Agyieus
Apollo Agyieus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγυιεύς, Aguieus) 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. This symbol is similar to a sign like an edged cone found on the gate of a temple in the Hittite city Bojatzkoi; an inscription names the god Apulunas as the protector of the gate. The Greeks named him Agyieus, as the protector God who draws off evil.[10] Some writers have held that the omphalos of the oracle at Delphi was a modified pillar of Agyieus.[11] When standing before a house, the stone objects would be decorated with offerings of ribbon, or wreaths of myrtle or bay.
References
- ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Agyieus". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. p. 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. p. 16. ISBN 0-19-864226-1.
- ↑ Pherecrates, 87
- ↑ Dieuchidas, 2
- ↑ Martin Nilsson."Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion".Verlag C.H.Beck 1955.p.564
- ↑ Farnell, Lewis Richard (1907). The Cults of the Greek States. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 308.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "article name needed". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.