Apis (Greek Mythology) - Apis The Healer

Apis The Healer

Aeschylus mentions yet another Apis, a healer and a son of Apollo. In The Suppliants, the Argive king Pelasgus, son of Palaechthon, relates that Apis once came from Naupactus and freed Argos from throngs of snakes, which "Earth, defiled by the pollution of bloody deeds of old, had caused to spring up" and plague the country. Apis "worked the cure by sorcery and spells to the content of the Argive land". To commemorate his deed, the relieved territory was thenceforth referred to as "the Apian land" (Apia khōra) after his name. Note that "the Apian land" appears to comprise not just Argos: Pelasgus describes his kingdom as stretching so far as the northernmost boundaries of Greece, and comprising the territories of Paeonia and Dodona.