Apollo Apollo is said to have built a foundation and an altar on Delos using the horns of the goats that his sister Artemis hunted. Since he learnt the art of building when young, he later became "Archegetes", the founder of towns and god who guided men to build new cities. In his young years when Zeus had ignored him, Apollo spent his time herding cows. There, he was reared by Thriae, the bee nymphs, who trained him and enhanced his prophetic skills. During this time, Apollo also invented the lyre, and along with Artemis, the art of archery. He then
Apollo (, "prophet"). Frenzied women like Sibyls from whose lips the god speaks are recorded in the Near East as Mari in the second millennium BC. Although Crete had contacts with Mari from 2000 BC, there is no evidence that the ecstatic prophetic art existed during the Minoan and Mycenean ages. It is more probable that this art was introduced later from Anatolia and regenerated an existing oracular cult that was local to Delphi and dormant in several areas of Greece. A non-Greek origin of Apollo has long been assumed in scholarship. The name of Apollo's mother Leto has Lydian origin,