Aon′ides, a name of the Muses, from the country Aonia.
Aph′rodi′te, a Greek name of Venus.
Apis, a name given to Jupiter by the inhabitants of the Lower Nile. Also the miraculous ox, worshipped in Egypt.
A′pis, King of Argivia. Afterwards called Serapis, the greatest god of the Egyptians.
Apol′lo. This famous god, sometime King of Arcadia, was the son of Jupiter and Latona. He was known by several names, but principally by the following:—Sol (the sun); Cynthius, from the mountain called Cynthus in the Isle of Delos, and this same island being his native place obtained for him the name of Delius; Delphinius, from his occasionally assuming the shape of a dolphin. His name of Delphicus was derived from his connection with the splendid Temple at Delphi, where he uttered the famous oracles. Some writers record that this oracle became dumb when Jesus Christ was born. Other common names of Apollo were Didymæus, Nomius, Pæan, and Phœbus. The Greeks called him Agineus because the streets were under his guardianship, and he was called Pythius from having killed the serpent Python. Apollo is usually represented as a handsome young man without beard, crowned with laurel, and having in one hand a bow, and in the other a lyre. The favourite residence of Apollo was on Mount Parnassus, a mountain of Phocis, in Greece, where he presided over the Muses. Apollo was the accredited father of several children, but the two most renowned were Æsculapius and Phæton.
“Apollo there with aim so clever,
Stretches his leaden bow for ever.”
Lloyd, 1750.
“Wilt thou have music? Hark! Apollo plays,
And twenty cagëd nightingales do sing.”