Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Poseidon turns to Apollo and proposes they too should fight, since the other gods have begun. He reminds Apollo of their common service under Laomedon: Poseidon built the walls of Troy; Apollo herded the king’s cattle on Ida; Laomedon cheated them of their wage and threatened to bind them and sell them overseas. Why then, Poseidon asks, does Apollo now favor the Trojans, descendants of that cheat? Apollo answers that it is not worth their while to fight for the sake of wretched mortals, who like leaves flourish and wither; he will not match himself against his uncle for such a cause. He turns away. Artemis later rebukes him for this refusal. The episode is a theomachy that does not become a blow: Poseidon’s challenge stages the old grievance of Laomedon’s fraud as the moral ground for Greek divine favor, while Apollo’s refusal preserves the younger god’s dignity without open defeat. Catalogue it as its own pairing within Book 21’s divine sequence.