Would the real Apollo please stand up?

At my school I teach a theatre appreciation class. I began this class by teaching about Greek tragedy. Within this unit I was telling the story of Aeschylus’s trilogy The Oresteia. The Greek god Apollo is talked about in this piece of work. In my style of teaching, I’ll stop my lecture and answer a question from the students. I get excited when certain students raise their hand because I know the question will not be academically intelligent. This was exactly the case on two occasions when I called on this person (who, by the way, is a certified space cadet).

Now, I said earlier that Apollo was mentioned.

The question was, “Isn’t Apollo that place where people sing and dance?”

“Why yes (student’s name). It is. But that’s not even close to what we’re talking about.”

I’ll continue by letting you know that this student was not asking these questions to be funny. This student was completely genuine, which makes it all the more funny for me.

Two days later I’m reviewing with the class and the god Apollo was mentioned again and she raises her hand again.

“Yes?”

“Isn’t Apollo that guy that Rocky fought?”

I wish it was Apollo Creed that was in a trial against Athena defending Orestes’ decision to kill his mother because she killed his father after he sacrificed his daughter to stop a storm. It would make the play even crazier.