A. E. Petrosyan On the origin of the name and image of Apollo (pp. 747–753)
Author
A. E. Petrosyan (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography NAS, Armenia)
Pages\n 747–753
Summary\n
Among several etymological suggestions for the name Apollo the Greek, Luvian and “pre-Greek” ones have more turnover in contemporary studies (for the Greek origin of the name, see Burkert 1975; 1985: 143–149; 1994; Nagy 1994a; Kazansky 2005; for Luvian: Brown 2004; for non-Indo-European pre-Greek: Beekes 2004; for Hurrian: Blažek MS). Apollo is first mentioned in the text of the treaty of Hittites with the king of Wilusa (Troy) Alaksandu as Appaliuna (13th century BC) (KUB 21.1 iv 28: see, e.g., Latacs 2004: 110). Alaksandu is the cuneiform rendering of the Greek Alexandros, second name of Paris, prince of Troy in the “Iliad”. It is a Greek name, which means that Alaksandu himself was of Greek origin (in early times the personal names were usually of native origins). Paris-Alexandros seems to represent a human incarnation of Apollo, who, similar to him, would probably have Greek origin. Apollo, as serpent-slayer, corresponds to the Indian serpent-slayer Indra. On the other hand, Apollo is the closest match of another Indian god – Rudra: both are archers, whose arrows spread diseases, and also healers, gods of poetry, related to mole and mouse, etc (Gregoire et al. 1949: 127 seq., 148; Toporov 1977; Puhvel 1987: 134–135); both are gods of Männerbund, divine leaders of the community of young unmarried hunter-warriors (see, e.g., Kershaw 2001, 187–190; 210 ff. et passim); Apollo brings death to the camp of Greek-Danaans, while Rudra destroys the army of Danavas all alone (Mahabharata XII. 166; for the Danaans and Danavas, see Gindin, Tsymbursky 1995; Petrosyan 2007; 2010); even the gods are afraid of Apollo, as well as of Rudra (Kershaw 2001: 211). Thus, the image of Apollo, as well as the theme “Apollo destroyer of Danaans”, has Greco-Indo-Iranian roots (those languages constituted one group after the fragmentation of Proto-Indo-European), which makes the non-Greek etymologies improbable.
Keywords\n
Apollo, Paris, Indo-European mythology, serpent-slayer, Indian mythology, Greek mythology, Iliad, Trojan War, Alaksandu.
References\n
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