Apollo's first love was Daphne, daughter of the river Peneus. It was not blind chance that caused this, but the wicked anger of Cupid. One day the Delian god, Apollo, flushed with pride at his recent killing of the serpent Python, saw Cupid bending his bow, its string drawn tight. 'Saucy lad!'
The most celebrated of his loves were the nymph Daphne, princess Koronis (Coronis), huntress Kyrene (Cyrene) and youth Hyakinthos (Hyacinthus). The stories of Apollo's lovers Daphne and Kyrene can be found on their own separate pages--see the Apollo pages sidebar.
Overview. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, the twin brother of Artemis, and the patron god of Delphi. Apollo is noted for his adventurous love life; he took many lovers, both female and male; the most notable among them is the Spartan prince Hyacinthus and the Naiad nymph Daphne.
Eros was angered, so he immediately struck Apollo with a love arrow, making him fall in love with Daphne, a virginal nymph of the woods. In the same fashion he struck Daphne with a lead arrow, which had the opposite effect, and made the nymph be repulsed by Apollo and his ardent wooing.
However, when Eros laid eyes on Psyche, he was so completely mesmerized by her beauty that he forgot to carry out his mother's orders. In fact, he fell in love with Psyche himself.
Besides dalliances with numerous nymphs, Apollo was also lover to Macedonian Prince Hyakinthos, who died catching a thrown discus, then turned by the god into the hyacinth flower. The Pseudo-Apollodorus also said Apollo had been with Thracian singer Thamyris in the first man-on-man relationship in history.
In the myth, Apollo falls madly in love with Daphne, a woman sworn to remain a virgin. Apollo hunts Daphne who refuses to accept his advances. Right at the moment he catches her, she turns into a laurel tree, a scene famously depicted in Bernini's Apollo and Daphne sculpture.
The story goes that one day, Apollo was throwing a discus with Hyacinth. Either through his own mistake or through the jealous intervention of Zephyrus, Apollo threw the discus and hit Hyacinthus in the head with it, killing him. Unwilling to let his lover die, Apollo made flowers grow from his spilled blood.
Although Apollo had many love affairs, they were mostly unfortunate: Daphne, in her efforts to escape him, was changed into a laurel, his sacred shrub; Coronis (mother of Asclepius) was shot by Apollo's twin, Artemis, when Coronis proved unfaithful; and Cassandra (daughter of King Priam of Troy) rejected his advances ...
One day Apollo saw Coronis and became enamoured of her. He lay with her in her home, and consequently she became pregnant.
Asclepius is said to have been Apollo's favorite demigod child. Asclepius became even more skilled in medicine than his father Apollo, most likely because he devoted all of his time to it.
Greek god Apollo never married. But he did inherit his father's lustful ways, and had several love affairs with both men and women. He even fathered a large number of children out of marriage.
It has been argued that The Kiss by Gustav Klimt is a painting symbolic of the kissing of Daphne by Apollo at the moment she is transformed into a laurel tree, though Klimt's own biographers make no mention of this story being an inspiration for the work.
He was unlucky in love
For all his weakness for nymphs and beautiful mortals, very few were willing to receive his advances. For example, the nymph Daphne ran away from him when he tried to pull her into his arms.
Apollo's Women
Marpessa: daughter of Euenos. Their offspring was Kleopatra, wife of Meleager, although her father may have been Idas. Chione: daughter of Daedalion. Their son was Philammon, sometimes said to be the son of Philonis.
As with the other major divinities, Apollo had many children; perhaps the most famous are Orpheus (who inherited his father's musical skills and became a virtuoso with the lyre or kithara), Asclepius (to whom he gave his knowledge of healing and medicine) and, according to the 5th-century BCE tragedian Euripides, the ...
Drago continues to pummel him in the second round, and despite Duke begging Rocky to throw in the towel, he reluctantly honors Apollo's wish. Eventually, Drago lands a final punch that knocks Apollo to the ground, killing him.
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the most beautiful and sad in Greek mythology. In the story, Orpheus, the greatest poet, and musician in history tries to reclaim his wife, Eurydice, who has passed away. To save his loved one, Orpheus will travel to the underworld and back.
Originally named Eron, he was rechristened Eros at the age of 5, given his interest in the opposite sex. Eros grew up to be a fun-loving, carefree womanizer in contrast to his brother Thanos, a power-hungry, misanthropic schemer.
Eros is a baby boy name of Greek origin for “desire”. In ancient Greek mythology, Eros is known as the “god of desire” and “son of the goddess of love and fertility, Aphrodite”.
(1) DIVINE OFFSPRING. ARISTAIOS (Aristaeus) The patron god of beekeeping, olive oil manufacture, and the Etesian Winds. He was a son of Apollon and the nymph Kyrene.
Coronis was pregnant with Apollo's child when she decided to sleep with the mortal, so Apollo killed them both, but he rescued the child from her womb.
APOLLINA: feminine form of Greek Apollo, the god of the sun. Variants include Abbelina, Abbeline, Abellona (Dan.), Apollinaris (Lat.), Apolline (Fr.), Apollinia, Apollonia, Apollyne, Appoline, Appolinia, and Appolonia.
Python became the chthonic enemy of the later Olympian deity Apollo, who slew it and took over Python's former home and oracle. These were the most famous and revered in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.