Apollo: Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places
Considered the “…the most Greek of all the gods” (Hamilton 25), Apollo is the god of the sun, healing, music, poetry, prophecy, plague, archery, and truth. This makes him a powerful god amongst the Olympians and leads to extensive praise from mortals. This kind of importance places Apollo at the center of countless myths where his power and prestige shine through. Fathered by Zeus, and born to Leto, Daughter of Coeus and Phoebe, Apollo and his sister Artemis came into existence on the floating island of Delos. Facing the wrath of Hera, Leto wandered the world in search of a suitable place to give birth. While walking past Delphi, Leto encountered Python, a dragon-serpent sent by Hera. Apollo’s …show more content…
When Niobe, a princess from Lydia married the king of Thebes, Amphion, she resented Leto and refused to worship her. Niobe believed since she gave birth to seven boys and seven girls and possessed divine blood through an ancestor, that she was superior to the mother of Apollo. When Leto informed her children of the disrespect that was shown, both Apollo and Artemis flew to Thebes. There in the field outside the city, all seven boys rode on horseback, playing. One by one they dropped dead off their horses starting with the eldest. Once the king got news of the tragedy he ran to the field, plunging a knife into his heart to escape the pain. Niobe, weeping by the bodies of her sons and husband, proclaimed that she is still the victor because her daughters still outnumber Leto’s children. One by one the daughters began to fall too as they were struck by arrows until only Niobe was left standing. Suddenly a whirlwind took her across the sea to her home in Lydia, where she remains, made of marble on top a mountain mourning her loss. In another myth, Artemis crafts a flute made of deer horn and practices till she can perform at a banquet for the gods. When she attempts to play, the other goddesses ridicule how her cheeks turn blue when she blows into the flute. She escapes back to her forest and tosses the flute into the spring. A satyr named Marsyas finds the flute and without knowledge that Artemis had …show more content…
Said to be Apollos first love: Daphne was a wood nymph who followed Artemis’s way of life. Due to Apollo’s sly comments about Eros’s (Cupids) archery, Apollo was shot with a golden tipped arrow which made him fall for Daphne. Apollo, try as he might, could not win the affection of the nymph due to her receiving an arrow to the breast which suppressed any desire for love. Annoyed with being rejected, Apollo pursues Daphe through the forest and tries to take her by force. Before he can lay his hands on her, she cries out for her father to transform her into something that the god could not love. Daphne's father, an Arcadian river god, grants her wish instantly and turns her into a laurel tree before Apollos’ very eyes. The spell still unbroken, he kisses and embraces the tree. Another popular myth places Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, as Apollos love interest. To win her over, the god presents her with the ability to see the future. Once she receives her gift, Cassandra refuses his advances. Feeling cheated, Apollo allows her to keep the power of prophecy but makes it so her predictions are never believed. Even though Apollo preferred to win over his lovers, he did not always follow that approach. When Creusa, an Athenian princess refused his advances, he brings her to a cave below Athens and rapes her. Nine months later she bears a child in
Considered the “…the most Greek of all the gods” (Hamilton 25), Apollo is the god of the sun, healing, music, poetry, prophecy, plague, archery, and truth. This makes him a powerful god amongst the Olympians and leads to extensive praise from mortals. This kind of importance places Apollo at the center of countless myths where his power and prestige shine through. Fathered by Zeus, and born to Leto, Daughter of Coeus and Phoebe, Apollo and his sister Artemis came into existence on the floating island of Delos. Facing the wrath of Hera, Leto wandered the world in search of a suitable place to give birth. While walking past Delphi, Leto encountered Python, a dragon-serpent sent by Hera. Apollo’s …show more content…
When Niobe, a princess from Lydia married the king of Thebes, Amphion, she resented Leto and refused to worship her. Niobe believed since she gave birth to seven boys and seven girls and possessed divine blood through an ancestor, that she was superior to the mother of Apollo. When Leto informed her children of the disrespect that was shown, both Apollo and Artemis flew to Thebes. There in the field outside the city, all seven boys rode on horseback, playing. One by one they dropped dead off their horses starting with the eldest. Once the king got news of the tragedy he ran to the field, plunging a knife into his heart to escape the pain. Niobe, weeping by the bodies of her sons and husband, proclaimed that she is still the victor because her daughters still outnumber Leto’s children. One by one the daughters began to fall too as they were struck by arrows until only Niobe was left standing. Suddenly a whirlwind took her across the sea to her home in Lydia, where she remains, made of marble on top a mountain mourning her loss. In another myth, Artemis crafts a flute made of deer horn and practices till she can perform at a banquet for the gods. When she attempts to play, the other goddesses ridicule how her cheeks turn blue when she blows into the flute. She escapes back to her forest and tosses the flute into the spring. A satyr named Marsyas finds the flute and without knowledge that Artemis had …show more content…
Said to be Apollos first love: Daphne was a wood nymph who followed Artemis’s way of life. Due to Apollo’s sly comments about Eros’s (Cupids) archery, Apollo was shot with a golden tipped arrow which made him fall for Daphne. Apollo, try as he might, could not win the affection of the nymph due to her receiving an arrow to the breast which suppressed any desire for love. Annoyed with being rejected, Apollo pursues Daphe through the forest and tries to take her by force. Before he can lay his hands on her, she cries out for her father to transform her into something that the god could not love. Daphne's father, an Arcadian river god, grants her wish instantly and turns her into a laurel tree before Apollos’ very eyes. The spell still unbroken, he kisses and embraces the tree. Another popular myth places Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, as Apollos love interest. To win her over, the god presents her with the ability to see the future. Once she receives her gift, Cassandra refuses his advances. Feeling cheated, Apollo allows her to keep the power of prophecy but makes it so her predictions are never believed. Even though Apollo preferred to win over his lovers, he did not always follow that approach. When Creusa, an Athenian princess refused his advances, he brings her to a cave below Athens and rapes her. Nine months later she bears a child in