Text: Apollo (Son of Zeus) Short Excerpt from Jungian author, Edward Edinger's book - The Eternal Drama: "Apollo's attributes are the sun, light, clarity, truth. He represents the principle of rational consciousness which, in so many of the positive and heroic figures of mythology, faces great difficulties in being born. Hera in her jealousy (of Zeus' affairs) pursued Apollo's mother, Leto, so that no place on earth could be found for his birth. Finally he was born on the floating island of Delos, which shows us in what tenuous ways the light of "consciousness" first comes into the worldŠ Apollo killed the Python of Delphi and took over that oracle, so he is vanquisher of unconscious terrors. He is golden-haired like the sun; he is an archer who shoots arrows of insight and/or death; he is a god of music and the lyre. Healing belongs to his realm: he was the father of Asclepius, the god of medicine. The Muses are part of his retinue, so that music, history, dreams, poetry, dance, all belong to him. The Muses are those we call on when we evoke creative imagination to give us helpful imagesŠ Apollo and Daphne Apollo has his ominous aspects, too. Marsyas, who dared challenge him to a music contest, was flayed after he lost, signifying the stripping power of light. His arrows can symbolize the rays of the sun that bring light and insight - but they also can bring death. The Iliad begins with a terrible pestilence that Apollo brought down upon the Greeks because they dishonored one of his priests. Apollo's arrows of death struck again when Queen Niobe, who was excessively proud of her seven sons and seven daughters, disparaged Apollo's mother, Leto, for having only two children (Apollo and Artemis)Š" The Tragic Story of Apollo and Daphne The beautiful river nymph, Daphne (laurel) pictured above was Apollo's first love. How this love for Daphne was said to come about is that Apollos, the second most powerful of the Olympian gods, had been making fun of the young god Eros (son of Aphrodite) and bragging about how very weak and puny little Eros was. Known to most of us by his Roman name Cupid, in this version of the story, the Greek god Eros was the youngest of the gods. He had two types of arrows (gold tipped and lead tipped) with which he pierced the hearts of both mortals and gods. Eros's gold tipped arrows evoked desire and irresistible attraction, while his lead tipped arrows filled the mortal or god with disgust and repulsion. To the mortal or god wounded in the heart with his special arrows, it was a wounding of desire (gold) or disgust (lead) which suddenly, seemingly came from "out of the blue." The mortal or god struck was then destined (and under the compulsion) to live out this wounding of the heart, often behaving in irrational ways and committing mad, irrational acts of passion. To show Apollo, the god of rationality, a thing or two, Eros struck Apollo with one of his (Eros's) gold tipped arrows. When struck by the arrow... Apollo immediately became inflamed with with irrational desire and love for the lovely river nymph Daphne. However, at the same time, Eros struck Daphne with his lead tipped arrow of disgust and repulsion. Thus... the more ardently Apollo pursued his true love, Daphne ­ the more she (Daphne) became repulsed by Apollo. Apollo pursued Daphne relentlessly across the face of the earth, and he would not (could not) give up. Finally ­ Daphne, exhausted and terrified, cried out to Mother Earth for help. Mother Earth then transformed the river nymph, Daphne, into a laurel tree. Apollo went away rejected and mournful. http://www.thezodiac.com/apollo.htm

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