Religion In The Odyssey

Religion is just one cultural factor that can tie a diverse group of people together even when they have nothing else in common. It creates bonds that can be tested by almost anything. The Cyrus cylinder and the Hebrew bible tell stories people who are drawn together by religion, but in those cases the stories are not reliable. The manipulated information made the stories untrustworthy, and should only be taken at face value. The Cyrus Cylinder in particular manipulates the story of Cyrus’ reign as king to benefit the political agenda that was present at the time. Cyrus was expanding his army beyond his borders and was looking to take over Babylon. Within the Cyrus Cylinder the line “He took the hand of Cyrus, king of the city of Anshan, and

(12) The king creatively manipulated the peoples loyalty to their god, Marduk, which stopped rebellions against his newly instated rule. The use of this technique undermines the credibility of the account. The king only wrote about events that would help his cause. Historians do not have an accurate reason why Cyrus chose to expand to Babylon, and we do not know the true reaction of the people. We can assume that the people accepted Cyrus’ new leadership in hopes to please Marduk. However, they are words of a man who does not want to make himself out in a bad light. Another example of manipulated information is “he saved his city Babylon from hardship” which insinuates Marduk asked Cyrus to take over Babylon to