Sunday, May 8, 2011
Interfering Gods
The Gods in The Odyssey are constantly interfering with the lives of mortals. They play favorites and are big influences to how conflicts between mortals are resolved. Athena often interferes in the life of Odysseus and his family because she likes them. For instance, when The Odyssey first starts, Athena disguises herself and hints to Telemachus that his father is still alive making him want to go out and look for his father. Another example of this is when Odysseus meets the King and Queen of the Phaeacians, Athena tells Odysseus to appeal to the queen first to gain her favor. Whether or not Odysseus would have thought to do this on his own is unknown, but this advice definitely effected the course of the story. One last example is when Hermes helped Odysseus on Circe's island by giving him a plant that will make him immune to her potions. If Odysseus were a pig, his chances of getting back to Ithaca would be very slim.
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Gods interfering in the lives of humans is often seen in this epic. For example, when Odysseus and his men arrive at the island of Thrinacia. The cattle of the sun god, Helios, are grazing on the island. Odysseus was warned by Circe to leave the beasts unharmed. Eurylochus urges the crew to capture and eat the cattle;however, because they have been at sea for such a long time. While Odysseus is sleeping, the men heard and kill a choice animal. Odysseus finds out and is upset with his crew but does not stop them. This continues to happen for six days. Lampetie tells Helios that his cattle have been killed by Odysseus' men. Helios begs Zeus to punish them. Zeus tells Helios, "Son, you keep on shining among these deathless gods and mortal men across the good green earth. And as for the guilty ones, why, soon enough on the wine dark sea I'll hit their racing ship with a white hot bolt, I'll tear it into splinters." (283) When Odysseus and his crew set off from the island, Zeus fulfills his promise to Helios and all but Odysseus are killed at sea. This is a great example of how gods affect the lives of the people in this epic. They have the power to destroy and create effortlessly.
ReplyDeleteLet's not forget about our friend Poseidon messing with things too. After Odysseus blinded Polyphemus, it goes without saying he was very mad at him. One situation where he makes trouble for our hero happens very early in the story. After leaving from Calypso's island, he stirs up a huge storm to smite Odysseus. It reads, "With that he [Poseidon] rammed the clouds together- both hands clutching his trident- churned the waves into chaos, whipping all the gales from every quarter, shrouding over in thunderheads the sea and earth at once- and night swept down from the sky- East and South Winds clashed and the raging West and North, sprung from the heavens, roiled heaving breakers up..." (161). The resulting turmoil was enough to shake Odysseus to the core, and if it were not for the help of Ino he may not have made it. Another time Poseidon's rage becomes a factor is when he sees Odysseus at home in Ithaca. He punishes the Phaeacians for helping him by turning a ship to stone right as it is pulling into harbor. There are other instances, but in general, he certainly does make things difficult for Odysseus.
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