Apollo

Greek mythology – Present

God of the sun, music, poetry, healing, and prophecy; a twin of Artemis and one of the most widely worshipped of the Olympians.

greek mythologygodolympian

Apollo was one of the most important and many-sided of the Greek gods, associated with the sun and light, music and poetry, healing, archery, and prophecy. He was the son of Zeus and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt and the moon, a matched pair of golden archers, one linked to the sun, the other to the moon. Apollo was famous above all for prophecy. His temple at Delphi was home to the Oracle, a priestess through whom Apollo was believed to speak. Greeks traveled from across the ancient world to ask the Oracle about wars, marriages, and journeys, and her mysterious, riddling answers shaped countless decisions, and countless myths. Above the temple was carved the command 'Know thyself,' one of the most famous phrases of ancient Greece. As the god of music, Apollo was pictured with a lyre, and he led the nine Muses who inspired poets, exactly the poets who composed and performed epics like the Odyssey. That makes Apollo a fitting patron for this whole topic: the god of the very art form that carried these stories across the centuries. Where Athena represents practical wisdom and Poseidon raw power, Apollo represents order, beauty, and insight, the sunlit side of the Greek imagination. How we know. Delphi is an excavated sanctuary. Pair him with twin Artemis and the Odyssey journey.

Apollo

Further reading

Apollo

Further reading