Apollyon - Who Is This?

In Revelation 9 we read of a king of the bottomless pit named Apollyon:

⁷ The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces.⁸ Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. ⁹ They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. ¹¹ They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer). (Rev. 9:7-11 NIV.)

Who is Apollyon among the Greeks?

Could this be Apollo?

In Roman mythology, Apollyon was "second only to Zeus, [and] he had the power of the sun as giver of light and life." This was because the moon could block out / destroy the Sun's light at will, proven by the lunar eclipses by the Moon of the Sun. (Encyclopedia of Religions (2006) at this link.)

In Greek culture, the God of the Sun was Helios. But transliterations in Greek of Roman words was not uncommon. Paulos is Greek for Paulus, a Roman first name, for example. So was Apollyon a Greek transliteration of Apollo, a Latin term for the Sun God?

On the plane of scholarly opinion, Hensius says indeed Apollyon in Revelation 9:11 means Apollo.

In the Edinburgh Encyclopedia (ed. David Brewster) (J.&E. Parker, 1832) Vol. II at 230, it records:

On this passage, Hensius makes the following observation: There can be no doubt that the Pythian Apollo is the same as the Ob and Abaddon of the Hebrews which the Greeks translated literally as Apollyon.

Why did John write Apollyon meant destroyer? As the same encyclopedia continues, the name Apollyon "derived his name from his hurtful rather than his beneficent qualifies." Id. This is based upon several proofs. One was a passage in Aulus Gellius, l. 5 c. 12 (Book 5, ch. 12). He describes the image of Vejovis, an ancient pagan deity. "The image of Vejovis holds arrows in his hands, as the instruments of destruction, on which account, most people think that he is the same as Apollo." Id., at 230. It was an ancient view that "all who died" were killed by the "arrows" of Apollo and Diana. Id. The encyclopedia cites Zosim, l.2., hist. Titus, Lives l. 37, Macrob Saturn, l. i. c. 17. Thus, the encyclopedia article says that Apollo began as a "malignant deity" until over time he became the refined "elegant deity of the Greeks and Romans." Id.

Further, the encyclopedia continues that according to Vossius, De Idol vol. i, l. 2, he "supposes that the name Apollo is derived from Abelion of the east, a deity whose attributes are the same as Apollo's." Id., at 230.

Less scholarly opinion likewise concurs.

Professors Gary Flanigan, Glenn Williams in 111: The Media War Between Jesus Christ and Satan (Tate, 2008) at 131 explain that "Apollo and Apollyon are one and the same" in Revelation 9:11.

In Wakeman Ryno's work Amen: The God of the Amonians Or a Key to the Mansions in Heaven (Kessinger 2006) says at 121 of Revelation 9:11 signifies that:

Satan, Belial, Lucifer, Abaddon, and Apollyon are all one and the same — the Sun {Apollo) in the Sign of the Scorpion, the king of the bottomless pit,

William Henry in Mary Magdalene, The Great Illuminator (2006) at 62 says:

According to Greek legend, Apollo, the Sun god (Sol god or Soul god) who founded the great Temple at Delphi, usually took the form of a serpent. In the bible he is Apollyon, the "angel of the bottomless pit" in Revelation 9:11.