PS268 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Pythian Games, Homeric Hymns, Asclepius
Document Summary
Name not found on mcyneancean linear b tablet but paean: later title as a god of healing, and term for cult hymn known at knosos. Oracle: sacred shrine at which a god was though to communicate with men when they wanted to know the future. Apollo destroyed python in a form of dragon combat (in homeric hymn to apollo by kynaithos of chios, c. 6th c bce) Python guarded sanctuary of gaea and themis; nurse to typhon (myth of. Hera); python from pythos= to rot ; where name pythian apollo came from. Apllo had to be ritually cleansed of blood poluution at vale of tempe, re- enacted in: Stepterion: feast of purification ; a religious drama; ritual purification of moral pollution of mortals another function of sanctuary. Myth of apollo and cretan sailors; recruited as apollos priests. Delphis=dolphin; etiological for how delphi got its name; worshipped under title.
