Hi, I’m Apollo—Greek god of light, music, and prophecy. You may know of me from Rick Riordan’s books about Percy Jackson, but he also wrote a whole series just about me, documenting the trials I went through as a mortal after my dad, Zeus, kicked me off Mount Olympus. Humiliating, right? You’ve heard part of my story from the books. Now as you go through the museum, you can learn even more. I was so popular back in the day that you’ll find me all over these galleries.

When you enter the galleries, look for a statue that is missing his head, one leg, both arms, and all of its paint. This statue of me certainly has been through some trials!

Originally, this marble statue included features to show that it is yours truly, like a lyre in my hand and my nemesis Python slithering across the base. But without these things, the statue looks more like my awkward mortal self, Lester Papadopoulos (except naked and a lot more buff).

Head to the second small gallery on the left and find a large vase with many of my family members (who are also the parental units of the demigods from Camp Half-Blood) on Mount Olympus watching the humans below. I’m second from the left with a bow and quiver of arrows by my feet and a lyre and laurel branch in my hands.

Walk toward the last side gallery on the right and stop just outside the entrance to find a depiction of my nemesis.

During the “completely safe” three-legged death race through the Labyrinth, I ended up under Delphi, where Python was bragging about his evil plans to control the world’s oracles. You want to know the backstory on Python? Long story short, Zeus’ wife, Hera, was super jealous of my mom, Leto, and sent Python to kill her, Artemis, and me. On this marble relief, the coiled Python is ready to attack. Leto runs away, but Artemis and I turn back to fight. It would be easier if we had our bows and arrows that were painted on the relief, but they have faded over the last 2,000 years (wow, that really ages me!).

For a Greek god, I haven't had the best luck in the romance department. I figured I’d have to talk about my exes at some point. Okay, there’s two main ones, Daphne and Hyacinthus.

Back when I was the immortal god of archery, I mocked Eros’ bow skills. So, typical, Eros overreacted and fired a golden arrow at me, making me fall in love with Daphne. As if that wasn’t enough, he shot Daphne with an arrow of lead to make her hate me. I chased Daphne through the forest and had almost caught up when her father rescued her by transforming her into a laurel tree. In ancient Greek, the word daphne, δάϕνη, means laurel. I vowed to honor her forever by crowning athletic victors with laurel wreaths.

You’ve seen one laurel branch in the galleries so far. Can you find these?

Head into the small gallery by the Python relief and find this object. 
What do you think it is?

A heavy discus like this one would have been thrown as part of the Pythian Games in Delphi. In celebration of my triumph over Python, the Pythian Games honored me with musical and athletic contests, like singing, chariot racing, and discus throwing.

Seeing a discus like this one gives me great sadness. My other love, Hyacinthus, was killed when a discus I threw hit him in the head. My aim is usually really perfect, but the west wind, Zephyrus, was jealous of our relationship and blew the discus off course. I mourned the death of my love and created a beautiful flower, the hyacinth, from his blood. Pretty, but not quite the same as a living boyfriend.

Discus throwing is still part of track and field events in the modern Olympic Games. Watch this video to see how much strength is needed 
to throw a discus.

(I could do it better, of course, but it’s hard to fit all my talent into a single YouTube video.)

Satyrs like my friend Grover Underwood play pan pipes with each other.

Pots of wine and actors’ masks are marks of Dionysus, god of wine and theater and director of Camp Half-Blood.

Garlands of flowers, grains, fruits, and olive branches represent the seasons and are the kind of plants that can be controlled by my friend Meg, daughter of Demeter. 

Griffins, similar to the ones Meg and I rescued from Commodus, have the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle and stand guard over the deceased.

I’m not just the god of archery, light, sport, and music. I also dabble in poetry.

In fact, I love poetry so much that I begin each chapter of my books with brilliant haiku. A haiku is a Japanese poem with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the third line. Write your own haiku about what you’ve seen in the galleries. Here’s one of mine from my books as an example: 

Check your spam folder
The prophecies might be there
No? Well, I’m stumped. Bye