s also depicted as the god of music and medicine. Apollo was a gifted musician and also a great athlete. He was the first victor at the Olympic games.
He pleased gods with his playing of the lyre. Apollo’s role in Greek mythology was to aid people when he would be asked to foretell the future. He also would help someone if he knew they were going to have problems. Apollo was said to have been “the most Greek of all gods” (Hamilton 30). This quote probably came about because of his body, personality, and his knack for helping people. Apollo didn’t always perform good deeds.
Sometimes his wrath overcame him causing him to do things to people who didn’t deserve it. Overall Apollo was your average god. Apollo is often referred to as the god of light and the god of truth for there was no evil in him. Born on the island of Delos, Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto, was also tagged the Delian god from Delos.
He had no flaws. The town of Delphi was the most sacred and holy shrine of all. This was where Apollo’s oracle was based. An oracle is a shrine consecrated to the worship and consultation of a prophetic deity, as that of Apollo at Delphi.
Many pilgrims from far and wide came to see the oracle. A priestess at the oracle was believed to go into a trance and talk to Apollo and tell “the truth of life” to his followers. Apollo once had an encounter with the three-headed serpent, the Python, a fabled monster. The three-headed serpent had killed many people if they had not paid his tax.
One day, Apollo was passing through the Mountains of Parnassus, when he was asked by the Python to pay to pass through the Parnassus pass. Apollo refused causing the fight. Apollo took out his bow and his silver arrows and killed the Python. Thus, giving him the name the Pythian god.
Delphi was at the base of Parnassus. That is why Apollo’s oracle was at Delphi. (“Apollo”)Sometimes Apollo was cruel and shrewd. In the Homeric epic, the Iliad, Apollo was summoned by a priest named Chryses to release his daughter from the Greek general, Agamemnon who lead the siege of Troy. He did this by shooting fiery-red pestilence arrows in to Agamemnon’s Greek Army killing many soldiers who were merely doing their jobs.
In another instance, he abducted the Athenian princess Creusa, and then abandoned her and their child born to Creusa. (Gates 47)In conclusion, Apollo fulfilled his role to help people in distress. Apollo was regarded more favorable than unethical because he rarely did bad things; but he did kill innocent soldiers and abandoned his child and the child’s mother. Apollo’s good qualities show from the good deeds he did such as killing the Python who killed other people for an unnecessary tax. Apollo was the most Greek of all gods.
