The fact that Hesiod called Hyacinthus "blameless and strong" and Philostratus the Younger actually described him with "modesty the confidence that is yet to come" when being offered love from Apollo makes this even better.
Hyacinthus is confident enough to know he's worthy of a god's love but doesn't abuse it for his own gain, no wonder Apollo fell head-over-heels for him and the gods liked Hyacinthus to much.
Also isn't it hilarious that while the world got flooded, Hyacinthus and Polyboea were taken to the Heavens by a parade of gods after they died? Special treatment right there.
children heed my warning. one day your body’s check engine light will come on and demand that you start eating so many vegetables and whole grains. do not ignore it.
I want to explain this a bit more since 'health' and 'biology' are loosely speaking, special interests of mine and also what I went to school for.
People SAY that your health 'suddenly' starts to decline in your 30s but that's not really a good way to put it A) bc that's not really accurate and B) bc it frames this decline as something inherent and unavoidable, which does nothing to convince you that you have some agency about this.
So I'm going to explain this in LOOSE NON-SCIENTIFIC language:
When you are an infant or child, you are actively growing. Nature is throwing tons of new cells into you bc your body needs to BUILD BUILD BUILD. What you're able to do, eat and heal from is all largely dictated by this-- for example little kids often LOVE sweet foods or dairy-like foods and are relatively less interested in anything else. This is bc their body is running on HIGH all the time since building body parts is very energetically intensive. They can eat a fistful of sugarcubes and burn them off in an hour. Ask me how I know.
When you are a YOUNG ADULT you are actually still developing to a secondary extent, but your bones and such are fused and now that development goes into solidifying the structure and also finetuning its reproductive capabilities and features-- these, too, are HIGHLY energy consumptive when they first come online. Nature is STILL, thus, throwing tons of energy and new cells your way hoping you'll do something cool with them. You regenerate very quickly, and recover from harm rapidly-- But please note: swift recovery from harm is not absence of harm. This most relates to the consumption of 'junk food' and alcohol-- many people say they could 'eat whatever they wanted and nothing would happen' when they're in their 20s or that they could go out drinking and 'not be affected'. You were affected. You didn't notice.
Once everything has come online you go into maintenance mode. Nature stops throwing excess cells and energy your way bc you don't need that-- your body is yours and you are now responsible for maintaining it...hopefully with what you learned by experience in your 20s. IF YOU WERE NOT PAYING ATTENTION, you did not learn this, and are in for a surprise in your 30s bc your 'free recovery' subscription has ended. Recovery and maintenance- processes that are constant in the human body- now cost MINERALS & ELECTRICITY. You can go into DEBT now, and that debt will come in the form of joints that pop, inability to recover well, lowered immune function, and feeling like shit.
This debt accrues interest RAPIDLY once you hit 36-- the age of around 36 to 46 or so is a kind of reckoning stage where Nature assesses how well you've managed your body and you will be SWIFTLY downgraded if the result is you were just winging it.
So how do you build this account? 2 main things ( LOOSELY SPEAKING this is so not 100% scientific but I have to be general here): MINERALS -- you get these from eating well, mostly. You might want to take supplements based on your unique needs. But you need Minerals & Vitamins (i'm lumping these two together) bc they are the chemical building blocks (currency) your body uses to rebuild and fix up cells. ELECTRICITY is- again loosely speaking- having the proper chemical voltage throughout your body. This 'voltage' drops when you don't move enough, or when you're dehydrated. The building and repairing process your body wants to do may have the materials (minerals and vitamins) but there's not enough power in the factory, or the AC isn't working and the workers are overheating and can't work well. To fix this, drink lots of water and MOVE AND STRETCH your body. The action within your muscles and bones GENERATES ENERGY and it keeps your cells happy.
So the thing is, it's not that you suddenly find yourself taking damage after 30+. You were taking damage the whole time. You're just kept from really feeling it bc you're young and full of extra juice and given time to figure things out.
But at some point Nature expects you to do that, and you will pay if you don't.
Best to start out giving a shit, even if none of your friends think you're cool, even if you get called a 'health nut' bc you will still be able to frolick at 45, 50, probably so on while everyone who said it was dumb to have 'balanced meals' shares memes about how they wake up feeling like shit every day.
Sidenote don't let our shitty fatphobic society obscure the fact that it's okay to care about what you eat. Counting calories or being preoccupied with physical perfection is a sad way to relate to your body BUT that doesn't mean that paying attention to your diet AT ALL is bad. Baby, bath water, etc.
Btw, this also goes for things like ergonomics. You may have never needed good sitting posture, or lumbar support, or proper typing technique, or a monitor riser, or good shoe insoles, or... but the thing is, you did, though. You were taking damage the whole time, you were just healing so fast that you didn't notice. Back problems and repetitive strain injuries aren't inevitable in your 30s – but they're pretty inevitable if you go on treating your body as badly as you could get away with treating it in your 20s.
I remember seeing a very beautiful Hyapollo fanart, and multiple people commented about Hyacinthus not being "muscular and intimidating enough" and how he should be because he was a "warrior", and that's just another example of how quickly things that aren't true tend to spread throughout Greek mythology spaces on the internet. Hyacinthus was athletic, liked hunting and was definitely not a "weakling", but he was not some big bad warrior. Some use the fact that he was Spartan as proof, but he was alive during pre-military Sparta. That young man was not some scary warrior.
This information isn't hard to find at all, so this just has to be wilful ignorance, and them having the nerve to go after artists who don't portray Hyacinthus as the version of him they conjured up in their head is just crazy.
idk if im being delusional but every legend of apollo throughout the pjo series portrays him winning all his battles through muscles. A huge example is in percy jackson and the greek gods where percy says apollo shot python in one hit then boogied the end but we know that didnt actually happen as stated in apollo's pov. I feel like a lot of his battles were won when he used his brain power (and sometimes sgeer dumb luck). Instead of trying to beat up Orion he drove him mad and then the giant killed himself by trying to kill a scorpion.
Which makes me think apollo painted himself as a himbo bimbo to appear harmless to his dearest dad, cuz every myth of him in actual lore (in which he acts ridiculously smart in) is dumbed down in pjo but is hinted to not be like that in toa. In the illiad apollo was the only god on troy's side to not act stupid and humiliate himself. not even artemis was spared.
Anyways apollo is really smart but acts stupid maybe to not trigger zeus also i think all blonds and blondes are canonically smart in the pjo verse ty for coming to my stupid ted talk.
why are all these modern aus for the Odyssey set in a high school. where's the retelling where Odysseus is just a guy lost in an airport who keeps missing his connecting flights home due to a comical series of delays and disgruntled airline employees
Hyacinthus and Apollo's relationship is so fascinating to me, but in a different way than others relationships I like within or outside of Greek mythology.
Hyacinthus is a character we know nothing about, besides being reckless and having courage. Which is so minimal and dare I say unhelpful? It doesn't really give me an image of who he is as a person, why did this man have 3 or 4 guys wanting him? 2 or 3 of which depending on the version are gods.
I don't know who Hyacinthus is, I can if I wanted to, give him a personality. I've done that to a few underrepresented characters in stuff I like or even gods in Greek mythology. But I always find him to be a struggle, it always feels like I'm just making an oc instead of expanding?
Yet I find the relationship fascinating. I find Apollo fascinating. The relationship adds a whole other layer to the way I view Apollo ( that alone could be its own post)
In particular, I love the version written by Ovid. I know people tend to have negative opinions of Roman literature, especially Ovid. But his version of Eurydice, Cypress and Hyacinthus are so good, they always get me emotional. Especially Eurydice's!
In Ovid, Apollo blames himself, he specifically blames his love, asking if loving Hyacinthus was a fault. To me the specific wording of focusing on Apollo's love, knowing technically it's Zephyrus who kills Hyacinthus. It all reads to me as Apollo viewing himself as a curse.
This only becomes more interesting and tragic when he's wishing he could give his life up for Hyacinthus to live, or at least join him in death.
Very important emphasis, his first thought is exchanging his own life so Hyacinthus lives. It's so significant because the implication is Apollo values Hyacinthus's life more than his own. He loves him so much, he's willing to die and let the man continue a normal life... Without him.
How can I not love the relationship? How can I not find it interesting? What kind of love was so strong that a god wanted to sacrifice himself? That the second best case scenario is to join his lover in death?
I like the impact Hyacinthus left on Apollo, I like the value of that relationship. I'm heavily invested in it
I may not be able to be invested in Hyacinthus as a character, but in a way, not knowing who he's, why he's so loved. I like that, maybe those who love him don't know who he's either. Maybe Apollo is the only one who got to see who Hyacinthus is. And maybe Hyacinthus is the only one to know who Apollo is, underneath the perfection and mess.
I love what their relationship represents, and I'm fine with just that
a lot of behaviors that get attributed to "female socialization" can be so much more easily and accurately understood as a person recognizing the power differential surrounding them and behaving sensibly in response to that.
like. does a woman politely listen to a man monologue at her because of some experience she had when she was twelve that magically cursed her to behave that way forever, or does she do it because the man has the power to hurt her and she knows it?
does a woman do all the dishes in her household because she is less capable of breaking out of a long-ago conditioned response than, like, your average trained dog, or is she doing that because she knows that all the men in the house will blame her if she doesnt and will make life worse for her if she speaks up?
maybe a lot of sexist patterns of behavior that are widely observed in society arent caused by women like, lacking willpower or backbone? maybe it is super fucking weird for supposedly feminist movements to imply this is the case when they talk about female socialization as the end all, be all of predicting human behavior?
isnt it both more useful and more respectful toward women to consider that they are perceiving their present circumstances accurately, and recognize when power is already being wielded against them, and take logical measures to deescalate and protect themselves because it works? is it not fucking clear to everybody that trans women in particular have to do this all the fucking time?
There's a really concrete phenomenon where this observation bears out in data: the "negotiation gap" myth.
For a while, the idea that the pay gap between men and women could be explained by women's reluctance to negotiate their salaries was fairly popular, to the point that the notion appeared in Sheryl Sanberg's 2013 book Lean In. It's an attractive idea because it's rooted in "female socialization" and provides us with an easy, individualist solution requiring no re-examination of systemic biases. To wit: What if we just asked women to negotiate more, to reach parity with their male counterparts? Surely, that would help narrow the gendered pay gap, yes?
Nope.
The pay gap has persistently remained while the negotiation gap has shrunk, or even reversed. As it turns out it, when women negotiate more, they also get turned down for pay increases more, and the literature on the "negotiation gap" itself has resulted in more sexist beliefs among managers in workplaces.
Women weren't reluctant to negotiate because of Female Programming that made them too shy, bashful, demure, or non-confrontational. No, women were reacting rationally to hostile, misogynistic workplace environments, correctly intuiting that attempting to negotiate for higher pay would result in refusal and being labeled a "problem". The issue was never one of whether women adequately assert ourselves, but one of gendered biases, one of women's labor and talent and intellect being underestimated and undervalued.
In short, it is a pervasive cultural and systemic issue, a reflection of society's misogyny and the belief that we are lesser, deserve less, and are not worthy of the same treatment as men. "Female socialization" is women reacting to social hostility towards us, taking the path of least resistance when we know that asserting ourselves will be met with punitive measures.
I'd also like to add that this devaluation, this dismissal of our worth and humanity, is something trans women also grapple with and deal with. We are so often treated as and told we are disposable, that our worth is nothing beyond our sexual utility, that we do not even deserve to participate fully in society and deserve to languish on the margins.
i like to think that i'm someone who has a fairly good working knowledge of lord of the rings and assorted texts but then i encounter people on here who casually use the quenya name of characters from the silmarillion and then i'm like oh no i am a little baby still learning to read compared to all you full grown tolkien professors
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
If you ever, and I mean EVER think that you fucked something up royally, remember that the organizers of the 1904 Olympic marathon:
- Had zero stations for water on the 26 mile (42 km) course
- Accidentally gave North American competitor Tom Hicks a cocktail made of egg whites, brandy, and actual fucking rat poison
- Had a guy come into the race late wearing a beret and cutoff slacks, sneak into an apple orchard during the race because no food had been given to him for 40 hours, eat rotten apples, projectile vomit onto the track, fall asleep for hours, and finish in fourth place OVERALL because most of the other runners collapsed of exhaustion or injuries
- Conducted the race on a dusty road, which caused so much dust to be kicked into the air that an American runner somehow inhaled enough to tear his STOMACH LINING open
- Accidentally released feral dogs onto the track
- Fucked the other competitors up SO BADLY that Tom Hicks—the guy who ate RAT POISON and was HALLUCINATING the entire run—came in first place
I was wondering just how unfortunate of a love-life our boy Apollo had, so - as one does - I did the research, math, and writing of said love-life.
such is the life of an adhd teen :)
In total, there are 59 people on this list. I have them separated into eight groups; Immortal, Immortal & Rejected, Lived, Died, Rejected & Died, Rejected & Cursed, Rejected & Lived, and who were Rejected by Apollo
Disclaimer: I am not a historian nor an expert in Greek Mythology, I am just a very invested nerd in Mythology, and in Apollo's mythology in general, and got curious about what his rap sheet actually looks like.
Sidenote: There will be some "lovers" not on this list. Reasons being;
No actual literary sources behind them
Said literary sources are dubious at best
Not enough information is given about the nature of their relationship to make an accurate take
So if somebody isn't on this list, it's because of one of those three reasons. Although there is still a chance I missed somebody! :)
Also, no RRverse lovers include in this list. Sorry my fellow ToA fans.
*I am currently missing about 4 other lovers, and will get them on here ASAP. Their inclusion, however, will not change the overall conclusion. 👍
(Edited 08/15/24 - ALL SECTIONS SOURCED)
Let's begin! :D
Immortal Lovers
Calliope: muse of epic poetry. Mother of Hymenaios and Ialemus (Pindar's 3rd Threnos) by Apollo.
Clio: muse of history
Erato: muse of love poetry
Euterpe: muse of music
Polyhymnia: muse of hymns/sacred poetry
Melpomene: muse of tragedy
Thalia: muse of comedy. Mother of the Corybantes (The Bibliotheca by Pseudo-Apollodorus) by Apollo.
Terpsichore: muse of dance
Urania: muse of astronomy
Boreas: the North Wind. The Boreads called Apollo "beloved of our sire" in Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica.
Rhoeo: mortal princess, eventually married an apprentice of Apollo (Diodorus Siculus's Bibliotheca historica 5.62 and Tzetzes on Lycophron 570)
Ourea: demigod daughter of Poseidon, dated Apollo during his punishment with Laomedon; had a son named Ileus, after the city of Troy (Hesiod's Catalogues of Women Fragment 83)
Evadne: nymph daughter of Poseidon, Apollo sent Eileithyia & (in some texts) the Fates to aid in their son's birth (Pindar's Olympian Ode 6)
Thero: great-granddaughter of Heracles, described as "beautiful as moonbeams" (Pausanias's Description of Greece 9)
Cyrene: mortal princess-turned-nymph queen, kick-ass lion wrangler, and mother of two of Apollo's sons - Aristaeus (a god) and Idmon (powerful seer) (Pindar's Pythian Ode 9.6 ff. and Nonnus's Dionysiaca and Callimachus's Hymn to Apollo 85)
Admetus: mortal king, took great care of Apollo during his second punishment, Apollo wingmanned him for Alcestis's hand - basically Apollo doted on him <3 (Callimachus's Hymn II to Apollo and Apollodorus's Bibliotheca 1.9.15 and Hyginus's Fabulae 50–51, and also written about by Ovid and Servius)
Hecuba: queen of Troy, together they had Troilus.
It was foretold that if Troilus lived to adulthood, Troy wouldn't fall - unfortunately, Achilles murdered Troilus in Apollo's temple. When the Achaeans burned Troy down, Apollo rescued Hecuba and brought her to safety in Lycia. (Stesichorus's Fr.108)
Hyrie/Thyrie: mortal. mothered a son by Apollo. Their son, Cycnus, attempted to kill himself after some shenanigans and his mother attempted the same. Apollo turned them into swans to save their lives. (Antoninus Liberalis's Metamorphoses 12 and Ovid's Metamorphoses 7.350)
Dryope: mortal. had a son named Amphissus with Apollo, who was a snake at the time. Later turned into a lotus flower, but it had nothing to do with Apollo so she's still on this list. (noncon; written by Ovid in Metamorphoses 8 CE/AD and later by Antoninus Liberalis in his own Metamorphoses sometime between 100-300 CE/AD)
Creusa: mortal queen. had a son named Ion with Apollo (Euripides's Ion). Please check out @my-name-is-apollo's post for more details because they make some good points about what's considered "rape" in Ancient Greece. I expand on this further at the end of the post.
Melia: Oceanid nymph. Had a son w/h Apollo named Tenerus. (Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece 9.10.5–6)
Melia was said to be kidnapped, and her brother found her with Apollo. He set fire to Apollo's temple in an effort to get her back, but was killed. Melia and Apollo had two kids - but here's the interesting part. Melia was highly worshiped in Thebes, where her brother found her. She was an incredibly important figure in Thebes, especially when connected with Apollo. She and Apollo were essentially the parents of Thebes.
As I read over their story, it sounded like (to me, at least. it's okay if you think otherwise!) that Melia just absconded/eloped with Apollo.
Was kidnapping an equivalent to assault back then? Perhaps. But it's still debated on whenever or not that's true. However, one thing I've noticed reading up on these myths is that when Apollo does do something unsavory, the text says so.
It never says anything about Apollo doing anything to Melia. Her father and brother believe she was kidnapped, but, like mentioned previously, it seems far much more likely that she just ran off with her boyfriend or something.
But that's just my interpretation.
Moving on! :)
Iapis: a favorite lover. Apollo wanted to teach him prophecy, the lyre, ect. but Iapis just wanted to heal :) so Apollo taught him healing :) (Smith 1873, s.v. Iapis)
Aethusa: daughter of Poseidon & the Pleiad Alcyone. Mother of Linus and Eleuther. She is the great-great grandmother of Orpheus. (Apollodorus's Bibliotheca 3.10.1 and Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece 9.20.2 and Suida, s.v. Homer's Of the Origin of Homer and Hesiod and their Contest, Fragment 1.314)
Acacallis: daughter of King Minos. there's a lot of variation on whether or not she had kids with Hermes or Apollo. Some say she had a kid with each. (Stephanus of Byzantium, s.v. Kydōnia (Κυδωνία and Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 4.1492)
Chrysothemis: nymph queen who won the oldest contest of the Pythian Games - the singing of a hymn to Apollo. She had three daughters, and one of them is said to be Apollo's. (Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece 10.7.2 and Hyginus's De Astronomica 2.25)
Corycia: naiad. had a son with Apollo. the Corycian Cave north of Delphi is named after her (Hyginus's Fabulae 161)
Leuconoe (also Choine or Philonis): daughter of Eosphorus, god of the planet Venus, and mother of the bard Philammon. (Hyginus's Fabulae 161) She was killed by Diana for her hubris.
Melaena (also Thyia or Kelaino): mother of Delphos, member of prophetic Thriae of Delphi. Priestess of Dionysus. (Herodotus's Histories 7.178.1)
Othreis: mothered Phager by Apollo, and later Meliteus by Zeus. (Antoninus Liberalis's Metamorphoses 13)
Stilbe: mother of Lapithus and Aineus by Apollo. (Diodorus Siculus's Library of History 4.69.1 and Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 1.40 and Scholia on Apollonius Rhodius, 1.948)
Syllis (possible same as Hyllis, granddaughter of Heracles): mothered Zeuxippus by Apollo. (Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece 2.6.7)
Amphissa: Apollo seduced her in the form of a shepherd. They had a son named Agreus. (Ovid's Metamorphoses 6.103 and Hyginus's Fabulae 161)
(hey, has anybody else noticed that 'Apollo disguising himself' seems to only be a thing in Roman literature?)
Areia (or Deione): had a son named Miletus. Hid him in some smilax. Her father found him and named him. (Apollodorus's Bibliotheca 3.1.2)
Arsinoe: she and Apollo had a daughter named Eriopis. (Hesiod's Ehoiai 63 and Scholia ad Pindar's Pythian Ode 3.14)
Queen of Orkhomenos (no name is given): Mother of Trophonius (Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece 9.37.5)
(my fellow ToA fans will recognize that name haha).
Hypermnestra: Either Apollo or her husband fathered her son Amphiaraus. (Hyginus's Fabulae 70)
(sidenote: @literallyjusttoa suggested that Apollo was dating both Hypermnestra and Oikles, and I, personally, like that headcannon)
Manto: Daughter of Tiresias. Apollo made her a priestess of Delphi. They had a son named Mopsus. When Apollo sent her to found an oracle elsewhere, he told her to marry the first man she saw outside of Delphi. That man turned out to be Rhacius, who brought her to Claros, where she founded the oracle of Apollo Clarios. (Apollodorus's Bibliotheca E6. 3)
Later, another man named Lampus attempted to assault her, but was killed by Apollo. She is also said to be a priestess who warned Niobe not to insult Leto, and to ask for forgiveness. Niobe did not. (Statius's Thebaid 7 and Ovid's Metamorphoses 6)
(Dante's Inferno places her in the eighth circle of hell, and let me just say- what the FUCK Dante! What did Manto ever do to you, huh??!! Don't do my girl dirty!!)
Parthenope: granddaughter of a river god. Mothered Lycomedes by Apollo (Pausanius's Descriptions of Greece 4.1)
Phthia: prophetess. called "beloved of Apollo". Mother three kings by him; Dorus, Laodocus, & Polypoetes (Apollodorus's Bibliotheca 1.7.6)
Procleia: Mother of Tenes, son of Apollo, who was killed by Achilles before the Trojan War. Daughter of King Laomedon, king of Troy. (Apollodorus's Epitome 3. 26)
Helenus: prince of Troy. Received from Apollo an ivory bow which he used to wound Achilles in the hand. (Photius's 'Bibliotheca excerpts')
Hippolytus of Sicyon: called "beloved of Apollo" in Plutarch's Life of Numa. I don't think this guy is the same as Hippolytus, son of Zeuxippus (son of Apollo), king of Sicyon Pausanias talks about in his Description of Greece. That would be a little weird taking the whole family tree into account - though it's never stopped other gods before. *shrug*
Psamathe: nereid, said to be the personification of the sand of the sea-shore. (Conon's Narrationes 19)
She and Apollo were lovers, but never had any kids. When another man assaulted her, she had a son and abandoned him.
(He was found by some shepherds dw - wait, he was then torn apart by dogs. Nevermind.)
Back to her, her father ordered for her to be executed and Apollo avenged her death by sending a plague onto Argos and refused to stop it until Psamathe and Phocus/Linus (her son) were properly given honors.
(I really like how even though Linus isn't Apollo's kid, and that Psamathe wanted nothing to do with the kid, Apollo still considered him worth avenging too <3 )
Okay, in a previous incarnation of this post, I said there was a version where she is raped by Apollo...however, I can't find any sources to back it up😅 Even her wiki page doesn't mention rape, and Theoi's excerpt of Paunasias's Descriptions of Greece about her doesn't either.
So where did I hear about this supposed version? (Don't shoot)
Youtube. A youtube video about Apollo. Yeah...
Lesson, kids! Don't trust youtube videos on mythology! Yes, even if they dedicated lots of time to it! They can still get things wrong! In fact, don't even take my word for it! Do your own research <3
Alright. 34 lovers here.
5 Male. 29 Female.
33 are 100% consensual. Creusa is questionable, depending on who's translating/which tradition you go with.
Lovers Who Died:
Hyacinthus*: mortal prince. we all know this one, right? Right? one and only true love turned into flower (okay that's my bias speaking but AM I WRONG?) (Plutarch's Life of Numa, 4.5; Philostratus the younger's Imagines; Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca 1.3.3; Ovid's Metamorphoses 10.162–219; Bion's Poems 11; and various pieces of art)
Cyparissus: mortal. his DEER DIED and he asked Apollo to let him MOURN FOREVER so he was turned into a cypress tree (Ovid's Metamorphoses X 106ff)
Coronis: mortal princess. cheated on Apollo w/h Ischys, who in Fabulae was killed by Zeus. mother of Asclepius. killed by Artemis. (Pindar's Pythian Odes 3.5; Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece 2.26.6; Hyginus's Fabulae 202; Ovid's Metamorphoses 2.536 and 2.596; Hyginus's De Astronomica 2.40; Isyllus's Hymn to Asclepius 128.37 ff.)
There is another version of Asclepius's birth given by Pausanias in Descriptions of Greece 2.26.1-7, where Coronis exposes him on a mountain and Apollo takes him in.
Adonis: yes, THAT Adonis. he's in this category because. well. he died. rip (Ptolemy Hephaestion's New History Book 5)
Phorbas: Okay so Apollo's lover Phorbas and another Phorbas sometimes get mashed together so this is what I was able to gather.
Plutarch's Life of Numa 4.5 and Hyginus's De Astronomia 2.14.5 cites Phorbas as Apollo's lover. The other Phorbas is said to be a rival to Apollo in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo. Personally, I separate the two because it makes more sense with Phorbas the lover's overall story.
Here it is: The island of Rhodes fell victim to a plague of dragons or serpents, and the oracle said to summon Phorbas for help. He defeated the infestation, and after he died, Apollo asked Zeus to place him in the stars, and so Phorbas became the constellation Serpentarius, also known more widely as Ophiuchus (a man holding a serpent).
FORGET ORION AND HIS ONE-OFF MENTION OF BEING DIANA'S LOVER HERE IS A CONSTELLATION TRAGIC LOVE STORY!!!!!
(*Hyacinthus was resurrected, as celebrated in the Hyacinthia festival in Sparta. Nonnus's Dionysiaca 19.102 and Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece 3.19.4 supports this belief as well.)
5 lovers.
4 Male. 1 Female. All consensual.
Sidenote: QUIT BURYING THE GAYS GREECE!!!!
Love-Interests Who Rejected & Died:
Daphne: do i nEED to say anything? Nymph. turned into tree to escape.
Daphne and Apollo actually go back a bit. Their story was used to explain why the laurel was so sacred to Apollo. It's in Delphi, Branchus planted laurel trees around the temple he built to Apollo, the laurel was even sacred to Apollo's historical forebearer Apulu, an Etruscan god! (I have sources to back this up :3 along with an Essay.)
Apollo & Daphne first originate from Phylarchus, but we do not have any of his work :( It's been lost to history...a moment of silence RIP. He was a contemporary in the 3rd century BC/BCE (first day of 300 BC/BCE and last day of 201 BC/BCE).
He was, however, cited as a source in Parthenius's Erotica Pathemata, written sometime in the 1 century AD/CE (sometime between 66 BC/BCE and the author's death in 14 AD/CE).
Then they show up again in Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece, written between 150 AD/CE and 170 AD/CE.
Hyginus wrote his Fabulae sometime before Ovid's because it's widely criticized to be his earliest work and Ovid wrote his Metamorphoses in 8 AD/CE.
The first two versions are roughly the same, and Ovid's shares similarities with the first in only the ending. Hyginus is basically like Ovid's but without Eros.
So in publication order, it's; Erotica Pathemata, Fabulae, Metamorphoses, then Descrip. of Greece.
In Erotica Pathemata, Daphne is the daughter of Amyclas and is being courted by Leucippus. She is not interested in any sort of romance. Leucippus disguises himself as a girl to get close to her, but his ruse is revealed when Apollo nudges Daphne and her attendants into taking a bath in the river. Leucippus is consequently killed.
Apollo then becomes interested and Daphne runs away, imploring Zeus that "she might be translated away from mortal sight", and is transformed into the laurel tree.
In Fabulae, Daphne's story is a bit more familiar. She's the daughter of Peneus, the river god, and Gaea is the one who transforms her into a laurel tree.
In Metamorphoses, Eros is added to the story and is the reason why Apollo is so enamored and Daphne is so repulsed.
(I would just like to say that in this version, it was 100% nonconsensual for both of them! And I don't mean with rape- Apollo never touches Daphne in any of these version. What I mean here is that Eros maliciously makes Apollo chase down a woman and makes sure Daphne would be repulsed by him. That is noncon behavior there on both sides.)
In Descriptions of Greece 10.7.8, Daphne is the daughter of Ladon and her and Apollo are only connected by way of why the laurel crown is the victory prize of the Pythian Games. However, in Descriptions of Greece 8.20.2-8.20.4, Daphne and Leucippus make an appearance here too, but Apollo is not the reason why they stop to take a swim and his ruse is revealed, resulting in his death.
Castalia: Nymph. turned into spring to escape.
First things first, Castalia was used to explain the existence of the Castalian Spring in Delphi. However, in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, the spring is already there when Apollo was born. So there's that to consider first.
Anyway, to escape Apollo's advances, Castalia transforms herself into a spring. (Lactantius Placidus's On Statius's Thebaid 1.698. This was written between Lactantius's lifespan of c. 350 – c. 400 AD/CE, placing it firmly in Roman times.)
2 Interests.
2 Female.
Love-Interests Who Rejected & Cursed
Cassandra: mortal princess. Received the gift of prophecy from Apollo. Due to a broken oath, she was then cursed. (Aeschylus's Agamemnon)
It is only in Roman-era tellings where Cassandra is cursed for not sleeping with Apollo, and there was no oath made (Hyginus & Pseudo-Apollodorus). In Agamemnon, it was done so because of the broken oath- not the refusing to sleep with Apollo thing.
The version where she gains prophetic abilities by way of a snake licking her ears is not part of Greco-Roman literature, but rather by an American poet.
Nevertheless, even after the curse Cassandra still loved Apollo, and called him "god most dear to me" in Eurpides's play The Trojan Women.
1 Interests.
1 Female.
Love-Interests Who Rejected & Lived
Sinope: mortal. there are two different version of her myth.
In Diodorus Siculus's Library of History 4.72.2 and Corinna's Frag. 654, Apollo "seizes" her and they have a son named Syrus.
In Apollonius's Argonautica 2.946-951 and Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica 5.109, it is Zeus who abducts her, but she gets him to promise her anything and requests to remain a virgin. He obliges. Later, Apollo and the river Halys both try to charm her, but fall for the same trick.
Library of History was written between 60-30 BC/BCE, Apollonius's Argonautica between 300 BC/BCE and 201 BC/BCE, and Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica between 70-96 AD/CE, making Apollonius's version the oldest and Valerius Flaccus's the youngest.
Marpessa: mortal princess, granddaughter of Ares. Idas, son of Poseidon, kidnapped her and Apollo caught up to them. Zeus had Marpessa chose between them, and she chose Idas, reasoning that she would eventually grow old and Apollo would tire of her. (Homer's The Iliad, 9.557 and Apollodorus's Bibliotheca 1.7.8–9)
Bolina: mortal. Apollo approached her and she flung herself off a cliff. He turned her into a nymph to save her life. (Pausanias's Description of Greece 7.23.4)
Ocroe/Okyrrhoe: nymph and daughter of a river god. asked a boatman to take her home after Apollo approached her. Apollo ended up turning the boat to stone and the seafarer into a fish. (Athenaeus's The Deipnosophists 7.283 E [citing The Founding of Naucratis by Apollonius Rhodius]. The Deipnosophists was written in the early 3rd century AD, between 201 AD and 300 AD)
Sibyl of Cumae: mortal seer. promised to date Apollo if she was given longevity as long as the amount of sand in her hand. he did, but she refused him. (Ovid's Metamorphoses 14)
5 Interests. All female.
Okyrrhoe's story is the only one with any iffy stuff, although, when something iffy does occur, the text usually says so outright.
Rejected by Apollo:
Clytie*: Oceanid nymph. turned into a heliotrope to gaze at the sun forever after the rejection.
1 Advance. Female.
(*Clytie's story was originally about her affection for Helios. [Ovid's Metamorphoses 4.192–270; Ovid used Greek sources about the etymology of the names involved, meaning Clytie and Helios go back to Greek times] As Apollo got superimposed over Helios's myths, people have assumed it is he who is the sun god in her myth and not Helios.)
In Conclusion...
59 people total, and 33 of them have Roman-Era roots with (as far as I know!! Don't take my word as gospel truth!!) no relation to Greece except by way of shared mythology.
Here's the list:
Rhoeo
Thero
Hyrie/Thyrie
Dryope
Melia
Aethusa
Acacallis
Chrysothemis
Corycia
Choine
Thyia
Othreis
Stilbe
Syllis
Amphissa
Areia
Queen of Orkhomenos
Hypermnestra
Manto
Parthenope
Phthia
Procleia
Helenus
Hippolytus of Sicyon
Psamathe
Cyparissus
Adonis
Phorbas
Castalia
Sinope
Bolina
Ocroe/Okyrrhoe
Sibyl of Cumae
Meaning, 56%- and really, it's more like 57%, because Clytie is not Apollo's lover at all- of the lovers listed on this post are not entirely Greek in origin (AS FAR AS I KNOW-)! That does not mean ofc that you have to ignore them. I, for one, really like the story of Rhoeo, and Manto, and Psamethe- I find their myths sweet (Rhoeo & Manto) and bittersweet (Psamethe).
Let's get to the calculations now, yeah?
59 people total (Includes Clytie)
48 Women (81%). 11 Men (19%).
19% were Immortal (Including Lovers & Rejected)
68% Lived (Including Lovers & Cursed & Rejected)
14% Died (Including Lovers & Rejected)
1% were Cursed
2% were Rejected by him
58 people total (Not Including Clytie)
47 Women (81%). 11 Men (19%).
19% were Immortal
69% Lived (Lovers & Cursed & Rejected)
12% Died (Lovers & Rejected)
in that 12%, one was apotheosized - Hyacinthus.
Meaning 10% died permanently, while 2% were resurrected.
2% were Cursed
0% were Rejected by him
Additionally, I left off three male lovers and two female lovers - Atymnius, Leucates, Cinyras, Hecate, & Acantha.
Atymnius has no references to being Apollo's lover, only to Zeus's son Sarpedon. (Wikipedia why do you even have him listed? You need sources smh)
Leucates is another male "lover" left off the rack - apparently he jumped off a cliff to avoid Apollo, but I couldn't find any mythological text to account for it- and no, OSP's wiki page is not a reliable source. There is a cliff named similarly to him where Aphrodite went (by Apollo's advice) to rid herself of her longing for Adonis after his death. Also Zeus uses it to rid himself of his love for Hera before he...well, commits adultery again. 🤷
Cinyras was a priest of Aphrodite on the island of Cyprus. He was also the island's king. Pindar calls him "beloved of Apollo" in his Pythian Ode. However, looking further into Cinyras's life throws a bit of a wrench into it. He's also cited to be a challenger to Apollo's skill, and either Apollo or Mars (Ares) kills him for his hubris.
(honestly, I kinda like the idea that Mars went into Big Brother Mode)
I did consider leaving him on the list, since technically you could argue it was a romance-gone-bad, but among every other source Cinyras is mentioned in, Pindar's the only one who puts a romantic label on him and Apollo.
Plus, he’s been described as a son of Apollo too, and I personally like that more lol
Hecate, the goddess of magic and crossroads, is said to be the mother of Scylla (like, the sea-monster) by Apollo, but Scylla's parentage is one of those "no specific parents" ones, so I left her off the list.
Acantha has absolutely no classical references. There's a plant like her name, but she's made-up, so she doesn't count. *stinkeyes the guy who invented her and claimed his “sources” were reliable when they really aren’t*
(Of course, I could be wrong about any of these. Again, I'm not an expert.)
With all this in mind, this means Apollo's love life actually isn't as tragic as media portrays it, and he isn't as bad as Zeus or Poseidon in the nonconsensual area.
Does he still have those kinds of myths? Yes, with Dryope and Creusa; though, we can discount Creusa because;
1) Depends on who's translating it; and
2) Ion is given different parentage in the Bibliotheca, which yes, came much after Ion, however Xuthus was traditionally considered to be Ion's father rather than Apollo. This means there was probably a different oral tradition on Ion's parentage that just wasn't written down as early as Euripides's was- in fact, it may even just be an invention of Euripides's.
(and honestly Apollo's characterization in Ion just doesn't quite match up with the rest of his appearances in the wider myths (in my opinion, at least))
So that leaves us with just Dryope, who comes from Ovid, a Roman poet, and Antoninus Liberalis, a late Greek one.
Now I'm not saying we should throw her out because of Ovid's whole "wrote the gods even more terribly to criticize Augustus" thing, but it is something to keep in mind. Political mechanics have been used to change myths before, and this is certainly one example of it.
Additionally, I have seen many people discard Dionysus's rapes in the Dionysiaca because of how late it was written, so this one can be given similar treatment if one choses too because of just how late Ovid and Antoninus Liberalis's work was.
You can, in fact, pick and chose if you wish, especially if it'll increase your enjoyment of literature. That's certainly what I do :)
So overall, I'd say Apollo has a rather clean relationship past. He's doing pretty damn good.
Also, I think we should all take note that even if Apollo had noncon myths, that doesn't reflect on the actual god. The Ancient Greeks did not see the myths as "canon" to their gods- in fact, some were not happy with the myths showing the gods in such a light.
That's something else to keep in mind. The gods of the myths are not the gods of Greece, and are more like parables or fables for the Ancient Greeks I'd say. Lessons on morality and such, and of course, warnings against hubris and the like.
This was quite the journey, and I really hope you all enjoyed reading and learning with me! This really makes me wonder- if Apollo's love life is this good, I wonder how misinformed we are on everyone else's? I have no plans on doing Zeus or Poseidon or anyone else (not for a LONG time lol, this took a lot of effort and research!), but if anyone has any idea, or gets inspired to do something like this for any other god, please tag me!! I'd love to see it! :D
And since this was on a previous reblog, here be a meme from a while ago:
[ID: Me Explaining Me. On the left is a girl with her hands up, fingers pinched together, like she's intensely explaining something. The text over her says "Me giving a detailed diatribe about Apollo's love life and how modern media has done him and his lovers dirty". On the right is the girl's mother, wrapped up to her chin in a blanket, with a look on her face that screams "I hear this all the time". The Mother is labeled "My family". /End ID]
suffers in I'm the only mythology nerd in the family
APPARENTLY Apollo would have been addressed more in the earlier Epic drafts (he didn't get more lines but he is honored in a song)
If the Ismarus raiding arc was kept, I wonder if this would be the beef Apollo would have with Odysseus in God Games. But then his priest (Maron) already forgave Odysseus so there's no point for Apollo to be mad anymore.
Anyways, I can see Apollo fighting with Jorge about the removal of this song.
Apollo: Keep that song. Keep it!
Jorge: But it'll make the musical too long!
Apollo: I don't care, you have to keep it! It has my name in it!
