Homer's Iliad

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The Iliad is an epic that tells the story of how Achilles avenges the death of his friend Petrocolus. Many of the events that took place were influenced by the God’s. The God either had control of the situation or took control of the situation at some point in time, not allowing the free will of the mortals to interfere with what was destined to happen.
In the beginning of the Iliad, Agamemnon who the commander-in-chief of the Achaean forces, takes a liking to the Chryseis and takes her away from the her father. Chryses, Chryseis’s father, visits Agamemnon in hopes of making an exchange for his daughter. This confrontation did not end the way Chryses had hoped, only leading to Agamemnon threatening to kill Chryses. In pleading for help, Chryses prays to the God Apollo for vengeance and justice. Apollo was very angry at Agamemnon’s lack of respect for Chryses. The result of Apollo’s anger led to the God raining arrows down upon the Achaeans. These arrows caused a mysterious plague that lasted for nine days, causing men and animals to die mysteriously. Once Chryseis is back with her father, Chryses prays to Apollo to stop the plague and the he does. The God controlled the situation and he stopped events from happening when it was time, not the mortals time.
The example just given is one of the many ways that the Gods intervened with the mortals lives. The mortals tried to take situations into their own hands and make ...

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