Houston: Hymn to Apollo
Houston: Hymn to Apollo is an ongoing creative invocation: a multiform suite of music, video, and poetic works drawing on myth, moon phases, and memory, inspired by the sacred tales of Apollo and my visit to the ruins of ancient Didyma in Türkiye.
Voice and sound shimmers…
…plucked harmonics, subtle distortion, breaths, and delays…
…a sonic rite through a fusion of structure and improvisation…
…electroacoustic textures and poetic texts…
….reflect a personal and collective cosmology….
I am the eye with which the Universe
Beholds itself, and knows it is divine
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
Palimpsest: Apollo Fragment I: the video above is the first in an ongoing suite of works inspired by The Homeric Hymn to Apollo, my visit to his temple on the coast of Türkiye, and Percy Shelley's Hymn of Apollo. You will see a beautiful film of Raven, The Trickster, Mage, and Messenger of Apollo — that was shot by my husband, Dave, in Tofino, British Columbia, the traditional lands of the First Nation Haida people. You will also see the overlay of the Temple of Apollo in Didyma, Türkiye that I shot — and you’ll glimpse the steps up to the temple and surrounding ruins.
(a palimpsest is something re-written or re-imagined that leaves traces of its previous form—like a magic ancient scroll discovered in a distant future with layers of writing…yeah! like that!)
The Oracle of Apollo at Didyma
Sing O, Muse of she who wandered many ways…
I visited the Oracle of Apollo at Didyma on the coast of Türkiye…a temple founded by Branchus whose mother swallowed the Sun and gave birth to him—a boy loved by Apollo for his beauty and prophetic abilities. Branchus dedicated himself to the God and founded the oracle and the priesthood, the Branchidae, who interpreted the priestesses’ divinations at the sacred spring at Didyma…
Apollo Musegetes
Leader of Muses
God of Music, of Healing, of Prophecy…
Dolphins, his sacred animals
Play in the bow waves
Of our ship
As we head toward the temple
Before I knew the temple was there
I sing
In the beautiful resonant temple tunnels
I make offerings
Of oranges and wine
Cicadas sing everywhere—invisible in the carob and juniper trees
Hiding high up in the almond blossom
Tales are told on the sailing ship deck
Feasting and songs
Under Aegean stars
And nearby island ruins
Many-Named One
Sun God, Helios
Delphinus
Now here
Across our planet and a world away:
A grove of white crepe myrtles
Pecan trees
Cicadas singing in the shivering leaves
Avocados
Citrus and Strawberries
Texas wines and honey
Honor the Sun One
The second Apollo Fragment
The sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie...
Waken me when...the gray Dawn
Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
These tracks are part of my ongoing series Equinoxes & Moons—all things mystical and magical!
Temple of Apollo at Didyma, Türkiye. Photo: Misha Penton