apotropoea

Updated: May 21, 2025

Into the praises of Apollo, joyous as they were, where, to the exultant anthem was joined the evolution of the dance beneath the vaulted sky, as if in his very presence, for the sun was his shechinah, there enters an element of solemnity, which, in certain connections, is almost overwhelming: as, for instance, in the first book of the "Iliad," where, after the pestilence which has sent up an endless series of funeral pyres, after the strife of heroes and the return of Chryseïs to her father, the priest of the angry Apollo, after the feast and the libation from the wine-crowned cups, there follow the apotropoea, and the Grecian youths unite in the song and the dance, which last, both the joyous paean and the tread of exultant feet, until the setting sun.

Various - The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 34, August, 1860