Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
The Role of Gods and Goddesses in the Fate and Destiny of Characters in Homer’s The
Iliad Homer’s The Iliad is an epic poem written about the events that transpired during
the war between the Achaians and Trojans and the fates of the warriors and civilians.
What is Fate? Britannica.com defines fate as an inevitable and often adverse outcome,
condition, or end. Homer expresses the idea that the gods and goddesses intervene in
the fates and destinies of the warriors during battle and in their everyday lives.
Frequently throughout The Iliad, Homer has Zeus or another god depict the fate of a
character. These fates are irreversible and final. No matter how much a character tries
they cannot be changed. In Book I, Homer already depicts godly intervention in the lives
of the characters. During one of the Achaians many raids on cities located near Troy, they
captured two enemy maidens, Chryseis and Briseis. Chryseis was awarded to
Agamemnon (Commander-in-chief of the army) and Briseis to Achilles’ (Achaians best
warrior). Upon this action, the father of Chryseis, Chryses pleads with Agamemnon for
her safe return. Agamemnon refuses to return her. Therefore Chryses prayed to Apollo
who then brought a plague on the Achaian camp.
Thesis: The theme of godly intervention is critical in the sense that without intervention, the plot would not
be as it is presented by Homer. Throughout the epic, gods and goddesses intervene at critical times either
to either to impose “justified” … redemption or to act as a refuge to the mortals. Gods and goddesses are
bias; therefore, they favor certain characters in the epic. Without godly intervention, the plot would not
progress as elaborately intended. The characters wouldn’t be able to accomplish their missions on their own
without the safety net of the gods and goddesses.
Perhaps one of the most remarkable parallels is between Zeus’ inability to keep the other gods in check and
Agamemnon’s leadership. In Book II, Agamemnon’s attempt to test his troops’ morale very nearly leads to
a full-scale revolt. In the opening of Book IV, Zeus is forced to back down from his suggestion that they
should put an end to the war, and ends up making a compromise agreement with his wife. Indeed, three
times in the Iliad Hera is able to change Zeus’ mind by uttering words such as “we other gods will not all
applaud you” (IV, p. 53). This parallels Agamemnon’s inability to rule unilaterally—he has no more power
to make decisions than the other Greek heroes. His argument that the Achainas should retreat, for example,
is demolished by Diomedes in Book IX. Clearly both other gods and other heroes have a role to play in
decision-making. Indeed, Zeus admits that the cooperation of the other gods is essential for the success of
his plan to bring Odysseus home (Od., I, p. 5), just as Agamemnon must rely on the support of the other
Greek leaders. The characters themselves realise that the will of Zeus is not absolute and as a consequence
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
they pray to “father Zeus and Athene and Apollo” (Il., II, p. 28, italics mine).3 On the other hand, however,
both Zeus and Agamemnon share important positions in their respective societies. Agamemnon, despite his
failings, is regarded as a king cherished by Zeus (Il., II, p. 24) and the respect the other gods have for Zeus
is clear: they rise to greet him (Il., I, p. 16), and acknowledge the fact that his decisions carry more weight
than any of theirs (Od., op. cit.).
Homer also portrays the gods with human flaws. These flaws are especially evident in the comic episodes,
especially Zeus’ falling into Hera’s trap of seduction (Il., XIV), and Demodocus’ telling of the story of Ares
and Aphrodite. Additionally, however, there seem to be rather more serious limitations on the gods’
influence on man. Odysseus tells us that “the gods, after all, can do anything” (Od., X, p. 151), but here the
poet seems to know more than his characters because Homer reveals some very real limitations on the
gods’ powers. Although they have enormous influence in determining the course of events on earth, they
never completely transcend human limitations.4 Aphrodite may be adept at the “work of love”, but her
foray into the fighting ends in disaster because, as Zeus chides, “war’s work, my child, is not your
province” (Il., V, p. 78). Homer seems to be playing on the ironic difference between the way the gods
think about themselves and the way they actually behave. By the end of the Iliad, he has almost completely
debunked Apollo’s declaration that there is no similarity between gods and men by the construction of
parallel situations which illustrate the various flaws of the gods, in a way which was no doubt a source of
amusement for his contemporary audience.
Nevertheless, in drawing our attention to the flaws and frivolities of the world of the gods, Homer
highlights a fundamental difference between god and man: the latter is condemned to live a short, miserable
life, while the former have an existence free of responsibility, suffering, and death. The juxtaposition
between these two worlds is an important theme in the Iliad, and is explored poignantly in the relationship
between Achilleus and his divine mother Thetis. Achilleus’ life is “short lived and miserable” (I, p. 13). He
meets his mother four times in the Iliad, and each time his situation becomes progressively more dire. By
the second meeting he has lost his best friend Patroklos, and by the third meeting it is clear that he is fated
to die. By contrast, Thetis’ leads a rather static life and he has responsibility for his actions; Thetis,
however, is unchanged throughout the story—she lives in a static world without any of the gravity of the
human world. Another important parallel is developed in the quarrels between men and those between
gods. There are no consequences of the quarrel between Zeus and Hera, but when Achilleus and
Agamemnon quarrel, the possible consequences are the deaths of thousands of men, the pride and
reputation of the heroes, and the outcome of the war. The fragility of human life is captured well by
Odysseus:
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
Of all the creatures that breathe and creep about on Mother Earth there is
none so helpless as man… when the blessed gods bring him troubles he has
no choice but to endure them with a patient heart. The reason is that the view
we mortals take of this earthly life depends on what Zeus, the father of gods
and men, sends us day by day.5 (Od., XIIX, p. 277)
There are numerous such passages in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, and in each one of them the speaker
acknowledges that although the gods have the ability to grant man prosperity and health, they just as often
bring him misfortune and suffering. It is not surprising, then, that there are also passages in which the
heroes suggest that the gods can and should reach more often into the jar of gifts. Menelaos’ lamentation,
“Father Zeus, they say your wisdom is beyond all others… and yet you are the source of all this” (XIII, p.
215), foregrounds the fundamental problem that both gods and suffering can exist together; a tension that
centuries after Homer would become known as the problem of evil. However, although the problem is a
universal one, the answer the Ancient Greeks gave to it is unique. They accepted unconditionally the
existence of both gods and suffering—it did not lead them to doubt the existence of the gods, but rather to
affirm them as the source not only of all good but also of all evil.
These flaws notwithstanding, we are left with no doubt about the gods’ supreme power. Zeus’ thoughts are
deathless (XXIV, p. 390) and his “mind is always stronger than the mind of men” (XVII, p. 279). Men, in
contrast to the gods, “are like leaves” (XXI, p. 346). This extraordinary Simile encapsulates the tragic view
of life presented in the Iliad: it is fragile and short, and even the greatest heroes will one day fade. The
gods, for all their similarities with the world of men, will never suffer death. It is appropriate then that they
should occupy the domain “between earth and the starry heaven” (V, p. 86)—neither wholly human or
wholly divine, they lead astonishingly human lives but in a world with entirely different parameters.
In the Iliad the gods are very much concerned with human affairs. One reason for this
involvement is the fact that many gods and goddesses who have mated with mortals have human
children or human favorites participating in the war. The gods take sides in the war in accordance
with their like or dislike of one side or the other. For example, Athene and Hera, who lost a beauty
contest judged by the Trojan prince Paris, are fiercely anti-Trojan, while the winner Aphrodite
dotes on Paris and favors the Trojans in the war.
The interest and involvement of the gods in human affairs have an important effect on the action
of the Iliad. The gods universalize the action of the poem. Because the gods take interest in
human affairs, the events described in the Iliad are not just particular actions of little significance,
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
but take on a universal meaning and importance that would have been missing without the gods.
On the one hand, the involvement of the gods exalts human action. When Achilleus in Book 1
considers killing Agamemnon, his decision not to kill could have been presented on a purely
human level without the intervention of a deity, but we are shown exactly just how critical a
decision it is by the involvement of Athene. Throughout the Iliad there is a tendency to present
action consistently on two planes, the human and the divine. On the other hand, the gods also
serve to emphasize the limitations of man, how short his life is and, quite paradoxically in view of
the previously stated purpose, how ultimately meaningless human affairs are.
It is the gods, not fate, who are concerned with the activities of human life in both
the Odyssey and Iliad. The human action is so central that it quite absorbs the gods,
as though they had no other responsibilities.
We get a sense of this divine participation from the very beginning of the " Iliad
"Hera prompts Achilles to call the assembly (1.54); Athene checks his resolve to
attack Agamemnon (1.188ff.); Zeus sends to Agamemnon a dream bidding him rally
the Achaeans (2.16); Athene prompts Odysseus to prevent them from boarding the
ships (2.182ff.); she silences the army to let him speak (2.281); Aphrodite drives
Helen to Paris (3.420). Most notable throughout the poem is a hero's might
increased by a god (4.439, 4.515, 5.1-2, 5.122, 5.125, etc.).
In all these cases, the god achieves nothing supernatural but simply stimulates
existing potentialities. It could not be otherwise. Human acts or states of being so
stand out in their native quality that no external agency is allowed to affect their true
nature. Yet a man's fierce resilience may be quite baffling and may suggest some
unsuspected power. Human free-will is something natural an mysterious at the same
time.
If the matter is seen in this light, it is pointless to inquire how far in Homer a man is
responsible for his acts and how far he is influenced by the gods. Any intense
moment of experience may seem imponderable. Whence comes a sudden excitement
that gives us added strength? It certainly comes from a deep unsounded source in
which we may feel a divine power. With equal pertinence Homer says, 'the spirit
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
within him compelled him' or 'a god compelled him.' Initiative is not taken for
granted; it does not come mechanically. A body's energy is no different in this
respect. For instance, the two Ajaxes, touched by Poseidon, marvel at the way their
feet and hands seem to yearn and move on their own account (13.73ff.).
Near the end of the <+">Iliad<-">, we find the best instance of gods participating in
a human initiative (24.23ff.). Apollo pleads the cause of Hector on Olympus: his body
must be saved from Achilles' indignities and returned to Troy. The gods agree. Zeus
decides that Priam will go to Achilles with the ransom and that Achilles will accept. Is
then the great scene between Achilles and Priam predetermined? We might say that
it is the other way around: the human cry reaches heaven and incites the gods to
action. In any case, neither Achilles nor Priam acts passively. Pent-up emotions find
their way out and prompt the ransom. We have seen how Achilles is affected; as for
Priam, he says to Hecuba, 'From Zeus an Olympian messenger came . . . and
powerfully, within myself, my own spirit and might bid me go' (24.194ff.). The gods
do not weaken the human resolution but give it, rather, a greater resonance.
We may look in the same way at the so-called divine machinery. It has been
observed that the action of the<+"> Iliad<-"> could be conceived even without any
intervention of the gods. Others argue that nothing happens in the poem without the
prompting of a god. The wrath of Achilles is explainable in its own right; and yet
Apollo and Zeus come into the picture. Do we have a divine plan or simply a human
quarrel with dire consequences? Neither alternative can be exactly true. Achilles'
wrath is momentous, and its import cannot be measured in ordinary human terms.
Thus any sudden important happening spells bewilderment; it suggests a god.
Human and divine power merge together.
Gods and men are interdependent. This view is confirmed by the way Homer paints
the gods when they are left to themselves. For in their Olympian abodes (as in
1.571ff.) they pale into a desultory immortality. The Olympian scenes are the only
ones in which anything frivolous takes place. It is from the human action that the
gods draw their life-blood. By being so frequently associated with specific heroes,
they themselves become human and even end up resembling their heroes. Apollo
shares in the generous versatility of Hector, while Athene is associated with the
prepossessing stateliness of Achilles and Diomedes. Such relations are no matter of
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
course. What connects these pairs is actual contact, accessibility, recognition, and
closeness. These immortals are more at home on earth than in heaven. Although
they are far from being omniscient or omnipotent, they make up for any such
deficiencies through their intense presence at crucial moments - as when Achilles, on
the point of attacking Agamemnon, is checked by Athene:
And amazed was Achilles, / he turned, and instantly knew
the goddess Pallas Athena; / and dread was the light of her eyes. (1.199ff.)
The goddess stands out much more powerfully here than when, for example, she
chides Aphrodite on Olympus (5.420ff.).
To be dramatically effective, a god must appear suddenly, as if from nowhere - often
taking the shape of a friend or relative but always somehow recognisable. The
anthromorphic appearance is tinged with personal appeal. We have a mysterious
familiar image. The imponderable element in life's incidents thus finds a persuasive
way of manifesting itself. It is no wonder that Homer, a lover of visual forms, gave
the gods such prominence, leaving out as much as possible the shadowy idea of an
all-encompassing fate.
The gods of the<+"> Iliad<-"> are thus characters in their own right. Of course,
they draw their importance from popular cults and mythology, but essentially they
play a dramatic part and thus help to imbue religion with the warmth of human
emotions. Hector's Apollo is quite different from Chalcas's god of prophecy or from
the local god of Chrysa, Killa, or Tenedos; the Athene of Achilles or Diomedes is quite
different from the goddess of cities or from the patron of arts and crafts. No gods
can play a major role in Homer unless they have a personal appeal and power. This
condition tends to minimise or exclude those gods that are too particularly identified
with a certain sphere of activity to take a generally appealing physiognomy. Poseidon
is so closely identified with the sea, is ineffective in the battles of books 13 and 14.
You might expect Ares to be an important god in a poem that deals with war; but,
no, he has no personality, as his name is almost synonymous with war. Artemis
remains in the backgr
ound. Demeter and Dionysus are almost absent. The sun god is only appealed to in
oaths. Aphrodite is only important in relation to Helen. Zeus, Apollo, and Athene are
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
quite different. Even quite apart from their actions in the Homeric poems, they were
more persuasive and free: Zeus, father of gods and men, sky god, weather god;
Apollo, the god of song and healing as well as prophecy; Athene, goddess of
embattled cities as well as wisdom. Their broad range thus extends beyond any
particular province and yet intensifies their personal singularity. Even among the
gods, individual forcefulness is proportionate to universal appeal. It is no wonder that
in giving vent to some wild desire the characters often say, 'Would that it were, o
father Zeus and Athene and Apollo' (2.371, 4.288, 7.132, 16.97).
Homer's treatment of the gods is no different from that of the human characters.
Just as the characters are not idolised, the gods also are not worshipped with any
mystical reverence or set aside in remote splendour. Apollo is nowhere more
imposing than at Hector's side in book 15, Athene nowhere more powerful than with
Diomedes in book 5. A clear, bright presence is a hallmark of the gods - and of
everything else - in Homer. Action and function are all-important. The minor gods
also appear with the same effect. Hermes guides Priam to Achilles. Hephaestus
builds Achilles' shield. Iris bears the messages of Zeus. The Hours open the gates of
Olympus. Themis calls the gods and serves at the divine banquet. Even these gods
are removed from the shadowy background of popular cults or beliefs; they acquire
clarity of outline on the strength of what they actually do.
What accounts for the special effectiveness of the Homeric gods is their participation
in the everyday activities of life. Such action is far more characteristic of their
personalities than their rare exhibitions of extraordinary power in rescuing a hero
(3.380, 5.445, 20.325). They usually behave like men and women. They have, at
least, the same passions, the same emotions. Yet they are immortal. Homer hardly
dwells on their immortality, but the feeling is always there; a divine quality thence
flows into actions shared by gods and men.
Divine quality? What kind of quality? What id the religious message of the
">Iliad<-"? There is certainly no providential design in the <+">Iliad<-">, no
struggle for the transcendental cause. The Homeric gods have a different sphere.
Their power lies in the immediate present. What we see is a divine immanence in
things. What could be more repellent to common religious feeling than the quarrel
between Achilles and Agamemnon revolving around a question of booty? And yet the
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
deepest instincts are brought into action, passions and resolutions rise to full power;
surely the crisis cannot be taken for granted; a god must lurk in these unleashed
energies.
The gods watch, witness, participate, and help bring events to a crisis. Their
movements are as free as human action is fluid in its ebb and flow. They are
poetically conceived according to the needs of the moment, not subjected to any
rule. We can find no theology here. Louder and stronger than any ritual prayers, we
hear a cry prompted by the occasion - that of Glaucus (16.514ff.) or of Ajax
(17.645ff.). The gods listen, and in most cases they respond. But let us not expect
them to be just or fair (Athene tempts Pandarus in 4.92ff. and dupes Hector in
22.226ff.). Their strength lies in intensifying the sense of life, and yet in doing so
they inevitably increase the poignance of what is at stake, including the issue of right
and wrong.
All serious poetry of early Greece involves the gods. The presence of divine agents,
visibly at work in what happens, enables the poet to show the meaning of events and
the nature of the world. In the"> Iliad <-"we find a rich cast of gods and goddesses.
Some take the side of the Achaeans, others that of Troy. There are lively disputes
over the nectar on Olympus, as the divine partisans support and oppose their chosen
mortals. Sometimes they go down - all save Zeus - and intervene personally on
earth, on the battlefield or in private interviews. From moment to moment they seem
unedifying: 'Homer makes his men gods and his gods men' comments a great critic
in late antiquity, and he was thinking primarily of the Iliad. Gods even suffer, and the
shady pair Ares and Aphrodite, who are on the Trojan side and whom the poet seems
not to like, are actually wounded by mortal warriors, while even Zeus grieves for the
death of his son Sarpedon. Yet the suffering of gods is soon over and lacks the
tragedy of that of men, and the phrase 'sublime frivolity' fits them well. For they can
be, at moments, sublime as well as frivolous.
Fewer gods, then, appear, and they do not behave in the old turbulent manner. The
frivolity of the gods, indeed, is now concentrated in the story which Demodocus sings
to the pleasure-loving Phaeacians: a frankly saucy tale, this time, again with Ares
and Aphrodite in an undignified role. As in the ">Iliad<-", these two are poet's butts.
And even that spicy tale is a variation on the central theme of the"> Odyssey<-", a
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
wife's chastity menaced in the absence of her husband. On earth that ends in
tragedy, whether she yields like the guilty wife of Agamemnon or resists like the
virtuous Penelope; in heaven there is temporary embarrassment, laughter, and the
adulterous pair go off to their existence of splendour.
But the gods draw the same moral from this story as men draw from the destruction
of the Suitors: 'Ill deeds come to no good' (8.329). Odysseus, when he kills the
Suitors, spares the herald Meron with the words 'Fear not, Telemachus has saved
your life, so that you may know in your heart, and tell other people, how good deeds
are far better than evil-doing' (22.372-4).
The Zeus of the ">Iliad<-" kept good and evil in jars in his house, and at his
pleasure gave to some a mixture, to others evil unmixed (">Iliad<-"> 24.527-33);
this sort of careful self-justification was by no means in his style. Care is taken in
the"> Odyssey<-" to exculpate Odysseus from responsibility for the loss of his men.
The Suitors, too, like Aegisthus, and like he crew of Odysseus, are warned before
they are destroyed (2.161-9, 20.345-72). Justice, in the ">Odyssey, <-"is both done
and seen to be done. Men suffer 'beyond their fate' by going out of their way to incur
disasters. 'Fate' is of course, not to be thought of as a fully developed fatalism; it is
more a matter of 'what was coming to them'.
The gods have supreme power, but they are not omnipotent. Omnipotence is of
course not easy to reconcile with polytheism, as gods oppose each other. Men have
free will and are responsible for their actions. Men have free will and are responsible
for their actions. Athene can indeed put courage into a man's heart (3.76
Such a passage, striking as it is, does not possess the full theological implications
which it might have in a Hebrew or Christian work, and painful questions of
predestination and free will are not really raised. An important part of the meaning is
that Amphinomus is a loser and will in fact be killed. Athene in classical art often
carries in her outstretched hand a miniature figure of herself: that is Athene "Nike,
"Athene Victory. Her favour means success, and it is no less true that to say that she
favours Odysseus because he is a winner, than to say that he wins because of her
favour. At times her interventions seem essentially otiose: Odysseus could well have
thought of clinging to the rocks by himself, and indeed it is not clear that the poet
means much more than that he had a sudden salutary thought. At other times she is
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
a fully imagined person with likes and dislikes. An excellent example is the scene in
Book Thirteen where she joins Odysseus on Ithaca. First she appears in disguise, and
he tells her one of his usual false tales. The goddess smiles, strokes him with her
hand, and assumes a different form: that of a handsome and accomplished woman.
She tells him that lies are pointless with her, and that she loves him because, like
her, he is intelligent and versatile; and the two of them sit together and plan the
death of the Suitors (13.221-374). No male god is ever as close to a mortal as this.
Their relationship is not sexual, but it has a special quality which goes with the
difference of sex. Athene is more intimate with Telemachus than with anyone other
than Odysseus - the connection is an hereditary one - but while she is thoughtful
towards Penelope, sending her sweet sleep and comforting dreams (4.795ff,
16.603ff. etc.), she does not meet her, and their relationship has no intimacy.
The destruction of the Suitors involved the hand of Athene as well as that of
Odysseus. That marks him as a great hero and victor, and also enables the people in
the poem to say, with truth, that the gods do not permit behaviour like theirs.
Odysseus himself says 'It was the doom of the gods which slew them, and their own
wickedness' (22.413">Odyssey"> that they do respond to the inextinguishable cry of
the human heart for justice.
It can be argued that the ">Odyssey<-" represents a moral advance on the
">Iliad<-" and that the Odyssean gods watch over the affairs of men with a more
developed moral sense than their capricious Iliadic counterparts. In the opening of
the poem Zeus gives the keynote speech which seems to put them on the side of
justice. He rebukes men for blaming the gods for their misfortunes when it is only
too apparent that they bring it upon themselves. Aegisthus is a case in point. The
gods sent Hermes to warn that vengeance would come from Orestes if he usurped
Agamemnon's throne. Later in the poem there is a divine presence of a kind not felt
in the ">Iliad. ">When the companions of Odysseus have killed the cattle of the sun
god, the forbidden flesh emits strange noises as it is being roasted. The mysterious
light in the hall is attributed to a divine presence. Athene constantly guards the
protagonist and appears to him in person to assure him of continued protection. Yet
Zeus does not say that all suffering comes to men through wrongdoing, nor does he
say that when they are punished they are punished by the gods. The gods have
Assess the significance of the
Gods in Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey
foresight and warn Aegisthus, but they do not compel Orestes to do what he does.
The point of the speech is to put the moral responsibility for action firmly upon men.
The companions of Odysseus and the suitors die, like Aegisthus, through their own
folly. In the ">Iliad<-" the quarrel which leads to the catastrophe similarly results
from the free action of Agamemnon and Achilles. The moments of supernatural
mystery in the"Odyssey" are included primarily for poetic effect. The relationship
between the goddess and the hero is based on the kind of personal affinity that
underlies relations between men and gods in the"> Iliad">. It could well be argued
that the ingredients are basically the same in the two poems but that they have been
mixed differently to express a tragic vision in one, and to serve the interests of a
poetic justice characteristic of comedy in the other.