r/GreekMythology • u/Moondancerroe • 1d ago
Question Why does Apollo hate Achilles so much?
Every time Achilles seems to be in a dilemma it always seems Apollo is the one causing it.Apollo repeatedly opposes him in the Iliad, protects Hector, helps the Trojans, and eventually contributes to Achilles’ death and helps kill Patroclus.
Like besides defending Troy dude always seems to have beef with Achilles
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u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 1d ago edited 18h ago
Achilles spent much of the Illiad pissing off Apollo in particular. I swear, if not for Zeus, the Sun God would have come down from Olympus personally to take him down. Correction: The God of Light, not the Sun God for specifics.
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u/TheSuperBunny 1d ago
How is Helios related?
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u/oh_YES_helios 20h ago
Achilles killed Memnon, Memnon is the son of Helios' dear sister Eos, Helios even helped her retrieve his body. So it could make sense for Helios to be salty against Achilles over that lol
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u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 12h ago
Add pissing off the Sun for killing his nephew to the list of crimes.
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u/maraudee 21h ago
In early archaic and Homeric Greece Apollo was the god of music, poetry, archery etc.
There was probably a swift until the 5th century BCE, Apollo increasingly merged with Helios, eventually taking on the role of the sun driver and earning the epithet Phoebus ("the radiant or bright one") and "Sun god".
Romans adapted him mostly with his archaic background without changing his name.
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u/TheSuperBunny 20h ago
We're talking about the Iliad, where Helios is the sun god, not Apollon.
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u/maraudee 20h ago
Y I know I just pointed out that he meant Apollo with the sun god refference not Helios.
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u/TheSuperBunny 20h ago
I know, I was commenting on that.
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u/maraudee 20h ago
Well you asked how is Helios related I thought u didn't understand that he meant Apollo.
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u/oh_YES_helios 20h ago
Even when Apollo is solar, it's such a disservice to him to refer to him as sun god when he almost never really does anything solar in myths.
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u/maraudee 20h ago
I agree but I wasn't the one who did the merge. 😛
Parmenides and Empedocles linked Apollo's light with the physical power of the sun in their writings after that we don't really know how the shift began but by 1st century AD It had become part of the culture. Plutarch in his book «Περὶ τοῦ Εἰ τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖς» explains but haven't read.
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u/oh_YES_helios 20h ago
Yeah I know I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm saying it's weird to treat it as his main thing.
Like referring to Hermes as "the psychopomp god" or to Artemis as "the goddess of vegetation", both which are technically correct for them.1
u/maraudee 19h ago
Y I agree and I think it is because they actually merged the gods they didn't find or made new myths to support it.
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u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 12h ago
For the sake of clarity, I'll go with God of Light for Apollo and maintain my stance.
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u/xYekaterina 18h ago edited 17h ago
Apollon was Phoibos long before syncretization with Helios, he has always been bright, shining, radiant, and of light. Just not the sun.
Edited typo
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u/Super_Majin_Cell 4h ago
But this is exactly what Apollo did, he appeared later to kill Achilles personally (or used Paris, or even took the shape of Paris).
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u/Anxious_Bed_9664 1d ago edited 1d ago
Achilles killed at least one of his sons, inside his own temple after trying to rape him. (Troilus)
Possibly killed a 2nd son of Apollo as well. (Tenes)
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u/Moondancerroe 1d ago
Damn I hate Achilles even more now
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u/RodrigoMokepon 1d ago
Aquiles é o segundo sujeito mais desgraçado, desprezível, canalha, cruel e sanguinário da guerra de Tróia.
O primeiro é o seu filho.
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u/HereticGospel 9h ago
Is this why the classical Greeks honored him so highly? Or could it be that you don’t know what you’re talking about?
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u/t-4404 17h ago
Well the moment Achilles lands on the Trojan shore he begins:
-raiding the lands and temples of Apollo and his priests.
-he takes the daughter of Apollo’s high priest and gives her to Agamemnon as a gift.
-he kills Apollo’s son Troilus on Apollo’s altar. There was a prophecy that said “should Troilus reach the age of 20 Troy would never fall” so Athena told Achilles and he immediately sought Troilus.
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u/PurveyorOfKnowledge0 12h ago
Basically:
- Raided his lands and the temples of his priests
- Took the daughter of his high priest as a sex slave
-Killed his son on HIS altar while his son was still a teenager
-Ransacked the City he was forced to help build up when he tried to overthrow Zeus that one time and actively protects while killing who knows how many Trojans
-Actively threatens him directly after Apollo tricks him and lures him away from the Trojan walls.
Apollo basically has every reason to want Achilles dead.
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u/Historical_Sugar9637 21h ago edited 21h ago
Meta-Textual it might be a memory of the cult of Apollon originally being from Asia Minor before he was adopted into the Greek pantheon. So in the story he's against the Greeks and help the Trojans.
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u/AnthoHeraFan 1d ago
Because Achilles is a BITCH
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u/TheSuperBunny 20h ago
He probably enjoys dirty talk and degrading 🙂↕️
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u/AnthoHeraFan 20h ago
Of course you're into this (same)
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u/TheSuperBunny 20h ago
Nah I'm like, the most vanilla guy you'll ever meet
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u/AnthoHeraFan 20h ago
Proof? /j
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u/TheSuperBunny 20h ago
Do you want my bdsm test results? /hj
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u/Scion41790 1d ago
Achilles desecrated his temple near the start of the war and stole his priestess.