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Greek Mythology Link - a collection of myths retold by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology.

Document belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Characters • Places • Topics • Images • Bibliography • PDF Editions About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. Apollo Ἀπόλλων advanced Apollo. 1614: Roman statue by Apollonius. Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. "The lyre and the curved bow shall ever be dear to me, and I will declare to men the unfailing will of Zeus." (Apollo. Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo 131). Apollo is the god of prophecy, of musical and artistic inspiration, of archers and of healing. Leto persecuted When the Titaness Leto had been seduced by Zeus, she was hunted over the whole earth by the jealousy of the god's wife Hera. And having wandered through many countries Leto came to the rocky island of Delos, which is one of the so called Cyclades Islands in the Aegean Sea, where she gave birth to her twins, first to Artemis and soon after to Apollo. This island came about, they say, when Leto's sister Asteria 1 cast herself into the sea in order to escape the amorous advances of Zeus, who transformed her into a quail. From her a floating island sprang which was first called Ortygia and later Delos, although some have said that Ortygia and Delos are two different islands, and that Artemis was born in the former and Apollo in the latter. Birth This happened, some say, with great difficulty, for after nine days of travail the goddess of childbirth Ilithyia had not yet arrived, since she was kept in heaven by the envy of Hera. But the goddesses who kept Leto company bribed the heavenly messenger Iris 1 with a necklace strung with golden threads, and she brought Ilithyia to Delos. On her arrival, Leto cast her arms around a palm tree or an olive tree and, kneeling on the meadow, gave birth first to Artemis and then, with the help of Artemis' midwifery, to Apollo. The Lycian peasants Leto's troubles did not stop after giving birth, for it is said that she, having arrived with her newborns to a certain place in Lycia in Asia Minor where there was a lake, was forbidden by the inhospitable locals to quench her thirst. No matter how much she begged them to let her drink, they would still forbid her to touch the water, and as Leto insisted the Lycian peasants threatened her and soil the pool with their feet and hands, stirring up the mud from the bottom. Seeing them so tight-fisted and mean, and at the same time so in love with the pool, Leto turned them into frogs so that they could live in its depth for ever enjoying the water and the mud. Python Others say that the twins, so soon they were born, punished all the men of that time who, when Leto was pregnant and in the course of her wanderings, refused to receive her when she came to their land. And it is said that only four days after his birth Apollo went to Mount Parnassus and killed Python, the dragon that gave oracular responses and that had followed the pregnant Leto in order to kill her. Prophecy It was then that Apollo took over Themis' oracle in Delphi. He then appointed Cretan sailors as the sanctuary first priests. For having seen a Cretan ship sailing from Cnossos in Crete to Pylos in the Peloponnesus, he turned himself into a dolphin and brought the ship into the Crisaean Gulf (the Phocian section of the northern coast of the Gulf of Corinth). So from Crisa, the Cretan sailors came to Parnassus, conducted by Apollo. Having become priests of Apollo, they called the city Delphi, for the god, having appeared to them in the shape of a dolphin, told them: "I sprang upon the ship in the form of a dolphin, pray to me as Apollo Delphinius; also the altar itself shall be called Delphinius ..." (Apollo to the Cretan sailors. Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo 493). Concerning the oracle, says a Pythian priestess of Delphi that the first to have prophetic powers was Gaia, who appointed Daphnis 4, a Mountain Nymph (Oread), as prophetess. After her came Themis, and then the Titaness Phoebe 1, who gave her seat at Delphi to Phoebus Apollo, called after her. Others say that Gaia and Poseidon had the oracle in common and that it was Themis who gave the oracle to Apollo as a gift, and that Poseidon was compensated receiving Calaureia, that lies off Troezen, in exchange for the oracle. It is told that Phemonoe was the first prophetess of Apollo at Delphi. A Delphian woman, Boeo, affirms that the Hyperboreans Pagasus 1, Olen and Agyieus established the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, and that Olen was Apollo's first prophet. The seat of the oracle has been described as a cave hollowed out deep down in the earth with a narrow mouth, from which arose a breath which inspired a divine frenzy. Over the mouth a high tripod was placed, and when the Pythian priestess mounted it she received the breath and uttered oracles in both prose and verse. The oracle at Delphi was believed to be the most truthful, also because it was placed in the geographical center of Hellas or, as ...

Apollo - Greek Mythology Link