Page:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 2).djvu/214

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MYTH, RITUAL, AND RELIGION.

connection between Apollo and the wolf. In Athens there was the Lyceum of Apollo Lukios, Wolf-Apollo, which tradition connected with the primeval strife wherein Ægeus (goat-man) defeated Lukios (wolf-man). The Lukian Apollo was the deity of the defeated side, as Athene of the ægis (goat-skin) was the deity of the victors.[1] The Argives had an Apollo of the same kind, and the wolf was stamped on their coins.[2] According to Pausanias, when Danaus came seeking the kingship of Argos, the people hesitated between him and Gelanor. While they were in doubt, a wolf attacked a bull, and the Argives determined that the bull should stand for Gelanor, the wolf for Danaus. The wolf won; Danaus was made king, and in gratitude raised an altar to Apollo Lukios, Wolf-Apollo. That is (as friends of the totemic system would argue), a man of the wolf-stock dedicated a shrine to the wolf-god.[3] In Delphi the presence of a bronze image of a wolf was explained by the story that a wolf once revealed the place where stolen temple treasures were concealed. The god's beast looked after the god's interest.[4] In many myths the children of Apollo by mortal girls were exposed, but fostered by wolves.[5] In direct contradiction with Pausanias, but in accordance with a common rule of mythical interpretation, Sophocles[6] calls Apollo "the wolf-slayer." It has very frequently happened that when animals were found closely connected with a

  1. Paus., i. 19, 4.
  2. Preller, i. 202, note 3; Paus., ii. 19, 3.
  3. Encyc. Brit., s.v. "Sacrifice."
  4. Paus., x. 14, 4.
  5. Ant. Lib., 30.
  6. Electra, 6.