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Apollo

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Divinities

   Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek
   original (Louvre Museum)
   Enlarge
   Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek
   original ( Louvre Museum)

   In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo ( Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων, Apóllōn;
   or Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros, was the archer-god of
   medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a bringer of
   death-dealing plague; as the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes)
   and director of their choir, he is a god of music and poetry. Hymns
   sung to Apollo were called Paeans.

   As the patron of Delphi ("Pythian Apollo") Apollo is an oracular god;
   in Classical times he took the place of Helios as god of the sun.
   Apollo was also considered to have dominion over colonists, over
   medicine, mediated through his son Asclepius, and was the patron
   defender of herds and flocks.

   Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of the chaste
   huntress Artemis, who took the place of Selene as goddess of the moon.
   As the prophetic deity of the Delphic oracle, Apollo was one of the
   most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities. Apollo is known
   in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. In Roman mythology he
   is known as Apollo and increasingly, especially during the third
   century BC, as Apollo Helios he became identified with Sol, the Sun.

Cult sites

   Unusual among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that had
   widespread influence: Delos and Delphi. In cult practice, Delian Apollo
   and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that they
   might both have shrines in the same locality. Theophoric names such as
   Apollodorus or Apollonios and cities named Apollonia are met with
   throughout the Greek world. Apollo's cult was already fully established
   when written sources commence, ca 700 BCE.

Oracular shrines

   Apollo had a famous oracle in Delphi, and other notable ones in Clarus
   and Branchidae. His oracular shrine in Abea in Phocis, was important
   enough to be consulted by Croesus (Herodotus, 1.46). Looking at the
   ancient oracular shrines to Apollo from the oldest to the youngest we
   find:
     * In Didyma, an oracle on the coast of Anatolia, south west of Lydian
       ( Luwian) Sardis, in which priests from the lineage of the
       Branchidae received inspiration by drinking from a healing spring
       located in the temple.
     * In Hieropolis, Asia Minor, priests breathed in vapors that for
       small animals were highly poisonous. Small animals and birds were
       cast into the Plutonium, named after Pluto—the god of death and the
       underworld—as a demonstration of their power. Prophecy was by
       movements of an archaic aniconic wooden xoanon of Apollo.
     * In Delos, there was an oracle to the Delian Apollo, during summer.
       The Heiron (Sanctuary) of Apollo adjacent to the Sacred Lake, was
       the place where the god was born.
     * In Corinth, the Oracle of Corinth came from the town of Tenea, from
       prisoners supposedly taken in the Trojan War
     * In Bassae in the Peloponnese
     * In Abae, near Delphi
     * In Delphi, the Pythia became filled with the pneuma of Apollo, said
       to come from a spring inside the Adyton. Apollo took this temple
       from Gaia.
     * At Patara, in Lycia, there was a seasonal winter oracle of Apollo,
       said to have been the place where the god went from Delos. As at
       Delphi the oracle at Patara was a woman.
     * At Clarus, on the west coast of Asia Minor; as at Delphi a holy
       spring which gave off a pneuma, from which the priests drank.
     * In Segesta in Sicily, the latest of the series, another oracle of
       Apollo was seized originally from Gaia.

   Oracles were also given by sons of Apollo.
     * In Oropus, north of Athens, the oracle Amphiaraus, was said to be
       the son of Apollo; Oropus also had a sacred spring.
     * in Labadea, 20 miles east of Delphi, Trophonius, another son of
       Apollo, killed his brother and fled to the cave where he was also
       afterwards consulted as an oracle.

Festivals

   The chief Apollonian festivals were the Carneia, Carpiae, Daphnephoria,
   Delia, Hyacinthia, Pyanepsia, Pythia and Thargelia.

Attributes and symbols

   Apollo's most common attributes were the lyre and the bow. Other
   attributes of his included the kithara (an advanced version of the
   common lyre) and plectrum. Another common emblem was the sacrificial
   tripod, representing his prophetic powers. The Pythian Games were held
   in Apollo's honour every four years at Delphi. The laurel bay plant was
   used in expiatory sacrifices and in making the crown of victory at
   these games. The palm was also sacred to Apollo because he had been
   born under one in Delos. Animals sacred to Apollo included wolves,
   dolphins and roe, swans and grasshoppers (symbolizing music and song),
   hawks, ravens, crows and snakes (referencing Apollo's function as the
   god of prophecy), mice, laurel and griffins, mythical eagle-lion
   hybrids of Eastern origin.

   As god of colonization, Apollo gave oracular guidance on colonies,
   especially during the height of colonization, 750–550 BC. According to
   Greek tradition, he helped Cretan or Arcadian colonists found the city
   of Troy. However, this story may reflect a cultural influence which had
   the reverse direction: Hittite cuneiform texts mention a Minor Asian
   god called Appaliunas or Apalunas in connection with the city of
   Wilusa, which is now regarded as being identical with the Greek Illios
   by most scholars. In this interpretation, Apollo’s title of Lykegenes
   can simply be read as "born in Lycia", which effectively severs the
   god's supposed link with wolves (possibly a folk etymology).

   In literary contexts Apollo represents harmony, order, and
   reasons—characteristics contrasted with those of Dionysus, god of wine,
   who represents ecstasy and disorder. The contrast between the roles of
   these gods is reflected in the adjectives Apollonian and Dionysian.
   However, the Greeks thought of the two qualities as complementary: the
   two gods are brothers, and when Apollo at winter left for Hyperborea,
   he would leave the Delphi Oracle to Dionysus. This contrast appears to
   be shown on the two sides of the Borghese Vase.

Roman Apollo

   The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks. Roman name of
   Apollo was Phoebus. There is a tradition that the Delphic oracle was
   consulted as early as the period of the kings of Rome during the reign
   of Tarquinius Superbus. In 430 BCE, a temple was dedicated to Apollo on
   the occasion of a pestilence. During the Second Punic War in 212 BCE,
   the Ludi Apollinares ("Apollonian Games") were instituted in his
   honour. In the time of Augustus, who considered himself under the
   special protection of Apollo and was even said to be his son, his
   worship developed and he became one of the chief gods of Rome. After
   the battle of Actium, Augustus enlarged his old temple, dedicated a
   portion of the spoils to him, and instituted quinquennial games in his
   honour. He also erected a new temple on the Palatine hill and
   transferred the secular games, for which Horace composed his Carmen
   Saeculare, to Apollo and Diana.

Origins of the cult of Apollo

   It appears that both Greek and Etruscan Apollos came to the Aegean
   during the Archaic Period (from 1,100 BCE till 800 BCE) from Anatolia.
   Homer pictures him on the side of the Trojans, not the Achaeans, in the
   Trojan War and he has close affiliations with Luwian Apaliuna, who in
   turn seems to have traveled west from further east. Late Bronze Age
   (from 1,700 BCE - 1,200 BCE) Hittite and Hurrian " Aplu", like Homeric
   Apollo, was a God of the Plague, and resembles the mouse god Apollo
   Smintheus. Here we have an apotropaic situation, where a god originally
   bringing the plague was invoked to end illness, merging over time
   through fusion with the Mycenaean "doctor" god Paieon (PA-JA-WO in
   Linear B); Paean, in Homer, was the Greek physician of the gods. In
   other writers the word is a mere epithet of Apollo in his capacity as a
   god of healing, but it is now known from Linear B that Paean was
   originally a separate deity.
   Apollo (the "Adonis" of Centocelle), Roman after a Greek original
   (Ashmolean Museum)
   Enlarge
   Apollo (the "Adonis" of Centocelle), Roman after a Greek original (
   Ashmolean Museum)

   Homer left the question unanswered, whilst Hesiod separated the two,
   and in later poetry Paean was invoked independently as a god of
   healing. It is equally difficult to separate Paean or Paeon in the
   sense of "healer" from Paean in the sense of "song." It was believed to
   refer to the ancient association between the healing craft and the
   singing of spells, but here we see a shift from the concerns to the
   original sense of "healer" gradually giving way to that of " hymn,"
   from the phrase Ιή Παιάν.
   Base of the Apollo Ietros (gr. for healer) Statue
   Enlarge
   Base of the Apollo Ietros (gr. for healer) Statue

   Such songs were originally addressed to Apollo, and afterwards to other
   gods, Dionysus, Helios, Asclepius, gods associated with Apollo. About
   the fourth century BC the paean became merely a formula of adulation;
   its object was either to implore protection against disease and
   misfortune, or to offer thanks after such protection had been rendered.
   It was in this way that Apollo became recognised as the God of Music.
   Apollo's role as the slayer of the Python led to his association with
   battle and victory; hence it became the Roman custom for a paean to be
   sung by an army on the march and before entering into battle, when a
   fleet left the harbour, and also after a victory had been won.

   Hurrian Aplu itself seems to be derived from the Babylonian "Aplu"
   meaning a "son of"—a title that was given to the Babylonian plague god,
   Nergal (son of Enlil). Apollo's links with oracles again seem to be
   associated with wishing to know the outcome of an illness.
   Apollo with a radiant halo in a Roman floor mosaic, El Djem, Tunisia,
   late 2nd century
   Enlarge
   Apollo with a radiant halo in a Roman floor mosaic, El Djem, Tunisia,
   late 2nd century

   Apollo killed the Python of Delphi and took over that oracle, so he is
   vanquisher of unconscious terrors. He is golden-haired like the sun; he
   is an archer who shoots arrows of insight and/or death; he is a god of
   music and the lyre. Healing belongs to his realm: he was the father of
   Asclepius, the god of medicine. The Muses are part of his retinue, so
   that music, history, dreams, poetry, dance, all belong to him. The
   Muses are those we call on when we evoke creative imagination to give
   us helpful images…

Apollo in art

   In art, Apollo is depicted as a handsome beardless young man, often
   with a lyre or bow in hand. In the late second century floor mosaic
   from El Djem, Roman Thysdrus, (illustration, right), he is identifiable
   as Apollo Helios by his effulgent halo, though now even a god's divine
   nakedness is concealed by his cloak, a mark of increasing conventions
   of modesty in the later Empire. Another haloed Apollo in mosaic, from
   Hadrumentum, is in the museum at Sousse . The conventions of this
   representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed, curling
   hair cut in locks grazing the neck, were developed in the 3rd century
   BCE to depict Alexander the Great (Bieber 1964, Yalouris 1980). Some
   time after this mosaic was executed, the earliest depictions of Christ
   will be beardless and haloed.

Mythology

Birth

   When Hera discovered that Leto was pregnant and that Zeus was the
   father, she banned Leto from giving birth on "terra-firma", or the
   mainland, or any island at sea. In her wanderings, Leto found the newly
   created floating island of Delos, which was neither mainland nor a real
   island, and she gave birth there. The island was surrounded by swans.
   Afterwards, Zeus secured Delos to the bottom of the ocean. This island
   later became sacred to Apollo.

   It is also stated that Hera kidnapped Ilithyia, the goddess of
   childbirth, to prevent Leto from going into labor. The other gods
   tricked Hera into letting her go by offering her a necklace, nine yards
   long, of amber. Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and
   then assisted with the birth of Apollo, or that Artemis was born one
   day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto
   cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo. Apollo was
   born on the seventh day (ἡβδομαγενης) of the month Thargelion
   —according to Delian tradition— or of the month Bysios— according to
   Delphian tradition. The seventh and twentieth, the days of the new and
   full moon, were ever afterwards held sacred to him.

Youth

   In his youth, Apollo killed the chthonic dragon Python, which lived in
   Delphi beside the Castalian Spring because Python had attempted to rape
   Leto while she was pregnant with Apollo and Artemis. This was the
   spring which emitted vapors that caused the oracle at Delphi to give
   her prophesies. Apollo killed Python but had to be punished for it,
   since Python was a child of Gaia.

   Apollo has his ominous aspects, too. Marsyas, who dared challenge him
   to a music contest, was flayed after he lost. His arrows can bring
   death: the Iliad begins with a terrible pestilence that Apollo brought
   down upon the Greeks because they dishonored his priest Chryses.
   Apollo's arrows of death struck Niobe, who, excessively proud of her
   seven sons and seven daughters, had disparaged Apollo's mother, Leto,
   for having only two children (Apollo and Artemis).

Apollo and Admetus

   When Zeus struck down Apollo's son, Asclepius, with a lightning bolt
   for resurrecting the dead (transgressing Themis by stealing Hades's
   subjects), Apollo in revenge killed the Cyclops, who had fashioned the
   bolt for Zeus. Apollo would have been banished to Tartarus forever, but
   was instead sentenced to one year of hard labor as punishment, thanks
   to the intercession of his mother, Leto. During this time he served as
   shepherd for King Admetus of Pherae in Thessaly. Admetus treated Apollo
   well, and, in return, the god conferred great benefits on Admetus.

   Apollo helped Admetus win Alcestis, the daughter of King Pelias and
   later convinced the Fates to let Admetus live past his time, if another
   took his place. But when it came time for Admetus to die, his elderly
   parents, whom he had assumed would gladly die for him, refused to
   cooperate. Instead, Alcestis took his place, but Heracles managed to
   "persuade" Thanatos, the god of death, to return her to the world of
   the living.

Apollo during the Trojan War

   Apollo shot arrows infected with the plague into the Greek encampment
   during the Trojan War in retribution for Agamemnon's insult to Chryses,
   a priest of Apollo whose daughter Chryseis had been captured. He
   demanded her return, and the Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the
   anger of Achilles, which is the theme of the Iliad.

   When Diomedes injured Aeneas, (Iliad), Apollo rescued him. First,
   Aphrodite tried to rescue Aeneas but Diomedes injured her as well.
   Aeneas was then enveloped in a cloud by Apollo, who took him to
   Pergamos, a sacred spot in Troy.

   Apollo aided Paris in the killing of Achilles by guiding the arrow of
   his bow into Achilles' heel. One interpretation of his motive is that
   it was in revenge for Achilles' sacrilege in murdering Troilus, the
   god's own son by Hecuba, on the very altar of the god's own temple.

Niobe

   A queen of Thebes and wife of Amphion, Niobe boasted of her superiority
   to Leto because she had fourteen children ( Niobids), seven male and
   seven female, while Leto had only two. Apollo killed her sons as they
   practiced athletics, with the last begging for his life, and Artemis
   her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used poisoned arrows to kill them,
   though according to some versions of the myth, a number of the Niobids
   were spared ( Chloris, usually). Amphion, at the sight of his dead
   sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing
   revenge. A devastated Niobe fled to Mt. Siplyon in Asia Minor and
   turned into stone as she wept. Her tears formed the river Achelous.
   Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes to stone and so no one buried
   the Niobids until the ninth day after their death, when the gods
   themselves entombed them.

Apollo's consorts and children

Female lovers

   Apollo chased the nymph Daphne, daughter of Peneus, who had scorned
   him. His infatuation was caused by an arrow from Eros, who was jealous
   because Apollo had made fun of his archery skills. Eros also claimed to
   be irritated by Apollo's singing. Simultaneously, however, Eros had
   shot a hate arrow into Daphne, causing her to be repulsed by Apollo.
   Following a spirited chase by Apollo, Daphne prayed to Mother Earth,
   or, alternatively, her father - a river god - to help her and he
   changed her into a Laurel tree, which became sacred to Apollo: see
   Apollo and Daphne.

   Apollo had an affair with a human princess named Leucothea, daughter of
   Orchamus and sister of Clytia. Leucothea loved Apollo who disguised
   himself as Leucothea's mother to gain entrance to her chambers. Clytia,
   jealous of her sister because she wanted Apollo for herself, told
   Orchamus the truth, betraying her sister's trust and confidence in her.
   Enraged, Orchamus ordered Leucothea to be buried alive. Apollo refused
   to forgive Clytia for betraying his beloved, and a grieving Clytia
   wilted and slowly died. Apollo changed her into an incense plant,
   either heliotrope or sunflower, which follows the sun every day.

   Marpessa was kidnapped by Idas but was loved by Apollo as well. Zeus
   made her choose between them, and she chose Idas on the grounds that
   Apollo, being immortal, would tire of her when she grew old.

   Castalia was a nymph whom Apollo loved. She fled from him and dived
   into the spring at Delphi, at the base of Mt. Parnassos, which was then
   named after her. Water from this spring was sacred; it was used to
   clean the Delphian temples and inspire poets.

   By Cyrene, Apollo had a son named Aristaeus, who became the patron god
   of cattle, fruit trees, hunting, husbandry and bee-keeping. He was also
   a culture-hero and taught humanity dairy skills and the use of nets and
   traps in hunting, as well as how to cultivate olives.

   With Hecuba, wife of King Priam of Troy, Apollo had a son named
   Troilius. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated as long
   as Troilius reached the age of twenty alive. He and his sister,
   Polyxena were ambushed and killed by Achilles.

   Apollo also fell in love with Cassandra, daughter of Hecuba and Priam,
   and Troilius' half-sister. He promised Cassandra the gift of prophecy
   to seduce her, but she rejected him afterwards. Enraged, Apollo indeed
   gifted her with the ability to know the future, with a curse that no
   one would ever believe her.

   Coronis, daughter of Phlegyas, King of the Lapiths, was another of
   Apollo's liaisons. Pregnant with Asclepius, Coronis fell in love with
   Ischys, son of Elatus. A crow informed Apollo of the affair. When first
   informed he disbelieved the crow and turned all crows black (where they
   were previously white) as a punishment for spreading untruths. When he
   found out the truth he sent his sister, Artemis, to kill Coronis. As a
   result he also made the crow sacred and gave them the task of
   announcing important deaths. Apollo rescued the baby and gave it to the
   centaur Chiron to raise. Phlegyas was irate after the death of his
   daughter and burned the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Apollo then killed
   him for what he did.

   In Euripides' play Ion, Apollo fathered Ion by Creusa, wife of Xuthus.
   Creusa left Ion to die in the wild, but Apollo asked Hermes to save the
   child and bring him to the oracle at Delphi, where he was raised by a
   priestess.

Male lovers

   Apollo and HyacinthusJacopo Caraglio; 16th c. Italian engraving
   Enlarge
   Apollo and Hyacinthus
   Jacopo Caraglio; 16th c. Italian engraving

   Apollo, the eternal beardless kouros himself, had the most prominent
   male relationships of all the Greek Gods. That was to be expected from
   a god who was god of the palaestra, the athletic gathering place for
   youth who all competed in the nude, a god said to represent the ideal
   educator and therefore the ideal erastes, or lover of a boy (Sergent,
   p.102). All his lovers were younger than him, in the style of the Greek
   pederastic relationships of the time. Many of Apollo's young beloveds
   died "accidentally", a reflection on the function of these myths as
   part of rites of passage, in which the youth died in order to be reborn
   as an adult.

   Hyacinth was one of his male lovers. Hyacinthus was a Spartan prince,
   beautiful and athletic. The pair were practicing throwing the discus
   when Hyacinthus was struck in the head by a discus blown off course by
   Zephyrus, who was jealous of Apollo and loved Hyacinthus as well. When
   Hyacinthus died, Apollo is said in some accounts to have been so filled
   with grief that he cursed his own immortality, wishing to join his
   lover in mortal death. Out of the blood of his slain lover Apollo
   created the hyacinth flower as a memorial to his death, and his tears
   stained the flower petals with άί άί, meaning alas. The Festival of
   Hyacinthus was a celebration of Sparta.

   One of his other liaisons was with Acantha, the spirit of the acanthus
   tree. Upon his death, he was transformed into a sun-loving herb by
   Apollo, and his bereaved sister, Acanthis, was turned into a thistle
   finch by the other gods.

   Another male lover was Cyparissus, a descendant of Heracles. Apollo
   gave the boy a tame deer as a companion but Cyparissus accidentally
   killed it with a javelin as it lay asleep in the undergrowth.
   Cyparissus asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever. Apollo turned
   the sad boy into a cypress tree, which was said to be a sad tree
   because the sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.

Apollo and the birth of Hermes

   Hermes was born on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. The story is told in the
   Homeric Hymn to Hermes. His mother, Maia, had been secretly impregnated
   by Zeus, in a secret affair. Maia wrapped the infant in blankets but
   Hermes escaped while she was asleep. Hermes ran to Thessaly, where
   Apollo was grazing his cattle. The infant Hermes stole a number of his
   cows and took them to a cave in the woods near Pylos, covering their
   tracks. In the cave, he found a tortoise and killed it, then removed
   the insides. He used one of the cow's intestines and the tortoise shell
   and made the first lyre. Apollo complained to Maia that her son had
   stolen his cattle, but Hermes had already replaced himself in the
   blankets she had wrapped him in, so Maia refused to believe Apollo's
   claim. Zeus intervened and, claiming to have seen the events, sided
   with Apollo. Hermes then began to play music on the lyre he had
   invented. Apollo, a god of music, fell in love with the instrument and
   offered to allow exchange of the cattle for the lyre. Hence, Apollo
   became a master of the lyre and Hermes invented a kind of
   pipes-instrument called a syrinx.

   Later, Apollo exchanged a caduceus for a syrinx from Hermes.

Other stories

   Apollo gave the order, through the Oracle at Delphi, for Orestes to
   kill his mother, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. Orestes was
   punished fiercely by the Erinyes ( female personifications of
   vengeance) for this crime.

   In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his surviving crew landed on an island
   sacred to Helios the sun god, where he kept sacred cattle. Though
   Odysseus warned his men not to (as Tiresias and Circe had told him),
   they killed and ate some of the cattle and Helios had Zeus destroy the
   ship and all the men save Odysseus.

   Apollo also had a lyre-playing contest with Cinyras, his son, who
   committed suicide when he lost.

   Apollo killed the Aloadae when they attempted to storm Mt. Olympus.

   It was also said that Apollo rode on the back of a swan to the land of
   the Hyperboreans during the winter months, a swan that he also lent to
   his beloved Hyacinthus to ride.

   Apollo turned Cephissus into a sea monster.

Musical contests

Pan

   Once Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and
   to challenge Apollo, the god of the lyre, to a trial of skill. Tmolus,
   the mountain-god, was chosen to umpire. Pan blew on his pipes, and with
   his rustic melody gave great satisfaction to himself and his faithful
   follower, Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the
   strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and
   all but Midas agreed with the judgment. He dissented, and questioned
   the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair
   of ears any longer, and caused them to become the ears of a donkey.

Marsyas

   The Flaying of Marsyas by Titian, c.1570-76.
   Enlarge
   The Flaying of Marsyas by Titian, c.1570-76.

   Marsyas was a satyr who challenged Apollo to a contest of music. He had
   found an aulos on the ground, tossed away after being invented by
   Athena because it made her cheeks puffy. Marsyas lost and was flayed
   alive in a cave near Calaenae in Phrygia for his hubris to challenge a
   god. His blood turned into the river Marsyas.

   Another variation is that Apollo played his instrument (the lyre)
   upside down. Marsyas could not do this with his instrument (the flute),
   and so Apollo hung him from a tree and flayed him alive. [taken from
   MAN MYTH & MAGIC by Richard Cavendish]

Epithets and cult titles

   Apollo, like other Greek deities, had a number of epithets applied to
   him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to
   the god. However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in
   Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature, chief among them
   Phoebus ("shining one"), which was very commonly used by both the
   Greeks and Romans in Apollo's role as the god of light.

   In Apollo's role as healer, his appellations included Akesios and
   Iatros, meaning "healer". He was also called Alexikakos ("restrainer of
   evil") and Apotropaeus ("he who averts evil"), and was referred to by
   the Romans as Averruncus ("averter of evils"). As a plague god and
   defender against rats and locusts, Apollo was known as Smintheus
   ("mouse-catcher") and Parnopius ("grasshopper"). The Romans also called
   Apollo Culicarius ("driving away midges"). In his healing aspect, the
   Romans referred to Apollo as Medicus ("the Physician"), and a temple
   was dedicated to Apollo Medicus at Rome, probably next to the temple of
   Bellona.

   As a god of archery, Apollo was known as Aphetoros ("god of the bow")
   and Argurotoxos ("with the silver bow"). The Romans referred to Apollo
   as Articenens ("carrying the bow") as well. As a pastoral shepherd-god,
   Apollo was known as Nomios ("wandering").

   Apollo was also known as Archegetes ("director of the foundation"), who
   oversaw colonies. He was known as Klarios, from the Doric klaros
   ("allotment of land"), for his supervision over cities and colonies.

   He was known as Delphinios ("Delphinian"), meaning "of the womb", in
   his association with Delphoi ( Delphi). At Delphi, he was also known as
   Pythios ("Pythian"). An aitiology in the Homeric hymns connects the
   epitheton to dolphins. Kynthios, another common epithet, stemmed from
   his birth on Mt. Cynthus. He was also known as Lyceios or Lykegenes,
   which either meant "wolfish" or "of Lycia", Lycia being the place where
   some postulate that his cult originated.

   Specifically as god of prophecy, Apollo was known as Loxias ("the
   obscure"). He was also known as Coelispex ("he who watches the
   heavens") to the Romans. Apollo was attributed the epithet Musagetes as
   the leader of the muses, and Nymphegetes as " nymph-leader".

   Acesius was a surname of Apollo, under which he was worshipped in Elis,
   where he had a temple in the agora. This surname, which has the same
   meaning as akestor and alezikakos, characterized the god as the averter
   of evil.

Etymology

   The name Apollo might have been derived from a Pre-Hellenic compound
   Apo-ollon, likely related to an archaic verb Apo-ell- and literally
   meaning "he who elbows off", and thus "the Dispelling One". Indeed, he
   seems to have personified the power to dispel and ward off evil, which
   was related to his association with the darkness-dispelling power of
   the morning sun and the conceived power of reason and prophecy to
   dispel doubt and ignorance. In addition, Apollo's dispelling aspect
   made him associated with:
     * city walls and doorways, which served as bulwarks to guard against
       trespassers;
     * disembarkations and expatriations to colonies, which served to
       carry people away;
     * like his son Asclepius, healing, which dispelled disease and
       illness;
     * shepherds tending their flocks, who warded off pests and predators;
     * music and the arts, which dispelled discord and barbarism;
     * fit and skilled young men, with their highly important ability to
       dispel intruders and invading armies;
     * the ability of foresight into the future.

   An explanation given by Plutarch in Moralia is that Apollon signified
   unity, since pollon meant "many", and the prefix a- was a negative.
   Thus, Apollon could be read as meaning "deprived of multitude". Apollo
   was consequently associated with the monad.

   Hesychius connects the name Apollo with the Doric απελλα, which means
   assembly, so that Apollo would be the god of political life, and he
   also gives the explanation σηκος ("fold"), in which case Apollo would
   be the god of flocks and herds.

In popular culture

     * In the 1960s, NASA named its Apollo Lunar program after Apollo,
       because he was considered the god of all wisdom. Many people
       mistakenly believe that the rockets that carried astronauts to the
       Moon were called Apollo rockets; they were actually Saturn V
       rockets, on top of which sat the Apollo spacecraft.

     * Apollo is the subject of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem of 1820 the
       "Hymn of Apollo"

     * William Rimmer's artistic depiction of Apollo was used as the
       symbol of the band Led Zeppelin's record label Swan Song Records.

     * Apollo is the name of a Daedalus class battlecruiser in the
       science-fiction television series Stargate Atlantis.

     * Apollo is the name of a superhuman (inspired by Superman) with
       connections to the sun, in the superhero comic The Authority.

     * In both series of Battlestar Galatica one of the central
       protagonists, Captain Lee Adama, is often referred to by his call
       sign Apollo.

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