Legalism is defined as the attempt to obtain the favour of the gods by complying with their laws, expressed for the first time in Hesiod’s Works and Days. His supreme representative is the god Apollo, who makes his judgements known through the Oracle of Delphi, a figure of incalculable influence in the Greek world.

Delphi was in many ways the centre of the Greek world and its influence was felt even beyond Greece’s borders. It was Apollo who prescribed what purification was necessary for murderers, who approved the constitution of new cities, who advised kings and heads of state in the event of war and who recognised new deities and cults. Delphi oversaw, not only at the religious level, but also at the moral and political.

Initially the Oracle could only be consulted on Apollo’s birthday, 7th April, but this was later changed to every 7th day of the month, with the exception of the winter months. Women were forbidden from speaking directly to the god. His replies were conveyed through Pythia, a chaste but uneducated woman, who became Apollo’s interpreter. Pythia, after submitting herself to exhalations and vapours that provoked a frenzied state, would become enthusiastic, which, in etymological terms, signifies “possessed by a god”. Her replies were then interpreted by the priests.

Initially the god of oracles and purification, Apollo later became the god of the arts and the light, identified in the classical era with the sun. 

Among his countless representations on the coins in the Collection, on display here are various obverses in which his beauty and youth are emphasised and several reverses directly or indirectly relating to him and, also, an example in which Apollo is represented on the reverse with a magnificent griffin on the obverse.