Apollo

Once having been born, Delos island was illuminated! He was such a beautiful man that his father, Zeus, named him “God of the Light”.

Apollo and the Nymphs

The ancient Greeks used to call him “Foivos” which meant “brilliant” in ancient greek. He was said to ride the Sun’s chariot every morning in order to lighten the earth. Far from that, Apollo was a lyric god who taught humans music, singing and poetry....

The birth of Apollo was a huge labor for his mother Leto who had coupled with Zeus and she was punished by Hera for that.

To begin with, Zeus desired both his cousins, Leto and her sister Asteria and he chased both of them. Initially, Asteria turned herself to a quail and tehn Zeus was transformed to an eagle and kept chasing her. Finally, Asteria managed to escape by transforming herself to a rock that was floating in the sea

Leto, on her side, did not manage to resist and she was made to mate with Zeus and this resulted to her pregnancy but Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus took revenge for the illegal coupling by forbidding any place “seen by the sun” to accept the pregnant Leto for giving birth to her baby. The poor woman wandered a lot until she resorted to her sister. Asteria moved to the bottom of the sea where she accepted Leto letting her giving birth to her child. However, Hera who was extremely angry to Leto, made Eileithyia, the goddess the allowed childbirth, ignorant of the pregnancy of Leto who kept suffering from labors for nine days. Then Iris intervened and asked Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to inform Eileithyia on that event. So, the goddess arrived at Leto and the birth took place. According to another myth, Hera had prohibited Eilithyia to let Leto give birth. Athena, Demeter and Aphrodite as well as a lot of deities had come to Leto’s help yet they were hopeless unless Hera’s approval. So, they sent Iris, a colorful diety who served the gods as a messenger, to offer Hera a a great necklace, created by Hephaestus, made of gold and adorned with emeralds that pleased Hera and she agreed to let Leto give birth to the baby.

Leto gave birth to twins; Artemis and Apollo. It was Artemis that was born first and then she helped her mother to give birth to Apollo too.

His swaddling clothes were torn and a handsome man emerged. Themis poured a few drops of nectar and ambrosia in the baby’s mouth and it started growing up immediately. The goddesses were embarrassed by his beauty and admired him as he walking accros the island.

The rock on which the birth of Apollo was carried out became the most sacred island of ancient Greece, known as Delos. Apollo’s birth on Delos island was reminded to people by an olive tree with golden leaves that sprang in Delos.

Delos, was a poor barren rock before Apollo’s naissance but the god compensated the island for accepting his mother when she was pregnant, by making its earth fertile. Then, Apollo went to Olympus mountain where Zeus welcomed him and offered him a lyre and a great chariot with white swans that transferred Apollo to any place he wished to go.

Continuously, Apollo went to Delphi where he killed a huge python who destroyed that area by polluting the rivers, damaging the corps, eating the animals of the herds, scaring the Nymphs and killing people who lived there. That python had also chased Apollo’s mother when she was pregnant. So, the god used the golden arrows which Hephaestus had made for that purpose and eliminated the tremendous monster. For this reason, the inhabitants who had got rid of that trouble, etsablished the Pythic Games in order to remember Apollo’s achievement. Hey also erected an oracle, dedicated to Apollo, where Pythia, sat on a tripod, chewed laurels and gave prophecies.

Apollo the greek god

It is also said that Apollo directed a ship, it was initially sailing from Knossos to Pylos but lost its way, to Delphi where the Cretan merchants of the ship became the priests of Apollo’s oracle. Even though the earth around the oracle seemed dry and infertile, Apollo reassured his priests that they would earn a lot from people's offerings and sacrifices, so they should not worry about their living!

Apollo was depicted as a very handsome god who was passionate with women and had various amorous adventures with both men and women. The nymph Daphne, Peneios's daughter had impressed Apollo thanks to her beauty and the god fell in love with her. Unwilling to get married, Daphne used to go hunting in the forest with Artemis. When Apollo tried to lay with her in the countryside, she escaped from him thanks to her father's assistance who transformed her to a tree. From then on, her name was given to this specific plant (laurel in English) and it has been connected to the worship to Apollo.

Apollo had also love affairs with the Muses. He coupled with Thaleia who gave birth to the Korubantes (musicians and dancers), Kalliope with whom he fathered Orpheus and Hymen. With Koronis he fathered Asklepios, the Father of Medicine. However, Apollo had asked Artemis to kill Koronis because she had got married to Ischys, during her pregnancy. So, Asklepios was brought up by Cheiron and was taught medicine by the Centaur. This made him an excellent physician who is very famous even nowadays. Asklepios had developed so much his skills, that he could raise a dead person. This lead Zeus to kill him and Apollo took revenge for his son's death by killing the Cyclopes who were said to have fashioned Zeus's thunderbolts.

Apollo coupled also with Manto who was the daughter of the prophet Calchas, giving birth to Mopsos who was also o prophet. Mopsos was such a talented prophet that made Calchas die of sorrow once having realized that Mopsos was superior to him!

What is more, Apollo had raped Kreousa, daughter of the king Kreon. The woman quit the child produced after that rape, yet Apollo took the boy and asked Pythia to raise him.

The god had also a love affairs with a very handsome man called Jacinth but was killed due to jealous of the wind Zefyros who was jealous of the god. Apollo was so sad after his friend’s death that he transformed his dead corps to a flower named after Jacinth, in order to make his name immortal.

It said that Apollo had ganged up on Zeus’s with Hera, Poseidon and Athena, in order to seize his power. According to their plan, they would enchain him with huge chains and then they would hang him on the sky dome. However they failed and Apollo was punished by Zeus who made him to serve humans for one year.