Apollo Establishes His Temple at Delphi

Author: Ovid

Time Period: 1 CE–500 CE

Country or Culture: Rome

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

After the creation of the earth, sky, waters, and other elements come the ages of humanity, beginning with the golden age and continuing through the silver, bronze, and iron ages. As the world degenerates into sin and vice in the iron age, Jupiter sends a flood to wipe out humanity and to begin life on earth again.

However, the chief god allows a virtuous couple, Deucalion and Pyrrha, to survive the flood. When the waters recede, the couple realizes that they are the sole surviving humans on Earth, so they pray to the goddess Themis for counsel on how to propagate the human race once again. The goddess instructs them to cast their mothers’ bones behind them. Puzzled, Pyrrha fears that she is being asked to offend her mother’s spirit by disrespecting her bones, but Deucalion soon realizes that the goddess is referring to the stones of the earth. The couple immediately throws stones behind them; as the rocks land, they slowly begin to take the shape of humans, with Deucalion’s stones becoming men and Pyrrha’s stones transforming into women. In this way, humans are restored.

Other species emerge from the warmth and heat of the earth following the flood, some of which replicate creatures in existence prior to the flood and others of which are new and strange. One of these new species is a giant snake (sometimes referred to as a dragon) known as Python. This beast terrorizes the humans until the god Apollo, a deity linked to the sun and prophecy and representing the medicinal, poetic, and musical arts, kills the snake with his arrows. To preserve the memory of this great victory, Apollo then establishes the Pythian athletic games.

In some retellings of the deeds of Apollo, the god kills Python because the serpent is preventing him from reaching Delphi, where an oracle of Themis resides. After killing the snake, Apollo claims the oracle as his own, establishing his temple at Delphi. Over time, many humans visit the oracle, seeking knowledge of future events, and her prophecies come to shape the lives of many legendary rulers and heroes.

SIGNIFICANCE

The myth of Apollo’s defeat of Python and establishment of his temple at Delphi is found in numerous classical Greek and Roman sources, though the details of the myth vary considerably. One particularly memorable account of the origin of Python derives from the Metamorphoses, a compilation of myths composed by the Roman poet Ovid early in the first century CE. Although Ovid mentions Apollo as a central figure in the re-creation of the world after Jupiter’s flood and discusses the slaying of Python, he does not mention the founding of the temple at Delphi. There are at least two possible reasons for this. First, Ovid was likely aware that his readers were already well familiar with the story of Apollo’s temple at Delphi. Many accounts of Apollo’s defeat of Python and subsequent founding of the temple precede Ovid’s version, including a hymn to Apollo frequently attributed to the eighth-century BCE Greek poet Homer, which explains that Apollo is sometimes called Pythian Apollo because of his victory. The Greek writer Pseudo-Apollodorus, in his Bibliotheca (The Library), chronicles Apollo’s journey to Delphi and defeat of the snake. Given Apollo’s well-established identity, Ovid did not need to repeat in detail the story of the temple’s founding at Delphi.

Second, Ovid may have left out the founding of the temple in keeping with his pattern of representing the gods in nontraditional terms. The Roman poet concludes his account of Apollo’s slaying of Python by referencing the oak or other leaves the god uses to adorn his hair and that of victorious athletes; the poet notes that the god has yet to begin using laurels for that purpose. With this conclusion, Ovid segues into the story of Apollo and the nymph Daphne, to which he dedicates significant attention. The most obvious purpose of this story is to explain the origin of the laurel tree and Apollo’s use of its leaves: Apollo falls in love with Daphne after Cupid strikes him with an arrow. The god chases her through the woods, begging her to acknowledge and accept his love. Just as he is about to overcome her, Daphne prays to her father, Peneus, to save her, which he does by transforming her into a laurel tree. Apollo then embraces the tree and makes its leaves the sign of his honor.

In this story, Ovid does much to undercut the traditional image of Apollo as a serious, manly guardian of oracular truth, health, and high culture, an image that the myth of Apollo’s defeat of the serpent and establishment of the temple presents in a more straightforward manner. Apollo falls in love with Daphne only because of his quarrel with Cupid, whom Apollo scorns based on his own prowess in archery, and when chasing the nymph, the god boasts of his power and claims to love Daphne but then laments that he, the god of healing, cannot cure himself of love. The effect of this story, which immediately follows the account of Apollo’s victory over Python in the Metamorphoses, is to undercut the seriousness and authority traditionally associated with Apollo. This undermining is typical of Ovid’s treatment of the gods in the Metamorphoses and indicates not only his urbane style but also the shifting cultural attitudes of his Roman audience in the Augustan age.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Trans. Robin Hard. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. Print.

Broad, William J. The Oracle: The Lost Secrets and Hidden Message of Ancient Delphi. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Homer. The Homeric Hymns. Trans. Jules Cashford. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. A. D. Melville. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1986. Print.

Solomon, Jon, ed. Apollo: Origins and Influences. Tucson: U of Arizona P, 1994. Print.