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| Eugène Delacroix Apollo slaying Python 1850-51 oil on canvas Louvre, Paris |
DELPHIC HYMN TO APOLLO
There, the son of God most high,
Famed for harping song, will I
Proclaim, and the deathless oracular word
From the snow-topped rock that we gaze on heard,
Counsels of thy glorious giving
Manifest for all men living,
How thou madest the tripod of prophecy thine
Which the wrath of the dragon kept guard on, a shrine
Voiceless till thy shafts could smite
All his live coiled glittering might.
Ye that hold of right alone
All deep woods in Helicon,
Fair daughters of thunder-girt God, with your bright
White arms uplift as to lighten the light,
Come to chant your brother's praise,
Gold-haired Phoebus, loud in lays,
Even his, who afar up the twin-topped seat
Of the rock Parnassian where on we meet
Risen with glorious Delphic maids
Seeks the soft spring-sweetened shades
Castalian, fain of the Delphian peak
Prophetic, sublime as the feet that seek.
Glorious Athens, highest of state,
Come, with praise and prayer elate,
O thou that art queen of the plain unscarred
That the warrior Tritonis hath always in guard,
Where on many a sacred shrine
Young bulls' thigh-bones burn and shine
As the god that is fire overtakes them, and fast
The smoke of Arabia to heavenward is cast,
Scattering wide its balm: and shrill
Now with nimble notes that thrill
The flute strikes up the song, and the harp of gold
Strikes up to the song sweet answer, and all behold,
All, aswarm as bees, give ear,
Who by birth hold Athens dear.
– translated from Greek by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1866)
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| Giulio Romano and workshop Birth of Diana and Apollo ca. 1530-40 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Dosso Dossi Apollo 1524 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Pompeo Batoni Apollo with two Muses before 1787 oil on canvas Wilanów Palace Museum, Warsaw |
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| Nicolas Poussin Parnassus with Apollo and the Muses 1630-31 oil on canvas Prado, Madrid |
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| Cornelis van Poelenburgh Musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas 1630 oil on panel Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm |
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| Cornelis van Haarlem Jupiter and the gods urging Apollo to take back the reins of his chariot 1594 oil on panel Prado, Madrid |
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| Gérard de Lairesse Apollo and Aurora 1671 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Charles de La Fosse Sunrise with Chariot of Apollo ca. 1672-81 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen |
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| Nicolas Régnier Apollo ca. 1615-20 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Rosalba Carriera Apollo ca. 1740-46 pastel Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Simone Cantarini Apollo before 1648 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Claude Lorrain Coast view with Apollo and the Cumaean Sibyl ca. 1645-49 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Abraham Bloemaert Apollo and Diana slaying the children of Niobe 1591 oil on canvas Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |