Apollo

[Ursus]

"Apollo rejects whatever is too near - entanglement in things, the melting gaze, and equally, soulful merging, mystical inebriation and its ecstatic vision. He desires not soul but spirit. And this means freedom from the heaviness, coarseness, and constriction of what is near, stately objectivity, a ranging glance. Apollo's ideal of distance not only puts him in opposition to Dionysiac exuberance: for us it is even more significant that it involves a flat contradiction of values which Christianity later rated high.

 

*****

 

" The image of Apollo 'who shoots" from afar' is the manifestation of a single idea. ... It is a spiritual force which raises its voice, and it is sufficiently important to give form to a whole humanity. It proclaims the presence of a divine not in the miracles of the supernatural power, not in the rigor of an absolute justice, not in the providence of an infinite love, but in the victorious splendor of clarity, in the intelligent sway of order and moderation. Clarity and form are the objective aspect, to which distance and freedom are the subjective pendant."

 

-- Walter Otto. The Homeric Gods

 

Whether we take Apollo as a literal deity or a mere symbol of cultural ideals, the Far Shooter promotes a spiritual and intellectual ideal that runs contrary to many religions, past or present. While many religions seek a sublime union and reconciliation with some deity or enlightening force, Apollo keeps his followers at a distance.

 

The Greek god is said to hold sway over the fine arts, healing and purification, law and order and tradition, athleticism and beauty of the young, and the higher intellectual and artistic functions of society as the Greeks understood them. What unites all these diverse provinces is a concern for the timeless and universal forms that underscore the essence of existence. Walter Otto understood Apollo as music incarnate, if by

[georgious]

"Apollo rejects whatever is too near - entanglement in things, the melting gaze, and equally, soulful merging, mystical inebriation and its ecstatic vision. He desires not soul but spirit. And this means freedom from the heaviness, coarseness, and constriction of what is near, stately objectivity, a ranging glance. Apollo's ideal of distance not only puts him in opposition to Dionysiac exuberance: for us it is even more significant that it involves a flat contradiction of values which Christianity later rated high.

 

*****

 

" The image of Apollo 'who shoots" from afar' is the manifestation of a single idea. ... It is a spiritual force which raises its voice, and it is sufficiently important to give form to a whole humanity. It proclaims the presence of a divine not in the miracles of the supernatural power, not in the rigor of an absolute justice, not in the providence of an infinite love, but in the victorious splendor of clarity, in the intelligent sway of order and moderation. Clarity and form are the objective aspect, to which distance and freedom are the subjective pendant."

 

-- Walter Otto. The Homeric Gods

 

Whether we take Apollo as a literal deity or a mere symbol of cultural ideals, the Far Shooter promotes a spiritual and intellectual ideal that runs contrary to many religions, past or present. While many religions seek a sublime union and reconciliation with some deity or enlightening force, Apollo keeps his followers at a distance.

 

The Greek god is said to hold sway over the fine arts, healing and purification, law and order and tradition, athleticism and beauty of the young, and the higher intellectual and artistic functions of society as the Greeks understood them. What unites all these diverse provinces is a concern for the timeless and universal forms that underscore the essence of existence. Walter Otto understood Apollo as music incarnate, if by

[Ursus]

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote this essay. I wrote it basically as a response to some New Age enthusiast on the board who said "all religions are the same at the end of the day" - a view to which I took obvious exception.

 

Apollo does represent a type of role model ... refined peace, cultivated civilization. At least this was the view Augustus seemed to promote.

 

I think that Apollo is a fine cultural symbol although a bit blase for the everyman. I suspect it is a religious and cultural symbol of elitist leanings.

 

Dead on. In the years since I wrote this, I've come to view it as blase and elitist too. I have more sympathy now for the soteriological cults that eventually won out over Apollo.