50 Fun Facts About Apollo

Apollo is the twin brother of which goddess of the hunt?

The two are said to have invented archery together.

Who was Apollo's mother?

Hera hounded her from land to land while she searched for somewhere to give birth.

On which island was Apollo born?

The island had been a floating rock; the unborn Apollo spoke from the womb and asked to be born there.

Which musical instrument is Apollo's best-known attribute?

Swans circled Delos seven times at his birth, one for each string.

Apollo was the patron deity of which famous oracle?

The priestess there, the Pythia, was said to be filled with the god's breath from a spring in the inner sanctuary.

Which monstrous serpent did Apollo kill at the site of his future oracle?

The serpent had hounded his mother because it foresaw dying at the hands of her child.

Which nymph turned into a laurel tree to escape Apollo's pursuit?

Ovid blames Cupid, who shot Apollo with a golden arrow of love and the nymph with a leaden one of hate.

Apollo's chief epithet, meaning 'bright', is what?

The Romans made 'Phoebus Apollo' almost a single name.

From the 5th century BC, Apollo was increasingly identified with which personification of the sun?

Latin poets did not fully merge them until the 1st century AD.

Apollo's worship was imported to Rome in which century BC?

He is one of the few Greek gods the Romans kept under the same name.

Apollo's son Asclepius was famous as what?

Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt for raising the dead, and Apollo took a bloody revenge on the bolt's makers.

Apollo took revenge for his son's death by killing whom, the makers of Zeus's thunderbolt?

He buried the arrow he used in a mystical land in the far north.

As punishment for that killing, Apollo was made to serve as a herdsman to which mortal king of Pherae?

The god is said to have been the king's lover as well as his cowherd.

Which satyr challenged Apollo to a music contest and was flayed alive for losing?

The satyr had taunted the god for his long hair and smooth body; Apollo tore the strings from his lyre in remorse afterwards.

When King Midas preferred Pan's pipes to Apollo's lyre, what did Apollo give him?

The god decided he would not tolerate 'such a depraved pair of ears' any longer.

Apollo's beloved Hyacinthus was killed by what, blown off course by the jealous wind Zephyrus?

From the young Spartan's blood Apollo made the flower that bears his name.

Queen Niobe boasted she outdid Apollo's mother because she had how many children?

Apollo and his sister shot every one of them; Apollo had prophesied her fate from the womb.

Apollo gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy; what curse did he add when she rejected him?

She foretold the fall of Troy and was ignored, as the curse required.

The Sibyl of Cumae asked Apollo for as many years of life as what?

She forgot to ask for youth to go with them, and withered away for centuries.

Apollo acquired the lyre from which god, who built it from a tortoise shell?

Zeus ordered the cattle returned, but Apollo fell in love with the music and swapped the herd for the instrument.

As Musagetes, Apollo led which group in dance?

Plato said humanity's delight in rhythm and harmony was the gift of Apollo and these nine sisters.

In the Iliad, Apollo sends a plague on the Greek camp because Agamemnon refused to return whose daughter?

The Greeks gave the girl back, and Agamemnon took Achilles's captive instead, which starts the whole poem.

In the Iliad, Apollo's priest addresses him as Smintheus, meaning lord of what?

The title recalls his ancient role as bringer of plague, and mice were among his sacred animals.

Apollo caused the death of Achilles by doing what?

He held a grudge because Achilles had killed two of his sons, one of them inside Apollo's own temple.

What did Apollo do to hide Hector from Achilles during their duel?

After Hector's death Apollo also shaded the corpse from the sun so it would not rot.

Which Trojan king did Apollo and Poseidon serve, tending cattle and building the walls?

The king cheated them of their pay, which is why both gods hated Troy.

Which Panhellenic festival was held at his oracle in Apollo's honour every four years?

Winners were crowned with bay laurel, the plant of the god's lost love.

How long did Apollo's mother labour on Delos before he was born?

She clung to a palm tree, and the newborn 'leapt forth' from the womb.

Which goddess, leaping into the sea to escape Zeus, became Apollo's floating birth-island?

She was Leto's own sister, which made her island the one place willing to shelter the pregnant goddess.

When Apollo learned that his lover Coronis, pregnant with Asclepius, was unfaithful, who told him?

He sent his sister to kill her, then rescued the unborn child from the pyre.

Apollo's grieving lover Cyparissus, who had killed his pet deer, was turned into which tree?

He asked to be allowed to weep forever, and the cypress became the tree of mourning.

Marpessa chose the mortal Idas over the god for what reason?

Zeus made her choose between them, and she preferred a husband who would grow old with her.

The god took the shape of which animal to guide Cretan sailors to his oracle, where they became his priests?

The story is one explanation of the oracle's name and of the title Delphinios.

Which mystical northern land of eternal spring venerated Apollo above all gods?

The god was said to spend the winter months there.

Apollo is depicted with what kind of hair, symbolising eternal youth?

Greek boys cut their long hair on reaching manhood and dedicated it to him.

Apollo is represented as the ideal of what Greek figure?

He is considered the most beautiful of the gods.

Which Roman emperor believed Apollo protected him and built him a temple after Actium?

The battle was fought near a sanctuary of Apollo, and Augustus was even rumoured to be the god's son.

The Ludi Apollinares, games in Apollo's honour, were instituted at Rome during which war?

They were founded in 212 BC on the instructions of a prophecy attributed to a seer named Marcius.

In which century was the Apollo Belvedere rediscovered?

It stood in the Vatican and was carried off to Paris by Napoleon before being returned.

In Nietzsche's famous contrast, the 'Apollonian' is set against which other god's spirit?

Order, light and form on one side; ecstasy and intoxication on the other.

Apollo's epithet Lyceus was later linked to which animal, sacred to him?

The epithet probably meant 'light' originally, but Greeks connected it with lykos, wolf, and with Lycia.

Which insect, symbolising music and song, was among Apollo's sacred animals?

Wolves, dolphins, swans, ravens, hawks, snakes, mice and griffins were also his.

Which title marked Apollo as 'averter of evil'?

He was seen as the god who wards off harm, even though his own arrows brought plague.

As Apollo Agyieus, the god protected what?

A pillar of Apollo Agyieus stood outside many Greek front doors.

Apollo's oracle was routinely consulted before Greek cities did what?

As Archegetes he was patron of town-founding, and colonists carried his authorisation with them.

In the Etruscan pantheon Apollo was known by what name?

The Etruscans borrowed him along with much of Greek myth.

In Celtic lands the Romans equated Apollo with which local healing and sun god?

The Hyperborean and Celtic cults are where Apollo looks most like a straightforward sun god.

NASA manager Abe Silverstein said he named the Apollo programme how?

He liked the image of Apollo riding his chariot across the sun as fitting for the programme's scale.

Which of Apollo's sons did Achilles kill inside the god's own temple, fuelling the god's grudge?

Achilles had also killed another son, Tenes, before the war even began.

Long hair, cut and dedicated to Apollo, marked which moment in a Greek boy's life?

As kourotrophos the god watched over children's health and education until that passage into adulthood.