The Gods Role In Homer's The Odyssey

Throughout the story of Odysseus’s journey told by Homer, there are many defining examples of interaction between humans and their gods. The gods primarily interact with humans by either siding with or against them. The gods would often side with humans since they wanted to help them such as Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, helping Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, whereas the gods seeking revenge such as Poseidon, who sought revenge on Odysseus for slaying his son Polyphemus, would turn against them. While actual interaction between gods and humans seems to be a rather risible idea, there was much guidance given to humans by the gods throughout the Odyssey.

The gods are beings capable of bringing misfortune or greatness which is why mortals tend to perform sacrifices in honor of the gods due

For centuries, mortals have scoffed at the actions of the gods, often comparing them to little children arguing over toys. As Honer states, “We men are wretched things.” (Homer) However, what humans fail to realize, is exactly how similar the actions of the immortals are to that of man. The concept that allows readers and audiences to relate to the gods so fully is the fact that they are so similar to humans.

The Odyssey is an epic poem written by the blind, illiterate poet Homer. It takes place in ancient Greece and tells of a man’s journey home from war. The topic, intervention of the gods, is seen throughout the book numerous times as the gods who are in favor of Odysseus lend a helping hand. It is well-known that the gods are very important to the Greeks. In this epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer demonstrates the importance of the positive and encouraging intervention of the gods in Greek culture; the brave actions, encouraging words, and cunning strategies of Athena as she assists and guides Odysseus on his journey back home.

Poseidon, Apollo, Athena, Zeus, and Hermes are all Greek Gods that appear in the epic poem The Odyssey by Homer. These gods all play a significant role in The Odyssey by both helping and hindering Odysseus on his 10-year journey home. Homer illustrates the theme of divine intervention in The Odyssey using Poseidon’s wrath, Athena’s providence, and Hermes’ guidance. Poseidon is one of the main gods that appears throughout The Odyssey, Homer shows Poseidon's divine intervention through his wrath on Odysseus during his journey home.

The relationships between the Greek gods and mortals have always been complicated. The gods can be generous and supportive, but also harsh and destructive towards the humans. They claim to be all powerful beings with unlimited power and influence, but in truth, they are far more human than they are perceived. They meddle with human lives, not because they are wise, but because of their own selfish reasons. In Homer’s

In the “Epic of Gilgamesh” and “The Odyssey” by Homer, all the gods are portrayed as being very near, and having a very close relationship with the mortals. The authors showed this through their interactions, even though each epic portrayed a unique mode of interaction between the gods and the mortals. For instance, in the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” this interactions are mostly indirect, whereas in Homer’s Odyssey, they are direct. Another thing the authors tried to show is that the gods are limited in their powers, at least some of them. The authors portrayed this through the gods favoring or disfavoring certain mortals.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh interrelationships between the humans and gods are not what we are used to in most modern monotheistic societies. Perhaps the greatest difference between the power of humans and gods is when Gilgamesh is referred to as “Two-thirds of him was divine, one-third of him was human!” (39) as this reveals Gilgamesh to be the son of Lugalbanda the former king and the goddess Ninsun. This would indicate that the line between human and god is an extremely thin one and thus gods cannot and are not that vastly different from their human counterparts. Indeed, throughout the journey of Gilgamesh we are confronted by gods and goddesses who are similar to humans in their desires and means of achieving them.

These fragments have been harder to read since, the use of words, the logic and sequence of events were not as organized as in Poetics. Personally, the origin and the lineages of the Greek gods is not as interesting and significant as Aristotle’s literature. The Theogony centers on these Greek traditions of assigning gods to explain the unknown and nature phenomena. There’s nothing wrong with it since they didn’t have the resources as we do today in order to understand and explain most of the events of today’s world. There are many ways in which society can go back and analyze past events in order to improve the future, I just don’t see the point of going back and analyze how the origin of Greek gods can improve our society and well-being.

Greek mythology can be viewed as a mirror to the ancient Greek civilization. Ancient Greek myths and legends often reflected how the Greeks saw themselves. Myths were used by Greeks to make justifications of every existing aspect of earth as well as their own society. In myths, Greek gods & heroes often represented key aspects of the human civilization. From Greek mythology, we can learn about the favorable characteristics of humans, such as their behavior and valuable skills that were approved of by the ancient Greek society.

After reading, I believe that the human characters were responsible for the progression, resolution, and overall plot in the book. Understandably, many would believe that the gods were the ones responsible for what happened; but the gods create and formulate scenarios for the humans to tackle. For instance, there are times when the humans do not obey the gods’ orders; For example, when Odysseus was once instructed by Leucothoe, a goddess who resides in the sea, to leave his raft he decided not to because he did not think he would be able to reach land if he were to.

The Greek Gods: Tyranny in Exchange for Power Throughout the evolution of society, one idea has stayed the same. That is the belief that we need to consistently be the best and the most powerful. We use this as a measure of self-worth and the foundation of the social hierarchy. The hierarchical nature of society drives this motivation of people to do everything it takes to reach the top. Our commitment can be so incredibly devout that we lose more than we gain on the search for this sense of power.

In a way, it might even be seen as a sort of relativist perspective because the gods could develop their own beliefs and commands and change them accordingly and they must always be right. This is what makes Socrates’ claim so essential, it calls into question the Divine Command Theory and questions the real origin of morality. Human civilizations have been going to the gods for their guidance since the beginning of time, but Socrates’ brings insight that stumps the “smart” Euthyphro. In a certain way, this one question can poke a hole in an individual’s view and traditions of religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It is the spring board for disciplines and studies into religious apologetics, because this question that might seem innocuous at first proves to be incredibly powerful.

In the epic poem The Odyssey, Homer portrays Greek gods and goddesses as possessing human qualities and faults. Through their actions and emotions, Homer emphasizes the detrimental effects of lust, envy, wrath, and greed in ancient Grecian society. He also never fails to remind readers of the importance of respect for holy figures because of their powerful abilities to create chaos and wonder". Homer wants to prove that gods and humans share a variety of traits, and the only difference is that god don’t allow these flaws negatively to impact their society. To help further his argument, we can compare Greek gods and goddesses to that of Christianity.

Divine intervention, or the role of the gods, plays a predominant role in the development of the eventual fate of the main characters; Odysseus, his son, Telemachus and his wife, Penelope. Homer is able to effectively incorporate the employment of divine forces as facilitators in destiny, as well as efficiently engage the readers through his vivid description of the various predicaments faced by Odysseus. Divine intervention is a phenomenon widely used in mythological epics. The gods play protagonistic and antagonistic roles; they essentially toy with the character until his fate is evident. Homer utilizes this right from the very beginning; we see Athena coming to the aid of Odysseus when Zeus refuses to have sympathy for him due to the fact that most heroes blame the Gods for their doom;