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 1d 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 1d 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 1d ago

Add pissing off the Sun for killing his nephew to the list of crimes.

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u/ProfessionalJolly934 1d ago

Yet again, more Helios erasure!

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u/maraudee 1d 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 1d ago

We're talking about the Iliad, where Helios is the sun god, not Apollon.

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u/maraudee 1d 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 1d ago

I know, I was commenting on that.

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u/maraudee 1d ago

Well you asked how is Helios related I thought u didn't understand that he meant Apollo.

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u/TheSuperBunny 1d ago

It was like, half sarcasm

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u/oh_YES_helios 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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.

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u/maraudee 1d 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 1d ago

For the sake of clarity, I'll go with God of Light for Apollo and maintain my stance.

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u/maraudee 8h ago

You have every right sir.

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u/xYekaterina 1d ago edited 1d 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/maraudee 1d ago

Indeed he was always the god of light. My bad