in Mythology, a pagan deity worshipped by the Greeks and Romans. Cicero mentions four of this name; the most ancient of whom was the son of Vulcan; the second a son of Corybas, and born in Crete; the third an Arcadian, called Nomias, from his being a great legislator; and the last, to whom the greatest honour is ascribed, the son of Jupiter and Latona.

Apollo had a variety of other names, either derived from his principal attributes, or the chief places where he was worshipped. He was called the Healer, from his enlivening warmth and cheering influence; Nomias, or the shepherd, from his fertilizing the earth, and thence sustaining the animal creation; Delius, from his rendering all things manifest; Pythias, from his victory over Python; Lycaias, Phoebus, and Phaneta, from his purity and splendour. As Apollo is almost always confounded by the Greeks with the sun, it is no wonder that he should be dignified with so many attributes. It was natural for the most glorious object in nature, whose influence is felt by all creation, and seen by every animated part of it, to be adored as the fountain of light, heat, and life. The power of healing diseases being chiefly given by the ancients to medicinal plants and vegetable productions, it was natural to exalt into a divinity the visible cause of their growth. Hence he was also styled the God of Physic; and that external heat which cheers and invigorates all nature, being transferred from the human body to the mind, gave rise to the idea of all mental effervescence coming from this god: hence likewise, poets, prophets, and musicians, are said to be Numine afflata, inspired by Apollo.

Whether Apollo was a real personage, or only the great luminary, many have doubted. Vossius has taken great pains to prove this god to be only a metaphorical being, and that there never was any other Apollo than the sun. "He was styled the Son of Jupiter," says this author, "because that god was reckoned by the ancients the author of the world. His mother was called Latona, a name which signifies hidden, because, before the sun was created, all things were wrapped up in the obscurity of chaos. He is always represented as beardless and youthful, because the sun never grows old or decays; and what else can his bows and arrows imply, but his piercing beams?" And he adds, that all the ceremonies which were performed to his honour had a manifest relation to the great source of light which he represented. However, though this be in general true, it appears from many passages in ancient authors, that there was some illustrious personage named Apollo, who, after his apotheosis, was taken for the sun; as Osiris and Orus in Egypt, whose existence cannot be called in question, were, after their death, confounded with the sun, of which they became the symbols, either from the glory and splendour of their reigns, or from a belief that their souls had taken up their residence in that luminary.

Of the four Apollos mentioned by Cicero, it appears that the last three were Greeks, and the first an Egyptian, who, according to Herodotus, was the son of Osiris and Isis, and called Orus. Pausanias is of the same opinion as Herodotus, and ranks Apollo among the Egyptian divinities. The testimony of Diodorus Siculus is still more express; for in speaking of Isis, after saying that she had invented the practice of physic, he adds, that she taught this art to her son Orus, named Apollo, who was the last of the gods that reigned in Egypt.

It is easy to trace almost all the Grecian fables and mythologies from Egypt. If the Apollo of the Greeks was said to be the son of Jupiter, it was because Orus, the Apollo of the Egyptians, had Osiris for his father, whom the Greeks confounded with Jupiter. If the Greek Apollo was reckoned the god of eloquence, music, medicine, and poetry, the reason was, that Osiris, who was the symbol of the sun among the Egyptians, as well as his son Orus, had there taught those liberal arts. If the Greek Apollo was the god and conductor of the Muses, it was because Osiris carried with him, in his expedition to the Indies, singing women and musicians. This parallel might be carried on still further; but enough has been said to prove that the true Apollo was that of Egypt.

To the other perfections of this divinity the poets have added beauty, grace, and the art of captivating the ear and the heart, no less by the sweetness of his eloquence, than by the melodious sounds of his lyre.

The defeat of the serpent Python forms a celebrated incident in the history of Apollo. The waters of Deucalion's deluge, says Ovid, which had overflowed the earth, left a slime, from whence sprung innumerable monsters; and among others the serpent Python, which made great havoc in the country about Parnassus. Apollo, armed with his darts, put him to death; which, physically explained, implies, that the heat of the sun having dissipated the noxious steams, these monsters soon disappeared: or, if this fable be referred to history, the serpent was a robber, who haunting the country about Delphi, and very much infesting those who came hither to sacrifice, a prince who bore the name of Apollo, or one of the priests of that god, put him to death.

This event gave rise to the institution of the Pythian games, so frequently mentioned in the Grecian history; and it was from the legend of Apollo's victory over the Python that the god himself acquired the name of Pythius, and his priestess that of Pythia. The city of Delphi, where the famous oracles were so long delivered, was frequently styled Pytho.