7th March: Apollo

The seventh day of the month is sacred to the Greek god Apollo. So ten facts about this Greek god on one of his sacred days.

1. Apollo is the Greek god of light and the Sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing (though he was also capable of bringing down a deadly plague on people); Music, poetry, and the arts (as leader of the Muses and director of their choir); and more. As god of colonisation, Apollo gave oracular guidance to colonists.
2. Because he was the god of so many things, he was given a lot of epithets, including Phoebus ("bright"), Helius or Sol ("sun"), Phanaeus ("giving or bringing light"), Lycegenes ("born of a wolf") Didymaeus ("Twin", because Artemis was his twin sister), Parnopius ("locust") Culicarius ("of midges") Iatrus ("physician"), Alexicacus ("warding off evil"), Archegetes ("founder"), Agyieus ("street" for his role in protecting roads and homes), Nomius ("pastoral") Manticus ("prophetic"), Aphetor ("to let loose") Argyrotoxus ("with silver bow"), and Hecaërgus ("far-shooting").
3. Apollo is a son of Zeus, the result of the latter's affair with Leto. Zeus's wife Hera was furious when she found out about the pregnancy - she banned Leto from giving birth anywhere on land or at sea. Hence Apollo was born on the barren island of Delos, which was deemed to be neither land nor sea, and which is now sacred to Apollo.
4. Artemis the huntress is his twin sister. According to the legend, Leto had an easy time giving birth to Artemis, but with Apollo she was in labour for nine days. Artemis, despite being a newborn baby at the time, is said to have assisted with her twin brother's birth.
5. Such precociousness must have been a family trait, for when Apollo was four days old, he killed the the Delphic python, which Hera had sent to kill his mother, having begged Hephaestus for a bow and arrows with which to protect his mother.
6. According to mythology, Apollo had over 60 love affairs and over 70 offspring. Not all his consorts were willing ones. Daphne, for example, pleaded to her father for help as she was being pursued by Apollo and was turned into a laurel tree. Castalia dove into the spring at Delphi to escape his advances, while Cassandra's curse of prophecy was Apollo's revenge for her rejection of him.
7. The bay laurel and palm were sacred to Apollo. Animals sacred to him include Wolves, Dolphins, roe deer, Swans, cicadas, hawks, ravens, crows, Snakes, Mice and griffins.
8. Apollo is usually pictured with a bow and arrow, a lyre, plectrum and sword. Hermes created the lyre for him.
9. Apollo was Christianised as St Vincent.
10. The Pythian Games were held in Apollo's honour every four years at Delphi. The bay laurel plant, one of Apollo's sacred plants, was used in sacrifices and for making the victory crowns.