Apollo was a most multi-faceted and versatile god. His spheres of influence included the sun and light, culture and civilisation, medicine, disease and healing, prophecy and oracles, music, dance, poetry, and archery. He was worshipped as a nurturer of youth - kourotrophos - and as a guardian of children into adulthood. At their coming of age, boys would cut their hair and dedicate it to him.

He was the son of Zeus and the mortal Leto, who gave birth to him and his twin sister Artemis on the Cycladic island of Delos, which Zeus arranged should emerge from the Aegean Sea for the occasion. Two of his four children were Asklepios (with the nymph Coronis) and Orpheus (with the Muse Kalliope), Hyacinthus and Cyparissus were his male lovers, and he also fell in love with the Trojan princess, Cassandra. He supported the Trojans in the Trojan War, and guided the fatal arrow that struck Achilles in the heel.

His many epithets include Phoebus, meaning bright or shining, and Pythios - Pythian. Apollo had killed the deadly Python that was ravaging the area of Delphi, then established his oracular sanctuary there. His priestess the Pythia would sit in the Delphic tripod in the innermost part of the temple, be filled with the spirit - pneuma - of the god, then deliver his oracle. When Apollo's half-brother Herakles once tried to steal the tripod, Zeus intervened, and Herakles was duly punished.

Apollo's most common attributes are the lyre and the laurel wreath, reminding us of his pursuit of the nymph Daphne and her subsequent metamorphosis into a laurel tree.

The bronze pieces are cast in Greece using the traditional lost wax method. As nothing is mass-produced, there will inevitably be slight variations in texture, patina, and colour. No two pieces are ever the same. If mounted on a marble base, it will be a black or very dark grey base. There may be a variation of some millimetres in the dimensions of the base from time to time.

It's All Greek is proud to have been working with the Semitekolo family foundry since 1999. It has been a privilege to handle these gorgeous pieces and to sell them to customers all over the world.