>>4502>>4513Apollo is one of my favourite gods and I was surprised to learn that he was unpopular even amongst the classics students I know. I guess that in some way Apollo represents many virtues that were expected from youths, so he comes off as perfect at first glance, and that's why some people subconsciously categorizes him as some kind of "jock". While I don't mind modern retellings, I never saw the appeal in them tbh. Most of them are just boring on their own, or they feel unepic compared to the myths. But I really dislike when people try to categorize the gods into american high school tropes like the jock, the mean girl, the rebel, etc. it feels superficial.
At least the ~problematic~ myths tells us something about the human condition or about or our primary fears. Modern retellings just want to turn everything into tropes.
Speaking of problematic myths, the most famous Apollo story is Ovid's version of the Daphne myth. I hear many people bring it up when asked why they don't like Apollo. It is an interesting story. If looking at it from a modern lens, It can be read as a tragedy where both Apollo and Daphne are mind altered.
It is also a reflection of a patriarchal society, where girls were expected to get married whenever they wanted to or not. We can't possibly know how people in ancient time interacted with such stories. Were they cautionary tales for young girls? Were they told to install the proper virtues into young girls? Or did young girls use them to cope with their grief over their lost childhoods? Was it just dark comedy?
It's important to mention that the Ovid version of the Daphne myth was most likely made up as political propaganda, so it's hard to say if the romans really believed the virtues reflected in the story, so it's unfair to judge Apollo based on that single story.
FURTHERMORE most myth were allegorical so they should not be taken literally. There also isn't a canon for the greek and the roman gods, and different regions had different myths. People at that time were probably more preoccupied with what virtues the gods represented (like fertility, chastity, strength, wisdom, etc.) and what they who they were patrons of, rather than worrying about what problematic actions the gods did.