[German version]

(Ἑκηβόλος; Hekēbólos). Epic epithet for  Apollo in his role as an archer (Hom. Il. 1,14 et passim), for  Artemis in early Greek texts only attested in the Nikandre inscription (SEG 19, 507 5); later with a considerably widened field of reference. In antiquity understood as ‘hitting far away into the distance’ (for ἑκάς and βάλλειν) (schol. T for Hom. Il. 1,14; cf. Aesch. Eum. 628: τόξοις ἑκηβόλοισιν), more probable is a derivation from ἑκών (roughly: ‘hitting at will’).

Visser, Edzard (Basle)