Apollo

Apollo "is a beautiful figure in Greek poetry, the master musician who delights Olympus as he plays on his golden lyre; the lord too of the silver bow, the Archer-god, far-shooting; the Healer, as well, who first taught men the healing art. Even more than of these good and lovely endowments, he is the God of Light, in whom is no darkness at all, and so he is the God of Truth."
-- Edith Hamilton.

Apollo (or Phoebus Apollo) is the son of Zeus and Leto:

And Leto joined in love with Zeus who holds
The aegis, and the offspring which she bore
Were lovelier than all the sons of Heaven:
Apollo and the huntress Artemis.
-- Hesiod, Theogony (trans. Dorothea Wender)

To escape the wrath of Hera, Leto fled to a floating island (afterwards called Delos), where -- at Mount Kynthos, while leaning against a palm tree -- she gave birth. Thus, Theognis sings,

When lady Leto, Phoebus, at your birth,
Holding the slender palm-tree, gripped it tightly
Near by the Delian lake -- for you, fair child,
Celestial perfume filled the district; Earth
Shook her huge frame with laughter; brightly
The face of white-haired Ocean gleamed and smiled.

Apollo was nursed by Themis, who "served to him nectar and lovely ambrosia,"

And at once amongst the goddesses Phoibos Apollo said:
     'May the lyre and curving bow be possessions to call my own,
     And for humans let me proclaim the unerring counsel of Zeus.'
With these words he started to stride upon the broad-pathed earth,
Phoibos whose hair is unshorn, the god who shoots from afar,
And all the goddesses wondered.
-- Homeric Hymns (trans. Michael Crudden)

Zeus bid Apollo make his home at Delphi, where he slew the Python that protected the oracle of Themis and terrorized the populace:

That snake was killed by Phoebus; until then
he had not used his fatal bow except
to hunt down deer and goats in flight.
                 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
To keep the memory of his great feat
alive, the god established sacred games;
and after the defeated serpent's name,
they were called Pythian.
-- Ovid, The Metamorphoses
(trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

After the slaying of the serpent, Apollo took possession of the oracle and protected it against Heracles, who wished to take it as his own.

Despite his beauty, Apollo is unfortunate in love. For instance, in an effort to seduce Cassandra, the daughter of king Priam of Troy, he teaches her the art of divination. After learning from Apollo, Cassandra stubbornly refuses to surrender to his charms. Enraged, the god deprives the princess of the gift of persuassion, so that none of her predictions would be believed. According to one account, Apollo then has an affair with Cassandra's mother, Hecuba, by whom he fathers a son who is equally unfortunate in love, Troilus.