Apaliunas is a theonym, attested in a Hittite language

Hittite language

Hittite is the extinct language once spoken by the Hittites, a people who created an empire centred on Hattusa in north-central Anatolia...

 treaty as a tutelary of Wilusa

Wilusa

Wilusa was a city of the late Bronze Age Assuwa confederation of western Anatolia.It is known from six references in 13th century BC Hittite sources, including...

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Apaliunas is considered to be the Hittite reflex of *Apeljōn, an early form of the name Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

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Apaliunas is among the gods who guarantee a treaty drawn up about 1280 BCE between Alaksandu

Alaksandu

Alaksandu was a king of Wilusa who sealed a treaty with Muwatalli II ca. 1280 BC. This treaty implies that Alaksandu had previously secured a treaty with Muwatalli's father, Mursili II, as well....

 of Wilusas, interpreted as "Alexander

Paris (mythology)

Paris , the son of Priam, king of Troy, appears in a number of Greek legends. Probably the best-known was his elopement with Helen, queen of Sparta, this being one of the immediate causes of the Trojan War...

 of Ilios

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

" and the great Hittite king, Muwatalli II

Muwatalli II

Muwatalli II was a king of the New kingdom of the Hittite empire .- Biography :He was the eldest son of Mursili II and Queen Gassulawiya, and he had several siblings....

. He is one of the three deities named on the side of the city. In Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

, Apollo is the builder of the walls of Ilium, a god on the Trojan side.

Further east of the Luwian language area, a Hurrian god Aplu

Aplu

Aplu may mean:*Aplu, a Hurrian deity of the plague: cf. Luwian Apaliunas, Etruscan Apulu, Greek Apollo.*An acronym for the Association_of_Public_and_Land-Grant_Universities ....

 was a deity of the plague — bringing it, or, if propitiated, protecting from it — and resembles Apollo Sminthos, "mouse-Apollo" worshiped at Troy and Tenedos

Tenedos

Tenedos or Bozcaada or Bozdja-Ada is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. , Tenedos has a population of about 2,354. The main industries are tourism, wine production and fishing...

, who brought plague upon the Achaeans in answer to a Trojan prayer at the opening of Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

. The Hurrian Aplu itself seems derived from Babylonian "Aplu" meaning "son of", a title that was given to the Babylonian plague god, Nergal

Nergal

The name Nergal, Nirgal, or Nirgali refers to a deity in Babylon with the main seat of his cult at Cuthah represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim. Nergal is mentioned in the Hebrew bible as the deity of the city of Cuth : "And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal"...

 as son of Enlil

Enlil

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...

. In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, Apollo remained the son of the chief god, Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

.

Sources

• Latacz, Joachim, 2001. Troia und Homer: Der Weg zur Lösung eines alten Rätsels. (Munich)
• Korfmann, Manfred, "Stelen auf den Toren Toias: Apaliunas – Apollon in Truisa – Wilusa?,” in Güven Arsebük, M. Mellink, and W. Schirmer (eds.), Light on Top of the Black Hill. Festschrift für Halet Cambel (Istanbul) 1998:471-78. Stel outside the supposed gates of Troy.