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Divine Intervention in Homer's The Iliad
Divine Intervention in Homer's The Iliad
The character of Helen of Troy
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To most Achaean and Trojan soldiers, the question, “What are you fighting for?”, is an easy one to answer. Aside from glory of course, they are fighting for Helen. Helen was taken from the Achaeans by Paris of Sparta, this in turn sparked the start of the Trojan war, but was it really Helen’s fault? It’s easy to see how Helen acts as a very strong catalyst to the start of the war however, she never intended to start a war, and furthermore, she wasn’t the one who caused the original conflict to arise. Right from the start of Homer’s epic, we can see what little power mortals really have compared to that of the gods. At any point the gods, or one god, may intervene and drastically, if not entirely, change the flow of battle, the strength of
Many authors have employed the religious beliefs of their cultures in literature. The deities contained in Homer’s Odyssey and in the Biblical book of Exodus reflect the nature of the gods in their respective societies. Upon examination of these two works, there are three major areas where the gods of the Greek epic seem to directly contrast the nature of the God of the Israelites: the way problems are solved, the prestige and status that separates the divine from the masses, and the extent of power among the immortal beings.
The Trojan War is one of the most known battle or war in history, if not the most known. It was a very, very long war, but there was one main source or reason of conflict that drove it to last so long, it seemed endless. Paris, a Trojan prince, was promised a wife as fair as the goddess of beauty by Aphrodite herself. The particular woman she promised was already married to a Greek King by the name of Menelaus. This started not only tension between the Greeks and Trojans but also anger because they were recently married.Helen should have returned to the Greeks for a few reasons that could have led to a shorter war, or even no war.First off, Greek King Menelaus is her rightfully wedded husband. The war would have been totally prevented if a couple of decisions were better made. Finally, she never really was in love with Paris. It was all manipulated by Aphrodite.
Homer was the ancient Greek poet said to have lived between around the 8th and 9th century B.C. Some believe that he was born on the island of Chios and others say he was in Ionia. He was said to be a court singer and a storyteller. He is famous for the writings of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey.
"We everlasting gods....Ah what chilling blows we suffer-thanks to our own conflicting wills-whenever we show these mortal men some kindness." This exert clearly states what kind of authority Homer has bestowed on his Gods. John Porter said," their constant interference in the lives of the mortals, which seems to cast them in the role of malicious puppeteers, while reducing Homer's heroes to mere pawns in a selfish and often rather petty divine game of one-upmanship." I found it to be quite disturbing imagining these characters fighting in such a mercilous war, giving every ounce of strength they had, and in an instance, all of their efforts could be derailed by a God or Goddess. You almost have to wonder if these 'heroes' really have any control whatsoever, or if they are there for the pure amusement of others.
The ancient Greeks used the gods to explain the extraordinary and unusual events of the world around them. The ancient Greek world accepted these gods as anthropomorphic representations of natural forces and phenomena. Moreover, some gods were seen as actual people whose supernatural abilities gave them control over these natural forces. Homer’s Iliad is a prime example of these two different interpretations of the gods. In this epic, Homer anthropomorphizes some phenomena, thus creating deities in order to explain some of the events of the Trojan War. These created gods are abstract and represent only the single phenomenon that Homer attributes to them. The Olympian gods, on the other hand, are existent deities whose actions go beyond the phenomena attributed to them by the Greeks. Homer, therefore, uses the Olympians to explain numerous phenomena.
The daughter of Zeus was also described as a “Beauty, terrible beauty! A deathless goddess -so she strikes our eyes” (Homer 133) which made it easy to attract many men’s attention. Most readers come to the consensus that Helen was the cause of the Trojan War making her the antagonist in this story. Originally, she was married to King Menelaus but found love with Paris, the Prince of Troy. Helen was very selfish. She did not think of others in this story or how they would react. Many Trojan families lost good men and gained tremendous sorrow behind her actions that she started to question after she has made it to Troy. Helen loved Paris, but once she arrived at Troy, she started to miss her previous husband. As her regrets began to grow, Troy ended up ultimately falling behind this great tragedy. Within her actions, there was only thought of her love for
Homer depicts the limitations of the gods with regards to human interaction in a number of ways. According to Emily Kearns in The Gods in Homeric Epics, Homer shows the gods as interacting with humans in ways that “seem less plausible, more fantastic, and which at the same time evoke Gods who are more
In the Iliad the Achaeans, under King Agamemnon, have been fighting the Trojans off and on for nine years, trying to retrieve Agamemnon's sister-in-law and the wife of Menelaus, Helen. Paris, a son of Priam, the king of Troy, kidnaps Helen. Helen becomes the legendary "Helen of
Both of them did helped each other with favors that affected everyone. Homer did a great job in showing how the gods were important throughout the war by describing how strong their powers were. As for the humans, he also did good in describing how they were good in getting what they wanted. For example Achilles with his wish of making Agamemnon's military weaker and dumber. In my opinion, if the humans did not ask the gods for help, they would have been lost as well as the gods. If the gods did not have the humans ask for help, they would have seemed less than them. The gods might be stronger than the humans with power, but at the same time the humans are stronger than the gods when it comes to asking for things. Homer does a great work in showing how much the humans and gods have an effect on the war and within one
The Trojan War was incited by Paris’ theft of Menelaus’ wife. This is the first, and only, breach of xenia in all of the Iliad, with good cause. Paris was Menelaus’ guest but chose to steal Menelaus’ wife and much of his riches instead of honoring xenia as he should have. Paris’ transgression against xenia is what initially agitated Menelaus’. Although this act is not explicitly pictured in the Iliad, the Trojan War is essentially the fallout of Paris’ breach of xenia and without his infraction, many lives
Also, in the Homeric world, the Gods seems to have everything under their control, not
Throughout Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, gods are presented as remarkably human in almost every way. While it is assumed that gods are divine entities incapable of human transgression, they are portrayed with all the flaws of mortals in The Iliad. The gods are a manifestation of human emotions consequently helping to explain the behavior of the humans in The Iliad. The actions of the heroes are what determine their fate, not divine intervention. Ultimately, the humans in The Iliad have inherent characteristics that provide the driving force behind their actions: the gods simply act in concert with them, allowing the human beings to exercise free will of
Throughout our lives, we continuously misinterpret events that happen to us. For example, when told by our loyal friends we are arrogant, we tend to reply with, “You are just jealous you are not successful as I am.” One can say misinterpretation occurs because we are afraid of the truth. However, honestly, the simple answer is misinterpretations is in human nature. For millions of years, people persistently misinterpret events, believing their opinions are always correct. This happens to the best of us, including the Trojans and Julius Caesar. During the Trojan War, the Trojans received a giant wooden horse from the Greeks. Believing the gift was a given to them by the gods for winning the war, they accepted the present. However, the Trojans purposely misinterpreted the gift since they wanted to believe they won the Trojan War. It was due to their misinterpretation that caused them to lose the battle. Similar to the Trojans, Julius Caesar
Helen of Troy is the beauteous woman who stole the hearts of men and carried herself as Royalty should. She was a powerful icon in ancient times, so much so that a great war waged because of her. It is thanks to the kidnapping of Helen that the Trojan War occurred at all and took its place in history. Her influence and persona still reverberate in these contemporary times and never cease to cause a stir in the minds of men. In “To Helen,” Poe’s speaker has a very worshipful, personal view of her while in “Helen,” Doolittle’s speaker tells of the deep hatred Greece has for Helen. The difference in these views is illustrated in the contrasting form and tone of the poems as well as the diction and imagery.
One of the most compelling topics The Iliad raises is that of the intricate affiliations between fate, man and the gods. Many events related by Homer in his epic poem exhibit how these three connections interweave and eventually determine the very lives of the men and women involved in the war. Homer leaves these complex relationships slightly unclear throughout the epic, never spelling out the exact bonds connecting men's fate to the gods and what can be considered the power of fate. The motivation for the ambiguousness present in The Iliad is not easily understood, but it is a question that enriches and helps weave an even greater significance of the results into Homer's masterpiece. I feel that the interaction between man, god, and fate can be shown to be one great fluidity that ultimately leaves life mysterious, giving much more depth and complexity to the bonds between the three.