“Apollo Receiving the Shepherds’ Offerings” by Gustave Moreau (1895).

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Apollo was the son of Zeus andLeto.

The Roman worship of Apollo was adopted from the Greeks. Apollo had no direct Roman equivalent, although later Roman poets often referred to him as Phoebus.

Apollo had a twin sister, Artemis, the Goddess of Hunting.

Mythographers agree that Artemis was born first and then assisted with the birth of Apollo, or that Artemis was born one day before Apollo, on the island of Ortygia and that she helped Leto cross the sea to Delos the next day to give birth to Apollo.

As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular go, the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle.

As the god of prophecy. Apollo exercised this power in his numerous oracles, and especially in that of Delphi. The source of all his prophetic powers was Zeus himself and Apollo is accordingly called “the…