Hindu Gods And Demons Research Paper

In the Iliad the line between man and god would often clash. A god could transport a mortal, sleep with a mortal, and also magically help that mortal. These gods seem to be the only ones who can change and decide fate. The gods can whisk people away or bend off an arrow and a sword. For example, when Paris fought Menelaus, he was whisked away by Aphrodite before Menelaus could do more damage. Their so called gods, weren’t so unreachable. In the Odyssey, we see how goddess’ and gods behave just like humans with their urges; example Calypso, who offers Odysseus everything if only he would stay with her. Plus Athena, made herself Odysseus’ guardian, she would give him advice and plead his case on mount Olympus. There we see how the gods decide a person’s fate and also act selfishly with disregard to mortal feelings. Toying with humans

Through the sampling of readings from The Norton Anthology of World Literature book, one could come to the realization that in a majority of those stories, the deities seem to influence or even control the outcomes of the heroes, often in a negative manner. In the first epic, Gilgamesh encounters the gods at various times, and in The Iliad, the gods manipulate the Greeks and the Trojans for their own desires and wants.

In both stories, the gods are respected and feared in some way, but this was not always the case. To enforce His authority over all living creatures, the god in Genesis “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” so He created a flood to rid the world of the evil that He created (King James Version, Gen. 6.5). However, not all humans were wicked; He spared Noah and his family because he remained so devoted to God, then later made a promise that “waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Gen. 9.15). Likewise in The Epic of Gilgamesh, the

Omniscient God only have the power, knowledge and control over human; to maintain that superiority God typically responds to human behavior with what they deserve. God blesses the righteous and punishes the evil man to remind their limitation and worship to the God.

In the text that has been covered in class we often see how the gods so often turn their backs on their heroes i.e. “Odyssey” by Homer. However, our God promises He will never leave us or forsake us. There are many gods in the Greek mythology yet one god could be for the hero and one could be against; they can completely counter act what the other god is doing. They lack in communication i.e. “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” Our God is three in one Father, Spirit, and Son, yet there is no lack in communication because they are one. In the Greek stories there are monsters and all other sorts of enemies and they all do whatever their little hearts desire (this is seen in the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Epic of Gilgamesh). We believe in one enemy his name is Lucifer (Satan, The devil). He is the king of lies, deceit, and temptation. He is the deceiver. He is everything bad rolled in to one creature. People may not

They look down on humans, owing to the fact that the Gods are their creators. Surprisingly, that’s the only thing the Hebrew version of God and the Mayans’ vision of their creators have in common. To put it briefly, God in Genesis is very forgiving, generous and fair. What’s interesting is that He seems to be giving humans a second chance by letting Noah and his family survive the flood. Afterwards God promises Noah to not do anything that would harm the human race again - “I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Applebee p.73). This only demonstrates God’s good intentions and his willingness to help. To change the topic, in Popol Vuh the gods are extremely strict and demanding. They treat people poorly. The only reason they create them is because they feel the need to be worshipped. They are very tough and punishing. By way of contrast to Genesis, in the Popul Vuh, the story ends with the people remaining imperfect and ignorant. There is no redemption for

One example of the tension between the gods and humans is when Ishtar is rejected by Gilgamesh, and tries to destroy Uruk. Unlike any other person who had been refused, Ishtar used her relationship with the gods to demand the Bull of Heaven kill Gilgamesh and cause famine in Uruk for seven years. She ordered, “Give me the Bull of Heaven, just for a little while. I want to bring it to earth, I want it to kill that liar Gilgamesh and destroy his palace. If you say no, I will smash the gates of the underworld, and a million famished ghouls will ascend to devour the living, and the living will be outnumbered by the dead”

In both stories, the gods are respected and feared in some way, but at some point, humans displease the gods. To enforce His authority over all living creatures, the god in Genesis “saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” so He fashioned an immense flood to rid the world of the evil that He brought about (King James Version, Gen. 6.5). However, not all humans continuously sinned; He spared Noah and his family because he remained so devoted to God, then later made a promise that “waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh” (Gen. 9.15). Likewise, in The

The relationship between gods and mortals in mythology has long been a complicated topic. The gods can be generous and supportive, and also devastating and destructive to any group of humans. Mortals must respect the powers above them that cannot be controlled. The gods rule over destiny, nature, and justice, and need to be recognized and worshipped for the powerful beings as they are. Regardless of one's actions, intentions, and thoughts, the gods in Greek myth have ultimate power and the final decision of justice over nature, mortals, and even each other.

The personalities of the gods are as broad as there are stars in the heavens, and as such the ways that these gods interact with mortals vary. The purpose of gods intervening with the days of man comes down to two things, good or bad; there are gods who are caring and loving towards mortals while others view man as pawns which they can use for their own personal agenda. A few gods that capture and exemplify the various personalities of the gods can be found in Ovid: The Metamorphoses of Ovid and Homer: The essential Homer: Selections from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Although the ways man and the gods communicate and get each other’s attention are different, there are reoccurring and overarching themes such as desire, and loyalty that make each intervention between gods and mortals similar.

Favoritism plays a large role in the god’s motives to help the mortals. Humans are simply pawns the gods use to amuse themselves, but each god has preference when it comes to who they help and who they deceive. The divine each have their own special qualities to lend to who they

In ancient times, gods were a holy image in people’s mind. Each god had its own role in the universe. Such as the role of creation, the controller of the nature, and the role of the destiny control. The gods had extreme powers, and controlled everything in the world. Worshiped gods became a daily routine for ancient people. In the minds of people in ancient times, worshiped their gods were to prevent these gods became furious, and punished them with their extreme power. Even though the gods were extremely powerful, in many epic texts we could see they also had emotions and characteristics that were just like humans. However, there were still some major differences between the gods and humans.

The gods and goddesses are powerful beings capable of super-human powers, but nevertheless are characters fraught with very human frailties and flaws. In this way they created gods that had similarities with the common man in the society. This made the gods more tangible and easier to identify with. I think that this was necessary because they were not yet at the societal maturity level to have a single god on a cosmic plane.

Growing up as a citizen of ancient Greek and Rome being raised to follow Greek and Roman mythology caused the ancient people to believe that they must act and behave like the gods. In creating this ideology, the people developed same personality and behavior habits as the gods in various myths. But even as the myths were written, the personalities of the gods and goddesses reflected the average human in that time period. The gods were so much like humans that it was normal to behave like them. Ancient Greek Philosophy stated “the gods depicted by Homer acted selfishly and were driven by emotions such as favoritism and jealousy. They behaved like ordinary people except they were immortal and had supernatural powers.” Unlike other religions were the gods have never sinned and are very different from humans, the gods in ancient Greek mythology make mistakes and commit horrific crimes that in today’s society would be highly unacceptable. For the people, it is a lot easier to be human and make mistakes rather than try to be perfect and sinless.

1. Based on the course material, how “just” is the world and the relationship that exists between man and god that is envisioned in the different myths you have read? Based on the course material there's a hierarchy in the world where gods are above all human kind due to the fact they created them for the purpose to serve. For instance, in the "Enuma Elish" myth it's widely expressed the gods created the human race. The gods are divided up into two groups younger and older gods. Each group shared the interest of having the human kind worship them and become loyal servants. In this myth, gods are viewed above humans and humans are viewed to be beneath gods. In fact, they're viewed in the lowest form possible and shed in a very good light in relation to the gods. This is the first aspect of where we see hierarchy in the world and unjust world. Another example of this is suggested in this myth when the gods comment on how unjust the humans are to each other. In fact, in this myth, the humans are so unjust and unruly towards each other that the gods contemplate what to do with them. As a result, the humans were flooded by the gods. Also in the Enuma Elish, the relationship that exists between man and god is as I mentioned before man was meant to be a lowly, worshipping servant and the gods were to be high, powerful, mighty, and worshipped with great importance. In several other myths such as the Sumerian version of this one, the concept is similar. Both versions are similar in