180 Facts About Apollo

The national divinity of the Greeks, Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more.

Apollo is the god who affords help and wards off evil; various epithets call him the "averter of evil".

Apollo delivered people from epidemics, yet he is a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague with his arrows.

Apollo is usually described as carrying a silver or golden bow and a quiver of silver or golden arrows.

Apollo is an important pastoral deity, and was the patron of herdsmen and shepherds.

Apollo was the giver of laws, and his oracles were consulted before setting laws in a city.

Apollo is the inventor of string-music, and the frequent companion of the Muses, functioning as their chorus leader in celebrations.

However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature.

Apollo's birthplace was Mount Cynthus on the island of Delos.

Apollo was often equated with Celtic gods of similar character.

Apollo is considered the most Hellenic of the Olympian gods.

At Delphi, Apollo was venerated as the slayer of the monstrous serpent Python.

Apollo had many epithets relating to his function as a healer.

The Homeric Hymn to Apollo depicts Apollo as an intruder from the north.

Apollo Delphinios or Delphidios was a sea-god especially worshipped in Crete and in the islands.

Apollo is pictured as a terrible god, less trusted by the Greeks than other gods.

However, while usually Greek festivals were celebrated at the full moon, all the feasts of Apollo were celebrated at the seventh day of the month, and the emphasis given to that day indicates a Babylonian origin.

Lycia was sacred to the god, for this Apollo was called Lycian.

Apollo's cult was already fully established when written sources commenced, about 650 BCE.

Apollo had a famous oracle in Delphi, and other notable ones in Claros and Didyma.

Apollo was the son of Zeus, the king of the gods, and Leto, his previous wife or one of his mistresses.

Finally, the voice of unborn Apollo informed his mother about a floating island named Delos that had once been Asteria, Leto's own sister.

Apollo was washed clean by the goddesses who then covered him in white garment and fastened golden bands around him.

Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and subsequently assisted with the birth of Apollo or was born on the island of Ortygia then helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.

Apollo returned to the world during the beginning of the spring.

Shamanistic elements in Apollo's cult are often liked to his Hyperborean origin, and he is likewise speculated to have originated as a solar shaman.

Shamans like Abaris and Aristeas were the followers of Apollo, who hailed from Hyperborea.

In myths, the tears of amber Apollo shed when his son Asclepius died became the waters of the river Eridanos, which surrounded Hyperborea.

Apollo buried in Hyperborea the arrow which he had used to kill the Cyclopes.

From his father Zeus, Apollo had received a golden chariot drawn by swans.

Apollo is said to have invented the lyre, and along with Artemis, the art of archery.

Apollo then taught to the humans the art of healing and archery.

In most of the traditions, Apollo was still a child when he killed Python.

Apollo shook his locks of hair, put an end to the night voices, and took away from mortals the truth that appears in darkness, and gave the privilege back again to Loxias.

Apollo demanded that all other methods of divination be made inferior to his, a wish that Zeus granted him readily.

However, Apollo had committed a blood murder and had to be purified.

Purified, Apollo was escorted by his half sister Athena to Delphi where the oracular shrine was finally handed over to him by Gaia.

Henceforth, Apollo became the god who cleansed himself from the sin of murder and, made men aware of their guilt and purified them.

Apollo returned only after the Delphians sang hymns to him and pleaded him to come back.

Apollo gave to Apollo various gifts, like a golden tripod, a golden bow and arrows, a golden chariot and the city of Delphi.

Apollo is said to have shared a romantic relationship with Admetus during his stay.

Apollo helped Admetus win the hand of Alcestis, the daughter of King Pelias, by taming a lion and a boar to draw Admetus' chariot.

Apollo was present during their wedding to give his blessings.

Apollo would have been banished to Tartarus for this, but his mother Leto intervened, and reminding Zeus of their old love, pleaded him not to kill their son.

The love between Apollo and Admetus was a favored topic of Roman poets like Ovid and Servius.

Apollo displayed hubris when she boasted that she was superior to Leto because she had fourteen children, seven male and seven female, while Leto had only two.

Apollo further mocked Apollo's effeminate appearance and Artemis' manly appearance.

Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing revenge.

When Chloris married and had children, Apollo granted her son Nestor the years he had taken away from the Niobids.

Apollo guarded the cattle of Laomedon in the valleys of mount Ida, while Poseidon built the walls of Troy.

In Ovid's account, Apollo completes his task by playing his tunes on his lyre.

Apollo demanded that they return the girl, and the Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the anger of Achilles, which is the theme of the Iliad.

Apollo pushed the Greeks back and destroyed many of the soldiers.

When Zeus allowed the other gods to get involved in the war, Apollo was provoked by Poseidon to a duel.

However, Apollo declined to fight him, saying that he wouldn't fight his uncle for the sake of mortals.

Apollo then enveloped Aeneas in a cloud to protect him.

Apollo repelled the attacks Diomedes made on him and gave the hero a stern warning to abstain himself from attacking a god.

Apollo had once convinced Athena to stop the war for that day, so that the warriors can relieve themselves for a while.

When he got severely injured, Apollo healed him and encouraged him to take up his arms.

At last, after Hector's fated death, Apollo protected his corpse from Achilles' attempt to mutilate it by creating a magical cloud over the corpse, shielding it from the rays of the sun.

Apollo held a grudge against Achilles throughout the war because Achilles had murdered his son Tenes before the war began and brutally assassinated his son Troilus in his own temple.

Finally, Apollo caused Achilles' death by guiding an arrow shot by Paris into Achilles' heel.

In some versions, Apollo himself killed Achilles by taking the disguise of Paris.

Apollo consulted the oracle of Apollo , in hope of ridding himself of the disease.

However, Apollo did not tolerate this and stopped Heracles; a duel ensued between them.

Apollo reprimanded Heracles for this act of violation and asked Apollo to give a solution to Heracles.

Apollo then ordered the hero to serve under Omphale, queen of Lydia for one year in order to purify himself.

Apollo cut them all in two and asked Apollo to make necessary repairs, giving humans the individual shape they still have now.

Apollo turned their heads and necks around towards their wounds, he pulled together their skin at the abdomen, and sewed the skin together at the middle of it.

Apollo was bidden to heal their wounds and compose their forms.

Apollo Kourotrophos is the god who nurtures and protects children and the young, especially boys.

Chiron, the abandoned centaur, was fostered by Apollo, who instructed him in medicine, prophecy, archery and more.

Apollo brought him up and educated him in mantic arts.

When Evadne went into labour, Apollo sent the Moirai to assist his lover.

When Iamus reached the age of education, Apollo took him to Olympia and taught him many arts, including the ability to understand and explain the languages of birds.

Apollo adopted Carnus, the abandoned son of Zeus and Europa.

Apollo reared the child with the help of his mother Leto and educated him to be a seer.

When his son Melaneus reached the age of marriage, Apollo asked the princess Stratonice to be his son's bride and carried her away from her home when she agreed.

Apollo saved a shepherd boy from death in a large deep cave, by the means of vultures.

Immediately after his birth, Apollo demanded a lyre and invented the paean, thus becoming the god of music.

Apollo appears as the companion of the Muses, and as Musagetes he leads them in dance.

Apollo is the lover of the Muses and by them he became the father of famous musicians like Orpheus and Linus.

Apollo is often found delighting the immortal gods with his songs and music on the lyre.

Apollo is a frequent guest of the Bacchanalia, and many ancient ceramics depict him being at ease amidst the maenads and satyrs.

Apollo was the victor in all those contests, but he tended to punish his opponents severely for their hubris.

Distinctions have been made that Hermes invented lyre made of tortoise shell, whereas the lyre Apollo invented was a regular lyre.

Apollo used one of the cow's intestines and the tortoise shell and made his lyre.

When Hermes acted innocent, Apollo took the matter to Zeus.

Zeus, having seen the events, sided with Apollo, and ordered Hermes to return the cattle.

Apollo fell in love with the instrument and offered to exchange the cattle for the lyre.

Apollo did not want to suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer, and caused them to become the ears of a donkey.

Apollo had found an aulos on the ground, tossed away after being invented by Athena because it made her cheeks puffy.

Marsyas taunted Apollo for "wearing his hair long, for having a fair face and smooth body, for his skill in so many arts".

Apollo's body is fair from head to foot, his limbs shine bright, his tongue gives oracles, and he is equally eloquent in prose or verse, propose which you will.

Marsyas argued against this, saying that Apollo would have an advantage and accused Apollo of cheating.

Apollo then played his lyre and sang at the same time, mesmerising the audience.

Apollo was declared the winner and, angered with Marsyas' haughtiness and his accusations, decided to flay the satyr.

Apollo flayed the limbs of Marsyas alive in a cave near Celaenae in Phrygia for his hubris to challenge a god.

Apollo then gave the rest of his body for proper burial and nailed Marsyas' flayed skin to a nearby pine-tree as a lesson to the others.

Apollo invoked Apollo and asked the god to avenge the broken promise.

Apollo then had a lyre-playing contest with Cinyras, and defeated him.

Apollo used his bow and golden arrow to shed light upon an island, where the Argonauts soon took shelter.

Apollo helped the Greek hero Diomedes, to escape from a great tempest during his journey homeward.

Pleased with this, Apollo sent gentle breezes that helped Odysseus return safely to the Greek camp.

Arion began singing a song in praise of Apollo, seeking the god's help.

Apollo sided with the Trojans, and sent a terrible plague to the Greek camp, which indirectly led to the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon.

Apollo killed the Greek heroes Patroclus, Achilles, and numerous Greek soldiers.

Apollo taught Aristaeus more useful healing arts and sent him back to help the army of Dionysus.

When Hypseus tried to kill the hero by a spear, Apollo directed the spear towards the charioteer of Amphiaraus instead.

Apollo killed many of the enemy warriors like Melaneus, Antiphus, Aetion, Polites and Lampus.

At last when the moment of departure came, Apollo expressed his grief with tears in his eyes and bid farewell to Amphiaraus, who was engulfed by the Earth.

Apollo killed the giants Python and Tityos, who had assaulted his mother Leto.

Apollo killed Porphyrion, the king of giants, using his bow and arrows.

Apollo seized the roads to Delphi and started harassing the pilgrims.

Apollo captured the old people and children and sent them to his army to hold them for ransom.

Finally, Apollo came to put an end to this cruelty.

Apollo entered a boxing contest with Phorbas and killed him with a single blow.

Apollo, who was passing by, caught them and carried them to two different cities in Chersonesus, Molpadia to Castabus and Parthenos to Bubastus.

Apollo turned them into goddesses and they both received divine honors.

Apollo was bound to a rock, where each day an eagle was sent to eat Prometheus' liver, which would then grow back overnight to be eaten again the next day.

Apollo then brought her to the rock of Leukas and asked her to throw herself from the top of the rock.

When she sought for the reason behind this, Apollo told her that Zeus, before taking another lover, would sit on this rock to free himself from his love to Hera.

Apollo fought with the fisherman and took the gold, but Apollo appeared to him in the night in a dream and warned him not to appropriate gold which belonged to others.

Love affairs ascribed to Apollo are a late development in Greek mythology.

Apollo is said to have been the lover of all nine Muses, and not being able to choose one of them, decided to remain unwed.

Apollo fathered the Corybantes by the Muse Thalia, Orpheus by Calliope, Linus of Thrace by Calliope or Urania and Hymenaios by one of the Muses.

Apollo was later granted longevity by Apollo who turned her into a nymph.

Out of affection for her, Apollo turned her sisters into goddesses.

Apollo turned both the mother and son into swans when they jumped into a lake and tried to kill themselves.

Hecuba was the wife of King Priam of Troy, and Apollo had a son with her named Troilus.

Apollo was ambushed and killed by Achilleus, and Apollo avenged his death by killing Achilles.

Apollo rescued the baby by cutting open Koronis' belly and gave it to the centaur Chiron to raise.

In Euripides' play Ion, Apollo fathered Ion by Creusa, wife of Xuthus.

Apollo used his powers to conceal her pregnancy from her father.

Later, when Creusa left Ion to die in the wild, Apollo asked Hermes to save the child and bring him to the oracle at Delphi, where he was raised by a priestess.

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 was so saddened by its death that he 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.

The romantic nature of their relationship was first described by Callimachus of Alexandria, who wrote that Apollo was "fired with love" for Admetus.

Latin poet Ovid in his Ars Amatoria said that even though he was a god, Apollo forsook his pride and stayed in as a servant for the sake of Admetus.

Further, Apollo saved the king from Artemis' wrath and convinced the Moirai to postpone Admetus' death once.

Apollo requited his affections and wanting to reward him, bestowed prophetic skills on him.

Apollo sired many children, from mortal women and nymphs as well as the goddesses.

Apollo's children grew up to be physicians, musicians, poets, seers or archers.

Apollo became the god of beekeeping, cheese making, animal husbandry and more.

Apollo was ultimately given immortality for the benefits he bestowed upon the humanity.

Apollo had a son named Chrysorrhoas who was a mechanic artist.

Apollo turned Parthenos into a constellation after her early death.

Additionally, Apollo fostered and educated Chiron, the centaur who later became the greatest teacher and educated many demigods, including Apollo's sons.

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.

Apollo made him promise that he would grant to her whatever she would ask for, and then cleverly asked him to let her stay a virgin.

Apollo fled from him and dove into the spring at Delphi, at the base of Mt.

Apollo fulfilled her wish, but she went back on her word and rejected him soon after.

Apollo granted her wish, but Sibyl went back on her word.

Apollo gave her her wish, but then she went back on her word and refused him.

Apollo Daphnephoros had a temple in Eretria, a "place where the citizens are to take the oaths".

In later times when Apollo was regarded as identical with the sun or Helios, Artemis was naturally regarded as Selene or the moon.

Hecate is the goddess of crossroads and Apollo is the god and protector of streets.

Athena was the principle goddess of Athens, Apollo was the principle god of Sparta.

Apollo was sometimes called the son of Athena and Hephaestus.

Apollo's decisions were usually approved by his sister Athena, and they both worked to establish the law and order set forth by Zeus.

Apollo gives an order through the Oracle at Delphi that Agamemnon's son, Orestes, is to kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, her lover.

Apollo says that the matter should be brought before Athena.

The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks.

Apollo erected a new temple to the god on the Palatine hill.

The palm tree was sacred to Apollo because he had been born under one in Delos.

Homer and Porphyry wrote that Apollo had a hawk as his messenger.

Eusebius wrote that the second appearance of the moon is held sacred in the city of Apollo in Egypt and that the city's symbol is a man with a hawklike face.

Apollo is a common theme in Greek and Roman art and in the art of the Renaissance.

The Apollo Belvedere is a marble sculpture that was rediscovered in the late 15th century; for centuries it epitomized the ideals of Classical Antiquity for Europeans, from the Renaissance through the 19th century.

Apollo often appears in modern and popular culture due to his status as the god of music, dance and poetry.

Apollo has featured in dance and music in modern culture.

Apollo been portrayed in modern literature, such as when Charles Handy, in Gods of Management uses Greek gods as a metaphor to portray various types of organizational culture.

Apollo represents a 'role' culture where order, reason, and bureaucracy prevail.

In 2016, author Rick Riordan published the first book in the Trials of Apollo series, publishing four other books in the series in 2017,2018,2019 and 2020.

Apollo appears as a minor character in Santa Monica Studio's 2010 action-adventure game God of War III with his bow being used by Peirithous.

Apollo appears in the 2014 Hi-Rez Studios Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game Smite as a playable character.

Apollo appears in Rachel Smythe's 2018 comic Lore Olympus as an antagonist.

Psychologist Carl Jung's Apollo archetype represents what he saw as the disposition in people to over-intellectualise and maintain emotional distance.

Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program.