Phoebus Apollo was the Olympian god of 'light', music, poetry, prophecy, and pastoral pursuits. As the god of music, the lyre was sacred to him. He was the father of Orpheus by Calliope. He also was the god of healing and the father of Asclepius. He identified with Helios, the sun god and was considered to be the bringer of the dawn and the morning. He was perpetualy full of youth and vigor. Sometimes he is called Delius. He is connected with prophecy and the higher arts of civilization. From Apollo one becomes awakened to the higher mind.

Olen, the ledgendary bard and seer was the first priest of Apollo. The Delphic poet Boeo attributes Olen with founding the cult of Apollo, and the invention of the epic meter. Many of his hymns nomes (simple songs to accompany circle dances and the chorus). These were faithfully preserved on Delos where they celebrated the Hyperborean maidens who brought the cult to Delos. The hyperboreans (beyound the north wind) were a people who dwelled in a perfect state of bliss in the far north.

Olen wrote his hymns to be preformed by female voices. In the museum of Delos are burial jars said to be of those maidens. They were the only remains allowed to be left on Delos after the island was cleansed.

The Adeliades were professional female musician singers. They wore white robes and played the wind and stringed instruments of antiquity. They sang the hymns of Olen, Homer, Hesoid; and carried on a tradtion which lasted for about 3000 years, at least until the last priest of Apollo was no more.

For the ancient Greeks music was a sacred magical study. Apollo was the god of music, prophecy, medicine, and poetry. These were abilities all linked to the development of higher human thought. They are the manifestation of 'light', reason and abstract thinking.