Apollo the god of poetry
Apollo is one of the most complex
and important gods
and is the god of many things,
including: music, poetry, art, oracles, archery, plague, medicine, sun, light
and knowledge
He is the son of Zeus and the Titan Leto
and was born in the Greek island of Delos
along with his older twin sister
Artemis – goddess of the hunt
Apollo is the ideal of the kouros.
which means he has a beardless, athletic and
youthful appearance.
He is also an oracular god as a patron of
Delphi.
and could predict prophecy through the Delphic
Oracle Pythia.
Both medicine and healing are
associated with Apollo.
and were thought to sometimes be mediated
through his son, Asclepius. However, Apollo could also bring ill-health and
deadly plague.
Apollo also became associated with
dominion over colonists.
and as the patron defender of herds and
flocks.
He was the leader of the Muses and was
director of their choir – functioning as the patron god of music and poetry.
The god Hermes create the lyre for Apollo
and this instrument became a known attribute for him.
When hymns were sung to Apollo they
were called paeans
At the drinking parties held on
Olympus, Apollo accompanied the Muses on his cithara, while the young goddesses
led the dance.
Both Leto and Zeus were proud of their son,
who was radiant with grace and beauty.
Facts about Apollo.
Apollo was the son of Leto and Zeus.
He was born on the island of Delos.
He and his twin sister Artemis, also
an Olympian, shared an aptitude for archery.
His forename, Phoebus, means
“bright” or “pure” and connects him to his grandmother, the Titan Phoebe.
Apollo, a masterful magician, was
known for delighting Olympus with tunes played on his golden lyre.
His lyre, a stringed instrument that resembles
a small harp, was made by Hermes.
The nine Muses were companions of
his; they were goddesses known for inspiring art and music.
Apollo taught men the art of
medicine, so he is often referred to as “The Healer.”
Apollo is alternately referred to as
the God of Light and the God of Truth.
Apollo served as an intermediary
between the gods and men.
Because of his truthfulness and
integrity, he was granted the gift of prophecy and oracles.
Apollo defended the oracle at Delphi
against Hercules, who was angry at the priestess for having denied him a
prophecy.
Apollo killed a serpent named Python
as a result of a contest; it was conquered by a single arrow.
According to Homer’s Illiad, Apollo
played a major part in the Trojan War. He infected the Greek encampment with a
plague and aided Paris in killing Achilles.
Ironically, Apollo was also a
purifier, able to cleanse even those stained with the blood of their relatives.
The dolphin and swan were the
animals sacred to him.
The laurel, used in Greece as a
status symbol, was Apollo’s tree.
Apollo accidentally killed his
dearest companion, Hyacinthus, in a discus throwing contest.
Apollo is credited with killing the
Cyclops in retaliation for arming Zeus with the thunderbolt.
He had many love affairs with both
mortals and goddesses.
Perhaps the most famous of these women was a
mortal named Hecuba, who was married to the King of
Troy. The union between Apollo and
Hecuba produced a son named Troilus.
Apollo’s affections were rejected by
Cassandra.
so he punished her by arranging it so that her
prophecies would never be believed.
Asclepius is probably Apollo’s most
well-known son, although he had many offspring.
God of : music, intelligence, civilization,
truth, logic, reason, prophecy, purification, poetry, plague, oracles, sun,
healing, archery, light, and medicine.
Symbols: Lyre, Laurel Wreath, Bow
and Arrows, Tripod, Myrtle, Python, Crow, Wolf, Dolphin, Swan, Mouse.
Sacred animals:Wolf, Dolphin,Swan.
Parents: Zeus and Leto.
Consort: Daphne, Leucothea, Kyrene,
Marpesia, Kastalia, Hekuba, Kassandra, Coronis, Thalia, Kalliope.
Children:Asclepius, Troilus,
Aristaeus, Orpheus.
Birth.
When Apollo's mother was in labor
with him and his twin sister Artemis.
she was looking for a place to give birth,
however, Hera had made all land shun her so she was unable to find a place to
give birth.
Hera was very sour towards her because Zeus
was her children's father and Hera disliked that Zeus kept having children with
other women and goddesses.
But Poseidon took pity on Leto and showed her
an island that was not attached to the sea floor so it technically was not
considered land.
So Leto traveled there and gave birth. The
little floating island is called Delos.
God of Prophecy
Apollo was the god of prophecy. he
decided that he needed a place where mortals could come and ask questions to
him .and he would use his gift of prophecy to answer them. He found a perfect
place called Pytho.
The only bad part was that a
terrible, giant snake called Python was living there and was terrorizing all
the other living creatures there.
So he killed the snake and renamed the place
Delphi. He created his temple and the oracles spoke to the mortals prophecies
in which Apollo would give to them to give to mortals.
More About Apollo
Eros was a very mischievous person
and liked to cause all sorts of trouble. So one day he shot Apollo with a
golden arrow to make him fall in love with a beautiful nymph named Daphne.
But Eros shot Daphne with a lead arrow making
her feel hatred for Apollo. Apollo ran after her and she ran away.
Daphne was frightened so she called to her
father, Peneus, and he transformed her into a Laurel tree. As she turned into a
tree, Apollo embraces her.
Apollo, saddened by her running away
from him, took some of the leaves and made a laurel wreath so that she would
always be close to him.There is a version of this myth saying that Apollo
caused this trouble with Eros.
It says that he saw Eros playing with his bow,
and he insulted him, telling him to "play with his own little bows and
arrows" because he had slain a mighty serpent with his bow.
Eros was offended, and decided to play a trick
on him, and that is why he caused the trouble with Daphne.
YOU CAN FOLLOW OUR CHANNEL ON YOUTUBE
Music Contest.
There was once a satyr named
Marsyas.
He was a wonderful player of the double flute,
an instrument he found abandoned by Athena, and all the forests came to listen
to him play the flute. One day Marsyas said that he was a better musician that
the god of music himself, Apollo.
This angered Apollo and so Apollo challenged
Marsyas to a music competition. The winner could do anything they want to the
loser.
Marsyas played his pipes and he was
wonderful but when Apollo played the lyre...he was better.
So Apollo won and because Marsyas had dared to
even say that he was even close to being as good at him, he skinned him alive
and hung him from a tree.
Niobe's Tragedy.
Niobe was a mortal woman, the queen
of Thebes and wife of Amphion, who once boasted that she was better than Leto as
she had fourteen children while Leto only had two. Unfortunately, Niobe's
claims had enraged the twin gods themselves, Apollo and Artemis, who were
extremely protective of their mother and her honor and the two descended to
Earth to punish Niobe.
The very next day, Niobe's son's
were killed by Apollo and her daughters were killed by Artemis, though in some
myths, the twins spared one of the innocent children, usually being Meliboea,
the youngest of Niobe's children. It is said that she was so horrified by the
deaths of her siblings that her skin turned a sickly shade of white for the
rest of her life.
Devastated by the death of her
children, Niobe fled to Mount Sipylus where she wept for days without stopping.
Zeus eventually took pity on the devastated mother and turned her to stone in
order to spare her of any more agony. However, Niobe's stone body continued to
weep and it is said that her endless tears formed the river, Achelous.
The bodies of Niobe's children were
left un-buried for nine days as Zeus had also turn everyone in the city to
stone. On the tenth day, the Gods finally took pity and entombed the children's
bodies themselves.
In some myths one of the fourteen
children prayed to Apollo to not kill him but it was too late as Apollo had
already shot the arrow.
Agamemnon's Mistake.
Chryses was a priest of Apollo. He
respected Apollo and didn't ever disrespect him.
But one day the Greek hero, Agamemnon,
insulted the old man and refused to return his daughter, Chryseis, so he was
angry. So Chryses prayed to Apollo to get revenge on the man for the insult.
And Apollo, grateful for the man's
service as a priest, went to the Greek camp for nine days .
and shot poisoned arrows at the men
and all their animals, spreading a plague on the Greeks in the Trojan War.