Evil In The Iliad

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Recommended: Monotheism vs polytheism essay

In both the Iliad by Homer and The Old Testament the people are controlled by a higher power. In the Iliad the people practice Polytheism, worshiping more than one God in their case it is the Greek Gods. In contrast throughout the Bible the people practice monotheism, the worship of one God. War rages through the Iliad and parts of the Old Testament, how each is handled is significantly different. Being ruled by a God or Gods causes some trouble in both situations. In the Iliad the Achaeans, under King Agamemnon, have been fighting the Trojans off and on for nine years, trying to retrieve Agamemnon's sister-in-law and the wife of Menelaus, Helen. Paris, a son of Priam, the king of Troy, kidnaps Helen. Helen becomes the legendary "Helen of …show more content…

It starts with Adam and Eve’s first act of disobedient in the garden, each biblical book affirms that human evil is the inescapable result of human disobedience, not of God’s ill will or neglect. The first chapters of Genesis depict God as disappointed by human wickedness, suggesting that the humans,not God, are responsible for human evil (Genesis 6:6). Later books, such as Judges and Kings, show God’s repeated attempts to sway the Israelites from the effects of their evil. These stories emphasize the human capacity to reject God’s help, implying that the responsibility for evil lies with humanity. “The Israelites again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord . . .” (Judges 3:12). Though, God repeatedly calls upon the Israelites to destroy entire cities, killing men, women, and children in the process. In the book of Job God’s implication in natural evil is directly questioned. God punishes Job harshly for no other reason than to prove to Satan that Job is religiously faithful. In the end, it is declared to Job, by God, that God’s powerful ways are beyond human understanding and should not be questioned. The book indirectly states that God sometimes uses natural evil as a rhetorical device—as a means of displaying his power or of proving a point in a world already tainted by human corruption. Though in both the Iliad and Old Testament war is a trouble for the people the way the higher power/powers handles it is what makes the biggest

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