Apollo Mythology
According to Greek Mythology, Apollo (also known as Phoebus Apollo) was the Greek god of Sun, Truth, Music, and Healing, and Prophesy. . When Apollo is represented in statues or paintings, he is often with a bow, lyre, and/or laurel. In one story it is said the Apollo invented the Lyre but other stories say while he didn’t invent the lyre, he did invent the lute. It is said that Apollo won several music contests when he played the lyre. One of the contests was against Pan, who played the Shepherd’s Pipe. It is written that the King Midas said he preferred the Shepherd’s Pipe and it made Apollo mad so he turned the king’s ears into that of an ass.
Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo. It is said that Artemis was the first born and she assisted her mother in the birth of Apollo. Zeus’ wife was mad because Zeus was the father of Apollo and Artemis so she tried to kill all of the children that Zeus fathered that were not theirs. She forbade Leto to give birth to them anywhere on the surface of the earth but the island of Delos allowed her to give birth to them there. Artemis was the virgin goddess of the hunt and childbirth. She could bring sudden death with her arrows. Apollo and Artemis were mad at an insult to their mother by the queen of Thebes and they killed all of her children with their arrows. It seems that the queen made the comment that she was much better than Leto (Apollo and Artemis’ mother) because she had many more children.
Apollo often intervened into the affairs of the humans or mortals just as the other gods did. It was written that Achilles was the best fighter in the Trojan war and that Apollo defeated the Trojan captain, Hector Achilles, in a single combat. Apollo helped Hector’s brother, Paris, kill Achilles with an arrow. According to the myths, when someone died, they were said to have been struck with one of Apollo’s arrows.
Apollo was depicted as a young man with curly golden hair. He was born on the Greek Island of Delos, which off the coast of Crete. Apollo was never married but had many affairs with nymphs. Some of his flings were with Cassandra, to whom he gave the gift of prophecy; Daphne, who fled from his embrace and turned into a laurel tree; and Calliope, with whom he had a child, Orpheus. Apollo’s children His father was Zeus, who was the god of the universe and everything in it, including the other gods. Zeus was married to Hera but also had many affairs. Orpheus and Asklepios were his most famous children of them all.
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