Trust is a word that in mythology, is hardly shown. When one god betrayals another, there are horrific consequences and punishments. Most of this horrendous punishments including the one I will be talking about, are explain by Hesiod in his book The Theogony. In this book Prometheus is punished for tricking Zeus by making him choose from rich and fat innards hidden inside an ox’s paunch, or bones wrapped in white fat. He also gets punished for steeling fire for the mortals, not once, but twice. Most gods and goddesses are worry about what benefits them the most and they do not care if they betrayal each other to get what they want. Therefore, betrayal plays a huge role in mythology not only among gods that just know each other, but also among
In The Battle on the Plain (pg. 41), Zeus calls a meeting, telling all of the gods that they are not to help the Greeks or the Trojans, but Athena, who is Zeus favorite daughter, says that her and the other gods pity the Greeks, feeling that they will be destroyed by the Trojans. So Zeus allows the gods and
The gods would also punish men for something another man did. Semele was punished by Hera because Zeus had fallen in love with her. Hera had Semele ask Zeus for something that would kill her and Zeus had to give it to here because he had sworn it on the river Styx. This again shows that gods are very
In Hesiod’s Theogony, the Muses, which are the nine singing goddesses who he came across one day while taking care of his lambs, serve as a guide to the poet’s genealogy and organization of the origins of the gods by inspiring him to write down the lineage as they sing it. Using their angelic voices, the Muses presented Hesiod with the history of the cosmos in order. Thus, inspiring him to become a poet; he made this major change in his life and that resulted in Theogony, a chronological poem that consists of short life lessons, punishments, and roots of many Greek gods and goddesses. In this poem, Hesiod described these accounts as songs, when in fact, they were long verbal stories of how the gods of Olympus came to be. The sole purpose of
Hella’s greatest friend, though he was guiltless.” (1303-1310 Euripides) This drastic change in his beliefs and the grief of losing his family breaks Heracles’s inner strength. Heracles believes that the gods have abused their powers for debauched purposes, and hence are no longer his gods. This is critical because as a demi-god, Heracles is meant to have a closer bond to the gods; however, he chooses to distance himself from them. Heracles says, “but I do not believe the gods commit adultery, or bind each other in chains, I never did believe it, I never shall; nor the one god is tyrant of the rest.” (1341- 1346 Euripides) After the set of unfortunate events he experienced, Heracles starts regarding courage and strength in terms of enduring
after she talks, Achilles states “When you two speak, Goddess, a man has to listen no matter how angry. It’s better that way. Obey the gods and they hear you when you pray” (Il. 7.226-228). This line by Achilles shows how high of a regard the Greeks place the gods. Achilles who is a demi-god and the best fighter in all of Greece doesn’t even argue with Athena, he just does as he is told by her like a child talking to their parent. This also shows that the pedestal that demi-gods are held on doesn’t even come close to that of the gods. This difference is also shown near the end of the book. On page 471 of the Iliad, when Achilles is talking to his mother, a goddess, and she basically tells him to release Hectors body for ransom and Achilles, who wanted to ravage the body and feed it to the dogs as a way to avenge the death of Patroclus,
In General the Greeks respected and feared their gods because they understood that they were superior creatures, but they usually felt differently about different gods depending on that God’s personality and the myths that surrounded his existence.
The flaws that the Gods showed were very similar to the mortals in the Iliad. The Gods have always been represented as responsible, are rare to make mistakes, and they do not make mistakes. However, in the Iliad, the Gods acted more like humans than expected. The only difference seen between the humans and gods was that the gods were immortal and have more power than the humans. An example that I found to show human-like characteristics was when Hera tricked Zeus into sleeping with her and making Sleep but him to sleep, knowing that she was doing something wrong and for her own benefit. This scene showed the human characteristic of people hurting one another for their own benefit just like Agamemnon did to Achilles when he took away his war
The Gods are constantly showing human flaws through themselves. This can accomplish two things: one, explain where humans get their so called ‘natural’ flaws, or two, set a terrible example for mankind. It is truly up to the reader how they want to take the message. The Gods always have their hand in everything, but they still can be weak. Lust, jealously or anger the Gods still feel, which makes them more relatable then the standard Christian God. However, people typically want a person who is considered ‘perfect’ to follow. So, it is truly up to the individual to decide how they will interpret the God’s actions in Greek mythology.
Loyalty between two things can help them gain a trust. However if one decides to abuse that trust, then the loyalty between the two things is broken.
Medea has just killed four people which are Creon the king of Corinth, the princess whom Jason is in love with, and her two little children. Jason then prays to gods, especially Zeus, father of all gods, to punish Medea for her crimes. From the context of the quote, the chorus is addressing the audience about the unexpected and unbelievable end of the play. Medea then gets away to Athens with a chariot lent to her by Helios, the sun god and her grandfather.
In Book I of The Iliad we see various instances in which a god or goddess interferes in influencing a particular choice facing a human character. For instance, when Achilles and Agamemnon are having a dispute over Agamemnon wanting to take Achilles’ war prize “Briseis,” goddess of wisdom Athena, sent by Hera her mother, appears to Achilles right when he is about to snap and kill Agamemnon. Athena persuades him to standoff and give Agamemnon what he wants. She promises Achilles that in doing so more will be given to him. Goddess Athena uses a clever method of persuasion with Achilles by appealing to one of his weakness which is the great desire that Achilles has to be appreciated and honored with prizes for his magnificent skills of great warrior.
Prometheus, the Titan of Greek mythology, was considered to be the most important Titan ever in all the myths. He helped the human race tremendously in his efforts to sustain an easier lifestyle. Mankind had great respect for him because of his advantages and gifts or abilities he gave them. Also, his battle against Zeus as a result of his love for man was very much appreciated. Prometheus was one of the most interesting Greek mythology figures in his time. He was a very kind, loving, generous, and courteous god to mankind. This can be seen through many events in his life including a particular myth that the reader will acknowledge in this research paper.
After something they prayed for happened, they would go the extra mile to prove their loyalty to their gods, by continuing sacrifices. Even when something didn’t work out the way they planned, they still continued to pray for what they needed. The detail given during sacrifices is a perfect example of how much they truly believed in their gods works for them. The gods and what they stood for, as well as what the Ancient Greek’s did for them, is documented in poems, tragedies, and more with most of the information we know about the gods of Ancient Greek Mythology coming specifically from Homer and other poets. Researching this topic has opened up my eyes to what people will do for something they truly believe in. Much of the Ancient Greek’s entire existence revolved around their gods and what they could do for them, to give themselves a better life. For people to go this extent on something, proves in itself that they truly believed the gods were providing for them in ways they couldn’t on their
“Gods can be evil sometimes.” In the play “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles defamed the gods’ reputation, and lowered their status by making them look harmful and evil. It is known that all gods should be perfect and infallible, and should represent justice and equity, but with Oedipus, the gods decided to destroy him and his family for no reason. It might be hard to believe that gods can have humanistic traits, but in fact they do. The gods, especially Apollo, are considered evil by the reader because they destroyed an innocent man’s life and his family. They destroyed Oedipus by controlling his fate, granting people the power of prophecy, telling Oedipus about his fate through the oracle of Apollo, and finally afflicting the people of Thebes with a dreadful plague. Fundamentally, by utilizing fate, prophecies, the oracle of Apollo, and the plague, the gods played a significant role in the destruction of Oedipus and his family.
In Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Zeus and Odysseus interact with gods and people as leaders of their respective groups, but Odysseus must make sacrifices while Zeus doesn’t. The god of gods, the ruler of the sky, king of heaven and earth, he is Zeus the most powerful god. Zeus promotes bravery, loyalty, honesty, and charity, rewarding those who show them. He permits Heracles to become a god after completing his 12 trials. The god of gods kills all of those who cheat, steal, perjure, and act cruelly. In “The Odyssey,” Zeus kills Odysseus’ crew with thunderbolts for stealing and killing Hyperion’s golden cows. Odysseus is a man who follows through with what he said and not breaking his vows with his wife Penelope, but Zeus, despite being the supreme power on Mount Olympus, mostly behaves like a 17 year old juvenile delinquent: abusing his power, seducing mortal women, etc. If he were a preacher, his saying would be, “Do what I say not what I do”. Odysseus and Zeus have similar ethics, Odysseus learns to uphold them unlike Zeus.