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Apollo Links

Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto, has an unusually large numbers of links. Lacking, though, are incidents from the Iliad, by Homer.

The first story takes place at the Iliad's opening. Agamemnon, leader of the Greek forces fighting against Troy, took a young woman, Chryseis, as a trophy of war. Her father, Chryses, priest of Apollo, came with a ransom to redeem his daughter. In spite of the army's urging, Agamemnon refused the ransom, saying Chryseis was better than his own wife Clytemnestra, and threatening the priest with death. Chryses prayed to Apollo to strike the Greeks with his arrows. The god obliged, striking the Greeks with pestilence that was not lifted until Chryseis was returned to her father. The resolution of the affair led to the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles, so disastrous to the Greek cause.

Apollo also played a role in the death of Achilles' cousin, Patroclus, but sat out some of the fiercest fighting when Poseidon proposed that if Apollo would not fight for the Trojans, he would not fight for the Greeks.

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