Apollo- Greek GodDeity"Far-Striker"

Birth on Delos

Apollo and his twin sister Artemis were children of Zeus and the Titaness Leto. When Hera learned of Leto's pregnancy, she forbade any land from giving Leto shelter to give birth. The Titaness wandered the world in labor, rejected everywhere, until she came to Delos, a floating island not anchored to the earth, and therefore technically not "land."

On Delos, clutching a palm tree, Leto finally gave birth. Artemis came first and, though newborn herself, helped her mother deliver Apollo. The moment Apollo was born, golden light flooded the island, and Delos became anchored in place, sacred forever. Swans circled the island seven times, and the newborn god demanded a lyre and a bow. Within four days, he set out to establish his oracle.

The Slaying of Python

Apollo's first great deed was killing Python, a monstrous serpent that guarded an ancient oracle at Delphi. Python had pursued Leto during her pregnancy on Hera's orders, and Apollo sought vengeance. He found the serpent at Delphi, beneath Mount Parnassus, and slew it with his silver bow.

The killing of Python was not without consequence. Python was sacred to Gaia, the earth herself, and even a god could not kill without pollution. Apollo was forced to undergo purification and to establish the Pythian Games at Delphi in the serpent's honor. The priestess of his oracle would be called the Pythia, named for his defeated enemy. The Pythian Games, held every four years, became one of the four great Panhellenic festivals.

The Oracle at Delphi

At Delphi, Apollo claimed the center of the world. Zeus had released two eagles from opposite ends of the earth, and they met here, marking the omphalos, the world's navel.

The Pythia, Apollo's priestess, sat on a tripod over a chasm from which vapors rose. In a trance, she spoke Apollo's prophecies, often in ambiguous verses that required careful interpretation. From across the Greek world, cities sent delegations before founding colonies or starting wars. Croesus of Lydia asked whether he should attack Persia; the oracle replied that if he did, a great empire would fall. He attacked, and the empire that fell was his own.

Two maxims inscribed at the entrance, "Know thyself" and "Nothing in excess," carried the authority of the god himself.

God of Music and Poetry

Apollo led the Muses on Mount Helicon and Mount Parnassus, playing his golden lyre while they sang and danced. The lyre itself was a gift from his infant brother Hermes, who invented it from a tortoise shell on the day of his birth and traded it to Apollo in exchange for cattle and the caduceus.

Apollo's musical supremacy was challenged twice, with terrible results. The satyr Marsyas found a flute that Athena had discarded and became so skilled that he challenged Apollo to a contest. The Muses judged Apollo the winner, and he punished Marsyas's hubris by flaying him alive, his blood becoming the river that bore his name. King Midas, who judged a contest between Apollo and Pan in Pan's favor, was given donkey's ears for his poor taste.

Healer and Destroyer

The Iliad opens with Apollo descending from Olympus like nightfall, his arrows clanging in their quiver, to send plague upon the Greek camp because Agamemnon had dishonored his priest Chryses. For nine days his silver arrows struck down men and animals alike. Yet this same god was Apollo Paean, the healer. His son Asclepius, trained by the centaur Chiron, could cure what no other physician could.

His wrath fell hardest on those who slighted his mother. When Niobe, queen of Thebes, boasted that her fourteen children surpassed Leto's two, Apollo and Artemis answered with their bows. Apollo killed her seven sons and Artemis her seven daughters in a single afternoon. Niobe wept until the gods turned her to stone on Mount Sipylus, and even as rock, water streamed down her face.

Tragic Loves

Apollo loved many, both male and female, but his passions brought ruin more often than fulfillment. The nymph Daphne fled his pursuit in terror until, at the moment he caught her, her limbs stiffened into bark and her hair became leaves. She had chosen the laurel over his touch. Apollo, unable to have her, made the tree sacred and wore its leaves as his crown. The Spartan prince Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved, died when a discus struck his skull. In Ovid's telling, the throw was Apollo's own; Lucian blames the West Wind Zephyrus, who knocked the disc off course in jealousy. From Hyacinthus's blood Apollo raised the hyacinth flower, its petals marked with "AI AI," the Greek cry of grief.

Apollo gave Cassandra, princess of Troy, the power of prophecy. When she refused his love, he twisted the gift into a curse: she would always speak true, and no one would ever believe her. She foresaw Troy's destruction and was mocked for it. He loved the mortal Coronis, who proved unfaithful while carrying his child; he killed her in his rage, though he saved the unborn Asclepius from her funeral pyre. Even the white crow that brought the news was punished, its feathers turned black forever.

The Servitude of Apollo

Zeus killed Asclepius for raising the dead. Apollo, in vengeance, killed the Cyclopes who forged Zeus's thunderbolts. For that, Zeus condemned him to serve the Trojan king Laomedon. Together with Poseidon, Apollo built the walls of Troy, walls so strong that only divine intervention could breach them. When Laomedon refused the promised payment, the gods sent a sea monster to ravage Troy, an act of impiety that would echo through generations.

Apollo later served King Admetus of Pherae in Thessaly, tending his cattle. In this second period of servitude, Apollo treated Admetus with genuine affection, making his herds prosper and persuading the Fates to allow Admetus to escape death if someone volunteered to die in his place. No other mortal ever received such a gift from a god.

Apollo and the Trojan War

Apollo fought for Troy. He shielded Hector in battle and, when the time came, guided Paris's arrow to the one spot where Achilles could die.

When Achilles slaughtered Trojans by the river Scamander, it was Apollo who disguised himself as a Trojan to draw Achilles away from the gates. When Patroclus stormed the walls of Troy, it was Apollo who struck him from behind, stunning him and knocking away his armor so that Hector could deliver the killing blow.