Comparison of Apollo and God

From the readings that we have done in class, we have discovered that Apollo was a very powerful god.  The son of Zeus, he was born into his power.  He was the head of all gods, just as we portray our God to be.  There are many similarities that I have seen between Apollo and my Christian God including their power, their ways of worship, their relationships with their mothers, and that they both have characteristics of anthropomorphism.

The first similarity I saw between the two gods was that of power.  At first, the people are fearful of him, yet they still have respect for him.  But, when he takes off his gear, it is almost as if he is a different type of person: caring and kind.  These two images that we see of Apollo are also seen in God at times.  Most of the time, we see our god as being very caring and gentle because he is looking over us and protecting us most of the time.  But, there are those times when we may believe that he is not so caring.  When things in my life are going really wrong and bad, I sometimes think that I did something wrong and made to make Him mad at me.  So, we see God as having two different images, just as Apollo was viewed in ancient Greek times.

There are also some similarities between Apollo and God in terms of worship.  First of all, Apollo was born on the island of Delos.  Since he was one of the most powerful gods and the son of Zeus, this place was considered very sacred and was worshiped by all of the people.  Because of its extraordinary meaning, no one was allowed on this island after Zeus was born because it was held in honor of the gods.  For God, we may consider his sacred place to be Bethlehem since he was born there.  However, people are still allowed to live and convene in this city.  A second similarity in worship for Apollo and God may be where they are worshipped.   In ancient times, temples were used to worship Apollo.  In comparison to temples, we use churches to worship our god.  Although they are not exactly the same type of places, they are similar for the simple fact that they are used for a place to worship the almighty power.

Another small similarity between the two gods is that of their mothers.  When Leto was about to give birth to Apollo, she had troubles finding a place to bear the children.  This is when she ended up in Delos.  Similarly, Mary and Joseph wandered throughout Bethlehem trying to find an inn so that Mary could lie down and give birth to Jesus.  While on the subject of their mothers, they both held a great amount of respect for their mother.  Apollo would listen to his mother when she spoke, and when she gave him orders he would obey.   With Jesus and Mary, it was the same way.  For his first miracle, Mary told Jesus to make wine out of water, and he did it.  These are both ways that Apollo and God showed respect to their mothers, just like in modern day when we show respect to our mother’s. 

Finally, Apollo and Jesus both share characteristics of anthropomorphism.  In pictures, drawings, and any other artwork that we see, both of these gods are made to look as if they are humans.  In most cases, gods are pictured to be almost superhuman, carrying human characteristics as well as others, such as a certain type of animal.  I believe that because the two gods have these human characteristics, we are better able to relate to them since they look similar to us.

In conclusion, among all of the ancient Greek gods, Apollo seems to be the most similar to Jesus Christ.  It was very interesting to see the similar characteristics that the two of them shared.

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This work has been submitted by Lindsay McCann for Issues and Ideas 402 at Monmouth College.