ColossiansOne

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Resheph vs Apollo

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Equated at Cyprus; both send plague with arrows and lift it.

Deity · Canaanite · c. 1400 BCE

Resheph

also called Reshef, Rashap

Plague-god of the Levant, whose name survives in the Hebrew Bible as a common noun for pestilence and burning fever.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
God of Plague
First attested
The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic Tablets) · c. 1400-1200 BCE
Named there as
Resheph
Texts naming it
2
Powers attributed
3
60attestedCanaanite & Ugaritic

Deity · Greek · c. 700 BCE

Apollo

also called Phoebus, Apollōn, Apellōn, Apeilōn, Aploun, Apollon

Oracle-giver at Delphi, and the god who both sends plague and lifts it. Later traditions split that duality between an angel and a demon; Greece kept it in one figure.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
God of Prophecy
First attested
The Iliad · c. 750 BCE
Named there as
Apollo
Texts naming it
3
Powers attributed
4
90attestedGreekRoman

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

None. The two never appear in the same text in this corpus, which is worth knowing before accepting any confident claim that they are one figure.

Powers credited to both

Causes Sickness

Common questions

Are Resheph and Apollo the same figure?

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. Equated at Cyprus; both send plague with arrows and lift it. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Resheph or Apollo?

Resheph is the older name: first attested around c. 1400 BCE, against c. 700 BCE for Apollo. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.

Do any texts name both Resheph and Apollo?

No text in this corpus names both. That is not proof they were considered the same figure, but it is why the identification has to be traced through the scholarship rather than read off a page.
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