Homeric Gods

For many greeks, Homer's novels were used as a spiritual and moral guide and to demonstrate the Greek religion. The Homeric gods were said to represent ethical values and promote virtuosity. When one thinks of a god, an association with powers and miracles comes to mind along with the singularity of only ONE god. Gods have been portrayed as almighty beings who contribute historical events ranging from uncontrollable Earthly forces to the outcome of a treacherous battle (I.e. Trojan War). Homer contributed an immense understanding of the will of the gods through his epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Allow me to discuss the god's relationship to culture as imagined in both readings.

The introduction of mythology begins by the author telling us that although it seems that mythology shows when man was in harmony with the world that is not the case. The times that the ancient Greeks and Romans lived in was not a wonderful time, but rather was quite harsh and brutal. The “Greek miracle” is described as “the new birth of the world with the awakening of Greece”. Greeks gained a new point of view of the world and started to believe that humans were the center of the universe. Greeks made their gods to be like them, which they hadn’t ever done before. Until the time of “the Greek miracle”, Greek gods were made to be not human. Greek gods were more beautiful humans, which were immortal and more powerful. Greek gods made heaven

There are several features that characterize the Homeric worldview. The Greeks were in self-governing cities called poleis, or city-states, that held them extremely apart creating controversy and competition. Regardless of their differences, they all allied and viewed foreigners as “barbarians”; they viewed themselves as the center of the world whereas the rest of world was considered uncivilized. Nonetheless, through the great stories of Homer written in heroic verses, or rhythm, we are able to expand our understanding on the Homeric worldview in religion. For instance, In the Iliad, the gods served as divine umpires, which means they watched the actions, commented, and could had enforced rules, but had no significant role on a human’s course of life.

In the ancient Greek culture, religion was deeply intertwined with every aspect of life, thus meaning that the role of the divinities in human relationships was also integral. In the Homer’s epic, the gods’ authority is evident because when you make right choices and please the Gods, you and your family receives happiness, kindness, and protection but when you upset the Gods, they are willingly to punish you with no hesitation. The gods extremely impacted Odysseus’s trip back home both positively and negatively. His journey clearly demonstrates that the Ancient Greeks believed that the gods had control over everything.

Throughout history, humans have concocted ideas of divine beings and forces that control what happens in the world. In every culture, the being or force exists in a different form, but many are in the forms of gods or goddesses. In ancient cultures, polytheism was very prevalent, and the interactions between these gods and goddesses, and the humans they guided were easily observed, especially in the literature of the time. Ancient Greece was one of those cultures. In other cultures, some religions had one God that governed the earth, much like in Hellenistic Rome and Palestine.

In the ancient Greeks’ culture, the belief that was directed towards the goddesses and gods was strong, and they influenced most of their daily operations. The activities that were conducted during their daily endeavours were coined on the intervention of the gods and goddesses. With this strong faith in gods, the Greeks focused on giving reverence, offering respect, and holding them with high regards when they are facing issues. They established strong emotional and spiritual relationships with these gods and goddesses, although there was no link between the two physically. When looking at the Odysseus, in the literary works of Homer’s epic, the author

Argumentative Essay In ancient times, the Greeks had absolute and undeniable respect for their gods. The influence of the Greeks gods on the western civilization began when the Romans adopted the pantheon of the immortals, this subsequently influenced the names of the planets in our solar systems. Fast forward through history and you will find evidence of the Greek gods in arts, poetry, movies, and popular culture. As the Greek lyric poet Theognis said, the Greeks “respect and fear the gods, this keeps them from doing or saying disrespectful things.

Helios is the god of the sun and sight. He is very handsome and very strong. In fact, he is the only god who could control his chariot because of the untamed horses. He is clean shaven with purple robes and a shining crown of sun rays. Helios is the father of Circe and Phaëthon. Helios had to rub ointment on himself to protect his body from burning from the heat. "While Helios is away on his normal business, Zeus and the other gods drew lots to divide the earth. Helios did not get any of the earth so he claimed the Island of Rhodes.(Tripp 268)" Phaëthon is a mortal son to Helios, while Circe is not. Phaëthon loved his father's work and always wanted to steer the chariot, but his father never agreed. Finally, Helios gave in and let his son Phaëthon drive the chariot for one day. He drove for a little less than half the morning and lost control of the reigns. The horses went

    The characters of Homer’s The Odyssey struggled with the ineffable reality of the world, therefore they created gods that could carry the burden of their hopeless quest for understanding. The characters created by Homer, because of their intelligence, were finally

First of all; values, morals, traditions, and concerns are the kind of things that myths emulate about a culture. On some occasions the myths provided the people with moral instruction, while at other times the myths’ primary purpose was entertainment. Encompassed by images of and writings about Greek mythology, people who lived in Greek city-states during the Classical Period were constantly made aware of these stories. These myths were to the Greeks what the Bible is to Christians. Explaining the origin of life and the relationship between humanity and the divine, Greek myths were an essential part of Greek culture. Acknowledged as national epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey were taught in schools by the fifth century B.C.E. By the sixth century B.C.E., the Theogony of Hesiod, the explanation of the conception of the universe and the generations of the gods, was to the Greeks as the biblical book of Genesis was to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Another example of the vast influence these myths had on Greek culture is

In Homer’s The Odyssey, we see many comparisons of the relationships between the great Greek gods and the mortals that lay below them. We can use many words to compare the two’s relationship; mutual, parent and childlike, and a sense of early government ruling over its people. Although, what we see between the Greek gods and mortals is the gods playing the role of a somewhat metaphysical guide through the story we still have this confliction of whether they are friends, foe’s, or neither. We will be diving deeper into this matter in the following paragraphs below to look at how the gods themselves reflect the image of a guide for the mortals or even a temporary enemy, how they used their powers to help the mortals, and with this role the conflicts and agreements that are created between the two.

Ancient Greece was filled with so much character, from their religion to even the stories that followed them through generation to generation. One important thing to remember is how they took their religion very seriously and believed very much in their goddesses and their gods. This strong belief carried out into their everyday lives, where they began to believe that everything that happened within their day, was from the gods. With such a love and respect for these gods, they held them up on a pedestal and gave them all their respect and looked at them only as positive. These gods that play a role in their life, often act more as a spiritual guide more than anything. They take on mortal disguises to allow them to help the world without becoming noticed. As we can see in The Odyssey, the relationship between gods and mortals is close knit, but the main difference that is evident, is the power between the two. The gods may not be able to cause death upon a mortal, but they can do everything to lead towards that. In the book, the gods can make or break your day. We see within several relationships between the gods and mortals, that the power from the gods can be not only positive, but also negative. Each mortal has been influenced in some way by the gods, for either the greater good, or bad. Which goes without saying, that the Greek take their theology in believing in the gods, very seriously.

In this paper I will discuss Xenophanes’ criticisms against Homeric and Hesiodic portrayals of the gods, as well as the arguments that supported these criticisms and his positive theology that is devised as a solution to these arguments. In the works of Homer and Hesiod, the gods were characterized, first, by the fact that they were born or came to be in some way or another, second, that they are constrained in multiple ways, third, that they were interested in human affairs and meddled in them, and, finally, that they were anthropomorphic. These were criticized by Xenophanes and his criticisms fell into two distinct camps. The first camp of criticisms were derived from the contradictory nature of the depictions of the gods with his own

Philosophies- Greeks believed in many gods, and due to Homer’s blindness, many people believed that Homer had godlike abilities. This is because it was said by philosophers that after losing one sense other abilities became stronger, which meant that Homer’s other senses had become godlike (Beers 120). Every time the Greeks found something that they didn’t understand they created a God to explain the phenomenon (Massa). The main gods that appear in “The Odyssey” are Zeus, the god of the Sky, who saves Odysseus multiple times, Poseidon, the god of the ocean, who holds resentment toward Odysseus, Hades, the god of the Underworld, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, justice, war, civilization, and peace, and Hermes, the god of mischief, who saves Odysseus many times but fools around with him first. (Massa).

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.