Talk:Apollo

Why does Thyraeus redirect here?

There is nothing in the article about this name. Should Thyraeus (mythology) be move over the redirect? There is something in Anthelioi about this being an epithet of Apollo, but the available snippet of the cited reference in Google Books doesn't provide enough context to verify. older ≠ wiser 12:54, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

It has a {{R mentioned in hatnote}} template on the page. SeaDragon1 (talk) 21:17, 30 November 2025 (UTC)

Good question. We shouldn't redirect Thyraeus here when we don't even mention the term in this article. I've retargeted the redirect to Thyraeus (mythology) and removed the hatnote from here. If we ever do mention Thyraeus as an epithet here, we can put a hatnote on Thyraeus (mythology), but it doesn't seem that such a weakly attested epithet should ever be the prime target of the redirect. NebY (talk) 23:47, 30 November 2025 (UTC)

Plato's concept of soulmates

I've removed the section "Plato's concept of soulmates", a three-paragraph account of Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium,.again (it was restored today).

1. It's not Plato's high concept of soulmates, it's Plato having comic playwright Aristophanes make up an amusing origin of love, buttressing his story with an existing myth about Otis and Ephialtes in which Apollo doesn't figure at all. That takes up the first paragraph.
2. Apollo only features in it as a story device, to do Zeus' work; it's not about Apollo.
3. It didn't come to characterise Apollo either, or become part of his mythology.
4. This article is already too long - 19,217 words of readable prose in May 2025. This is largely because it retells in story style what seems to be even the most minor mention of Apollo in myth or other story, such as this one.

NebY (talk) 18:25, 9 July 2025 (UTC)

Half-Brother is incorrect

It states that Artemis is Apollo’s half brother when she’s Apollo’s twin sister. 2604:3D08:4E78:4CA0:2468:8A47:BBBD:C5D1 (talk) 04:16, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Where does it state that? I don't see it anywhere in the article. Deor (talk) 13:45, 17 August 2025 (UTC)

Add Horus as Egyptian Equivalent

I’m requesting to add Horus as the Egyptian equivalent to Apollo. This equivalence is well documented with the town of Edfu, home to the Temple of Horus being called Apollonopolis Magna in Greek.

this would entail adding these lines to the infobox:

| equivalent1_type = Egyptian | equivalent1 = Horus 2601:188:C680:10E0:8421:BD45:3EC3:7A23 (talk) 03:16, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Error in date concerning Hellenistic times

"In Hellenistic times, especially during the 5th century BCE, as Apollo Helioshe became identified among Greeks with Helios, the personification of the Sun."

Hellenistic times: 323 to 30 BCE. ~2026-4534 (talk) 04:39, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Yes, this is obviously wrong. Fixed. – Michael Aurel (talk) 09:49, 1 January 2026 (UTC)

Misinformation

You should still correct Apollo’s spouse link. Cause you’re misinforming people on wiki that Apollo only has one lover, when he had multiple. ~2026-89561 (talk) 09:04, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

A spouse is a person's partner in marriage. NebY (talk) 12:04, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 January 2026 (2)

Lover: Cyrene ~2026-46360-0 (talk) 15:42, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want made. Please detail the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Day Creature (talk) 16:52, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

Cyrene is discussed in the "Female lovers" section, and you can view her children by Apollo in the "List of offspring and their mothers" table. – Michael Aurel (talk) 15:59, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

Apollo couldn't choose which of the muses to marry?

"Apollo is said to have been the lover of all nine Muses, and not being able to choose one of them, he decided to remain unwed." This passage has already been marked with 'citation needed' but it's been on the article forever and after asking around all I could find was it seemingly leading back to Rick Riordan's YA books. Does anyone know an actual source for this? If it doesn't exist could someone please delete this claim off the article? My account isn't old enough to do it myself. Thanks in advance :) Echo-loves-flowerboy (talk) 13:10, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Hi Echo-loves-flowerboy. Thanks for pointing this out. I'm not able to find a source for that claim, so I've removed it. – Michael Aurel (talk) 13:43, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Name

I have a problem with this that should be changed. This is about the Greek god of light, music, archery, etc., but the actual original Greek name for him is Apollon, with an n. The Roman's, when they adopted him as a god, latinised his name to Apollo, with no n. Apollon is the actual name. Please change it. Carlaisme246 (talk) 17:06, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

We title our articles according to WP:COMMONNAME, which usually means the name used in English (e.g. Hephaestus, Athens, Rhodes, Germany), and in this case we also footnote the various Greek names, including but not restricted to Ἀπόλλων (Appollon), at the very start of the article. There's no prospect of going against policy to rename the article. NebY (talk) 18:06, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

We also have articles about Plato rather than Platon, Hero of Alexandria rather than Heron of Alexandria, etc. Deor (talk) 18:49, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 June 2026

Please add the following citation to the Apollo page for "Coronis", under "Female Lovers", using the this academic journal article which confirms the stated information:

Philbrick, R. (2018). CORONIS AND THE METAMORPHOSIS OF APOLLO: OVIDIAN RE-FORMATIONS OF PINDAR’S THIRD PYTHIAN. The American Journal of Philology, 139(3), 451–482. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48545508?seq=1&cid=pdfreference#references_tab_contents RD INF6120 (talk) 14:24, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

That source tells us that different writers told the legend with different details - the Hesiodic Catalogue and Callimachus identify Ischys and involve the raven, Pindar has Artemis shoot Coronis but Ovid Apollo. We can't use it as a source that confirms what's stated but it can prompt us to write a paragraph which doesn't attempt to provide a unified myth. NebY (talk) 14:48, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: HUM 202 Summer 2026

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation–supported course assignment, between 5 May 2026 and 24 July 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Nkoanakletos (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Nkoanakletos (talk) 15:58, 30 June 2026 (UTC)

Apollo representations

NebY, Why not include the main representations that are mentioned in the article itself? I don't understand why the lead should specifically include only the ones that currently exist, there are other equally important in the article. Léopold Favre (talk) 11:05, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

An article lead, as WP:LEAD says, "gives the basics in a nutshell, introduces the article, and cultivates interest in reading on." We should not present the reader with indigestible lists; we want them to keep reading, not skip or give up.

Note also that it is a necessary condition that article content be verifiable, but that is not a sufficient reason for inclusion anywhere in the article, let alone in the lead. As our policy Wikipedia:Verifiability says at WP:V#Verifiability does not guarantee inclusion, "While information must be verifiable for inclusion in an article, not all verifiable information must be included. Through the consensus process, editors may determine that inclusion of a verifiable fact or claim does not improve an article, and other policies may indicate that the material is inappropriate." Citations shouldn't be inserted into the lead merely in an attempt to justify inclusion in the lead; as WP:LEADCITE says "Because the lead usually repeats information that is in the body, editors should balance the desire to avoid redundant citations in the lead with the desire to aid readers in locating sources for challengeable material" (and that paragraph expands on the principle usefully). NebY (talk) 12:29, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

Honestly, thank you for such a detailed and high-quality response. Would it be okay with simply adding to the list "Sun and light" to the representations already listed? The reason is that I consider them quite relevant to Apollo's iconography, especially light, given his noticeable historic representation as Phoebus Apollo — Φοῖβος (Phoibos), literally "bright", which was his most commonly used epithet among both Greeks and Romans (as the article says too). Léopold Favre (talk) 12:58, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

We already mention Apollo's late identification with Helios in the last paragraph of the lead. It's not to be found in Homer or Hesiod and though it begins in the late fifth century BCE, it's not rapidly or completely taken up (e.g. the Colossus of Rhodes is emphatically of Helios), though in the 19th and 20th centuries there's perhaps an eagerness to find sun-gods important in pagan cultures, and in the 21st we find strong identification of Apollo with the sun - but not with Helios - in the Percy Jackson stories. Walter Burkert's Greek Religion only mentions "Apollo began to be understood as a sun god" right at the end of his section on Apollo; the Oxford Classical Dictionary entry on Apollo only mentions the sun to say that "earlier theories explaining the god from the sun" were based on assumptions that have both, the entry says, been proved wrong. Pierre Grimal's long entry on Apollo in his Dictionary of Classical Mythology doesn't mention the sun.

The traditional description of Apollo as bright or radiant (Φοῖβος, Phoibos) isn't a description of him as a god of light; worse, Liddell and Scott tell us "the name Φοῖβος refers rather to the radiance of youth, which was always a chief characteristic of Apollo" (italics in original). Neither Burkert nor the OCD nor Grimal refer to Apollo as a god of light.

There might be a very interesting paper out there on the modern reception and remaking of Apollo as a sun-god or god of light, which would allow expansion of Apollo#Modern reception, but Apollo is an extremely important god in ancient Greek culture (later adopted by the Romans but without the same significance) and our lead should remain focused on the nature of that importance. NebY (talk) 17:35, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

Thanks again for taking your time making such a detailed response.

I agree that Apollo should not be presented as the original Greek sun-god, since Helios more properly fills that role in early Greek religion. However, it is too strong to say that Apollo's association with light is merely modern or that means "the radiance of youth". Ancient sources and academic scholarship support a qualified statement that Apollo was associated with light, radiance, and, in some traditions, the Sun.

• The Homeric Hymn to Apollo describes Apollo's epiphany in luminous terms, as "looking like a star at noonday", with "countless sparks flying off him" and a "brilliance" reaching heaven. Euripides’ fifth-century BCE Phaethon is even more explicit, addressing Helios with the words: "You are rightly called Apollo among men." The light association is also reflected in the Orphic Hymn to Apollo, which says “you bring light to mortals,” while Athanassakis and Wolkow note that “Phoibos (Bright One) is a common epithet of Apollon.”
• Modern scholarship is also explicit: Boutsikas writes that “Many of Apollo’s epikleses associate him with the sun” and refers to “Apollo, the god of light and divination.” Bilić likewise argues that the Apollo–sun identification “cannot be reduced to a philosophical reinterpretation.”

Therefore, I would avoid saying simply that “Apollo was the Greek sun-god,” but a qualified wording such as “Apollo was associated with light and radiance, and in some classical and later traditions was identified with Helios/the Sun” is supported by both primary evidence and academic scholarship. Léopold Favre (talk) 18:23, 3 July 2026 (UTC)

References

Semi-protected edit request on 3 September 2026

Please change the phrase “postpone Admetus's death once” to “allow Admetus to escape his death if someone else voluntarily died in his place.”

The current wording is imprecise. In *Bibliotheca* 1.9.15, Apollo obtains an agreement from the Moirai that Admetus may avoid his appointed death if another person willingly dies in his place. The article lists the source as reference 217; Hyginus *Fabulae* 50–51 is listed afterward as reference 218.

This would also resolve the existing tag. X13i4532 (talk) 17:45, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

 Done Day Creature (talk) 21:09, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

Arcitenens pronunciation

Under Epithets > Archery, there is no way the given pronunciation of "Arcitenens" is correct, but I don't know how to fix such technical thingamajigs. Krychek (talk) 12:42, 9 October 2026 (UTC)

It is not cited and does seem rather dubious, but "Ar-TISS-in-anz" is not incredible. In Yugoslavian, the letter ⟨c⟩ is pronounced ts but is not obvious how the middle ⟨t⟩ could become an SS sound. For now, ust deleting it os clearly an option but seems excessive. Can someone with more expertise in ancient Greek or Latin pronunciation confirm or deny?

I have tagged it as "citations needed" but I can't help wondering it it deserves a WP:OR tag. 𝕁𝕄𝔽 (talk) 13:52, 9 October 2026 (UTC)