Phoebus

"the shining, pure, bright." I.e. the shining, pure or bright, occurs both as an epithet and a name of Apollo, in his capacity of god of the sun. Some ancients derived the name from Apollo's grandmother Phoebe.1 The feminine form, Phoebe, is personified as the moon.

In poetry, the name is used of the sun itself.

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References

Notes

  1. Aeschyl. Eumenides, 8.

Sources

  • Homer. Iliad i, 43, 443.
  • Horace. Odes, iii, 21, 24.
  • Macrobius. Saturnalia i, 17.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.
  • Virgil. Aeneid iii, 251.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.