Apollo, the reputed god of medicine among the Greeks, was the son of
Jupiter and Latona. His divinity became associated with the sun, and
his arrows, which often caused sudden death were, according to modern
expounders of ancient myths, only the rays of the sun. Many of his
attributes were similar to those which the Egyptians credited to Horus,
the son of Osiris and Isis, and it is evident that the Egyptian legend
was incorporated with that of the early Greeks. Besides being the god
of medicine Apollo was the deity of music, poetry, and eloquence,
and he was honoured as the inventor of all these arts. He evidently
possessed the jealousy of the artist in an abundant degree, for after
his musical competition with Pan, Apollo playing the lyre and Pan
the flute, when Tmolus, the arbiter, had awarded the victory to the
former, Midas ventured to disagree with that opinion, and was thereupon
provided with a pair of asses’ ears. Marsyas, another flute player,
having challenged Apollo, was burnt alive.
[Illustration: APOLLO.]
Peon, sometimes identified with Apollo, was the physician of Olympus.
He is said to have first practised in Egypt. In the fifth book of the
‘Iliad’ Homer describes how he cured the wound which Diomed had given
to Mars:--
--Peon sprinkling heavenly balm around,
Assuaged the glowing pangs and closed the wound.