Apollo

A god of youth, music, prophecy, archery and healing. Twin brother of the goddess Artemis (Diana), Apollo was the son of Zeus and the Titaness Leto, daughter of the titans Coeüs (Coeus) and Phoebe.

He was popularly known as Phoebus Apollo and therefore known as the god of light and the sun. Apollo was depicted with a perfect male body: muscular but youthful. He always appeared beardless on statues.

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Apollo was the god of archery, and he carried a silver bow like his sister. Apollo often enjoyed hunting with his sister, and sometimes with his mother. He also possessed a golden sword.

Apollo was the god of music. Hermes gave him the lyre that he invented, making the instrument with a tortoise shell and sheep guts for strings. No one, god or mortal, could play the lyre better than Apollo could.

Some say that Apollo was the father of the greatest mortal musician, Orpheus, by Calliope, one of the Muses. Other writers say that Orpheus' father was the Thracian king Oeagrus. Nevertheless, Orpheus also played the lyre. Another son of Apollo named Linus was also a great musician, but was killed by his pupil Heracles.

Several times, mortals and lesser divinities did challenge Apollo in music contests and were punished for it. Apollo often punished those who dared to compete against him. A satyr named Marsyas who played a flute invented by the goddess Athena challenged Apollo. Marsyas was flayed alive when the satyr lost the contest.

Another time, Apollo competed against the god Pan in a music contest. Three judges were to decide the winner. Two judges voted in favour of Apollo, but King Midas thought that Pan's reed pipe produced better music. Instead of turning against the musician, Apollo punished the judge. He transformed Midas' ears to those of a jackass. Midas had to hide his ears in a cap, in shame.

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Apollo was the god of prophecy and oracle. The oracle in Delphi was the main seat of his power, though it originally belonged to Gaea, then Themis and Phoebe, before the oracle was given to him. Delphi was only a small settlement during the Mycenaean period. It wasn't until the 8th century BC that they rebuilt the area, and it became the centre of his worship.

Apollo was also god of medicine and healing. In earlier accounts, Paeëon (Paeeon) may have been a god of healing; but the name may also have been one of Apollo's epithets.

Perhaps the most famous of his children was Asclepius, by Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas. While she was still pregnant, she took a mortal lover, Ischys. When Apollo heard about this, he killed Coronis, but saved the unborn baby. Asclepius became the greatest physician, with the ability to restore life to the dead. Some would even call Asclepius a god of healing.

However, his gift of restoring life proved to be his undoing. Zeus killed him with his thunderbolt, because he feared that he would change the fates of men. Angry that his father had killed his favourite son, Apollo slew one of the Cyclops, who make Zeus' deadly weapon – the thunderbolts. Zeus would have thrown his own son to Tartarus, had Leto not pleaded for their son's life.

Zeus punished Apollo where he was to work for one year for a mortal named Admetus, king of Pherae. Admetus was a pious man and treated the god well during Apollo's service. After one year, Apollo repaid Admetus' kindness by warning him of his fate. Admetus could escape his fate if he found someone willing to die in his place. No one but his wife Alcestis was willing to sacrifice her own life for his. Admetus immediately regretted allowing his wife to take his place. Only through the intervention of Heracles was Alcestis' life restored for the king.

Apollo and Poseidon were also punished by Zeus by having to serve Laomedon, king of Troy, for one year. With the help of the mortal Aeacus, king of Aegina, they built the wall of Troy. Both gods asked for payment at the completion of the wall construction. However, Laomedon refused to pay the gods so Poseidon sent a sea monster. Though Apollo was regarded as god of healing, he punished Laomedon by sending an outbreak of pestilence in Troy.

During the Trojan War however, he favoured the Trojans, particularly the Trojan hero Hector and to some extent Aeneas. Again, he was associated as the god of pestilence (for the second time in Troy. See the Iliad). This time he sent the pestilence to the Greeks in Troy, because of Agamemnon's refusals to return one of his captives and concubines, Chryseïs (Chryseis), to her father Chryses who was a priest of Apollo. Apollo punished Agamemnon by raining his deadly arrows from heaven, causing an epidemic within the Greek camp.

In the myth about Niobe, Apollo killed Niobe's sons while Artemis killed Niobe's daughters with arrows. Niobe had foolishly boasted that she had bore seven sons and seven daughters, while Leto had only bore twins.

Because Achilles killed his son Tenes, king of Tenedos, in the first year of the Trojan war, Apollo would be responsible for Achilles' death in the last year of the war. When Achilles pursued the retreating Trojans, Paris shot an arrow at Achilles; Apollo guided the arrow to Achilles' weakness, his heel.

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Like many of the younger gods, Apollo never married, but seduced many girls and women. Among the girls he ravished were Creüsa (Creusa), daughter of Erechtheus, who became the mother of Ion. Apollo and Hermes both fell in love with Chione, daughter of Daedalion. On the same day, Hermes raped Chione during the day, while Apollo ravished her at night. She bore twins, a son to each god: Autolycus (thief) to Hermes and Philammon (bard) to Apollo.

The best known affair of them all was also his most unsuccessful. Apollo told Eros (Cupid) to leave archery to him. Angry at the reproach, Eros used one of his gold-tipped arrows and made Apollo fall in love with a nymph named Daphne, daughter of the river-god Peneius. But Eros shot Daphne with a leaden arrow-point, which would cause Daphne to reject any love. Apollo pursued the unfortunate girl. Praying to the earth-goddess Gaea, she was transformed into the laurel tree. Apollo broke off a laurel branch and wore it on his head. In Greek, Daphne means "laurel". A festival held in his honour every nine years in Thebes commemorated this event. There was a small procession where a boy walked with a priest and one of his nearest relatives who carried an olive branch, bearing laurel flowers and bronze balls.

Another girl who escaped the god was Marpessa, whom the hero Idas wanted to marry. When Apollo took the girl, Idas, undaunted by the god, pursued the fleeing god and his betrothed. Zeus prevented the two rivals from fighting and asked the girl to choose between them. She chose Idas.

In Troy, he gave the gift of prophecy to Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, in the hope he could win her favour. When Cassandra rejected him, Apollo made her gift to foresee always true, but no one would take heed of her prophecy.

Apollo wasn't only attracted to maidens. He was also a lover of a Spartan youth named Hyacinthus, son of Amyclas and Diomede. Apollo accidentally killed him with a miscast discus. The flower Hyacinth grew where his blood fell. Each year, the festival Hyacinthia was held in honour of both Hyacinthus and Apollo at Amyclas.

Ida was not the only time a mortal hero confronted Apollo,and still lived. Diomedes was divinely inspired by Athena when he wounded Aeneas, and then Aphrodite and later Ares. When Diomedes tried to finish Aeneas off, Apollo had to rescue the fallen Trojan hero. Diomedes wasn't discouraged by the god's presence. Three times he tried to deliver a death blow, and three times Apollo had to shield Aeneas. Diomedes only retreated when Apollo rebuffed him with his shield, and gave him a warning.

When Heracles asked the oracle at Delphi for a cure for his skin disease, the prophetess refused to answer, so the hero seized the tripod and told the prophetess and priestesses that he would set up his own oracle. Apollo would have confronted and perhaps fought the hero but Zeus intervened, separating his two sons with a thunderbolt. Heracles didn't want to fight Apollo, he only wanted a cure. On the other side Apollo admired the hero's boldness and conceded to order the prophetess to deliver the oracle to Heracles.

When Heracles took part in the Olympic Games and won all the events, each of the powerful gods awarded the hero a gift. Apollo gave a bow to Heracles, but the hero preferred to use his own bow that he had made.

In one myth, the Olympic Games were actually first established in Olympus by Zeus. When Apollo took part in such events, he defeated Hermes in a footrace and Ares in boxing.

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Apollo was introduced to Rome from the Greek cities in central and southern Italy, as well as from the Etruscans, where he was known as Apulu. Apollo probably started out as the god of healing, but as time passed he inherited many of the attributes of the Greek god, such as the god of oracles and prophecy, of light and music. Apollo appeared in many myths that were probably derived from Greek sources. His temple in Rome was first erected in 432 BC.

Apollo had many epithets: Acersecomes (unshorn) Acesius (healer), Cynthius, Delius, Loxias, Lycius (wolf-god), Moiragetes (guide of the moirae), Musagetes (patron of the muses), Paean (healing-god), Phoebus (shining), Smintheus (mouse-god).

His sacred places of worship were Delphi, Delos and Tenedos. His sacred tree was the laurel, while his sacred animals were the wolf, raven, swan, hawk, snake, mouse and grasshopper.