APOLLO, APOLLOO, APPOLLO. Phoebus Apollo, son of Leto and Jupiter, twin brother of Artemis/Diana, was the quintessential Greek god. He slew Python, the immense dragon of Delphi, and established his oracle there. Thus he assumed the title Delphicus. His priestess at Delphi, known as "Pythoness," prophesied through divination as she sat in a trance. Apollo fell in love with Daphne, but she fled from him; as he gained on her, she appealed to her father Peneus to save her, and she became a laurel tree. Thereafter, Apollo adopted the laurel as his emblem (Met I.452-567; OM I.2737-3064). Apollo is also god of prophecy, medicine, archery, and music (Etym VIII.xi.53). Petrus Berchorius describes Apollo as a youth of marriageable age. In one hand Apollo carries a bow, arrows, and quiver; in the other, a cithar (a stringed instrument). He is pictured with the huge, monstrous serpent he had decapitated (De formis figurisque deorum, fol. 4v a. 29-31, 43-45). Marsyas, a satyr of Phrygia, challenged Apollo to a musical contest. Apollo agreed but stipulated that each should be able to play his instrument upside down. Since Apollo played the lute and Marsyas the flute, Apollo won; then he flayed Marsyas alive for his insolence (Met VI.382-400; OM VI.1921-1980).
The Dreamer invokes Apollo as god of science and light, HF III.1092-1109, inspired by Dante, Par I.13-27. Marsia lost her skin because she undertook to pipe better than Apolloo, HF III.1229-1232. Here Chaucer follows a tradition in which Marsyas is feminine. Marse appears in an interpolation of forty lines in several manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose, 10830-10831. Calcas is the priest of Appollo Delphicus, Tr I.70-72. Criseyde calls Apollo "stoon of sikerness," rock of certainty, Tr II.843. The laurel quakes when the god answers Troilus, Tr III.540-546; Chaucer is the only poet to make Apollo speak from the tree. Appollo has told Calcas that Troy will fall, Tr IV.113-119. Criseyde intends to enchant her father so much that he will pay no attention to Appollo's amphibologies or ambiguities, Tr IV.1394-1407. In his agony, Troilus curses Apollo, Tr V.207-209, 1853.
Apollo is also the name for the planet Sol (Etym VIII.xi.53).
Aurelius appeals to Appollo as the sun, FranklT 1031-1043, whose declination or latitude changes from day to day. Apollo appears in an unfinished astrological periphrasis, which states the time, SqT 671-672. Apollo is also the sun, MLI 7-15, MerchT 2220-2224; SqT 48-51, 263-267; FranklT 124512-124548; PhysT 37-38; MkT 2745-2746, and throughout Boece and Troilus and Criseyde. [Dane: Marcia: Phebus]
Apollo occurs twice initially, SqT 671; HF III.1092; four times in medial positions, Tr II.842; Tr III.541, 543, 546; Apolloo, with extra long final vowel occurs in final rhyming position, HF III.1232; Appollo occurs once initially, Tr IV.114; five times in medial positions, FranklT 1031; Tr I.70; Tr IV.1397; Tr V.207, 1853; and once in final rhyming position, Tr I.72.