Summary

Apollo (in ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων

He is frequently depicted with his bow and arrows, or with a zither or even a lyre: in this case, he is called a "citharede". He is also called "musagète" ("he who leads the muses"). The nickname "Loxias", "the Oblique", is attributed to him because of the ambiguity of his oracles.

In the Middle Ages, and later in modern times, Apollo became a solar god, patron of music and the arts. In the 19th century, and particularly in Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, he came to symbolize reason, clarity and order, considered characteristic of the "Greek spirit", as opposed to Dionysian excess and enthusiasm. He has been described as "the most Greek of all the gods" and "no other god has played a comparable role in the development of the Greek way of life". He remains one of the gods to whom most temples have been erected and most cults dedicated.

Apollo (Arcadochypriot: Ἀπείλων, Apeilōn; Aeolian: Ἄπλουν, Aploun; Latin: Apollō)

The etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost replaced all other forms by the beginning of the Common Era, but the Doric form, Apellon (Ἀπέλλων), is more archaic, being derived from an earlier *Ἀπέλϳων.

The name Apollo is most plausibly derived from the Indo-European root *apelo-, *aplo- meaning "strength" or "power". According to Daniel E. Gershenson, the name Apollo is simply a descriptive epithet, the Greeks avoiding pronouncing the god's real name to avoid evoking him.

An Anatolian divinity?

The thesis of an "Asian" (i.e. Anatolian) origin for Apollo and Artemis was developed by leading Hellenists such as Wilamowitz in 1903, before being called into question more recently. These scholars relied on various elements: the name Leto could come from Lycian, an Indo-European dialect once spoken in Anatolia, and would mean, in the form Lada, "woman" (an etymology now disputed). One of Apollo's epiclesis, Apollon Lycien, supports this hypothesis. However, this epiclesis is more often interpreted from the name "wolf" (Gernet, Jeanmaire...). The weapon of Apollo and his twin Artemis, the bow, is not Greek but barbarian (moreover, like his sister, he wears not sandals, like the other gods, but booties, a type of footwear considered Asian by the Ancients. What's more, in Homer's Iliad, he is on the side of the Trojans, an Asian people, and Leto's rejection by no Greek land would support the idea of a foreign god. Finally, the first text to mention Apollo is Hittite, not Mycenaean. This Anatolian hypothesis is no longer supported by modern research. However, Fritz Graf emphasizes the similarities between the Greek Apollo and the Hittite god Telipinu. Both are young gods, sons of the god of storms, and are associated with the maintenance of social order. This suggests an Anatolian influence in the evolution of the Greek god.

A long Greek past

Conversely, as many researchers have pointed out, Apollo is paradoxically perhaps the most Greek of all gods, and has a long history in Greece before classical times.

It is also possible that its origins go back to the Dorian people of the Peloponnese, who honored a god named Ἀπέλλων

When his cult was introduced into Greece, he was already honored by other pre-Hellenic peoples, as the Homeric Hymn dedicated to him indicates by pointing out that the Cretans were his first priests. His first place of worship was of course Delos, the religious capital of the Ionians; it was under Pericles, in the 5th century BC, that the island passed into the hands of the Athenians, who reinforced its character as an inviolable sanctuary by forbidding all births and deaths. In the meantime, the cult of Apollo had spread throughout the ancient world, from Asia Minor (the sanctuary of Didymes, near Miletus, bears clear witness to this: it is one of the largest temples ever built in the Mediterranean area) to Syria, not to mention the countless temples dedicated to him in Greece itself. According to Phanias, Gyges, King of Lydia, was the first to dedicate gold offerings to him. Before his reign, Apollo Pythian had neither gold nor silver.

Greek-Celtic hypothesis

Contrary to the traditional thesis, Bernard Sergent, a specialist in comparative mythology, sets out to show in Le livre des dieux. Celtes et Grecs, II (Payot, 2004) the identity of Apollo and the Celtic god Lug. For him, the god is not Asian but Greco-Celtic, and beyond that, Indo-European. He goes back at least to the separation of the Celtic and Greek ancestors, in the 4th millennium BC, and arrived "all at once" in Greece: he is not a composite deity. He has counterparts in the Germanic (Wotan) and Indian (Varuna) realms.

Apollo is said to be the "divine version of the human king". The Homeric poems systematically give him the epithet anax, which goes back to the Mycenaean designation of king, wanax. Yet the Indo-European king is linked to the three functions defined by Georges Dumézil, hence the complexity of Apollo: he fulfills all the functions a god could have. The definition of Lug given by C.-J. Guyonvarc'h and F. Le Roux can also be applied to him: he is "all the gods summed up in a single theonym".

B. Sergent compares, one by one, all the known characteristics of Lug and Apollo, and identifies numerous points and attributes in common. It is at Delphi in particular that the god's complex character is revealed, in his role as inspirer of the Pythia and of men, whom he reveals to himself.

Bernard Sergent's proposed link between Lug and Apollo has not been taken up by other specialists. Pierre Sauzeau criticizes him for neglecting the "explicitly recognized" proximity between Apollo and Rudra, and the links with Artemis. Current specialists in Celtic studies see Lug more as an heir to the Indo-European pair of Dioscuri, the Divine Twins, one of the oldest figures in the Indo-European pantheon.

Apollo, god of wild nature and "wolf of the wind

In Apollo the Wolf-god, Daniel E. Gershenson sees Apollo as a god of Indo-European origin, whose main attributes are grouped together in the expression Apollon dieu-loup. He follows in the footsteps of Louis Gernet (Dolon le loup) and Henri Jeanmaire (Couroï et Courètes).

The term "wolf" does not refer to the cult of the animal itself, but to its symbolism, which is none other than the wind, considered both for its beneficial and destructive virtues. Winds, like Zephyr the wolf-wind, can be favorable to seeds, but are also believed to come from caves, and this underground origin links them to the Underworld. The wind is thus the gateway between chaos and the cosmos.

This explains the deity's role as tutor to ephebes, young warriors who complete their adult initiation, his function as protector of the sown grain and finally his quality as god of prophecy who reveals the mysteries and initiates musicians and poets. The Lyceum (Λύκειον

Gershenson presents numerous testimonies in the European world which could show that this wolf-god and wind-god goes back to a period before the separation of the European peoples who penetrated Central and Southern Europe. His deductions are in line with those of other specialists, who have emphasized Apollo's link with wolves and his role in initiations. Apollo is particularly associated with Boreas, the North Wind.

Jean Haudry also agrees with Gershenson's conclusions. Like the Vedic god Rudra, Apollo was originally a god of wind and wilderness: it was by opposing Dionysus that he developed "civilized" characteristics. Faced with a "wild fire" Dionysus, he became, contrary to his original nature, the god of the Delphic hearth. He opposed Dionysus' winter fire as a summer and solar god. He thus asserted himself as the god of wisdom in the face of Dionysian madness. And while Dionysus, a subversive god, may have been considered undesirable in aristocratic society, Apollo became the civic and national god par excellence.

A solar god?

The identification of Apollo with the sun does not appear in any source before the 5th century BC - in the Archaic period, Helios or Hyperion represent solar fire; the first attested mention dates back to Euripides, in a fragment of the lost tragedy Phaeton. The assimilation is explained by the epithet φοῖϐος

Both Apollo Sun and Artemis Moon have moved away from their primitive character as wild gods and into the cosmic sphere of religion.

Synthesis of several mythologies

In the Iliad, Apollo is described as a lunar god: his bow is silver, a color associated with night and the moon. Later, multiple evolutions lead him to become a solar god (his epithet Phœbus, light), and his bow and arrows refer to the sun's rays. Again in Homeric poems, he is perceived as an avenging, threatening god, the bringer of plague. In Canto I of the Iliad, his nicknames are: toxophore, lord archer, argyrotoxos, silver-bowed, etc. This vengeful attitude is accompanied by warlike traits: Homer describes him as a proud god, carried away by his feelings and by violence. Let's not forget that the Homeric poems (Iliad), written in the 9th century B.C., recount a story that took place nearly four centuries earlier (Troy was destroyed in 1280 B.C.). The god Apollo had not yet undergone the influences that would lead him to become the complex god he is in classical Greece.

Apollo is the son of Zeus and the Titanid Leto. His twin sister is Artemis.

His birth is recounted in detail in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo: about to give birth, Leto travels the Aegean Sea, seeking shelter for her son and escaping Hera, who is hunting her out of jealousy. Filled with terror, "for none of them was courageous enough, however fertile, to welcome Phoibos", the islands and peninsulas refuse one after the other to welcome Apollo. Leto finally wins over the island of Delos, which at first refuses, fearing that the god will then despise it because of the harshness of its soil. Léto swears by the Styx that her son will build his temple there, and the island immediately accepts.

All the goddesses, including Dioné, Rhéa, Thémis and Amphitrite, come to assist Leto during her delivery. Out of jealousy, Hera does not warn Ilithyie, goddess of childbirth, who remains on Olympus. After nine days and nights, the goddesses order Iris, messenger of the gods, to warn Ilithyie and give her a golden necklace to summon her. As soon as she arrives in Delos, Leto embraces a palm tree that will become sacred and gives birth to Apollo, on a day that is the seventh of the month. Immediately, the sacred swans circle the shore seven times in song. Then Themis offers Apollo nectar and ambrosia. In the Homeric Hymn, Artemis is not born at the same time as her brother, but in Ortygia - a name that perhaps refers to the site of Artemis' temple in Ephesus. From the moment of his birth, Apollo shows his immortal power; he claims his attributes, the lyre and the bow, and asserts his powers.

According to Pindar, Artemis and Apollo are born twins on Delos. Delos is a wandering island before the arrival of Leto, the metamorphosis of her sister Asteria; after Apollo's deliverance, four columns rise from the bottom of the sea to anchor her firmly. At Hygin's, the serpent Python predicts his own death at the hands of Apollo and pursues the pregnant Leto to prevent her from giving birth. At the same time, Hera decrees that no land under the sun will be able to accommodate Leto. Zeus therefore asks Boreas, the north wind, to bring Leto to Poseidon, who installs the parturient on the island of Ortygia, which he covers with water. Python finally abandons his search and Léto is able to give birth. Poseidon immediately brought Ortygia out of the water, and the island was renamed Delos, meaning "the visible one". Apollodorus suggests that Artemis is the first to be born and acts as midwife to Leto for the birth of her brother.

The family tree below is based on the writings of the Greek poet Hesiod and the Library of Apollodorus.

Love and offspring

Apollo had many descendants:

Renowned for his great beauty, Apollo is paradoxically rather unhappy in his love affairs. His love affairs are with nymphs, mortals

He falls in love with the nymph Cyrene when he sees her fighting a lion threatening her father's flocks. He tells his feelings to the centaur Chiron, who approves. Encouraged, Apollo declares his love for the young girl, taking her to Libya. There, she receives from the god sovereignty over the region, Cyrenaica, and gives birth to Aristaeus, who will teach men beekeeping.

The god's other loves were less happy. He kidnapped Marpessa, daughter of Evenos, while she was engaged to the Argonaut Idas. Idas arms himself to claim his bride, and Zeus must separate the two adversaries. The king of the gods asks Marpessa to choose between her two suitors; the young girl opts for Idas, for fear of being abandoned by Apollo in old age.

He pursues the nymph Daphne with his ardor; during her flight, the young girl invokes her father, a river god, who substitutes a laurel tree. His love affair with Coronis, daughter of Phlegias, king of the Lapiths, doesn't end much better: pregnant by the god, she cheats on him with the mortal Ischys. Apollo, master of divination, perceives the truth, which is also reported to him by a raven. He sends his sister Artemis to slay the unfaithful woman with her arrows, but out of pity for the unborn child, he tears it from its mother's womb and burns it at the stake. He takes the young Asclepius to the centaur Chiron, who raises him and teaches him the art of medicine. Apollo also falls in love with the Trojan princess Cassandra, daughter of King Priam: she promises to give herself to him in exchange for the gift of prophecy, but after receiving satisfaction, she goes back on her word. Angered, Apollo condemned her never to be taken seriously.

Many other adventures are attributed to Apollo. Often, the stories focus on the divine offspring rather than the mother, whose name changes according to the version: these are not real love stories, but a way of linking a character to Apollo. Examples include the musicians Linos and Orpheus, the soothsayer Philamnos, Ion, eponym of the Ionians, and Delphos, founder of Delphi.

Apollo is also the god with the most affairs with young boys. He falls in love with Hyacinth, son of a Spartan king. As they practice discus throwing, chance - or jealous Zephyr - causes the discus to hit Hyacinth in the temple. In despair, Apollo causes the young man's blood to spurt out a flower, the hyakinthos, which is probably not the hyacinth we know today. The story of Cyparisse, son of Télèphe, also has a tragic ending. Loved by Apollo, his companion was a tame stag. In despair, he asks the god for death, and the grace of eternal mourning. And so he is turned into a cypress, symbol of sadness. Apollo also falls in love with Hymenaios, son of Magnes; absorbed by his passion, the god doesn't see young Hermes stealing his flocks.

Her lovers also included Helenos, brother of Cassandra; Carnos, son of Zeus and Europa, who received the gift of divination from the god; Leucatas, who threw himself off a cliff to escape the god, giving his name to the island of Lefkada; Branchos, loved by Apollo while tending his flocks, and later founder of the god's oracle at Didymus.

Among the Hyperboreans

Shortly after Apollo's birth, Zeus gave him a swan-drawn chariot and ordered him to go to Delphi. The god doesn't obey immediately, but takes off in his chariot for the land of the Hyperboreans, which, according to some versions, is the homeland of Leto. Here live a sacred people who know neither old age nor sickness; the sun shines there all the time. Apollo stays there for a year before leaving for Delphi. He returns every nineteen years, by which time the stars have completed one complete revolution (a metonic cycle). From the spring equinox to the rising of the Pleiades, he dances there every night, accompanied by his lyre. According to other legends, he spends the winter months here each year, only returning to his place of worship - Delphi or Delos - in the spring.

Arrival at Delphi

The god's first exploits are described in the Homeric Hymn to Pythian Apollo. Looking for a place to found his oracle, Apollo first stops at the Telphouse spring, near Helicon. Not wishing to share the site with anyone else, she suggested he go to Crisa, near Delphi, instead. There, Apollo establishes his temple, after killing the female serpent, the Δράκαινα

The arrival at Delphi is the subject of several variants. In Pindar, the god takes control of the place by force (it's not specified how), prompting Gaia to throw him into Tartarus. Other authors also mention the repercussions of Python's murder: in Plutarch, Apollo must purify himself in the waters of Tempé. In Euripides, Leto brings Apollo to Delphi, where he kills the serpent Python. In anger, Gaia sends prophetic dreams to mankind. Apollo complains about this unfair competition to Zeus, who puts an end to the dreams. At Hygin, Apollo kills Python to avenge his mother, whom the serpent had pursued during her pregnancy.

In other traditions, the taking of Delphi is peaceful. In Aeschylus, Gaia gives the place to her daughter Themis, who in turn gives it to her sister Phoebe, who then hands it over to Apollo. In Aristonoos, Apollo is led to Delphi by Athena and persuades Gaia to give him the sanctuary.

The Trojan War

During the Trojan War, Apollo sided with the Trojans, who dedicated a temple to him on their acropolis. As Poseidon and Athena do for the Achaeans, he intervenes alongside the troops he defends to encourage them. He takes on mortal traits to advise Hector or Aeneas. He saves Aeneas from Diomedes' blows, intervenes in person to repel the Greek warrior when he becomes too pressing, then saves Aeneas by replacing him with a ghost on the battlefield. Similarly, he steals Hector away from Achilles' rage. Conversely, he uses Agenor to keep Achilles at bay and prevent the capture of Troy. He intervenes directly, striking and disarming Patroclus, leaving the hero defenseless against the Trojans, who kill him. Depending on the version, he either helps Paris to kill Achilles, or takes the form of the Trojan prince to kill him.

Defender of the Trojans, his main adversary is his half-sister Athena. Not content with fighting her on the battlefield through mortal intermediaries, he wants to prevent Athena's protégé Diomedes from winning the chariot race at Patroclus' funeral games; the goddess intervenes in turn to help her champion win. Nevertheless, Apollo knows how to restrain himself in the face of his uncle Poseidon, and suggests that mortals settle their quarrels themselves.

We don't know why Apollo is so actively on the side of the Trojans, or conversely against the Greeks. His only connection with Troy goes back to his servitude to Laomedon, but this history should encourage him to support the Greeks, as Poseidon does.

A vengeful god

Apollo is a vindictive god, quick to punish those who defy him, committing two fratricides (Tityos and Amphion). He kills the serpent Python and, with the help of his sister, eliminates his half-brother Tityos, who has tried to attack Leto. Still with Artemis, he slaughters with his arrows his nephews and nieces, the sons and daughters of Niobe, who dared to mock his mother. He also kills his half-brother Amphion, who tries to plunder his temple to avenge the Niobids. He kills the Aloades when they attempt to climb Olympus and defy the gods. He flayed alive the satyr Marsyas, a flute-player, who had challenged him to a musical contest. King Midas, who had preferred the sound of the flute to that of the lyre, is endowed with a pair of donkey ears.

The confrontation is not always to the god's advantage. When Heracles seized the Delphic tripod to put pressure on the Pythia, Apollo came to the priestess' rescue. The hero would have fled with the tripod if the god hadn't called his father Zeus for help, who intervened by sending a bolt of lightning.

A builder god

In his Hymn to Apollo, Callimachus attributes to him the role of builder, founder and legislator. He advised the representatives of various Greek cities on the founding of new cities: "O Phoebus! under your auspices cities rise; for you delight in seeing them formed, and you yourself lay their foundations."

Plato also recognizes Apollo's role, and advises all founders of a state to refer to the laws established by the god: these are laws "concerning the foundation of temples, sacrifices, and in general the worship of gods, demons and heroes, and also the tombs of the dead and the honors to be paid to them so that they may be propitious to us...".

Apollo was a young god for the Greeks. Alone among all the Olympians, his name does not appear on the linear B Mycenaean tablets. The first cult in Delos concerned Artemis, not her brother. It's possible that the Karneia, Hyacinthia and Daphnephoria originally celebrated deities other than Apollo. However, his cult was firmly established throughout the Greek world as early as the 8th century BC, when the first Greek literary sources appeared.

In Homer

Apollo plays a major role in the Iliad: according to Homer, it was he who instigated the dispute between Agamemnon and Achilles, and thus all the events narrated in the poem. The prophetic Xanthos, Achilles' horse, calls him "the first of the gods". In fact, none is mentioned more often than him in the poem, with the exception of Zeus. Each of his appearances is terrifying. When he wants to avenge his priest Chryses, scorned by Agamemnon :

"From the peaks of Olympus he descended, full of wrath, Carrying his bow and quiver watertight on his shoulder. The lines rang on the shoulder of the wrathful god,

The sound of his bow is terrible and his voice rumbles like thunder when he stops the warrior Diomedes in his tracks. He is also a god jealous of his prerogatives: facing Diomedes, he reminds him that "there is nothing in common

"Why do you chase me, Achilles, with your swift feet, Mortal running after a god? Have you not yet Recognized who I am, that you persist in your rage?"

During Patroclus' funeral games, he takes the victory from the archer Teucros, who failed to promise him a massacre.

Homer presents Apollo above all as an archer god. Where his sister uses the bow for hunting, his domain is war: he gives their weapon to the two best archers of the Trojan War, the Trojan Pandaros and the Greek Teucros. His arrows bring death: they spread plague throughout the Greek camp, killing man and beast alike. The only remedy is prayer, purification and sacrifice: only he can ward off the disease he brings.

Musician

The hymn to Pythian Apollo begins with Apollo appearing in Olympus, phorminx (lyre) in hand: "Immediately the Immortals think of nothing but zither and song." The Muses sing in chorus to gods and men; the gods of Olympus, including Ares, join hands to dance, and Apollo himself, while playing, joins in. The scene sums up one of Apollo's major domains: the μουσική

As such, Apollo is the patron saint of musicians: "It is through the Muses and the archer Apollo that there are singers and citharists", says Hesiod. He even inspires nature: as he passes, "nightingales, swallows and cicadas sing". His music soothes wild animals. For the Greeks, music and dance were more than just entertainment: they enabled men to endure the misery of their condition.

Jacqueline Duchemin, a specialist in Greek poetry and comparative mythology, has put forward the hypothesis that Apollo's prerogatives in the field of music and poetry are linked to his nature as a pastoral deity, one of the god's original functions being the protection of flocks. According to the author of La Houlette et la lyre, it was shepherds and pastoralists who invented the art of music during their long, solitary vigils. She states: "The poet and the shepherd are one and the same. And his gods are in his image. And also: "The divinities of shepherds and beasts were, in the most ancient times, those of music, dance and poetic inspiration in the heart of a pastoral nature."

God of oracles

After claiming the bow and lyre, Apollo, in the Homeric hymn dedicated to him, names his third field of intervention: "I will also reveal in my oracles the infallible designs of Zeus". While Zeus and a few heroes, such as Trophonios, have their own oracles, Apollo is the Greeks' main oracular deity. As he himself declares when his brother Hermes tries to obtain the gift of divination: "I have pledged my word, and sworn by a fearful oath that none but myself, among the ever-living Gods, would know the will of Zeus' deepest designs."

From classical times onwards, all large-scale oracular sites belong to Apollo, with the exception of the oracle of Zeus at Dodona and, later, that of Zeus Ammon at Siwa. Asked about the disappearance of oracles linked to sacred springs or vapors emanating from the earth, Apollo replied in the 2nd and 3rd centuries:

"The earth itself opened up and took some into its subterranean bowels, while an infinite eternity annihilated the others. But only Helios who shines for mortals still possesses in the divine gorges of Didymes the waters of Mykalè, and that which runs along the edge of Pythô under the mountain of Parnasse, and the rocky Claros, rocky mouth of the prophetic voice of Phoibos."

The main oracle of Apollo is that of Delphi, probably founded between 900 and 700 BC. From the Archaic period onwards, Delphian Apollo was omnipresent in the life of cities: he approved their laws, such as the Great Rhêtra of Sparta or the constitution of Clisthenes in Athens, and gave his blessing to colonial expeditions. He appears in heroic myths such as Oedipus and Theseus. The Pythian Games, in honor of Apollo, were the most important public competition after the Olympic Games. In the Hellenistic period, he advised the Roman Senate. After a period of decline in the 1st century BC, the sanctuary was destroyed by the Christians in the 4th century.

In ancient art

Apollo is always depicted in the freshness of eternal youth. This is typical of a wind god who never ages.

He is depicted with long hair, in keeping with one of his Homeric epithets. The hairstyle is typical of young men or kouroi, a term derived from the root ker-, "to shear, to cut" (implied: hair). The typical young man's pastime being athletics, practised naked, the typical offering to Apollo takes the form, in Archaic times, of a standing young man, naked, with long hair, a statuary type that art historians call the kouros.

List of Apollo statues with a Wikipedia article

Modern times

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault composed two cantatas, Apollon, Op. 15 and Apollon et Doris, Op. 21.

Television

Episode 6 of the Great Myths series focuses on Apollo, shadow and light.

Sources

1. Apollo
2. Apollon
3. La cithare des Grecs et des Romains est une forme de lyre, et non une cithare moderne ; les deux mots sont employés indifféremment par les poètes pour parler de l'instrument d'Apollon.
4. ^ Otto 2005, p. 68.
5. 1,0 1,1 Βαγγέλη Πεντάζου - Μαρίας Σαρλά, Δελφοί, Β. Γιαννίκος - Β. Καλδής Ο.Ε., 1984, 18.
6. Βαγγέλη Πεντάζου - Μαρίας Σαρλά, 1984, 17.
7. Ιλιάς, 15, 322
8. Βαγγέλη Πεντάζου - Μαρίας Σαρλά, 1984, 19.
9. ὔτεκνος δὲ οὖσα Νιόβη τῆς Λητοῦς εὐτεκνοτέρα εἶπεν ὑπάρχειν· Λητὼ δὲ ἀγανακτήσασα τήν τε Ἄρτεμιν καὶ τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα κατ᾽ αὐτῶν παρώξυνε, καὶ τὰς μὲν θηλείας ἐπὶ τῆς οἰκίας κατετόξευσεν Ἄρτεμις, τοὺς δὲ ἄρρενας κοινῇ πάντας ἐν Κιθαιρῶνι Ἀπόλλων κυνηγετοῦντας ἀπέκτεινεν. ἐσώθη δὲ τῶν μὲν ἀρρένων Ἀμφίων, τῶν δὲ θηλειῶν Χλωρὶς ἡ πρεσβυτέρα, ᾗ Νηλεὺς συνᾐκησε. κατὰ δὲ Τελέσιλλαν ἐσώθησαν Ἀμύκλας καὶ Μελίβοια, ἐτοξεύθη δὲ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῶν καὶ Ἀμφίων... ( βλ. Απολλόδωρου Βιβλιοθήκη, Βιβλίο Γ', κεφ. 5.6. )
10. (en) R.S.P. Beekes, The Origin of Apollo, in JANER 3 (2003), pp. 1–21.
11. Heraclitus, fr. 860, Timotheus, fr. 800.
12. Aeschylus, Eumenides 1.
13. Voor de iconografie van het zogenaamde "Alexander-Helios"-type, zie H. Hoffmann, Helios, in Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 2 (1963), pp. 117–123.