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Apollo

Apollo was a very handsome Greek god who resembled the Kouros statues, meaning he was athletic, beardless and young. In Greek mythology he was the god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a bringer of death-dealing plague. He was also the god of music and poetry and the leader of the Muses and director of their choir. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans.

He is the son of Zeus and Leto and he has a twin sister, Artemis, the goddess of hunting or goddess of the moon as mentioned in many myths. During the 3rd century BC he was identified among Greeks with the name Helios, meaning the god of the sun and his sister with Selene, the goddess of the moon.

As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god. He was the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle, as well as one of the most important Olympian deities. He had many lovers, male and female, such us Hyacinth, Cyparissus, Hecuba, Kastalia, Lefkothea and many more.

The Homeric Hymn refers to Hermes who was born secretly on Mount Kilini in Arcadia by Maia and Zeus. Hermes escaped from the blanket that his mother had wrapped around him and went to Thessaly where he stole some cattle from Apollo's herd and hid in a cave where he created his first lyre from a cow' s intestines and a tortoise shell. Apollo complained to Maia that her son had stolen his cattle, but Hermes had already returned in his mother's blanket so she refused to believe Apollo's accusations. Zeus took the side of Apollo but when Hermes began to play music on the lyre that he had invented, Apollo, a god of music, fell in love with the instrument and offered to allow exchange of the cattle for the lyre. Hence, Apollo became a master of the lyre and Hermes invented the syrinx, a pipe-instrument which was also acquired by Apollo later on by exchanging it with a caduceus.