This would make sense, as Apollo is associated with medicine along with other enlightened arts of civilization, but Apollo doesn't seem to have been much of a hands-on kind of Dad. Instead he handed the baby over to his uncle, a famous tutor, to raise and train.

Despite the medical connection, Apollo shows typical qualities of a Greek god by embodying negative as well as positive aspects. He might heal if he so chose, but he might also bring about sudden death. When men died unexpectedly, either through infectious disease or through unpredictable events such as stroke or heart attack, they were said to be struck down by the arrows of Apollo. In the case of women, the culprit was Apollo's twin sister, Artemis.