What Is The Trope In The Iliad

Ancient Greece, being a highly theocratic society, centered a majority of its literature upon the goings-on of the gods and goddesses its people believed to control the elements surrounding them; they lived in constant fear of their supposed omnipotence, and many written pieces center around the extent of what should happen if the displeasure of these beings should fall upon them. Perhaps most influential among these works, and furthermore those coming from ancient civilization as a whole, are the sister stories 'The Iliad' and 'The Odyssey' by Homer, which are the only two surviving Greek "epics" out of the eight-part Epic Cycle intended to reconstruct the Trojan War from a more religious viewpoint. Among other things, the Greeks believed that the will of the gods was absolute, so

any man or woman in these epics to defy it would often suffer extreme consequences. Perhaps most notable among this trope are the voyages of Odysseus, the somewhat frail and arrogant but very cunning king of Ithaca who, along with his crew, faces the gods' wrath on his way back from the sacking of Troy.

He and his men are taken from mythical land to the next, given temptations ranging from a supposedly all-healing lotus that replaces any longing for home with that for consuming more of the plant (pg. 115, par. 3) to that of simple human folly and romanticising of glory where there is none to be found. The titular "odyssey" itself, however, begins when Odysseus stumbles upon the land of the cyclopes, is captured, and manages to escape through various dishonorable trickery including intoxicating their king, Polyphemus, with alcohol, and stabbing him in the eye during his following sleep. One way or another, Odysseus and his following find themselves back upon their ship, and Odysseus takes the opportunity to indulge in his illusions of grandeur and taunts his defeated foe, saying the following: "I wish I could be as sure of killing you outright and sending you down to the house of Hades, as I am that it will take more than Poseidon to cure that eye of yours." (pg. 127,

par. 3) Odysseus, having had run-ins with the gods before, surely knows better than to say that the injury he had inflicted upon Polyphemus was too great for the gods to heal; however, since he does, Poseidon naturally does not take too kindly to his words, and thus ensues a long voyage of hardship that could have been completely avoided if not for Odysseus and his crew's own foolishness, distrust of one another, and above all: hubris.