Apollo is known in Greek tradition as the god of light, arts, and divination, and the
son of the supreme god of the Greeks, Zeus.
Apollo is the closest to the Greek ideal: always young, handsome, fearless in battle,
intelligent, and with outstanding artistic skills.
He represents the highest level of spirituality that man can reach and is one of the most
beautiful symbols of human ascension.
The meaning of his name has evolved over time with the change of his attributes in the mentality
of the Greeks, but the etymology remains unstable.
For the archaic period, the name of the god seems to derive from the verb "to destroy"
or from the concept of order, having affinities with other similar gods from the area of ancient
Mesopotamia.
His Attic name, taken from the Doric form “Apellon”, comes close to the word “apella”,
which means “sheep pen”, being worshiped at the time, by Greeks, nomads, and sheep
breeders, as the protective god of shepherds and flocks.
Due to his fundamental purpose, that of the prophet of Zeus, the myth presents Apollo
as shepherding the congregations of people through wisdom and eloquence.
For a better understanding of his importance in the Greek pantheon, the Greek philosopher
Plato links his name to the meaning of the words “apolysis” and “apolousis”,
meaning “salvation” and “purification”.
Depending on his duties in various aspects of human and cosmic life, the god is given
several names such as:
Apollo Alexikakos (the One who protects from evil), Argurotoxos (the One with the Silver
Bow), Apollo Pythios (the Snake Killer), Apollo Musagetes.
(The leader of the muses), Apollo Citharede (The one who plays the lyre), or Apollo Phoebus
(The Pure One).
There are several variants of the myth of the birth of Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis,
but all ancient sources mention that their mother, Leto, goddess of motherhood and protector
of babies, carrying the children of Zeus in her womb, is stalked by his future wife, Hera,
who prevents her from giving birth.
To avoid the vengeful Hera, Leto tries in vain to find a safe place to give birth to
twins, and her sister, Asteria, transforms into a quail and throws herself into the sea.
Poseidon, the brother of Zeus, and god of the sea, decides to hide Asteria and turns
her into a floating island named “the quail island”, or Ortigia.
Leto seeks refuge on the island and promises that her son will raise it from the sea and
build a temple in this place.
The island accepts and offers her a cave as a shelter.
Apollo is born on the seventh day after her twin sister Artemis and fulfills his mother's
promise.
He lifted the island out of the water by supporting it on four columns from the bottom of the
sea, and Ortigia became a fixed island called Delos, in translation "the bright one".
Apollo immediately takes on a manly appearance and receives a bow and arrow from the god
of fire, Hephaestus, to kill the serpent Python, sent by Hera to kill the goddess Leto.
Thus he became the protector of his mother and, in a broad sense, of justice.
The difficulty with which Apollo comes into the world symbolizes the fact that perfection
involves effort and struggle.
Delphic mythology mentions as the residence of Apollo the Land of the Hyperboreans, about
whom Pindar says in the “First Pythian Ode” that they were holy men who knew no old age,
disease, worries, or wars.
In an adoration song dedicated to the god, it is said that at his birth Zeus offered
him a swan-drawn chariot to take him to Delphi, but Apollo chose to go first to this enigmatic
northern land where he spent a whole year before going Delphi with the coming of summer,
bringing with him divine music and inspiration.
As the god of music, the myths say that at his birth, the sacred swans sent by Zeus bypassed
the island seven times to pay homage to him, and in their memory, Apollo gave the seven
strings to the lyre, thus becoming the god with the lyre.
His talent has aroused the envy of legendary singers such as the god Pan or the satyr Marsyas,
whom he defeats in the competition.
But about this music contest, I will talk about in a future video.
This was the story and myth of Apollo.
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Yours truly: Mythos, the Historian