The Greek Gods And Gods In Homer, The Iliad

There were Greek gods and goddesses for almost anything one could imagine. The sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, the animals – so on and so forth. There were the twelve major gods that the Greeks worshiped: The Twelve Olympians. These twelve consisted of Zeus, king over the gods, who reigned over the sky and thunder, Hera, wife of Zeus, who had dominion over marriage and women, Poseidon, who was the god of earthquakes and seas, Demeter, who held agriculture and fertility within her grasp, Athena, who brought wisdom to the world, Ares, who soldiers prayed to for favor in war, Hermes, who was a sponsor of athletics and was the messenger of the gods, Hephaestus, who was husband to Aphrodite and god over the forge, Artemis, goddess of the hunt

This makes sense as, according to the Metamorphoses by Ovid, he built up their mighty walls whilst playing the lyre (Encyclopedia Mythica). In the ninth year of the Trojan War, although unsuccessful thus far, the Greek forces took the neighboring cities of Troy. The daughter of a priest of Apollo was taken captive, and the priest prayed to the god to hurt the Greek forces until his daughter was given back to him. He heard, and the god unleashed a great plague upon the Greek camp. It spread significantly, decimating a chunk of their forces. This greatly hindered their assault on the towering walls of Troy. Achilles and Agamemnon fought over how whether they should release the priest’s daughter, and when Agamemnon finally agreed, he demanded Achilles give him his captive, the maiden Briseis. He agreed, and decided that he and his men would no longer partake in the war. He began gathering everything and he and his men withdrew from the main camp. Later, when Hector, hero of Troy, was gravely wounded on the battlefield by the mighty Greek Ajax, Apollo came to his aid and healed him, saving his slowly withering life. Soon after, when Achilles was battling the men of Troy, Paris, brother to Hector, aimed an arrow with the guide of Apollo at the heal of the invincible man. Firing it, the poisoned arrow penetrated the skin of Achilles, soon killing him. (Bulfinch

There are many fascinating stories about him, but we don’t hear much of him outside of these stories. But, as stated before, he has had some real-world influences over the year. With the laurel wreath crowns for Olympic victors and famed rulers over the years, it is impossible to ignore it. Even in recent years, his name has made an impact. With the Apollo program by NASA, we launched humans for the first time ever into space to land on the moon. It was named this way because of Apollo being depicted as a god who rides his golden chariot across the sky to make the sun rise. Although they couldn’t make the sun rise, they could launch a “chariot” and watch it fly across the