Apollo's parents were Zeus and Luton. At his birth, swans sailed to the island and, taking the blessed island in a tight ring, magically sang. From that moment on, the bare cliffs of Delos are surrounded by the color and joy of greenery. Bursts of hymns and music rose into the sky in blue clouds. The congregations of devout worshipers of Apollo went to the white temples, which were hidden among cypress trees, palm trees, and laurel trees.
Apollo was the most beautiful among the gods. Tall, slender, fair-haired, forever young, with divine radiant eyes that looked far into the depths of time and space. Apollo was considered the god of prophecy and fortune-telling, and a reflection of his beauty was seen in the golden disk of the sun, of which he was the sovereign. He endowed clairvoyance and cared for fortune-tellers, singers and poets, who were called the "children of Apollo." He himself amazingly owned the game of kifar.
Once Apollo even decided to compete with a certain Marsyos, who was an excellent flutist. Judges chose shepherds and shepherdesses who grazed their herds on Mount Nisa. Marsyus played the first and fascinated everyone. His flute inherited the nightingale's tech, the sound of a stream, the distant voice of a forest echo, the sound of a storm as if creating a laudatory hymn in honor of nature, of which he was a child and novice. Marsyas was already confident of his victory when Apollo began to play his magical cifar. God sang and played at the same time. And he aroused in the souls of the audience that joyful ascension, now a sweet desire, then heart sorrow.
Apollo was declared the winner. He grabbed the overpowered Marcia, tied his hands to a tree and peeled his skin alive. Marsy left the world, and from the depths of forests and mountains a great cry was heard; all the forest gods, all the mountain goddesses shed such tears behind him that from those tears came a river, which was christened by his name, Marsyas.
At the same time, a very funny event happened. King Midas, who was also present at the meeting, left unsatisfied. He did not like the game of Apollo and he alone gave the victory to Marcia. Apollo took revenge on him by endowing him with donkey ears. But the king is worthless to have donkey ears. And Midas hid his shame under a hat that he never took off. But there was one man who knew the royal secret - a palace hairdresser. When he sheared Midas, he saw him without a hat. The king, on pain of death, ordered him to remain silent. The barber was afraid of death, but the unheard-of secret that he knew did not give him rest. He really needed someone to trust. Without the strength to endure anymore, he ran to the seashore and dug a hole there and shouted there was strength: “King Midas has donkey ears!” And he instantly felt better. In the meantime — probably, according to the command of the Almighty — in the place where the pit was, reeds grew, overgrown with reeds. And at that moment when the wind blew, the reeds staggered, rustled, and its rustling merged into a single voice, which whispered: “King Midas has donkey ears.” That treacherous whisper of reeds spread throughout the country and everyone knew the secret of Midas, which very upset the evil king, whose only drawback was the inability to understand music.
Although Apollo belonged to the highest aristocracy of the gods, he willingly lived on earth. He had his own business here, and long-standing memories were connected with the land. God remembered how once when he was kicked out of Olympus, in Thessaly, he served as a farm laborer under King Admet, where he herded the flocks and played the flute. The hosts bowed before him to protect pets from wolves. Apollo could do this very easily because he shot the bow best of all. They said it was as if his arrows were hitting suddenly, leaving no traces, and therefore each incomprehensible death was explained by the anger of Apollo.
In his writings, Apollo is depicted as an ideal of youth and male beauty, without a beard, with lush hair that freely falls on his shoulders, or is incomprehensibly curled: this is an Olympic metrosexual. Usually, he is naked, sometimes only a mantle-small cloak is thrown over his shoulder. On the back is a quiver full of loud silver arrows, and a bow in his hand. In the host of muses, he again appears as Kifared in a long robe, all the way down to the ground, with a cipher in his hand and with a laurel wreath on his head. A laurel wreath was awarded as a reward to poets, and this custom survived from ancient times. So, we can see a laurel wreath on the head of Petrarch, and in our times the word “laureate” reminds of him.