Phœbus Apollo was the Greek god of day, who drove the great chariot of the sun across the sky from dawn to sunset. As the sun's rays pierce the air with darts of fire, so Apollo is an archer god carrying a quiver full of arrows. The old Homeric hymn calls him-- "Heaven's far darter, the fair king of days Whom even the gods themselves fear when he goes Through Jove's high house; and when his goodly bows He goes to bend, all from their thrones arise And cluster near t' admire his faculties."[15] [15] In Chapman's translation. If we count up all the gifts which the sunlight brings us, we shall have a list of the offices of Apollo. He brought the spring and the summer, and ripened the grain for harvest. He warded off disease and healed the sick. One of his earliest adventures was to slay the serpent Python lurking in the caves of Mt. Parnassus. Like the legend of St. George and the Dragon, the story is an allegory of the triumph of light over darkness, health over disease, the power of good over the power of evil. Apollo was also the patron of music, having received from Hermes the gift of the lyre. He was wont to play at the banquets of the gods, and the poet Shelley describes his music in these words:-- "And then Apollo with the plectrum strook The chords, and from beneath his hands a crash Of mighty sounds rushed up, whose music shook The soul with sweetness, and like an adept His sweeter voice a just accordance kept."[16] [16] From Shelley's translation of the Homeric _Hymn to Mercury_. Poetry and the dance were also under Apollo's protection, and he was the leader of the nine muses. His highest office was prophecy, and in all his temples the priestesses gave mystic revelations of the future. The most famous of these was at Delphi, built over an opening in the ground, whence a strange vapor rose. The priestess, a young woman called a _pythia_, from the python slain by Apollo, sat over this opening on a three-legged seat, or tripod, and answered the questions brought to her. Her sayings were in verses called _oracles_, supposed to be communicated to her by the god. Now, as might be expected, the character of Apollo was as pure and transparent as the sunlight itself. He required clean hands and pure hearts of those who worshiped him. As the sunlight shines into the dark places of the earth, driving the shadows away, so Apollo hated all that was dark and evil in human life. He was not only the rewarder of good but the punisher of evil. In Shelley's "Hymn of Apollo" these words are put in the god's mouth:-- "The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day; All men who do or even imagine ill Fly me, and from the glory of my ray Good minds and open actions take new might, Until diminished by the reign of night." [Illustration: D. Anderson, Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc. HEAD OF THE APOLLO BELVEDERE _Vatican Gallery, Rome_]