Agyieus
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Agyieus (Gr. Ἀγυιεύς) was an epithet of the Greek god Apollo describing him as the protector of the streets, public places, and the entrances to homes.[1] As such he was worshiped at Acharnae,[2] Mycenae,[3] and at Tegea.[4] The origin of the worship of Apollo Agyieus in the last of these places is related by Pausanias.[5][6]
The cult of Apollo Agyieus was aniconic, and this facet of Apollo was worshiped in the form of a pointed column or obelisk,[7] often kept by the front door of a private home,[8][9] or in the open country, rather than in a temple. Some writers have held that the omphalos of the oracle at Delphi was a modified pillar of Agyieus.[10] When standing before a house, the stone objects would be decorated with offerings of ribbon, or wreaths of myrtle or bay.
[edit] References
- ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), “Agyieus”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 83
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece i. 31. § 3
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece ii. 19. § 7
- ^ Pausanias, Description of Greece viii. 53. § 1
- ^ Comp. Horace, Carmines iv. 6. 28
- ^ Macrobius, Saturnalia i. 9
- ^ Liddell, Henry; Robert Scott (1996). A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 16. ISBN 0-19-864226-1.
- ^ Pherecrates, 87
- ^ Dieuchidas, 2
- ^ Farnell, Lewis Richard (1907). The Cults of the Greek States. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 308.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).