Apollo’s conflict with the serpent, Python, is a symbol of the victory
of light and warmth over darkness and cold. He used his bright beams
(arrows) against the demon of darkness (Python). His shafts slay men
as does sun-stroke. Andrew Lang relates a strange coincidence of a
German scholar, Otfried Muller, who had always opposed Apollo’s claim
to being a sun-god. He was killed by a sun-stroke at Delphi. The god
thus avenged himself in his ancient home.
“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.”
--_Shelley._