A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Καρνεῖος), a surname of Apollo under which he was worshipped in various parts of Greece, especially in Peloponnesus, as at Sparta and Sicyon, and also in Thera, Cyrene, and Magna Graecia. (Paus. 3.13.2, &c., 2.10.2, 11.2; Pind. P. 5.106; Plut. Sympos. 8.1; Paus. 3.24.5, 4.31.1, 33.5.) The origin of the name is explained in different ways. Some derived it from Carnus, an Acarnanian soothsayer, whose murder by Hippotes provoked Apollo to send a plague into the army of Ilippotes while he was on his march to Peloponnesus. Apollo was afterwards propitiated by the introduction of the worship of Apollo Carneius. (Paus. 3.13.3; Schol. ad Theocrit. 5.83.) Others believed that Apollo was thus called from his favourite Carnus or Carneius, a son of Zeus and Europa, whom Leto and Apollo had brought up. (Paus. l.c. ; Hesych. s. v. Καρνεῖος.) Several other attempts to explain the name are given in Pausanias and the Scholiast on Theocritus. It is evident, however, that the worship of the Carneian Apollo was very ancient, and was probably established in Peloponnesus even before the Dorian conquest. Respecting the festival of the Carneia see Dict. of Ant. s. v. Κάρνεια.

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