It seems then, natural to conclude that we have evidence to warrant us in a belief in an Apollo of the Apple-tree.' 2 With regard to the occurrence of both Apollo and Maleates at Athens, Farnell justly observes that "two sacrifices to the same divinity under different names are not infrequently prescribed in the same ritual code ". He thinks, however, that the objection made on the ground of quantity holds: "the verses of Isyllos have this value, if no other, that they prove that the first vowel in Maλeárns was short; we must abandon . . . the supposition that the term could designate the 'god of sheep' or the 'god of the apple-tree"". So he looks for a geographical explanation either from Cape Malea at the South of Laconia, or an obscure place of the same name in Arcadia. The solution does not seem to me to be satisfactory: it does not explain the duplication of Apollo and Maleates, nor find ground for the diffusion of the title; it leaves Apollo Maloeis still in obscurity, and loses sight of the parallel with Dionysos Sukeates. Probably some other explanation may be found of the short vowel in the Paean of Isyllos: the progression of the accent in Maleates might have something to do with it. The actual passage in Isyllos is as follows: οὐδέ κε Θεσσαλίας ἐν Τρίκκῃ πειραθείης εἰς ἄδυτον καταβὰς Ασκληπίου, εἰ μὴ ἐφ ̓ ἁγνοῦ Isyllos himself derives the epithet Maleates from an eponymous Mâλos, whose name he scans with a long alpha in the very same line in which Maλeára is introduced, as follows: πρῶτος Μᾶλος ἔτευξεν ̓Απόλλωνος Μαλεάτα There is, therefore, no reason against our scanning the end of the line as βωμοῦ θύσαις Μαλεᾶτα with spondaic ending and synizesis of the vowels (compare the spondaic ending of the first of the lines quoted above). 1 The inscription will be found in Conze, Tab. XVIII. 1. Bechtel, Dialektinschr. n. 255. Hoffmann, n. 168. Gruppe objects to the appletree, apparently on the ground that the first a in Maλeárns is short. But vide infra. 2 Cults, iv. 237. There seems to be no reason for ruling out the form Māλeάτηs in the way that Gruppe and Farnell get rid of it. Moreover, there are other possible explanations, though perhaps none is so probable as the one which is given above. We must not forget that we have definite tree was sacred at Delphi to the god Apollo. proof that the appleThat comes out from a passage in Lucian's Anacharsis1 where Solon explains that the prizes in athletic contests are "At Olympia a wreath of wild olive, at the Isthmus one of pine, at Nemea of parsley, at Pytho some of the god's sacred apples". It will be difficult to ignore this bit of evidence; Farnell (p. 134) admits that " the laurel, the plane-tree, the tamarisk, even the apple-tree, are sacred to him," and that "some of his appellatives (!) are derived from them". ဝဝဝဝဝဝဝ PLATE II.-COIN The statement of Lucian may be illustrated (as Mr. A. B. Cook suggests to me) from a Delphian coin which shows the apples on the victor's table. We shall refer presently to the silver dish from Corbridge on the Tyne, containing, perhaps, a variant version of the Judgment of Paris, with the scene laid at Delphi, and Apollo, on that supposition, in the place of Paris. In this representation, we have the apple depicted on the altars of the god. On one altar we have certainly the Delphic apple on the other we either have two apples, with a flame between them, or as Mr. A. B. Cook thinks, two fire-fenders evolved out of a pair of archaic ritual horns. One apple suffices me for the desired cult-symbol. As to the meaning of the silver dish from the North of England, we shall have more to say presently. To Mr. Cook I am also indebted for a couple of valuable confirmations of the theory of a cult-relation between Apollo and the apple. 2 The first is from the coins of Eleutherna in Crete, which have on one side a nude Apollo seated, with a round object in his right hand and a bow in his left. PLATE This round object is commonly taken to be a stone; but Mr. Cook is almost certain, from a copper coin of 1 Anacharsis, 9. 2 Svoronos, Numismatique de la Crète ancienne. p. 138 f., pl. 12, 18 f. III. COIN OF ELEUTHERNA IN CRETE. Macon, 1890, Eleutherna in his own possession, showing Apollo with an apple in his hand, that the round object referred to is an apple.1 The next piece of evidence is more difficult to interpret. There was a famous sanctuary of Apollo, near Klazomenai, known as the Grynaean grove. The name was apparently derived from Grynos, an oak-stump, and is suggestive of the original connection of Apollo with the oak-tree. In this Grynaean grove was a tree bearing apples, which was the centre of a dispute between Mopsos and Colchas, who divined the number of apples on the tree. Note the connection of the sacred apple-tree with the sanctuary of Apollo." To the foregoing we may, perhaps, add the story which Antoninus Liberalis tells of the metamorphosis of the virgin Ktesulla into a white dove. This young lady was dancing at the Pythian festival by the altar of Apollo, and a certain Hermochares became enamoured of her, and sent a declaration of love inscribed on an apple. We see again the prominence given to the apple at Delphi, in the Pythian Festival, not only to the apple as the symbol of the god, but as a means of divination. Apparently what Hermochares did was to write on the apple the oracular statement that "You will wed an Athenian named Hermochares"; then he opened negotiations with the young lady's father, being previously unknown to either. This custom of writing an oracle upon an apple for subsequent elucidation is well known to us from the Judgment of Paris, with its apple inscribed To the Fair. Divination by apples still survives in out-of-the-way corners. An old English custom is to peel an apple spirally, and throw the skin over your head without breaking it. The fate and shape of the projected apple-paring will tell your fortune in love, and reveal by its curves the name of your true lord or lady. Here it is in verse from the poet Gay :-3 3 This mellow pippin which I pare around lady. My shepherd's name shall flourish on the ground. L stands for Lubberkin the desired shepherd. 1 Cf. B.M. Cat. Crete, pl. 8, 12 f. 2 3 Myth. Vat. i. 194. Serv. in Verg. Ecl. 6, 72. Gay, The Shepherd's Week. (The custom referred to is not confined to the British Isles; I have noted it in Norway and in Mesopotamia. It is a very old folk-custom.) My lady friends tell me they still practise this method of divination, which commonly results in an oracular S for their shepherd's name. To the previous reasoning an objection may be made that the action of Hermochares in throwing the apple is nothing more than a conventional love-token. For example, here are cases of such loveapple throwing from the Greek Anthology : No. 78. No. 79. τῷ μήλῳ βάλλω σε· σὺ δ ̓ εἰ μὲν ἑκοῦσα φιλεῖς με, εἰ δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ὁ μὴ γίγνοιτο νοεῖς, τοῦτ ̓ αὐτὸ λαβοῦσα, Μῆλον ἐγώ· βάλλει με φιλῶν σέ τις· ἀλλ ̓ ἐπίνευσον, In each of these epigrams the apple is the love-token thrown by the man at the woman, with the warning that rejected love means fading beauty, the apple being in that case the symbol of decay which answers to the roses in the lines : Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, No doubt the custom of love-making by apple-throwing existed. At the same time, this does not quite meet the case of Hermochares and Ktesulla at the Pythian Festival. Here the apple is sacred as well as amatory, and we naturally expect an oracle. The custom for the gods to write decrees and oracles on fruit is not confined to Greek life. For example, in a painting on one of the rooms in the Memnonium, Rameses the second is seen seated under a persea-tree, on the fruits of which the supreme deity as Ra-Tum, the goddess of wisdom, and the sacred scribe (Thoth) are writing the name of the Pharaoh. Again, at Medinet Habou, Thothmes III is led before the tree of life by Hathor and Thoth, and on the fruits of the tree the god Amon-Ra is seen to be inscribing a sacred formula.1 So here again we have the custom of writing oracles on fruits : and we infer that if the love-passage between Hermochares and Ktesulla had been a mere case of apple-throwing there would have 1 Joret, Les Plantes dans l'Antiquité, i. 262. been no reference to an inscription and no allusion to the Pythian Festival, nor to the temple of Artemis into which the apple was thrown. Here is another interesting confirmation of the connection between Apollo and the apple, and the diviner's art. In a Patmos scholion to a passage in Thucydides the object of which is to explain the title Maλóes as applied to Apollo, we are told that there was a young woman, a daughter of Teiresias, whose name was Manto; when she was dancing one day, she lost a golden apple out of her necklace, and being sad over its loss she vowed that if she ever found it, she would establish a shrine in honour of Apollo; this actually happened, and Apollo was worshipped accordingly under the title of Apollo Maloeis. Note the recurrent features in the story: the young lady is a priestess of Apollo; while her name (Manto) and her parentage (Teiresias) alike show that she is skilled in the art of the diviner. She is ornamented with a necklace of golden apples, to which it is natural to ascribe a religious significance; they are symbolic of the ritual and of the god to whose service she is attached." 1 1 For further reference with regard to apple-throwing see Gaidoz, La requisition d'amour et le symbolisme de la pomme (École pratique des sciences historiques et philologiques, 1902). B. O. Foster, Notes on the Symbolism of the Apple in Classical Antiquity, in Harvard Studies in Classical Antiquity, x. 39 ff. For the foregoing and other references I am not a little indebted to Mr. A. B. Cook. Gaidoz shows that in the Irish story of Condla the Red, a fairy throws the hero an apple. He now goes without food or drink for a month, living only on the magic apple, which grows again as fast as it is eaten. See also Vergil, Ecl. 3, 64, for applethrowing by the nymph Galatea : Malo me Galatea petit, lasciva puella, Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri. But this is from Theocritus. * The passage is as follows (see Rev. de Phil. i. 185):— Μάντω ἡ Τειρεσίου περὶ τοὺς τόπους χωρεύουσα The same incident is referred to by Stephanos Byzantios, s.v. Maλλóeis Μαλλόεις· Απόλλων ἐν Λέσβῳ· καὶ ὁ τόπος τοῦ ἱεροῦ Μαλλόεις, ἀπὸ τοῦ μήλου τῆς Μαντοῦς, ὡς Ελλανικὸς ἐν Λεσβικῶν πρώτῳ. ་ |