"Music exalts each joy, allays each grief,

Expels diseases, softens every pain;

And hence the wise of ancient days adored

One power of physic, melody, and song."

Apollo was the son of Zeus and Leto.  He was the god of music, prophecy, colonization, archery, medicine, poetry, dance, and intellectual inquiry and the career of herds and flocks.  Apollo's first achievement was to rid Pytho, the serpent of Python.   This serpent was a fierce monster by which quarried the sanctuary of Pytho from its lair beside the Castalian Spring.  Apollo killed Pytho with his bows and arrows.   This was a very good thing because Pytho destroyed crops, sacked villages, and he polluted rivers and streams.  Apollo had many love affairs with mortals and goddesses. His most famous love affairs were with Hucuba.  She was the wife of Priam, or the king of Troy.  Another love Apollo had was with Cassandra.  She was the sister of Troilius, daughter of Hucuba and Priam.  Apollo also fell in love with one of his own gender.  His name was Hyacinthus.  He was a Spartan Prince.   Hyacinthus was very handsome and athletic, which was very appealing to Apollo.   Then Hyacinthus died from a discus by the god of west wind blowing Apollo's toes and hit it into Hyacinthus head.  He died suddenly.  Luckily Apollo got over it and fell in love with Cyparissus, one of Heracles descendants.