The Greek God of the Sun. Son of the Gods. The good kid!

His twin sister is Artemis. He is also the god of music, plays a golden lyre, of light and truth, who can not tell a lie. One of Apollo’s more important daily tasks is to harness his chariot with four horses and drive the sun across the sky. (WISH HE WAS DOING THAT OVER ARKANSAS TONIGHT!) He is famous for his oracle at Delphi and people use to travel to it from all over the Greek world to divine the future.

Most images of Apollo have him wearing a laurel wreath. I thought it would be cool to go all 80s and give him a headband, but ended up with a small band instead. Also, I thought maybe have him wearing a pendant, or badge or something of a laurel leaf in honor of his love, Daphne.

Oh man! Have you seen the paintings of Apollo holding the tree nymph? I found a version of the story that is CRAZY. Talk about a Jerry Springer episode! So, check this out…

Apollo, as with Zeus his father, had many love affairs with goddesses and mortals. Like father, like son, right?

Apollo’s infatuation for the nymph Daphne, which had been invoked by the young god of love Eros (Aphrodites’ son). You see, Apollo had mocked little Eros saying his archery skills were pathetic (nothing like a cocky daddy’s boy to piss you off). So little Eros (also known as Cupid, I believe) shot Apollo with a arrow of love to have him fall madly in love with Daphne. Daphne was the beautiful daughter of a river god. Eros shot HER with an arrow of revulsion to Apollo. So there Apollo was, chasing a woman who was fleeing from him in fear.

To escape from Apollo’s insistent behavior, she fled to the mountains, but the persistent Apollo followed her. Annoyed by this, she asked the river god Peneus for help, which he did.

As soon as Apollo approached Daphne, he tried to embrace her, but when he stretched out his arms she transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo, distraught by what had happened, made the laurel his sacred tree.

Okay…and this is the part that got me…He cut her up into pieces and made a crown to honor her.

CUT.HER.INTO.PIECES.

EGADS!

Okay, so my drawing has no character. I have set a 15 minute limit for drawing and I had two sketches of Ares and one of Aphrodite that looked terrible. So I whipped Apollo out below.

I’ll do better tomorrow.

For more on Apollo, click here!