is character is clearly expressed in the titles _Sitalcas_
("protector of corn"); _Erythibius_ ("preventer of blight"); _Parnopius_
("destroyer of locusts"); _Smintheus_ ("destroyer of mice"), in which,
however, some modern inquirers see a totemistic significance (e.g. A.
Lang, "Apollo and the Mouse," in _Custom and Myth_, p. 101; against
this, W.W. Fowler, in _Classical Review_, November 1892); _Erithius_
("god of reapers"); and _Pasparius_ ("god of meal"). He is further the
god of vegetation generally--_Nomios_, "god of pastures" (explained,
however, by Cicero, as "god of law"), _Hersos_, "sender of the
fertilizing dew." Valleys and groves are under his protection, unless
the epithets _Napaeus_ and _Hylates_ belong to a more primitive aspect
of the god as supporting himself by the chase, and roaming the glades
and forests in pursuit of prey. Certain trees and plants, especially the
laurel, were sacred to him. As the god of agriculture and vegetation he
is naturally connected with the course of the year and the arrangement
of the seasons, so important in farming operations, and becomes the
orderer of time (_Horomedon_, "ruler of the seasons"), and frequently
appears on monuments in company with the Horae.

Apollo is also the protector of cattle and herds, hence _Poimnius_ ("god
of flocks"), _Tragius_ ("of goats"), _Kereatas_ ("of horned animals").
_Carneius_ (probably "horned") is considered by some to be a pre-Dorian
god of cattle, also connected with harvest operations, whose cult was
grafted on to that of Apollo; by others, to have been originally an
epithet of Apollo, afterwards detached as a separate personality
(Farnell, _Cults_, iv. p. 131). The epithet _Maleatas_, which, as the
quantity of the first vowel (a) shows,[2] cannot mean god of "sheep" or
"the apple-tree," is probably a local adjective derived from Malea
(perhaps Cape Malea), and may refer to an originally distinct
personality, subsequently merged in that of Apollo (see below). Apollo
himself is spoken of as a keeper of flocks, and the legends of his
service as a herdsman with Laomedon and Admetus point in the same
direction. Here probably also is to be referred the epithet _Lyceius_,
which, formerly connected with [Greek: luk-] ("shine") and used to
support the conception of Apollo as a light-god, is now generally
referred to [Greek: Lukos] ("wolf") and explained as he who keeps away
the wolves from the flock (cf. [Greek: Lukoergos, Lukoktonos]). In