Different names and aspects ascribed to the god

Apollo, like other Greek deities, had a number of epithets applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a great number of appellations in Greek myth, only a few occur in Latin literature, chief among them Phoebus, which was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans in Apollo's role as the god of light. As sun-god and god of light, Apollo was also known by the epithets Helius ( literally "sun"), and Lyceus ("light"). The meaning of the epithet "Lyceus" later became associated with Apollo's mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia and who was identified with the wolf. In Apollo's role as a healer, his appellations included Acesius ("healing"), or Acestor ("healer"). In his role as god of prophecy and truth, Apollo had the epithets Manticus ("prophetic") and Loxias ("to say").The epithet "Loxias" has historically been associated with "ambiguous". As god of music and arts, Apollo had the epithet Musagetes ("Muse" and "leader").

Apollo, though one of the great gods of Olympus, is yet represented in some sort of dependence on Zeus, who is regarded as the source of the powers exercised by his son. The powers ascribed to Apollo are apparently of different kinds, but all are connected with one another, and may be said to be only ramifications of one and the same, as will be seen from the following classification.

Apollo is –

1. the god who punishes and destroys the wicked and overbearing, and as such he is described as the god with bow and arrows, the gift of Hephaestus. Various epithets given to him in the Homeric poems, such as hekatos, hekaergos, refer to him as the god who with his darts hits his object at a distance and never misses it. All sudden deaths of men, whether they were regarded as a punishment or a reward, were believed to be the effect of the arrows of Apollo; and with the same arrows he sent the plague into the camp of the Greeks. Four days after his birth, Apollo went to mount Parnassus, and there killed the dragon Python, who had pursued his mother during her wanderings, before she reached Delos. He is also said to have assisted Zeus in his contest with the giants. The circumstance of Apollo being the destroyer of the wicked was believed by some of the ancients to have given rise to his name Apollo, which they connected with apollumi, "to destroy." Some modern writers, on the other hand, who consider the power of averting evil to have been the original and principal feature in his character, say that Apollôn, i. e. Apellôn, (from the root pello), signifies the god who drives away evil, and is synonymous with Acesius, Acestor, sôtêr, and other names and epithets applied to Apollo.

2. The god who affords help and wards off evil. As he had the power of visiting men with plagues and epidemics, so he was also able to deliver men from them, if duly propitiated, or at least by his oracles to suggest the means by which such calamities could be averted.

3. The god of prophecy. Apollo exercised this power in his numerous oracles, and especially in that of Delphi. The source of all his prophetic powers was Zeus himself, and Apollo is accordingly called "the prophet of his father Zeus." But he had nevertheless the power of communicating the gift of prophecy both to gods and men, and all the ancient seers and prophets are placed in some relationship to him.

4. The god of song and music. Later traditions ascribed to Apollo the invention of the flute and lyre, while the more common tradition was, that he received the lyre from Hermes.

5. The god who protects the flocks and cattle. At the command of Zeus, Apollo guarded the cattle of Laomedon in the valleys of mount Ida. Apollo's original role may have been as protector of herdsmen and shepherds. He is often pictured holding a lyre (a type of harp), and shepherds were known for playing music to pass their idle hours.

6. The god who takes part in the foundation of towns and the establishment of civil constitutions. His assistance in the building of Troy by playing on the lyre; respecting his aid in raising the walls of Megara. The idea of a god, who protects a colony or a town is connected with the circumstance, that a town or a colony was never founded by the Greeks without consulting an oracle of Apollo, so that in every case he became, as it were, their spiritual leader.

Cults

Unusually among the Olympic deities, Apollo had two cult sites that had widespread influence: Delos and Delphi. In cult practice, Delian Apollo and Pythian Apollo (the Apollo of Delphi) were so distinct that they might both have shrines in the same locality. Apollo's cult was already fully established when written sources commenced, about 650 BCE. Apollo became extremely important to the Greek world as an oracular deity in the archaic period, and the frequency of theophoric names such as Apollodorus or Apollonios and cities named Apollonia testify to his popularity. In the religion of the early Romans there is no trace of the worship of Apollo. The Romans became acquainted with this divinity through the Greeks, and adopted all their notions and ideas about him from the latter people. There is no doubt that the Romans knew of his worship among the Greeks at a very early time. But the first time that we hear of the worship of Apollo at Rome is in the year B. C. 430, when, for the purpose of averting a plague, a temple was raised to him.

Apollo, the national divinity of the Greeks, was of course represented in all the ways which the plastic arts were capable of. As the ideas of the god became gradually and more and more fully developed, so his representations in works of art rose from a rude wooden image to the perfect ideal of youthful manliness, so that he appeared to the ancients in the light of a twin brother of Aphrodite. The most beautiful and celebrated among the extant representations of Apollo are the Apollo of Belvedere at Rome, which was discovered in 1503 at Rettuno), and the Apollino at Florence. In the Apollo of Belvedere, the god is represented with commanding but serene majesty; sublime intellect and physical beauty are combined in it in the most wonderful manner. The forehead is higher than in other ancient figures, and on it there is a pair of locks, while the rest of his hair flows freely down on his neck. The limbs are well proportioned and harmonious, the muscles are not worked out too strongly, and at the hips the figure is rather thin in proportion to the breast.