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The god of light, Apollo, was the son of Zeus
and Leto, who bore him and his twin sister Artemis,
at the foot of mount Kynthos, in the island of Delos. As the god
of pure light, he was the enemy of darkness, ignorance, badness.
According to the legend, as an infant only few days old, left Delos and
searched for a suitable place to erect his temple. He visited almost the
whole Greece and when he arrived at the hill sides of mount Parnassus,
he was delighted. But the place was belonging to goddess Gaea and
was guarded by her son, the monster Python. Apollo using his
arrows and a lighted torch killed Python and took possession of the
place and afterwards with his sister Artemis went to Sikyon for
purification. At a place, in the Hellenistic city in the Agora (Sikyon's
Ancient Acropolis at those times), the so-called later "Phobos"
(Fear), they were overpowered by fear and fled to Crete.
The first priests of the temple were Cretan merchants, who were sailing
from Knossos to Pylos, the god changed the direction of their ship and
instead came to the port of Krissa.
According to another legend, Apollo left the mount Olympus in order to
cleanse himself from the murder and worked as a slave servant, at the
king Admetus of Pherae.
When Apollo purified, he returned to the Delphi crowned with laurels of
Tempe.
Little by little, as the god of light that pierces through darkness,
Apollo became the god of divination. He was always declaring the truth,
but his answers were ambiguous, only signs, as Herakleitus tell us:
"the master to whom the oracle at Delphi belongs, neither
reveals the truth, nor conceals it, he only gives signs".
Known in many epithets, like Phoebus, Lykeios, Agyieus,
Delphinus, etc., he was celebrated more than any other god. As
the god of light that gives life, promoting the health and well being of
man, he was worshipped in Thargelia (May, Athens), Delphinia
(Athens), Hyakynthia (Sparta), Hecatombaea, the sacrifice
of one hundred oxen in Athens (the first month of the year Hecatombaeon
was named by the event). His festivals, as the god of light, were all in
spring and summer.
He was celebrated not only the seventh day of the month (his birthday),
but also the first day of the month was sacred to him.
To summarize, Apollo was the god of light, civilization, morality, who
was fighting against barbarism, anarchy and badness.
The god of purification, he was closely connected with the arts. As the
god of music, he is represented playing the lyre, as well the master of
the choric dance, which is music and song.
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