Apollo
The God of Music

Son of Zeus and Leto, who gave birth to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis on the island of Delos, recognizable in iconography by the presence of the palm tree (tab 1). Apollo is the god of music, medical arts, science and prophecy. His attributes are the bow and a stringed musical instrument (which appear associated already in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo), specifically the kithara and the lyra given to him by Hermes: the construction of the latter instrument is extensively narrated in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. Apollo is in fact depicted as a musician as early as the 7th century BC on the bronze cuirass from Olympia along with other deities. From the 6th century BC, on Attic black-figure pottery he is the musician who accompanies the various divine events (already in Iliad 1 the gods are cheered by Apollo’s music and the song of the Muses), alone or in the presence of other deities he is depicted in repetitive scenes in which the function of the god is blatantly intended to sublimate the contingent occasion through divine music.

The main scenes are the birth of Athena (tab 2), the procession accompanying Heracles to Olympus or other occasions of divine meetings (tab 3). At such junctures Apollo also uses the lyra, but more rarely (tab 4). Apollo is also depicted alone clad in chiton and himation or effigy with richly decorated robes, which renders the god assimilable to the professional kitharodos (tab 5). The figure of the latter spreads from the early fifth century BC onward, particularly on red-figure vase-painting, when Apollo is not infrequently depicted holding the kithara with his left hand and with his right hand holding out a phiale to perform a libation (tab 6).

Apollo is represented with the lyra or the kithara in Delos, often in the presence of his sister Artemis, sometimes with his mother Leto or other deities. The Cycladic island is indicated by the presence of the palm tree, on which Leto is said to have leaned to give birth to Zeus’ two sons (see for example the accounts of Callimachus in the Hymn to Delos and of Ovid in the Metamorphoses).

Apollo as a kithara-player presides with his music over the birth of the goddess Athena, daughter of Zeus and the goddess of prudence and wisdom Metis. Myth relates that Zeus had loved her, but it was fated that better children than her father would be born of their union: a very wise daughter and then a son with a violent heart. Thus, in the Theogony of Hesiod, Zeus, on the advice of Gaia and Uranus, deceitfully swallowed Metis, also appropriating her wisdom, but an oracle predicted to him that «the children born of Metis would be stronger than their father if conceived naturally». Through deception he then persuaded the goddess to turn into a fly and swallowed her. Sometimes, as recounted by pseudo Apollodorus, it is the goddess herself who advises Zeus in this regard. Metis, in any case, continued her gestation inside Zeus’s head until one day the god felt such a headache that it was unbearable, it seemed to him that his head was bursting, to such an extent that he asked the divine blacksmith Hephaestus to split his head with an axe. Suddenly out of his father’s head came Athena, already an adult, armed with shield, spear and warrior’s helmet: in a passage of Pindar, the newly born goddess is already ready to launch the war cry. The birth scene appears in a great many literary texts and also becomes the subject of the satire of Lucian of Samosata, who in the Dialogues of the Gods  imagines the dialogue between Zeus and Hephaestus on this occasion. Other traditions tell that it was not Hephaestus but Prometheus who acted as ‘midwife’: so it is for example in Euripides’ Ion, where the chorus invokes Athena as a goddess born of Zeus’ head without the pains of childbirth.

Apollo plays the kithara in the procession leading Heracles to Olympus, where the musician god usually advances in the background of the chariot. He appears in the same position when he participates in wedding processions or at a chariot on which a male or female deity stands or is in the act of climbing. Evidently, divine music was indispensable in the processions of the Olympian gods. Already in the Iliad, Hera accuses Apollo, who wants Hector’s body returned and condemns Achilles’ behaviour, of being present and playing at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus.

On the same occasions in which Apollo is represented with the kithara, he may have the lyra that Hermes gave him. In fact, we read in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (vv. 478-482) that the messenger god offered Apollo the instrument he had just invented, inviting him to take it with him on various festive occasions. On 6th century BC Attic black-figure vase-painting, Apollo is depicted predominantly while playing the kithara and more rarely the lyra. From 490-480 BC, on red-figure pottery, the god continues to have the kithara, which remains his main attribute on a par with the bow, but is no longer depicted in the act of playing it. In the same circumstances Apollo is depicted with the lyra, which can instead be played by the god.

Sometimes Apollo is depicted alone, clad in a chiton and himation, crowned by a taenia, or portrayed in richly decorated robes, which makes the god comparable to the professional kitharodos and confusable with the latter. The latter is sometimes depicted on the podium (βῆμα) where he performed, often in front of competition judges. The presence of the winged victory (Νίκη) recalls the musician’s success. On the fortune of singing performances accompanied by the kithara (κιθαρῳδία) in the context of public competitions between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, see a passage from Plato’s Laws.

The figure of the professional kithara-player became more widespread from the beginning of the 5th century BC, particularly on Attic red-figure pottery, when Apollo is no longer depicted in the act of playing the great kithara, but rather while holding it with his left hand and with his right holding a phiale, a ritual vessel used for libations. Apollo is now depicted performing the ritual alone or, more often, in the presence of his mother Leto and Artemis. Sometimes, in the same circumstance the musician god has the lyra instead of the kithara.