When was apollo born

The Cumaean Sibyl. The sibyls at Cumae in Italy were famous. We learn about this Sibyl from Ovid. Apollo offered her anything that she wished, if only she would yield to him.

She picked up a heap of sand and asked for as many birthdays as the individual grains but forgot to ask for continuous youth along with the years. Nevertheless, Apollo would have given her long life and eternal youth, if she agreed to succumb to him.

When she refused him, the god granted her original wish, and she withered away eventually to become only a voice. This story of the Cumaean Sibyl once again illustrates how our ignorant wishes may be granted to our woe cf. When Cassandra changed her mind and rejected his advances, Apollo asked for one kiss and spit in her mouth, thus ensuring not only that Cassandra would keep her gift, but also that her true prophecies would never be believed.

Apollo stole Marpessa away from Idas in a similar fashion and the two rivals met face to face. Zeus ordered that Marpessa chose between her lovers. She chose the mortal Idas because she feared the immortal Apollo would leave her when she grew old. He whisked her away in his golden chariot to the city in Libya that would bear her name. After Apollo had just slain the Python, he boasted to Cupid that the god of love with his bow and arrows could not compete with his glorious slaying of a dragon.

Daphne was extraordinarily beautiful but refused her many suitors. She vowed to remain a virgin devoted to Diana, the forests, and the hunt; both her father and Jupiter respected her wishes. As soon as Apollo saw her he was inflamed by passion and he desired to marry her, but because of Cupid his hopes were doomed. Daphne fled in fear as Apollo made his appeals and pursued her. Exhausted, she reached the waters of Peneus, and her prayer that the power of the river would destroy her too-enticing beauty was granted.

She was transformed into a lovely laurel tree, and the heartbroken Apollo, as he embraced its trunk and branches, promised that since she could not be his wife, she would be his tree, and from it would come the laurel wreath, a symbol of love, honor, and glory forever. Apollo, as the archetypal Greek god, was also susceptible to the love of young men.

The god and the youth enjoyed competing with the discus. When it eventually came back to earth, an enthusiastic Hyacinthus dashed to pick it up, but as it hit the earth it bounced back and struck him full in the face. Overcome by grief and guilt, the god vowed everlasting devotion by singing of Hyacinthus to the tune of his lyre and by causing a new flower, the hyacinth, to arise from his blood. Apollo himself marked his laments on his petals, the mournful letters AI AI, and predicted the suicide of the valiant Ajax see MLS, Chapter 19 , whose initals these same letters would appear on this same flower, which would arise from his heroic blood.

An annual festival, the Hyacinthia, was celebrated at Sparta in honor of Hyacinthus. In the story of Hyacinthus, we see Apollo acting as a god of medicine, ineffective though he proved to be.

His son Asclepius took over the role of god of medicine and most of the time was more successful than his father. As she was dying she told him that their unborn child would die with her.

Apollo too late regretted his anger, but to no avail. He was unable through his medical arts to revive his beloved. He embraced her in anguish and performed the proper burial rites over her corpse. As the flames of the funeral pyre were about to engulf her, he saved their baby by snatching it from her womb and giving it to the wise centaur Chiron to raise.

The color of the raven, which had been white, he now changed to black. He succeeded and enraged Zeus, who hurled the physician into the Underworld for such a disruption of the natural order. Apollo was enraged at the death of his son Asclepius and killed the Cyclopes who had forged the thunderbolt. When Apollo found out that his master had only a short time to live, he induced the Fates Moirai to allow the king a longer life. They, however, demanded that someone else die in his place.

Although Admetus must face the just attacks of critics for allowing Alcestis to die in his place, a case may be made that he recognized his selfishness too late, after he realized that life was not worth living without his Alcestis. As we know, Apollo was an expert in the playing of the lyre, but two musicians, because of hubris, foolishly dared to challenge him. Athena invented the flute see MLS, Chapter 8 but threw it away because her beautiful features became distorted when she played.

Although Athena gave him a thrashing for taking up her instrument, he became so proficient that he dared to challenge the great Apollo to a contest. The god imposed the condition that the victor could do what he liked with the vanquished. But after she was given the gift, Cassandra changed her mind and refused his advances.

A god cannot take back a gift once it has been given, so Apollo could not prevent Cassandra from correctly predicting the future, so he cursed her so that she would never be believed, despite the fact that she was always correct. Another time Apollo pursued the nymph, Daphne, but she fled from him, calling upon the gods to save her. The gods transformed Daphne into a laurel tree and Apollo, being disheartened, vowed that the laurel would be his special plant forever.

Another notable love of Apollo was Hyacinth, a Spartan boy. Hyacinth was killed accidentally by a discus which Apollo threw toward him in a game. From the blood of the boy, the god made a flower grow and named it hyacinth, after the boy. The flower is red and has white markings that resemble the letters AI, which sound like the Greek mourning cry. How would you categorize this myth? Apollo bedded the mortal Coronis, but she then decided to take a mortal lover.

Apollo was informed of her betrayal by a crow, which he changed from its previous white color to black. This explains why all crows are now black. The child, Asclepius, was raised by the good centaur Chiron [see Centaurs ], from whom he learned how to heal. Asclepius became so good at healing that he started to bring the dead back to life. This angered Zeus, so he killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt. Apollo was furious, so he killed the Cyclopes who made the thunderbolts as retaliation.

Asclepius was deified and became a god of medicine and healing. In the Trojan War, Apollo was on the side of the Trojans. It is unclear where the god Apollo came from. He was not originally a god of the Mycenaeans the Greek-speaking peoples who migrated into the Greek peninsula sometime around BC , nor was he one of the pre-Hellenic gods of the indigenous people. His mother and sister were both Asiatic goddesses, but there is no clear connection between them in origin.

Again, his epithet, Lycian, may point to a Near Eastern connection.