Apollo

• doesn't appear in the poem
• implicated in Ody's victories
• a priest of Apollo had given him the wine which makes Polyphemus drunk
• as a god of archery, he is linked to the bow contest
• P, hearing that the beggar has been assaulted, exclaims to Antinous, 'I hope the Archer Apollo strikes you as you struck him!'
• Antinous comments that the day of the challenge is 'a public holiday in honour of the god'
• Antinous suggests that Melanthius should bring in the best goats, so that they can sacrifice the thigh bones to 'the great Archer'
• he looks forward to Apollo granting his favourite the strength to win - as Apollo soon does