Esther Bartkiw, age 11, of St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, for her question:
WHO WAS APOLLO?
Today we have scientific information and theories to provide answers to many of the questions regarding the world around us. In ancient times, however, the people lacked knowledge to provide scientific answers and so they explained many of the natural events in terms of gods and heroes. The stories were known as myths with the collective study called mythology.
A major god in both ancient Greek and Roman mythology was Apollo. In Greek myths he was the son of Zeus, who was the king of gods, and the goddess Leto. The goddess called Artemis was his twin. The Romans said Apollo was the son of Jupiter and Latona, and his twin was Diana.
Apollo was the god of light, the sun and purity. Sometimes both the Greeks and the Romans called him Phoebus, which means bright.
Mythology says that Apollo played the lyre and wrote poetry. He became the patron of poets and musicians. It was also said that he had healing powers.
Apollo killed a dragon named Python at Delphi, according to myth. The town became the major center of Apollo's worship in Greece. He became also the god of prophecy and foretold the future through his oracle at Delphi. The oracle was a prophetess called the Pythia who sometimes went into trances and uttered indistinct words which were supposedly under the influence of Apollo. The priests of Apollo's temple then interpreted these words to the public.
The Romans and the Greeks both regarded Apollo as the ideal young man. He was extremely handsome. In addition, Apollo was very intelligent, honest and strong. To both the Greeks and the Romans, Apollo represented goodness and reason. He had all of the attributes that made him the ideal of manly beauty.
But mythology also tells us that Apollo had his cruel side, too. He and his twin sister Artemis killed the children of Niobe, queen of Thebes, who had boasted that she was superior to the twins' mother, Leto.
A myth also tells the story of Apollo's love for Daphne, daughter of the river god, Peneus. Apollo pursued Daphne everywhere, but she ran from him and begged Peneus to protect her. Peneus solved the problem by quickly turning his daughter into a laurel tree. Apollo then made the laurel his sacred tree.