APOLOGUE, in Literature, an ingenious method of conveying instruction by means of a feigned relation called a moral fable. The only difference between a parable and an apologue is, that the former, being drawn from what passes among mankind, requires probability in the narration; whereas the apologue, being taken from the supposed actions of brutes, or even of things inanimate, is not tied down to the strict rules of probability. The Æsopic fables are a model of this kind of writing.
APOMYOS (ἀπό, and μύσα, a fly), in the Heathen Mythology, a name under which Zeus was worshipped at Elis, and Hercules as well as Zeus at the Olympic games. These deities were supplicated under this name to destroy or drive away the vast number of flies which always attended at the great sacrifices; and in those which accompanied the Olympic games, the first was always to the Apomyos, or Myiagrus Theos, that he might drive away the flies from the rest. The usual sacrifice was a bull.