Ἀπόλλων

Forms

Ᾰ̓πόλλων (Apóllōn) m (genitive Ᾰ̓πόλλωνος); third declension^[1] Doric Ἀπέλλων (Apéllōn), Cypriot Ἀπείλων (Apeílōn), Thessalian Ἄπλουν (Áploun).^[2][3] Accusative also Ἀπόλλω (Apóllō), mostly in oaths; vocative Ἄπολλον (Ápollon).^[4][5] Perhaps Mycenaean Greek pe-rjo, a fragmentary word read as /Apeljōn/.^[2][6]

Etymology

The origin is unknown, and repeated attempts to find an Indo-European etymology have failed.^[2][7][8] Beekes considers the name Pre-Greek.^[2][6] He takes the Hittite divine name Appaliunaš, in a treaty between Alaksandu of Wilusa and the Hittite king, as a rendering of the Pre-Greek original, which he reconstructs as *Apalyun: its /a/ became /e/ before the palatal /ly/, and the /e/ was then assimilated to /o/ by the following /ōn/.^[2][6][9] Chantraine thinks the link with the Hittite name very doubtful.^[8][10]

Cypriot Ἀπείλων (Apeílōn) points to an older *Apelyōn, which also explains Doric Ἀπέλλων (Apéllōn) and perhaps, with loss of the vowel, Thessalian Ἄπλουν (Áploun).^[2][7] Since J. Schmidt, the form Ἀπόλλων has often been explained as taken from the vocative Ἄπολλον (Ápollon), assimilated from *Ἄπελλον (*Ápellon);^[2][7] Beekes objects that such vowel assimilation is hard to assume in Greek.^[2][7][8]

Other proposals: Prellwitz and Kretschmer connected it with a noun *ἄπελος (*ápelos, “strength”), supposedly seen in ὀλιγηπελίη (oligēpelíē);^[7][8] Burkert derived it from the Doric word ἀπέλλα (apélla, “public assembly”), an idea the New Pauly reports as widely followed and Beekes rejects as impossible.^[11][2] Because Apollo was thought to come from Asia Minor, the name was also compared with a Lydian divine name, but Beekes notes that this began with a different sound.^[2][7][8]

Ancient writers made their own guesses: Plato's Cratylus links the name with ἀπόλλυμι (apóllumi, “to destroy”), with washing and delivering, and with ἁπλοῦς (haploûs, “simple”), and Hesychius explains it as the one not counted among the many.^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apollo is named from the first book of the Iliad on, where he sends the plague on the Greeks,^[13] and Homer calls him Phoebus and makes him the son of Zeus and Leto and the brother of Artemis.^[13][14][3]

Semantic evolution

In Homer he is the archer whose arrows bring sudden death to men, the god of prophecy with his oracle at Pytho, and a defender of Troy; he plays the lyre for the gods, but Homer does not yet make him leader of the Muses.^[14][13] Later he became the god of healing, divination, music and the young men, the brother of Artemis born on Delos.^[11][5] Local cults gave him many epithets, which the DGE lists by place.^[3] In Attic the oath “by Apollo” used the short accusative Ἀπόλλω.^[4][15]

The Pythagoreans used the name for a number,^[4] and Plotinus reports that they read it as “not many”, a symbol of the One.^[1] Rome worshipped Apollo from the early 5th century BC, and the Etruscans wrote the name as Aplu.^[11] Latin Apollo and Coptic took the name from Greek.^[1][16]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad names Apollo in its first book as the god who sends the plague.^[13][17]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod names him in the Theogony and the Works and Days.^[3][17]
• 7th century BC – An inscription from Amyclae has the Doric form Ἀπέλν (Apéln).^[3]
• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus addresses him with the vocative Ἄπολλον (Ápollon).^[3][4]
• 5th century BC – Rome worships Apollo from the early part of the century.^[11]
• 4th century BC – An inscription from Tamassos has the Cypriot form Ἀπείλων (Apeílōn).^[3]
• 3rd century AD – Porphyry records the Pythagorean use of the name for a number.^[4][3]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto, god of archery, prophecy, healing and music.^[4][5][3]
2. (Pythagorean) A name of a number.^[4]

Word family

• Ἀπολλώνιος (Apollṓnios)
• Ἀπολλώνιον (Apollṓnion)
• Ἀπολλωνιακός (Apollōniakós)

Related words

• Ἄρτεμις (Ártemis)
• Φοῖβος (Phoîbos)
• Latin Apollo

Usage notes

In oaths the Attic accusative is Ἀπόλλω (“by Apollo!”), beside the regular Ἀπόλλωνα, which is common only later.^[4][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c d e Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
9. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
10. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b c d Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
13. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
14. ^ a b Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
15. ^ Дворецкий, И. Х. (1958), Древнегреческо-русский словарь, Moscow: ГИС
16. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
17. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
18. ^ Woitrain, Jean-Pierre (2023), Lexique grec, Prima Elementa