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Ce Document Fait Partie Des Collections Numériques Des Archives Paul Perdrizet, Le Projet De Recherche Et De Valorisation Des A G. F. Hill « Apollo and St. Michael : some analogies » Journal of Hellenic Studies, 1916, Vol. XXXVI, p. 134-162. Ce document fait partie des collections numériques des Archives Paul Perdrizet, le projet de recherche et de valorisation des archives scientifiques de ce savant conservées à l’Université de Lorraine. Il est diffusé sous la licence libre « Licence Ouverte / Open Licence ». http://perdrizet.hiscant.univ-lorraine.fr J_\POLLO AND ST. 1VIICHAEL: . SOME ANALOGIES BY G. F. HILL REPRINTED :fROM THE JOURNAL OF HELLENIÇ STUDIES, VOL. XXXYI 1916 . APOLLO AND S'l'. MICHAEL: SOME AN ALOGIES. L-'l'HE FouNDATION LEGEND ·oF THE SHRINE OF APOLLO SMINTHEus. ON the coins of Alexandria Troas of Roman date we find certain types, which are evidently related to the story of the foundation of th e Smintheion; as well as another which may refer to the foundation of the city itself. They have been discussed at length by W roth.1 The most remarkable (Fig. 1, c~) shows on t he left a grotto, surmounted by a cultus-statue of a b d J FIG. l.- ÜOINS OF A LEXANDRIA T ROAS. Apollo Srnin ~heus; within t he grotto is another statue, precisely similar, but lying on the ground. Before the grotto stands a herdsman, holding a pedum in his left hand, and raising his right in a gesture which, as Wroth says, may be interpreted as expressing eit her adoration or surprise. ' On the right, a bull is seen running away, as if terror-stricken, with its head turned back 1 B.M-0. T roas, etc., I-P · xvii. ff. ; cp. grown np round an earlier cnltus-fignre. The Imhoof-Blumer, G-riechische. Miinzen, p. 624. coin-engraver of Roman date, however, in To a\'oid possible misconception , it may be illustrating the legeml, bas naturally repre­ observed that, thongh the statue of Apollo sented, not the primitive figure, long clis­ Smintheus representecl on the coins was the appearecl, but the one which he knew. work of Scopas, the legencls must first bave 134 APOLLO AND ST. MICHAEL: SOME ANALOGIES 135 towards the cavern. It would seem that some local legend connected with the discovery of the statue of the god is here portrayed. The engraver appears to have naively blended two incidents of the legend-first, the chance finding in a cavern of the statue of Apollo Smintheus by a herdsman-next, the setting up of a statue for worship in a place of honour over the cavern. On other coins of Alexandria rrroas a herdsman-who is :Vidently the same herdsman--is represented in the presence of a divinity who appears to be Apollo ... and he often appears standing beside the feeding horse that occnrs frequently as a coin-type of Alexandria Troas' (Fig. 1, d). Wroth continues : 'The type of an eagle holding a bull's head in its talons' (Fig. 1, b) 'has been explained by Leake ... as referring to sorne foundation-legend of the same character as the legends told of the Syrian Antioch and Nicomedia, according to which, when a founder' (i.e. Seleucus I. or Nicomedes I.), 'undetermined as to the site of his intended city, was sacrificing to sorne deity, an eagle carried away the head of the victim and deposited it on the future site. From the appearance of this type as a symbol in the "field " of certain coins' (Fig. l, c) 'representing the Emperor sacrificing to Apollo Smintheus, it may be inferred that the foundation-logend of Alexandria rrroas was in sorne way connected with that divinity.' The 'sorne way' p~esumably means that the eagle was said to have carried off the bull's head from a sacrifice which Antigonus was offering to Apollo Smintheus, and deposited iton the site of the future city of Alexandria. The inference is plausible enough. But this by way of digression, for we are concerned with the foundation not of Alexandria but of the Smintheion, at Chrysa near Hamaxitos. Most of the literary references are concerned with explaining the appearance of the mouse or rat as the attribute of Apollo. As they have ail been conveniently collected by Dr. Farnell,2 I need· not recite them here. Nor do I intend to make more than a passing reference to the explanation of the rodent as the plague-rat.3 Whether the attribute of 2 Cuits of the Greek State8, vol. iv. p. 448. 'Ap')'<l\os cl'Jnnected with àp')'6s '! 'l'he mi ce or I may mention here J. V. Grohmann's mono­ ~ts kept below the altar in the Smintheiou graph Apollo Smintheus n. die Bedeutnng du were white.--I take this opportunity of grate­ Mân8e in de1· Myth. der Indogermanen (Prag, fully acknowledging the many helpful sug­ 1862), which proceeds on the theory that mice gestions which have been made to me by Mr. are 'Gewitterwesen,' and Apollo a storm­ Cook in the course of this investigation. gad like Rudra and vVotan. Mt~. A. B. ;J The whole question will, I hope, be Cook calls my attention to a curions in­ threshecl out by Mr. P. N. Ure, who very stance of the mo use (or rat) as a ' founda­ kinclly placed his notes at my disposal. I tion-anünal.' Heraclides Pontions frag. 42 may refer also to Dr. Louis Sambon's articles (F. H. G. ii. 2:?4) ~ AP"fLÀOV TbV f.'VV I<C<ÀOVITI in the 'l'imes for J<tn. 30 and lfeh. 4, 1911 (he Sp~~~:es· où Oq>O~vTos, 1r6Àw ~r.a:rd. XP'rf(]'J.I.Ov ~1\.~ explains the serpent of Asklepios as an agent TIITCIV ~tal 'Ap')'LÀOV wv6f1U!Tav: cp. Steph. Byz. for the destruction of rats) ; and, for ft very 8.1!. 'Ap')'<ÀOS ••• wvn,.,ri<TI11) 5È ~11'EIOh i'nro 0p0· full treatment of the ctrchaeology of plagne, 11 KWV (j ,U.ÛS Ap7tÀOS KaÀEÎTaL. O'Ka'1f'T6JI'TWV ÔÈ els to Dr. Raymond Crawfurd's Plague and Pe&ti­ 'TO 0Ef.'EI\[ous 1<araf3ai\ÉITflal 1rpôrros f.'Î!S /6ip81). Is lence in Literature and Art (Oxford, 1914). 136 G. F. HILL Apollo was a rat, or a field vole, I have no hesitation in saying that it is as the instrument of plagne that the animal is associated with Smintheus. As Dr. Crawfurd points out, even mice that destroy crops cause famine, and the association of typhus (which the ancients' would classas plagne) with famine is historically notorious. There is a striking passage in Strabo which illustrates this 4 : oÙÔe TÔ TÔW J.LVWV 7T'Àf}8or:; rôtov (TWV 'IfJ~pwv), àrp' 00 Kat ÀOtfLtKat v6a-ot 7TOÀÀaKt'> i]KoÀoUBrwav. a-uvsfJ1J ô' €v Tf] Kavmf]piq ToûrlJ TOt<; 'PwJ.LaÎot<;, ifJirT€ Kat j.Lta-Bovr:; apvua-Bat J.LU081JpOÛ!!Ta<; 1rpÔr:; j.LÉTpov Ù7TOÔ€txBsv, [Kat] Ôt€0"W,OVTO fLOÀt<;· 7rpOa-€ÀaJ.LfJav€ ôè Kat aÀÀWl! 0"7T'UVl') Kat a-ÎTov. In the same way, pestilence might follow on the famine caused by a visitation of locusts, and it was probably owing to his intervention as plague­ god on the occasion of such visitations that Apollo earned his title of IIopvo7rÎwv. (At Tauste near Saragossa in 1421 it was St. Michael who delivered the people from a plagne of locusts).5 The special connexion of Smintheus with the plague is fm·ther indicated, as Mr. Ure reminds me, by the coïncidence that in Rhodes we find a cult of Apollo AoÎf.LtO'> and a festival Sminthia and a month Sminthios. On the evidence of the fragment of Aeschylus' Sisyphus (238) 'At.,!.,' àpovpaî6r:; TÎ<; €a-n O"J.LÎvBor:;, wr:; v7Teprf>v~r:;, it hRs been maintained that the a-J.LivBor:; was a J.LÛ'> àpovpaîor:;, although the very use of the epithet suggests that a-J.LÎvBor:; by itself does not mean field mouse. Finally,. there is, I believe, considerable dispute amongst naturalists as to the period when the rat first made its appearance in the West.6 But there has not, I believe, been any serions discussion by them of the Egyptian evidence, from which it would appcar that rats were well known and distinguished from mice in antiquity.7 If so, it is incredible that they should not have found their way on shipboard to Greek lands. For my present pm·pose the important passage among the authorities on the Smintheion is the Scholium on Iliacl I. 39: €v Xpva-v, 7T'OÀet TTJ'> Mua-{ar:;, Kp'iv{, Tl'> t€p€Ù'r:; fJV TOU KEÎBt 'A7ToÀÀwvor:;. TOVHp opryta-Bdr:; 0 B€à<; e7T€J.L-o/€V aÙToÛ TOÎ<; àrypoîr:; J.Lvar:;, otTtl!€'> TOV<; Kap7roÙr:; €ÀvJ.LaÎvovTo. fJovÀ7]Br:'is ôs 7TOT€ 0 8€Ô<; avTip KaTaÀÀaryijvat, 7rpÔ<; ''0pÔ7]V TÔV àpxtfJOVKOÀOV aÙTOÛ 7Tap€ryÉveTo, 1rap' cp ~evta-Belr:; o Beàr:; ti7TÉa-X€To Twv tcaKwv /maÀÀa~etv, Kat ôn 7rapaxpiJJ.La TO~€va-ar:; ToÙ<; J.LÛ'> ôtérf>Betp€v. Ù7TaÀÀaa-a-6J.LEVO<; ovv €v€T€ÎÀaTo Tnv €7Ttrpav€tal! aÙTOÛ Ô7]Àwa-at Tip KpivtÔt. où "f€l!OJ.LE!!OV 0 Kpîvtc; l€pÔv topva-aTo'"' ' T(f!~ e€rp, ~ .:..J.Ltl!"" e'€a avTov" ' 7rpoa-aryop€ua-ar:;,' E7T€Lo7J, <;-' KaTa' T1JV' eryxwpwv, , if 4 iii. 4, 18 (C. l6i'i). Eastern Roman l~mpire, inclnding the Ex­ 5 AA. SS. Sept. 29, p. 86. archate of Ravenna, under the name of m. 6 A. E. Shipley in Jonrn. Econ. Biol. 1908, ponticus. Its home was Middle Asia ; and I vol. iii. p. 61, says that <according to Helrn find it difficnlt to believe that it cannot have M.
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