Agyieus

{{Short description|Ancient Greek mythological epithet}} [[Image:Coin of Apollo Agyieus.png|right|thumb|Illustration of a coin of Apollo Agyieus from Ambracia, depicting the conical representation of the god.]] '''Agyieus''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀγυιεύς|translit=Aguieus}} means 'he of the street'<ref>{{Cite book|last=Graves, Robert|title=The Greek Myths - The Complete and Definitive Edition|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|year=2017|isbn=9780241983386|pages=Index s.v. Agyieus}}</ref>) was an epithet of the Greek god Apollo describing him as the protector of the streets, public places, and the entrances to homes.<ref name="DGRBM">{{Cite book | last = Schmitz | first = Leonhard | contribution = Agyieus | editor-last = Smith | editor-first = William | title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | volume = 1 | pages = 83 | publisher = Little, Brown and Company | place = Boston | year = 1867 | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0092.html | access-date = 2008-06-06 | archive-date = 2011-05-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110514041631/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0092.html | url-status = dead }}</ref> As such he was worshiped at Acharnae,<ref>Pausanias, 1.31.3</ref> Mycenae,<ref>Pausanias, 2.19.7</ref> and at Tegea.<ref>Pausanias, 8.53.1</ref> The origin of the worship of Apollo Agyieus in the last of these places is related by Pausanias.<ref>Comp. Horace, ''Carmines'' 4.6.28; Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' 1.9</ref>

The cult of Apollo Agyieus was aniconic, and this facet of Apollo was worshiped in the form of a pointed column or obelisk,<ref name="ls">{{cite book | last = Liddell | first = Henry | author-link = Henry Liddell |author2= Robert Scott |author2-link= Robert Scott (philologist) | title = A Greek-English Lexicon | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1996 | location = Oxford | pages = 16 | isbn = 0-19-864226-1}}</ref> often kept by the front door of a private home,<ref>Pherecrates, 87; Dieuchidas, 2</ref> or in the open country, rather than in a temple. This symbol is similar to a sign like an edged cone found on the gate of a temple in the Hittitic city Boğazkale; an inscription names the god ''Apulunas''. He was the protector of the gate. Hrozny derives the name from the Babylonian word ''abullu '' which means "gate ". The Greeks named him Agyieus, as the protector God who draws off evil.<ref>Martin Nilsson."Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion".Verlag C.H.Beck 1955.pp.559, 564</ref> Some writers have held that the omphalos of the oracle at Delphi was a modified pillar of Agyieus.<ref name="farnell">{{cite book | last = Farnell | first = Lewis Richard | title = The Cults of the Greek States | publisher = Clarendon Press | year = 1907 | location = Oxford | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cultsgreekstate01farngoog/page/n357 308] | url = https://archive.org/details/cultsgreekstate01farngoog }}</ref> When standing before a house, the stone objects would be decorated with offerings of ribbon, or wreaths of myrtle or bay.

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

== References ==

* Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths'', Harmondsworth, London, England, Penguin Books, 1960. {{ISBN|978-0143106715}} *Graves, Robert, ''The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition.'' Penguin Books Limited. 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-241-98338-6|024198338X}} *Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'' with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. {{ISBN|0-674-99328-4}}. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0160 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library] *Pausanias, ''Graeciae Descriptio.'' ''3 vols''. Leipzig, Teubner. 1903. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library].

Category:Epithets of Apollo