Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Apollo, Death-bringer and Growth into Manhood

Just some random thought I had in the bus today:

Apollo is often named "Death-bringer", "of deadly arrows" and is seen as an active God on war. This of course correlates with the slaying of the Python, plague-bringing, and the likes; but it is also in a very war-like (or Ares-like, Athena-like) kind of death bringing.

I just realized how well this connects with another facet of him: the transition between adolescence and manhood - Apollo is the God of this initiation, just like His sister is for girls. This passage marked the entrance of a boy into the world of men which, coincidentally, is the world of war, which means that one facet of growing into manhood is war and therefore he would be death-bringer in this way as well.

Like I said, just some random thought which needs a lot to be developed upon.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Apollo and Artemis's arrows are symbolic for sickness. They bring plaugue, that is death without physical wounds like Ares's brings. Apollo's arrows kill boys and men Artemis's Arrows kill girls and women. This is often found in literature where the metaphor 'killed by Artemis's arrows" means that girls in the household died of sickness. Children are particularly susceptible to sickness so parents would pray fiercely to Artemis and Apollo to keep their children safe.