Apollo
Apollo is the god of music, prophecy, archery and healing in ancient Greek religion, twin brother of Artemis and son of Zeus and Leto. He is documented from the oldest surviving sources — the Homeric poems and Hesiod's Theogony, around the 8th century BCE.
Last reviewed: 2026-07-20
Historical fact
Apollo is the son of Zeus and the Titaness Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis. The Oracle of Delphi, where the priestess known as the Pythia delivered his prophecies, was one of the most influential religious institutions of the ancient Greek world, consulted by cities and individuals on matters from personal decisions to state policy for over a thousand years.
Interpretation — Greek Tradition (Homer and Hesiod)
Apollo holds a particularly prominent place among the Olympians in the oldest Greek sources: besides being the god of prophecy and patron of Delphi, he is associated with music (especially the lyre), archery and the arts of healing, but is also capable of bringing plague and sudden death with his arrows, as in the episode that opens the Iliad, where he punishes the Greek army by sending a plague after an offense against his priest Chryses.
Interpretation — Roman Tradition (syncretism)
Apollo is a striking exception among the major Olympian gods: Rome adopted him directly under his original Greek name rather than mapping him onto a pre-existing Roman deity — his cult was formally introduced in Rome as early as the 5th century BCE (a temple was vowed in 433 BCE), an exception usually explained by Rome lacking a clear native equivalent to graft him onto. Even though the name stayed the same, his cult still took on distinctly Roman political dimensions: the emperor Augustus in particular promoted Apollo as his personal patron deity, building a major temple to Apollo next to his own house on the Palatine Hill after the Battle of Actium (31 BCE), using the god to help legitimize his new political order.
This section presents one tradition's interpretation, not a verifiable fact.
Frequently asked questions
- Why did Apollo keep the same name in Roman religion?
- Apollo is one of the very few major Greek gods who was not renamed in Rome — his cult was adopted directly under the Greek name as early as the 5th century BCE, likely because there was no clearly equivalent native Roman deity to map him onto.
- What was the role of the Oracle of Delphi?
- The Oracle of Delphi, dedicated to Apollo, was consulted by Greek cities and individuals on personal and state matters; its prophecies, delivered by the priestess known as the Pythia, made it one of the most influential religious institutions of the ancient Greek world for over a thousand years.
Sources
- Hesiod. Theogony (c. 700 BCE).
- Homer. The Iliad (c. 8th century BCE).
- Robert Graves. The Greek Myths (1955).
- Walter Burkert. Greek Religion (1985).