PART
6 –
Ch.XXXIX.5
The
great Pelasgian empire
(Decline
of the Pelasgian empire)
XXXIX.
5. The reign of Apollo (‘Apollon,
Apulu, Aplus, Belis).
In the lists of Manetho, as king of
With Homer, Apollo has often the title anaxi
(rex, imperator), and reigns “over all the mortals” (Hymn. I. Apoll. 29, 69),
while in Greek inscriptions he is also called basileus (C. I. Gr. nr. 1946).
By origin, Apollo
was Hyperborean, or from the
northern regions of the lower Istru (Cicero,
N. D. III. 23; Diodorus Siculus, II.
47). His mother, a Hyperborean girl (Herodotus,
lib. IV), was called Latona, Greek Leto,
Lato
and Laton, meaning a woman of Latin
origin. Diana, the sister of Apollo,
also spent time, according to the poet Pindar,
in the country near the Istru. (Olymp. III. 26-27). On a Roman inscription
found on the banks of the lower
The renowned temple
of Apollo the Hyperborean was in the holy island from the mouths of the Danube
(Diodorus Siculus, II. 47; see
Ch.V.1), called in antiquity Leuce (Alba), today the “Serpents’ Island”.
Apollo, writes Manilius, was
especially venerated in all the regions of the Euxine Pontos (Astron. IV, v. 753). The Greek and Roman inscriptions
mention his cult in the cities Istros, Calatis and Tomis.
The Hyperborean
shepherds from the Riphei mountains sacrificed to him each year hecatombs of
asses (Pindar, Pyth. X. v. 33 seqq).
As the ancient legends say (Hyginus,
Astron. II, see Sagitta), the arrow of Apollo, with which he had killed the
Cyclopes, who had manufactured the thunderbolts of Jove, had been buried in the
mountains of the Hyperboreans (Carpathians).
Apollo, as a divinity
of the sun, is often represented on the national coins of
The Greeks also
called him Dichaios (Justus, juris peritus) (Pliny, lib. XXIV. 8), probably keeping in mind his origin in the
countries of
Apollo is also
shown on the beautiful vase from the Petrosa treasure, with the Hyperborean
griffon resting at his feet (see Ch.XXVIII.3). In the city Apulum of
His name ‘Apollon
is not Greek. This word belongs to the Pelasgian language, spoken at the north
of
For Ennius, albu’ is an epithet of the Sun. The Latins, writes Macrobius, called Apollo the “Sun”
(Sat. I. 17; Hasdeu, Etym. M. I.
762). The Sabinii, Festus tells us
(ed. De Ponor, p. 3), said alpus
instead of “albus”, and the Etruscans or Tursenii called Apollo Apulu and Aplus (Corssen, Sprache
d. Etr. I. 817;
In the upper parts of
Italy Apollo was also called Belis (Herodianus, Hist. Rom. VIII. 7), a word
which had the same meaning as albus,
Romanian “bel”. (The ancient city Apulum, Apula on the Tabula Peutingeriana, is called Alba in medieval documents, Belgrad
in the speech of the Romanian people). In ancient Greek literature Apollo also
had the epithet Lychios (Macrobius,
Sat. I. 17), a word which derived from leuchos, “white”, “bright”, the
Romans similarly called him deus lucoris
(Preller-Jordan, Rom. Myth.
According to Greek
traditions, Apollo had served in his youth as a shepherd for king Admet of
Thessaly, and had guarded the oxen herds of king Laomedon of Troy.
We find this
tradition also in Romanian folk literature.
In an old epic song (Tocilescu, Mater. Folk. p. 1236), he figures as shepherd of sheep.
In this poem he tells us that, following the upheavals which had taken place in
this country, he had been left without parents, so that he had to become a
shepherd. He had served in this quality three masters, for 9 years; he is
brother with Tipocraiu (Typhon of Greek traditions), and both
are sons of the “Domn Mihnea Voda”,
understand Manea-Voda (Novac the Old, Saturn). As a mark of his descent from
the royal family, he had a star inscribed on his back, and two others on his
shoulders (Pliny, l. XXII, 2:
maresque etiam apud Dacos et Sarmatos corpora sua inscribunt).
In Romanian folk
carols, vestiges of some ancient religious hymns, Apollo is celebrated as a
divinity of the sun and light, as “Good
God, little and handsome” (Teodorescu,
Poesii pop; Sbiera, Colinde), called
Bonus deus puer in the inscriptions
of Dacia, and is invoked under the name “Leer,
Leer and our Domn” (Carol from
com. Ciubanca, Transilvania), “Ler Domn,
Domn of ours” (Vlasca district), and “Leru-i
Domne, little youth” (Daul, Colinzi, p. 44).
The courts in which
he lives are royal, imperial white, high imperial courts.
In these carols,
the word Leer or Ler is only an archaic epithet of
Apollo. The ancient form of the word was Liber
in Latin, with the meaning “little child” (parvulus).
As
According to Macrobius, the Phrygians celebrated at
the beginning of spring, in the 8th day of the “calends” of April, a
solar feast day, under the name Hilaria (Sat. I. 21; Vopisc. Aur. C. 1).
On a Roman
inscription from Naissus, in upper Mesia, Diana figures under the name Hilara.
A daughter of
Apollo has the name Hilaira in the
Cypria carmina (7; C. I. L. v. III.
nr. 1680).
It seems therefore
that these names, Hilaria, Hilara
and Hilaira, are only simple
literary forms of some folk invocations addressed to the divinities of light,
as in Romanian carols Apollo (Liber, or Ler Domnul) is similarly invoked under
the forms “Hai Leru-mi Domne”, “Aler oiu Domne” and “Eler Domne” [1].
[1. Cantemir, Hronicul, ed. 1901, p. 217: “a brave man, Preda Stambol,
Romanian from Tera Muntenesca (TN – Muntenia, or Valahia), has told me …. that
in Tera Romanesca, close to the Danube, on the bank of Olt river, can be seen some foundations as of a Citadel, which those peasants….call, as
heard from their forefathers, the courts
of Ler emperor, and they mention even today Ler Aler Domnul in the New Year carols”.
In a folk tradition from the commune
Ciora-Doicesci,