Apollo appears originally as a god of light. As the god of spiritual light, his festivals are all in spring and summer. He is one of the great gods of the Greeks, and next to Zeus the most widely worshipped.
Josephus speaks of a Temple of Apollo at Gaza, 96 b.c. (Antiq., xiii. 13, 3), at the time when the city fell into the hands of Alexander Jannæus. "The Senators, who were in all five hundred, fled to Apollo's Temple (for this attack happened to be made as they were sitting), whom Alexander slew."
The worship of Apollo is to be traced to Seleucid influence, for Apollo was the ancestral god of the Seleucids, and a great favourite with them.
3. Persephone (Latin Proserpina), daughter of Zeus and the earth-goddess Demeter, the goddess of the lower world.[56]
Her special name in Attic cult is Corê, lit. "the maiden."
Persephone is emblematic of vegetable life that comes and goes with the changing seasons.
Her festivals were celebrated in spring, and after the harvest.
The pomegranate was Proserpine's symbol, and the pigeon and the cock were sacred to her.
5. Hecate, a Greek moon-goddess, perhaps of non-Hellenic origin. Her appearance is frightful. She is generally represented as a daughter of Perses.