Re: Underworld

--- In cybalist@..., jdcroft@... wrote:

> Glen wrote in reply to
>
> > > Apollo was also a magician deity.
> >
> > Hmmm, also a healer. Was he a magician because he was a healer...
> or was he
> > a healer because he was a magician? Apollo's animal is also the
> mouse (cf.
> > Greek "Apollo Smintheus" and Indic Agni's transformation into a
> mouse). The
> > mouse is linked with fire and possibly derives from old steppe
> mythologies.
> > I think that the mouse is an IE symbolism for fire. So, I doubt
> that Apollo
> > can back the serpent-to-dog hypothesis very well.
>
> The mouse was an automatic attraction to the first granaries, and

the

> serpent followed the mouse. It contains an interesting reference

to

> the conflict between Gaia's Python and Apollo over Delphi. It

seems

> that there was a mouse or rat God associated with disease (and thus
> by association with healing) throughout Khattic Anatolia. Early on
> he became associated with Aplu, an alternative name for the West
> Anatolian Weather God, who wore a laurel wreath and held a laurel
> staff and twig. Aplu seems to have been a title given to Tarhunt

or

> Teshub, derived ultimately from Akkadian sources (eg Ashur-Aplu-

Iddin

> was a king of Assyria who had great trading connections with
> Anatolia). He is associated with the Canaanite Esmun, another

mouse

> god of sickness (and therefore invoked for healing). His solar
> atributes came late he stole from Helios. It seems that as he came
> west from Anatolia he came through the area associated with Artemis
> who was associated already with the moon, and this, by opposition

led

> to his solar aspect.
>
> Aplu became both the Etruscan and Greek Apollo.
>

I agree but an association between Apollo, shepherds, and wolves
exists as well, expecially in W. Anatolia, his probable origin.

As for the idea that he acquired Artemis as twin as he travelled
west, wasn't Leto long worshipped in Lycia as mother of the twins?

Etruscan Apulu was god of lightning and thunder was well as
divination. So then Etruscan Apulu would be considerably closer to
this parent Anatolian weather god in function than his Greek
cousin... So much for Apulu as a recent Greek borrowing from Apollo.

> >
> > >Now, a mostly unrelated tangent off that last sub-point- Apollo
> was a
> > >twin, born by a wolf-like mother. The origin of his cult is often
> > >thought to lie around Lycia. What other wolf-born twins do we

know

> > >of? Hmm...
> >
> > Well, maybe not wolf-born so much as sun-born, the horse being a
> symbolism
> > of the sun, hence Horse Twins (Ashvins)
>
> Apollo was not wolf born. His mother Ledo coupled with swans not
> wolves. Leto, has been associated with the Ugaritic
> Canaanite "'Lat", who was persued by Yam, in guise of a serpent.
> This myth seems to have been adopted from Phoenicians in post
> Mycenaean times. The Mycenaean "Paean" later became an epithet of
> the Anatolian Aplu.

Leto was associated with the moon and wolves as well as Swans I
believe. Maybe I overstated this connection a bit, though. I believe
wolves protected Apollo and Artemis in some way. Leto was also an
important goddess to the Lycians in particular.

Apollo was associated with protecting flocks. The lyre, his favorite
musical instrument, is associated with shepherds. One of Apollo's
sacred animals was the wolf. Swans and dolphins were the others, I
think.

There is implication of a serpent(Python)attempting to seduce Leto,
and this is one reason Apollo killed him and took over the role of
oracle.