Boucles d’Or chez les Grecs, ou les secrets capillaires du bel Apollon

International audience; Like the names, the “physiognomy” attributed to the gods by the Greeks helps to differentiate the divine entities from one another or, on the contrary, to link them together, making explicit the nature and the scope of their powers. This paper addresses the meaning of the adjective khruskomas, "with golden hair", frequently attributed to Apollo: does it mean that the Greeks had in mind a blond god? The analysis of texts and images shows that it is much more complicated. Firstly, onomastic attributes and iconographic attributes do not necessarily coincide. Depending on the media, craftsmen may represent a dark-haired Apollo, without this being seen as a contradiction with the images conveyed by the poets. Immortals, unlike humans, take on any appearance they want…Secondly, the colour of gold is not exactly equivalent to blondness (for example, that of Demeter xanthe): the brilliance of the incorruptible metal expresses the radiance that emanates from the young god, notably through his eternally young hair. Khrusokomas thus expresses one of the manifold facets of Phoibos, by summoning the image of his delphic sanctuary, where opulence reigns. The article thus shows that, although the epithet khrusokomas does not tell us everything about the god and is not enough to “portray” him, the colour of Apollo's hair deserves to be taken seriously.