for uhm personal reasons I need to know all about feminine apollo so please tell me more
Aha, that's something I love to talk about. I was about to make a post about this anyway so: There's a lot of ancient greek vase paintings that show Apollo wearing feminine robes and accessories that were usually worn by women. For example,
a veil
(Heracles ascending to Olympus)
Multi pinned sleeve
(Apollo helping Hector in the Trojan war)
Cross sash
(The musical contest between Apollo and Marsyas)
Periskelis (the thigh band)
(Orestes seeking shelter at Delphi)
Here, he is wearing the chiton in a way that girls wore
And these lithographs of ancient art have him wear such pretty dresses
Since he is an eternal youth, 99% of the times he has long hair and youthful face - those are the very important physical traits of Apollo. There are many paintings where you will confuse Apollo for a girl.
Apart from these, I have found quite a few statues and marble reliefs too. Many of these are from Hellenistic Greece and Roman era:
As you can notice, most of these present Apollo as a musician, so maybe music played a part in Apollo being effeminte? Did the Muses have a lot of influence on him?Idk, food for thought I guess. Oh and there are a number of headless statues identified as Apollo Patroos (fatherly), where again Apollo is wearing long robes.
Lastly, some quotes from literary sources (FYI I have not included the hundreds of quotes describing Apollo's long hair and smooth chin):
"And ever beautiful is he and ever young: never on the girl cheeks of Apollo hath come so much as the down of manhood."
- Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.)
"Apollo puts his hair in order by shaping his flowing locks with soft foliage and braiding it with a golden diadem."
- Virgil, Aeneid 4.147 (trans. Ingo Gildenhard) (Latin poet C1st B.C.)
"These children Niobe placed above those of Latona [Leto], and spoke rather contemptuously against Apollo and Diana [Artemis] because Diana was girt in man's attire, and Apollo wore long hair and a woman's gown."
- Hyginus, Fabulae 9 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.)
[describing an effeminate man]: giving himself excessive airs of daintiness and indulging in all sorts of effeminacy; sometimes darting his eyes about; sometimes throwing his hands hither and thither...sometimes personating Aphrodite, sometimes Apollo"
- Tatian, Address to the Greeks 22 (trans. Pratten) (Assyrian Theologist C2nd A.D)
"[in the fragments of Lucilius' satires (C2nd B.C)]: Taking issue with Apollo, whom Romulus mocks as a pretty boy (pulcher) with a fondness for effete dance, Romulus rants against foreign luxuries"
- The Cambridge Companion to Seneca (ed. Shadi Bartsch, Alessandro Schiesaro)
fair number of Renaissance paintings continued this tradition by making Apollo look feminine and beautiful. But for some reason most of the modern adaptations make him macho, the typical Manly Man 🙄 Come on people, you're throwing away the potential here! I wanna see an Apollo who can rock a suit and a pretty dress. Give me more of Apollo and Dionysus hanging out together at drag parties.
Edit: since this has been getting some attention lately, here's another post where I ramble more about Apollo's gender representation.
