Greek Gods Role

Greek Gods Role

  • Submitted By: robeyd
  • Date Submitted: 02/18/2009 8:37 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 684
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 1

The Iliad, by Homer, is more than an epic poem; it is the way of life for early civilizations. The gods that the Iliad portrays are invaluable to the way of life for the Trojans and other civilizations. Hard decisions and moral conscience are considered to be guidance by the gods. The gods of the Homeric period greatly influenced the characters of the Iliad physiologically, thus used as a defense or cause for their actions rather than accepting responsibility for their actions as their own and understanding they are doomed to their fate.
Throughout the Iliad characters use the gods as a defense, when questioned about their actions. Helen, causing the Trojan War, was given the opinion to lay with Paris and without hesitation she runs off with him. Again Paris “set down in his bedroom filled with scent” Helen is summoned to him. She immediately feels the same lustful desires as before and instead of accepting those as her own she calls the weaver out as “Maddening one, my Goddess. Oh what now? / Where will you drive me next?” (3.460-62). It is only once she was “threatened and Helen the daughter. / Of Zeus was terrified,” did she give into her lustful desires for a second time, yet she dressed herself “in her glinting silver robes/ she went along, in silence” and “none of her women saw her go…” (3.486-89). It is not the will of unseen gods, but the emotions of Helen that drive her to sleep with Paris once again. The gods are not only used as a way of defending their actions, but the basis for making their decisions.
Actions by the people of the Homeric period use gods to not only defend, but logically explain their already accepted actions to themselves and other people. It is implied from the very beginning that “Apollo the son of Zeus and Leto drove them to fight with such a fury,” yet the men are considered brilliant and allies (1.9-10). This fight could simply be explained by the plague sweeping though the army, believed to be caused by Agamemnon....

Similar Essays