Editing Apollo (section)

===Healer and god-protector from evil===
[[File:Apollo-WaltersArt.jpg|left|thumb|upright=.7|''Apollo Victorious over the Python'' by [[Pietro Francavilla]] (1591), depicting Apollo's victory over the serpent Python<ref>{{cite web|title=Apollo Victorious over the Python|url=http://art.thewalters.org/detail/7866|access-date=21 June 2013|publisher=[[The Walters Art Museum]]}}</ref> ([[Walters Art Museum|The Walters Art Museum]])]]
In classical times, his major function in popular religion was to keep away evil, and he was therefore called "apotropaios" ({{lang|grc|ἀποτρόπαιος}}, "averting evil") and "alexikakos" ({{lang|grc|ἀλεξίκακος}} "keeping off ill"; from [[verb|v.]] {{lang|grc|ἀλέξω}} + [[noun|n.]] {{lang|grc|κακόν}}).<ref>Pausanias VIII 41, 8-IV 34, 7-Sittig. Nom P. 48. f-Aristoph. Vesp. V. 61-Paus. I 3, 4. Martin Nilsson (1967) Vol I, pp. 540, 544</ref> Apollo also had many epithets relating to his function as a healer. Some commonly-used examples are "paion" ({{lang|grc|παιών}} literally "healer" or "helper")<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0062:entry=paean-harpers]: Harper's Dictionary of classical antiquity</ref> "epikourios" ({{lang|grc|ἐπικούριος}}, "succouring"), "oulios" ({{lang|grc|οὔλιος}}, "healer, baleful")<ref>{{LSJ|ou)/lios|οὔλιος|shortref}}.</ref> and "loimios" ({{lang|grc|λοίμιος}}, "of the plague"). In later writers, the word, "paion", usually spelled "Paean", becomes a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a god of [[healing]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Graf|first=Fritz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=it9n9_I-UOkC&pg=PA66|title=Apollo|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2008|isbn=978-0-203-58171-1|page=66}}</ref>

Apollo in his aspect of "healer" has a connection to the primitive god [[Paean (god)|Paean]] ({{lang|grc|Παιών-Παιήων}}), who did not have a cult of his own. Paean serves as the healer of the gods in the ''[[Iliad]]'', and seems to have originated in a pre-Greek religion.<ref>Paieon ({{lang|grc|Παιήων}}) puts pain-relieving medicines on the wounds of Pluton and Ares ( [[Iliad|Ilias]] E401). This art is related with Egypt: ([[Odyssey]] D232): M. Nilsson Vol I, p. 543</ref> It is suggested, though unconfirmed, that he is connected to the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] figure ''pa-ja-wo-ne'' (Linear B: {{lang|gmy|𐀞𐀊𐀺𐀚}}).<ref>{{cite book|title=The Mycenaeans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QXwzT1048Z4C&pg=PA160|page=160|first=Louise|last=Schofield|year=2007|publisher=The British Museum Press|isbn=978-0-89236-867-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/knossos/kn-v/kn-v/#toc-kn-v-52|title=KN V 52+|website=Deaditerranean: Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B|access-date=17 March 2014|archive-date=18 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160318004206/http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/linear-b-transliterations/knossos/kn-v/kn-v/#toc-kn-v-52|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Chawick">{{cite book|last=Chadwick|first=John|author-link=John Chadwick|title=The Mycenaean World|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1976|isbn=978-0-521-29037-1|url=https://archive.org/details/mycenaeanworld00chad|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/mycenaeanworld00chad/page/89 89]}} At Google Books.</ref> Paean was the personification of holy songs sung by "seer-doctors" ({{lang|grc|ἰατρομάντεις}}), which were supposed to cure disease.<ref>{{lang|grc|Ἐπὶ καταπαύσει λοιμῶν καὶ νόσων ᾄδόμενος}}. ''Which is sung to stop the plagues and the diseases''. Proklos: Chrestom from Photios Bibl. code. 239, p. 321: Martin Nilsson. Die Geschicthe der Griechischen religion. Vol I, p. 543</ref>

Homer uses the noun Paeon to designate both a god and that god's characteristic song of [[apotropaic]] thanksgiving and triumph.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Homer |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2199|title=The Iliad|date=1 June 2000|language=en|translator-last=Butler|translator-first=Samuel}}</ref> Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo and afterwards to other gods: to [[Dionysus]], to Apollo [[Helios]], to Apollo's son [[Asclepius]] the healer. About the 4th century BCE, the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. It was in this way that Apollo had become recognized as the god of music. Apollo's role as the slayer of the [[Python (mythology)|Python]] led to his association with battle and victory; hence it became the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In the ''Iliad'', Apollo is the healer under the gods, but he is also the bringer of disease and death with his arrows, similar to the function of the [[Vedic]] god of disease [[Rudra]].<ref name="Martin Nilsson 1967 p. 541">"The conception that the diseases come from invisible shots sent by magicians or supernatural beings is common in primitive people and also in European folklore. In North-Europe they speak of the "[[Elf-shot]]s". In Sweden where the Lapps were called magicians, they speak of the "Lappen-shots". Martin Nilsson (1967). Vol I, p. 541</ref> He sends a plague ({{lang|grc|λοιμός}}) to the [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaeans]]. Knowing that Apollo can prevent a recurrence of the plague he sent, they purify themselves in a ritual and offer him a large sacrifice of cows, called a [[hecatomb]].<ref>[[Iliad|Ilias]] A 314. Martin Nilsson (1967). Vol I, p. 543</ref>