| Apollo was a herdsman, a healer and a musician commonly depicted with his lyre. He was the son of Zeus and Leto. He was the inventor of archery, and leader of the muses and went by the title of Lyceius in his role of protector from wolves (lycoi). (123) Thus, Apollo is connected to the shamanic shapeshifting wolfman and this also connects him with the “golden fleece” and Iason’s magical quest, though esoteric, through the association of wolf and sheep. In Greece, a festival was held by a group of Dorians in honor of Apollo Karneia. The etymology traces karneia back to karnos meaning “ram.” (124) Karnaim appears in the King James Version of the Bible in reference to Ashteroth Karnaim, a city in the land of Bashan east of the Jordan River, named after the goddess Ashteroth. The word Karnaim may come from a Hebrew word which means “horn,” Qeren and keras, but this is not confirmed. (125) Either way, we have some direct connections here from Apollo’s Ram symbol to the goddess Ashteroth and her connection to the ram as well. This may have something to do with the reason we have Aries the Ram as the symbol following Taurus, the bull. (126) By the Hellenic period, Apollo had taken on characteristics of the sun not previously held by him during early Homeric poems. He went by the name Phoebus, in Greek meaning “bright” or “shining” and later Romans adopted this to the sun deity Sol. Dionysus and Asclepius are sometimes also identified with this Apollo Helios. (127) Apollo didn’t always help cure disease. Sometimes he caused it. (128) He would use his bow and arrows to spread pestilence among men which is a rare attribute of healing gods, though it is known in a few cases. He was called the “far-darter” and once again, we must think of the “arrows as darts” which is a common reference given by shaman to the spirits that can be sent from one shaman to either injure or heal another. In his character as a god of disease he was called the Pestilential (Loimoios) Apollo. People who were thought to have been inflicted with ill by his arrows were “Apollo-struck” or “sun-struck.” (129) In his favorable moods he averted disease. (130) Strabo writes: "Both Milesians [at Didyma] and Delians invoke an Apollo Oulios, that is, as god of ‘health and healing,’ for the verb oulein means ‘to be healthy’; whence the noun oule and the salutation, ‘Both health and great joy to thee’; for Apollon is the god of healing." (131) There is only one example of a public monument to Apollo as “the healer,” which is the one from Epidaurus of Asclepius-Apollo, which now resides in the Athens Museum. (132) Coins from the late period of Thrace portray Apollo Iatros with laurel and bow alongside the attributes of a healer, the staff and serpent. (133) The Arrows becoming poisoned may have been responsible for the new double healing / poisoning power of Apollo. The word for poison in ancient Greek, toxicon, derived from toxon, arrow. And in Latin, the word for poison, toxica, was said to derive from taxus, yew, because the first poison arrows had been daubed with deadly yew-berry juice. Dioscorides, was the first to comment on the linguistic connection of the word “toxic” to “arrow” and Dioscorides insisted that only barbarian foreigners, never the Greeks themselves, resorted to using these weapons. |
At the same time, Artemis, an archer-goddess was called Toxia, “…The Code Law of Gortyn indicates the existence of another sanctuary, of Artemis Toxia, close to the Amyklaion, and doubtfully identified at Kalamaki in the area of the church Panagia Evanghelistria.” (134) Athena is often portrayed on Greek vases with a snake on her shield and birds perched about her. (135) Athena is usually considered a “war-goddess” because of her shield. In Paestum, the temples of Athena and Hera were next to each other. (136) Athena doesn’t figure too prominently in mushroom imagery on reliefs or artifacts I have been able to dig up. Athena could possibly be likened to Roman Minerva, who holds an owl in her hand and displays a serpent on her shield, and in some cases, displays the Phrygian Cap of Liberty on her chest. Helios was the son of Hyperion and Theia and brother of Eos (the Dawn) and Selene (the Moon). He was one of the Titans and held to be the personification of the Sun. He was married to Perse, but like all Graeco-Roman gods, was a promiscuous philanderer having multiple extramarital affairs. Helios was later merged with Apollo. He was known to the Romans as Sol. (137) Helios may have been the link between the mushroom and the sun, since he may have been the very first personification of a specifically “solar” deity. Every deity of Egypt that was linked with the sun, was actually a mushroom god or goddess, but Helios may have been created for the purpose of taking those gods and converting them into solar deities. Mithras has a definitively mushroom background and persona, but Helios is an entirely different matter altogether. He is always described with an aureole and he drives a “golden chariot” through the sky. Helios as the sun, is depicted on a Greek coin from 225 BC (50a). (123) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apollo-Greek-mythology (124) http://www.hellenicgods.org/karneia---karneia (125)https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/horn/ (126) Apples of Apollo, p. 107 (127) G. Lancellotti, Attis, Between Myth and History: King, Priest, and God, BRILL, 2002 (128) Le Clere, Histoire de la Medicine, 2nd ed. P. 17-18 (129) Macrobius, Saturnalia, I, xvii, 15 (130) Healing Gods, p. 307-08; Pausanius, I, iii, 4 (131) Strabo, Geography 14. 1. 6 (132) Hollander, Plastik und Medizin, p. 82, fig. 32 (133) Healing Gods, p. 309-310; Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, iv, 325 (134) http://www.kamilari.eu/images/kamilari-pdf/historical-statement-kamilari.pdf (135) Goddesses and Gods, p. 148 (136) ibid, p. 149-50 (137)https://www.greekmythology.com/ Other_Gods/Helios/helios.html |