Apollo

 

Iliad 1.472-3
And all long the young Acheans sought to please the god with song and dance, singing a beatiful paean, celebrating far-working Apollo in song; and he heard it and was delighted in his heart.

(H. G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, Cambridge, Mass.-London: Harvard University Press and Heinemann, 1959: 333)

Iliad 1. 601-4
Thus they feasted all day until sunset, und none of them lacked appetite for the feast that they shared, or for the music of the splendid phorminx that Apollo played, or for that of the Muses, who sang, answering one another with their beautiful voices.

(Barker 1984: 24)

Homeric Hymn to Apollo 129-132
Forthwith Phoebus Apollo spoke out among the deathless goddesses: "The lyre (kitharis) and the curved bow shall ever be dear to me, and I will declare to men the unfailing will of Zeus."

(H. G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, Cambridge, Mass.-London: Harvard University Press and Heinemann, 1959: 333)

Homeric Hymn to Apollo 140-50
And you, far-shooting lord Apollo of the silver bow, walked sometimes on craggy Cynthus, and sometimes wandered among the islands and their people. You have many islands and wooded groves: all the peaks and high cliffs of the lofty mountains, and the rivers that flow to the sea, are dear to you. But you delight your heart, Phoebus, in Delos most of all, where the Ionians with their trailing robes come together, with their children and modest wives. They turn their minds to boxing and dancing and song, and delight in them, whenever they set up their festival.

(Barker 1984: 39)

Homeric Hymn to Apollo 182-206
Leto's glorious son goes to rocky Pytho, playing on his hollow phorminx, clothed in divine and scented garments. His phorminx, touched by the golden plectrum, gives a sweet ringing sound. Thence he goes, swift as a thought, from earth to Olympus, to the house of Zeus into the gathering of the other gods. At once the thougths of the immortals turn to song and the music of the kithara. The Muses, answering all together with a beautiful voice, hymn the undying gifts of the gods and the sufferings of men, all that they receive from the immortal gods in their silly and helpless lives, where they can find no remedy for death, and no bulwark against old age. And the Graces with their lovely tresses, and the happy Seasons, and Harmonia and Hebe, and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, dance with their hands holding one another's wrists. Singing with them is one not ugly or small, but tall to look upon and enviable form, Artemis, pourer of arrows, sister of Apollo. Among them frolic Ares and the sharp-eyed killer of Argus, while Phoebus Apollo plays on the kithara, stepping with fine high steps. A radiance shines about him, the sparklings of his feet and of his well-spun tunic. And golden-haired Leto and Zeus the counsellor delight their great hearts in watching their dear son at play among the immortal gods.

(Barker 1984: 40-41)

Homeric Hymn to Apollo 513-23
When they had taken their fill of food and drink, they set out, led by the lord Apollo, son of Zeus, holding a phorminx in his hands and playing (kitharizon) sweetly, stepping with fine high steps. The Cretans followed him to Pytho with stamping feet, singing 'Ie paian' like the Cretan paean-singers in whose breasts the Muse has placed honey-voiced song. With unwearied feet they came to the crest, and soon reached Parnassus and the lovely place where they were to live, honoured by many people. Apollo led them there, and showed them his sacred shrine and rich temple.

(Barker 1984: 41)

Strabo, Geography IX.3.10
[At the Pythian games] the kitharodoi they added auletes and kitharists, who performed with no singing, and played a melody called the Pythikos nomos. It has five parts, ankrousis, ampeira, katakeleusmos, iamboi and daktyloi, syringes [...]. The intention is to celebrate, through his melody, the contest of Apollo against the serpent, representing (delon) the prelude with the ankrousis, the first onslaught of the contest with the ampeira, the contest itself with the katakeleusmos, the triumphal song (epipaionismos) over the victory with the iamboi and daktyloi, using rhythms of which the dactylic is suitable for hymns, the iambic for insults, as in the word iambizein ['insult' or 'satirise'], while with the syringes the players imitated the death of the monster as it expired with its final whistlings (syrigmous).

(Barker 1984: 51-52)

Pollux, Onomastikon IV.84
The auletic Pythikos nomos has five parts, peira, katakeleusmos, iambikon, spondeion and katachoreusis. The nomos is a representation [deloma, lit. 'showing', 'display'] of the battle of Apollo against the serpent. In the peira ['test', 'trial'] he surveys the ground to see if it is suitable for the contest. In the katakeleusmos ['challenge'] he calls up the serpent, and in the iambikon he fights: the iambikon also includes sounds like those of the salpinx and gnashings like those of the serpent as it grinds its teeth after being pierced with arrows. The spondeion represents (deloi) the victory of the god; and in the katachoreusis ['dance of triumph'] the god performs a dance of victory.

(Barker 1984: 51)

 

Other literary sources:
 
Hesiod, Theogony 94-5; Scutum Herculis 203;
Sappho, fr. 208 PLF Lobel-Page;
Alcman, fr. 307c PLF Lobel-Page;
Pindar, Pythian I. 1-3; Nemean 43-45;
Euripides, Alcestis 570;
Aristophanes, Aves 219; Ranae 23; Thesmophoriazusae 969;
Lucian, Dialogi deorum 7. 4;
Pausanias V 14, 8;
Himerius, Orationes 14. 10; 13. 7;
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 5. 102.

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