said that Apollo soon after his birth spent
a year amongst the Hyperboreans, who dwelt in a land of perpetual
sunshine, before his return to Delphi. This return is explained as the
second birth of the god and his victory over the powers of winter; the
name Hyperboreans is explained as the "dwellers beyond the north wind."
This interpretation is now, however, generally rejected in favour of
that of H.L. Ahrens,--that Hyperborei is identical with the Perpherees
("the carriers"), who are described as the servants of Apollo, carriers
of cereal offerings from one community to another (Herodotus iv. 33).
This would point to the fact that certain settlements of Apolline
worship along the northernmost border of Greece (Illyria, Thrace,
Macedonia) were in the habit of sending offerings to the god to a centre
of his worship farther south (probably Delphi), advancing by the route
from Tempe through Thessaly, Pherae and Doris to Delphi; while others
adopted the route through Illyria, Epirus, Dodona, the Malian gulf,
Carystus in Euboea, and Tenos to Delos (Farnell, _Cults_, iv. p. 100).

The most usual attributes of Apollo were the lyre and the bow; the
tripod especially was dedicated to him as the god of prophecy. Among
plants, the bay, used in expiatory sacrifices and also for making the
crown of victory at the Pythian games, and the palm-tree, under which he
was born in Delos, were sacred to him; among animals and birds, the
wolf, the roe, the swan, the hawk, the raven, the crow, the snake, the
mouse, the grasshopper and the griffin, a mixture of the eagle and the
lion evidently of Eastern origin. The swan and grasshopper symbolize
music and song; the hawk, raven, crow and snake have reference to his
functions as the god of prophecy.

The chief festivals held in honour of Apollo were the Carneia,
Daphnephoria, Delia, Hyacinthia, Pyanepsia, Pythia and Thargelia (see
separate articles).

Among the Romans the worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks.
There is a tradition that the Delphian oracle was consulted as early as
the period of the kings during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, and in
430 a temple was dedicated to Apollo on the occasion of a pestilence,
and during the Second Punic War (in 212) the _Ludi Apollinares_ were
instituted in his honour. But it was in the time of Augustus, who
considered himself under the special protection of Apollo and was even
said to be his son, that his worship developed and he became one