APOLLONIUS OF TYRE

apollonius of tyre, a medieval tale supposed to be derived from a lost greek original. the earliest mention of the story is in the _carmina_ (bk. vi. 8, ii. 5-6) of venantius fortunatus, in the second half of the 6th century, and the romance may well date from three centuries earlier. it bears a marked resemblance to the _antheia and habrokomes_ of xenophon of ephesus. the story relates that king antiochus, maintaining incestuous relations with his daughter, kept off her suitors by asking them a riddle, which they must solve on pain of losing their heads. apollonius of tyre solved the riddle, which had to do with antiochus's secret. he returned to tyre, and, to escape the king's vengeance, set sail in search of a place of refuge. in cyrene he married the daughter of king archistrates, and presently, on receiving news of the death of antiochus, departed to take possession of the kingdom of antioch, of which he was, for no clear reason, the heir. on the voyage his wife died, or rather seemed to die, in giving birth to a daughter, and the sailors demanded that she should be thrown overboard. apollonius left his daughter, named tarsia, at tarsus in the care of guardians who proved false to their trust. father, mother, and daughter were only reunited after fourteen years' separation and many vicissitudes. the earliest latin ms. of this tale, preserved at florence, dates from the 9th or 10th century. the pagan features of the supposed original are by no means all destroyed. the ceremonies observed by tarsia at her nurse's grave, and the preparations for the burning of the body of apollonius's wife, are purely pagan. the riddles which tarsia propounds to her father are obviously interpolated. they are taken from the _enigmata_ of caelius firmianus symposius. the many inconsistencies of the story seem to be best explained by the supposition (e. rohde, _der griechische roman_, 2nd ed., 1900, pp. 435 _et seq_.) that the antiochus story was originally entirely separate from the story of apollonius's wanderings, and was clumsily tacked on by the latin author. the romance kept its form through a vast number of medieval rearrangements, and there is little change in its outlines as set forth in the shakespearian play of _pericles_. the latin tale is preserved in about 100 mss., and was printed by m. velser (augsburg, 1595), by j. lapaume in _script. erot_. (didot, paris, 1856), and by a. riese in the _bibl. teubneriana_ (1871, new ed. 1893). the most widespread versions in the middle ages were those of godfrey of viterbo in his _pantheon_ (1185), where it is related as authentic history, and in the _gesta romanorum_ (cap. 153), which formed the basis of the german folk-tale by h. steinhowel (augsburg, 1471), the dutch version (delft, 1493), the french in _le violier des histoires romaines_ (paris, 1521), the english, by laurence twine (london, 1576, new ed. 1607), also of the scandinavian, czech, and hungarian tales. in england a translation was made as early as the 11th century (ed. b. thorpe, 1834, and j. zupitza in _archiv fur neuere sprachen_, 1896); there is a middle english metrical version (j.o. halliwell, _a new boke about shakespeare_, 1850), by a poet who says he was vicar of wimborne; john gower uses the tale as an example of the seventh deadly sin in the eighth book of his _confessio amantis_; robert copland translated a prose romance of _kynge apollyne of thyre_ (wynkyn de worde, 1510) from the french; _pericles_ was entered at stationers' hall in 1607, and was followed in the next year by george wilkins's novel, _the painfull adventures of pericles, prynce of tyre_ (ed. tycho mommsen, oldenburg, 1857), and george lillo drew his play _marina_ (1738) from the piece associated with shakespeare; _orendel_, by a middle high german minnesinger, contains some of the episodes of _apollonius_; heinrich von neustadt wrote a poem of 20,000 lines on _apollonius von tyrland_ (c. 1400); the story was well known in spanish, _libre de apolonio_ (verse, c. 1200), and in j. de timoneda's _patranuelo_ (1576); in french much of it was embodied in _jourdain de blaives_ (13th cent.), and it also appears in italian and medieval greek. see a.h. smyth, _shakespeare's pericles and apollonius of tyre_ (philadelphia, 1898); elimar klebs, _die erzahlung van a. aus tyrus_ (berlin, 1899); s. singer, _apollonius van tyrus_ (halle, 1895). apollos ([greek: apollos]; contracted from apollonius), an alexandrine jew who after paul's first visit to corinth worked there in a similar way (1 cor. iii. 6). he was with paul at a later date in ephesus (1 cor. xvi. 12). in 1 cor. i. 10-12 we read of four parties in the corinthian church, of which two attached themselves to paul and apollos respectively, using their names, though the "division" can hardly have been due to conflicting doctrines. (see paul.) from acts xviii. 24-28 we learn that he spoke and taught with power and success. he may have captivated his hearers by teaching "wisdom," as p.w. schmiedel suggests, in the allegorical style of philo, and he was evidently a man of unusual magnetic force. there seems to be some contradiction between acts xviii. 25 a b and acts xviii. 25 c, 26 b c; and it has been suggested that these latter passages are subsequent accretions. since apollos was a christian and "taught exactly," he could hardly have been acquainted only with john's baptism or have required to be taught christianity more thoroughly by aquila and priscilla. martin luther regarded apollos as the author of the epistle to the hebrews, and many scholars since have shared his view. jerome says that apollos was so dissatisfied with the division at corinth, that he retired into crete with zenas, a doctor of the law; and that the schism having been healed by paul's letter to the corinthians, apollos returned to the city, and became its bishop. less probable traditions assign to him the bishopric of duras, or of iconium in phrygia, or of caesarea. see the articles in the _encyclopaedia biblica_; herzog-hauck, _realencyklopadie_; _the jewish encyclopaedia_; hastings' _dictionary of the bible_; and cf. weizsacker, _das apostolische zeitalter_; a.c. mcgiffert, _history of christianity in the apostolic age_.