Agyieus

Agyieus (Gr. polytonic|Ἀγυιεύς) was an epithet of the Greek god Apollo de­scribing him as the protector of the streets, public places, and the entrances to homes.Citation | last = Schmitz | first = Leonhard | author-link = | 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 ] As such he was worshiped at Acharnae, [Pausanias, "Description of Greece" i. 31. § 3] Mycenae, [Pausanias, "Description of Greece" ii. 19. § 7] and at Tegea. [Pausanias, "Description of Greece" viii. 53. § 1] The origin of the worship of Apollo Agyieus in the last of these places is related by Pausanias. [Comp. Horace, "Carmines" iv. 6. 28] [Macrobius, "Saturnalia" i. 9]

The cult of Apollo Agyieus was aniconic, and this facet of Apollo was worshiped in the form of a pointed column or obelisk,cite book | last = Liddell | first = Henry | authorlink = Henry Liddell | coauthors = Robert Scott | title = A Greek-English Lexicon | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 1996 | location = Oxford | pages = 16 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0-19-864226-1] often kept by the front door of a private home, [Pherecrates, 87] [Dieuchidas, 2] or in the open country, rather than in a temple. Some writers have held that the omphalos of the oracle at Delphi was a modified pillar of Agyieus.cite book | last = Farnell | first = Lewis Richard | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Cults of the Greek States | publisher = Clarendon Press | date = 1907 | location = Oxford | pages = 308 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=EWkcAAAAMAAJ | doi = | id = | isbn = ] When standing before a house, the stone objects would be decorated with offerings of ribbon, or wreaths of myrtle or bay.

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