Chrysocomas

Chryselephantine statue from Delphi , the most important cult place of Apollo

Chrysocomas ( Greek  Χρυσοκόμας , "the golden-haired") is an epithet of several deities in Greek mythology .

In Greek literature , the gods' weapons, clothing or other equipment were described as shiny gold, but the figure of some gods or individual parts of their body were also called gold, including the hair on their heads. The Olympian god Apollo was particularly described as "golden-haired" .

There is no evidence of a cultic meaning of the name.

Apollo Chrysocomas

The oldest surviving place of discovery that shows Apollon as golden-haired can be found in the Spartan elegance poet Tyrtaios from the 7th century BC. When he allowed God to rule in Sparta:

"So the gold-curled one, the god with the silver bow, decreed Phoibos Apollo in the richly splendid hall: The kings should rule in the council , divinely favored, those who care about the city of Sparta, the eternal, the worthy old men rule with them the citizens of the people, while respecting the law in force as per the statute; Should speak what is lawful and do everything that is just, never give dishonest advice to the local city, and the assembly should decide by the victory of the votes! Phoibos himself announced this to the city. "

- Tyrtaios : fragment 3aD

In Pindar's work , Apollo appears as a "gold-curled god" in the Olympic Odes when he sends the birth goddess Eileithyia and the Moiren to help for the birth of his son Iamos to the mother of the child Euadne and when he instructs Tlepolemus to set up a sanctuary for Athena .

In Aristophane's play The Birds , the hoopoe sings about the nightingale's voice as so sweet that the god takes up the harp for her sake:

"The sound swings through the twining green to the throne of Zeus, where Phoibos listens to him, the golden curly one, grasps the ivory harp to your singing, leads the striding choir of the immortals to your singing"

- Aristophanes : The birds

Euripides calls Apollo Chrysocomas in several of his plays , Mnasalkas calls him Chrysocomos ( Χρυσοκόμος ) with a different spelling .

The philosopher Lucius Annaeus Cornutus offers an explanation for the epithet and connects it with the epithet Phoibos :

“Next it is called Phoibos because it is pure and brilliant; other epithets are used for him and are referred to as 'with golden hair' (chrysokomas) and 'with unshaven hair' (akeirekomas), because he has a golden face and, through his purity, stands outside of pain. "

- Lucius Annaeus Cornutus : De natura deorum

More deities

Other deities known as Chrysocomas are:

• Dionysus with Hesiod
• Hymenaios with Philip of Thessaloniki
• Eros in Anacreon and Euripides
• Helios in a hymn Magicus
• Zephyros at Plutarch

literature

• Otto Jessen : Chrysocomas. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 2, Stuttgart 1899, Col. 2515.
• Hermann Steuding : Chrysocomas . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1,1, Leipzig 1886, column 905 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tyrtaios fragment 3aD.
2. ↑ Pindar Olympic Ode 6:42.
3. ↑ Pindar Olympic Ode 7, 58.
4. ↑ Aristophanes The Birds 216.
5. ↑ Euripides The Pleaders for Help 976; Iphigenia among the Taurians 1287; The Trojans 523; Ion 887.
6. ↑ Mnasalkas in the Anthologia Palatina VI 264.2.
7. ↑ Lucius Annaeus Cornutus De natura deorum 32, 6th translation by Heinz-Günther Nesselrath , 2009.
8. ↑ Hesiod Theogony 947.
9. ↑ Philip of Thessaloniki in the Anthologia Palatina IV, 177.
10. ↑ Anakreon fragment 14 in Athenaios 13, 599c.
11. ↑ Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis 548.
12. ↑ Hymnus Magicus 4,2 in Eugen Abel (Ed.): Orphica . Prague and Leipzig 1885. p. 291.
13. ↑ Plutarch Amatorius 20, 2.