Which god primarily supported the Trojans in the Iliad?

The god who primarily supported the Trojans in the Iliad was Apollo. His allegiance is especially clear at the poem’s opening, when the priest Chryses asks Apollo to punish the Greek army after Agamemnon refuses to return his daughter. Apollo answers by sending a plague through the Achaean camp, forcing Agamemnon to give Chryseis back.

Apollo continues helping Troy throughout the poem. He rallies Trojan troops, protects Hector’s body after Achilles kills him, and intervenes in the events leading to Patroclus’s death. In the Iliad’s battle scenes, he can act as both a divine warrior and a protector who turns the tide against the Greeks.

Apollo was not the only god favorable to Troy. Aphrodite protects her son Aeneas and Paris, while Ares and Artemis also aid the Trojan side at different moments. Apollo is nevertheless the clearest and most persistent divine champion of Troy in the Iliad. Athena and Hera, by contrast, strongly favor the Achaeans because Paris rejected them in the Judgment of Paris.