Mark wrote
> This is exactly my view. I also note that, of all the Greek gods,
> Apollo seems to have had the most influential priesthood. Apollo
> became what the priests wanted him to become.
It is interesting that Apollo's priests tended to be stolen from
others (eg. Delos, Delphi). Obviously someone was accommodating to
political pressures coming out of Anatolia in the proto-Geometric
period. It is interesting that this is exactly when Lydian and Lycian
mercenaries were all the rage in the Eastern Mediterranean, teaching
the Greeks how to be infantry hoplites. Was Apollo the hoplites God?
Regards
John