APOLLO, son of Zeus (Jupiter) and Leto (Latona), who being persecuted by the jealousy of Hera (Juno), after tedi ous wanderings and nine days' labor was delivered to him and his twin sister, Artemis (Diana), on the island of Delos.
Skilled in the use of the bow, he slew the serpent Python on the fifth day after his birth; afterward, with his sister Artemis, he killed the children of Niobe. He aided Zeus in the war with the Titans and the giants. He destroyed the Cy elopedes, because they forged the thun derbolts with which Zeus killed his son and favorite, Asklepios (]Esculapius). According to some traditions he invented the lyre, though this is generally as cribed to Hermes (Mercury). Apollo was originally the sun-god; and though in Homer he appears distinct from Helios (the sun), yet his real nature is hinted at even here by the epithet Phcebus, that is, the radiant or beaming. In later times the view was almost universal that Apol lo and Helios were identical. From be
ing the god of light and purity in a phys ical sense he gradually became the god of moral and spiritual light and purity, the source of all intelectual, social, and political progress. He thus came to be regarded as the god of song and proph ecy, the god that wards off and heals bodily suffering and disease, the institu tor and guardian of civil and political order, and the founder of cities. His worship was introduced at Rome at an early period, probably in the time of the Tarquins. Among the ancient statues of Apollo that have come down to us, the most remarkable is the one called the Apollo Belvedere, from the Belvedere gal lery in the Vatican at Rome. This statue was found in the ruins of Antium in 1503, and was purchased by Pope Julius II. It is now supposed to be a copy of a Greek statue of the 3d century B. C., and dates probably from the reign of Nero.