Apollo

Title: God of the sun

Greek name: Apollo is a Greek name

Day of the Week: Sunday

Solar system: Sun

Relations:

Son of Jupiter
Brother of Diana

Wonder of the World: Colossus at Rhodes

Apollo was the god of the sun. Each day he drove his chariot of fiery horses across the sky to give light to the world. Apollo had a son called Phaethon, who was human. Phaethon nagged at Apollo to let him borrow the sun chariot and fly across the sky. Finally Apollo agreed. Phaethon proudly drove the sun chariot up into the sky, but then he lost control of the horses. The sun chariot dived towards the earth, burning everything. Finally Jupiter had to stop him with a thunder bolt.

Apollo was also the god of music, and played the lyre.

His most famous temple was at Delphi in Greece, see right. There, his priestess would prophesy the future. But she wasn't easy to understand. One day, a great king asked the priestess if he should invade a nearby kingdom. She said, "If you do this, a great kingdom will be destroyed." He thought that she meant he would be successful, and so started the war. He lost disastrously. It was his own kingdom that got destroyed!