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Article CLASSICAL THEOLOGY. APOLLO AND MAY. ← Page 2 of 4 →
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Classical Theology. Apollo And May.
turned by the pitying gods into poplar trees , still so sensitive of anguish , that they have , ever since , instead of tears , been " weeping amber , " we find the teaching of the Pythagorean metempsychosis unavailable ; nor is any philosopheme ctqaable of sustaining so egregious an hypothesis , or of arriving at any reciprocal cognation of mythologies , illogical and irrational as they areand yet so various and opjjosite in their
contra-, dictions . This however does not extend thoroughly through their polytheism , or improbate the penetrative subtleties of their doctrine of natural and metaphysical philosophy . Diespiter , from Jupiter ' s Cretan name , signifying the author or paternal parent of light , is tho imputed father of Apollowhich otherwise means creator of the sun ; ancl again
, , from Xcii'Occvw , to lie hid , is derived the name of Latonn , his mother ; which infers that before the birth of Apollo , or tho production ofthe sun , all things lay involved and unprofitable in darkness ancl chaos , and , as it were , in embryo ; from which afterwards as from the womb of a mother |} roceodod the most glorious of the glorious luminaries . So likewise
, as in these conclusions , there is obtained tho same hypothetical result iu admitting the thesis of his being the son of Hyperion , and nephew to . / Ether , begotten of an unknown mother ; yet still retaining , as one with the sun , the name of his lather , who was the son of Ccclus and Terra , or , as wo should say in English , of the air and the earth . Mow ,
upon logical demonstration , this is giving to the elements ancl to their nature a preternatural power they havo never possessed ; for if they had created one sun they would have created two or more suns . We acknowledge one solaiy system ; but , indeed , beyond the parahelion our eyes have never seen anything like two suns . The Persians called the sun "Mithras" ancl computed and
, esteemed him the greatest of their gods . His temples were built underground : he was worshipped in caves . Hi ' s statue had the head of a lion , on which a turban or twisted scarf , styled a mitre , or rather tiara , was placed ; it was attired in Persian robes , ancl with both hands was seen to hold au enraged bull by the horns . Those who were allowed to become
his priests , ancl to understand his mysteries , were obliged first to undergo many great trials , many torments , stripes , colds and heats , disgraces ancl other hardships , to evince their fitness for the attainment of such office and honours . It was a severe reli gion : it authorized the infringement oven of the Persian law , said to be inviolable . The kings of Persia were
not interdicted in their use of wine on those days in which the sacrifices were offered to Mithras ; for them to drink immoderately at any other time was strictly unlawful . In the code of the laws of Mahomet , whose mother was a Jewess and whose father was a Pagan , a like judicial commandment is enforced to a still greater extent ; all his followers are prohibited the free use of any intoxicating beverage .
Ihe poets of antiquity were crowned with laurel , and with the olive , a " fruit which loves the sun . " This fruit was offered to Apollo , because it was thought to be conducive to divination , for which reason also was the swan a mono- his sacrifices , it being believed to have from him the faculty of prescience ; or , as we have it in the Tusculan Questions
" Quia prcevidentes qui in morte boni shit , cum cantu et voliiplate moriuntur —foreseeing happiness in death , they die with singing and jileasure . The Egyptians divided the day into hours , hone , or "in horas , " ancl called the sun Orus , or Horus , as belonniiv to Osiris , or as the son of Io : at all events , his symbol was a
. sceptre , on the top of which was an eye , to represent his powerof seeing all tilings , and that through him all thin « sarc made visible . Griffins were sacred to him , because " their eagle wings could uplift them to him ; the cock , because it fi . iulells his vising , and the grasshopper , not only because it hails his setting with a song , " but as being so entirely depemlr . et- on him as to be seemingly culled into life , ami " su .. ini , i ( -d fi . V lug ri \ YK \ V ! u . voibro , i , u , certain day ,., of . eatiyi | . j <\ . in
honour of Apollo , it was with the Athenians a custom to fasten golden grasshoppers within and about their hair . Although Pindarus , in his "Olympia , " has gone so far as to assert that it rained gold , and that the earth arrayed itself with lilies and roses when Sol saw the face of Venus that it was beautiful and came to visit her in the island of Rhodes ,
so called from this occasion , u-d rov ( H ' ICOV , "ii- reset ,- " we will not pause to examine tho mystery of the fable or the grandeur of the lyric , which Horace himself has pronounced , long before us , to be inimitable , but en passant let ns take a mental glance at the Ilhodian statue of Ihe sun , that well known wonder of the worldtho famous Colossus . It was
, placed at the mouth of the harbour , and was seventy cubits high ; one man with both his arms could not clasp either one of its thumbs ; so vast and widely extended were its thighs , that a large ship in full sail could easily enter the port between them . It was twelve years in being completed , and
cost three hundred Ehodian talents , perhaps about one hundred thousand pounds . Fifty or sixty years after its erection it was thrown down by an earthquake . Chares the pupil of Lysippus is said to have been tho sculptor , about A . D . 288 . When the Arabians took possession of the island they sold the fallen image to a Jew who with the brass of
which it was composed loaded , it is believed , nine hundred camels . Prom this statue the Rhoclians had the name of Colossians given to them , ancl for the same reason the amphitheatre of Vespasian is indicatively called the Colosseum , from a colossal figure of Apollo placed before it ; but we must not forget that this place for public exhibitions of combats of
gladiators and wild beasts , with other scenes of cruelt y , has been styled "the most stupendous monument of Roman antiquity . " Its original designation has long ceased , and many parts of it no longer exist , yet , strange to say , within its ruins fourteen chapels have been erected in representation ofthe different stages ofthe passion of our Saviour .
Another statue of the sun god is tho Apollo Belvedere , found in the ruins of Antiuui , which was purchased by Pope Julius II ., before his elevation to tho Vatican , and placed b y him afterwards in itsBelVidere , or as we have said . Bclvederc , from whence it takes its name . We mention this specimen of sculpture as being one of the finest in the world , even now
as restored by Giovanni da Montorsoli . It is more than seven feet high , and with the exception of its semUoga , or short cloak , caught up by the stretched out left arm , it is naked . It is supposed to represent Apollo watching the effect of the arrow just discharged from his extended bow at the Python . Let us , however , bear in mind that it is not an
uncommon event abroad to hear of a death by a coup de soleil ; wo suggest Sol ' s real bow to be the bow of the sun , the suiibow or iris , ancl lightning his arrows . In Akea , an old town in the bay of Messene , Peloponnesus , the Akean A pollo hacl an oracle moi-e ancient than the one at Delphos ; it was burnt by Xerxes about the time when his invading army of seventeen hundred thousand was vanquished by forty thousand Greeks .
Ihe temple of Delos , once so magnificent and celebrated , whose remains are now scarcely to be traced , had its origin it is said , at least fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ , and is supposed to have been erected at the general expense of all the Grecian potentates of that time . Plutarch , in his life of Theseus , mentions its altar as one built entirel y of the left
side horns of beasts . At all events the learned of antiquity have believed it to consist of the horns of antelopes or wild goats , killed by Diana on Mount Cynthus , so firmly twisted one into the other , and consolidated without any kind of cement or nails , as , from its peculiar construction , to have been considered one of tho wonders of the world .
There was in this temple also a colossal statue of the god in marble , twenty-five foot in height . To judge by ' what formerly remminod of its ruins , the biii . dn . g ' mnsfc have been Inv-w . ' . and 1 ) 1 ) . ] . of wjlits inarbje ; but Hi eve i . po way of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Classical Theology. Apollo And May.
turned by the pitying gods into poplar trees , still so sensitive of anguish , that they have , ever since , instead of tears , been " weeping amber , " we find the teaching of the Pythagorean metempsychosis unavailable ; nor is any philosopheme ctqaable of sustaining so egregious an hypothesis , or of arriving at any reciprocal cognation of mythologies , illogical and irrational as they areand yet so various and opjjosite in their
contra-, dictions . This however does not extend thoroughly through their polytheism , or improbate the penetrative subtleties of their doctrine of natural and metaphysical philosophy . Diespiter , from Jupiter ' s Cretan name , signifying the author or paternal parent of light , is tho imputed father of Apollowhich otherwise means creator of the sun ; ancl again
, , from Xcii'Occvw , to lie hid , is derived the name of Latonn , his mother ; which infers that before the birth of Apollo , or tho production ofthe sun , all things lay involved and unprofitable in darkness ancl chaos , and , as it were , in embryo ; from which afterwards as from the womb of a mother |} roceodod the most glorious of the glorious luminaries . So likewise
, as in these conclusions , there is obtained tho same hypothetical result iu admitting the thesis of his being the son of Hyperion , and nephew to . / Ether , begotten of an unknown mother ; yet still retaining , as one with the sun , the name of his lather , who was the son of Ccclus and Terra , or , as wo should say in English , of the air and the earth . Mow ,
upon logical demonstration , this is giving to the elements ancl to their nature a preternatural power they havo never possessed ; for if they had created one sun they would have created two or more suns . We acknowledge one solaiy system ; but , indeed , beyond the parahelion our eyes have never seen anything like two suns . The Persians called the sun "Mithras" ancl computed and
, esteemed him the greatest of their gods . His temples were built underground : he was worshipped in caves . Hi ' s statue had the head of a lion , on which a turban or twisted scarf , styled a mitre , or rather tiara , was placed ; it was attired in Persian robes , ancl with both hands was seen to hold au enraged bull by the horns . Those who were allowed to become
his priests , ancl to understand his mysteries , were obliged first to undergo many great trials , many torments , stripes , colds and heats , disgraces ancl other hardships , to evince their fitness for the attainment of such office and honours . It was a severe reli gion : it authorized the infringement oven of the Persian law , said to be inviolable . The kings of Persia were
not interdicted in their use of wine on those days in which the sacrifices were offered to Mithras ; for them to drink immoderately at any other time was strictly unlawful . In the code of the laws of Mahomet , whose mother was a Jewess and whose father was a Pagan , a like judicial commandment is enforced to a still greater extent ; all his followers are prohibited the free use of any intoxicating beverage .
Ihe poets of antiquity were crowned with laurel , and with the olive , a " fruit which loves the sun . " This fruit was offered to Apollo , because it was thought to be conducive to divination , for which reason also was the swan a mono- his sacrifices , it being believed to have from him the faculty of prescience ; or , as we have it in the Tusculan Questions
" Quia prcevidentes qui in morte boni shit , cum cantu et voliiplate moriuntur —foreseeing happiness in death , they die with singing and jileasure . The Egyptians divided the day into hours , hone , or "in horas , " ancl called the sun Orus , or Horus , as belonniiv to Osiris , or as the son of Io : at all events , his symbol was a
. sceptre , on the top of which was an eye , to represent his powerof seeing all tilings , and that through him all thin « sarc made visible . Griffins were sacred to him , because " their eagle wings could uplift them to him ; the cock , because it fi . iulells his vising , and the grasshopper , not only because it hails his setting with a song , " but as being so entirely depemlr . et- on him as to be seemingly culled into life , ami " su .. ini , i ( -d fi . V lug ri \ YK \ V ! u . voibro , i , u , certain day ,., of . eatiyi | . j <\ . in
honour of Apollo , it was with the Athenians a custom to fasten golden grasshoppers within and about their hair . Although Pindarus , in his "Olympia , " has gone so far as to assert that it rained gold , and that the earth arrayed itself with lilies and roses when Sol saw the face of Venus that it was beautiful and came to visit her in the island of Rhodes ,
so called from this occasion , u-d rov ( H ' ICOV , "ii- reset ,- " we will not pause to examine tho mystery of the fable or the grandeur of the lyric , which Horace himself has pronounced , long before us , to be inimitable , but en passant let ns take a mental glance at the Ilhodian statue of Ihe sun , that well known wonder of the worldtho famous Colossus . It was
, placed at the mouth of the harbour , and was seventy cubits high ; one man with both his arms could not clasp either one of its thumbs ; so vast and widely extended were its thighs , that a large ship in full sail could easily enter the port between them . It was twelve years in being completed , and
cost three hundred Ehodian talents , perhaps about one hundred thousand pounds . Fifty or sixty years after its erection it was thrown down by an earthquake . Chares the pupil of Lysippus is said to have been tho sculptor , about A . D . 288 . When the Arabians took possession of the island they sold the fallen image to a Jew who with the brass of
which it was composed loaded , it is believed , nine hundred camels . Prom this statue the Rhoclians had the name of Colossians given to them , ancl for the same reason the amphitheatre of Vespasian is indicatively called the Colosseum , from a colossal figure of Apollo placed before it ; but we must not forget that this place for public exhibitions of combats of
gladiators and wild beasts , with other scenes of cruelt y , has been styled "the most stupendous monument of Roman antiquity . " Its original designation has long ceased , and many parts of it no longer exist , yet , strange to say , within its ruins fourteen chapels have been erected in representation ofthe different stages ofthe passion of our Saviour .
Another statue of the sun god is tho Apollo Belvedere , found in the ruins of Antiuui , which was purchased by Pope Julius II ., before his elevation to tho Vatican , and placed b y him afterwards in itsBelVidere , or as we have said . Bclvederc , from whence it takes its name . We mention this specimen of sculpture as being one of the finest in the world , even now
as restored by Giovanni da Montorsoli . It is more than seven feet high , and with the exception of its semUoga , or short cloak , caught up by the stretched out left arm , it is naked . It is supposed to represent Apollo watching the effect of the arrow just discharged from his extended bow at the Python . Let us , however , bear in mind that it is not an
uncommon event abroad to hear of a death by a coup de soleil ; wo suggest Sol ' s real bow to be the bow of the sun , the suiibow or iris , ancl lightning his arrows . In Akea , an old town in the bay of Messene , Peloponnesus , the Akean A pollo hacl an oracle moi-e ancient than the one at Delphos ; it was burnt by Xerxes about the time when his invading army of seventeen hundred thousand was vanquished by forty thousand Greeks .
Ihe temple of Delos , once so magnificent and celebrated , whose remains are now scarcely to be traced , had its origin it is said , at least fifteen hundred years before the birth of Christ , and is supposed to have been erected at the general expense of all the Grecian potentates of that time . Plutarch , in his life of Theseus , mentions its altar as one built entirel y of the left
side horns of beasts . At all events the learned of antiquity have believed it to consist of the horns of antelopes or wild goats , killed by Diana on Mount Cynthus , so firmly twisted one into the other , and consolidated without any kind of cement or nails , as , from its peculiar construction , to have been considered one of tho wonders of the world .
There was in this temple also a colossal statue of the god in marble , twenty-five foot in height . To judge by ' what formerly remminod of its ruins , the biii . dn . g ' mnsfc have been Inv-w . ' . and 1 ) 1 ) . ] . of wjlits inarbje ; but Hi eve i . po way of