There is another version of the story of how Hercules brought Alcestis back from Hades. This is in the Alcestis of Euripides, and Browning has related it in his "Balaustion's Adventure." In this account the wife of Admetus is not surrendered willingly by Pluto, but the great hero Hercules wrestles with Death for the body and life of Alcestis, and by winning the victory over this dread adversary, restores Admetus's wife to his arms.
Other poems:—
| The Love of Alcestis | William Morris |
| Alcestis | Francis T. Palgrave |
| Shepherd of King Admetus | James R. Lowell |
IX
The combat between a hero and a dragon is a favorite theme in mythology and folklore. Besides the myth of Apollo's slaying of the Python are the well-known stories of Siegfried's killing of Fafnir, St. George and the Dragon, Perseus and the Sea Serpent, Cadmus and the Serpent, and Hercules and the Hydra.
The principal temples dedicated to the worship of Apollo were at Delos, his birthplace, and at Delphi.
One of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, the famous Colossus of Rhodes, was a statue of Apollo. His head was encircled with a halo of bright sunbeams, and his legs were set wide apart to allow vessels to pass in and out of the harbor with all their sails spread.
Among the many remains of ancient sculpture, none is better known—unless it be the Venus of Milo—than the statue of Apollo called the Belvedere, from the name of the apartment of the pope's palace at Rome in which it is placed. The artist is unknown, but the work is supposed to be of the first century of our era, and is modeled on the type of Greek sculpture of the Hellenistic period. It is restored to represent the god at the moment when he has shot the arrow that slays the Python.
Poems:—
| Apollo in "The Epic of Hades" | Lewis Morris |
| Hymn to Apollo | John Keats |
| Hymn to Apollo | Percy B. Shelley |