Claim: Artemis was a goddess.

Apollo -LRB- Attic , Ionic , and Homeric Greek : Ἀπόλλων , Apollōn ; Doric : Ἀπέλλων , Apellōn ; Arcadocypriot : Ἀπείλων , Apeilōn ; Aeolic : Ἄπλουν , Aploun ; Apollō -RRB- is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology . The ideal of the kouros -LRB- a beardless , athletic youth -RRB- , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of music , truth and prophecy , healing , the sun and light , plague , poetry , and more . Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto , and has a twin sister , the chaste huntress Artemis . Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu .   As the patron of Delphi -LRB- Pythian Apollo -RRB- , Apollo was an oracular god -- the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle . Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo , whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius , yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague . Amongst the god 's custodial charges , Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists , and as the patron defender of herds and flocks . As the leader of the Muses -LRB- Apollon Musegetes -RRB- and director of their choir , Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry . Hermes created the lyre for him , and the instrument became a common attribute of Apollo . Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans .   In Hellenistic times , especially during the 3rd century BCE , as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios , Titan god of the sun , and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene , Titan goddess of the moon . In Latin texts , on the other hand , Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the 1st century , not even in the conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII -LRB- 161 -- 215 -RRB- . Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE .