Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important Greek gods (also retained with the same name in Roman tradition). Solar god of light, music, poetry, prophecy, archery, healing and the masculine ideal. Twin brother of Artemis, son of Zeus and Leto. His most famous oracle was the one at Delphi.
Mythology and attributions
Apollo is one of the twelve Olympic deities. Born on the island of Delos with his twin sister Artemis. His main associations: solar light (from a certain era, partially supplanted to the older Helios as solar god), music and poetry (leader of the nine Muses, his sacred instrument is the lyre), prophecy (his oracle at Delphi was the most consulted of the ancient world for thousands of years), healing (father of Asclepius, god of medicine), archery (deadly arrows that punish the impious), ideal masculine beauty (the "Apollonian" young man par excellence).
Apollonian symbols: laurel (his sacred plant, after the myth of Daphne; the laurel crowns of victors in poetry, sport and war derive from this association), lyre, silver bow and arrows, solar disk, crow, swan, dolphin. Sacred numbers: 7 (his birthday). Sacred temples: Delphi (the most important — Pythia delivered Apollo's oracles there for over 1,000 years), Delos (his birthplace), Cyzicus, and many others.
In modern esoteric tradition
Apollo represents the integrated solar-rational masculine: the "Apollonian" energy in Nietzschean contrast with the "Dionysian" — the order, the rational, the structured, the harmonic against the chaotic, instinctive, ecstatic. Both energies are necessary; the wisdom is in their balance.
In modern Wicca and neo-pagan reconstructionism, Apollo is invoked for: solar work (especially summer solstice, Litha), creative-artistic work (especially music, poetry, writing), prophetic-divinatory work, healing, study, conscious masculinity. His associated chakra: solar plexus (personal power, expansive light).
Also known as
- Apollon (Greek)
- Phoebus Apollo (epithet)
- Pythian Apollo