re: this post
@fangirlzone YES EXACTLY!
I didn’t know he was also the protector of refugees, but this makes the similarities Even More Delicious. Apollo was also revered as a founder of cities, and a giver of laws (“[Apollo] also encouraged founding new towns and establishment of civil constitution”, oooooh boi) and as the overseer of the education of young men (teacher!Nicky... *cries*)
Nico collected medical knowledge through the centuries because people worshipped him as a ‘healing god’ (in the sense that he quite literally healed from everything) and prayed for him to heal them too and after a while he went ‘you know what? Maybe I can find a way to make sure they don’t die like flies’ - there was a lot of trial and error of course, but it was better than nothing.
(also the paean in honour of Apollo was sung by soldier marching in battle and after a victory, don’t tell me they weren’t praying for Nico and Andy’s favour)
(Copley shows the Squad his Murder Conspirancy Board and goes ‘Nikolaos here basically invented modern civilization!1!’ ‘Not your best job, Little Brother’ Andy makes sure to add, in the driest tone possible)
HAWKS!!!! AND G R I F F I N S!!!! This fits SO WELL with my Thought that Andromache has nicknamed Nico ‘my eagle’ since Their Mortal Years because he always had the best aim and ridiculously good eyesight!
(some myths also said that Apollo’s Favourite People were the Hyperboreans who according to Herodotus lived Somewhere North in Central Asia... rings any bells?)
Nico finds the idea of him and Andromache having been the Inspiration for Apollo and Artemis pretty hilarious since his Big Sister does fit some of Artemis’ traits (mainly her... *ahem* preference for the company of women AND for the outdoors), but she’s never been... friendly with bows and arrows. If she has to do Distance Damage, she’d rather throw a knife. Joe theorized once that the Greeks may have merged Andy and Quynh in a single goddess figure. Nico agreed on the grounds that ‘Mache and Quynh were going through a honeymoon phase at that time and were virtually Inseparable’
During the Renaissance, when half of Florence wanted Nico to pose for them, Yusuf totally teased him about ‘living up to his reputation as Patron of the Arts’ - “not that I had any doubts before, hayati, I just had to hear you sing once to understand why they called you Musagetes”
(Nico also says that the only reason the Greeks made him a sun god was because they’d never met Yusuf. Yusuf, who is Very Attached to comparing his Nico to the moon and was Very Miffed when he found out that every poet before him used sun imaginery, graciously accepts the compliment and calls Nico ‘ya amar’ exclusively for days afterwards)
(“Out of curiosity, was there any truth in the myths of Apollo and his many lovers? Like, did you actually sleep around that much, or...?” Nile asks one night, after re-emerging from her Wikipedia Bunny Hole on Greek mythology. Andy and Quynh start sniggering, while Nico sighs. “The female lovers are myths. Or were actually in Mache and Quynh’s bed, most probably. By that time I already knew my preferences laid in men. I took some lovers, but certainly not as many as I could have gotten away with, being ‘a god’ and all that. And while I hope I never broke someone’s heart, I never knew what love was before I met Joe.” “Jesus, you two are saps”)
