Apollo Apollo Apollo (Attic, Ionic, and Homeric Greek: , "Apollōn" ( ) is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The national divinity of the Greeks, Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Seen as the most beautiful god and the ideal of the "kouros" (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo is considered to be
Apollo an earlier /kʷalyán-/ before palatalization, syncope, and the pre-Lydian sound change *y ">" d. Note the labiovelar in place of the labial /p/ found in pre-Doric "Ἀπέλjων" and Hittite "Apaliunas". A Luwian etymology suggested for "Apaliunas" makes Apollo "The One of Entrapment", perhaps in the sense of "Hunter". Apollo's chief epithet was Phoebus ( ; , "Phoibos" ), literally "bright". It was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollo's role as the god of light. Like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects