Excerpt
The same cannot be said of the ancient religion of the Aegean
world, extending from Crete and the Cyclades to mainland Greece,
where some scholars speak of the so-called Earth deities. These religious
traditions can be traced back as early as 4500 BCE, when
non-Greek languages–probably of Anatolian origin–were spoken in
this region. Yet it is difficult to imagine that their influence was not
transmitted into the Homeric period and even beyond, not to mention
the earlier period during which the Greek myths themselves
were taking shape, as we noted above.
At this point we must also speak of another deity, without whom
the spirit of Greek religion and culture would be inconceivable:
Apollo.
The harmonious and radiant presence of the Apollonian cult
marked, in the earliest history of the Greeks, the founding of the
polis and the formation of a new ideal of the human being and of
humanity itself. From Apollo’s lyre came forth the Muses, whose
mother was Mnemosyne–that is, universal Memory–followed by the
solar myths, Homer’s epics, and Hesiod’s Theogony.
Yet precisely because of these developments–or, rather, as their
natural culmination–Apollo became the god of prophecy and wisdom.
These two attributes established him as the pan-Hellenic god par
excellence, the sovereign and uncontested head of the Amphictyonic
Council, the supreme tribunal of the Hellenic peoples. In this capacity
he appears as the ruler of the ancient world, for from the tyrants
of Sicily to the Pharaohs of Egypt, all submitted to his oracular pronouncements,
delivered through the Pythia, the Delphic priestess.
His most celebrated sanctuary stood at Delphi.
