I found this in
http://www.users.qwest.net/~mcochrane/Myth/Apollo/apollo.html
I'd like to hear your comments...
" In light of Apollo's resemblance to various Oriental gods identified with
the planet Mars, it is significant to note that the Greek god's close
resemblance to the Latin god Mars has long been acknowledged. Well over a
hundred years ago, Roscher documented that the cults of Apollo and Mars were
fundamentally analogous. Roscher pointed to a host of features shared in
common between the two gods, including the following:
(1) each was associated with the first month of the year;
(2) each was identified with certain animals and sacred trees;
(3) each was regarded as a patron of migrations and founder of cities;
(4) each was associated with colonizing ventures as exemplified by the Latin
ver sacrum rite.
Apollo, like Mars, was invoked as a great warrior to fend off the hostile
neighbors. An early Greek prayer invokes Apollo as follows: "Send a
far-darting arrow from your bow against the enemy. Strike, O Paian!"
Indeed, the Athenian army appears to have been under the direct patronage of
Apollo.
Both gods were associated with the advent and warding off of pestilence and
disease. The name Isminthians-signifying that god who sends, but also
averts, plagues of mice (smintheus is an ancient Cretan word meaning
"mouse")-is one of the Latin god's oldest epithets.
Yet the very same epithet was applied to Apollo in Asia Minor. This fact,
if it does not support the identification of Apollo and Mars, at least
supports the view that the two gods were functionally analogous in ancient
cult. The fact that the cult of Apollo Smintheus has yet to be found on
mainland Greece-but only upon the outlying islands of Crete and Rhodes,
sites of archaic Greek colonies situated between mainland Greece and Asia
Minor-is an indication, perhaps, that Apollo's cult originally came to
Greece from the ancient Near East.
An unusual feature of Mars' cult is the war-god's identification with a
wolf. This motif is attested very early and, as the epithet lupus Martius
attests, would appear to be central to the mythology and iconography
surrounding the Latin god.
As Apollo Lykeios, the ancient Greeks understood Apollo as a wolf-god
(lykeios is from a Greek stem meaning "wolf"). As the chorus of Aeschylus'
Seven attests, Apollo the wolf was conceived as a warrior: "Lykeios, lord,
be wolvish toward the enemy's army." Wolves were sacrificed to Apollo at
Argos and elsewhere on the Greek peninsula (this in spite of the fact that
wolves were extremely rare animals in Greek cult), and in Argive ritual a
wolf was pitted in combat against a bull, this latter rite said to symbolize
Apollo's combat with Poseidon. Although scholars have observed that
Apollo's lupine-characteristics belong to the most archaic stage of his
cult, an explanation of the significance of Apollo Lykeios has not been
forthcoming."
(...)