Apollo is the son of Zeus and
Leto and belongs to the
second group of the Olympic gods.
His birth was quite difficult because the jealous
Hera was hunting her mother through the whole world
and nobody wanted to give her shelter afraid of the revenge she could take.
Finally, the Island of Delos
provided Leto with shelter and there she gave birth to the twins
Apollo and Artemis.
Apollo was
the god of the light, the foretelling and the music. He did a lot of heroic actions,
as for example killing the
terrible Dragon Python with his arrows to
relieve the people of Delphi of their fear. For this he got the nickname
of python Apollo and made Delphi his own.
Apollo was a really beautiful god
and had a lot of children, among others Orpheus,
Kalliope
and many more. Once he fall deeply in love with the nymph
Daphne, who could just escape from him by transforming
herself into a laurel. Since then the
laurel is the holy sign for Apollon.
The got
built countless temples and shrines to venerate him.
Many animals were related with him such as the wolf, the swan, the hawk, the
vulture and the dolphin. Later on, even the Romans still venerated Apollo
instead of having an equivalent Roman god for him.
The Beginning / Gods of the Olympus / Smaller Gods.
