The Loves of Apollo. Apollo was considered the ideal of male beauty, and he had many love affairs and fathered many children. Yet there are numerous stories of his failure to win a woman he desired or of his lovers being unfaithful to him.

One of the most famous concerns Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy. Apollo fell in love with her and gave her the gift of prophecy to win her favor. When she rejected him anyway, Apollo punished her by declaring that her prophecies would be accurate but that no one would believe her. In another story, he courted the nymph Sinope, who asked him to grant her a favor before she accepted his proposal. When Apollo agreed, she asked to remain a virgin until her death. Perhaps the most famous tale of Apollo's unfulfilled love involved his pursuit of Daphne, who turned into a laurel tree to escape his advances.