Greek Mythology and the God Apollo

If the author of Juventus Mundi could but turn to Egypt, and make a first-hand acquaintanceship with its Symbolism, I think it would enlighten him more than any amount of listening round to those deluding Aryanists, respecting the origin, derivation and meaning of the Greek Mythology.

For example, let us take the case of the god Apollo, who is related to the sun, and yet is not the sun itself. The Solarites can shed no light upon the darkness of Mr. Gladstone's difficulty. Writers who talk about mythology being a "disease of language," and know nothing of the gods as Celestial Intelligencers and time-keepers for men--chief of which was the sun, when the solar year had been made out; still earlier, the moon in its various phases--can lend us no aid in penetrating the secrets of this ancient science. "Solar-worship" is good enough for them, but it will not explain mythology to us, or to itself. The child of the sun, re-born as Lord of Light in the moon, has never come within the range of their vision. Yet it is the simple fact in natural phenomena, which was represented mythically as the mode of making it known, of teaching it by means of the Gnosis or science of knowledge, as one of the mysteries, so soon as the discovery had once been made; and this is one of the most important of all the factors in mythology.

I would suggest to Mr. Gladstone that the Greek Apollo is the same soli-lunar personification as is Thoth (Taht or Tehuti), and Khunsu (or the soli-lunar Horus), this is, the child of the supreme divinity in Egypt, the solar Ra, as his light by night--whilst he himself is the god who is hidden from sight in the under-world--his vice-dieu of the dark. Apollo is designated Lukgenes, or light-born. He is the image of the solar deity, the reflection of his glory in the lunar disk.

Every phase of character in which Apollo appears, especially as represented by Homer, can be identified as pertaining to the male moon-god in Egypt, and the common basis of all may be found in those natural phenomena which are indicated in previous pages. In these natural phenomena, there is a common source, or foundation, to which the functions and attributes of Apollo and Taht (or the lunar Horus) can be referred, and by which the characters may be satisfactorily explained. The relationships of Apollo to Zeus, are exactly like those of Taht to Osiris, the supreme being. It is Taht who gives the Ma-Kheru, or Word of Truth, to the sun-god himself. As representative of Ra, his lunar logos, his light in the darkness, he is the Word whose promise is fulfilled and made truth by the Supreme Being, the sun that vivifies and verifies for ever. By his Word, he drives the enemies from the solar horizon, the insurgent powers of darkness which are fighting eternally against Ra. This is the character of Apollo as the defender of heaven against every assault. These powers of darkness, continually in revolt, ever warring with the sun, were called the giants which Taht-Khunsu, the giant-killer, slays by night, or during the lunar eclipse. Apollo also figures as the destroyer of the giants who were at war with heaven. It is said in the Egyptian texts that Ra created this god, Taht, as "a beautiful light to show the name of his evil enemy," i.e., Sut-Typhon, the eternal enemy of the sun. He held up the lamp by night that made the darkness visible; showed the name, the face, the personal presence, of his lurking foe. This also is a character of Apollo, as a representative and kind of deputy providence for Zeus.

Apollo is god of the bow! Taht carries the bow of the crescent moon upon his head! Now the hero in the folk-tales who is always successful in drawing the great bow in the trial where all his competitors fail, is this god of the new moon, who alone can bend the bow, or bring the orb to the full circle of light once more. He can be identified in the Hindu form of the Mythos as Krishna "with the Bow of Hari." The crescent on the head of Taht is the bow prepared and ready to be drawn to the full against the power of night, and every form of evil that dwells in the darkness. Thus the lunar representative of Ra, with the bow of the young moon on his head, who prepares it month after month, and draws it to the full circle night after night, may be called the preparer of bows; and in Egyptian the name Apuru signifies a preparer of bows; it also means the Guide and Herald. As the u in Egyptian stands for o, and r for l, we have Apuru=Apollo; the preparer of bows=the god of the bow as male divinity of the moon, who was the offspring of the sun and moon, the bowman of the solar god. Mr. Gladstone doubts whether the root of Apollo is Greek, and says he would not be surprised to find it Eastern. All the evidence tends to prove it Egyptian by nature and by name. Apollo is the god of knowledge, past, present, and to come; Taht is the deity of knowledge, past, present, and future--the founder of science, lord of the divine words, and secretary of the gods. Apollo is the god of poetry and music. So was Taht. He is the psalmist and singer; he is fabled to have torn out the sinews of Sut-Typhon to form the lyre--the lyre or harp with seven strings being an image of the new moon, like the bow.

Apollo was the god of healing. Taht is the supreme physician and healer; "He who is the good Savior," as it is written on a statue in the Leyden Museum. Apollo was the bringer of death in a form that was serene and beautiful, as became the lunar Lord of light, and enlarger of the lunar light to the full,--the character and function being afterwards applied to the light of life that suffered the passing eclipse of death. One name of Taht is Tekh, which signifies to be full!

Of course the Greeks did not simply take over the Egyptian mythology intact, nor did they preserve the descent quite pure on any single line. In re-applying the legendary lore, derived from Egypt, to the same phenomena in nature, there would be considerable mixture, amalgamation, change of name, and consequent confusion. The blind Horus of Egypt reappears as the blind Orion in the Greek mythos. This is as certain as that the constellation of Orion, the star of Horus, was named Orion after Horus! His lunar relationship is shown by the recovery of his sight on exposing his eyeballs to the rays of the rising sun,--just as the eye of Horus was restored to him through the return of light at dawn. Horus in his lunar character is one with Taht and Khunsu in the other cults; that is, the lunar child may be Horus as son of Osiris, or Taht as the offspring of Ra, or Khunsu as the child of Amen; the myth being one in different religions. It follows that so far as Orion is identical with Horus he is also, or once was, identical in character with the lunar Apollo, and therefore like him of twin-birth with Artemis. Links of this lunar relationship remain. He lives and hunts along with Artemis when his sight has been recovered. He was beloved by Artemis and slain by her because he made an attempt upon her chastity--which is a common charge brought against the man in the moon mythology!

The bringing on of the lunar mythos upon two different lines of descent, Apollo being a continuation of Taht-Khunsu, and Orion of Horus, would account for the later mixture in the relationship of the various personations--the fact in nature being represented under different names for the same character in mythology, as it had been previously in Egypt.

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