Justice has been an evolutionary concept that has been forever evolving for thousands of years. However, in order for the modern deduction of justice to have been made by modern standards, the concept of justice itself needs to be established. Although its formal understanding may have been unclear during their time period, Hesiod and Homer both attempt to understand and exert their opinions as to what justice is through their epic poems and other works. Even though some of their views on justice conflict and others compliment each other, they both laid a foundation to explain what justice meant in Greek society. In Hesiod’s poem Theogony, he attempts to use the creation story to introduce the necessity of justice. To Hesiod, the world started
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Contrary to Hesiod, Homer aligns more with the idea that justice is a societal attribute that is enforced by acts of revenge. These vengeful acts are carried out by the gods and man alike as they both are able to carry out forms of justice. However, the gods and man do not govern justice equally. A theme that is identified early on in the Odyssey is that the injustices against man are often blamed on the gods. As a result, the gods label these mortal actions as part of the recklessness of man and the gods must impose divine justice and intervene in mortal affairs ensure order is continuously established in the world. (“Quote about Poseidon and …show more content…
Both philosophers believe that the gods intervene in mortal affairs because of the fact that man is reckless by nature. Due to human nature, they make the assumption that there needs to be a type of divine presence to instantiate order amongst man and through the power of the gods, justice can be established. Although Hesiod would most definitely argue Zeus is the only god that holds this power (*Quote about Zeus seeing all in Works and days*) and Homer would say that power is distributed amongst many of the gods, they both agree that there is a strong divine attribute to justice as a
Contrary to Hesiod, Homer aligns more with the idea that justice is a societal attribute that is enforced by acts of revenge. These vengeful acts are carried out by the gods and man alike as they both are able to carry out forms of justice. However, the gods and man do not govern justice equally. A theme that is identified early on in the Odyssey is that the injustices against man are often blamed on the gods. As a result, the gods label these mortal actions as part of the recklessness of man and the gods must impose divine justice and intervene in mortal affairs ensure order is continuously established in the world. (“Quote about Poseidon and …show more content…
Both philosophers believe that the gods intervene in mortal affairs because of the fact that man is reckless by nature. Due to human nature, they make the assumption that there needs to be a type of divine presence to instantiate order amongst man and through the power of the gods, justice can be established. Although Hesiod would most definitely argue Zeus is the only god that holds this power (*Quote about Zeus seeing all in Works and days*) and Homer would say that power is distributed amongst many of the gods, they both agree that there is a strong divine attribute to justice as a