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Example research essay topic: Daughter Of Zeus Human Affairs - 1,862 words

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Significance and role of gods in the Homers Iliad One of the main features of the greek literature is that the gods play a significant role in the lives and fates of the mortal dwellers of the earth. As one examines the gods throughout the myths and epic poems of the Greeks, one recieves a strong impression that the gods "play" with and manipulate mortals and each other. The Christian God does not take such an active role in the affairs of people's lives, where, the Greeks regarded direct involvement by the gods as a uncontrollable part of life. The religion of the ancient Greeks was polytheistic and consisted of the worship of various gods who presided over different aspects of the physical world and human experience: Zeus, Aphrodite, Ares, etc. The Greek gods are not spiritual beings but are anthropomorphic. They resemble human beings and tend to act in a human way, displaying all human emotions, virtues and vices.

In the Iliad the gods are really concerned with human affairs. One reason for such an involvement is the fact that many gods and goddesses who have mated with mortals have human children or human favorites participating in the war. The gods take sides in the war in accordance with their like or dislike of one side or the other. Zeus - the king of the gods of Olympus. He is neutral in the war, but anyway shows his empathy toward Hector and Priam.

In the beginning of the epic, Zeus is neutral and really does not seem to care to be too involved in the politics and happenings of the Trojan war; but later on when Achilles' mother begs him for his assistance in granting what her son has asked of the almighty father, he begins to work for the Trojans. The supporting camp of Achaians is consisted of Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus (she was the most fanatical supporter of the Achaians); Athena, the goddess of war; Poseidon, the ruler of the sea; Hermes, the messenger of the gods, who also favors the Achaians. The Trojans are supported by Ares, the vengeful and cheating god of war; Artemis, the goddess of chastity, fighting, and wild animals; and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who plays a large part in the war on the side of the Trojans. It is the gods, not fate, who are concerned with the activities of human life in the "Iliad." We get a sense of this divine participation from the very beginning of the "Iliad." Hera prompts Achilles to call the assembly: Now for nine days ranged the god's shafts through the host; but on the tenth Achilles summoned the folk to assembly, for in his mind did goddess Hera of white arms put the thought, because she had pity on the Danaans when she beheld them perishing (1. 54 ff); Athene checks his (Achilles) resolve to attack Agamemnon: While yet he doubted thereof in heart and soul, and was drawing his great sword from his sheath, Athene came to him from heaven, sent forth of the white-armed goddess Hera, whose heart loved both alike and had care for them... I came from heaven to stay thine anger, if perchance thou wilt hearken to me, being sent forth if the white-armed goddess Hera, that loveth you twain alike and care for you. Go to now, cease from strife, and let not thine hand draw the sword; yet with words indeed revile him, even as it shall come to pass.

For thus will I say to thee, and so it shall be fulfilled; hereafter shall goodly gifts come to thee, yea in threefold measure, by reason of this despite; hold thou thine hand, and hearken to us (1. 188 ff); Zeus sends to Agamemnon a dream bidding him rally the Achaeans: Now all other gods and chariot-driving men slept all night long, only Zeus was not holden of sweet sleep; rather was he pondering in his heart how he should do honour to Achilles and destroy many beside the Achaians's hips. And this design seemed to his mind the best, to wit, to send a baneful dream upon Agamemnon son of Atreus. So he spake, and uttered to him winged words: "Come now, thou baneful Dream, go to the Achaians' fleet ships, enter into the hut of Agamemnon son of Atreus, and tell him every word plainly as I charge thee. Bid him call to arms the flowing-haired Achaians with all speed, for that now he may take the wide-way city of the Trojans. For the immortals that dwell in the halls of Olympus are no longer divided in counsel, since Hera hath turned the minds of all by her beseeching, and over the Trojans sorrows hang (2. 16 ff); Athene prompts Odysseus to prevent them from boarding the ships: Heaven-sprung son of Laertes, Odysseus of many devices, will ye indeed fling yourselves upon your benched ships to flee homeward to your dear native land?

But ye would leave to Priam and the Trojans their boast, even Helen of Argos, for whose sake many an Achaians hath perished in Troy, far from his dear native land. But go thou now amid the host of the Achaians, and tarry not; and with gentle words refrain every man, neither suffer them to draw their curved ships down to the salt sea. " So said she, and he knew the voice of the goddess speaking to him, and set him to run, and cast away his mantle, the which his herald gathered up, even Eurybated of Ithaca, that waited on him. (2. 182 ff. ); she silences the army to let him speak (2. 281 ff); Aphrodite drives Helen to Paris... and laughter-loving Aphrodite took for her a chair and brought it, even she the goddess, and set it before the face of Paris (3. 420); Athene even appears in as man in the battle and convinces son of Lykaon to kill Menelaos: Then the goddess entered the throng of Trojans in the likeness of a man, even Antenor's son Laodokos, a stalwart warrior, and sought for godlike Pandaros, if haply she might find him... Then wouldst thou take heart to shoot a swift arrow at Menelaos, and wouldst win favour and glory before all the Trojans, and before king Alexandros most of all. Surely from him first of any wouldst thou receive glorious gifts, if perchance he see Menelaos, Atreus' warrior son, vanquished by thy dart and brought to the grievous pyre.

Go to now, shoot at glorious Menelaos, and vow to Apollo, the son of light, the lord of archery, to sacrifice a goodly hecatomb of firstling lambs when thou art returned to thy home, in the city of holy Zeleia. " So spake Athene, and persuaded his fool's heart (4. 390 ff). Most notable throughout the poem is a hero's might increased by a god: ... and before all the daughter of Zeus, the driver of the spoil, who stood before thee and warded off the piercing dart. She turned it just aside from the flesh, even as a mother drive a fly from her child that lieth in sweet slumber; and with her own hand guided it where the golden buckles of the belt were clasped and the doubled breastplate met them. So the bitter arrow lighted upon the firm belt (4. 439), But now to Tydeus's on Diomedes Athene gave might and courage, for him to be pre-eminent amid all the Argives and win glorious renown. She kindled flame unwearied from his helmet and shield, like to the star of summer that above all others glittered bright after he hath bathed in the ocean stream.

In such wise kindled she flame from his head and shoulders and sent him into the midst, where men thronged the thickest (5. 1 ff), So spake he in prayer, and Pallas Athene heard him, and made his limbs nimble, his feet and his hands withal, and came near and spake winged words: "Be of good courage now, Diomedes, to fight the Trojans; for in thy breast I have set thy father's courage undaunted, even as it was in knightly Tydeus, wielder of the buckler. Moreover I have taken from thine eyes the mist that erst was on them, that thou mayest well discern both god and man. Therefore if any god come hither to make trial of thee, fight not thou face to face with any of the immortal gods; save only if Aphrodite daughter of Zeus enter into the battle, her smite thou with the keen bronze (5. 122 ff), etc. Near the end of the "Iliad", we find the best instance of gods participating in a human initiative (24. 23 ff. ). Apollo pleads the cause of Hector on Olympus: his body must be saved from Achilles' indignities and returned to Troy. The gods agree.

Zeus decides that Priam will go to Achilles with the ransom and that Achilles will accept, so the human cry reaches heaven and incites the gods to action. Nothing happens in the poem without the prompting of a god. The gods watch, witness, participate, and help bring events to a crisis. The gods listen, and in most cases they respond.

All serious poetry of early Greece involves the gods. The presence of divine agents, visibly at work in what happens, enables the poet to show the meaning of events and the nature of the world. Most of the people that are in the story all seem even to believe that most or all of their actions are already predetermined or in control of the "gods." Homer used the gods and their actions to establish twists on the plot of the war. It would not have been possible for him to write the story without the divine interventions of the gods.

Indeed, they affected every aspect the poem in some way, shape or form. Yet, from the immortal perspective of the Greek god, the Trojan war, and everything related to it, was only a passing adventure in the great expanse of time. The interest as well as involvement of the gods in human affairs have an important effect on the action of the Iliad. The gods universalize the action of the poem. Because the gods take interest in human affairs, the events described in the Iliad are not just particular actions of little significance, but have a universal meaning and importance that would have been missing without the gods. Throughout the poem there is a tendency to present action consistently on two planes, the human and the divine.

On the other hand, the gods also serve to emphasize the limitations of man, how short his life is and, quite paradoxically in view of the previously stated purpose, how ultimately meaningless human affairs are. Bibliography: Bloom, H. Homer's The Iliad: Edited and with an Introduction. Chelsea House 1987.

Edwards, M. W. Homer: Poet of the Iliad. Johns Hopkins, 1987. Homer.

The Iliad. Trans. Robert Files. Viking Penguin, 1990. Kirk, G.

S. The Iliad: A Commentary: Books 1 - 4. Cambridge, 1985. Will cock, M. M.

A Commentary on Homers Iliad. Macmillan, 1970.


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