ABSTRACT
In the Iliad, Apollo sent the plague, but also healed it. Homer’s narration inserts itself into a background of Near Eastern story-telling. Apollo used arrows to spread a disease, as did Erra, the Near Eastern god of war and disease. And like Erra, Apollo was incensed about human behavior. Erra was angry because mankind neglected his cults, Apollo because Agamemnon violated the honor of his priest; in both cases the epidemic ended only when the god’s wrath had been calmed. Ending the plague, however, was more difficult than triggering its inception: whereas the prayer of his priest, Chryses, was sufficient to set Apollo against the Greeks, the reverse prayer of Chryses had to be supplemented by ample atonement. In order to placate the god, the Greeks offered him a hecatomb, danced, and sang the paean for an entire day.
