Apollo

Apollo was born on the island of Delos, son of Zeus and the Titaness Leto. Pursued by Hera's jealousy, Leto wandered without finding land that would receive her until the wandering islet of Delos gave her refuge; there, at the foot of Mount Cynthus, she gave birth first to Artemis and then to Apollo. Once grown, the god went to Pytho, on the slopes of Parnassus, where he struck down with his arrows the serpent Python, guardian of the ancient sanctuary, and established over it his oracle of Delphi. This combat is narrated in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (Hymn 3, vv. 300-374) and in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book I), not in Hesiod's Theogony, which only relates the birth of the god and his sister (vv. 918-920). In commemoration of the feat the Pythian Games were held.

Apollo is depicted as a youth of perfect beauty, the embodiment of harmony and moderation. His main attributes are the lyre, the bow and the laurel. The lyre, according to the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, was given to him by his brother Hermes in exchange for the cattle that the latter had stolen from him, and with it he presides over music, song and poetry as leader of the Muses (Musagetes). The silver bow distinguishes him as an unerring archer and as the god who sends the plague or wards it off, as well as patron of healing, a gift he passed on to his son Asclepius. The laurel became his sacred tree after his pursuit of the nymph Daphne, who while fleeing from him was transformed into a laurel according to Ovid (Metamorphoses I); with its leaves the victors of the contests were crowned. As lord of Delphi he exercised prophecy through the mouth of the priestess Pythia. Only in late times was he identified with the sun, from which he took the epithet of Phoebus, that is, the Bright One.

Apollo was one of the most venerated gods of Greece. His two most famous centres of worship were Delos, the island of his birth, and Delphi, seat of his oracle, to which cities and private individuals came in search of counsel. In his honour the Pythian Games were held, with contests of music and athletics, as well as festivals such as the Carneia and the Thargelia. Pausanias, in his Description of Greece, and Callimachus, in his Hymns, describe numerous temples and rites consecrated to the god, and Apollodorus gathers his myths in the Library. The Romans adopted him under the same name and the epithet of Phoebus, and the emperor Augustus made him protector of his regime. A symbol of reason, light and balance, his figure later inspired the Renaissance and modern art.