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The mythical Greek god Apollo was the illegitimate son of Zeus, the supreme ruler of Mt. Olympus (husband to Hera), and his mother was the Goddess and Titan Leto and his sister and twin (the chaste huntress) was named Artemis. Apollo was primarily known as the god of music, archery, harmony, medicine, and order. He was the exact opposite of Dionysos, who was known as the god of chaos, wine, and women.

But Apollo was reputed to be somewhat of a ladies-man himself and favored romantic affairs with many goddesses and mortal women, such as Hecuba of Troy and the nymph's Cyrene and Daphne.

The serpent Python (the earth dragon of Delphi) earned Apollo's hatred because the legend tells how the serpent harried and pursued Leto during her pregnancy at the behest of a jealous Hera. When Apollo grew to adulthood he hunted down and slew the earth dragon and took over her residence called "Oracle" which was considered the center of the earth and turned it into his own shrine for his worshippers who gathered larel leaves and performed sacrifices to him.

The site of Oracle was in a portion of southwest Greece near Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis and was a major site in ancient Greece for the worship of Apollo and he was also worshiped by early Romans as early as the 2nd century A.D. The site was the place where the historic Pythian Games took place every four years and these games were a precursor to the Olympic Games.

Apollo was always depicted in art (primarily statues) as young, beardless, and was the personification of what Greeks, both male and female, considered attractive and masculine, and almost always either had a lyre (musical instrument) or a bow with a quiver of arrows.

One of the most famous and well preserved statues of Apollo, known as "Apollo Musagetes" which means Leader of the Muses, was sculpted in Rome out of marble during the 2nd century A.D. and was discovered near Tivoli, Italy in 1774 and now is housed in the Museo Pio-Clementino of the Vatican Museum.

Another famous statue of Apollo is "The Naples Apollo of Mantua" which is a bronze statue found at Pompei, which was an ancient Roman city destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and is housed at the Museo Archeoligico Nazionale Museum in Naples after being buried in ash for almost 1700 years.

The Bardo Museum in Tunisia houses artifacts from the ancient ruins of the former Roman city of Bulla Regia and among those artifacts is a statue of Apollo called "Apollo Citharedes" dating back to the 2nd century.

Apollo was definitely an appealing subject of art and mystique and even the great artist Michelangelo produced a sculpture of Apollo in approximately 1530 and Antonio Canova sculpted his work of art "Apollo Crowning Himself" in 1781 and his work is displayed at the Getty Museum in Malibu, California.

The mythology and worship of Apollo is widely seen in art forms from ancient Greece but more numerous examples and better preserved statues are Roman in design and were made of marble as opposed to primarily bronze statues by the Greeks.

The influences of antique artworks and mythology from the Greeks and Roman era's are undeniable and shape even our modern attitudes and opinions of what we consider striking and handsome.

The image and representation of Apollo has come to symbolize even today the embodiment of manly beauty, fertility, and culture. Of all the Greek and Roman legends and mythological figures, none were more revered or immortalized then the god Apollo.

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