Kiera and Tasha

APOLLO

Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, he has a twin sister named Artemis, the god of the natural environment. Apollo had numerous love affairs with both male and female gods and mortals, such as Cassandra, the king of Troys daughter, and Hyacinth, a Spartan prince.He had four children, Asclepius, Troilus, Aristaeusand Orpheus, to unknown consorts.

FAMILY

Apollo is the god of the Sun, music, medicine, healing, truth, prophecy, plague, poetry, education, archery, and the protection of the young. He is sometimes shown with a golden bow and arrow, as he is the god of archery. He also has the power over plague. He is depicted as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and various attributes including a wreath and a bow.

APOLLO HIMSELF

Apollo fell in love with the Spartan prince, Hyacinth, but so did the God Zephyrus. To win him over, the two male Gods threw a discus each, the one who threw the furthest won the love of the Prince. Apollo won, however killed the his new lover when throwing the discus, it hit his head and instantly killed him. In honour, Apollo turned his lovers blood into the hyacinth flower.

Marsyas was a wonderful pan pipe player and all the forests came to listen to him play the pipes. One day Marsyas said that he was a better musician that the god of music himself, Apollo. This angered Apollo and so Apollo challenged Marsyas to a music competition. The winner could do anything they want to the loser. Marsyas played his pipes and he was wonderful but when Apollo played the lyre, he was better. So Apollo won and because Marsyas had dared to even say that he was even close to being as good at him, he skinned him alive and hung him from a tree.

STORIES

Daphne, who was created by mother earth was the first love of Apollo. When Apollo saw Daphne for the first time he was struck with arrows from Eros and fell madly in love, Daphne did not feel the same way and tried to flee, but Apollo didn’t want to give her up and caught her. Full of despair, Daphne prayed to her mother to make her disappear and the wish was granted. She then turned into a fragrant plant called the laurel tree, this is now the symbol of Apollo.

Apollo once fell in love with a princess Cassandra , this time without the help of Eros. She was the daughter of the king of Troy. Because he liked her he gifted her with the gift of prophecy. Even though Apollo gave her the gift of prophecy she still disliked him. So he made it so that nobody would believe whatever she said about the future. She foretold the downfall of Troy, but nobody believed her. She foretold the dangers of the Trojan Horse, but nobody believed her. Then finally she foretold that Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, was going to kill him. But he didn't believe her. And as Agamemnon returned to his wife, she and the male she really liked murdered him.

MORE STORIES

There was once an old man who was a priest of Apollo. The old man respected Apollo and didn't ever disrespect him. But one day the Greek hero Agamemnon insulted the old man and he was angry. So the old man prayed to Apollo to get revenge on the man for the insult. And Apollo, grateful for the man's service as a priest, went to the Greek camp for nine days and shot poisoned arrows at the men and all their animals, spreading a plague on the Greeks in the Trojan War.

APOLLO AND THE TROJAN WAR

‘So he spoke in prayer, and Phoebus Apollo heard him and came down in fury from the heights of Olympus, his bow and covered quiver on his back’‘So Apollo inflicted a deadly plague on Agamemnon's army and destroyed his men’‘Now respect the Archer-god Apollo, son of Zeus’ ‘Apollo has found no faults with any broken vows or failures’ ‘For the rest of the day the young Greek warriors sang and danced to applease the God with a beautiful Hymn celebrating the Archer Apollo, the which he listened with delight’

QUOTATIONS FROM BOOK 1