The gods of the Greeks
| picture in Homer is a mixture |
| religion of chiefs and heroes |
| gods:humans as aristocracy:commoners |
| humans punished for personal offences, not on moral grounds |
| dike: gradual shift of meaning from 'custom, behavior' to 'right, justice' |
| what the gods will and do |
| seeds of ethical religion |
| kings and heroes were the descendents of gods and humans |
| immortals captivated by human beauty |
| direct descendents: Heracles, Aeneas, Sarpedon, Achilles |
| indirect descendents: Odysseus, Agamemnon, Nestor |
| necessity of propitiation |
| worshippers sought prosperity here on earth |
| success = divine approval; failure = divine anger |
| life after death: the 'twittering shades' |
| Zeus: god of the bright sky; from IE *dyu- 'to shine' |
| supreme deity and 'father' |
| as a sky-god, he mates with earth-goddesses |
| patroness of Minoan and Mycenaean princes |
| born, fully armed, from head of Zeus: |
| daughter of Metis 'wisdom' |
| only one who wields lightning bolt and aegis |
| Poseidon: god of the sea and fresh water; IE |
| Artemis: mistress of wild animals; a pre-Greek goddess |
| protectoress of the young |
| transformed from a mother goddess to a virgin huntress |
| yet still a goddess of child-bearing |
| Role in the story of the Trojan War |
| because of the young who will be slain in Troy |
| she demands the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter |
| or else the fleet cannot depart for Troy |
| Apollo: god of music and prophecy, archery and heroic excellence |
| embodiment of Hellenic spirit |
| Phoebus 'bright, shining' |
| presence of the divine in clarity, order and moderation |
| slayer of Python, serpent at Delphi |
| the Pythia, his priestess |
| Loxias 'the ambiguous one' |
| Smintheus 'of the mouse'; his arrows bring plague and death |
| Hermes: 'he of the stone-heap'; guide of travellers |
| guides spirits of the dead to the underworld |
| Hades: god of death and the underworld |
| Hera: 'the Lady', sister and wife of Zeus |
| indigenous mother-goddess |
| frequently at odds with Zeus |
| almost no one can resist her influence |
| wounded by Diomedes in Bk. 5 of the Iliad |
| Hephaestus: god of fire and divine smith; adopted from the east |
| forges the armor of Achilles in Bk. 18 of the Iliad |
| nature of the world and its divisions |
| creation of humankind by Prometheus |
How are we to view the Greek gods? |
| they are capable of including opposites |
| later Greek: rationalization |
| early Christian: they are vain idols inhabited by demons |
| modern: they represent inner psychological forces |
What is their role in The Iliad? |
| Why do the gods meddle so much in human affairs? |
| Are humans merely pawns of the gods? |
| do humans possess any free-will? |
| Zeus' words at the beginning of The Odyssey |
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