Greek myths about Apollo

The Myths of Apollo describe him as the God of Truth, the Healer, who taught men the art of healing, God of Music, who played beautiful music in Olympus with his golden lyre, Leader of the Muses.

He is the son of Zeus and Leto, twin brother of Artemis, the myth about his birth says that Hera, to punish Leto for having an affair with Zeus, forbid her to give birth on "terra firma". Leto found a floating island in Delus, and in the Mount Cynthus, Apollo was born.

Some of the most known myths of Apollo as an infant are;

• After a few days that Apollo was born, Hera sent the Serpent Python to kill Leto, to protect her Apollo asked Hephaestus for a bow and arrow. When he got these weapons, he fought Python in the cave at Delphi, killing it.
• In another attempt to hurt Leto, Hera sent Tityos whom tried to rape her as well, this time Apollo fought with the help of his sister Artemis, in the middle of the fight Zeus appeared and fought next to his children, casting Tityos to Tartarus, condemned to feed vultures with his liver.

Another of the myths of Apollo, explain how his love to play the lyre started when Hermes as an infant stole cows from Apollo's cattle. Hermes hid the cows inside of a cave near Pylos, in there he found and killed a tortoise, and using its shell and cow's intestines he crafted the first lyre. When Apollo went to complain with Maia, Hermes' mother, she did nto believe the God, then Zeus intervened in favor of Apollo, but at that moment Hermes started to play his lyre. Apollo felt in love with the instrument and asked that in exchange of the cattle, he would like to keep the lyre, which was granted.

There is also some myths of Apollo related to Troy, one of them says that he was the one who helped either Cretan ar Arcadian to found the city. Also during the Trojan war, Apollo shot infected arrows with plague to the greek camps, he was the one that saved Aeneas when he was injured by Diomedes. But probably the most know action of Apollo during the war, was when he helped Paris to kill Achilles, guiding the arrow from Paris' bow to Achilles' heel.

Apollo was also know for his affairs, both men and women, next are a small list of the most known lovers and a small synopsis of their relationship:

• Cassandra : Apollo was all the time after her, he even promised her the power of the prophecy, but when she rejected him one too many times, he cursed her so she could only see tragedies that were about to happen, but no one would believe her.
• Coronis: She got pregnant by Apollo with Asclepius, but she was really in love with Ischys. A crow that knew about it, went and told Apollo about it, but the God didn't believe it and turned the crow color black (the crows were white back in those days) for being a liar. But later when Apollo uncovered the truth, he sent Artemis to kill Coronis, and made the crow sacred and gave it the task to announce important deaths.
• Cyparissus: He was one of Heracles' descendant, was one of his lovers. Once Apollo gave him a deer as a companion, but Cyparissus killed it by accident, he then asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever, and the God turned him into the Cypress.
• Cyrene: Apollo loved her and they both had a son: Aristaeus, who later became God of Cattle and hunting.
• Hecuba: She was the wife of King Priay of Troy, and gave birth to Troilus as results of her affair with Apollo. One Oracle said that Troy would never be defeated if Troilus reached 20 years of life, but this didn't happen because he was killed by Achilles.

• Hyalinth: He was a Spartan prince, one day him and Apollo were practicing throwing discs when Zephyrus, full of jealousy blown a disc out of course, hitting Hyacinth on the head, killing him right there. From his blood Apollo created a flower named after him.

In the myths of Apollo, the Bay Laurel was scared to him, in memory of one more of her lovers, , also the laurel was used to make a crown as a sign of victory during the Pythina games, which were helded every 4 years in the city of Delphi. The animals sacred to him were the crow, hawks, deer and dolphins. Delphi was his sacred city.