APOLLO
Real
Name:
Phoebus Apollo
Occupation:
Prince of Olympus, Adventurer, God of light, inspiration, music, poetry, prophecy and the sciences
Legal
Status:
Citizen of Olympus
Identity:
The general populace of Earth believes Apollo to be a character out of
mythology.
Other
Aliases:
Aplu (Etruscan Name), Ekhi (Basque name), Lyceius, Paul Belvedere, Rene Andre,
Apollo Reason, (mortal aliases) - (He was often confused with the sun-god Helios)
Place
of Birth:
Island of Delos (now part of modern Greece)
Marital
Status:
Single
Known
Relatives:
Zeus (father), Leto (mother); Hera (step-mother),
Artemis (sister); Cronus,
Coeus (grandparents), Rhea, Phoebe (grandmothers); Hercules, Ares, Hermes,
Hephaestus, Dionysus (half-brothers); Athena,
Aphrodite, Hebe, Eileithyia,
Helen, Discord, Persephone (half-sisters), Asteria, Demeter, Hestia (aunts),
Chiron, Poseidon, Hades (uncles), Asclepius, Janus, (sons), Troilius, Linus,
Philammon (sons, deceased), Cupid (nephews), Harmonia (niece); Hecate, Arion,
Despoena, Triton (cousins)
Group
Affiliation:
Gods of Olympus
Base
of Operations:
Olympus
First
Appearance:
(historical) Venus #1, (recent) Thor #129
History:
Apollo is the son of Zeus, Lord of the Olympian Gods and his seventh wife, Leto,
the goddess of the day. After conquering Olympus, Zeus chose his most recent
paramour, Hera, to be Queen of the Gods at his side. Hera had always hated his
earlier wives along with their children and strived to establish her own
children by Zeus as above all the others. Many of Zeus’s previous wives left
Olympus to live in willing exile such as Maia and Dione, but others such as
Demeter and Mnemosyne stayed on Olympus unopposed. Leto meanwhile fled to Earth
as Hera cursed her to grow heavy with child and never find peace anywhere that
the sun shone. She also sent a great serpent called Python to torment and pursue
her and enforce her curse. Zeus eventually asked Poseidon to help Leto find
peace. He guided her to the tiny island of Delos and hid her under constant
storm clouds to conceal her from Hera.
Unable to see her, Hera instructed her first-born daughter, Eileithyia to
stall off the birth of Leto’s children in fear that she would give birth to
Zeus’s first born-son. Zeus’s other wives soon rallied to Leto’s cause and
instructed Iris the rainbow-goddess to deliver Eileithyia to Leto’s side.
Unwillingly to allow Leto to suffer once more, she helped her to deliver her
daughter Artemis and then Apollo, Zeus’s first-born son ahead of Ares,
Hera’s son by Zeus.
As
the first-born son of Zeus, Apollo inherited more prestige than any of Zeus’s
other children. The Titaness Themis, Zeus’s second wife, schooled him in the
use of his powers and the Centaur Chiron, Zeus’s half-brother, trained him to
be a master archer. He was also schooled in music by his half-sisters, the
Muses, and counted them among many of his first infatuations. Caring more about
his skills as an archer, Apollo tracked down Python and killed it for harassing
his mother years before. Themis left him her oracle at Delphi to be his and the
oracle there became known as the Pythoness after the slain Python.
Like
his father, Apollo also gathered a reputation courting goddesses and female
mortals. He seduced the goddess Iris and she gave birth to the two-faced god
Janus who later took his place as guardian at the gates of Olympus. Both he and
Hermes courted the mortal Chione and eventually seduced her separately one
night. She gave birth to Apollo’s son, Philammon, and Hermes’ son,
Autolycus. Apollo’s most famous son was Asclepius who developed the most
advanced skill in medicine known for the time. After Hades complained to Zeus
that Asclepius had found ways to keep mortals from dying, Zeus struck down
Asclepius with a lightning bolt and killed him. Angered over the murder of his
son, Apollo stormed Olympus and slew the Cyclopes that forged his father’s
thunderbolts.
As
a penance for this crime, Zeus stripped Apollo of his godhood and sent him to do
penance as a slave to King Admetus of Pherae. Admetus turned out to be a kind
and fair king who befriended the mortal Apollo. They became such good friends
that he predicted for him the day he was going to die. When Thanatos, the god of
death, came for Admetus, his wife, Alcestis, volunteered to go in his place.
Hercules meanwhile learned of this pact and wrestled Thanatos to a standstill to
prevent him from claiming her.
Eventually
reclaiming his godhood, Apollo returned to Olympus, but the attention to him
made Aphrodite jealous. She instructed her son, Cupid, to smite Apollo with love
for the goddess Daphne and then to smile Daphne with a spell of indifference.
Daphne ended up changing herself to a tree to escape him, and as her mortal
husband Leucippus came to defend her, Apollo slew him in return.
Apollo
also took times to defend his sister Artemis and to remind her of her choice of
chastity. When she started to fall in love with Poseidon’s son, Orion, Apollo
tricked her into killing Orion in a fabricated accident. They also joined forces
to kill the giant Tityus as he tried to conquer Olympus and joined forces
to slay the children of the Theban Queen Niobe for insulting their mother.
Apollo
and Artemis both favored the Trojans during their war with the unified forces of
Ancient Greece. Apollo had been courting the Trojan princess Cassandra and even
bestowed upon her gifts of prophecy. When she began to spurn his further
advances, he altered her ability so that no one would believe her predictions
and as a result, Troy fell to the Greek Armies.
Gradually,
Zeus allowed worship of the Olympian Gods to decline to favor the changes in
mortal society. Having neglected
his followers for some time to indulge in romantic affairs, Apollo still
cavorted with mortals and even posed as a mortal after having to live as one. At
some point in the Middle Ages, he became involved in the Crusades and even
renounced his position as a god, but not his immortal status to become
Christianized. Although he still possessed his godly powers, he barely
acknowledged his past as a god. This conversion started a tradition among other
immortals looking for meaning in the demise of paganism whereas immortals such
as Brigid of the Gods of Avalon also acknowledged interests in Christianity.
Apollo
also continued certain heroics as he came to the aid of mortals. In the Sixth
Century AD, he and the
Celtic God Lugh both pursued a dragon to Loch Ness in what is modern-day
Scotland. They bound the creature to the lake and had their spells augmented by
the local Abbott, St. Columba. Since reconciling his sibling rivalries with
Aphrodite, he followed her to Earth while she posed as a mortal named Vanessa
Nutley Starr and began calling himself Paul Belvedere in order to keep an eye on
her activities. After unusual solar activity brought him to Olympus to inspect
the cause, Apollo became reunited with Daphne and they placed aside their
previous apprehensions. Zeus, however, sent the two of them to Earth to test
Aphrodite’s choice to stay on earth. Posing as the mortals Renee Andre and
Rona Belladonna, they interceded in the romance of Meg Saunders and her
boyfriend Danny, but Aphrodite succeeded in keeping them together and won her
father’s approval to stay on Earth.
Apollo
meanwhile began to enjoy his role as a superhero before mortals in the Twentieth
Century and partook on other adventures. He and Aphrodite joined forces to
prevent a self-styled warlock calling himself the Son of Satan (Not to be
confused with Damon Hellstrom who once also used that name) when he conjured a
flood on Earth. They both had to be rescued by Hercules when the ancient god
Typhon invaded Olympus and cast them along with the other gods to the ethereal
Land of Shades. In recent years, Apollo also joined forces with Thor, Quetzalcoatl,
Shango and Tawa in defeating the primeval entity known as Demogorge released by
the gods of the dead.
Apollo
meanwhile started to follow Hercules around and even took an interest in his
adventures. After Hercules lost his usual garments while fighting the Blood
Brothers, Apollo visited him on earth to deliver him a new outfit designed by
Hephaestus. After Hercules was gravely injured battling the Masters of Evil,
Apollo attempted to tend to his wounds in Olympus. The Avengers, accused by Zeus
of having caused the injuries, sought Apollo for his assistance, and he agreed
to assist them. However, Zeus quickly learnt of his treachery and struck him
down along with his other children who had allied themselves with the Avengers.
Zeus was ultimately made to realize his mistake in falsely accusing the
Avengers in Hercules injuries’ and ordered all of the Olympians to remain away
from earth. Dismayed with the edict, Apollo still attended to the injuries of
the Avengers, healing Captain America's legs that Zeus had broken and an injury
Dr. Druid had suffered to the head. However, he was unable to heal any of Thor's
injuries as Thor was then suffering from a curse laid on him by the
death-goddess Hela.
Seemingly
temporarily separated from Earth, Apollo still remains fascinated with Earth and
all its champions and especially its modern culture in music and entertainment.
He recently attended a feast held in honor of the Hulk, who was visiting Olympus
but wound up in a drunken stupor, unable to compete with the Hulk's incredible
liver.
According
to one alternate future of the Twentieth-Fourth Century, Zeus and all the
Olympian Gods except for Hercules leave this plane of existence so that Hercules
may father a new generation of gods. On another planet somewhere in the galaxy,
Apollo takes prisoner the crew of the USS Starship Enterprise in his search for
companionship, but upon revealing they have outgrown any need for gods, he lets
them go to explore the universe. It is unrevealed if this is part of the
mainstream timeline.
Height:
6’0”
Weight: 525 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Strength
Level:
Apollo possesses superhuman strength enabling him to lift (press) 40 tons under
optimal conditions.
Known
Superhuman Powers:
Apollo possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Olympian Gods. Like
all Olympian Gods, he is immortal. He has not aged since reaching adulthood and
cannot die by any known conventional means. He is immune to all known
terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If wounded, his
godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would
take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily
molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for
Zeus or a number of gods of equal power working together to revive him. Apollo
does have some superhuman strength and his own Olympian metabolism gives him far
greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Olympian flesh and
bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to
Olympian super-strength and weight.)
Apollo
also has considerable power to tap into and manipulate ambient mystical energies
more than any other Olympian God except of course Zeus, Poseidon and possibly
Hades. He can generate and radiate great heat and light comparable to a small
sun and even discharge lightning bolts but on a level no where close to Zeus. He
can also bestow enchantments upon people and animals and inflict curses. He is
highly skilled in prophecy and foresee into alternate timelines and future
events with some accuracy. Like all gods, he can teleport through dimensions and
alter his form.
Abilities:
Apollo
is a master archer, discus-thrower and Olympic-class athlete. He is also
musically inclined and can play the lyre. He has an excellent singing voice and
is highly charismatic.
Weapons:
Apollo has a gold longbow constructed for him by the Cyclopes as a gift from his
father. Various enchantments on it increase the accuracy of his targets. His
quiver of gold arrows is likewise enchanted to never empty of arrows no matter
how fast or often he uses them.
Transportation:
At least in ancient times, Apollo traveled extensive distances or through worlds
on a flying chariot pulled by two flying carnivorous horses. Actually owned by Helios the
sun god, the chariot always appears as a flash of blinding light, which only
immortals can see through. Its appearance in modern times was often mistaken as
a flying saucer.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Apollo should not be confused with: