Get to grips with Homer’s Iliad in five minute chunks in this blog series! If you’re an A Level Classics or Ancient History student, each of these blog posts is a five-minute summary of some of the main topics you will need for your exams. For university-level scholars or independent researchers, we’ve included clickable links to useful literature, primary sources and canonical scholarship you’ll need to know.
In this post, read about how the gods meddle with human affairs in the Iliad!
Jacques Louis David’s Combat of Ares and Athena
The gods are indispensable to the plot of the Iliad. As we learnt in part one of this series, the war was started by the gods in the first place and in the part of the war covered by Homer they are no less meddlesome.
Apollo started the feud between Agamemnon and Achilles because Agamemnon would not release Chryses’ (Apollo’s priest) daughter Chryseis. Agamemnon says he likes her beauty more than his own wife, Clytaemnestra!
The gods’ influence is acknowledged by the characters. In Book Three, Priam tells Helen, “I bear you no ill will at all: I blame the gods. It is they who brought this terrible Achaean war upon me.”
Taking Sides
One point to note is that some of the immortals have a stake in the outcome of the war because they are still concerned about the beauty competition that started the whole affair. Aphrodite is on the Trojans’ side, since she allied with Paris in return for his choosing her as the winner of the contest. Athena and Hera are sore about losing, and are on the side of the Greeks.
After Hector’s death, Aphrodite keeps the dogs away from Hector’s corpse and Apollo covers it in a cloud so that the sun will not wither Hector’s skin. Some of the gods want Hermes to take Hector’s body from Achilles, although Hera and Poseidon and Athena disagree with the idea.
Guido Reni’s Apollo in his Chariot Preceded by Aurora
The narrative voice points out that this could be because Hera and Athena are still insulted by Paris’ choosing Aphrodite over them in the competition that started the whole war. Hera says: “Hector is an ordinary man, who was suckled at a woman’s breast; whereas Achilles is the son of a goddess whom I myself brought up.”
This partiality causes tension between the gods themselves. At the conference of the gods in Book Four, we see Athena and Hera “plotting evil for the Trojans.” Zeus, trying to aggravate his wife Hera, teases that Aphrodite keeps close to Paris to protect him, whereas Athena and Hera stand idly by.
The book ends with a battle in which Athena spurs on the Greeks, while Apollo supports the Trojans.
In Book Sixteen, Aias, the greatest Greek warrior after Achilles, meets Hector in a duel but realises, “…that the gods were taking a hand on the affair and that Zeus the Thunderer, intent on a Trojan victory, was rendering all his struggles futile.”
In Book Twenty, the gods go to war. Athena deflects Hector’s spear away from Achilles, while Apollo saves Hector by hiding him in a dense mist and snatching him away – “an easy feat for a god.”
The gods’ power over men even extends to control over their emotions. As Hector says, “…we are all puppets in the hands of aegis-bearing Zeus. In a moment, Zeus can make a brave man run away and lose a battle; and the next day the same god will spur him on to fight.”
Later in Book Eighteen, Achilles says, “Zeus makes havoc of the schemes of men.”
Reciprocity
The whims of the gods can have devastating consequences for humans, but there are benefits to their involvement. Click the link to read more about the reciprocal relationship between gods and mortals Greek Religion!
This relationship must be founded in trust and respect for the gods. As Achilles tells Athena, “The man who listens to the gods is listened to by them.” In Book Nine, Odysseus notes that “Hector has run amuck, triumphant and all-powerful. He trusts in Zeus, and fears neither man nor god in the frenzy that possesses him.”
Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
The gods also give structure and hierarchy to humans. As Nestor tells Achilles, “…you, my Lord Achilles, drop your continuous bearing to the King. Through the authority he derives from Zeus, a sceptred king has more than ordinary claims on our respect. You, with a goddess for Mother, may be the stronger of the two; yet Agamemnon is the better man, since he rules more people.”
However, there are no guarantees in this relationship. Both Greeks and Trojans pray to Zeus; both hope for peace. But, as Homer tells us, “Zeus had no intention yet of bringing peace about.” As Priam says of the duel between his son Paris and Menelaus, “All I can think is that Zeus and the other immortal gods must know already which of the two is going to his doom.”
Menelaus himself accuses Zeus of being spiteful when his sword breaks on Paris’s helmet but in the end Aphrodite hides Paris in a dense mist when Menelaus gets the upper hand.
Gods as Human
The gods in Homer are not infallible. As Phoenix the charioteer tells Achilles, “The very gods, for all their greater excellence and majesty and power, are capable of being swayed.”
In fact, Homer’s gods are anthropomorphic and often experience human emotions. Zeus feels pity for Hector when he sees him putting on Achilles armour: “Unhappy man! Little knowing how close you are to death, you are putting on the imperishable armour of a mighty man of war, before whom all others quail.” The narrative voice continues, “The Son of Cronos bowed his sable brows in conformation of his thoughts, and caused the armour to sit easily on Hector.”
Personal relationships are just as difficult for gods as they are for humans. Zeus says that Hera “scolds me constantly before the other gods and accuses me of helping the Trojans in this war.”
Charles-Antoine Coypel’s Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida
Even the immortal king of the gods, cannot guarantee his own domestic happiness.
There are limits to the gods’ power. In our next post, discover how even the gods must bend to the demands of Fate!
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