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Justin Smetters 3-04-04 ISSI402 Prof. Sienkewicz
Apollo and God
Apollo the god of disease, music, prophecy, and the rational he was one of the most important gods in the ancient world. He was cocky, arrogant and not always that nice. Apollo had a hard childhood (he really had no childhood) being stuck in his mother womb almost forever. I think Apollo is most like “old testament” god (if any but still hard to compare). If one has a dualist kind of philosophy in religion they would point out that there are two gods one bad (old testament) and one good (new testament). Each had rituals one had to follow, ethics and sometimes they would show how powerful they are because they are Gods. Apollo and God have more differences than things in common. One of major differences is that Apollo has sexual relationships with women and a few men. The Christian god both the New and Old testament never loved a man or women in a sexual form. The only thing that would prove other wise is the New Testament Jesus birth. God gave a gift to Mary without any touch. So God blessed the virgin with a child. Apollo had a few children Aristaeus, Troilius, and Asclepius. Apollo also tried to seduce other women like Daphne, and Cassandra but failed. Apollo in this sense was closer to Huge Hefner then the Bible’s god. Like the Old Testament God, Apollo had a mean steak. According to pantheon.org “Apollo could also be ruthless when he was angered. The mortal Niobe, boasted to Apollo’s mother Leto, who had only bore two. Apollo greatly angered by this slew her sons…” Old Testament God in the Book of Judges would oppress the Israelites when they rebelled against god by pagans and would save them when they repented. Apollo also helped those who helped them. God and Apollo also had the power to change people into stone. When Niobe wept for her slaughtered sons and daughters she cried so much she turned into stone. Even though Apollo’s stone Niobe wasn’t his intention it still shows how powerful he is. God made Sarah, Abraham’s wife into stone when she looked back after being told not to. Apollo like Old Testament God punished people with plagues. “According to Homer’s Iliad, Apollo shot arrows of plague into the Greek camp.” As Christens know God used ten plagues on Pharaoh and his people because he refused to let Moses’ people go. Water to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn. Exodus Chapters 7-14 verses.
Bib The Homeric Hymns Http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/apollo.html Holy Bible
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