As the patron of Delphidia ("Pythian Apollo"), Apollo was an oracular god. He was the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle, as well as one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities. Apollo also had dominion over colonists, over medicine (mediated through his son Asclepius), and was the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, he is a god of music and poetry. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans. Apollo is son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of the chaste huntress Artemis, who took the place of Selene in some myths as goddess of the moonoun