Deities in the Iliad

Conflicting Truth Claims: Christianity vs Ancient Greek Polytheism Christianity approximately has 2 billion followers around the globe. Polytheism today has only about 100,000 followers which is a substantial decrease from around 750 BC when Homer's The Iliad was first written down. The gap between the two religions is quite noticeable, however, which religion appears to be the absolute truth has never been fully tackled. Christianity and Ancient Greek Polytheism have some of the same ideas, but…

There is a difference between religion and mythology. Religion is a set of practices based on the belief of non-human beings monitoring actions and myths are stories that matter within a specific community or communities. There are two kinds of religion, evolutionary and revealed. The Greeks had an evolutionary religion where the totality of things were feared by a social group and had no specific origin. Myth can be divided into three categories, the first being divine, which explains the…

both describe the story of creation, in their own ways. Initially we can see that there are very different beliefs of how creation came to be throughout the stories, but there are some underlying concepts that are the same. The relationship between Deity and humanity in Genesis 1 and 2 is one that resembles a father and son, where as in the Enuma Elish humanity is merely a tool for the gods the handle their menial work. The book of Genesis gives the account to how the world was formed and the…

motivates us mortals in our day-to-day lives? Some say money, love, or the pursuit of happiness, but for the Greek gods, it is because they are aware that they are indestructible. By taking note of Hera and Athena’s actions throughout the events of the Iliad it is clear this conclusion reigns true. The Trojan war was fought by men, but the real focal point of the conflict were the actions of the gods and goddesses. It seemed as if no side could gain a decisive edge without some form of divine…

Introduction to the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid It is suggested that the Iliad and the Odyssey were composed as an oral composition perhaps in the late eighth century BC (Kirk 1) whereas the Aeneid, a literary composition, was perhaps composed in the last half of the first century BC (Quinn 2). Despite the many centuries between them, the epics are built around the story of the Trojan War fought around 1200 BC. The Iliad focuses on a short period in the penultimate year of the war whereas…

mythology is mostly learned from historical poets. The poet highly accredited with the written greek myths is Homer. He is generally believed to have lived about a thousand years before Christ. Homer’s work includes the Iliad, which is considered to be the first written record of Greece. The Iliad is the oldest Greek literature and is written in such a way that it provides an indisputable proof of civilization. Greek mythology is not be read like stories of the Bible for the Greek religion. It…

The stories provide an important insight into early human society, and illustrate, in some aspects, how little has changed. Even if The Iliad itself seems unfamiliar, the story of the siege of Troy, the Trojan War and Paris’ kidnapping of Helen, the world’s most beautiful woman, are all familiar characters or scenarios. Some scholars insist that Homer was personally familiar with the plain…

Greeks were very religious people and worshiped many Gods which they believed were in human form yet had superhuman strength and never aged. Iliad and Odyssey are the earliest known examples of Greek culture, literature and encounters with various Gods and Goddesses. Many people worshiped more than one god, but occasionally only one which was usually Zeus. Gods and Goddesses were either portrayed…

great tasks he accomplished. This ranged from literally slaughtering hundreds of Trojan soldiers to being the main force behind the destruction of the safe haven known as Troy. The destruction and intimidation of Achilles is noted several times in the Iliad, even Iris tells Achilles that " Just go to the trench and let the Trojans see you. One look will be enough. The Trojans will back off out of fear of you" (Homer 247). Achilles had put the fear of the gods in the Trojan soldiers, so much that…

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Homer’s The Iliad, Karl Marlantes’s What it is Like to Go to War provide a more personal, intimate perspective in the lives and mentality of soldiers - in these three works, the soldiers are not necessarily portrayed as the stereotypical invincible and fearless warriors, but more as humans as the authors expose their mistakes, weaknesses, and emotions. However, one of the key factors that helps enhance the readers’ emotional connection to the soldiers in…