O Phoebus, from your throne of truth,

From your dwelling-place at the heart of the world,

You speak to men.

By Zeus’ decree no lie comes there,

No shadow to darken the word of truth.

Zeus sealed by an everlasting right

Apollo’s honor, that all may trust

With unshaken faith when he speaks

 

 

 

Name: Phoebus Apollo, God of the Sun, Light, Truth, Medicine, Music and the Arts. Known to all simply as Apollo

 

Appearance: In his godly form, he shimmers white and gold. Blinding mortals, but appealing to most goddesses. His tunic is pure white at all times. His golden hair is straight. Depending on his mood he has a short blonde beard and long golden hair. He has blue eyes that penetrates all whom they encounter. He shines as bright as the sun.

 

Personality: Apollo is a paradoxical personality. He can never tell a lie, but yet gets around this by using cunning and just the right words. So, you are not dealing with a god who is always trustworthy. He is one of the most vain gods on Olympus. He knows he is wonderful, he shimmers with gold and yellow fire when he makes the sun Rise and this truly goes to his head. He likes to surf on large clam shells, like his sister Aphrodite. He does have a good side, hence the healing gifts and his musical ability. But, it takes a lot for him to show that side of his character unless he’s in a really good mood. His artistic side is a huge part of who Apollo is, and he revels in soothing the gods with his music.

 

Background: The son of Zeus and Leto (lat. Latona), born on the little island of Delos. He has been called “the most Greek of all the gods.” He is a beautiful figure in Greek poetry, the master musician who delights Olympus as he plays on his golden lyre; the lord of the silver bow as well, the Archer-god, far shooting; the Healer, as well, who first taught men the healing art. Even more than of these good and lovely endowments, he is the god of Light, in whom is no darkness at all, and so he is the god of truth. No false word ever falls from his lips.

 

Delphi, under towering Parnassus, where Apollo’s oracle was, plays an important part in Greece. Castalia was its sacred spring; Cephissus its river. It was held to be the center of the world, so many pilgrims came to it, from foreign lands as well as Greece. No other shrine rivaled it. The answers to the questions asked by the anxious seekers for Truth were delivered by a priestess who went into a trance before she spoke. The trance was supposed to be caused by a vapor rising from a deep cleft in the rock over which her seat was placed, a three legged stool, the tripod.

 

Apollo is sometimes called Delian from Delos, the island of his birth, and Pythian from his killing of a serpent, Python, which once lived in the caves of Parnassus. It was a frightful monster and the contest was severe, but in the end the god’s unerring arrows won the victory. Another name often given him was “the Lycian,” variously explained as meaning wolf-god, god of light and god of Lycia.

 

His name Phoebus means “brilliant” or “shining.”

 

Apollo at Delphi was a purely beneficent power, a direct link between gods and men, guiding men to know the divine will, showing them how to make peace with the gods; the purifier, too, able to cleanse even those stained with the blood of their kindred. Nevertheless, there are a few tales told of him which show him pitiless and cruel. Two ideas were fighting in him as in all gods: a primitive, crude idea and one that was beautiful and poetic. In him only a little of the primitive is left. The laurel was his tree and many creatures were sacred to him, chief among them were the dolphin and the crow.

 

Apollo is the younger twin, with his twin sister Artemis being the older. He attracted none of the jealous punishment that Hera usually wreaked on her husband’s illegitimate offspring. Until, that is, Hera was cursed by Zeus for threatening to take another lover. In Zeus’ rage he cursed his wife and any man or god she kissed would turn to stone. Her first victim was Apollo to see just how powerful the curse was upon her. 

 

He is always an imposing figure on Olympus, however. And Zeus entrusted him, with the power of knowing the future.

 

Stories of Apollo’s childhood are rare, except for what he did by slaying the Python of Parnassus. He is usually highly honored by Zeus, although they quarreled bitterly when Apollo killed a she-dragon sacred to Gaia. Because of this Apollo was exiled from Olympus and was forced to live nine years on Earth. There he became a shepherd to Admetus, King of Thessaly, whom he later rewarded with immortality because he had proved such a generous employer. Apollo since then, was known as the god of shepherds, and for this reason a wolf, the scourge of shepherds, was often sacrificed to him.

 

Apollo attained the Lyre from his brother Hermes, who invented it. He became immensely skilled in its playing and it was said that he could calm the gods when they heard him play, he also instructed mortals in it’s use.

 

Like the other Olympians, Apollo was frequently involved in love affairs, many of which ended unhappily. He was unfaithful to the nymph Clytia, who pined to death and was reborn as the sunflower, always turning to face towards the sun, her lost lover. Daphne was so desperate to escape his amorous advances that she had herself turned into a laurel tree, which is why his plant is the laurel tree.

 

In an attempt to seduce Cassandra, Princess of Troy, he rashly gave her the gift of prophesy. She still rejected him, but he could not take back the gift and so punished her by ordaining that nobody would believe her prophecies.

 

His two mottoes, “Know yourself,” and “Nothing in excess”, which were carved on the gateway of the Delphi oracle, reflects the Greek philosophy of life. His male beauty epitomizes a greek ideal.

 

Apollo is also the only Roman god whose name was not changed when they adopted him into their Latin way of life.

 

Apollo also has many children. Asclepius, the god of healing and medicine, and the enchanting singer Orpheus and Linus (by Calliope.) He also was the father of Aristaeus, birthed to him by Cyrene.  Mopsus from Manto, Tenerus and Ismenus by Melia, Dorus, Laodocus, and Polypoetes by Phythia. He has an open marriage with the new goddess Sappho, whom he bestowed immortality too on their wedding day. She is currently pregnant with his child.

 

Powers: He has the normal god’s powers. He is a venerable god of Olympus, feared and respected by most. He is the archer god for his perfect aim and his powerful silver bow, the arrows are never-ending. He has the ability to soothe angry gods when he plays the Lyre, and has a special gift for killing monsters. He can foresee the future. 

 

Favorite City: Delphi