Gods And Mortals In The Iliad

Cameron Buckley

Dr. Dutch

English 273-02

April 21, 2016

The Role of Gods and Mortals

Themes exist in just about every story you will ever read. They play an important role in the storyline and characters themselves. Often times there are multiple themes that take place in the story. These themes can range from anything such as heroism to evil. In this paper we will take a look at one of the common themes that is found in The Iliad and The Odyssey. The theme that I will look at is the Gods and the roles they play with mortals and their interactions with one another.

The first story that I will look at is The Iliad. This story takes place during the final weeks of the Trojan War. The Gods are very present throughout this story
Again right from the start we see Homer asking the Muse to sing to him. Immediately indicating that their will be a theme of interaction between Gods and mortals. "Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns driven time and again off course, once he had plundered the hallowed heights of Troy."(194) In the opening statements we can conclude that the mortals have made mistakes and The Gods have intervened which is why Odysseus's journey is full of troubles. "Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds, many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea, fighting to save his life and bringing his comrades home. But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all, the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun and the Sungod blotted out the day of their return."(194) This quote is evidence that Odysseus and his men have made mistakes that is typical of humans and that mortals have intervened and played a
We find out that while Odysseus has been gone many of the men have been trying to steal his wife away from him and lust for her. Odysseus has a son who is named Telemachus. He wishes to kill off the men who are trying to steal his mother and lust for her. "He could almost see his magnificent father, here ... in the mind’s eye—if only he might drop from the clouds and drive these suitors all in a rout throughout the halls and regain his pride of place and rule his own domains!"(197) Athena appears to sympathize for Odysseus's son and his situation so she appears to him in the form of one of Odysseus's fathers friend. "And down she swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks and lit on Ithaca, standing tall at Odysseus’ gates, the threshold of his court. Gripping her bronze spear, she looked for all the world like a stranger now, like Mentes, lord of the Taphians."(196) It is here that she tells his son that his father Odysseus is alive and well and being held captive. She tells Telemachus that he must get a crew together and sail out to the seas in search of information on his father. He must also kill those men who have been looting their estate and lusting for his mother. Eventually Telemachus suspects it was a God he has spoken to. This is important to the theme. Telemachus would have never known his