Évrard de Conty, Livre des échecs amoureux, c. 1401-1500
"How Apollo is compared to the Sun and represented. The fourth of the gods of Heaven, according to the ancients, is Apollo, by whom we must understand the Sun, which is the fourth in the order of the planets with Saturn. Apollo is a god of great beauty, of clear understanding and perfect reason. He is the inventor of music, of medicine, and of the sciences. He is represented crowned with rays, holding in his hand a bow and arrows, to signify that the rays of the Sun pierce and penetrate all things. Sometimes he carries a lyre, because his movement in the heavens makes a harmony that accords with the order of the world. The poets say that he slew the serpent Python, which means that by his heat he purges the earth of harmful and corrupt vapors. He is also said to drive his chariot through the sky, drawing behind him the light of the day, which gives life to all living things. Thus he is taken as the figure of wisdom, illumination, and clarity of understanding, and for this reason he is honored among the gods."
