Apollo Sun God of Great Antiquity-
History of Apollo-
Apollo was the Great Sun God of his Time, but he also represented a
god of youth eternal, wisdom and of
great
beauty. Besides being that of a God of great beauty, he was also an
represented of the moral excellence. He even had a cult, called Delphi, which
at the time, had enormous influence on matters of the state, religion, everyday
Law. His influence within his cult
Delphi, helped to spread tolerance in all types of social ranks. Apollo besides
being the God of Sun and Beauty was also a god of Justice, law and order too.
Apollo was one of the most important and complex of the
Olympian
deities in ancient Greek and Roman religion. It seems that Apollo, one of the
Olympian deities was the ideal Kouros – [a beardless, athletic youth]. He was
recognized as a god of light, sun, truth, prophecy, healing, plague, music,
poetry and he and many more talents.
He Is one of the many sons of Zeus. And his mother was Leto. He
also had a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greek
Mythology as the Apulu. Like all other Gods
[Greek deities of the original Olympians, Apollo had a number of epithets
applied to him, reflecting the variety of types of roles, duties and aspects
ascribed to him.
As the leader of the Delphi Cult, Apollo, was called an Oracular
God, the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. As
leader of this Cult he had
great skills in medicine and healing even though being that of a god himself.
Yet there is another side of Apollo, that his healing ability would change all
of that. He can also bring ill-health and deadly plague to all.
The Romans would worship the God Apollo. And Apollo was
adopted
from the Greeks as a quintessentially Greek god, Apollo had no direct Roman
equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred him to as Phoebus.
Lastly, in the 430s BCE, Apollo’s first temple in Rome was
established in the Flaminian fields, which replaced an older cult site known as
the “Apollinare”. This all was during the Second Punic War in 212 BCE. The Ludi
Apollinares or as they would call them the ‘Apollonian Games’ were instituted
in Apollo’s honor, with the instructions of a prophecy attributed to Marcius.
Mythology of Apollo-
When Hera discovered that
Leto was was pregnant and her
husband the God Zeus was the father, she banned
Leto from giving birth on “terra firma’.
Since Leto couldn’t give birth in the proper gods place do to Hera’s
ravage, Leto found herself wandering in a newly created floating island of
Delos, which neither was the mainland nor a real island.
After arriving on the
island of Delos, very pregnant and she gave birth. Afterwards Leto was accepted
by the people of the island, offering them her a promise that her son would be
always favorable toward the city. After Zeus knew that his son Apollo was born
and safe on the island of Delos, the great
God Zeus secured that Delos to the
bottom of the ocean. Later this island became sacred to Apollo. His birthplace.
It is also said that Hera tried to stop the birth of Apollo in
many ways; One was that she kidnapped Eileithyia a Goddess of childbirth to
prevent Leto from going into labor with Zeus son with Leto. The other god like
tricks that Hera would do was letting her go by offering her a necklace, of
amber. Mythographers do agree that Artemis was born first and then assisted
with the birth of Apollo, or that of Artemis was born one day before the God
Apollo, on the island of origin and that she then helped Leto cross the sea to
the island of Delos the very next day to give birth to Apollo. I know this all
sounds very confusing, but I guess it wouldn’t be the Gods of Olympiam’s if it
wasn’t a bit confusing. From my writing of other Gods, I have found that they
are a proud lot, but have many facets about them. Now for Apollo; he was born
on the seventh of the month –according to Delian tradition. The seventh and
twentieth, the days of the new and full moon, were ever afterwards held sacred
to Apollo always. Being that he is a Sun God, I am sure that he would have
connections with the moon as well. Anyway, It was only four days after his
birth that the God Apollo killed the chthonic dragon python, which lived in
Delphi beside the Ceastalian springs. From what I understand this spring in
which Apollo killed the Chthonic Dragon python, was a spring, which emitted
vapors that can cause the oracle at the Cult at Delhi to give her different
prophecies of what is to happen by breathing in these vapors. Hera sent the
serpent to hunt down Apollo’s mother to her death across he world. Which means
you never want to cross paths with the Goddess Hera, even though she is Zeus
wife. It's just that my guess is that he got tired of Hera and needed kinder in
the bedroom. Eh! Well, back to the story! It seems that Hera just wouldn’t
leave Apollo’s mother alone, no matter what she did. Hera the Goddess even sent a serpent to hunt
Leto to her death across the world. Leto, had nowhere to hide from this vindictive
scorned other woman you could say, but then again, she is Hera the Goddess of
all goddesses. So what was Leto to do!
Apollo had to protect her mother from Hera, so he begged
Hephaestus for a bow and for some arrows. When he received them, Apollo
cornered the Serpent that Hera let loose on his mother in the sacred cave at
Delphi. Once Apollo trapped the Serpent inside he was able to kill it with the
bow and arrows that he got from Hephaestus, but there was a price for killing
the Python and saving his mother. What that price was, since the Python was a
child of Gaia, the Goddess Hera then sent the Giant Tityos to kill Leto yet
again. Its seems that Hera has no fury when it comes to Zeus messing around
with another goddess or ladies of his choosing. Its seems that the women always
get the dirty end of the stick if you will. And the mighty Zeus doesn’t get
anything but, maybe a scream from Hera although who knows in the days of the
Olympians of Greece. This is the fifth attempt to kill Leto. 1- Hera putting
her on an island Delos to give birth not in the heaven of the Gods 2- Even
after that Hera tried to stop the birth in many ways 3- Hera gave Leto an amber
necklace 4-Hera even kidnapped Eileithyia the goddess of childbirth to prevent
Leto from going into labor with Zeus Son 5- Attempt on Hera part was the
Serpent to hunt down Apollo’s mother to her death across the world till she is
dead. But it didn’t end there. Hera was a very cruel Goddess and was to let all
know that She is the Queen of all Goddesses. So in her sixth attempt to kill
Apollo’s mother Leto, she sends the giant Tityos to kill her, but this time
Apollo was with the aided by his sister Artemis in protecting their mother
together.
So during this final battle in their quest to protect their mother
from Hera, Zeus finally steps in as a God should, but relent [probably because
of what Hera will say in their private rooms]. What the Great Zeus did was, he
aid in by hurling the Giant Tityos down to Tartarus. There he was pegged to the
rock floor, covering an area of nine acres, where a pair of vultures feasted
daily on his liver alive.
When Apollo shot those arrows into the Greek encampments during
the Trojan War, they were infected with the black plague. This was in
retribution for Agamenmon’s insult to Chryses, a Priest of Apollo’s whose
daughter crisis had been captured. The Priest demanded her return, and the
Achaeans complied, indirectly causing the anger of the Achilles. Anyway.. It
sometimes can be very confusing this I know. From this one act, turns into
another huge intertwined of different rescues by Apollo with another Goddess
Aphrodite, Aeneas, and Diomedes. And there was also Pergamos too. Then they
were revenge and death and the sacred spot in Troy. What it all came down to is
this in a round about way.
You must understand that the Gods of Greek are very
complicated group of people. It could be all that power that they have. Maybe
it really goes to their heads sometimes.. Yet I have found it fascinating.
The next crises that happened in Apollo’s life is when Zeus struck
down on the Apollo’s son Asclepius with one of his, lightning bolts for
resurrecting Hippolytus from the dead [transgressing Themis by stealing Hades’s
subjects]. Which I can’t tell you why on earth his son would do such a thing.
It really didn’t go into the why’s when
I research Apollo; It just tells the what’s where’s.. For that I am sorry.. Now Apollo didn’t stand by, even if Zeus is
The God of all the Olympians and his Father.
What he did do is take revenge and kill the Cyclopes, who had
fashioned the bolt for Zeus. Apollo would have been banished to Tartarus
forever, but was instead sentenced to one year of hard labor as punishment, due
to the intercession of his mother, Leto.
During this time he served as a shepherd for a King in Admetus of
Pherae in Thessaly. Admetus treated Apollo well, and in return, the God
conferred great benefits on Admetus.
These Benefits were that; Apollo would help Admetus win Alcestis, the
daughter of King Pelias and later convinced the Fates to let Admetus to live
past his time, if another took his place,but when it came time for Admetus to
die, his parents, whom he had assumed would gladly die for him, refused to
cooperate. Instead. Alcestis took his place, but Heracles managed to persuade
Thanatos the god of death to return her to the world of the living.
Again, I hope you are all able to follow this. This God Apollo has
so much going on in his life that it's hard to put it in a way that is easy to
understand. I hope I have been able to do so and done so in an interesting way
too.
At the end of Apollo’s life or the myth. There are different
versions; Here are those versions that I found; Leto had only two children
Apollo killed her sons, and Artemis her daughters. Apollo and Artemis used
poisoned arrows to kill them, though, according to some versions of the myth, a
number of the Niobids were spared; Chloris, usually. Amphion, at the sight of
his dead sons, either killed himself or was killed by Apollo after swearing
revenge. It is said that the devastated Niobe fled to Mount Sipylos n Asia Minor and then turned into stone as she wept.
Her tears formed the river Achelous. Zeus had turned all the people of Thebes
to stone and so no one buried the Niobids until the ninth day after their
death, when the gods themselves persist.
Lovers-
On a happy part of Apollo’s life; Let talk about his life happier
part as the foremost gods of the Olympus and supremely handsome of most all the
Gods. Like all the Gods and goddesses, Apollo had many lovers. His love affairs
reference with both males and females – gods and humans – all of the them
myths. Love affairs ascribed to
Apollo are in the late Greek mythology. Many of
these happy times are in some of the most famous of Renaissance painters and
the marble statues too.
Female lovers-
Daphne was one of Apollo lovers and a nymph, daughter, of the
river god Peneus, who had scorned Apollo. The myth explains the connection of
Apollo with the laurel whose leaves his priestess employed at Delphi. Another one of Apollo’s lovers is in the Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
it's when Phoebus Apollo chaffs Cupid for toying with a weapon more suited for
a man, whereupon the Cupid wounds Apollo with a golden dart; simultaneously,
however, Cupid shoots a leaden arrow into
Daphne for whom Apollo loves, causing
her to be repulsed by Apollo. Following a spirited chase by Apollo, Daphne
prays to her father, Peneus, for help and he changes her into the
laurel tree,
sacred to Apollo.
It seems even in love Apollo seems to have a hard life too.
Another tale is of Leucothea who was a daughter of Orchamus and the
sister of Clytia. She fell in love with Apollo, who disguised himself as
Leucothea’s mother to gain entrance to her chambers. Clytia, jealous of her
sister because she wanted Apollo for herself, told Orchamus the truth,
betraying her sister’s trust and confidence in her. Enraged, Orchamus ordered
Leucothea to be buried alive. Apollo refused to forgive Clytia for betraying
his beloved, and a grieving Clytia wilted and slowly died. Apollo changed her
into an incense plant,either heliotrope or sunflower, which follows the sun
every day. Its seems that the poor handsome god Apollo is lucky in love too.
Then there was Marpessa who was kidnapped by Idas, but was loved
by Apollo as well. Zeus made her choose between them,
and she chose Idas on the
grounds that Apollo, being immortal, world tire of her when she grew old.
Another was a nymph named Castalia whom Apollo loved. She fled from
him and dove into the spring at Delphi, at the base of Mt. Parnassus, which was
then named after her. Water from this spring was sacred; it was used to clean
the Delphian temples and inspire the priestesses. In the last oracle is
mentioned that the ‘water, which could speak”, has been lost forever.
By Cyrene, Apollo had a son named Aristaeus, who became the patron
god of cattle, fruit trees, hunting, husbandry and
bee-keeping. Aristaeus was
also a culture-hero and taught humanity dairy skills, the use of nets and traps
in hunting, and how to cultivate olives.
Well, this next one is a bit confusing to explain, but here goes;
So the wife of the King of Troy, Hecuba and Apollo had a love affair between each
other in secret, but the resolute of the affair was a child. Her name was
Troilus. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated as long as Troilus
reached the age of twenty alive, but sadly he was ambushed and killed by
Achilleus. I am getting to the lovers I
promise..
These gods have a roundabout way of doing this I have discovered
in doing this post. I really don’t know why they have to go thru all the
different gods, half gods daughters, sons, etc. to get to the root of subject
that they're talking about, but that is how they talk and live in those days.
So from what I understand Apollo fell in love with the daughter of
Hecuba and Priam, also was Troilus’
half-sister. Her name
was Cassandra. Apollo fell in love with Cassandra and
promised her the gift of prophecy to seduce her, but she rejected Apollo after
giving her the gift. This of course Enraged Apollo, indeed the gift was a very
special one. Knowing that He had given her the give to see the future, Apollo
added a curse with it, she could only see the future tragedies and that no one
would ever believe her when she would try to tell them of these tragedies.
Once again The Beautiful God Apollo seems to have no luck in
love
either. I hope he finds at least one love in his life… Female or Male. I really
didn’t find one myself, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t…
Male Lovers-
It is said in mythology that either Hyacinth or Hyacinthus was one
of many of Apollo’s male Lovers. In my research
they
were sure on the name so I put both, which is the two above [Hyacinth or
Hyacinthus]. I am going to go with the name Hyacinthus. So Apollo’s lover
Hyacinthus was a Spartan Prince, beautiful and very athletic too. The two of
them practiced throwing the discus together, but when it was time for Apollo’s
turn to throw the discus-it would be thrown off course by the jealous Zephyrus
who had feeling for Apollo and struck Apollo lover Hyacinthus in the head
killing him instantly. [Gosh,
even with men doesn't Apollo ever gets a lucky break ever!] Well It would seem that Apollo was filled from his lover's death.
So Apollo created a
flower and named it after him as a memorial to his death, and his tears stained
the flower petals with ‘alas’. In which
the Festival of the Hyacinthus was created as a celebration of Sparta.
There was one other male lover of Apollo and he was Cyparissus. A
descendent of Heracles. Apollo gave him a tame deer as a companion, but his
lover Cyparissus accidentally killed it with a javelin as it lay asleep in the
undergrowth. Things aren’t looking good for
Apollo in this part of his life..
Well, it seems that Cyparissus asked Apollo
to let his tears fall forever, because of his sadness of loss. Apollo granted the request
by turning his lover into the Cypress name after him, which was said to be a
sad tree because the sap forms droplets like tears on the trunk.
Temple of Apollo-
After the war of Actium if you know what war/battle that was? And
it was fought near the Temple of Apollo. What makes all this important is who
made the temple and dedicated the Temple to Apollo. This was Augustus, who dedicated
it to Apollo and instituted quinquennial games in his honor. He also erected a
new temple to the temple to the god on the Palatine hill. Sacrifices and prayers
in the Palatine to Apollo and Diana formed the culmination of the Secular Games,
held in the BCE to celebrate the dawn of a new era.
Apollo’s Attributes-
If you could say what Apollo’s most attributes were; was his
Bow
and Arrow. His others would be the plectrum and the sword. Another emblem was
the sacrificial tripod, representing his prophetic powers. The Pythian Games
were held in Apollo’s honor every four years at Delphi. And the Bay Laural
plant was used in expiatory sacrifices and in making the crown of victory in
these games. And there was finally the Palm tree. This was sacred to Apollo
because he had been born under one on the Island of Greece of Delos.
Also
Animals are very sacred to Apollo too, this would include wolves, dolphins, roe
deers, swans, hawks, ravens, crows, snakes [This is because of Apollo abilities
as the God of Prophecies], mice, griffins, mythical eagle-lion hybrids of
Eastern origin.
Some of Apollo’s other attributes in his lifetime were- It was
said that he represented all harmony, order and reason with the Gods in
contrast to those of Dionysus God of wine, who represented ecstasy and
disorder.
Apollo in the Arts-
Apollo has been in many of the Greek and Roman Arts/ and
the
Renaissance Arts as well. He has also been in many sculptures as well. It seems
that the Sculptures in the earliest form of Greek even had a word for the God
Apollo when they would do Sculptures of him. The word was ‘Delight’.
What these early Greek Sculptures would try to create when they
would do these Amazing Sculptures of Apollo; is to give the piece the highest degree
of power and beauty that they could image if the sculpture were alive. The
Sculptors derived this form observations on human beings, but they also
embodied in concrete form, issues beyond the reach of ordinary thought of their
time. The statues of Apollo embody his beauty, balance and Spirit that he had
during his time in the World.
I hope that You all Enjoy my Post on Apollo the Sun God. I
know in parts it was a bit difficult to understand, so I tried my best to put the Greek language in a way that could be understood. In my opinion, this God, is a Sad Story. I really wasn't able to find much happiness in his life. Even at the end part of his life. Which tells me, that beauty isn't always the best thing to have. It seems it kinda was a curse for him in some ways. I hope anyway that you still found that Apollo did have a good heart which i believe he did.
Much love my dears
Wendy.."(✿◠‿◠)˙•٠•●c Celibate
life♥´Magic
Surrounds Us ƸӜƷ
♪♫♪♫♪❤❤
ƸӜƷ•.¸¸.•´ ... ☾ ❤❤☼ღ(◕‿◕｡)
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ƸӜƷ•❤❤❤☼ღ(◕‿◕｡)¸.•*""*•.¸
"(✿◠‿◠)˙•٠•●c
ƸӜƷ•.¸¸.•´
The northern coastline, where they can
inhabit various levels of open lowlands that are at
the edges of the forests. At the
end of the flowering season these Amazing hummingbirds will
usually migrate to the south 
such as the
Inga, Erythrina, Ceiba and the kapok too. Now I know these trees don't sound familiar to any boat, to our friends who are lucky to live
on the islands of Jamaica. I am sure they know what these types of trees are and what they even look
like. 
flower these gems feed
heavily on and they rely on them for pollination as well. The mostly
tubular-shaped flowers are actually 
is an important source of their diet because
it provides a good amount of protein, particularly
during the breeding season to ensure the proper development of their babies.
The insects are often caught in flight, by snatching them off a leaf or
branches in the tall trees. They will also take spiders from their webs too. A
nesting female can capture up to 2,000 insects a day for their young for the
proper growth. 
hummingbirds that will do this
just once a year. Although the Jamaican Mango does have a favorite time to
breed which is from January and May. 
out of plant fibers
woven together and green moss on the outside for camouflage in protected
locations in shrubs,bushes, or trees that are quite high-up. They may even take
advantage of man-made structures that are on the island too. These female
Jamaica Mango hummingbirds will line the nest with a soft plant fibers, animal
hair and feather down. They will also use the strength of the structure of the
spider web and other sticky material to give their nests an elastic like
quality to allow it to stretch to double its size as the chick grow and need
more room as they grow. The nest is typically found on a low, skinny horizontal
branch. The average amount is two white eggs, which she will incubate alone for
about 16 to 17 days, while the male defends his territory and the flowers he
feeds on. The young are born blind, immobile and without and down. 
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