre .

In Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios , Titan god of the sun , and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene , Titan goddess of the moon In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the 1st century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE.

Etymology

Statuette of the Apollo Lykeios type, Museum of the Ancient Agora of Athens (inv. BI 236).

Apollo was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire . In the traditionally Celtic lands he was most often seen as a healing and sun god. He was often equated with Celtic gods of similar character.

• Apollo Atepomarus ("the great horseman" or "possessing a great horse"). Apollo was worshipped at Mauvières (Indre). Horses were, in the Celtic world, closely linked to the sun.
• Apollo Belenus ('bright' or 'brilliant'). This epithet was given to Apollo in parts of Gaul , Northern Italy and Noricum (part of modern Austria). Apollo Belenus was a healing and sun god.
• Apollo Cunomaglus ('hound lord'). A title given to Apollo at a shrine in Wiltshire . Apollo Cunomaglus may have been a god of healing. Cunomaglus himself may originally have been an independent healing god.
• Apollo Grannus . Grannus was a healing spring god, later equated with Apollo.
• Apollo Maponus. A god known from inscriptions in Britain. This may be a local fusion of Apollo and Maponus .
• Apollo Moritasgus ('masses of sea water'). An epithet for Apollo at Alesia, where he was worshipped as god of healing and, possibly, of physicians.
• Apollo Vindonnus ('clear light'). Apollo Vindonnus had a temple at Essarois , near Châtillon-sur-Seine in Burgundy . He was a god of healing, especially of the eyes.
• Apollo Virotutis ('benefactor of mankind?'). Apollo Virotutis was worshipped, among other places, at Fins d'Annecy (Haute-Savoie) and at Jublains (Maine-et-Loire).

Origins

The Omphalos in the Museum of Delphi .

The cult centers of Apollo in Greece, Delphi and Delos , date from the 8th century BCE. The Delos sanctuary was primarily dedicated to Artemis , Apollo's twin sister. At Delphi, Apollo was venerated as the slayer of Pytho . For the Greeks, Apollo was all the Gods in one and through the centuries he acquired different functions which could originate from different gods. In archaic Greece he was the prophet , the oracular god who in older times was connected with "healing". In classical Greece he was the god of light and of music, but in popular religion he had a strong function to keep away evil.

From his eastern-origin Apollo brought the art of inspection from "symbols and omina " (σημεία και τέρατα : semeia kai terata), and of the observation of the omens of the days. The inspiration oracular-cult was probably introduced from Anatolia . The ritualism belonged to Apollo from the beginning. The Greeks created the legalism , the supervision of the orders of the gods, and the demand for moderation and harmony. Apollo became the god of shining youth, the protector of music, spiritual-life, moderation and perceptible order. The improvement of the old Anatolian god, and his elevation to an intellectual sphere, may be considered an achievement of the Greek people.

Healer and god-protector from evil

The function of Apollo as a "healer" is connected with Paean , the physician of the Gods in the Iliad , who seems to come from a more primitive religion. Paeοn is probably connected with the Mycenean Pa-ja-wo, but the etymology is the only evidence. He did not have a separate cult, but he was the personification of the holy magic-song sung by the magicians that was supposed to cure disease. Later the Greeks knew the original meaning of the relevant song "paean". The magicians were also called "seer-doctors", and they used an ecstatic prophetic art which was used exactly by the god Apollo at the oracles.

In the Iliad, Apollo is the healer under the gods, but he is also the bringer of disease and death with his arrows, similar to the function of the terrible Vedic god of disease Rudra .He sends a terrible plague to the Achaeans . The god who sends a disease can also prevent from it, therefore when it stops they make a purifying ceremony and offer him an "hecatomb" to ward off evil. When the oath of his priest appeases, they pray and with a song they call their own god, the beautiful Paean.

Some common epithets of Apollo as a healer are "paion" , "epikourios", "oulios", and "loimios" . In classical times, his strong function in popular religion was to keep away evil, and was therefore called "apotropaios"  and "alexikakos" , throw away the evil). In later writers, the word, usually spelled "Paean", becomes a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a god of healing .

Homer illustrated Paeon the god, and the song both of apotropaic thanksgiving or triumph. Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo, and afterwards to other gods: to Dionysus , to Apollo Helios , to Apollo's son Asclepius the healer. About the 4th century BCE, the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. It was in this way that Apollo had become recognised as the god of music. Apollo's role as the slayer of the Python led to his association with battle and victory; hence it became the Roman custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won.

Dorian origin

The connection with Dorians and their initiation festival apellai is reinforced by the month Apellaios in northwest Greek calendars, but it can explain only the Doric type of the name, which is connected with the Ancient Macedonian word "pella" (Pella), stone. Stones played an important part in the cult of the god, especially in the oracular shrine of Delphi (Omphalos). The "Homeric hymn" represents Apollo as a Northern intruder. His arrival must have occurred during the "dark ages" that followed the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization , and his conflict with Gaia (Mother Earth) was represented by the legend of his slaying her daughter the serpent Python .

The earth deity had power over the ghostly world, and it is believed that she was the deity behind the oracle. The older tales mentioned two dragons who were perhaps intentionally conflated. A female dragon named Delphyne who is obviously connected with Delphi and Apollo Delphinios, and a male serpent Typhon , the adversary of Zeus in the Titanomachy , who the narrators confused with Python . Python was the good daemon of the temple as it appears in Minoan religion, but she was represented as a dragon, as often happens in Northern European folklore as well as in the East.

Apollo and his sister Artemis can bring death with their arrows. The conception that diseases and death come from invisible shots sent by supernatural beings, or magicians is common in Germanic and Norse mythology.^[35] In Greek mythology Artemis was the leader of the nymphs , who had similar functions with the Nordic Elves.The "elf-shot" originally indicated disease or death attributed to the elves, but it was later attested denoting arrow -heads which were used by witches to harm people, and also for healing rituals.

The Vedic Rudra has some similar functions with Apollo. The terrible god is called "The Archer", and the bow is also an attribute of Shiva . Rudra could bring diseases with his arrows, but he was able to free people of them, and his alternative Shiba, is a healer physician god. However the Indo-European component of Apollo, does not explain his strong relation with omens, exorcisms, and with the oracular cult.

Minoan origin

It seems an oracular cult existed in Delphi from the Mycenaean ages. In historical times, the priests of Delphi were called Labryaden , "the double-axe men", which indicates Minoan origin. The double-axe (λάβρυς:labrys) was the holy symbol of the Cretan labyrinth . The Homeric hymn adds that Apollo appeared as a dolphin and carried Cretan priests to Delphi, where they evidently transferred their religious practices. Apollo Delphinios was a sea-god especially worshiped in Crete and in the islands, and his name indicates his connection with Delphi and the holy serpent Delphyne (womb). Apollo's sister Artemis , who was the Greek goddess of hunting, is identified with Britomartis (Diktynna), the Minoan "Mistress of the animals". In her earliest depictions she is accompanied by the "Mister of the animals", a male god of hunting who had the bow as his attribute. We don't know his original name, but it seems that he was absorbed by the more powerful Apollo, who stood by the "Mistress of the animals", becoming her brother.

The old oracles in Delphi seem to be connected with a local tradition of the priesthood, and there is not clear evidence that a kind of inspiration-prophecy existed in the temple. This led some scholars to the conclusion that Pythia carried on the rituals in a consistent procedure through many centuries, according to the local tradition. In that regard, the mythical seeress Sibyl of Anatolian origin, with her ecstatic art, looks unrelated to the oracle itself.However, the Greek tradition is referring to the existence of vapours and chewing of laurel-leaves, which seem to be confirmed by recent studies.

Plato describes the priestesses of Delphi and Dodona as frenzied women, obsessed by "mania" (μανία:frenzy), a Greek word connected with "mantis" (μάντις:prophet). Frenzied women like Sibyls from whose lips the god speaks are recorded in the Near East as Mari in the second millennium BC.Although Crete had contacts with Mari from 2000 BC, there is no evidence that the ecstatic prophetic art existed during the Minoan and Mycenean ages. It is more probable that this art was introduced later from Anatolia and regenerated an existing oracular cult that was local to Delphi and dormant in several areas of Greece.

Anatolian origin

A non-Greek origin of Apollo has long been assumed in scholarship.The name of Apollo's mother Leto has Lydian origin, and she was worshipped on the coasts of Asia Minor . The inspiration oracular cult was probably introduced into Greece from Anatolia , which is the origin of Sibyl , and where existed some of the oldest oracular shrines. Omens, symbols, purifications, and exorcisms appear in old Assyro -Babylonian texts, and these rituals were spread into the empire of the Hittites . In a Hittite text is mentioned that the king invited a Babylonian priestess for a certain "purification".

A similar story is mentioned by Plutarch . He writes that the Cretan - seer Epimenides , purified Athens after the pollution brought by the Alcmeonidae , and that the seer's expertise in sacrifices and reform of funeral practices were of great help to Solon in his reform of the Athenian state. The story indicates that Epimenides was probably heir to the shamanic religions of Asia, and proves together with the Homeric hymn, that Crete had a resisting religion up to the historical times. It seems that these rituals were dormant in Greece, and they were reinforced when the Greeks migrated to Anatolia .

Homer pictures Apollo on the side of the Trojans, fighting against the Achaeans , during the Trojan War . He is pictured as a terrible god, less trusted by the Greeks than other gods. The god seems to be related to Appaliunas, a tutelary god of Wilusa (Troy) in Asia Minor, but the word is not complete. The stones found in front of the gates of Homeric Troy were the symbols of Apollo. The Greeks gave to him the name αγυιεύς agyieus as the protector god of public places and houses who wards off evil, and his symbol was a tapered stone or column. However, while usually Greek festivals were celebrated at the full moon , all the feasts of Apollo were celebrated at the seventh day of the month, and the emphasis given to that day (sibutu) indicates a Babylonian origin.

The Late Bronze Age (from 1700 to 1200 BCE) Hittite and Hurrian Aplu was a god of plague , invoked during plague years. Here we have an apotropaic situation, where a god originally bringing the plague was invoked to end it. Aplu, meaning the son of, was a title given to the god Nergal , who was linked to the Babylonian god of the sun Shamash . Homer interprets Apollo as a terrible god (δεινός θεός) who brings death and disease with his arrows, but who can also heal, possessing a magic art that separates him from the other Greek gods. In Iliad , his priest prays to Apollo Smintheus, the mouse god who retains an older agricultural function as the protector from field rats. All these functions, including the function of the healer-god Paean , who seems to have Mycenean origin, are fused in the cult of Apollo.

Oracular cult

 

Columns of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece.

Unusually among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that had widespread influence: Delos and Delphi . In cult practice, Delian Apollo and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that they might both have shrines in the same locality.Apollo's cult was already fully established when written sources commenced, about 650 BCE. Apollo became extremely important to the Greek world as an oracular deity in the archaic period , and the frequency of theophoric names such as Apollodorus or Apollonios and cities named Apollonia testify to his popularity. Oracular sanctuaries to Apollo were established in other sites. In the 2nd and 3rd century CE, those at Didyma and Clarus pronounced the so-called "theological oracles", in which Apollo confirms that all deities are aspects or servants of an all-encompassing, highest deity . "In the 3rd century, Apollo fell silent. Julian the Apostate (359 - 61) tried to revive the Delphic oracle, but failed

In Greek and Roman mythology , Apollo , is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities . The ideal of the kouros (a beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery ; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis . Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both ancient Greek and Roman religion , as well as in the modern Greco -Roman Neopaganism .

As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular god — the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle . Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius , yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague as well as one who had the ability to cure. Amongst the god's custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists , and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry . Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans .

In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios , god of the sun , and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene , goddess of the moon . In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the first century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third century CE.

A sacrificial tripod was a type of altar used by the ancient Greeks. The most famous was the Delphic tripod , on which the Pythian priestess took her seat to deliver the oracles of the deity. The seat was formed by a circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which a branch of laurel was deposited when it was unoccupied by the priestess. In this sense, by Classical times the tripod was sacred to Apollo . The mytheme of Heracles contesting with Apollo for the tripod appears in vase-paintings older than the oldest written literature. The oracle originally may have been related to the primal deity, the Earth.

Another well-known tripod was the Plataean Tripod , made from a tenth part of the spoils taken from the Persian army after the Battle of Plataea . This consisted of a golden basin, supported by a bronze serpent with three heads (or three serpents intertwined), with a list of the states that had taken part in the war inscribed on the coils of the serpent. The golden bowl was carried off by the Phocians during the Third Sacred War ; the stand was removed by the emperor Constantine to Constantinople (modern Istanbul ), where it still can be seen in the hippodrome , the Atmeydanı, although in damaged condition, the heads of the serpents disappeared however one is now on display at the nearby Istanbul Archaeology Museums. The inscription, however, has been restored almost entirely. Such tripods usually had three ears (rings which served as handles) and frequently had a central upright as support in addition to the three legs.

Tripods frequently are mentioned by Homer as prizes in athletic games and as complimentary gifts; in later times, highly decorated and bearing inscriptions, they served the same purpose. They also were used as dedicatory offerings to the deities, and in the dramatic contests at the Dionysia the victorious choregus (a wealthy citizen who bore the expense of equipping and training the chorus) received a crown and a tripod. He would either dedicate the tripod to some deity or set it upon the top of a marble structure erected in the form of a small circular temple in a street in Athens , called the street of tripods, from the large number of memorials of this kind. One of these, the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates , erected by him to commemorate his victory in a dramatic contest in 335 BC , still stands. The form of the victory tripod, now missing from the top of the Lysicrates monument, has been rendered variously by scholars since the eighteenth century.

The scholar Martin L. West writes that the sibyl at Delphi shows many traits of shamanistic practices, likely inherited or influenced from Central Asian practices. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a tripod, while making her prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state, similar to shamans, and her utterings, unintelligible.

According to Herodotus (The Histories, I.144), the victory tripods were not to be taken from the temple sanctuary precinct, but left there for dedication.

Antiochus III the Great, (Greek Ἀντίoχoς Μέγας; ca. 241–187 BC, ruled 222–187 BC), younger son of Seleucus II Callinicus , became the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire as a youth of about eighteen in 223 BC. Ascending the throne at young age, Antiochus was an ambitious ruler. Although his early attempts in war against the Ptolemaic Kingdom were unsuccessful, in the following years of conquest Antiochus proved himself as the most successful Seleucid King after Seleucus I himself. His traditional designation, the Great, reflects an epithet he briefly assumed after his Eastern Campaign (it appears in regnal formulas at Amyzon in 203 and 202 BC, but not later). Antiochos also assumed the title "Basileus Megas" (which is Greek for Great King), the traditional title of the Persian kings, which he adopted after his conquest of Koile Syria. //

 Early years

Antiochus III inherited a disorganized state. Not only had Asia Minor become detached, but the farther eastern provinces had broken away, Bactria under the Greek Diodotus of Bactria , and Parthia under the nomad chieftain Arsaces . Soon after Antiochus's accession, Media and Persis revolted under their governors, the brothers Molon and Alexander .

The young king, under the baneful influence of the minister Hermeias , authorised an attack on Judea instead of going in person to face the rebels. The attack on Judea proved a fiasco, and the generals sent against Molon and Alexander met with disaster. Only in Asia Minor, where the king's cousin, the able Achaeus represented the Seleucid cause, did its prestige recover, driving the Pergamene power back to its earlier limits.

In 221 BC Antiochus at last went east, and the rebellion of Molon and Alexander collapsed. The submission of Lesser Media, which had asserted its independence under Artabazanes , followed. Antiochus rid himself of Hermeias by assassination and returned to Syria (220 BC). Meanwhile Achaeus himself had revolted and assumed the title of king in Asia Minor. Since, however, his power was not well enough grounded to allow of his attacking Syria, Antiochus considered that he might leave Achaeus for the present and renew his attempt on Judea.

The campaigns of 219 BC and 218 BC carried the Seleucid armies almost to the confines of Ptolemaic Egypt , but in 217 BC Ptolemy IV confronted Antiochus at the battle of Raphia and inflicted a defeat upon him which nullified all Antiochus's successes and compelled him to withdraw north of the Lebanon . In 216 BC Antiochus went north to deal with Achaeus, and had by 214 BC driven him from the field into Sardis . Antiochus contrived to get possession of the person of Achaeus (see Polybius ), but the citadel held out until 213 BC under Achaeus' widow Laodice and then surrendered.

Having thus recovered the central part of Asia Minor – for the Seleucid government had perforce to tolerate the dynasties in Pergamon , Bithynia and Cappadocia  – Antiochus turned to recover the outlying provinces of the north and east. He obliged Xerxes of Armenia to acknowledge his supremacy in 212 BC. In 209 BC Antiochus invaded Parthia , occupied the capital Hecatompylus and pushed forward into Hyrcania . The Parthian king Arsaces II apparently successfully sued for peace.

 Bactrian campaign and Indian expedition

Year 209 BC saw Antiochus in Bactria , where the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I had supplanted the original rebel. Antiochus again met with success. After sustaining a famous siege in his capital Bactra (Balkh), Euthydemus obtained an honourable peace by which Antiochus promised Euthydemus' son Demetrius the hand of one of his daughters.

Antiochus next, following in the steps of Alexander, crossed into the Kabul valley, renewed his friendship with the Indian king Sophagasenus and returned west by way of Seistan and Kerman (206/5). According to Polybius :

"He crossed the Caucasus (Hindu Kush) and descended into India; renewed his friendship with Sophagasenus (Subhashsena in Prakrit) the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him."

Polybius 11.39

 Persia and Koile Syria campaigns

From Seleucia on the Tigris he led a short expedition down the Persian Gulf against the Gerrhaeans of the Arabian coast (205 BC/204 BC). Antiochus seemed to have restored the Seleucid empire in the east, and the achievement brought him the title of "the Great." (Antiochos Megas). In 205 BC/204 BC the infant Ptolemy V Epiphanes succeeded to the Egyptian throne, and Antiochus is said (notably by Polybios) to have concluded a secret pact with Philip V of Macedon for the partition of the Ptolemaic possessions. Under the terms of this pact, Macedon were to receive Egypt's around the Aegean Sea and Cyrene while Antiochus would take Cyprus and Egypt.

Once more Antiochus attacked the Ptolemaic province of Koile Syria and Phoenicia, and by 199 BC he seems to have had possession of it before the Aetolian, Scopas , recovered it for Ptolemy. But that recovery proved brief, for in 198 BC Antiochus defeated Scopas at the Battle of Panium , near the sources of the Jordan , a battle which marks the end of Ptolemaic rule in Judea.

 War against Rome

Antiochus then moved to Asia Minor to secure the coast towns which had belonged to the Ptolemaic overseas dominions and the independent Greek cities. This enterprise brought him into antagonism with Rome , since Smyrna and Lampsacus appealed to the republic of the west, and the tension became greater after Antiochus had in 196 BC established a footing in Thrace . The evacuation of Greece by the Romans gave Antiochus his opportunity, and he now had the fugitive Hannibal at his court to urge him on.