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Apollo

The God of Light & Arts

Domain: Sun, Poetry & Healing
Alignment: Lawful Good
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Golden Solar Lyre

Speak with Apollo

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Greeks

Region

Greece & the Mediterranean

Period

8th c. BC – 4th c. AD

The Olympian gods were worshipped by the city-states of ancient Greece, from Athens to Sparta, which raised them temples such as the Parthenon. Reigning atop Mount Olympus, they presided over every aspect of life and were celebrated in festivals like the Olympic Games. Homer and Hesiod fixed their myths, which shaped all of Western culture.

The Olympic Games were held every four years in honor of Zeus, and the Panathenaea celebrated Athena in Athens. The Eleusinian Mysteries initiated the faithful into the secrets of Demeter and Persephone, while crowds consulted Apollo's oracle at Delphi.

At a glance

Apollo is the Greek god of oracular prophecy, music, poetry, healing and the bow, later also associated with light and the Sun. Son of Zeus and Leto and brother of Artemis, he was born on Delos according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo and Apollodorus. Lord of the oracle at Delphi, where he spoke through the Pythia, he became in Greek culture a symbol of measure, harmony and artistic perfection.

14 min read · Reviewed on October 13, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

Lyre, bow and arrow, laurel, sun, swan and raven

Family

Parents

ZeusLeto

Siblings

Artemis

Apollo

Unions

CoronisHyacinthus

Children

AsclepiusOrpheus (nominally, according to Apollodorus 1.3.2)

Genealogy according to Hesíodo, Teogonia 918–920; Hino Homérico a Apolo 14–18; Pseudo-Apolodoro, Biblioteca 1.3.2, 1.3.3, 1.4.1, 3.10.3

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Homero / Homer, Iliad. translation: A. T. Murray, Loeb, 1924. read
Hesiod and The Homeric Hymns, Theogony and Hymn to Apollo. translation: H. G. Evelyn-White, Loeb, 1914. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.1–1.20. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.19–1.44. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.41. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.1–16. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Pausânias / Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.17–31. translation: W. H. S. Jones, Loeb, 1918–1935. read
Ovid, Metamorphoses, book 1. translation: Brookes More, 1922. read
Ovid, Metamorphoses, book 6. translation: Brookes More, 1922. read
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, book 1. translation: James George Frazer, Loeb, 1921. read
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library, book 3. translation: James George Frazer, Loeb, 1921. read

Studies

Walter Burkert, Greek Religion. Harvard University Press, 1985.
Timothy Gantz, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
Joseph Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins. University of California Press, 1959. open
Theoi Project, Apollon. Aaron J. Atsma, 2000–2017. open
J. Z. de Boer, J. R. Hale, J. Chanton, New evidence for the geological origins of the ancient Delphic oracle (Greece). Geology 29, 2001. open
G. Etiope, K. Papatheodorou, D. Christodoulou, M. Geraga, P. Favali, The geological links of the ancient Delphic Oracle (Greece): A reappraisal of natural gas occurrence and origin. Geology 34, 2006. open

Name and epithets

The name Ἀπόλλων (Apóllōn) has dialect variants: Doric Ἀπέλλων (Apéllōn) and Aeolic Ἄπλουν (Áploun). Its etymology is uncertain and disputed.

In the ancient sources

Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 7th–6th c. BC. The birth on Delos, the festival of the Ionians, the choice of Crisa, the she-dragon killed beside the spring, and the Cretans who become servants of the temple.

The myths

The birth on Delos. In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Leto, about to give birth, wanders through many lands looking for someone who will receive her son.

Worship and archaeology

Delphi, on the slopes of Parnassus, was held to be the centre of the Earth: Pausanias (10.16.3) describes the omphalos, made of white marble, which the Delphians said was the centre of all the earth.

How the god was depicted

In Greek sculpture and vase painting, Apollo usually appears as a beardless youth with long hair, carrying the lyre, the bow and quiver, the laurel branch or the tripod.

What scholars debate

Appaliunas and the origin of the name. Since the 20th century scholars have debated whether Apollo has an Anatolian origin.

After antiquity

The Romans received the god under his Greek name, Apollo. Augustus aligned himself with Apollo and dedicated a temple to him on the Palatine Hill in 28 BC.

Did you know?

According to Pausanias, the first contest at Delphi with prizes was the singing of a hymn to the god, won by Chrysothemis of Crete. Kithara playing without song was only added at the eighth Pythian festival.

Codex relic

Golden Solar Lyre. A celestial instrument capable of calming beasts and curing plagues with golden harmonies.

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