Apollo was one of the most worshipped gods in Greek Mythology.
I don’t believe that any other Greek God had more titles than Apollo: God of Light, God of Archery, God of Music, God of Healing, God of Dance, God of the Sun… and that’s maybe about half of Apollo’s godly titles.
Basically, Apollo was the god of everything, and if there was any good that belonged on the podium of popularity next to Zeus and Athena — it was Apollo.
Due to that, and due to his association with the sun, Apollo is often depicted as this radiating god of good, but that couldn’t be further from the truth: Apollo committed many, many atrocities, and… I’m more than happy to highlight them in this episode.
Notes:
Since this gets commented on a lot, allow me to clarify: The Greek Gods represent ideas or concepts, meaning that in the case of Apollo… sometimes the sun burns things. Sometimes illnesses take people’s lives.
Sometimes bad things simply happen, and the Greeks attributed that to the will of the gods. That means that whatever good they represent of whichever concept — they also represent the opposite.
So, yes, them being evil comes with the territory. If you ask me, that doesn’t make their actions any less evil. So if we say “but you can’t look at it from today’s point of view” — I think we can.
It’s fun to do that. We live today, and we are revisiting these gods from today’s point of view, and the things they got up to…. they’re hilarious. I am entertained by the Greek Gods’ evil, and I hope you are too.
Oh, and also: Greek mythology is ancient — literally thousands of years old, so the material I am working with here has undergone many, many iterations. Every time I create one of these videos, I piece together the puzzle that is each god’s and goddesses’ tale.
With how popular Apollo was, there are so many tales and so many versions to each tale — Roman and Greek — so bear that in mind. For the sake of this video — and all my videos — I try to streamline all of these tales and versions as much as possible and leave out some details that might make the videos less fun.
So… is this accurate and well researched? Absolutely. Is this the only interpretation or way of telling you about Apollo? No, this is just my way to tell the story.
The article first appeared in Briefed.
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