Alka Dipti Saakshi

Apollo represents music medicine, the Sun, and prophecy in Greek

mythology. He invented the lute, a plucked string instrument with a body
shaped like a pear, but he was more popular for playing the lyre, which he
traded with Hermes, the messenger of the gods, for a Caduceus. In modern
day the caduceus represents a symbol of medicine thus, consequently Apollo
was seen as a healer of the plague. Apollo is always shown as young, fair,
handsome and golden haired. The hair represents rays of the sun shining. In
spite of its dark appearance, the raven is often a solar symbol in Greece and
the bird was sacred to Apollo. The bow and arrow is also a symbol of Apollo
because he killed a python with those tools. He was the patron of the ancient
city of Delphi, where the first oracle of Ancient Greece was located. The
district was considered to be the navel of the world or the Omphalus in
ancient times. The Apollo archetype favors thinking over feeling, distance
over closeness, and objective assessment over subjective intuition.