Homeric prayers, of which this is a relatively standard example, are predicated upon the system of gift exchange that also prevails in human social interaction. Their form and content is a function of that and of the way in which oral traditional poetry composes themes, which are chunks of conventional discourse that exemplify fixed and variable dictional and semantic elements that vary depending upon the particular context of each instance. What we see in this particular prayer are three structural elements that are generalizable but also variable both as to their content and in their presence or absence: 1) an address to a particular divinity; 2) a statement that either generates a reciprocal relationship between the speaking human and the divinity by speech-acting the giving of an obligatory gift now or in the future, or a statement that points to the past existence of a reciprocal relationship between the speaking human and the divinity on the basis of previous successful interactions based on exchanges; 3) a request on the part of the speaking human that the divinity accomplish something on the human's behalf as a function of the divinity's present, past, or future obligation to do so because of the exchange relationship that is being generated, will be generated, or has existed in the past.
So here, Chrysēs first 1) names the divinity in local terms (1.37-39) for the god Apollo — he is not so named but has been identified by his Olympian name in the narrative preceding the prayer as its addressee (1.35); 2) states that in the past, he has put the roof on temples (in other words, completed their construction) and burnt thigh pieces, the choicest part of the sacrificial animals, bulls and goats, as gifts to the divinity that serve as the basis of the request that is coming next; and 3) requests that the divinity fulfill his wish, namely, "may the Danaans pay for my tears with your weapons," an example of negative reciprocity in which bad is returned for bad, just as the overall prayer itself is based on the exchange of good for good.