Dr. William Smith (1872)
"But that in Revelation 9:11 Abaddon is the angel, and not the abyss, is perfectly evident in the Greek. There is no authority for connecting it with the destroyer alluded to in 1 Corinthians 10:10; and the explanation, quoted by Bengel, that the name is given in Hebrew and Greek, to show that the locusts would be destructive alike to Jew and Gentile, is far-fetched and unnecessary.

Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.--1 Corinthians 10:10

The etymology of Asmodeus, the king of the demons in Jewish mythology, seems to point to a connection with Apollyon, in his character as "the destroyer," or the destroying angel." (Dictionary of the Bible)

Anchor Bible Dictionary
"APOLLYON. The Greek name, meaning "Destroyer," given in Revelation 9:11 for "the angel of the bottomless pit" (in Hebrew called Abaddon), also identified as the king of the demonic "locusts" described in Revelation 9:3-10...In one manuscript, instead of Apollyon the text reads "Apollo," the Greek god of death and pestilence as well as of the sun, music, poetry, crops and herds, and medicine. Apollyon is no doubt the correct reading. But the name Apollo (Gk Apollon) was often linked in ancient Greek writings with the verb apollymi or apollyo, "destroy." From this time of Grotius, "Apollyon" has often been taken here to be a play on the name Apollo. The locust was an emblem of this god, who poisoned his victims, and the name "Apollyon" may be used allusively in Revelation to attack the pagan god and so indirectly the Roman emperor Domitian, who liked to be regarded as Apollo incarnate."

Collier's Encyclopedia
"Someone in the fifth century BC started a wholly ungrounded theory that Apollo was identical with the sun. This became popular in later times and lingers in poetical expressions such as "Phoebus 'gins arise," meaning that the sun rises; Phoebus ("bright, pure") is one of Apollo's titles. It also led to his identification with real sun gods.

"There were numerous representations of the god in Greek art, from the archaic statues of the sixth century BC to those of the later period in which he appears as the ideal of youthful manliness and beauty. His worship was taken over by the Romans, who dedicated a temple to him in 430 BC and instituted games in his honour (the ludi Apollinares) in 212 BC. He became one of the chief Roman gods in the age of Augustus, who erected a temple to him on the Palatine."

Robin Lane Fox
"Terrors had always made excellent business for Apollo, and there were never worse terrors than the plagues and earthquakes in the Antonine and Severan age. At Didyma, Apollo's cult was connected by its very origins to the banishment of plague: in the 250s, Apollo still recalled how he had "shamed" the threads of the Fates and kept off the epidemic....we know about Apollo's remedies in a fascinating selection of oracles...They carry no date, but the main four probably belong in the great epidemic of the 160s when Roman troops were returning from the East and brought home a disease whose effects read horribly like smallpox."

Three cities have left us pieces of Clarian Apollo's oracles on plague: Pergamum, Callipolis (near modern Gallipoli) and humble little Caesarea Trochetta, a small town in Lydia...The god pitched his style very high and lamented the disaster (crying "Woe! Woe! to each city)...None of these texts explained the plague; they only prescribed remedies... Only part of the god's remedy survives, but it runs true to his old-fashioned manner. The "divine law," he said, required his clients to draw pure water from seven fountains, which they had fumigated carefully. They must then sprinkle their houses with these "nymphs who have become kindly" and must set up an image of Apollo the archer, bow in hand, in the middle of their plain. There, presumably, he would "shoot away" the invading enemy, the plague itself." (Pagans and Christians)

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