Apollo, Óðinn, Dian Cecht and Brihaspati: The High Priest of the Word
Part 2
The Priest and the Serpent
This understanding of Apollo and Dian Cecht as parallels who themselves parallel Brihaspati may also explain why Apollo is seen as a slayer of a great serpent. Generally we would assume this general myth type to belong to the Thunderer god, as when Indra kills Vrtra, Zeus kills Typhon, and Thor kills the Midgard Serpent, etc. However, this seems to come back to the central Vedic myth complex of two distinct but connected serpents, Vrtra and Vala, who can be over-simplified as the "obstructing monster" and the "concealing monster." In simple terms, the slaying of Vrtra by Indra releases the waters which he has obstructed. The slaying of Vala releases the cattle of the sun, symbolic of the rays of light themselves, from the dark cave where he has concealed them. The Vrtra and Vala myths are closely linked, and so central are they that the identity of the god who performs the slaying changes numerous times in Vedic texts.
That being said, while Indra kills Vrtra, Brihaspati (or Indra with Brihaspati) is one of the gods most frequently said to be the slayer of Vala, rather than Vrtra, in the Veda, and in this he is depicted as the one who frees the light from the cave. Thus, when Apollo slays the great serpent Python in a prominent myth, this would be perfectly in line with Brihaspati slaying Vala. Scholar George Edwin Rines has seen in the slaying of Python an allegory of the sun dispersing the fogs of the marshes. The fact that Apollo must slay Python before he establishes his oracle on that precise spot may also carry the meaning that the (spiritual, mental etc.) darkness and fog had to be driven away before the prophetic light of Apollonian truth could emanate through (this is the meaning given to the Brihaspati-Vala myth by commentator Sri Aurobindo). As Vala is depicted as a cave-monster, Apollo also slays Python in a cave -- the cave of the Delphic Oracle -- and as Brihaspati is said to shatter Vala with his shout, the Delphic priestesses are said also to shout, while Apollo fights Python, "Hie Paean!"
Meanwhile, Dian Cecht is also given his own serpent slaying myth prominently in his narrative. He finds three serpents in the heart of an infant (alternately there is only one), and burns them to ash in response to a prophecy that says they will destroy Ireland if they are allowed to grow. The Dindshenchas state: "Three turns the serpent made;/It sought the soldier to consume him;/It would have wasted by its doing the kine;/The fell filth of the old serpent," continuing, "Therefore Diancecht slew it;/There rude reason for clean destroying it,/For preventing it from wasting/Worse than any wolf pack, from consuming utterly" (Dindshenchas). Other than the serpent slaying motif itself being associated once again with a god paralleling Brihaspati, what is interesting here is the mention of "kine." This serpent specifically would have wasted, and "consum[ed] utterly," the kine or cattle, which is the primary symbol of the light that Vala conceals in the Vedic mythos. While Vala conceals these cattle, Dian Cecht's serpent, Meichi, threatens to consume them. It is possible the burning of the serpent to ash is another image of the obliteration of the concealing monster by the deity who brings illumination via his destructive force. It may also be in this action that we find a meaning for Dian Cecht's mysterious name, which translates as "swift power" (though this likely relates to his healing function as well).
Returning to Apollo and Óðinn, we briefly note that both gods are emphatically wolf-associated gods (Apollo Lykeios; Óðinn's pet wolves), and also are each associated with ravens. Apollo as the leader of the coming of age of the Greek youths at the Apellai festival, and as their representative (which we have mentioned), was the god to whom the cut off hair of the youths who had come of age was dedicated. As scholar Kris Kershaw has shown, this same ritual of the youths cutting and dedicating the hair to a god was associated with the bands of warrior youths who saw Óðinn as their leader and representative in Germanic society. Kershaw also shows that both prophecy and poetry were associated with these bands, as requisite skills of the warrior youth. She demonstrates, furthermore, that the root of Óðinn/Wodan's very name (*woþ-) is also from the same root as the Italo-Celtic vates/ovate/fáith, the terms for "the inspired, the ecstatic, soothsayer. He was also a poet, inasmuch as he delivered his oracles in verse" (Kershaw, The One-Eyed God, 114).
On the basis of this network of reinforcing comparisons it seems warranted to make an even bolder comparison between the myths of Apollo and Óðinn, potentially drawing them more closely together than has heretofore been understood. As has been central to our analysis, Óðinn hangs on the windy tree, wounded by a spear and enduring nine "long nights," in order to gain the runes and the powers they bring, which includes the power of reviving the dead, among other things. The runes themselves are also famously theorized to have been instruments of divination and prophecy (even if the exact nature of this use is debated), and the dead men who were thus revived were certainly sources of prophecy. Furthermore, the word rune means "secret, hidden" emphasizing the concealed and esoteric nature of their knowledge.
Daphne and the Windy Tree
Though on the surface it will surely seem an absurd comparison -- at first -- we find a similar pattern and meaning in the myth of Apollo's pursuit of the maiden Daphne. Apollo, as we have seen, a Brihaspati cognate god, is struck by Cupid's arrow, falls in love with the naiad Daphne, and pursues her. She flees, leading to a chase. During this pursuit, Apollo suffers the torment of love, and mentions his knowledge of the healing herbs and how this knowledge has not done anything for his painful love-wound. Finally, when Apollo catches her, Daphne prays to her father Peneus, or to Zeus, and is changed into a laurel tree. She is described as being swallowed up and concealed in the bark of the tree. In other versions, Daphne is sometimes transported away and merely replaced with the tree. This does not halt Apollo's love, however, for he embraces the tree and makes the iconic laurel crown from her branches, claiming the laurel for his tree -- "you shall be my tree" (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.452).
Nonnus, however, says more, spelling out the fact that "she crowned his head with prophetic clusters" (Nonnus, Dionysiaca, 42.386). This points us toward the answer to the central questions: why does Apollo pursue a maiden who becomes a tree, and why is this tree the laurel? We see from Nonnus that this tree was believed to bear "prophetic clusters," which is confirmed from the practice of Apollo's priestesses themselves, such as the Delphic Oracle, who chewed none other than laurel leaves in order to induce their prophetic visions. Furthermore, the laurel crown which Apollo makes has the dual symbolism of the athletic/martial victor and the poetic victor. From this we retain the title laureate today for our official chief poet, the one who has won the poetic contest and gained the laurel crown. Poets going back to antiquity, including Ovid himself, were depicted wearing laurels. Hence the laurel leaves had, among their chief symbolisms, both a prophetic and a poetic meaning, connecting them to the poetic chants and prophetic powers we have thus far examined in relation to the "Brihaspati" cognate gods. Indeed, it hardly need even be said that Apollo is known as god both of prophecy and the poetic art generally, the laurel combining these meanings in one. Laurel leaves are also known for their medicinal powers, thus potentially uniting all of Apollo's central aspects.
Thus, in the Daphne myth, Apollo, having been pierced by the sharp point of a weapon (Cupid's arrow), has an extended pursuit of a tree-maiden, during which he suffers anguish (and thinks on his healing knowledge), and finally he catches her and gains from this tree-form an item granting the power of prophecy (while also being related to poetry and healing). The match to the Óðinnic pattern is thunderstriking when considered from this angle: Óðinn "pursues" knowledge on a tree (instead of pursuing the tree-maiden herself), is pierced by the sharp point of a weapon (a spear), suffers for an extended period (“long nights”) while "pursuing" this knowledge, and finally receives items which are related both to prophecy and the poetic galdr, these connecting again to the healing art as well. It would be just like the Greeks to turn a myth about the pursuit of esoteric knowledge into a lustful, one-sided love-and-chase story (and esoteric allegory). In fact, though the tone of the two myths seems so strikingly dissimilar, if one accepts that both gods come from the Brihaspati mythos, but reject the identification of these two myths, then one would have to say that two Brihaspati cognate gods, after a "pursuit" of some kind, gain the main symbol of their prophetic and poetic power from a tree, but that these are somehow different myths in essence.
Daphne is sealed up in the tree or transported away, leaving the tree leaves as her intermediary, just as the runes themselves are "secret" symbols that point toward a greater concealed mystery. That is, Daphne herself vanishes from Apollo's grasp, is concealed by the bark and leaves, just as Truth itself is always concealed and kept at a remove from mortals. Only by the intermediary means of the prophetic tools, whether the runes or the laurel leaves, can this concealed greater Truth be partially glimpsed. In Ovid's version, Daphne even prays to Diana, goddess of virginity, to preserve her from Apollo. Though this could simply be a late dramatic elaboration, it could also point toward the idea of the iviolability of Truth. The highest Truth remains unviolated, pure, and perfect despite attempts to possess it fully, and despite the mediated visions we are granted of it. Thus the meaning of this myth of Apollo's is the passionate pursuit of Truth, its perpetual evasiveness, and its final mediation via the prophetic power of the priest of the spoken word. The emphasis is on the concealed and secret nature of this truth, as the emphasis is also on the secret nature of the runes ("secrets") in the Óðinn myth, and the same again in the myth of Dian Cecht's son, when after killing him Dian Cecht scatters the herbs that spring up so that the dangerous knowledge that they represent will remain hidden.
Supporting this reading yet further is the curious variant of the myth in which we meet another pursuer of Daphne, Leucippus. Pausanius describes how Leucippus falls in love with Daphne and dresses like a woman to get close to her. He hunts with her in this guise, but when it comes time to bathe, he is discovered, and is killed for his offense by her nymphs. Apollo pursues Daphne immediately after Leucippus' death. Read in terms of our above interpretation, this sequence of events falls in line with another Óðinnic myth. If Daphne is Truth mediated by prophecy, then Leucippus' attempt to get close to her by wearing women's clothes would be exactly the same as Óðinn's practice of the female-associated prophetic art, seiðr. Óðinn is mocked by Loki, for instance, for dressing as a woman and performing this female form of prophecy, and in other texts (Gisla saga of Surssonar and the Kings' saga Olaf's saga Tryggvasonar of Oddr Snorrason) it is shown that the punishment for a man performing seiðr could be death, just as Leucippus is killed when he is discovered by the nymphs. Leucippus wearing women's clothes and attempting to get close to Daphne, then, is a depiction of a seiðr-like prophetic practice, a man dressing as a woman in order to possess the prophetic Truth that Daphne signifies. Thus Leucippus' myth, though it may seem like an odd anomaly among the versions of the myth, is the other half of the Apollo and Daphne narrative, and connects the overall myth even more closely to Óðinn and thus to the Brihaspati mythos as a whole. Furthermore, this interpretation suggests that some kind of female prophetic practice, which was taboo for men to perform, was likely to have been a feature of Indo-European religion going back to the time of unity of the pre-Greek and pre-Germanic peoples, which would seem to be in the Proto-Indo-European period. This also potentially brings the female practitioners of seiðr (the Völvas) and the Apollonian priestesses, such as the Oracle of Delphi, into juxtaposition.
Esoteric Resonances
Esoterically, Brihaspati and Apollo seem also to have resonances, and these serve to support the exoteric identifications of these gods. Sri Aurobindo calls Brihaspati, based on his mythos of the slaying of Vala, the god of the "Power of the Soul" (compare Dian Cecht as meaning "swift power"), and quotes the Rig Veda saying, "Brihaspati, coming first into birth from the great Light in the supreme ether dispelled the darknesses; he with his host that possess the stubh and the Rik broke Vala into pieces by his cry. Shouting Brihaspati drove upwards the bright herds" (Rig Veda, 4.50), pointing out that he is specifically called "the first-born" (RV, 6.73.1). He says furthermore that "Brihaspati slays the Foe by the hymns of illumination (arkaiḥ)," and calls him, in this role of illuminator, "father of the Word" (Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, Brihaspati). Thus he is (in some sense) born first, out of the great Light, and is the bringer of illumination by way of his powerful Word, dispelling darkness with his aggressive shout, shattering Vala into pieces as Dian Cecht burns the serpent to ashes or Apollo obliterates Python with his arrows and the shouts of his priestesses. Óðinn too, has his cosmogonical priest role at the beginning of creation, though how early-born he is goes beyond the present scope. Aurobindo explains the cosmogonical sense of this, saying, "The Divine, the Deva, manifests itself as conscious Power of the soul, creates the worlds by the Word out of the waters of the subconscient," pointing to Brihaspati's key role in this, as the illuminating Word that shapes the waters, and the Power of Soul that is the power of manifestation out of the subconscient. With a similar sense, Nietzsche famously compares Apollo to the principium individuationis, or individuating principle, that which gives shape and unity to beings, that principle which individuates things in an orderly way from out of the chaotic element.
Thomas Taylor, extracting from Proclus, says of Apollo, in his introduction to Julian's Two Orations of the Emperor Julian, that "according to the first and most natural conception, his name signifies the cause of union, and that power which collects multitude into one," which strikes us as very similar to the Nietzschean formulation. The healing power, Proclus argues, is a manifestation of this same power of unification, that a diseased condition is one that requires to be restored "from incommensuration and manifold division, into symmetry and union," and that "health is symmetry." He singles out also Apollo's "enunciative power" which he says "shines forth, unfolding intelligible goods to celestial natures, and on this account he revolves together with the sun, with whom he participates the same intellect in common; since the sun also illuminates whatever heaven contains, and extends a unifying power to all its parts," and further describes how his "arrow-darting" power "extirpates every thing inordinate." He triumphantly states that "it is this divinity who harmonizing the universe, establishes about himself according to one union the choir of the Muses, and produces by this means, as a certain Theurgist says, 'the harmony of exulting light.'" Just as Brihaspati is the first-born who brings the light of illumination, so Apollo can be esoterically (Platonically) considered as the first “solar monad” emanated by the Demiurge, which brings things into being via "intellectual light." To this effect, Taylor quotes Proclus as saying "the first monad unfolds intellectual light, enunciates it to all secondary natures, fills all things with universal truth, and converts them to the intellect of the gods; which employment is ascribed to the prophetic power of Apollo, who produces into light the truth contained in divine natures," and further explains how this proceeds from the first creative act of the Demiurge: "the Demiurgus generates solar powers in the principles of the universe, and a triad of solar gods, through which all things are unfolded into light, and are perfected and replenished with intellectual goods," and argues that this light of Apollo issues directly from the Platonic Good, as its manifestation specifically on the intellectual level: "as the splendour proceeding from the good is the light of intelligible natures; so that proceeding from Apollo is the light of the intellectual world" (Taylor, Two Orations of the Emperor Julian, Introduction).
Aurobindo also asserts that Brihaspati, who is evidently one with the similarly named Brahmanaspati in the Rig Veda, is also, by this linkage, one with Brahman, in what he claims is its original sense as the Word of power. Brihaspati-Brahmanaspati-Brahman. As he puts it, "Brahman in the Veda signifies ordinarily the Vedic Word or mantra in its profoundest aspect as the expression of the intuition arising out of the depths of the soul or being. It is a voice of the rhythm which has created the worlds and creates perpetually." "Brahman in the Veda," as he puts it, then has a different, though connected meaning from what it would develop into in later Vedic culture. This tripartition of Brahman, Brahmanaspati, and Brihaspati is also interesting in relation to Óðinn's seeming tripartition into "High," "Just-as-High," and "Third," and particularly in the claim that, when he hung on the windy tree, he, as he says it, offered "myself to myself." Whether this aligns Óðinn with Brihaspati and Óðinn-"Third" with Vedic Brahman, the creating Word of the cosmos, is not here established, but is worthy of meditation. What we can say is that it certainly seems possible for these esoteric interpretations of Brihaspati, Apollo, and Óðinn to be referring to the same root divinity, the emphasis shifted slightly depending whether the cultural perspective is Indian, Greek, or Norse. As Nagy emphasized the connection of Apollo to the power of speech, Dumezil himself took the angle of comparing Apollo to the Vedic deity Vac, the goddess of divine speech, who is closely connected to Brihaspati and to the concept of the “Vedic Brahman” as the Word, as Aurobindo puts it.
Apollo and Rudra
As a final note, Apollo's comparison with Vedic Rudra has also to be mentioned. Rudra as the "destroyer" god, wielding the bow of destruction, has been compared to Apollo, especially in Apollo's function as plague-inflicting god. This is the aspect in which he appears even in Homer's Iliad. This Rudra comparison is often seen to be supported by the Greek word apollymi, meaning "to destroy," and by a possible origin of the god in the Hittite plague god Aplu, who both brought and ended plagues. Rudra too is connected with disease (as R.G. Bhandarkar p. 146 shows). This connection is certainly attractive, and we will leave this possibility open for now. It is possible that Apollo combines Brihaspati and Rudra aspects in one deity, just as others have also theorized Óðinn to have among his aspects both "Brihaspati" and "Rudra." It is even possible the two deities were closely linked or united from early times. On the other hand, the evidence we have presented in this article may also offer a sufficient explanation for much of Apollo's destructive side. Brihaspati too blows away with his shattering shout, and his mighty arrows of obliteration, and his power of soul, all that conceals and all that brings chaos and disharmony. His magical songs seem to have the power both to heal and to bring various forms of destruction as well, if we take the examples of the various Óðinnic galdrs for evidence. Plague could have been one of these forms of destruction in Apollo's case, though this explanation may remain unsatisfying to some.
What we can add to this question is one mythical comparison between Rudra and Apollo. Rudra is known to have a violent confrontation with the god Pushan at a sacrifice from which he was being excluded. In what seems to be the older version, Pushan defeats Rudra and sends him away. However, in the later, more popular version, Rudra is depicted as the more powerful god. He knocks out Pushan's teeth and causes him to have to eat gruel ever after. Pan is generally considered in the scholarship to be the Greek Pushan, and Apollo and Pan do in fact have a face-off. Theirs is a music competition. Apollo wins, and then turns King Midas’ ears to donkey ears as a punishment for his preference for Pan’s music. And in a related tale, Apollo has a music competition against the satyr Marsyas. When Apollo wins, he flays Marsyas. These myths could be related to the same motif of Pushan and Rudra having a confrontation which results in a disfigurement. The Pushan and Rudra confrontation centers around the sacrifice, but sacrifice was also associated with the sacred words-and-music and the form of the myth in the Greek version could have shifted more toward the musical art that became so closely identified with Apollo. It is interesting that King Midas the onlooker has something on his head disfigured (ears), while Pushan has his teeth knocked out (in the version found in Mahabharata, Rudra-Shiva also cuts off Savitr's hands and puts out Bhaga's eyes). This remains far from a definitive comparison, but allows us to consider other possible layers of the mysterious god Apollo, who over time became identified with the sun itself and magnetized to himself by charismatic force an array of wide-ranging powers and associations.
If Brihaspati-Óðinn-Apollo-Dian Cecht stands for a particular social caste or subcaste, it is of course that of the High Priest. If this god offers any exemplary path intended for emulation by humans, it is seemingly a path for the High Priest type specifically (though Óðinn and Apollo as patrons and leaders of the coming of age youths shows an additional dimension to the question; still, Kershaw repeatedly emphasizes the fact that the consecrated bands of warrior youths were of the ruling class, and were trained in both warrior and poetic skills: "The Vratyas, like the Männerbünde everywhere, were of the ruling classes" (216-217), while Óðinn and Apollo may still stand in the priestly role of teacher in relation to them). This is further reflected by the descent of Greek idealist philosophical traditions from the Apollonian milieu: we can see that the poet Orpheus was originally derived from the Apollonian mythos, and that Pythagoras was either a member of the Orphic cult, influenced by the Orphics, or in some manner thus connected (Abaris the Hyperborean, a priest of Apollo, upon meeting Pythagoras, apparently claimed he was the reincarnation of Apollo). Plato then drew strongly from his Pythagorean predecessors, thus making Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy, at least in part, directly descended, late, secularized continuations of the Apollonian priestly cult. Everything in the myths we have examined repeats over and over again the same emphasis on the secret and concealed nature of the knowledge that the god pursues and becomes privy to, as well as the extreme danger it can portend, in that its potency has the ability to threaten the very order of Nature. This knowledge must be kept concealed, as Daphne conceals herself in the tree. It can only be reached by great pains and sacrifice and only by the select priestly figure, and must be kept from those who are unworthy of it, as Dian Cecht scatters the 365 healing herbs after killing his too-powerful son. The meaning of the Apollo and Daphne myth seems even to be well-hidden beneath the allegorical veneer of a love story, and it may be that the myth of Óðinn hanging on the tree was a divine example intended only to be followed to its fullest extent by his elite priestly cultists.
Georges Dumezil, The Plight of a Sorcerer
Gregory Nagy, Apollo, Origins and Influences
Kris Kershaw, The One-Eyed God: Odin and the Indo-Germanic Mannerbunde
Michael Konaris, The Greek Gods in Modern Scholarship
Nick Allen and Roger Woodard, Hermes and Gandharvas
Nonnus, Dionysiaca
Ovid, Metamorphoses
The Poetic Edda
The Rig Veda
Roshen Dalal, Hinduism: an Alphabetical Guide
The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh
Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda
St. Gall Incantation
Theoi.com
Thomas Taylor, Two Orations of the Emperor Julian
Vyasa, Mahabharata
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