Editing Apollo (section)

===Hyperborea===
[[File:Antalya_Museum_06022022_009.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Apollo head in the [[Antalya Museum]], [[Turkey]]]]

[[Hyperborea]], the mystical land of eternal spring, venerated Apollo above all the gods. The Hyperboreans always sang and danced in his honor and hosted [[Pythian games]].<ref>Pindar, Pindar, Olympian Ode</ref> There, a vast forest of beautiful trees was called "the garden of Apollo". Apollo spent the winter months among the Hyperboreans,<ref>[[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'', [https://archive.org/details/argonautica00apoluoft/page/148/mode/2up?view=theater 2. 674].</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/> leaving his shrine in Delphi under the care of Dionysus. His absence from the world caused coldness and this was marked as his annual death. No prophecies were issued during this time.<ref name="ReferenceC">Joseph Eddy Fontenrose, ''Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins''</ref> He returned to the world during the beginning of the spring. The ''Theophania'' festival was held in [[Delphi]] to celebrate his return.<ref>Plutarch, ''de his qui sero a num. pun.'' p. 557F</ref>

However, Diodorus Silculus states that Apollo visited Hyperborea every nineteen years. This nineteen-year period was called by the Greeks as the 'year of Meton', the time period in which the stars returned to their initial positions. And that visiting Hyperborea at that time, Apollo played on the cithara and danced continuously from the vernal equinox until the rising of the [[Pleiades (Greek mythology)|Pleiades]] (constellations).<ref>Diodorus Siculus, ''Library of History'' 2. 47. 1 – 6</ref>

Hyperborea was also Leto's birthplace. It is said that Leto came to Delos from Hyperborea accompanied by a pack of wolves. Henceforth, Hyperborea became Apollo's winter home and wolves became sacred to him. His intimate connection to wolves is evident from his epithet ''Lyceus'', meaning ''wolf-like''. But Apollo was also the wolf-slayer in his role as the god who protected flocks from predators. The Hyperborean worship of Apollo bears the strongest marks of Apollo being worshipped as the sun god. Shamanistic elements in Apollo's cult are often liked to his Hyperborean origin, and he is likewise speculated to have originated as a solar shaman.<ref>Anna Afonasina, ''Shamanism and the Orphic tradition''</ref><ref>Fritz Graf, ''Apollo''</ref> Shamans like [[Abaris]] and [[Aristeas]] were also the followers of Apollo, who hailed from Hyperborea.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

In myths, the tears of amber Apollo shed when his son Asclepius died mixed with the waters of the river Eridanos, which surrounded Hyperborea. Apollo also buried in Hyperborea the arrow which he had used to kill the [[Cyclopes]]. He later gave this arrow to Abaris.<ref>[[Apollonius Rhodius]], ''[[Argonautica]]'', [https://archive.org/details/argonautica00apoluoft/page/334/mode/2up?view=theater 4. 594].</ref>