Apollo, Loves of. Apollo’s amorous conquests were rarely successful, frequently bringing rebuff to himself or ruin to those he pursued. The objects of his attentions, both male and female, included Clytie, Creusa, Cassandra, Cyparissus, Daphne, and Hyacinth. Among Apollo’s lesser-known loves, treated together in this entry, were Chione, Clymene, Connais, Dryope, Evadne, Isse, Leucothoë (Leucothea), and Marpessa.
Chione, daughter of Daedalion, was visited by Apollo and Hermes on the same night. She gave birth to twin sons: the notorious thief Autolycus, by Hermes, and the famous musician Philammon, by Apollo. Later, she dared to declare her own beauty greater than that of Artemis (Diana), and for this the goddess killed her and transformed her into a hawk.
As Phoebus, Apollo seduced the nymph Clymene, who bore him a son, Phaethon, and daughters, known as the Heliades (daughters of Helios). After Phaethon’s tragic fall from the sun chariot, Clymene traveled the earth seeking his remains. She found them at last on the banks of the Eridanus River, where his sisters, weeping for him, were turned into poplar trees by their tears.
Coronis, a maiden of Thessaly, was seduced by Apollo and bore him the child Asclepius (Aesculapius). While pregnant, Coronis was discovered by Apollo’s bird, the raven, in an amorous tryst with a Thessalian youth. The bird reported her infidelity to the god who, in anger, slew Coronis. Then, regretting what he had done, he tried unsuccessfully to revive her, but managed to save only the infant Asclepius, whom he gave to the centaur Chiron to rear. He also punished the raven by changing its feathers from white to black.
Apollo took the form of a tortoise to ravish Dryope, daughter of the king of Oechalia. As the girl played with him in her lap he became a serpent and coupled with her. Keeping her secret, Dryope married the mortal Andraemon, but bore Apollo’s son, Amphis-sus. According to Ovid, while nursing the infant by a lake, Dryope saw some water lotuses in bloom. Unaware that the blossoms were the transformed body of the naiad Lotis, Dryope picked them. The flowers trembled and bled, and she herself was turned into a lotus tree.
A Peloponnesian legend relates that Evadne, a daughter of Poseidon, bore Apollo’s son Iamus by the banks of the Alpheus river and left him there. Apollo and Poseidon brought the child to Olympia, where he was eventually given the gift of prophecy.
Another victim of Apollo’s disguises was Isse, a shepherdess. According to Ovid, the god appeared to her as a shepherd, seduced her, and left her pregnant.
Phoebus was striken with love for Leucothoë (Leu-cothea) by Aphrodite (Venus), in revenge for his betrayal of her affair with Ares (Mars) to her husband. The jealous Clytie, resentful of the attention Apollo was paying to the girl, reported it to Leu-cothoë’s father, King Orchamus, who had his daughter buried alive. Apollo tried fruidessly to save her, and the tears he shed on her corpse caused it to grow into a frankincense tree.
Marpessa, daughter of Evenus and granddaughter of Ares, was wooed by both Apollo and Idas, one of the Argonauts. When Idas carried her off in his chariot, Evenus committed suicide in grief and anger. Apollo pursued Idas until Zeus intervened and forced Marpessa to choose between her two lovers. She chose the mortal Idas, fearing that Apollo would abandon her when she grew old.

Classical Sources. Homer, Iliad 9-557ff. Antoninus Lib-eralis, Metamorphoses 32. Pindar, Pythian Odes 3.14-ff. Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.750-75, 2.542—636, 4.194-252, 6.122®, 9.323-93,11.290—348. Apollodorus, Biblioteca 1.7.8-9, 3.10.3. Plutarch, Lives 40.315e. Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.26.7, 4.2.7. Hyginus, Tabulae 200, 202.

See also Apollo, and the Cumaean Sibyl; Cassandra; Clytie; Creusa; Cyparissus; Daphne; Hyacinth; Phaethon.