ars.

A festival termed the Gymnopedaea was held at Sparta in honour of Apollo, in
which boys sang the praises of the gods, and of the three hundred
Lacedaemonians who fell at the battle of Thermopylae.

Wolves and hawks were sacrificed to Apollo, and the birds sacred to him
were the hawk, raven, and swan.

ROMAN APOLLO.

The worship of Apollo never occupied the all-important position in Rome
which it held in Greece, nor was it introduced till a comparatively late
period. There was no sanctuary erected to this divinity until B.C. 430,
when the Romans, in order to avert a plague, built a temple in his honour;
but we do not find the worship of Apollo becoming in any way prominent
until the time of Augustus, who, having called upon this god for aid before
the famous battle of Actium, ascribed the victory which he {84} gained, to
his influence, and accordingly erected a temple there, which he enriched
with a portion of the spoil.

Augustus afterwards built another temple in honour of Apollo, on the
Palatine Hill, in which at the foot of his statue, were deposited two gilt
chests, containing the Sibylline oracles. These oracles were collected to
replace the Sibylline books originally preserved in the temple of Jupiter,
which were destroyed when that edifice was burned.

[Illustration]

The Sibyls were maidens who had received the gift of prophecy, and the
privilege of living to an incredible age. One of these Sibyls (known as the
Cumaean) appeared to Tarquinius Superbus, the last king of Rome, offering
for sale nine books, which she informed him had been written by herself.
Not knowing who she was, Tarquin refused to buy them, upon which she burned
three, and returned with six, demanding the same price as before. Being
again driven away as an impostor, she again retired and burned three more,
returning with the remaining three, for which she still asked the same
price as at first. Tarquin, amazed at her inconsistency, now consulted the
Augurs, who blamed him for not having bought the nine books when they were
first offered to him, and desired him to secure the remaining three, at
whatever price they were to be had. He, accordingly, purchased the volumes,
which were found to contain predictions of great importance to the Romans.
After the disposal of the books, the Sibyl vanished, and was seen no more.

The most beautiful and renowned of all the statues of Apollo now in
existence, is that known as the Apollo Belvedere