Why Was Nero Chosen Apollo The Hero

Nero’s choice of Apollo the Musician places more difficulties on him than if he had also chosen Apollo the Hero. The musician Apollo was often seen as effeminate, as during this time in the literary genre, plays and operas were on the lower level of cultural entertainment. Yet, Nero chose this representation for a reason. Even Ovid claimed that Nero’s looks and choices were “stuff for women.”

Nero’s focus’ did not fit with traditional Roman ideals and morals. Nero was very concerned about personal appearance, and very different priorities. Where other emperor’s focused on military strength, which fits well with the trope of heroic Apollo, Nero did not. Nero instead was more focused on being a patron of Arts. This passage from Suetonius

His interest and goal of being a patron of the Arts could have worked but, for this time period, Nero took it too far. He crossed that line. He went too far into a Hellenistic direction, and this caused upset with the Romans. Suetonius further critiques him by saying, “Astrologers had predicted to Nero that he would one day be repudiated, which was the occasion of that well known saying of his: ‘A humble art affords us daily bread,’doubtless uttered to justify him in practising the art of lyre-playing, as an amusement while emperor, but a necessity for a private citizen” (Suetonius, 219). This is critiquing Nero’s focus on the arts because he is the emperor and his support and patronage of the arts should not include his own performance of

Nero’s choices of theatrical performances were also a part of his downfall. His performances would often draw attention to negative events that were either in the relatively close past or were echoed by current events. But, even his theatrical performances were not Nero’s only poor choices.

Nero appeared to have taken all the negative qualities of Apollo the Musician: decadence, leisure, etc. He would often host events, but events that did not presume taste level, or sophistication; everyone could “get it.” In this Nero was performing to the masses versus performing towards the elite, and this again has to do with his choice in Apollo representation. Apollo the Musician appealed to the lower-classes while Apollo the Hero appealed to the elite class.

The other personality trait of Nero’s that did not appeal to the elite class was the constant, unsubtle, blunt allusions to Nero as a god or equal to gods. Suetonius wrote that, “Since he was acclaimed as the equal of Apollo in music and of the Sun in driving a chariot, he had planned to emulate the exploits of Hercules as well; and they say that a lion had been specially trained for him to kill naked in the arena of the amphitheatre before all the people, with a club or by the clasp of his arms” (Suetonius, 226). Although Augustus alluded to his favor with the god, Apollo, Nero did not. He claims to be an equal of the god,