"'Phoebus,'" she said in a low voice. Then, turning towards the poet, "'Phoebus',--what does that mean?"
"It is a Latin word which means 'sun.'"
"Sun!" she repeated.
"It is the name of a handsome archer, who was a god," added Gringoire.
"A god!" repeated the gypsy, and there was something pensive and passionate in her tone.
~ from Victor Hugo's novel Notre Dame de Paris
Phoebus in Mythology
Phoebus is the Latin form of Greek Phoibos 'Shining-one', a byname used in classical mythology for the god Apollo. Apollo and his twin sister Artemis were the children of Zeus and the Titaness Leto. He was born in the little island of Delos. He is one of the most important deities of both the Greek and Roman religion. His grandmother was the Titaness Phoibe, so he got his byname as a relation to her.
Prophecy, Archery and Music were his domains, and he was unsurpassed in those areas. He is a beautiful figure in Greek poetry, the master musician who, along with his "choir", the Nine Muses, delights the gods of Olympus with his golden lyre at their royal banquets.
He is the Archer-god, master of the silver bow, Apollo the Far-Shooter, who can rain down death with his deadly arrows. But he is also the god of Light - In all the Olympian gods, like in mortal men, there is a continuous struggle between good and evil, their light and dark sides, whatever the proportion of one to the other might be; it must be noted that in Apollo there was almost no darkness at all, his primitive and cruel side was shown only briefly and in very few myths, such as the Flaying of Marsyas.
He is also the god of Truth - legend has it that no false word ever fell from his lips, and he foretold the future with the same unerring accuracy as that of his arrows. He was also the Healer-god, who first taught men medicine and the art of healing. Apollo's interest in healing suggests an ancient association with plague and its control. One of Apollo's more important daily tasks was to drive the Sun across the sky in his golden chariot. Sometimes he is called the sun-god and Helios is said to be one of his many names, but in other myths Helios is a separate god, the son of the titan Hyperion.
Sources:
www.wikipedia.org
www.mythman.com
and the book World Mythology
