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LETOKAISEMEAPOLOARTEMIS



PLEASE FORGIVE MY LACK OF RYTHM IN UNDERSTANDING



Leto
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For other uses, see Leto (disambiguation).
Leto
The Rape of Leto by Tityos ca. 515 BC. From Vulci. Leto is third from left.
The Rape of Leto by Tityos ca. 515 BC. From Vulci. Leto is third from left.
Abode Delos
Consort Zeus
Parents Coeus and Phoebe
Siblings Asteria
Children Apollo and Artemis
Roman equivalent Letona

In Greek mythology, Leto (Greek: ; , Lat in Dorian Greek, etymology and meaning disputed) is a daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe.[1] The island of Kos is claimed as her birthplace.[2] In the Olympian scheme, Zeus is the father of her twins,[3] Apollo and Artemis, the Letoides, which Leto conceived after her hidden beauty accidentally caught the eyes of Zeus. For the classical Greeks, Leto is scarcely to be conceived apart from being pregnant and finding a place to be delivered of Apollo and Artemis, for Hera being jealous, made it so all lands shunned her. Finally, she finds an island that isn't attached to the ocean floor so it isn't considered land and she can give birth.[4] This is her one active mythic role: once Apollo and Artemis are grown, Leto withdraws, to remain a dim[5] and benevolent matronly figure upon Olympus, her part already played. In Roman mythology, Leto's equivalent is Latona, a Latinization of her name, influenced by Etruscan Letun.[6]

In Crete, at the city of Dreros, Spyridon Marinatos uncovered an eighth-century post-Minoan hearth house temple in which there were found three unique figures of Apollo, Artemis and Leto made of brass sheeting hammered over a shaped core (sphyrelata).[7] Walter Burkert notes[8] that in Phaistos she appears in connection with an initiation cult.

Leto was identified from the fourth century onwards with the principal local mother goddess of Anatolian Lycia, as the region became Hellenized.[9] In Greek inscriptions, the Letoides are referred to as the "national gods" of the country.[10] Her sanctuary, the Letoon near Xanthos predated Hellenic influence in the region, however,[11] and united the Lycian confederacy of city-states. The Hellenes of Kos also claimed Leto as their own. Another sanctuary, more recently identified, was at Oenoanda in the north of Lycia.[12] There was, of course, a further Letoon at Delos.

A measure of what a primal goddess Leto was can be recognized in her father and mother. Her Titan father is called "Coeus," and his obscure name[13] links him to the sphere of heaven from pole to pole.[14] Leto's mother "Phoebe" is precisely the "bright, purifying" epithet of the full moon.[15]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Etymology
* 2 Birth of Artemis and Apollo
* 3 Witnesses at the birth of Apollo
* 4 Chthonic assailants
* 5 The Lycian Letoon
* 6 Leto in Crete
* 7 Leto of the golden spindle
* 8 The Lycian peasants
* 9 Niobe
* 10 Notes
* 11 External links

[edit] Etymology
Greek deities
series
Primordial deities
Titans and Olympians
Aquatic deities
Chthonic deities
Personified concepts
Other deities

* Anemoi
* Asclepius
* Iris
* Leto



* Muses
* Nymphes
* Pan
* Psyche

Several explanations have been put forward to explain the origin of the goddess and the meaning of her name. Possibly related to "lethe" (; oblivion) and "Lotus" (the fruit that brings oblivion to those who eat it). It would thus mean "the hidden one".[16] It is most likely to have a Lycian origin, as her earliest cult was centered there. Leto may have the same Lycian origin as "Leda", meaning "woman/wife" in the ancient Lycian language.
[edit] Birth of Artemis and Apollo

When Hera, the most conservative of goddesses for she had the most to lose in changes to the order of nature [17] discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the father, she realized that the offspring would cement the new order. She was powerless to stop the flow of events. "Latona for her intrigue with Zeus was hunted by Hera over the whole earth, till she came to Delos and brought forth first Artemis, by the help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave birth to Apollo."[18] Hera banned Leto from giving birth on "terra firma", the mainland, any island at sea, or any place under the sun.[19] Antoninus Liberalis is not alone in hinting that Leto came down from the land of the Hyperboreans in the guise of a she-wolf, or that she sought out the "wolf-country" of Lycia, formerly called Tremilis, which she renamed to honour wolves that had befriended her[20] for her denning. Another late source, Aelian, also links Leto with wolves and Hyperboreans:

Wolves are not easily delivered of their young, only after twelve days and twelve nights, for the people of Delos maintain that this was the length of time that it took Leto to travel from the Hyperboreoi to Delos."[21]

Most accounts agree that she found the barren floating island of Delos, still bearing its archaic name of Asterios, which was neither mainland nor a real island, and gave birth there, promising the island wealth from the worshippers who would flock to the obscure birthplace of the splendid god who was to come. The island was surrounded by swans. As a gesture of gratitude, Delos was secured with four pillars and later became sacred to Apollo.

It is remarkable that Leto brought forth Artemis, the elder twin, without travail, as Callimachus wrote,[22] as if she were merely revealing another manifestation of herself. By contrast, Leto labored for nine nights and nine days for Apollo, according to the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, in the presence of all the first among the deathless goddesses as witnesses: Dione, Rhea, Ichnaea, Themis and the "loud-moaning" sea-goddess Amphitrite. Only Hera kept apart, perhaps to kidnap Eileithyia or Ilithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. Instead Artemis, having been born first, assisted with the birth of Apollo. Another version, in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo and in an Orphic hymn, states that Artemis was born before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia, and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth there to Apollo.
[edit] Witnesses at the birth of Apollo

According to the Homeric hymn, the goddesses who assembled to be witnesses at the birth of Apollo were responding to a public occasion in the rites of a dynasty, where the authenticity of the child must be established beyond doubt from the first moment. The dynastic rite of the witnessed birth must have been familiar to the hymn's hearers.[23] The dynasty that is so concerned to be authenticated in this myth is the new dynasty of Zeus and the Olympian Pantheon, and the goddesses at Delos who bear witness to the rightness of the birth are the great goddesses of the old order. Demeter is not present; her mother Rhea attends. Aphrodite, a generation older than Zeus, is not present either. The goddess Dione (in her name simply the "Goddess") is sometimes taken by later mythographers as a mere feminine form of Zeus (see entry Dodona): if this were so, she would not have assembled here.
[edit] Chthonic assailants

Leto was threatened and assailed in her wanderings by chthonic monsters of the ancient earth and old ways, and these became the enemies of Apollo and Artemis. One was the giant Tityos, a phallic being who grew so vast that he split his mother's womb and had to be carried to term by Gaia herself. He attempted to rape Leto near Delphi under the orders of Hera, but was laid low by the arrows of Apollo and/or Artemis, as Pindar recalled in a Pythian ode.

Another ancient earth creature that had to be overcome was the dragon Pytho, or Python, which lived in a cleft of the mother-rock beneath Delphi and beside the Castalian Spring. Apollo slew it but had to do penance and be cleansed afterwards, since though Python was a child of Gaia, it was necessary that the ancient Delphic Oracle pass to the protection of the new god.
[edit] The Lycian Letoon

Leto was intensely worshipped in Lycia, Asia Minor.[24] In Delos and Athens she was worshipped primarily as an adjunct to her children. Herodotus reported[25] a temple to her in Egypt supposedly attached to a floating island[26] called "Khemmis" in Buto, which also included a temple to an Egyptian god Greeks identified by interpretatio graeca as Apollo. There, Herodotus was given to understand, the goddess whom Greeks recognised as Leto was worshipped in the form of Wadjet, the cobra-headed goddess of Lower Egypt.
[edit] Leto in Crete

Leto was also worshipped in Crete, whether one of "certain Cretan goddesses, or Greek goddesses in their Cretan form, influenced by the Minoan goddess".[27] Veneration of a local Leto is attested at Phaistos[28] (where it is purported that she gave birth to Apollo and Artemis at the islands known today as the Paximadia (also known as Letoai in ancient Crete) and at Lato, which bore her name.[29] As Leto Phytia she was a mother-deity.
[edit] Leto of the golden spindle

Pindar calls the goddess Leto Chryselakatos (Sixth Nemean Ode, 36), an epithet that was attached to her daughter Artemis as early as Homer.[30] "The conception of a goddess enthroned like a queen and equipped with a spindle seems to have originated in Asiatic worship of the Great Mother", O. Brendel notes, but a lucky survival of an inscribed inventory of her temple on Delos, where she was the central figures of the Delian trinity, records her cult image as sitting on a wooden throne, clothed in a linen chiton and a linen himation.[31]
[edit] The Lycian peasants
Latona and the Lycian Peasants, ca. 1605, by Jan Brueghel the Elder.

Leto's introduction into Lycia was met with resistance; there, according to Ovid's Metamorphoses,[32] when Leto was wandering the earth after giving birth to Apollo and Artemis, she attempted to drink water from a pond in Lycia.[33] The peasants there refused to allow her to do so by stirring the mud at the bottom of the pond. Leto turned them into frogs for their inhospitality, forever doomed to swim in the murky waters of ponds and rivers.

This scene is represented in the central fountain, the Bassin de Latone, in the garden terrace of Versailles.
[edit] Niobe

Niobe, a queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven sons and seven daughters, while Leto had only two. For her hubris, Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, with the last begging for his life, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Zeus after swearing revenge. A devastated Niobe fled to Mount Sipylus in Asia Minor and either turned to stone as she wept or killed herself. Her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.

The Niobe narrative appears in Ovid's Metamorphoses, (Book VI) where Latona (Leto) has demanded the women of Thebes to go to her temple and burn incense. Niobe, queen of Thebes, enters in the midst of the worship and insults the goddess, claiming that having beauty, better parentage and more children than Latona, she is more fit to be worshipped than the goddess. To punish this insolence, Latona begs Apollo and Artemis to avenge her against Niobe and to uphold her honor. Obedient to their mother, the twins slay Niobe's seven sons and seven daughters, leaving her childless, and her husband Amphion kills himself. Niobe is unable to move from grief and seemingly turns to marble, though she continues to weep, and her body is transported to a high mountain peak in her native land.
[edit] Notes

1. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 403.
2. ^ Herodotus 2.98; Diodorus Siculus2.47.2.
3. ^ Pindar consistently refers to Apollo and Artemis as twins; other sources instead give separate birthplaces for the siblings.
4. ^ Karl Kerenyi notes, The Gods of the Greeks 1951:130, "His twin sister is usually already on the scene."
5. ^ Hesiod, Theogony 406; "dark-veiled Leto" (Orphic Hymn 35, To Leto
6. ^ Letun noted is passing in Larissa Bonfante and Judith Swaddling, Etruscan Myths (series: The Legendary Past) (British Museum/University of Texas Press) 2006, p. 72.
7. ^ Marinatos' publications on Dreros are listed by Burkert 1985, sect. I.4 note 16 (p.365); John Boardman, Annual of the British School at Athens 62 (1967) p. 61; Theodora Hadzisteliou Price, "Double and Multiple Representations in Greek Art and Religious Thought" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 91 (1971:pp. 48-69), plate III.5a-b.
8. ^ Burkert, Greek Religion 1985.
9. ^ The process is discussed by T. R. Bryce, "The Arrival of the Goddess Leto in Lycia", Historia: Zeitschrift fr Alte Geschichte, 321 (1983:1-13).
10. ^ Bryce 1983:1 and note 2.
11. ^ Bryce 1983, summarizing the archaeology of the Letoon.
12. ^ Alan Hall, "A Sanctuary of Leto at Oenoanda" Anatolian Studies 27 (1977) pp 193-197.
13. ^ Herbert Jennings Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology (1991:21) found his name and nature uncertain.
14. ^ In the surviving summary of the preface to Hyginus, Koios is translated literally, as Polus: "From Polus and Phoebe: Latone, Asterie."
15. ^ (Phoibe), "bright, pure"; Rose 1991:21 noted that an explicit connection with the moon was only made by later writers, which would have left a sun-Titan but no moon-Titan.
16. ^ W, Smith, ed. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology 1873, at Theoi.com
17. ^ See Hera.
18. ^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 1.4.1; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses, 35, giving as his sources Menecrates of Xanthos (4th century BCE) and Nicander of Colophon; Ovid, Metamorphoses vi.317-81 provides another late literary source.
19. ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 140).
20. ^ Antoninus Liberalis' etiological myth reflects Greek misunderstanding of a Greek origin for the place-name Lycia; modern scholars now suggest a source in the "Lukka lands" of Hittite inscriptions (Bryce 1983:5).
21. ^ Aelian, On the Nature of Animals 4. 4 (A.F. Scholfield, tr.).
22. ^ Artemis speaks: "my mother suffered no pain either when she gave me birth or when she carried me in her womb, but without travail put me from her body." (Callimachus, Hymn 3, to Artemis).
23. ^ Greek women, at least among Athenians, gave birth in the midst of a crowd of the women of the household.
24. ^ Appian tells of Mithridates' intention to cut down the sacred grove at the Letoon to serve in his siege of Patara on the Lycian coast; a nightmare warned him to desist. (Appian, Mithridates, 27).
25. ^ Herodotus, Histories, 2.155-56
26. ^ "The claim that it floated is rightly dismissed by Herodotus it probably reflects nothing more than contamination by Greek traditions on the floating island of Ortygia/Delos associated with Leto," remarks Alan B. Lloyd, "The temple of Leto (Wadjet) at Buto", in Anton Powell, ed. The Greek World (Routledge) 1995:190.
27. ^ D.H.F. Gray, reviewing L.R. Palmer, Mycenaeans and Minoans: Aegean Prehistory in the Light of the Linear B Tablets in The Classical Review, 13, 1963:87-91.
28. ^ "the citizens of Phaistos on Crete performed sacrices to Leto the Grafter because she had grafted male organs onto a maiden (Antoninus Liberalis 17)" notes William F. Hansen, Handbook of Classical Mythology, 2004: "Sex-changers", 285.
29. ^ Noted by R.F. Willetts, "Cretan Eileithyia', The Classical Quarterly, 1958..
30. ^ O. Brendel, Rmische Mitt. 51 (1936), p 60ff.
31. ^ O. Brendel, noting Pierre Roussel, Dlos, colonie athnienne (Paris: Boccard) 1916, p 221, in "The Corbridge Lanx" The Journal of Roman Studies 31 (1941), pp. 100-127) p 113ff; the article is a discussion of the seated female figure he identifies as Leto on the Roman silver tray (lanx) at Alnwick Castle.
32. ^ Ovid, Metamorphoses, vi.317-81; Antoninus Liberalis also relates a version of this myth.
33. ^ The spring Melite, according to Kerenyi 1951:131.



[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Leto

* Theoi.com, Leto




Apollo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the Greek and Roman god. For other uses, see Apollo (disambiguation) and Phoebus (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Phobos (mythology).
Apollo
Piraeus Apollo.Archaic-type bronze (530-520 BC), one of the very few surviving. Archaeological Museum of Piraeus (Athens).
Piraeus Apollo.Archaic-type bronze (530-520 BC), one of the very few surviving. Archaeological Museum of Piraeus (Athens).
God of music, poetry, plague, oracles, sun, medicine, light and knowledge
Abode Mount Olympus
Symbol Lyre, laurel wreath, python, raven, bow and arrows
Parents Zeus and Leto
Siblings Artemis
Children Asclepius, Troilus, Aristaeus, Orpheus
Roman equivalent Apollo

Ancient Greek religion
CireneTempioZeus1999.jpg
Features[show]

* Hubris Reciprocity Virtue

Doctrines[show]

* Mythology Orthopraxy Polytheism

Practices[show]

* Amphidromia Animal sacrifice Iatromantis Pharmakos Temples Votive Offerings

Deities[show]

* Twelve Olympians:
Aphrodite Apollo Ares Artemis Athena Demeter Dionysus Hades Hephaestus Hera Hermes Hestia Poseidon Zeus
---
Primordial deities:
Aether Chaos Cronus Erebus Gaia Hemera Nyx Tartarus Uranus
---
Lesser gods:
Eros Hebe Hecate Helios Herakles Iris Nike Pan Selene

Texts[show]

* Argonautica Bibliotheca Iliad Odyssey Theogony Works and Days

See also[show]

* Decline of Hellenistic polytheism Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes

v d e

Ancient Roman religion

Marcus Aurelius sacrificing Marcus Aurelius (head covered)
sacrificing at the Temple of Jupiter
Practices and beliefs

Imperial cult festivals ludi
mystery religions funerals
temples auspice sacrifice
votum libation lectisternium
Priesthoods

College of Pontiffs Augur
Vestal Virgins Flamen Fetial
Epulones Arval Brethren
Quindecimviri sacris faciundis
Dii Consentes

Jupiter Juno Neptune Minerva
Mars Venus Apollo Diana
Vulcan Vesta Mercury Ceres
Other deities

Janus Quirinus Saturn
Hercules Faunus Priapus
Liber Bona Dea Ops
Chthonic deities: Proserpina
Dis Pater Orcus Di Manes
Domestic and local deities:
Lares Di Penates Genius
Hellenistic deities: Sol Invictus Magna Mater Isis Mithras
Deified emperors:
Divus Julius Divus Augustus
See also List of Roman deities
Related topics

Roman mythology
Glossary of ancient Roman religion
Religion in ancient Greece
Etruscan religion
Gallo-Roman religion
Decline of Hellenistic polytheism
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Apollo (Attic, Ionic, and Homeric Greek: , Apolln (gen.: ); Doric: , Apelln; Arcadocypriot: , Apeiln; Aeolic: , Aploun; Latin: Apoll) is one of the most important and diverse of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, medicine, healing, plague, music, poetry, arts, archery, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both ancient Greek and Roman religion, and in the modern GrecoRoman Neopaganism.

As the patron of Delphi (Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an oracular godthe prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the god's custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musegetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans.

In Hellenistic times, especially during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios, Titan god of the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene, Titan goddess of the moon.[1] In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the 1st century, not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII (161215).[2] Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Etymology
o 1.1 Greco-Roman epithets
o 1.2 Celtic epithets and cult titles
* 2 Origins
o 2.1 Healer god-Protector from evil
o 2.2 Dorian origin
o 2.3 Minoan origin
o 2.4 Anatolian origin
* 3 Oracular cult
o 3.1 Oracular shrines
* 4 Mythology
o 4.1 Birth
o 4.2 Youth
o 4.3 Trojan War
o 4.4 Admetus
o 4.5 Niobe
o 4.6 Consorts and children
+ 4.6.1 Female lovers
+ 4.6.2 Male lovers
o 4.7 Apollo's lyre
o 4.8 Apollo in the Oresteia
o 4.9 Other stories
+ 4.9.1 Musical contests
# 4.9.1.1 Pan
# 4.9.1.2 Marsyas
# 4.9.1.3 Cinyras
o 4.10 Roman Apollo
* 5 Festivals
* 6 Attributes and symbols
* 7 Apollo in the arts
* 8 Modern reception
* 9 Consorts and children
o 9.1 Male lovers
* 10 See also
* 11 Notes
* 12 References
o 12.1 Primary sources
o 12.2 Secondary sources
* 13 External links

[edit] Etymology

The etymology of Apollo is uncertain. The spelling had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era, but the Doric form is more archaic, derived from an earlier *j. The name is certainly cognate with the Doric month name and the Doric festival .[3]

Several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated Apollo's name with the Greek verb (apollymi), "to destroy".[4] Plato in Cratylus connects the name with (apolysis), "redeem", with (apolousis), "purification", and with (aploun), "simple",[5] in particular in reference to the Thessalian form of the name, , and finally with - (aeiballon), "ever-shooting". Hesychius connects the name Apollo with the Doric (apella), which means "assembly", so that Apollo would be the god of political life, and he also gives the explanation (sekos), "fold", in which case Apollo would be the god of flocks and herds.

Following the tradition of these Ancient Greek folk etymologies, in the Doric dialect the word originally meant wall, fence from animals and later assembly within the agora. In the Ancient Macedonian language (pella) means stone, and some toponyms are derived from this word: (Pella:capital of Ancient Macedonia), (Pellini-Pallini).

A number of non-Greek etymologies have been suggested for the name,[6] The form Apaliunas (x-ap-pa-li-u-na-a) is attested as a god of Wilusa[7] in a treaty between Alaksandu of Wilusa and the Hittite great king Muwatalli II ca 1280 BCE.Alaksandu could be Paris-Alexander of Ilion",[8] whose name is Greek.[9] The Hittite testimony reflects an early form *Apeljn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot with Doric .[10] A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo "The One of Entrapment", perhaps in the sense of "Hunter".[11]

Among the proposed etymologies is the Hurrian and Hittite divinity, Aplu, who was widely invoked during the "plague years". Aplu, it is suggested, comes from the Akkadian Aplu Enlil, meaning "the son of Enlil", a title that was given to the god Nergal, who was linked to Shamash, Babylonian god of the sun.[12]
[edit] Greco-Roman epithets
A statue of Apollo Lykeios type,with Python.Roman copy of a Greek original.Louvre

Apollo, like other Greek deities, had a number of epithets applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature, chief among them Phoebus (play /fibs/ fee-bs; , Phoibos, literally "radiant"), which was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans in Apollo's role as the god of light.

As sun-god and god of light, Apollo was also known by the epithets Aegletes (/litiz/ -glee-teez; , Aiglts, from , "light of the sun"),[13] Helius (/hilis/ hee-lee-s; , Helios, literally "sun"),[14] Phanaeus (/fnis/ f-nee-s; , Phanaios, literally "giving or bringing light"), and Lyceus (/lasis/ ly-see-s; , Lukeios, from Proto-Greek *, "light"). The meaning of the epithet "Lyceus" later became associated Apollo's mother Leto, who was the patron goddes of Lycia () and who was identified with the wolf (),[15] earning him the epithets Lycegenes (/lasdniz/ ly-sej--neez; , Lukgens, literally "born of a wolf" or "born of Lycia") and Lycoctonus (/lakktns/ ly-kok-t-ns; , Lukoktonos, from , "wolf", and , "to kill"). As god of the sun, the Romans referred to Apollo as Sol (/sl/ sol; literally "sun" in Latin).

In association with his birthplace, Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos, Apollo was called Cynthius (/snis/ sin-thee-s; , Kunthios, literally "Cynthian"), Cynthogenes (/sndniz/ sin-thoj-i-neez; , Kunthogens, literally "born of Cynthus"), and Delius (/dilis/ dee-lee-s; , Delios, literally "Delian"). As Artemis's twin, Apollo had the epithet Didymaeus (/ddmis/ did-i-mee-s; , Didumaios, from , "twin").
Partial view of the temple of Apollo Epikurios (healer) at Bassae in southern Greece

Apollo was worshipped as Actiacus (/kta.ks/ ak-ty--ks; , Aktiakos, literally "Actian"), Delphinius (/dlfnis/ del-fin-ee-s; , Delphinios, literally "Delphic"), and Pythius (/pis/ pith-ee-s; , Puthios, from , Pth, the area around Delphi), after Actium () and Delphi () respectively, two of his principal places of worship.[16][17] An etiology in the Homeric hymns associated the epithet "Delphinius" with dolphins. He was worshipped as Acraephius (/krifis/ -kree-fee-s; , Akraiphios, literally "Acraephian") or Acraephiaeus (/krifiis/ -kree-fee-ee-s; , Akraiphiaios, literally "Acraephian") in the Boeotian town of Acraephia (), reputedly founded by his son Acraepheus; and as Smintheus (/smnjus/ smin-thews; , Smintheus, "Sminthian"that is, "of the town of Sminthos or Sminthe")[18] near the Troad town of Hamaxitus. The epithet "Smintheus" has historically been confused with , "mouse", in association with Apollo's role as a god of disease. For this he was also known as Parnopius (/prnopis/ par-noh-pee-s; , Parnopios, from , "locust") and to the Romans as Culicarius (/kjulkris/ kew-li-karr-ee-s; from Latin culicrius, "of midges").
Temple of the Delians at Delos,dedicated to Apollo (478 BC).19th century pen-and-wash restoration
Temple of Apollo Smintheus at anakkale,Turkey

In Apollo's role as a healer, his appellations included Acesius (/sis/ -see-zhs; , Akesios, from , "healing"), Acestor (/sstr/ -ses-tr; , Akestr, literally "healer"), Paean (/pin/ pee-n; , Pain, from , "to touch"), and Iatrus (/atrs/ eye-at-rs; , Itros, literally "physician").[19] Acesius was the epithet of Apollo worshipped in Elis, where he had a temple in the agora.[20] The Romans referred to Apollo as Medicus (/mdks/ med-i-ks; literally "physician" in Latin) in this respect. A temple was dedicated to Apollo Medicus at Rome, probably next to the temple of Bellona.

As a protector and founder, Apollo had the epithets Alexicacus (/lkskeks/ -lek-si-kay-ks; , Alexikakos, literally "warding off evil"), Apotropaeus (/ptrpis/ -pot-r-pee-s; , Apotropaios, from , "to avert"), and Epicurius (/pkjris/ ep-i-kewr-ee-s; , Epikourios, from , "to aid"),[14] and Archegetes (/rkdtiz/ ar-kej--teez; , Arkhgets, literally "founder"), Clarius (/klris/ klarr-ee-s; , Klrios, from Doric , "allotted lot"), and Genetor (/dntr/ jen-i-tr; , Genetr, literally "ancestor").[14] To the Romans, he was known in this capacity as Averruncus (/vrks/ av-r-rung-ks; from Latin verruncare, "to avert"). He was also called Agyieus (/da.jus/ -JY-i-ews; , Agueus, from , "street") for his role in protecting roads and homes; and as Nomius (/nomis/ noh-mee-s; , Nomios, literally "pastoral") and Nymphegetes (/nmfdtiz/ nim-fej-i-teez; , Numphgets, from , "Nymph", and , "leader") in his role as a protector of shepherds and pastoral life.
Apollo Belvedere (Pythian Apollo).Roman copy of a Greek bronze-original ca.350BC,by Leochares.Vatican Museum

In his role as god of prophecy and truth, Apollo had the epithets Manticus (/mntks/ man-ti-ks; , Mantikos, literally "prophetic"), Leschenorius (/lsknris/ les-ki-nohr-ee-s; , Leskhnorios, from , "converser"), and Loxias (/lksis/ lok-see-s; , Loxias, from , "to say").[14] The epithet "Loxias" has historically been associated with , "ambiguous". In this respect, the Romans called him Coelispex (/slspks/ sel-i-speks; from Latin coelum, "sky", and specere, "to look at"). The epithet Iatromantis (/atrmnts/ eye-at-r-man-tis; , Itromantis, from , "physician", and , "prophet") refers to both his role as a god of healing and of prophecy. As god of music and arts, Apollo had the epithet Musagetes (/mjusdtiz/ mew-saj-i-teez; Doric , Mousgets)[21] or Musegetes (/mjusdtiz/ mew-sej-i-teez; , Mousgets, from , "Muse", and , "leader").

As a god of archery, Apollo was known as Aphetor (/fitr/ -fee-tr; , Aphtr, from , "to let loose") or Aphetorus (/ftrs/ -fet-r-s; , Aphtoros, of the same origin), Argyrotoxus (/rdrtkss/ ar-ji-r-tok-ss; , Argurotoxos, literally "with silver bow"), Hecargus (/hkirs/ hek-ee-ur-gs; , Hekaergos, literally "far-shooting"), and Hecebolus (/hsbls/ hi-seb--ls; , Hekbolos, literally "far-shooting"). The Romans referred to Apollo as Articenens (/rtsnnz/ ar-tiss-i-nnz; "bow-carrying"). Apollo was called Ismenius (/zminis/ iz-mee-nee-s; , Ismnios, literally "of Ismenus") after Ismenus, the son of Amphion and Niobe, whom he struck with an arrow.
[edit] Celtic epithets and cult titles

Apollo was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire. In the traditionally Celtic lands he was most often seen as a healing and sun god. He was often equated with Celtic gods of similar character.[22]

* Apollo Atepomarus ("the great horseman" or "possessing a great horse"). Apollo was worshipped at Mauvires (Indre). Horses were, in the Celtic world, closely linked to the sun.[23]

* Apollo Belenus ('bright' or 'brilliant'). This epithet was given to Apollo in parts of Gaul, Northern Italy and Noricum (part of modern Austria). Apollo Belenus was a healing and sun god.[24]

* Apollo Cunomaglus ('hound lord'). A title given to Apollo at a shrine in Wiltshire. Apollo Cunomaglus may have been a god of healing. Cunomaglus himself may originally have been an independent healing god.[25]

* Apollo Grannus. Grannus was a healing spring god, later equated with Apollo.[26][27][28]

* Apollo Maponus. A god known from inscriptions in Britain. This may be a local fusion of Apollo and Maponus.

* Apollo Moritasgus ('masses of sea water'). An epithet for Apollo at Alesia, where he was worshipped as god of healing and, possibly, of physicians.[29]

* Apollo Vindonnus ('clear light'). Apollo Vindonnus had a temple at Essarois, near Chtillon-sur-Seine in Burgundy. He was a god of healing, especially of the eyes.[27]

* Apollo Virotutis ('benefactor of mankind?'). Apollo Virotutis was worshipped, among other places, at Fins d'Annecy (Haute-Savoie) and at Jublains (Maine-et-Loire).[28][30]

[edit] Origins
The Omphalos in the Museum of Delphi

The cult centers of Apollo in Greece, Delphi and Delos, date from the 8th century BCE. The Delos sanctuary was primarily dedicated to Artemis, Apollo's twin sister. At Delphi, Apollo was venerated as the slayer of Pytho. For the Greeks, Apollo was all the Gods in one and through the centuries he acquired different functions which could originate from different gods. In archaic Greece he was the "prophet", the oracular god who in older times was connected with "healing". In classical Greece he was the god of light and of music, but in popular religion he had a strong function to keep away evil.[31]Walter Burkert[32] discerned three components in the prehistory of Apollo worship, which he termed "a Dorian-northwest Greek component, a Cretan-Minoan component, and a Syro-Hittite component."
[edit] Healer god-Protector from evil

The function of Apollo as a "healer" is connected with Paean (-) the physician of the Gods in Iliad,who seems to come from a more primitive religion.Paen is probably connected with the Mycenean Pa-ja-wo,but the etymology is the only evidence.He did not have a separate cult,but he was the personification of the holy magic-song sang by the magicians that was supposed to cure the diseases.Later the Greeks knew the original meaning of the relevant song "paen" ().The magicians were also called "seer-doctors" () and they used an exstatic prophetic art which was used exactly by the god Apollo at the oracles.[33] In Ilias Apollo is the healer under the gods,but he is also the bringer of the diseases and of death with his arrows,in a similar way with the function of the Vedic terrible god of diseases Rudra.[34] He sends a terrible plague () to the Achaeans.The god who sends a disease can also prevent from it, therefore when it stops they make a purifying ceremony and they offer him an "hecatomb" to keep away the evil. When the oath of his priest appeases, they pray and with a song they call their own god,the beautiful Paean.[35] Some common epithets of Apollo as a healer are "paion"(:touching), "epikourios" (:help), "oulios" (:cured wound) and "loimios" (i:plague). In classical times his srong function in popular religion was to keep away the evil, therefore he was called "apotropaios" (:to divert) and "alexikakos" (-:defend,throw away the evil)[36] In later writers, the word, usually spelled "Paean", becomes a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a god of healing,[37]

Homer illustrated Paeon the god, and the song both of apotropaic thanksgiving or triumph.[38][citation needed] Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo, and afterwards to other gods: to Dionysus, to Apollo Helios, to Apollo's son Asclepius the healer. About the 4th century BCE, the paean became merely a formula of adulation; its object was either to implore protection against disease and misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered. It was in this way that Apollo had become recognised as the god of music. Apollo's role as the slayer of the Python led to his association with battle and victory; hence it became the Roman custom for a paean to be sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won
[edit] Dorian origin

The connection with Dorians and their initiation festival apellai is reinforced by the month Apellaios in northwest Greek calendars,[39] but it can explain only the Doric type of the name, which is connected with the Ancient Macedonian word "pella" (Pella), stone. The stones played an important part in the cult of the god,especially in the oracular shrine of Delphi (Omphalos).[40][41] The "Homeric hymn" represents Apollo as a Northern intruder. His arrival must have occurred during the "dark ages" that followed the destruction of the Mycenaean civilization and his conflict with Gaia (mother earth) was represented under the legend of his slaying of her daughter, the serpent Python.[42]

The earth deity had power over the ghostly world and it is believed that she was the deity behind the oracle.[43] The older tales mentioned two dragons who were perhaps intentionally conflated. A female dragon named Delphyne (:womb) who is obviously connected with Delphi and Apollo Delphinios and a male serpent Typhon (:smoke), the adversary of Zeus in the Titanomachy, who the narrators confused with Python.[44][45] Python was the good daemon ( ) of the temple as it appears in Minoan religion,[46] but she was represented as a dragon as it often happens in Northern European folklore and also in the East.[47]
[edit] Minoan origin
An ornamented golden Minoan labrys

It seems that an oracular cult existed in Delphi from the Mycenaean ages.[48] In historical times the priests of Delphi were called Labryaden,"the double axe-men" which indicates Minoan origin.The double-axe (:labrys) was the holy symbol of the Cretan labyrinth[49][50] and it was probably the symbol of the beginning of the creation (Mater-Arche).[51] In the Homeric hymn is added that Apollo appeared as a dolphin and carried Cretan priests in Delphi,where they evidently transferred they religious practices.Apollo Delphinios was a sea-god especially worshipped in Crete and in the islands and his name indicates his connection with Delphi[52] and the holy serpent Delphyne (womb).

The old oracles in Delphi seem to be connected with a local tradition of the priesthood and there is not clear evidence that a kind of inspiration -prophecy existed in the temple.This led some scholars to the conclusion that Pythia carried on the rituals in a constant procedure through many centuries,according to the local tradition.In that regard the mythical seeress Sibyl of Anatolian origin with her exstatic art,looks unrelated with the oracle itself.[53] However the Greek tradition is referring to the existence of vapours and chewing of laurel-leaves which seem to be confirmed by recent studies.[54] Plato describes the priestesses of Delphi and Dodona like frenzied-women,obsessed by "mania" (:frenzy),a Greek word connected with "mantis" (:prophet).Frenzied women like Sibyls from whose lips the god speaks are recorded in the Near-East as Mari in the second milemnium BC.[55] Although Crete had contacts with Mari from 2000 BC,[56] there is not any evidence that the exstatic prophetic-art existed during the Minoan and Mycenean ages.It is more possible that this art was introduced later from Anatolia and regenerated an existing oracular-cult which was local in Delphi and dormant in several areas of Greece.[57]
[edit] Anatolian origin
Illustration of a coin of Apollo Agyieus from Ambracia

A non-Greek origin of the name of Apollo has long been assumed in scholarship.[3] Homer pictures Apollo on the side of the Trojans, fighting against the Achaeans, during the Trojan War. He is pictured like a terrible god who the Greeks don't trust like the other gods.The god seems to be related with Appaliunas a tutelary god of Wilusa,but the word is not complete.[58] The stones which were found in front of the gates of Homeric Troy were the symbols of Apollo.The Greeks gave to him the name agyieus as the protector god of public places and houses who wards off evil and his symbol was a tapered stone or column.[59] However while usually the Greek fests were celebrated at full-moon,all the fests of Apollo were celebrated at the seventh day and the emphasis given to that day of the month (sibutu),indicates Babylonian origin.[60]

The Late Bronze Age (from 17001200 BCE) Hittite and Hurrian Aplu, was a god of plagues,who was invoked during the plague years.Here we have an apotropaic situation, where a god originally bringing the plague was invoked to end it.Aplu (the son of) was a title given to the god Nergal who was linked to the Babylonian god of the sun Shamash.[12] Homer interprets Apollo as a terrible god ( ) who brings death and diseases with his arrows,but who can also heal,possessing a magic art which separates him from the other Greek gods.[61] In Ilias his priest is praying to Apollo Smintheus,[62] the mouse-god who keeps an older agricultural function as the protector from the field-rats.[63][64] All these functions including the function of the healer-god Paean who seems to have Mycenean origin, are fused in the cult of Apollo.
[edit] Oracular cult
Columns of the temple of Apollo at Delphi,Greece

Unusually among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that had widespread influence: Delos and Delphi. In cult practice, Delian Apollo and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that they might both have shrines in the same locality.[65] Apollo's cult was already fully established when written sources commenced, about 650 BCE. Apollo became extremely important to the Greek world as an oracular deity in the archaic period, and the frequency of theophoric names such as Apollodorus or Apollonios and cities named Apollonia testify to his popularity. Oracular sanctuaries to Apollo were established in other sites. In the 2nd and 3rd century CE, those at Didyma and Clarus pronounced the so-called "theological oracles", in which Apollo confirms that all deities are aspects or servants of an all-encompassing, highest deity. "In the 3rd century, Apollo fell silent. Julian the Apostate (359 - 61) tried to revive the Delphic oracle, but failed."[3]
[edit] Oracular shrines
Delo's lions

Apollo had a famous oracle in Delphi, and other notable ones in Clarus and Branchidae. His oracular shrine in Abae in Phocis, where he bore the toponymic epithet Abaeus ( , Apollon Abaios) was important enough to be consulted by Croesus (Herodotus, 1.46). His oracular shrines include:

* Abae in Phocis
* Bassae in the Peloponnese
* At Clarus, on the west coast of Asia Minor; as at Delphi a holy spring which gave off a pneuma, from which the priests drank.
* In Corinth, the Oracle of Corinth came from the town of Tenea, from prisoners supposedly taken in the Trojan War.
* At Khyrse, in Troad, the temple was built for Apollon Smintheus
* In Delos, there was an oracle to the Delian Apollo, during summer. The Hieron (Sanctuary) of Apollo adjacent to the Sacred Lake, was the place where the god was said to have been born.
* In Delphi, the Pythia became filled with the pneuma of Apollo, said to come from a spring inside the Adyton.
* In Didyma, an oracle on the coast of Anatolia, south west of Lydian (Luwian) Sardis, in which priests from the lineage of the Branchidae received inspiration by drinking from a healing spring located in the temple. Was believed to have been founded by Branchus, son or lover of Apollo.
* In Hierapolis Bambyce, Syria (modern Manbij), according to the treatise De Dea Syria, the sanctuary of the Syrian Goddess contained a robed and bearded image of Apollo. Divination was based on spontaneous movements of this image.[66]
* At Patara, in Lycia, there was a seasonal winter oracle of Apollo, said to have been the place where the god went from Delos. As at Delphi the oracle at Patara was a woman.
* In Segesta in Sicily

Oracles were also given by sons of Apollo.

* In Oropus, north of Athens, the oracle Amphiaraus, was said to be the son of Apollo; Oropus also had a sacred spring.
* in Labadea, 20 miles (32 km) east of Delphi, Trophonius, another son of Apollo, killed his brother and fled to the cave where he was also afterwards consulted as an oracle

[edit] Mythology
[edit] Birth
Apollo (left) and Artemis.Brygos (potter signed),Tondo of an Attic red-figure cup ca.470 BC, Louvre

When Zeus' wife Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that he was the father, she banned Leto from giving birth on "terra firma". In her wanderings, Leto found the newly created floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real island, so she gave birth there, where she was accepted by the people, offering them her promise that her son will be always favourable toward the city. Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. This island later became sacred to Apollo.

It is also stated that Hera kidnapped Ilithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods tricked Hera into letting her go by offering her a necklace, nine yards (8 m) long, of amber. Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo, or that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo. Apollo was born on the seventh day ()[67] of the month Thargelion according to Delian traditionor of the month Bysiosaccording to Delphian tradition. The seventh and twentieth, the days of the new and full moon, were ever afterwards held sacred to him.
[edit] Youth

Four days after his birth, Apollo killed the chthonic dragon Python, which lived in Delphi beside the Castalian Spring. This was the spring which emitted vapors that caused the oracle at Delphi to give her prophecies. Hera sent the serpent to hunt Leto to her death across the world. To protect his mother, Apollo begged Hephaestus for a bow and arrows. After receiving them, Apollo cornered Python in the sacred cave at Delphi.[68] Apollo killed Python but had to be punished for it, since Python was a child of Gaia.

Hera then sent the giant Tityos to kill Leto. This time Apollo was aided by his sister Artemis in protecting their mother. During the battle Zeus finally relented his aid and hurled Tityos down to Tartarus. There he was pegged to the rock floor, covering an area of 9 acres (36,000 m2), where a pair of vultures feasted daily on his liver.
[edit] Trojan War

Apollo shot arrows infected with the plague into the Greek encampment during the Trojan War in retribution for Agamemnon's insult to Chryses, a priest of Apollo whose daughter Chryseis had been captured. He demanded her return, and the Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the anger of Achilles, which is the theme of the Iliad.

In the Iliad, when Diomedes injured Aeneas, Apollo rescued him. First, Aphrodite tried to rescue Aeneas but Diomedes injured her as well. Aeneas was then enveloped in a cloud by Apollo, who took him to Pergamos, a sacred spot in Troy.

Apollo aided Paris in the killing of Achilles by guiding the arrow of his bow into Achilles' heel. One interpretation of his motive is that it was in revenge for Achilles' sacrilege in murdering Troilus, the god's own son by Hecuba, on the very altar of the god's own temple.
[edit] Admetus

When Zeus struck down Apollo's son Asclepius with a lightning bolt for resurrecting Hippolytus from the dead (transgressing Themis by stealing Hades's subjects), Apollo in revenge killed the Cyclopes, who had fashioned the bolt for Zeus.[69] Apollo would have been banished to Tartarus forever, but was instead sentenced to one year of hard labor as punishment, due to the intercession of his mother, Leto. During this time he served as shepherd for King Admetus of Pherae in Thessaly. Admetus treated Apollo well, and, in return, the god conferred great benefits on Admetus.

Apollo helped Admetus win Alcestis, the daughter of King Pelias and later convinced the Fates to let Admetus live past his time, if another took his place. But when it came time for Admetus to die, his parents, whom he had assumed would gladly die for him, refused to cooperate. Instead, Alcestis took his place, but Heracles managed to "persuade" Thanatos, the god of death, to return her to the world of the living.
Artemis and Apollo Piercing Niobes Children with their Arrows by Jacques-Louis David.Dallas Museum of Art

.
[edit] Niobe

Niobe, the queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children (Niobids), seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two. Apollo killed her sons as they practiced athletics, with the last begging for his life, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them, though according to some versions of the myth, a number of the Niobids were spared (Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing revenge. A devastated Niobe fled to Mount Sipylos in Asia Minor and turned into stone as she wept. Her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone and so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods themselves entombed them.
[edit] Consorts and children

Love affairs ascribed to Apollo are a late development in Greek mythology.[70] Their vivid anecdotal qualities have made favorites some of them of painters since the Renaissance, so that they stand out more prominently in the modern imagination.
[edit] Female lovers
Main article: Apollo and Daphne
Apollo and Daphne by Bernini in the Galleria Borghese

In explanation of the connection of Apollo with (daphn), the laurel whose leaves his priestess employed at Delphi, it is told[71] that Apollo chased a nymph, Daphne, daughter of the river god Peneus, who had scorned him. In Ovid's telling for a Roman audience, Phoebus Apollo chaffs Cupid for toying with a weapon more suited to a man, whereupon Cupid wounds him with a golden dart; simultaneously, however, Cupid shoots a leaden arrow into Daphne, causing her to be repulsed by Apollo. Following a spirited chase by Apollo, Daphne prays to her father, Peneus, for help, and he changes her into the laurel tree, sacred to Apollo.

Apollo had an affair with a human princess named Leucothea, daughter of Orchamus and sister of Clytia. Leucothea loved Apollo who disguised himself as Leucothea's mother to gain entrance to her chambers. Clytia, jealous of her sister because she wanted Apollo for herself, told Orchamus the truth, betraying her sister's trust and confidence in her. Enraged, Orchamus ordered Leucothea to be buried alive. Apollo refused to forgive Clytia for betraying his beloved, and a grieving Clytia wilted and slowly died. Apollo changed her into an incense plant, either heliotrope or sunflower, which follows the sun every day.

Marpessa was kidnapped by Idas but was loved by Apollo as well. Zeus made her choose between them, and she chose Idas on the grounds that Apollo, being immortal, would tire of her when she grew old.

Castalia was a nymph whom Apollo loved. She fled from him and dove into the spring at Delphi, at the base of Mt. Parnassos, which was then named after her. Water from this spring was sacred; it was used to clean the Delphian temples and inspire poets.

By Cyrene, Apollo had a son named Aristaeus, who became the patron god of cattle, fruit trees, hunting, husbandry and bee-keeping. He was also a culture-hero and taught humanity dairy skills, the use of nets and traps in hunting, and how to cultivate olives.

With Hecuba, wife of King Priam of Troy, Apollo had a son named Troilus. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated as long as Troilus reached the age of twenty alive. He was ambushed and killed by Achilles.

Apollo also fell in love with Cassandra, daughter of Hecuba and Priam, and Troilus' half-sister. He promised Cassandra the gift of prophecy to seduce her, but she rejected him afterwards. Enraged, Apollo indeed gifted her with the ability to know the future, with a curse that she could only see the future tragedies and that no one would ever believe her.

Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas, King of the Lapiths, was another of Apollo's liaisons. Pregnant with Asclepius, Coronis fell in love with Ischys, son of Elatus. A crow informed Apollo of the affair. When first informed he disbelieved the crow and turned all crows black (where they were previously white) as a punishment for spreading untruths. When he found out the truth he sent his sister, Artemis, to kill Coronis (in other stories, Apollo himself had killed Coronis). As a result he also made the crow sacred and gave them the task of announcing important deaths. Apollo rescued the baby and gave it to the centaur Chiron to raise. Phlegyas was irate after the death of his daughter and burned the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Apollo then killed him for what he did.

In Euripides' play Ion, Apollo fathered Ion by Creusa, wife of Xuthus. Creusa left Ion to die in the wild, but Apollo asked Hermes to save the child and bring him to the oracle at Delphi, where he was raised by a priestess.
Apollo and Hyacinthus
Jacopo Caraglio; 16th c. Italian engraving

One of his other liaisons was with Acantha, the spirit of the acanthus tree. Upon her death, Apollo transformed her into a sun-loving herb.

According to the Biblioteca, the "library" of mythology mis-attributed to Apollodorus, he fathered the Corybantes on the Muse Thalia.[72]
[edit] Male lovers

Hyacinth or Hyacinthus was one of Apollo's male lovers. He was a Spartan prince, beautiful and athletic. The pair was practicing throwing the discus when a discus thrown by Apollo was blown off course by the jealous Zephyrus and struck Hyacinthus in the head, killing him instantly. Apollo is said to be filled with grief: out of Hyacinthus' blood, Apollo created a flower named after him as a memorial to his death, and his tears stained the flower petals with , meaning alas. The Festival of Hyacinthus was a celebration of Sparta.

Another male lover was Cyparissus, a descendant of Heracles. Apollo gave him a tame deer as a companion but Cyparissus accidentally killed it with a javelin as it lay asleep in the undergrowth. Cyparissus asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo granted the request by turning him into the Cypress named after him, which was said to be a sad tree because the sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.
[edit] Apollo's lyre
Apollo with his lyre.Statue from Berlin.Pergamon Museum

Hermes was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. The story is told in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. His mother, Maia, had been secretly impregnated by Zeus. Maia wrapped the infant in blankets but Hermes escaped while she was asleep. Hermes ran to Thessaly, where Apollo was grazing his cattle. The infant Hermes stole a number of his cows and took them to a cave in the woods near Pylos, covering their tracks. In the cave, he found a tortoise and killed it, then removed the insides. He used one of the cow's intestines and the tortoise shell and made the first lyre. Apollo complained to Maia that her son had stolen his cattle, but Hermes had already replaced himself in the blankets she had wrapped him in, so Maia refused to believe Apollo's claim. Zeus intervened and, claiming to have seen the events, sided with Apollo. Hermes then began to play music on the lyre he had invented. Apollo, a god of music, fell in love with the instrument and offered to allow exchange of the cattle for the lyre. Hence, Apollo then became a master of the lyre.
[edit] Apollo in the Oresteia

In Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy, Clytemnestra kills her husband, King Agamemnon because he had sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to proceed forward with the Trojan war, and Cassandra, a prophetess of Apollo. Apollo gives an order through the Oracle at Delphi that Agamemnon's son, Orestes, is to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, her lover. Orestes and Pylades carry out the revenge, and consequently Orestes is pursued by the Erinyes (Furies, female personifications of vengeance). Apollo and the Furies argue about whether the matricide was justified; Apollo holds that the bond of marriage is sacred and Orestes was avenging his father, whereas the Erinyes say that the bond of blood between mother and son is more meaningful than the bond of marriage. They invade his temple, and he says that the matter should be brought before Athena. Apollo promises to protect Orestes, as Orestes has become Apollo's supplicant. Apollo advocates Orestes at the trial, and ultimately Athena rules with Apollo.
[edit] Other stories

Apollo killed the Aloadae when they attempted to storm Mt. Olympus.

Callimachus sang[73] that Apollo rode on the back of a swan to the land of the Hyperboreans during the winter months.

Apollo turned Cephissus into a sea monster.

Another contender for the birthplace of Apollo is the Cretan islands of Paximadia.
[edit] Musical contests
[edit] Pan

Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and to challenge Apollo, the god of the kithara, to a trial of skill. Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen to umpire. Pan blew on his pipes, and with his rustic melody gave great satisfaction to himself and his faithful follower, Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but Midas agreed with the judgment. He dissented, and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer, and caused them to become the ears of a donkey.
[edit] Marsyas
Marsyas under Apollo's punishment; stanbul Archaeology Museum.

Apollo has ominous aspects aside from his plague-bringing, death-dealing arrows: Marsyas was a satyr who challenged Apollo to a contest of music. He had found an aulos on the ground, tossed away after being invented by Athena because it made her cheeks puffy. The contest was judged by the Muses. After they each performed, both were deemed equal until Apollo decreed they play and sing at the same time. As Apollo played the lyre, this was easy to do. Marsyas could not do this as he only knew how to use the flute and could not sing at the same time. Apollo was declared the winner because of this. Apollo flayed Marsyas alive in a cave near Celaenae in Phrygia for his hubris to challenge a god. He then nailed Marsyas' shaggy skin to a nearby pine-tree. Marsyas' blood turned into the river Marsyas.

Another variation is that Apollo played his instrument (the lyre) upside down. Marsyas could not do this with his instrument (the flute), and so Apollo hung him from a tree and flayed him alive.[74]
[edit] Cinyras

Apollo also had a lyre-playing contest with Cinyras, his son, who committed suicide when he lost.
Head of Apollo. Marble, Roman copy of a Greek original of the 4th century BCE, from the collection of Cardinal Albani
[edit] Roman Apollo

The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks. As a quintessentially Greek god, Apollo had no direct Roman equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred to him as Phoebus.[75] There was a tradition that the Delphic oracle was consulted as early as the period of the kings of Rome during the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.[76] On the occasion of a pestilence in the 430s BCE, Apollo's first temple at Rome was established in the Flaminian fields, replacing an older cult site there known as the "Apollinare".[77] During the Second Punic War in 212 BCE, the Ludi Apollinares ("Apollonian Games") were instituted in his honor, on the instructions of a prophecy attributed to one Marcius.[78] In the time of Augustus, who considered himself under the special protection of Apollo and was even said to be his son, his worship developed and he became one of the chief gods of Rome.[79] After the battle of Actium, which was fought near a sanctuary of Apollo, Augustus enlarged Apollo's temple, dedicated a portion of the spoils to him, and instituted quinquennial games in his honour.[80] He also erected a new temple to the god on the Palatine hill.[81] Sacrifices and prayers on the Palatine to Apollo and Diana formed the culmination of the Secular Games, held in 17 BCE to celebrate the dawn of a new era.[82]
[edit] Festivals

The chief Apollonian festivals were the Boedromia, Carneia, Carpiae, Daphnephoria, Delia, Hyacinthia, Metageitnia, Pyanepsia, Pythia and Thargelia.
[edit] Attributes and symbols
Gold stater of the Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter (reigned 281-261 BCE) showing on the reverse a nude Apollo holding his key attributes: two arrows and leaning on a bow.

Apollo's most common attributes were the bow and arrow. Other attributes of his included the kithara (an advanced version of the common lyre), the plectrum and the sword. Another common emblem was the sacrificial tripod, representing his prophetic powers. The Pythian Games were held in Apollo's honor every four years at Delphi. The bay laurel plant was used in expiatory sacrifices and in making the crown of victory at these games. The palm was also sacred to Apollo because he had been born under one in Delos. Animals sacred to Apollo included wolves, dolphins, roe deer, swans, cicadas (symbolizing music and song), hawks, ravens, crows, snakes (referencing Apollo's function as the god of prophecy), mice and griffins, mythical eaglelion hybrids of Eastern origin.
Apollo Citharoedus ("Apollo with a kithara"), Musei Capitolini, Rome

As god of colonization, Apollo gave oracular guidance on colonies, especially during the height of colonization, 750550 BCE. According to Greek tradition, he helped Cretan or Arcadian colonists found the city of Troy. However, this story may reflect a cultural influence which had the reverse direction: Hittite cuneiform texts mention a Minor Asian god called Appaliunas or Apalunas in connection with the city of Wilusa attested in Hittite inscriptions, which is now generally regarded as being identical with the Greek Ilion by most scholars. In this interpretation, Apollo's title of Lykegenes can simply be read as "born in Lycia", which effectively severs the god's supposed link with wolves (possibly a folk etymology).

In literary contexts, Apollo represents harmony, order, and reasoncharacteristics contrasted with those of Dionysus, god of wine, who represents ecstasy and disorder. The contrast between the roles of these gods is reflected in the adjectives Apollonian and Dionysian. However, the Greeks thought of the two qualities as complementary: the two gods are brothers, and when Apollo at winter left for Hyperborea, he would leave the Delphic oracle to Dionysus. This contrast appears to be shown on the two sides of the Borghese Vase.

Apollo is often associated with the Golden Mean. This is the Greek ideal of moderation and a virtue that opposes gluttony.
[edit] Apollo in the arts
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