Old SymbolsWhere every symbol began

Plate 1 A young god holding a lyre, a laurel wreath in his hair

Apollo

Apollo’s symbols are the lyre and the bow, the two things the newborn god claims in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. The laurel was his tree: it crowned his head, and his oracle at Delphi spoke “from his laurel tree”.

Greek gods and their symbols. Also called apollo lyre, apollo sun god, apollo symbol, apollo symbols, symbol of apollo.

Meaning

Apollo was the Greek god of music and prophecy, and in Greek art he is a young man. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes him as often shown with the kithara, the stringed instrument of professional performers, or with a bow, and calls him one of the most important gods in Greek religion, judging from his many cult sites; his main sanctuary at Delphi was considered the centre of the universe. In the Iliad he is the “god of the silver bow”, whose arrows bring plague on the Greek camp. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849) records that his bow and arrows were the gift of Hephaestus and that “the more common tradition” had him receive the lyre from Hermes. The Romans had no trace of Apollo in their early religion, Smith writes; they took him and their ideas about him from the Greeks, and Augustus founded a new temple to him on the Palatine. Apollo is honoured today in the Hellenic religion of the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes, which the Greek state recognised as a known religion in 2017.

Origin and history

In the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Leto gives birth to him on Delos with her arms around a palm tree. Themis feeds him nectar and ambrosia, no golden cords can hold him, and his first words are: “The lyre and the curved bow shall ever be dear to me, and I will declare to men the unfailing will of Zeus.” The same hymn has him answer from “his laurel tree below the dells of Parnassus”, which is Delphi.

The lyre was not his invention in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. On the day he was born, Hermes found a tortoise at the threshold of the cave where he was born and was the first to make “the tortoise a singer”, then stole Apollo’s cattle. To settle the quarrel Hermes gave Apollo the lyre, and Apollo gave Hermes his shining whip and made him keeper of herds; Apollo took the lyre on his left arm, tried each string, and sang.

The laurel has two ancient explanations. Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells how Daphne, daughter of a river god and the first love of Phoebus Apollo, was turned into a laurel, and how the god declared that her leaves would always crown his brows and be wreathed around his quiver and his lyre, and that Roman heroes would be crowned with them. Pausanias heard at Delphi that the very first temple of Apollo there was a hut made of laurel branches brought from the laurel in Tempe.

Was Apollo the sun god?

Not in the oldest texts. Smith writes that in Homer, and for some centuries after him, Apollo and Helios, the sun, are entirely distinct gods; the identification of the two was a view “almost universal among the later poets, mythographers, and philesophers”. Pausanias met a man from Sidon who told him the two gods were the same, and remarked that this agreed with what the Greeks believed. The link is strong in modern use. When NASA’s Abe Silverstein chose the name Apollo for the proposed spacecraft to fly round the moon, the next after Mercury, he said, “I thought the image of the god Apollo riding his chariot across the sun gave the best representation of the grand scale of the proposed program.” The space programme that followed, Artemis, is named for his twin sister (Artemis).

The kithara

The lyre Apollo holds in vase paintings is usually the kithara. A pelike in the Met shows him in a long chiton holding one, “the stringed instrument used for professional and public performances”, as leader of the nine Muses, while his sister Artemis pours a libation with him at an altar. The Met’s guide for teachers describes the kithara, which Apollo was supposed to have invented, as made of wood, metal plates or even ivory, with seven strings, played standing. Smith records that the invention was ascribed to Apollo only by later traditions, and that the usual account gave the lyre to Hermes.

The armed Apollo of Amyclae

Not every Apollo was the young musician. At Amyclae Pausanias saw an old and roughly made image, perhaps thirty cubits high, which had a face, feet and hands but otherwise looked like a bronze pillar. It wore a helmet and held a spear and a bow.

See also

Hawk symbolism, Horus, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter.

Sources

  1. Homeric Hymn 3, To Apollo 115–130 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 3, To Apollo, lines 115–130, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 115–130
  2. Homeric Hymn 3, To Apollo 131–134 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 3, To Apollo, lines 131–134, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 131–134
  3. Homeric Hymn 3, To Apollo 393–396 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 3, To Apollo, lines 393–396, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 393–396
  4. Homeric Hymn 4, To Hermes 17–26 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 4, To Hermes, lines 17–26, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 17–26
  5. Homeric Hymn 4, To Hermes 490–502 (tr. Evelyn-White), The Homeric Hymns, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914), Homeric Hymn 4, To Hermes, lines 490–502, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, lines 490–502
  6. Iliad 1.37–52 (Homer, tr. A. T. Murray), Homer, The Iliad, translated by A. T. Murray (1924), 1.37–52, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, lines 37–52
  7. Metamorphoses 1.548–567 (Ovid, tr. Brookes More), Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Brookes More (1922), 1.548–567, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, lines 548–567
  8. Description of Greece 10.5.9 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 10.5.9, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 10, chapter 5, section 9
  9. Description of Greece 3.19.2 (Pausanias, tr. Jones and Ormerod), Pausanias, Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones and H. A. Ormerod (1918), 3.19.2, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 3, chapter 19, section 2
  10. Greek Gods and Religious Practices (Colette and Seán Hemingway, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Colette Hemingway and Seán Hemingway, “Greek Gods and Religious Practices”, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2003), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, essay text
  11. Greek Art: From Prehistoric to Classical, a resource for educators (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art of the Ancient Greeks: From Prehistoric to Classical. A Resource for Educators (2000), “Greek Beliefs: Myth and Religion”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 17 and slide notes on the terracotta amphora
  12. Terracotta pelike (jar), attributed to an artist near the Chicago Painter (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection entry “Terracotta pelike (jar), attributed to an artist near the Chicago Painter”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object description
  13. Apollo (William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology), William Smith (ed.), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1849), s.v. “Apollo”, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, entry text
  14. Chariots for Apollo, chapter 1.6 (Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood and Loyd S. Swenson, NASA), Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood and Loyd S. Swenson Jr., Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft, NASA SP-4205 (1979), chapter 1, section 6, NASA History Office, chapter 1, section 6
  15. Metamorphoses 1.452–456 (Ovid, tr. Brookes More), Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Brookes More (1922), 1.452–456, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, book 1, lines 452–456
  16. NASA Names New Moon Landing Program Artemis After Apollo’s Sister (Robert Z. Pearlman, Space.com), Robert Z. Pearlman, “NASA Names New Moon Landing Program Artemis After Apollo's Sister”, Space.com, 14 May 2019, Space.com (Future US), article text
  17. What is the Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE)? (YSEE, frequently asked questions), Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), “Frequently asked questions”, Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes (YSEE), first and second answers

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research

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