The Lovers of Apollo
The Tragic Romances of the God of Light
Apollo's love affairs almost always ended in tragedy. Daphne fled his pursuit and became a laurel tree. Hyacinthus, a Spartan prince, was killed by a discus blown off course by the jealous West Wind Zephyrus — Apollo created the hyacinth flower from his blood.
Cassandra received the gift of prophecy from Apollo but rejected his love. He cursed her so no one would believe her predictions — she foresaw Troy's fall but was dismissed as mad. Coronis took a mortal lover while pregnant with Apollo's son Asclepius. A white crow informed Apollo, who killed Coronis and turned the crow black. He rescued the unborn Asclepius, who became the greatest healer in mythology.
Apollo's romances reveal a recurring pattern: the god of light and reason was powerless against love's irrationality, and his divine passion brought destruction to everyone it touched.
The Ones Who Got Away
Apollo's failures in love go well beyond Daphne. Several women got the better of him.
Marpessa, daughter of the river-god Euenus, was carried off by the mortal hero Idas in a winged chariot that Poseidon had given him. Apollo wanted her too. The Iliad (9.557–564) recalls that Idas actually drew his bow against the god. Zeus stopped the fight and let Marpessa choose. According to Apollodorus (1.7.8–9), she chose Idas, fearing that an ageless god would leave her when she grew old. It is one of the few myths in which a mortal woman turns down a god and is not punished.
Sinope beat him by cunning. Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica 2.946–954) tells how she made Zeus, and then Apollo and the river-god Halys, promise her any wish. Each time she asked to remain a virgin. The city of Sinope on the Black Sea took her name.
The Sibyl of Cumae, in Ovid's version (Metamorphoses 14.130–153), was offered whatever she wanted in return for her love. She scooped up a handful of dust and asked for as many years as there were grains. Then she refused him. Apollo granted the years but not lasting youth, so she shrank with age over centuries until, as the later tradition put it, only her voice was left. Like Cassandra's, the Sibyl's story ties Apollo's prophetic gift to a refused love.
The Lovers Who Bore His Children
Not every affair ended badly for the woman. Cyrene was a huntress whom Apollo saw wrestling a lion barehanded on Mount Pelion. In Pindar's ninth Pythian ode, the centaur Chiron teases the smitten god, then predicts the union. Apollo carried her in a golden chariot to Libya, where the city of Cyrene was named for her, and she bore Aristaeus, the god of beekeeping and herding.
Creusa, an Athenian princess, is raped by Apollo in a cave below the Acropolis in Euripides' Ion. She abandons the baby. Apollo has him brought to Delphi and raised as a temple servant. The play's reunion of mother and son is bittersweet; Creusa's anger at the god is the emotional centre of the drama, and Euripides makes a case against Apollo that a modern reader recognises.
Evadne bore Iamus, the ancestor of the Iamidae, a family of seers who served at Olympia (Pindar, Olympian 6). Chione was visited by Apollo and Hermes on the same night and bore twins: the musician Philammon to Apollo and the trickster Autolycus to Hermes. Then she boasted that she was more beautiful than Artemis, and the goddess shot her (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.301–327). Dryope bore Amphissus to Apollo before being turned into a lotus tree (Ovid, Metamorphoses 9).
Male Lovers and Grief
Besides Hyacinthus, Apollo loved Cyparissus, a youth from Ceos. In Ovid (Metamorphoses 10.106–142), Cyparissus accidentally killed his beloved tame stag with a javelin and asked to grieve forever. Apollo turned him into the cypress, a tree associated with mourning. Some writers, including Callimachus in his Hymn to Apollo, also connect Apollo's year as a herdsman for King Admetus of Pherae with love. Other sources make it a punishment for killing the Cyclopes after Zeus struck down Asclepius.
The sources disagree about Hyacinthus' death. Ovid presents it as a pure accident, with the discus bouncing off the ground. Later writers such as Lucian, Philostratus and Pausanias blame the jealousy of Zephyrus, and some make Boreas the jealous wind. At Amyclae near Sparta, the Hyacinthia was a major three-day festival that began with mourning and ended in celebration. Pausanias says Hyacinthus' tomb lay beneath the base of the great statue of Apollo there.
Coronis and the Raven
The Coronis story changes from author to author. In Pindar's third Pythian ode, Coronis sleeps with the mortal Ischys while pregnant, and Apollo learns of it through his own all-knowing mind, with no bird involved. Artemis kills her, and Apollo snatches the unborn Asclepius from the pyre. In a Hesiodic fragment and in Ovid (Metamorphoses 2.542–632), a raven reports the affair, and Apollo, in a fit of rage, shoots Coronis himself, instantly regrets it, and punishes the bird by turning its white feathers black.
Ancient sources
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.452–567, 2.542–632, 10.106–219, 14.130–153 — Daphne, Coronis and the raven, Cyparissus and Hyacinthus, and the Sibyl of Cumae.
- Pindar, Pythian 3 and Pythian 9 — Coronis' betrayal and Asclepius' rescue from the pyre; Apollo's courtship of Cyrene with Chiron's advice.
- Homer, Iliad 9.557–564 — Idas drawing his bow against Apollo over Marpessa.
- Euripides, Ion — Creusa's rape by Apollo and her son Ion's upbringing at Delphi.
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1202–1212 — Cassandra explains that she promised herself to Apollo in exchange for prophecy and then broke the promise.
- Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.946–954 — Sinope tricks Zeus, Apollo and Halys into granting her virginity.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Apollo's true love?
No single figure. Ancient poets present Daphne and Hyacinthus as his deepest loves, since he took the laurel and the hyacinth flower as permanent memorials. Neither relationship lasted.
Did Apollo ever marry?
No. Unlike Zeus, Apollo has no wife in mainstream myth; his children come from many brief unions. See Apollo for his wider family.
Why are Apollo's love stories so tragic?
Partly because many explain the origin of plants or birds, such as the laurel, the hyacinth, the cypress and the black raven, and these stories need a death or transformation. Partly because they explore the gap between a god's desire and a mortal's freedom. Compare the lovers of Zeus.
Did Apollo turn Daphne into a tree?
Not himself. In Ovid, Daphne prays to her father, the river-god Peneus, who transforms her. Apollo then adopts the laurel as his sacred tree. The full story is in Apollo and Daphne.