アポローンは牧畜の神として重要な神であり、牧夫や羊飼いの守護神であった。病気や害虫、外敵から牛や羊、農作物を守るのがアポローンの主な役割だった。一方、アポローンは新しい町の建設や市民憲法の制定も奨励した。アポローンは、植民地に対する支配と関連している。彼は法律を与える者であり、都市で法律を制定する前に彼の神託が参照された。
アポロは「ムシケ」の神として、すべての音楽、歌、踊り、詩を司る<ref>''Mousike'' (the art of the Muses) was an integral part of life in the ancient Greek world, and the term covered not only music but also dance, lyrics, theatre and the performance of poetry.</ref>。
As the god of ''mousike'',{{efn|''Mousike'' (the art of the Muses) was an integral part of life in the ancient Greek world, and the term covered not only music but also dance, lyrics, theatre and the performance of poetry.}} Apollo presides over all music, songs, dance and poetry. He is the inventor of string-music, and the frequent companion of the Muses, functioning as their chorus leader in celebrations. The lyre is a common [[#Attributes and symbols|attribute of Apollo]]. In Hellenistic times, especially during the 5th century BCE, as ''Apollo Helios'' he became identified among Greeks with [[Helios]], the personification of the Sun.<ref>For the iconography of the Alexander–Helios type, see H. Hoffmann, 1963. "Helios", in ''Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt'' '''2''', pp. 117–23; cf. Yalouris 1980, no. 42.</ref> In Latin texts, however, there was no [[conflation]] of Apollo with [[Sol (Roman mythology)|Sol]] among the classical Latin poets until 1st century CE.<ref>Joseph Fontenrose, "Apollo and Sol in the Latin poets of the first century BC", ''Transactions of the American Philological Association'' '''30''' (1939), pp 439–55; "Apollo and the Sun-God in Ovid", ''American Journal of Philology'' '''61''' (1940) pp 429–44; and "Apollo and Sol in the Oaths of Aeneas and Latinus" ''Classical Philology'' '''38'''.2 (April 1943), pp. 137–138.</ref> Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 5th century CE.
==Etymology==