Apollo was the son of
Zeus and his mistress Leto,
Hera prohibited Leto from giving birth on solid ground, so she birthed Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, on the floating Island Delos, later secured with four pillars. Apollo and Artemis became archers and used arrows forged by
Hephaestus to slay the Earth-serpent Python sent by Hera to attack their mother. Apollo was surprised when his infant half-brother
Hermes stole his scared cattle; Hermes gave Apollo the Golden Lyre to make amends. Apollo fathered Asklepios, god of medicine, with Coronis, daughter of the Lapiths' King Phlegyas. After a quarrel, Cupid (Eros) shot Apollo with the golden love arrow, and the nymph Daphne with a lead arrow of indifference; Apollo pursued Daphne, but she turned into a laurel tree to avoid him. Over 2000 years ago, Apollo called the seeress
Sibylla of Rome to the temple shared with his sister. Apollo offered Sibylla godhood, but she asked to remain within the temple; when later prophetess Thaleia predicated the "Black Oracle," when Earth-8146 ("Rome-World")'s Romans would threaten Earth-616, Apollo decreed that Sibylla's ghost and Thaleia's corpse would wait for a third Sibyl to help stop the oracle.